Art Blast April - War on Drugs, a.k.a my first published work

I probably SHOULD have started Art blast April with this, but I didn't, because that would require being much better organized than I currently am. ;-)

This is my FIRST published page, and the one that started it all. The importance of seeing this published in Northern Lightz at the time ( over 10 years ago!) cant be overstated. I was thrilled! I felt like I had finally made it, and resolved then and there that I would be a professional comic artist.

I was very lucky to have Gary Erskine ink this one, and he did me a lot of favors. He basically re-drew the helicopter in the big panel, as the one I had sent in was pretty weak by comparison. Alan Grant wrtoe this one and it marks the first appearance of 'Johnny K' from the War on Drugs, which went on to run in 2 magazines over in the U.K.

Thought Bubble 2012 in Leeds!

 

 
I'm going to be attending THOUGHT BUBBLE in the UK in a few short weeks. This looks to be a great comic-con,  or 'Comic Art Festival' as its called over in Europe. Soooo proper those Brits, eh?

There are lots of great folks signed on to be there, Yanick Paquette, Mark Waid, Skottie Young, Cameron Stewart, Rufus Dayglo, Phil Noto, Rob Williams, Gary Erskine...and many more.

The thing I'm most looking forward to is meeting in person, one of my artistic partners in Crime, and inker extraordinaire - Guillermo Ortego.

Sarah and the folks organizing Thought Bubble, have very kindly set us up at tables #84 and 85 right  beside each other so we can chat to fans and each other.  I foresee many tales about Heroes of the North! We will have a few copies of the comic available, and will sign them accordingly. We'll be in the Royal Armouries Hall...map link available- right here.
 

WASTED #5 details and update.

I just got my copy of Wasted #5 in the mail, and finished reading it up.

As always, it’s a hefty comic tome, as it has 64 pages! That’s a good read for your money in my book. The ‘War on Drugs’ I pencilled up has 5 ½ pages in this issue, including 4 of them inked by Gary Erskine, who did a great job. I really enjoy working with him. Check out page 1 below.


WASTED also found another WOD strip that I did about 5 years ago and have since forgotten all about. It involves George Bush as president, so that should give you an idea about when I drew it! Just when I think they have used all my old stuff up, they find another page. ;-)

Some of the other terrific artists in this book are: Jon Haward Kevin Eastman, Kevin o'Neill, Simon Bisley, Alan Kerr, Jim Devlin, Alan Burrows & Curt Sibling. And that’s not all of them!

Please keep an eye out for this at news stands in the U.K. or they can be ordered at http://www.badpressltd.com/
Alan Grant has just sent me a great WOD Narcobitch script for the next issue, which I’m soon to pencil now that I’ve finished up all my other artistic commitments.

I will have 3 other books coming out in the next 3 months, so please check back soon, as I’ll post up the details when the books and their websites are ready.

Cheers!

WASTED #5 is now out!

I've no time for a big update, but more details soon...in the meanwhile, if you see this at your local newsagents in the U.K., you wanna do yourself a favor and grab it!

THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY…and GUY DAVIS

THE GOOD

Issue #4 of Wasted is now out! It’s available at newsagents across the U.K., and also available over here. This issue’s cover features ‘Narcobitch’ who’s a character that I created with Alan Grant. The coolest thing about this cover, is it’s the first time I’ve seen one of my characters drawn by another comic artist professional. This time out, she was drawn wonderfully by Dave Taylor of Judge Dredd and Batman fame.


THE BAD

There was a mix up with some of my pages and the wrong art was used. Some of the WOD strips I drew were done years back, before I had a vague clue of what I was doing. Now that I’ve learned a thing or 2, (thanks Ty Templeton!) I’ve redrawn many of these old strips to a much better standard. Unfortunately, the new ones were not published, but the old ones accidentally were... So, if you get this issue please print out these 3 pages and glue them over the published ones. ;-) There is talk of doing a Wasted ‘war on drugs’ collected magazine, so all will be made right in the future. But for now…this is the best I can do. The Narcobitch strips were wonderfully inked by Gary Erskine BTW.





THE UGLY

One or 2 of the panels I drew on the old, accidentally published pages. Trust me.


GUY DAVIS

The second time I’ve seen one of my characters drawn by a comic professional was at a con here a few weeks ago. Guy Davis gave a great seminar and then drew up Johnny K from the War on Drugs in his own smooth style. It looks a lot like this:



For folks in the U.K., a quick reminder that I’ll have a table at Bristol-con this weekend. (ash cloud willing that is!) Details can be found over here.


Cheers!