28 DAYS LATER #1; UPDATE














Yep, 28 Days Later is finally out, so do go pick it up. While you can actually, as it's apparently sold out at Diamond Distribution. Which is nice to hear.

It's been quite a week; in fairness to Boom Studios, they've promoted the hell outta this book.

Well, aside from the selling-out thing, some other 28 Days Later related news;

I updated the Micks blog with a sketch of Selena as she appears in the book. Above is a detail of the black and white version. See it here.

The writer of the book, Michael Alan Nelson has a Newsarama interview and a video interview with Mark Waid on Comic book Resources.

Also, there's an interview with this guy *points to self* on Newsarama, where they hilariously interview the artist of the book, illustrate it with three seperate pieces of art... none of which by the actual artist interviewed. Whatta world.

Now that the book is out and all the promotion is done, i promise i'll stop harping on about it every two minutes. It's just been great to get a reaction (really positive one too) after a few months of not showing anybody anything.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER ADVANCE REVIEWS














I had a day or so off last weekend after wrapping up #3 of 28 Days Later, so i did this sketch and made it up as a banner for the blog, as the previous image was from Tim Skinner, which i drew before i started Sweeney Todd even. So, new book; new banner.

Anyhoo, advance reviews of 28 Days Later #1 went online over the last few days. If you like, see what people think on Newsarama, Bleeding Cool, Comics Bulletin and From The Tomb Magazine. Overall they're really positive, which is pretty encouraging as I slog away on #4.

[UPDATE] Two new reviews went up today too. Guess this makes it Super-Ultimate-Review-Day. The new reviews are at Comic Related and The Outhouse.

Dec.

HOLIDAY SPECIALS; PAGE THREE





















Here's another page from the abandoned pitch. I thought i'd have them all up by now, but there was a lot of 28 Days Later news there for the last week.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #1 TORONTO VARIANT












There's a 28 Days Later #1 limited variant cover for the Toronto FanExpo. See the full image on Newsarama

Dec.

POE #2 OUT THIS WEEK

























#2 Of Poe, the mini series written by J. Barton Mitchell with art by Dean Kotz and a cover by myself (seen above) is out this week. You can see a preview over on Comic Book Resources.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #1; PAGES 1-3 PROCESS

Since i've posted the first three pages of the new 28 Days later book, i thought i might show the steps i took to make them.

Obviously, first i read through the script a few times. Then, i take out my sketchbook and get started on the layouts. This is the most crucial stage, as this is where all the storytelling, composition, letter placement and problem-solving is figured out. It's the toughest stage, but also the most rewarding.

You can see i made a note of 'no hands' at the bottom of the second layout. I think i got carried away and thought the child looked in the tent first. Upon rereading the script i realized that was my own imagination, and that the football pops out of nowhere in the next page. You have to be very careful of details like that.













Layout pages 1-3 from my sketchbook


Then, instead of redrawing the whole image from scratch, i blow up the layouts and light-box them onto an A3 sized page. I do this in an effort to retain the spontaneity of the original layout. In the past, i've completely redrawn the image, but it always lost 'something'. I'm mush happier with the end page when it's as close to the original layout as possible.

As you can see, the drawing is much more fleshed-out; establishing proper light sources, folds in cloth, and just overall adding more detail. I do leave a lot of work to be figured out in the inking stage. For example, in the first page, you can see i just made a circle for the light from Selena's torch, leaving a lot of it to be worked out in the inks. Because i ink my own work, i like to leave a lot of embellishment for the inks, and have the pencils be mainly construction.













Full-sized pencilled pages 1-3


Finally, my favourite stage; Inking. I just enjoy the solid mark-making involved in inking so much; it's very satisfying. I try to be as loose as possible when i ink. All the detail added in the pencils can end up inked very scratchily, if that's a word. Basically, just because it's been pencilled doesn't necessarily mean it will be inked; it depends on whether i think it will look good or not.

In the case of page one, i actually ended up adding a lot of texture, especially in the last 2 panels. I'd drawn the basic forms in pencil, but waited til inking to properly work them out, using varying kinds of line, splatter from my brush/pen nib. I think i even went back to the 5th panel and added thumb-prints in white ink. In the second page, when i had done all the line-work, even with all the white space, i thought the environment didn't look 'snowy' enough, so i sprayed white ink all over the line-work, to break it up and add more atmosphere. When inking i now try and create as many 'happy accidents' as possible, ie, ending up with something on the page i wasn't planning on having, be it a loose line, or a blob of ink. It makes the pages look more like an interesting drawing, i think.















Finished inked pages 1-3

Well, there you have it. Pages 1-3 in all their stages and me prattling on about it. Hope you found it of some interest.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #1 PREVIEW ONLINE

I can FINALLY show some 28 Days Later art! A preview of the first 10 pages went on line on Newsarama yeasterday. AND they spelt my name right this time. Life is good.























I'll post the black and white versions of the preview pages tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's the first 3 pages without text. Colour by the great Nick Filardi.

Issue one is out in 2 weeks; 26th of August in the US, 27th in the UK/Ireland. See the preview here.

Dec.

HOLIDAY SPECIALS; PAGE TWO





















Whoops! Forgot to post yesterday. So much for posting every day this week. Anyway, here's the second page, introducing the main characters. You can see by now it wasn't a really a straight-up superhero story.

Dec.

HOLIDAY SPECIALS; PAGE ONE

Hey all. Apologies for the lack of posting; been really busy with 28 Days Later, and life in general for the last couple of weeks. Anyway, to make up for the silence; a new post for every day this week. Plus, i've plans to update the blog on certain days therefore making silent stretches less frequent.




















Right, well the above image is from the first page of a pitch i was working on with Simon Spurrier, of (2000AD, Gutsville, and Ghost Rider fame). We came up with this late '08/ early '09, but unfortunately, after much discussion, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It's a shame, as i really enjoyed working on these sample pages. I had been working on Sweeney Todd for months and was looking for the chance to work on something set in contemporary times.

These pages were lettered, but i really don't want to give away any of Si's ideas, so i'm showing them just in black and white and in colour. I coloured them all myself, in my beloved FLAT COLOUR. I'll post the rest of the pages every day this week til Saturday.

Dec.

PEGBAR; This Saturday; 8th of August.


















Sorry for the lack of posting of late. Some news though;

From the Pegbar blog;

"Pegbar is holding another one of its amazing events! But this time round we’ve got a whole day of talks from industry professionals.

There will be talks about the animation industry, the games industry, moving image, running small studios and making features. And we’ll finish the night off with our networking event.

So Pegbar will take place on the 8th of August, in Filmbase, 11am to 5pm.

There will be a workshop on making comic books for young artists in Filmbase 11am – 1pm

And then in the evening our ‘it’s a pegbar affair’, will be taking place in Murrays Bar, on O’Connell St, 8pm til late! Where there will be loads of cool animations playing and an enjoyable place for everyone to network.

There will be a colouring competition, to which the winners take home loads of Pegbar goodies"

I will be giving the talk mentioned above about making comics so if you're aged 12 - 17 do come along. More details to be had on the Pegbar blog.

Dec.