Character Piece for the 'Next Book'.

 A digitally drawn version of an image I'm going to work up in pencil, maybe ink. It's essentially a 'mood/character/scene setter' piece for the next book. I've deliberately and maybe slightly amateurishly gone for the 'Franklin Booth' clouds here - you may have noticed! This is Vanessa and her Austin 7 'Chummy'... Thanks for looking!

MISTY - 2024 Special

Art by Tula Lotay

Well... this will be due out this July, and I'm very pleased to be involved (scroll down for two example pages). This from the 'Rebellion' website:

https://2000ad.com/news/classic-horror-comic-misty-returns-in-2024/

Dare You Read It Alone? A classic horror series rises from beyond the grave in 2024, featuring four brand-new chilling adventures from some of the most terrifyingly talented creators in comics!

As revealed earlier today, Misty, the classic horror series for young women, has been resurrected by megastar writer Gail Simone, who is being joined by a murderers’ row of talent for an all-new 48 page anthology special publishing on the 17th July 2024. 

First published in 1978, Misty was the brainchild of legendary writer and editor Pat Mills, offering thrills and chills for a generation of young women in the UK and featuring stories from creators including Shirley Bellwood, Jesus Redondo, Jordi Badía Romero, and Mills. Running for over 100 issues in total, each issue was hosted by Misty, who acted as a guiding voice for her young readers – and in this new anthology we’ll be telling stories featuring Misty herself for the first time!

This anthology features three brand-new chilling stories written by Simone, with art by Carola Borelli (The Deadliest Bouquet, Spider-Woman), Aly Fell (A Trick of the Light) and Marianna Ignazzi (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), alongside a fourth story written and drawn by rising star Letty Wilson (Owl People). Completing this spectacularly spooky package is a cover from Eisner-winning artist Tula Lotay (Barnstormers)!

The four stories included in this collection are:

In Eleven Lonely Deaths. a true-crime podcaster visits a decades-old crime scene where eleven women lost their lives at the hands of a vicious strangler. There, he meets a mysterious young woman who knows more about the crimes than should be possible…

At The Pub at the End of the Road, an unscrupulous landlord of a dreary pub in the English countryside makes his gifted daughter work her fingers to the bone, and turns a blind eye to the customers’ wandering hands. She seeks solace in a secret love… until she’s forced to use her extraordinary gifts…

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Parker is set in a small English town where nothing’s been quite the same since the murders of eleven women some years ago…

The Cracked Glass – a tale too terrifying to even tell you about! Writer/artist Letty Wilson has some dark surprises in store for readers…

The Misty 2024 Special is coming to a newsagent or comic book shop near you on 17th July 2024 – lock the doors twice, make sure you’ve drawn the curtains, and BY ALL THAT’S HOLY don’t forget to pre-order your copy!

Art by Aly Fell

Art by Aly Fell

'The Kissing Gate' - Aunt Elspeth

Although not based on Virginia Woolf (Aunt Elspeth was loosely based on my uncle actually!) she was in mind when I drew her. This is one of the five character cards that I gave away with copies of 'The Kissing Gate' and if you look closely there is an edition of 'Orlando on the shelf. RIP Virginia Woolf who died this day 83 years ago (1882 - 1941).

'A Trick of the Light' and 'The Kissing Gate'.

Hello!

Since I last updated the blog, properly anyway, I've published two books: 'A Trick of the Light' and 'The Kissing Gate'. Both are graphic 'novels', and the first two in a sequence of four. Each story is not connected to the previous, and can be read independently, but they all echo with the same themes. Both were successful Kickstarters, and are now available through Etsy.

I'm currently working on the third, which was written last year and is almost completely roughed out. It will be longer than the first two: currently running at about 120 pages, and I aim to go to Kickstarter towards the end of the 2024, start of '25. The fourth is written, but only in prose form.

So that's all caught up then!

Below are the covers and examples of interior pages from both books.

Thanks!

Ahem...

 It HAS been a while, has it not?

Update coming...

...soon!

Signum Veritas

 'Symbolic Truth', or maybe 'Attack of the Wingdings'. 

An older drawing of Madimi that I've tidied up. 

Some Character Art

Drawings of Rosalind/Madimi from my graphic novel, The Shadow Glass and its sequel.

1. A revisited older drawing, with finished colour

2. Rosalind/Madimi reading, an image to accompany the following

3. Jacob, reading

4. The Fire - an unused panel I turned into a one-off.

Hello again.

The Shadow Glass: all 6 covers

All the six covers for The Shadow Glass. The initial three released by Dark Horse plus 4, 5 and 6 released in runs of 75 each from me. I'll post some roughs and rejected ideas in the near future.

Thanks!

'The Shadow Glass' - Trade-paperback

January 2017 sees the publication (from Dark Horse Comics) of the collected trade-paperback edition of ‘The Shadow Glass’. More information as and when I have it, but here’s a photo of the advance copy.

Many thanks!

Lady Killer

This image was done as a joint promotional piece for 'Lady Killer' (by Joelle Jones) and 'The Shadow Glass'.

The Shadow Glass: Covers 1, 2 and 3

It's been a while as I've been working on the book. Nearly all done, but here's the covers to books 1, 2 and 3. The first two are available from comic shops and three will be later this month, May. Also I include a gif process I did for a page in book one.

Thank you.

First publicity image for 'The Shadow Glass'.

Well, a long long time here without an update. But finally I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on The Shadow Glass, which explains my long absence from this blog.

So I can post the first bit of 'pre-publicity' for the six part series. It débuts in the first quarter of next year, 2016. Also a brief synopsis of the premise as there's no official blurb yet.

"It is the late 16th century - Rosalind, a ‘tom-boyish’ Elizabethan girl sets out to discover the truth about her identity when her father reveals to her a life changing secret. As ward to Dr John Dee she witnesses Angelic and Demonic rituals that lead to an encounter with a figure from the past and the reality about herself and her own destiny. A destiny seemingly tied into a mysterious Aztec mirror made of black obsidian glass..."

Black Widow

This is an image of Black Widow I did back in 2010. I felt was less successful than Ms Marvel and Emma Frost that I posted back in the blog. Still she's here... I kept tweaking her face...

Morgiana

Another one from the distant past. An uncompleted or rather 'work in progress' of Morgiana from 'The 1001 Nights', the story of Ali Baba. Digital drawing in Photoshop. I loosely based this on a composition from an old copy of The Arabian Nights I have, but it went off in a different direction.

Floating Islands

And another oldie. Think I might dig out a few more and post them over the next few days... This was an environment idea. Before Avatar I must add, more inspired by Laputa and Rupert the Bear. (Edit: just saw I'd posted this further down in the blog. Oh well, here it is again then!)

Drawn and coloured in Photoshop. Not referenced other than for a pagoda.

'Sparrow Hill Road' cover process

As I'm currently working on the next Seanan McGuire novel I thought a quick breakdown of my working process for 'Sparrow Hill Road' might be of interest...

First stage, roughs. Quick 10 minute sketches of composition ideas. I wanted her looking to the left as this is considered looking into the 'past', and as a ghost I thought it appropriate.

After discussion, Seanan selected the top right, which was my favourite as well. So I tidied it up a bit:

I wasn't sure about the face or hair, but added a bit of quick tone:

Decided to work up the face some more and tighten up the car. Lots of ref as the model had to be specific, and working out of a flat in Manchester I'm restricted in access to 1952 Ford Crestline Sunliners (although I can get ref for a 1983 Ford Granada estate quite easily!) 

A bit of tone to work out lighting:

And then colour. Unusually for me I painted over the tone here in parts.

And the final! Thank you for looking!

The Shadow Glass

Well... I've been a bit quiet here... for good reason.

I'm just back from Chicago and C2E2! A wonderful few days that have left me tired but happy. It was also the chance for me to finally say that I am working as a self-creator on a 6 part comic-book for the superb Dark Horse Comics: ‘The Shadow Glass’. I hinted at the project further down in the blog, but it's grown a lot more since then. This explains why I’ve been so quiet with work, as essentially this has been gestating for over 18 months. It’s the story of a search for identity during the reign of Elizabeth 1^st, that is set very much in a real historical world but with fantastical and horror elements, however more details later.

Dark Horse gave me the opportunity to produce a C2E2 convention-special cover for the continuing comic book version of ‘Buffy: The Vampire Slayer’. The cover features Xander and Buffy but the reverse has a teaser for the ‘The Shadow Glass’. It will still be a while before the first issued will be available, but as I was in Chicago we decided to combine the two for this rather special one-off! Then all of a sudden I find myself sitting at a table next to Nicholas Brendon from Buffy signing copies of the comic! How did that happen!??

Anyway, this is the teaser and the cover together. Now that it’s all official I’ll probably start posting more updates as it develops. I am incredibly grateful to Dark Horse for this opportunity, for taking a leap of faith with me, and for being all round great people!

Half Off Ragnarok

The third of my covers for Seanan Mcguire: 'Half Off Ragnarok'. One of the 'Incriptid' series.

Sparrow Hill Road

I've been very quiet here as I've been concentrating on my long term personal project, but in-between I've been privileged to continue my working relationship with the lovely Seanan McGuire. This is my forth cover for her and DAW books, 'Sparrow Hill Road'. I'll post the third 'Half-Off Ragnarok' in the next couple of days..

Thank you for continuing to stop by here, despite my tardiness!

 

Judges

After watching the recent  'Dredd' film, which was excellent I was reminded of these... Many years ago I was asked to do the instruction sheets for Halcyon's Judge Dredd kits. Well, some of them, alongside the excellent Andy Roper who got me the gig in the first place. This was before Photoshop and was put together by producing master drawings that were then photocopied and pasted into a sequential instruction sheet. All drawn with pencil and black felt tip! Here's Judge Death.

I also did Judge Anderson, the Stallone Judge Dredd and Mean Machine. I shall seek those out and post them too!

Edit: Found Anderson and a pic of Dredd. The Anderson is a very close copy of the sculpt.