Better Late, Than Never.

With the summer in its death-throes, it kind of sucks that only now do I find this year’s summer tune. Every summer has one new song that comes along and seems to sum up that summer. I really thought this year, I’d have to do without, until this song came along.

Rest assured, I will be playing this tune to death over the weekend, if the Sun-Gods keep smiling for the next 48-hours.

No Eyebrows = Scary.

That is just terrifying… I don’t usually find kids in horror movies scary, but even I think that’s creepy. In fact, I’d go as far as to say, this one picture is scarier than the whole 88-minutes of the movie it’s based on. It’s so unnerving.

I blame\congratulate the parents.

Creep Cred.

A couple of weeks back, I talked about good, creepy smiling shots in horror comics (I on was on a massive Richard Corben buzz, at the time.) If I had to pick one shot from this mini-series, to come out and bat for my best creepy smiling shot, it would probably have to be this above panel. I had to crop this frame a little, so as not to give too much away, but hopefully it’s still unnerving enough. If any shot is gonna win me some creepy smile cred, hopefully it’ll be this one. It’s all about the creep cred at this point in the game.

I don’t know if, or how many other artists read this blog? but here’s my new favourite pod-cast to listen to while drawing. I only found it a few weeks ago, and I’ve already nearly worked my way through their whole back-catalogue. I love this pod-cast.

Born Creeping.

I’ve come to peace with the fact I can’t dance many years ago. My soul has no rhythm to it, and I’m fine with that. Seems to bother other people, more than it bothers me. But here’s one dance move I can get behind. I’m pondering if I should share the fact, I’ve watched this now an unhealthy amount of times? 



Why is it, if you name something ‘Creep’, it’s always awesome? Think of every film, song, comic you ever seen\heard called Creep… bet it was awesome.

Went in the health-food shop today to pick up some Nuts and Banana Chips. I always feel guilty, because I always notices the girl working in there is pretty… robust. I don’t know if I’d have the guts to work in a health-food shop, if I was that out-of-shape. I’d be too self-conscious. Seems like the worse place to work, if you’re carrying a few extra pounds… then I feel incredibly guilty, and a little shitty for having such a thought in the first place, quietly buy my stuff and leave.

Hugo Wait.

Drawing in this unforgiving heat is a nightmare. I’ve been getting stuff done in the day-time, before my room becomes too hot to work in. It’s nice to still be getting stuff done, but you lose those precious witching-hours. That’s the time-slot, I feel I get my best stuff done. I’m just getting warmed up in the day-time. I always feel my brain is sharpest at around 9pm, how true that is, I don’t know, but it feels that way. I’m just more of a night artist. Always have been.

I hated this above panel when I first saw it on the page. However, I quite like it, when I saw it blown up on a computer-screen. Works better in big, I think.

So ended a long quest, when a copy of this finally poked its way through my letterbox this morning. I’ve been waiting years for someone to put out a copy of Hugo Tate. I have no idea why such a good book has been out-of-print for so long. I’ve only ever got to read bits-and-bobs over the years, from this comic. It’s been well over ten years since I read my first Hugo Tate short comic-strip, in an old issue of Deadline. I had kind of given up hope of reading it all in one volume. It’s been a long time coming.

The only single piece of original artwork I own, is a Nick Abadzis Hugo Tate drawing I bought in London, while in college years ago (crappy photo below to prove it.) I have this crazy dream of buying up, and having my own personal gallery of great comic-book artist’s works one day. Have a studio with framed artwork pinned up all around the place. But for now, I have neither the funds, nor the wall-space. And now most artist work digitally, it’s kind of killing that dream. I guess you can always buy prints, but it’s not the same, really.

Anyway… I know what I’ll be reading this weekend.

Up In Yana’s Room.

Yana and friends entertain a young gentleman in this latest panel from Issue #3. Things are about to get very twisted.

Here’s one for the 3D lovers (since I started the week posting something for the 3D haters.) Bought a copy of this online in the week, and watched it the other day on my flat-screen TV. There’s something really cool about watching plasticine animation on a big screen. Plasticine Zombies are awesome. I’d love to see a full-length Zombie movie made out of plasticine one day. I’m guessing it would take years to make, and there’s a danger the novelty could wear off after about fifth-teen minutes… still, I’d watch it.

Needs More Blood.

This one’s for all the 3D haters out there (of which there must be many by now.) Found a bit of spare-time over the weekend, and so decided to give my 3D zombie sketch, from a few posts ago, a bit of a quick colour job. Put a bit of undead colour in his cheeks, as it were. As much as I like 3D, when you take something into that third dimension, the brightness and colour does always seem to suffer a bit. So here’s something you don’t have to wear novelty glasses to enjoy.

Dead Cartridges.

I’m taking it as a good sign, that I could no longer find a folder about town with enough clear-sleeves to house my forthcoming graphic-novel, and so had to order one especially off line, just so I can keep all my sequential pages in one place. This, on the same week I had order a shit-load of printer ink, as well. It might be a bit of a blow to the wallet, but at least it feels like it’s all moving in the right direction. The higher page count does guzzle up that printer ink, but it’s nice to see a longer story coming together, even if it is leaving me with a lot of empty ink cartridges, and a slimmer wallet. I could differently believe that urban legend, that printer ink is now the most expensive liquid on earth. Printer ink is like the new gold. With the banks and economy in such turmoil, I might convert all my savings into printer ink and then bury the bottles in the back-garden. It’s how the smart people are surviving these dark, bleak economic times. It doesn’t help that my drawing style uses so much black, either. Just look at the above panel for proof. Moody, yes. Cheap, no.

I’ve been racking my brains, trying to think of a good excuse for posting this Sora Aoi does female Ninja Warrior video, and I’ve come up with nothing. Even so, I’m gonna post it anyway. I like Ninja Warrior. I like Sora Aoi. Therefore I doubly like this video. I think she does really well for such a top-heavy ninja.

 

This Is Your Life Now.

I tend to spend my days now just trying to avoid spoilers. Nimbly trying to click my way around the web, without coming across something I wish I hadn’t. I spend my life now avoiding spoilers for Walking Dead (both comic and TV series), Dexter, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, and about a million others I can’t think of off the top of my head. Even though this new Doctor Who poster was put out by the BBC, it kind of feels a bit like a spoiler (sadly one I’ve heard a million times online by now.) I’m also guessing that since they put it on a poster, it means it probably won’t happen, unless it was some kind of amazing, ballsy double-bluff… which it probably isn’t. By that, I mean it’ll happen… it just won’t happen…

Major spoilers aside, it is a great poster. Everyone likes a fallen-damsel shot. I’m guessing this is going to become a lot of people’s desktop pic in the coming days. It’s like Dalek fan-service. You had me at imperial gunner Dalek.

How come TV has become soooooooooo good over the last ten years?