Birmingham International Comics Show

As mentioned previously, i attended the latest comics show, this time in Birmingham, on the 9th and 10th of this month. Went over with my good mate Will Sliney (http://sliney.blogspot.com/). Had an absolutely great time, caught up with some old friends and made some more too. Here's some random photos from the weekend.....

Me sketching

One of the convention halls

Ditto

Ben McCool, Will Sliney, Guilia Brusco and Matt Hollingsworth

Matt, James Hodgkins, Esad Ribic, Will and Jim Alexander

Will, Guilia, Josef, Sandy and Michael Wright.

Good people one and all.

Thanks to all of the above for a great weekend, Especially James, who invited me in the first place. Roll on Birmingham 2007!

Dec.

Freak Show issue3


Some Pencils.




















Dec.

ALIVE!!!

Yes, i'm alive! Had to take a little break for a couple of weeks after Birmingham, which i'm happy to report, i had an absolute blast at. I'll post some new work, and some Birmingham photos shortly. In the meantime, here's a couple of interviews Andy Winter and myself did about Hero Killers.

http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/features/116598264656425.htm

http://www.jazmaonline.com/interviews/interviews2.asp?intID=413

Also, a short story i illustrated came out during the week in Arcana's DARK HORRORS ANTHOLOGY. It's called 'La Famiglia'. Look out for it. I know i will!

Dec.

Birmingham International Comics Show

Been looking forward to this for ages. Have a lot of friends to catch up with. I'll be signing at various tables, including the Moonface Press table and the Atomic Diner table, promoting both Hero Killers and Freak Show. Will tell tales of my adventures upon my return. You'll never know, maybe i'll see you there.

See www.thecomicsshow.co.uk for details.

Dec.

Batman Cover.

As mentioned beforehand, i'll be at the Birmingham International Comics Show this year, signing at various tables. Wanted to do another poster to show off a bit. Feels like ages since i've properly drawn a superhero, so i went with a Batman piece. If you were at the Dublin convention a couple of weeks ago, you may have seen me working on this. Here's the original art and the coloured version. Have versions of this as i was working on it, might post another 'process of a cover' next week.























Splendid.

Dec.

Freak Show Cover


Hello, me again. After gettin' Issue 2 of Freak Show done, i wanted to do a Freak Show poster. With Sean Philips and Stephen Mooney doing the covers, i wanted to play around and see what i could come up with. Keeping with how FS covers have been colloured previously, i decided to use duller tones, and not have any bright colours that would stand out too much. So here's the original art and the coloured version.























I like how there's no rendering, just flat, moody colour. I also went with colouring the background chatacters in greys, with a bloody-red behind them, keeping with the noir feel of the book.

This won't be a Freak Show cover, but it nice to have something i've done to sell it a bit, especially with the Birmingham convention on this weekend.

Dec.

Freak Show #2 finished

Well, i have to finish lettering it, but otherwise, it's in the bag. Took me way too long to do this issue, about the same amount of time as #1. I should be working faster than i am. On the other hand, i did have to put it on hold to do the short story for the Judge Dredd Megazine.

Anyhoo, here's a look at some more of #2......






















Dec

Dublin City Comic Con 06

Yes indeed, back from the convention in Dublin last weekend. Had a great time. Met a lot of faces both old and new and got a great reception all round, so if you bought a copy of Hero Killers, thanks a lot, and i hope you're happy with your sketch. Even got asked to do an interview (see below). Yes, i know it's a Fisher-Price tape recorder, but i was assured the interview was valid.

















I have ONE photo of the convention and i'm upstaged by a kid's toy. Typical.

Big thanks to John Hendrick at The 3rd Place and everyone involved with the convention. Great show. Really lookin forward to next year.

I met up with Ian Whelan and Alan Nolan, creators of Sancho: Twisted tales of horror www.20000-leagues.com at the con, gave them a Sancho pin-up, just wanted to contribute something to an Irish-made book. They liked it so much, they want to use it as their next cover, which of course, i was very flattered by. Here's the pencils and inks. Since the guys want it as a cover, i'll have to colour it.




You can see i kept the pencils quite loose, just laid down the figure, where i wanted my blacks and whatnot. Even the rendering on the wastcoat is pretty loose, usually i have a very clear pencil line that shows where the black ends, but not this time. Wanted to keep it loose, so i could play around with the inks a bit.








.....and the inks. Here i rendered the waistcoat, the nearer zombie and added detail to the headstone in the foreground. I also decided to leave out some of the branches i'd pencilled in, decided it was getting too busy up there, and i was going for a simple-looking image, nothing too fancy.

Well that's it. Really happy with it, especially as the Sancho lads seem to really like it. I'll put up the colours once they're done





Dec.

Superman/Batman

Howdy.

Me and my mate Will Sliney over at http://irishcomics.blogspot.com try to meet up every now and then and work on our comics, like working in a studio environment. Here's a Superman/Batman piece we did the summer of last year, and the one we did last week, beside it. Vast improverment.















Won't be posting again till next week. Getting everything ready for the Dublin City Comic Con being held in the Temple Bar Music Centre on Sat 25th. That's this saturday. Many BIG names will be there. See www.irishcoimicshop.com for details. There will also be a host of irish talent, Bob Byrne, creator of Mbleh and the Shiznit, Stephen Mooney(CSI/Angel) and Stephen Thompson(Buckaroo Banzai), who are also the previous Freak Show artists, Alan Nolan of Sancho fame and also .........................well, me. I'll be there too. So come along. I'll have the original art of pretty much all the work you're seen on this blog and more to boot.

Hope to see you there,

Dec.

Inks

Here's the inks to one of the panels i posted last week. You can see i added a few heads in the background, finished the foreground character and added details in the faces and soforth.




















Dec.

More Rough pencils

Here's a couple more panels. The bigger scene is still unfinished, have to work out the black lady in the foreground, and some small details like faces and headscarves, etc. But this is the bones of it anyway.
I generally don't tighten my pencils too much, cuz i know i'm inking them myself and i've gotten looser in my inking approach in the last few months. Saying that, there's nothing worse than going to ink a face and realising i haven't pencilled it in at all. It's easy to miss details like that when you've pencil lines all over the place and no solid blacks.























Dec.

Huzzzah!

I can finally reveal thet the afore mentioned Freak Show short story is to be published in the Judge Dredd Megazine!!! I didn't want to say anything before i knew for sure, but it has to be confirmed. The story will be published in the meg's Small Press section. I'm really happy about this, it's a great wat to get he word out about Freak Show, and of course, to have something printed by 2000AD is a great honour. Once i know the whens and wheres, i'll spread the word.

Have had to take on some work to tide some money issues over, so there may be less postings for the next few weeks, but will definately have at least one a week up.

Dec.

Rough Pencils.

Back at work on the regular Freak Show book after putting it on hold for the short story. Here's some rough pencils to one of the new pages. Generally, i tighten details before inking, but don't think i need to in this case, i'll just work out some background detail and hit it with some ink.























Dec

Freak Show Short Story

Just finished a short story featuring Jack. If all goes according to plan it'll see print before issue one. Here's the first 2 pages, just to give a taste. Once i know what's happening for sure, i'll post details.

Enjoy

























Dec

Artwork for Music Single.

Was commissioned to do the artwork for a music single coming out from a Limerick DJ.
Here's the fruits of my labours























With a catchy title like that, who wouldn't buy it?

Dec.

Commissions

From time to time i do the auld commissioned illustrations. Did some last week. Here's my favourite two so far.






















It can be tough doing these on top of Freak Show, but they give me a chance to step out of the 1950s backdrop of FS, and draw something i normally wouldn't draw.

That's all for now.

Dec

Halloween.

I don't think i need to explain this, save that it's not something i drew and that i'm the one in the Batman costume.

Drink may have been involved......



















.......I'm gonna regret posting these

New Stuff


Hello.

Blog was in a mood with me for the last couple of days so i wasn't able to post anything. Wipeout.

i've taken a short break on #2 of Freak Show to do a Freak Show short story. If all goes according to plan, it'll see print around the time #1 or #2 hits the stands. Can't show any of the pages but want to post my favourite panel so far.























Part of the story has got cops in it, so i had to get some decent reference of 1950s cop uniforms and the like. Here's some preliminary sketches.
























And also, the clamtastic Bob Byrne, (the deranged mind that brought you Mbleh, the Shiznit and so www.clamnuts.com) has been working on a one-shot full colour Freak Show story. He asked to use images of mine for small profiles on the main characters. Of course i had no problem with that. Needed to do another one of Myles cuz the one i had, sucked. Here's the new version.






















It doesn't suck, i don't care what you say.

Dec.

Another Portrait.

A while back i promised a girl i knew a portrait of her and her sister. When i say 'a while back', i mean about a year ago. Cut to a couple of months ago when she nearly crucified me to the wall of Costellos nightclub for not having it done yet. Well, the threat of imminent death has always been a big motivator for me, so i got off my arse and got it done. Finished it last night. She liked it, thank god.

Here it is in black and white:
















And in colour. Messed around with it a bit on photoshop with some nice results.


















Please, don't threaten me with death so i'll draw something for you. I prefer being paid with money.

Dec

Freak Show Artwork.

Another greywash piece. Rob (Freak Show writer) asked if i'd do a piece for someone to win in some competition. Of course, i was happy to do it. Went with a shot of Jack, then thought i'd add some greys just to make it 'special', so, someone's going to win this:





















Lucky devil.

Dec

Comissioned Portrait.

Did this a month or so back. I hadn't done some greywash stuff in a while, actually, last time would've been for an exhibition i had back in 2004. Man, time flies.........





















Dec.

Freak Show inks.

Me again,

Just wanted to post some work without showing whole pages, so here's a couple of panels i inked last night.



















Dec

More Freak Show.

Hello To You.
Here's some new art malarky. Inked version of a pencilled page i already posted, along with the 1st page of #2 (since it doesn't give away any story elements)





















For giggles, here's some sketches too. Doin a pin-up hopefully to be included in the 3rd Freak Show trade. That'd be nice, as a teaser to the new look of the book. Anyway, only doodles so far. Can't decide on a 'team' shot, or a single character one. Anyway, here it is.





















Dec.

No post in YONKS

Apologies to anyone who has been checking this blog day in, day out, hoping that i grace your day with some of my amazing revelations.

...........well, no danger of that i suppose.

Went to Scotland two weekends ago to a David Lloyd signing. Setting up a studio there in a few months, so had to mull some things over too. Got some inking done when i eventually got back but then had a wedding to go to last weekend. I'll post bits of what inking i got done soon along with whatever else pops out of my head. Here's some pin-ups i did at a signing a while back to keep you happy in the meantime




Dec.

Freak Show #2 Pencils

Here's some pencils to an inked page you've seen, and one you haven't. I'm off to Scotland for the weekend, so spending this week on pencils. I find pencilling the hardest stage so i need to be in my studio (/bedroom) to work on them. I can ink pretty much anywhere (aside from on top of a moving train or the like) so i can ink away in Scotland, without having to worry too much about missing out on work.


Changed a few things with the inks here. The perspective on the lamp in the middle of the first panel was a little off, so i fixed it in the inks. Added more black in areas too. Think i messed up the telephone chord in the inks to be honest, but there's no point spending all day trying to fix something. Best to move on and spend your energies on the next piece.







First page where i've had a good, proper take on the Freak Show characters. Since no one has seen me draw them before, it's pretty important early on to clearly establish who they are. Not 100% happy with Jack's hair in 2nd panel, reckon i'll change them in the inks. I think the hearse in the 1st panel is too small now that i take another look at it. Will have to adjust that in Photoshop. No biggie. Really happy with this page overall.




Dec.

First pages of Freak Show #2

Hey kiddies, tearing through #2 of Freak Show when i realised it's been bout a week since i last posted some work, so here's some pages to prove i'm getting some work done. I'm leaving out pages which would give away too much of the story, so enjoy these for now

............or y'know, don't enjoy them, see if *i* care.

These pages include my first proper takes on Jack and Susan in sequential pages.





















Dec.