WASTELAND

























Was asked by the good folks at Oni Press to contribute a piece for Wasteland: The Apocalyptic Edition Volume 2 by current Daredevil co-scribe Antony Johnson and Christopher Mitten. You can order it right here.

The above piece will accompany a prose section at the end of the book. I tried something a little different this time. Normally, i'd draw a foreground figure in black but went worth the opposite this time. I had to draw some dogs so i drew in multiple versions of Sasha, the dog we have at the house in New York. I'm gonna miss her when I come home.

Dec.

HEROES COVENTION 2010











This June 4th-6th i'll be attending the HEROES con in Charlotte, North Carolina. Everyone has been harping on about how great it is so i'm really hoping it'll live up to my expectations.

A huge part of the HEROES convention is the auction for The Heroes Initiative, a charity dedicated to helping comic book creators in need. Myself and the other Comic Twartists have done pieces for the auction, so hopefully mine will raise some money. We'll also have a panel on Friday. Come check it out. Details below...

COMIC TWART!!
Room 209
The comictwart.com site has become one of the more popular sites online for fresh weekly comic art. Join “twartists” Tom Fowler, Chris Samnee, Francesco Francavilla, Ron Salas, Declan Shalvey, and Andy Kuhn, with moderator Chris Sims of Comics Alliance , for a discussion and multi-sketch demonstration. All sketches to be donated to the HeroesCon Art Auction!

All weekend i'll be signing/sketching at the BOOM! Studios booth, Booths 514, 516 and 613. If you buy a copy of the 28 Days Later hardcover i'll do a small free sketch in the book, however i'll also be doing commissions all weekend upon request for 50$. As an added incentive, i've made 30 original sketch-badges (exclusive to HEROES con; so you won't be able to get them anywhere else) for anyone who buys artwork (original pages or sketches). You can see some of them here.

Hope to see some of ye there.

Dec.

CUCHULAIN





























Got a nice surprise online during the week, when i saw a sketch i did at C2E2 in Chicago about a month ago that had been coloured (quite nicely i might add) by one Kyle Latino. He was good enough to send on a scan of the original, along with a hi-res version of his colours too.

Thanks Kyle!

Dec.

EAGLE AWARD NOMINATION








Hey, guess what; i've been nominated for Favourite Newcomer Artist in this year's Eagle Awards. *Very* surprising; i wasn't even fishing for it this year.

Won't get it as i'm competing with the artist of Phonogram (Jamie McKelvie) and of Ultimate Spiderman (David LaFuente), but i'm chuffed to be nominated. Great seeing Irelans represented, with old school-chum John Cullen nominated in the same category, and both Mike Lynch and Rí-Rá getting nominations too. Do go vote for your favourite at the Eagle Awards website.

Dec.

C2E2 SKETCH





















I nearly forgot about this one. Did this sketch at the C2E2 convention in Chicago last month for Kate at BOOM! Studios who took care of myself and Will over the weekend. Drew her as an Infected. She's a Batman fan too, i'll take any opportunity to draw Batman so stuck him in there too.

Dec

COMIC RELATED INTERVIEW (ISSUE 10)




















My monthly '28 Words Later' interviews with David O' Leary from Comic Related continue, this month talking about 28 Days Later #10 . Check it out here.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #10 PREVIEW ONLINE







































28 Days Later #10 will be out State-side this Wednesday; Thursday in Ireland and the UK. Issue 10 is the first part of Hot Zone, my third story-arc on the book. It's been a blast to draw so far and i hope ye all check it out. You can see the full preview here.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #13 COVER

Here's a cover i did recently; for issue 13.




















Really happy that i got to do a decent; design-y cover that still pertains to the interior story. It ended up being really close to my original layout, i think...





















This is the first time i did my thumbnail/layout digitally and it turned out pretty well; i did mess around with it a lot; i had to be sure to leave one corner pretty bare so that the logo would be clear and readable, so there was a lot of selecting and moving the image around until i was happy with it. I think it was Mooney who suggested i do a wash on the 2 characters to separate them from the car bonnet. I threw in a bit of mis-registered halftone too, just to make it a little more interesting and also as i missed the chance to use that effect in the previous cover.

Hope ye like,

Dec.

Here's a Black Widow sketch i did at the Albany comic con on Sunday. Thanks a million to Andrew Hanna for sending on this scan of it.

Dec.

C2E2; The Chicago Comic Con

Last weekend was C2E2 in Chicago; a con i was very much looking forward to attending. both myself and will Sliney flew out from out current abode in New York and had a bloody fantastic weekend. I got to meet a lot of my fellow contributors to the Comic Twart blog, and both myself and Will got to spend most of the weekend with the crew at BOOM! Studios. They were all absolutely lovely people and it was a pleasure to meet (and drink... and eat double-dish pizza with...) all of them.

The show was actually comfortably spacious in it's layout. Will and myself took a REALLY nerdy photo (which i'm sure he'll share soon) and i got some great sketchbooks from the likes of Chris samnee, Eric Canete and Guy Davis.








































Above is a photo of myself sketching at the BOOM! booth with the lovely Jo; the boss' wife. Tried to get fresh with her but she was havin' none of it.

Below is a photo of myself and 28 Days Later writer Michael Alan Nelson. It was great to finally meet him and talk about what has happened in the book and what is coming (hope no one overheard us). We even got to work out an upcoming scene in a future issue; actually collaborating rather than me just taking a script and drawing it. Michael was such a lovely guy and it was an absolute pleasure to spend the weekend at the BOOM! booth with him.

















There was just too many happenings over the weekend for me to cover here, but safe to say i'd like to thank everyone who came to the BOOM! Studios panel and picked up a copy of 28 Days Later (I did a sketch in every copy), all the crew at BOOM! Studios for treating myself and Will so well, all the artists i met(Twartists included) who were so complimentary about my work (appreciate it so much), Mike Norton for dinner and a drive on Sunday evening and of course; the Samnees (Chris and Laura) for sharing a table with me for a spell. They soon learned to regret it.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #12 COVER [PROCESS]

Hello there; time for another process post on the auld Dec-blog... aw man, i totally should have called this 'The Dec-Blog'. Ah well.




















I was handing in cover ideas to my editor at BOOM! Studios, one of which being the above. Issue 12 called for a 'Someone WILL die' vibe, so i thought this would be the perfect chance to go with this (very rough) idea. I wanted to do a really bold, graphic, stylized cover... actually, i've been trying that approach with all the covers so far, but this was me trying to be a little braver in approach.





















Here's the fully inked piece. from the layout you can tell i was planning on changing the black line art to red, but once i tried, it just didn't work. It didn't 'pop' like i wanted it do. If anything, it looked too flat. So with a bold composition, i tried a bold colour scheme....




















I showed it to a couple of the Micks for some feedback. It was suggested i colour the arm in the foreground with solid colour but i was pretty keen on going in this direction...

...except my editor wasn't as keen. He asked if i could colour it 'more traditionally,' which is fair enough. So, i had to try do that, yet keep it bold, otherwise what was the point of doing it in the first place? So, to keep it consistent with the previous covers (ie a black/white/grey/red colour scheme), i added greytone to Selena's arm, and coloured the blood in bold red...




















And here we have it; the final cover. I do still prefer the original colour version, but i do think this version totally works. I saw the cover online today, and was a bit surprised to see the 28 Days Later logo so big on the cover. Then again, it was a bold composition, and the logo looks big and bold, so as a cover, i think it really stands out. You can see it here.

So that is my heroic story. I got to say 'bold' a lot. Hope ye like the cover. I really do; to editorial's credit, i didn't think a cover this minimalistic would get approved; you can tell from a lot of comic covers that some editors thing you should fill a cover with lots of characters and lots of colour. Here i got to push my 'less is more' cover approach. That may be why this is my favourite of covers i've done so far.

Dec.

MAGNETO SKETCH




















Tuesday means it's Tuesdec on the Micks blog. Did a little Magneto this week. I'm on a mad X-Men related drawing buzz. You can see the coloured piece here.

Dec.

COMIC RELATED INTERVIEW (ISSUE 8)





















My monthly '28 Words Later' interviews with David O' Leary from Comic Related continue, this month talking about 28 Days Later #8 . Check it out here.

Dec.

LOBSTER JOHNSON




















Thought i'd post the black and white version of today's Micks piece here. As much as i'm happy with the colours, i've been doing of late, i always still like the black and white version more.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY





















Here's the black and white art for the Banshee re-design i did for the Micks blog yesterday.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #8 PREVIEW ONLINE





















28 Days Later #8 will be out State-side tomorrow, Thursday in Ireland and the UK. Preview pages are online, you can see the rest here.

I'm reeaaaalllly happy with this issue; it was a blast to draw and the colours from Nick are bloody great. Pun intended.

Dec.

SNEEK PEEK!
















Here's a couple of panels from the issue of 28 Days Later #10 i'm currently working on. Quite happy with these panels, they don't give away any story, so i should be okay just showing these. I hope.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER SPREAD [process]

Below is a double-page spread from 28 Days Later #6. If you haven't read it yet, it's best you not read this post.

As a way of saving time, i've recently stopped scanning my pencils, so i thought since #6 is still relatively new, i'd post a stage-by-stage version of this spread. I've explained how i work ad nauseum at this stage, so i'll skip the monologue this time and just show ye the layouts, pancils and finished inks of this page. Hell, i'll put up Nick Filardi's colours while i'm at it.

COMIC RELATED INTERVIEW (ISSUE 7)





















My monthly '28 Words Later' interviews with David O' Leary from Comic Related continue, this month talking about 28 Days Later #7 . Check it out here.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #11 COVER





















I see solicitaions for issue 11 have gone online, so i reckon it's okay to post this. This is my variant cover, the main one of course, is illustrated by Sean Phillips.

I really enjoy how bold and graphic i've been able to make these covers.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #7 OUT TODAY...





















....in Ireland/UK. Yesterday in the States. Here's the first 3 pages; you can see more here.

Dec.

TIM SKINNER: TOTAL SCUMBAG... DOWNLOAD FOR FREE






















Good news everyone! Tim Skinner: Total Scumbag, the one-shot story by the Eagle Award winning team of Andy Winter and myself is available to download for free. I'm delighted about this; the one shot went down a storm at the last Dublin con in 2008 and Andy quickly sold out of his limited-print run. Then, unfortunately Diamond wouldn't take it so we had no way to get it into comic shops, meaning nobody else could read it. Now you, yes YOU can read the whole story for free.

From Andy's website...

"Soon after Tim Skinner inherited his grandfather's old comic-book collection he discovered something extraordinary - it was magic, and by making a simple wish he could step into the pages of any of the fabulous four-colour fantasies his heart desired. He could hang out with cowboys, futuristic robots or whiny adolescent mutants.

Unfortunately, Tim is a loathsome piece of garbage and instead of enjoying fun and frolics in a universe of action and adventure, he brutalizes and exploits his comic-book chums for his own nefarious ends. Truly, Tim Skinner is a total scumbag!"

Praise for Tim Skinner...

"Fucking hilarious!" - Jonathan Hickman, writer, Fantastic Four

"Delightfully, incredibly, enjoyably sick. Oh, I liked it." - Joe Gordon, Forbidden Planet blog

“Tim Skinner [is] a very self-referential, up-its-own-arse comic that I was destined to love. Even The Boys gets a good shoeing over with hilarious consequences.” - Rich Johnston, bleedingcool.com

"I don’t laugh out loud often, but I laughed out loud at this." - Regie Rigby, comicsbulletin.com

Tim Skinner holds a very special place in my heart. I'd been doing comics as a paying job for about a year and when Andy sent me the script I knew i HAD to draw it, even though it was a non-paying gig. It was also an opportunity to colour my own book; something that i really wanted to try. I truly did it for the art, and not the money.

PLEASE download it here. If you like comics and you have a sense of humour, you will enjoy it. Eh... or your money back.

The drawing holds up for the most part (i drew it nearly 2 years ago), but the best thing by far is the bloody hilarious script by Andy Winter. It should be read by as many people as possible. Thank you Mr. Internet!

So download it. Be sure to let me or Andy know what you thought of it.

Dec.

CHOKER





















Did a piece to promote Choker, a comic written by a mate of mine, on the Micks blog. I think it turned out pretty well, mainly cuz the above inked greywash piece turned out well. Check out the coloured version here.

Dec.

THE BLACK BEETLE
















This weeks theme on the Comic Twart blog is the Black Beetle; a character created by fello 'Twarter' Francesco Francavilla. You can see the coloured version over on there.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER HARDCOVER [UPDATED]





















Just got my hardcover copy of 28 Days Later Vol.1, London Calling in the post.

It looks absolutely fantastic (and i mean the presentation, not my art). I'm delighted with how it came out. Thanks to all at BOOM! Studios (including my editor Ian Brill), Michael Alan Nelson for a great story and Nick Filardi for making all my linework look way more impressive than it actually is.

It's in shops as of today, or alternatively, you can order it online on Amazon.

Sure, while i'm at it, i might as well show the hardback without the dustjacket. There's a sweet embossed logo in the front...





















Selena's hatchet on the back...





















...and of course, the most important part of the dust jacket...

















Dec.

G.I. ROBOT [B+W]





















This piece was done for the Comic Twart blog i'm a part of. I thought i'd colour it up so that's what i posted there, but i still like the black and white version so i thought i'd post it here. True story.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER SCENES

I posted coloured versions of these images on the Eclectic Micks blog yesterday as part of the 'Infected Micks' theme week. They seemed to go down pretty well, so i thought i'd post the black and white versions of them, as i like how they look too.




















You can see the coloured versions on the Micks blog here.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #10 COVER




















I've seen the solicits for this issue online so i reckon it's okay to show it here.

This is my cover (cover B) for #10 of 28 Days Later. Really wanted to try a bold composition and use the negative space to frame one side of the image. I was trying to come with something 'iconic' with this cover, so that it illustrates the overall story of the book (heading for London) rather than the specific story in this particular issue.

[EDIT: Also, be sure to head over to the Eclectic Micks blog this week as to celebrate the release of the 28 Days Later hardback collection, we're doing a 28 Days Later theme week; Infected Micks. Stephen Mooney has already posted a fantastic rendition of Selena.]

Dec.

COMIC RELATED INTERVIEW (ISSUE 6)




















My monthly '28 Words Later' interviews with David O' Leary from Comic Related return, this month talking about 28 Days Later #6, which is out today in the UK/Eire . Check it out here.

I mention a double page spread in the interview, but i don't want to spoil it, so instead here's the line art for the page before it; probably my favourite page. There's slashier pages in the issue, but this would be my favourite purely for storytelling reasons.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER #6 PAGE 1





















28 Days Later #6, part one of 'Bend In The Road' is out today in the US/Canada, tomorrow in the UK/Eire. It's written by Michael Alan Nelson, with art by myself and colours by Nick Filardi. Go buy now; the hardcover of the first storyline 'London Calling' is out next week if you haven't been reading and need to catch up.

Here's the line art for page one of #6. Must have been a bitch to colour.

Dec.