Bigger On The Inside.

It’s the 27^th of December, and I already know what I want for Xmas 2013.



This is one of those awkward posts, where if you’re not a Doctor Who fan, this might be a little lost on you. But this app was too cool not to comment on. Plus it’s the 50^th birthday next year. It’s gonna be the year of nerding out on Doctor Who. I thought I’d get an early start. Speaking of nerding out… been checking out the new look Cybermen. Pretty much all new Who Cybermen stories have been a bit below par, for me. I’ve got high hopes for The Last Cyberman.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. I’ve eaten so much in the last 72-hours, I don’t think I’m gonna eat again until early Spring.

Merry Xmas, Everyone.

Well… I’m officially in Xmas mode now. It’s all sweatpants, hoodie and thick socks (I look quite the handsome gentleman.) Wrapping presents and eating junk food is the order of the day. Then maybe finish watching season 6 of Dexter and somewhat perving over scenes where Debra Morgan’s wearing her police uniform (don’t judge me, I was born in the 80’s where this was playing on TV pretty much 24\7.) Hope everyone’s having an awesome Xmas.

Something I’d like to do before the end of 2012, you say? Find someone else on planet earth who has a Google+ account, maybe?

Death Stare.

Probably the second to last bit of artwork I’ll post before 2013. And if I say so myself, I think that’s a pretty mean death stare going on in this panel. Someone’s in trouble…

Finished my Xmas shopping today, as if the worlds gonna end tomorrow, I’d rather stay home in the dry, you know. I’ve just got to work hard until Saturday night, then I can switch off and go into Xmas mode. About another 48-hours, and then I can crack open my Christmas booze stash and turn my brain off for a few days. Get drunk for the first time in ages and watch some Dexter season 6. I’m pretty low on energy, truth be told, so I could do with some down-time.

I won’t lie, I’ve been thinking more and more I might read Fifty Shades Of Grey at some point. I never get on board with the big books of the moment. Never read The Da Vinci Code, any of the Harry Potter books, or anything from the Twilight series. Be nice to be in the in-crowd for once. Besides…how could you not want to read it after watching this? I’ve read The Butcher and The Story Of O before. I want in on this bloated bandwagon.

The R-Rated Trailer.

Just one more trailer for this movie, I promise. Just because I think this is the best and most coherent of them so far. It’s still my must see movie of 2013. This and Dracula 3D (even if it has only got 4.3 rating on imdb.) I know the CGI looks bad, and people are already putting Dracula 3D down. But in this age of Twilight and camp-vamps, I’m totally up for a tits-and-blood, trashy vampire pic. I’ve got a lot of love for Dracula movies that try and out Hammer Hammer-horror movies.

Speaking of Dracula… was reading this article earlier. I’m a little torn on this news. I tend to feel forgotten or unpublished work are forgotten\unpublished for a reason. That said, I probably will try and pick up this book at some point in 2013... If the world doesn’t end on Friday, that is. I hope not, I’ve gotta finish my Christmas shopping Friday.

Ho-Ho-Horror.

I’ve already posted these up on my Deviantart page (HERE & HERE), but here’s two full pages from Issue #3. I think they’re two of the strongest pages from this issue, and hopefully give a good indication of the tone and look of this story. I think it’s safe to say, things get very sinister in Issue #3.

Been on a massive Junji Ito craze of late. Been reading the first two Tomie books, called Museum Of Terror, printed by Dark Horse. They are unbelievably creepy and cool. I think the short story Little Finger would have to be in my top ten greatest short, comic horror-stories of all time. I rate it right up there with Jenifer by Jones and Wrightson. I’ve noticed they have a copy up online you can read (I notices lately there’s a lot of Manga up online you can read… Wish more of it was in print.) you can check it out HERE. But, because it’s Manga, you need to remember to read the right page first, then the left. It’s tricky, but worth it for such a good horror story. If this story doesn’t give you the heebie-jeebies, you’re made of stronger stuff than me, buddy. I honestly think this strip is genius.

I’m all set for my Horror Manga Xmas this year. In the end, I went with Hell Baby, Parasytl Vol 1 and Octopus Girl vol 1. I also manage to hunt down a DVD copy of a movie I’ve been wanting to see for years called Wicked City. Wasn’t as cheap as I would have liked, but it’s been my only shot at owning it since… well… ever… So I thought ‘Happy Christmas to me’ and bought it… then saw someone had put a copy up on youtube a few days later… (lets out annoyed grunt.) Still, I hate watching movies on my laptop. I regret nothing. NOTHING!

Ideas I’ll Never End Up Using #1298.

Here’s something I drew in my sketchbook over the weekend, just because eye-patches are cool. Even cooler with flags on them.

Agent Britannia. I saw this idea as a bit like Empowered meets 60’s Ian Fleming’s Bond. Maybe with a little Crepax thrown into the mix, art-style wise. Cute, young Brit spy who travels around the world in the 60’s getting herself into lots of light-hearted, sexy adventures and troubles while being a British secret agent.

Don’t know if I would really have been the right artist to give this idea life, though. This concept may be more suited to an artist with a cuter style. Maybe would make a good web-comic or something.

NOTE: Clearly not scanned on good scanner.

Something For The Bloggers.

Here’s something I’ve been meaning to post for a while. Something just for the blog. A fully lettered page, which comes from the second issue. It’s all subplot, so it’s a good non-spoiler page to go with. One of the characters (Ben Plug) is a tubby, nerdy guy who’s obsessed with a UK, Sci-fi TV show called Wonder Star, just to give this scene some context. Here we find Ben making geek pillow-talk (which always ends badly) to a beautiful woman after coitus. Sharing some of his convention photos with his honey (because girls love that.) I think it’s a pretty fun scene. If nothing else, you get some hot boob\moob action in the first frame.

Been slowing my pace, this December. Since Project B.O.B. (the codename I gave this mini-series) will be wrapping up in early…ish 2013, part of me wants to get this last issue done as soon as possible, while part of me wants to make sure it gets done right. I’m currently drawing scenes I’ve had going around in my head for about three years now. It’s that scary point in the whole project where you have to deliver on what it’s all been leading up to. Honestly…? I’m freaking out a tiny bit.

I want to spend the first three quarters of this month doing the strongest artwork I can. Trying to keep the best till last, and do these scenes justices… Then spend the last week of December drunk on Chambord and Cherry-snips, reading and watching some freaky Japanese animation and manga and eating turkey sandwiches with stuffing and mayo.

NOTE: Hopefully you can read this page by just clicking on it, but, if need be, you totally have my permission to ‘save as’ and enlarge on your own computers. Whatever’s easiest for you to read the word balloons.

Modern Christmas.

Nothing kicks off the Christmas period like a close-up of a big, gross, veiny eye. As a man who spends his whole life either drawing or being on a computer, I’m no stranger to dreaded red eye. Often, I’ve got a Christopher Lee, Dracula’s evil-eyes thing going on. I get through a lot of eye drops.

Here’s the thing… Apart from my brother’s presents, I haven’t done any Xmas shopping yet. I tend to do it all online now. This coming week is probably when I’ll find a spare couple of hours and get it out the way. I sit on my laptop making up a list of all the things I want for Xmas, then with a click of a button, I send that list off to the digital elves of internet land (or Amazon, as some people call them.) Then several days later, a fat man with a beard and sack brings them to my house (be better if my postman’s beard was white, not ginger. Also, if he could be jolly, not grumpy, that to would boost my Xmas high greatly.) Plus if Santa was real, health-and-safety would probably make him wear high visibility, orange clothing these days, anyway, so that kind of works. They’d make him wear one of those fluorescent tops at the very least.