THOUGHT BUBBLE ROCKED AGAIN!!!

Well THAT was a kick ass weekend! I really needed cheering up after a really crappy week, and this years Thought Bubble convention in Leeds did the trick!

To the LOVELY Lisa Wood and her team, I'd like to give a big virtual hug to, for the invite, for looking after us, and for just being you! You guys rock.

I was especially happy as it was actually the most succesful convention I've had to date, selling nearly all but two of my Defoe books, as well as a number of zombie prints and copies of The End is Nigh 4. But a HUGE THANK YOU to the generous guys and gals who donated cash for each sketch for the Draw The World Together charity! You are genuinely going to help a little child somewhere in India.

Me and Niki were very glad to be sitting next to Jeremy Briggs and top artist Graeme Neil Reid. That guy needs to be working for 2000AD dammit. It's always nice to have good company at these conventions.

I really do prefer these 1 day conventions--it's more compact, more focused, and less chance of it fizzling out in the next day--being tired from drawing the whole of the previous day and partying all night! The ONLY drawback is that it's so short and sweet, I had way too brief encounters with good friends that I don't see nearly enough.

Speaking of partying, Me and Niki (who can I say is fantastic at talking away to fans whilst I sketch for them) managed to last till 3am at the Alea Casino party, but not before seeing the most incredible sights on the dancefloor...

And a brief rave about our accomodation at the new City Inn--pretty much the most impressive hotel I've stayed at in a long time--there's a bloody iMac in every room! And when Niki dropped her fork at breakfast, I've never seen so many staff rush to her aid like it was her life at stake!

Do I really need to say it? OF COURSE I'll be at next years con!

I leave you with some photos from the event....

This chap asked for a Daredevil/Venom hybrid--turned out quite well!

I apologise for my hair in this pic...

The best costume of the convention!

Finally, a brief glimpse into the secret, shady world of the comic con after party....

MORE DREDD TEASERS AND ERM...

Well I've finished my two episodes of Judge Dredd for the 2000AD Megazine, so here's some taster panels from episode two! Just working on the cover now, but it genuinely was an honour to set foot in Dredd's world. Hopefully I'll be able able to have another crack at it one day.

As soon as I know when it's getting published I'll let you know, but what I can tell you is that it'll be coloured by fantastic new colourist Abigail Ryder (who recently coloured the gorgeous Kingdom for 2000AD!)

Right...umm...I really didn't think this next item would ever be revealed to the blogging public, but a couple of months ago I did a bit of a jokey, ADULT ONLY sketch of artist extrodinaire PJ HOLDEN, only intended for a certain crowd....but it was recently released on the Eclectic Micks Artblog as punishment for PJ failing to do his day's art post....I WARN YOU IT'S ADULTS ONLY!

Speaking of PJ Holden, it's his turn to have his tiny ass pimped, so please check out his new mini series,BATTLEFIELDS: Happy Valley, written by incredible writer Garth(Preacher)Ennis, published by Dynamite. There's an article about it at CBR here! So go buy it and relieve my guilt!

L

LEEDS THOUGHT BUBBLE THIS WEEKEND!!!

Yup, it's that time again!

We had a FANTASTIC time at last year's Thought Bubble, so we're coming back for more baby!!! Lots of events are planned from the 19th November, all the way to the 22nd, but I'll have a table again at this Saturday's main event, all of which you can find the details here!

I'll be selling copies of Defoe , The End is Nigh 4 (which I did the cover for) and a limited edition zombie print. I was actually hoping to have copies of the hardback collection of my Bionicle run, but the release has been delayed...

Not sure if i'll be giving away a free krispy kreme donut with every sketch this time, but I will be sketching for any donations that go towards the charity Draw the World Together!

Hope to see you there guys!

L

POLISHING MY HELMET!!!!

Helloooo you lovely people....well last weekend's END IS NIGH event at Bradford's Impressions Gallery was ALOT of fun! Was great to meet up with some buddies, finally see my cover in print, and Michael Molcher himself did a SURPRISINGLY entertaining and educational talk about the Apocalypse! Seriously, he was so good, I was expecting FBI agents to approach him afterwards, asking for his help on case.... And a big thanks to Impressions big kahuna, Sarah, for looking after us so well with cake!

As for the magazine itself, top bloke Ed Kaye of Hypergeek has given it a great review here!

This lovely Judge Dredd helmet arrived at 7.30 this morning from Termight Replicas! I've wanted one of these babies for a LONG time....especially cool as it came just as I'm inking the final pages of my Judge Dredd story! If you're a big 2000AD fan you have to get this! They only made a very limited run but still have a few left--you can find all the info about their products here!

ART FOR HEARTS CHARITY AUCTION

Hey guys,

Before I leave for the Bradford End is Nigh event, I'd like to take a brief departure from the usual stuff to point you in the direction of Ian Stacey's ARTS FOR HEARTS charity Auction.

Ian's set up this blog to help promote the upcoming auction of artwork by children's illustrators, with all proceeds going towards research done by the transplant team at Great Ormand Street Hospital.

I'll be keeping an eye on this as one day I'd like to go into the children's illustration world myself one day.

The auction starts November 2nd and runs for a week. Go check out some of the donated children's illustrations HERE!

L

THE END IS NIGH EVENT AND MAKING OF THE COVER!!!

Me again!

Right, a couple of months ago I finished the cover for Michael Molcher's apocalyptic magazine, "THE END IS NIGH" issue 4.

This Sunday 1st November is the official launch at Bradford's Impressions Gallery 12.30pm till 4.30pm! Michael will be doing a talk about the end of the world at 2pm, and for the rest of the afternoon I'll be on hand, as there'll be a drawing /drinking session for anyone that wants to join in (thanks to award winning comic store OK COMICS who will also have lots of apocalypse themed comics for you to browse through or buy, including Defoe!). Should be LOADS of fun! I'm so excited, a little bit of wee just came out....

Anyway, you can find all the details for this FREE event here! All the cool kids will be there!

Impressions Gallery

Centenary Square

Bradford, BD1 1SD.

Tel: 01274 734 635

Right, below is the making of the cover I did for THE END IS NIGH issue 4!

Michael left it up to me as to what I should depict on the cover as long as it was exciting and apocalyptic. What with Swine Flu scaring the crap out of everyone these days, I came up with these two rough ideas with "The Grim Reaper and pigs"...

He went with my first rough drawing, but with the great idea to add other animals who have, or could, become possible infection threats in the future.

Pencils.....It took a while to get a composition that would favour all the animals we wanted to put in. Also, it was a pain in the ass finding decent reference for the animals I used, as I didn't just want to bluff how, for instance, pigs will look running towards you....

I submitted two colour versions to Molcher. This one above I thought was simple and striking with the white background, though he decided to go with the red background below....
Here's the final image! It probably does work better with the red background, and he wisely advised me to tone down the green sliver from their mouths...

Hope you like it anyway. Pretty happy with how it turned out, and it was nice to work on a piece that's a complete departure from my usual stuff! Once I get the file for the lettered version, I'll update this post.

L

MCM EXPO FUN AND WACKYNESS!!!

Well we had a FANTASTIC weekend at the London MCM EXPO! A huge thanks to organizers Emma Vieceli, Anna Peterson and Andrew Ruddick for the invite and all their hard work!

It was our first time being around that many cosplayers, and it made it so entertaining to watch them go by inbetween my sketching for folk. SOME were a bit kinkier than others (not that I was complaining) but these guys put so much effort into their costumes, you can't help but be impressed, and sometimes a little jealous...

Hung out with lots of good mates, made some new ones---basically all the things that makes for a great convention!

I'll be making an effort to go to the next one in May!

I did a short, fun interview with David Monteith from one of my favourite podcasts, Geek Syndicate, in the latest show 137, which you can find here! A great episode about the Expo--my interview can be found around 41 minutes into it!

LOADS of photos below, my favourites being the ones where cosplayers beat the crap out of me....ENJOY!

L

A cool manga portrait of me and Niki by Asia Alfasi!

Hey ladies, it's Al Ewing!!!

Hey kids, it's Declan Shalvey!

My sketch of Niki....

I just had to end on this guy dressed as 2000AD's Rogue Trooper!!!

LONDON MCM EXPO THIS WEEKEND!!!

Helloooo....just a reminder that I'll have a table (C7 in the Comics Village) this Saturday only at London's MCM Expo. The actual event is for the whole weekend, but this is a new event for me so I just wanted to spend the Sunday just wandering around, enjoying it as a spectator for once. From what I've heard, this convention is HUGE and there's loads of guests from the world of comics, anime, film and tv, so I can't wait!

Anyway, for the Saturday at my table, I'll be doing the usual sketches, selling copies of the Defoe collection, and I may have some limited edition prints to sell.

See you there--just look out for the zombie baby display stand!

L

2000AD REVIEW INTERVIEW!!!

For all of those who aint sick of my jibber jabber (always wanted to say that!) yet, here's another interview I did with Gavin Hanly for his 2000AD REVIEW site!

Whenever Defoe is published in 2000AD, his site is usually one of the first I go to, as their reviewers are pretty good at giving a fair and balanced review. So a big thanks to Gavin for asking me for an interview!

Make with the clicky here to read the interview!

L

MAKING OF A WEREWOLF PRINT CARD!!!

Well I can finally show off this werewolf illustration I did for the top blokes at Renegade Arts Entertainment.

The company's Big Kahuna, Alex Finbow, basically said I could draw ANY horror image I liked for their upcoming print card series, so i immediately thought WEREWOLF! I'd just never had the opportunity to illustrate this classic hairy assed monster, and it literally took me 3 minutes to do the rough drawing below.

Before I show the rest of the illustrations, check out Renegade's site here to learn all about the card series, and what top creators they have working on them!

Right, turn the lights off, and get under the bed sheet, whilst we take a brief look at how I created the werewolf...

Below is the 3 minute sketch of my first thought which got approved by Alex. I immediately wanted to have the creature in a forest as it's a naturally creepy environment, and I just love drawing them to be honest.

Here's the more fully realized pencils. I think at the time I may have moved him higher up in the tree so I could feature the moon in the background....um, not quite sure what happened to that....And here's the final inked version! Pretty happy with how it turned out. I actually really enjoyed inking all the hair on the body. I'm just hoping I didn't over complicate the background detail. You have to bare in mind that when printed as the collector card, it gets reduced in size dramatically.
Finally, here's a small preview of all the cool print cards together in the series.

Hope you like it guys. It was a very fun job to do, and believe it or not, you may see me drawing more werewolves alot sooner than you think....

L

JUDGE DREDD TEASERS !!!

Apologies for not posting sooner guys. Basically been busy getting the first episode of this Judge Dredd for the Megazine done! Here's a few non-spoilery panels.

When you finally see the full pages, you'll see a significant difference from my usual Defoe pages. Most noticable, I'm using more imaginative layouts and having elements break out of the panels.
Plus I'm cutting back on the usual crosshatching to give the colourist space to do his/her thing...have to say, I'm both nervous and excited at the same time to see how this baby turns out.

No idea when this is due out yet. I've still to do the second episode as well as a cover. As for future posts, I've been told I'll be able to post the cover I did for "The End is Nigh" magazine within the week, so we can have a good natter about that soon over a cup of tea and a custard cream.

By the way, I'd like to say a big thanks and congratulations to Ed Kaye of Hypergeek, who got his first credit in 2000AD Prog 1656 last week, with an interview with both Pat Mills and myself about Defoe!

Catch you soon.

L

MY NEW BABY!!!

He likes eating corned beef hash....

And it's a boy!!! This beautiful fella's going to be joining me on all my future conventions so look out for us!

Unfortunately I can't make this weekend's Birmingham show (gotta get this Dredd story finished), but I'm signed up for London MCM Expo on Sat 24th October, and also Leeds Thought Bubble on Sat 21st November!

Right, I think he needs feeding again....

L

POST TRAVELLING MAN SIGNING!!!

Above: Ian Edginton, Steve Yeowell and Dave Taylor.

Above: Antony Johnston, Me, and Al Ewing.

Girlfriend extrodinare Niki, and comic letterer extrodinare Simon Bowland, turned up for support.

It was a Joker sketch face-off between me and Dave Taylor!

Once again I had a FANTASTIC experience at the day's signing at Manchester's Travelling Man for the "We Love Comics Mini Comic Con"!!! Fans turned out in force to warmly greet myself, writers Al Ewing, Ian Edginton, Antony Johnston, and artists Dave Taylor and Steve Yeowell (who were all top blokes to hang out with). And as you can see, this time I have photos!

A big shout out to the cool customer who made us all enough cakes to feed Russia (though still confused by the cake design we weren't allowed to show the public....).

We were also joined for a night on the town by my lovely girlfriend Niki, and top comic book letterer Simon Bowland (who I can garantee is always working in the middle of the night at the same time as me).

For reasons I cannot disclose, Simon and I found a new hero in writer Al Ewing. All I can say is that Al is a STUD of the highest caliber, and he fully deserves to be on SFX Magazine's "Hot 50" list with Megan Fox from earlier in the year....

So a huge thank you to Haroon (who taught me the meaning of "Whack"), Nabil (who bought us all dinner!), and Abigail Ryder of Travelling Man for inviting us and showing us a good time! And congrats to Abigail for her soon to be published colouring work on Kingdom for 2000AD!

L

CRAP! QUICKLY BEFORE I LEAVE FOR THE WEEK....

Hope to see you there!

POST ORBITAL SIGNING AND PODCAST INTERVIEW!!!

Hey again,

Before I head off for a week's holiday, here's a couple of things....

Well I had a FANTASTIC weekend in London for the Orbital signing, with my writer Pat Mills and his incredible ABC WARRIORS/SLAIN artist Clint Langley! It's actually the first time I've met these guys in person despite knowing Pat in particular for 3 years(!) and we all got on like old pals.

The lovely guys at Orbital treated us really well, all the fans were cool (though we nearly had to stop some guys from humping Pat's leg), and to top it off, we had a surprise visit from the gang of 2000AD.....including The Mighty Tharg and his Mighty Wife!!!! We had such a cool night afterwards...

So a huge thank you to everyone involved--you actually made me "like" London, and I never thought I'd say that! If I manage to get some photos of the event, I'll update this post.

Right...I'd like to direct you all to the recent podcast interview I

did for the top guys at "Everything Comes Back to 2000AD" who I previously posted about here. If you can stand listening to my god awful scouse accent for an entire hour, then break out the Jelly Babies and put your feet up cos you're in for the ride of your evening!!!

It was good laugh, the boys were gentle with me for my very first podcast interview, and as long as they STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER I'm sure we'll stay good mates! Though I am gutted I forgot to do my Welsh impersonation...

You can find the interview here (click "direct download").

But be warned, there's STRONG LANGUAGE!

Ok, see you in a week guys, and greetings to all my new visitors from the Neil Gaiman Tweeting! (Over 4700 visitors in a day up to now!!!) So a big thanks to Neil, I'm glad you liked it, and cheers to Ed Kaye an Steven Gettis for putting it under his nose!

L (Sorry there's no drawings to post for once...)

PS. Before I forget, my buddies Dave Hendrick and Will Sliney have a great entry in this months Zuda Comics called THE SYMPTOMS, so check it out and vote for it here!

THE GRAVEYARD WRITER!!!

Hey guys,

Steven Gettis has been bugging me for a whole year to contribute a drawing to his very impressive website where he collects artistic interpretations of literary characters and authors.

The sheer amount of top talent that he's recruited is astounding (God knows what dirt he's got on these guys!), and I'm very proud to be asked to join the gang.

Above is the Neil Gaiman drawing I contributed, obviously inspired by his incredible "Graveyard Book". Generally I shy away from doing "likenesses", but hopefully I haven't done that bad a job this time....

You can find Steve's humongous collection here!

Thank Buffy I can finally cross him off my list now....

Right, back to drawing Dredd...

L

LONDON ORBITAL COMICS SIGNING!!!

Well if you ever prayed for your chance to throw rude shaped vegetables at me, here it is!

On Saturday 12th September,2pm at London's Orbital Comics, I'll be signing Defoe 1666 along with writer Pat Mills, who will also be signing with his other incredible ABC Warriors artist, Clint Langley! It's a triple whammy of comic book coolness!

Check out that poster--it's Battle of the Hairdos 2009, but there can only be one winner...

Here's a map of the store's location.

Really looking forward to it, so hope to see you there!

L

DEFOE REVIEWS, FALLEN HEROES, AND FUNNY ACCENTS APLENTY!

Hellooooo....

First up, we have Ed Kaye's very generous review of Defoe 1666 at his great site HYPERGEEK (I previously talked about Ed's site at this earlier post HERE)! So thanks again Ed! I shall now return your dog, as was our agreement...

Next up, I recently did a pin-up to be included in the new edition of Barry Nugent's novel "Fallen Heroes". Barry, incase you don't remember, is one of the guys of the great podcast known as GEEK SYNDICATE, who I blogged about at length earlier HERE. This new edition of his book is going to feature sketches and pin-ups from a variety of artists and will be ready in time for the Birmingham Comic Con in October I believe. Mine can be seen below....

Now Geek Syndicate is like the Brady Bunch of podcasts, being the home to a variety of different shows. One of which is EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO 2000AD, hosted by Flint Lockjaw and Bluemeanie. If this was actually the Brady Bunch, these guys would be the illegitimate sons that they kept down in the basement, feeding them live sheep and goats.

It's a wonderful, funny show for fans of 2000AD (who have a fantastic new site!) as they usually review a mixture of old, classic issues as well as the latest progs. All read in funny comedy accents I might add!

In the latest show, Episode 9, the guys review the latest 4 issues of 2000AD, Defoe getting alot of kind words in particular, and alot of time is worryingly spent talking about how pretty I am (which is true of course, I was just trying to be humble). It's a very funny episode, but I really need to write a blog post soon clearing up this whole gender confusion thing going on about me (thanks to my stupidly spelt name--thanks mum and dad).

Anyway, you can find this glorious episode HERE (Strong language by the way kiddies) or you can subscribe to their show on ITUNES if you search for Geek Syndicate!

Finally,talking about shows with funny accents, my fellow 2000AD artist buddy, PJ HOLDEN, has recently started his own podcast with his mates called SUNNYSIDE COMICS! Currently up to episode 3, the show discusses comics, movies, and even creative tips as they've asked listeners to start sending them work to be critiqued on the show.

Absolutely no idea how PJ fits this into his already packed life (Seriously, read what he's up to HERE), but I'm glad he has. You can find the show HERE!

Bye bye.

L

BACK TO ME,ME,ME!!!

Time to get back to my usual egotesticle, I mean egoTISTICAL self, pimping my own ass....

Ok...so I've heard back from a couple of stand up retailers that the collection of DEFOE 1666 is selling well! Mike Mclean at ASYLUM BOOKS AND GAMES in Aberdeen is on his THIRD reorder! Thanks Mike!

Over the last couple of days ago, I actually printed out a batch of A3 promotional posters to help it's visibility, and mailed them out to as many stores as I could afford, seen below:

The third book of Defoe, entitled "Queen of the Zombies" has just this week concluded being serialized in 2000AD, and I'll be starting work on the forth book, "A Murder of Angels" sometime in October!

Before then, I've a few smaller jobs that I'll post up soon, including a cool cover for online magazine THE END IS NIGH, plus a horror card image for RENEGADE ARTS ENTERTAINMENT, and also a pin up for Barry Nugent's novel, FALLEN HEROES.

But the best news, is that next week I'll be starting work on my first Judge Dredd story!!! It's a two parter for the Megazine, and that's all I can say right now, but I'll post up my working drawings over the following weeks. It was all thanks to this earlier Dredd sketch that I gave to Tharg, and I can't wait to get started!

For now, here's random none spoiler panels from the final three parts of Defoe "Queen of the Zombies".

See ya,

L

PIMPING MY FRIENDS ASSES!

Ok, just to show that I'm not all "me me me" on here, I'm gonna pimp a few of my buddies this time doing great work...

First up is DECLAN SHALVEY --the lucky, talented sod is now the artist for the ongoing series of 28 DAYS LATER published by BOOM! Seriously, Dec's deserved a high profile gig like this for a long time and you can see the whopping 14 page preview of his lovely art HERE.

We don't have to look far for the next guy--Declan's male wife WILL SLINEY! Will is the 2nd best looking guy in comics after me, and has also been announced as BOOM!'s artist for the ongoing FARSCAPE comic! Info can be found on his lovely work HERE. These guys have got a HUGE amount of work ahead of them, but I know they're up to the task.

Next up we have the lovely EMMA VIECELI whose MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING from MANGA SHAKESPEARE is out now and can be found HERE! She really is a multi talented girl--recently she took part in BBC's BLAST talking on camera about various aspects of her work, and she was a natural! Get her hosting Blue Peter now dammit! AND she can sing...

The sometimes bearded KIERON (Phonogram) GILLEN is busy taking over MARVEL COMICS from the inside!!! It's recently been announced that he's writing their new ongoing series SWORD and also taking over bloody THOR for at least 6 issues! He's gonna be so famous, he'll be able to buy a variety of stick on beards for every occasion!

I lose track of how many projects I see FRAZER IRVING attached to. He's just finished DC COMICS' AZRAEL, now he's working on a project called DAYS MISSING from ARCHAIA, also the freakin' X-MEN for MARVEL, and BATMAN AND ROBIN for DC!!! That guy must stink, because there's no way he can have time to shower....

My old friends LEAH MOORE and JOHN REPPION's DRACULA and SHERLOCK HOLMES fantastic mini series are still going from strength to strength from DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT! And now it's been announced that they're writing THE COMPLETE ALICE IN WONDERLAND! They don't need my help pimping them at all as they're ALWAYS in the news, but I'm so made up for them as I've known Leah since we were in university, and John lets me stroke his moustache. I've no doubt whatsoever that they'll name their upcoming baby after me...no doubt at all...

PETE WELLS has a fantastic new blog called 2000AD COVERS UNCOVERED featuring a ton of, well 2000AD covers, without logos and text obscuring the artwork. It's a great site, giving fans a unique look behind the scenes. It also links you to many, many 2000AD artist websites. He was kind enough to post all my covers recently.

Finally, ANDREW WILDMAN's worthwhile DRAW THE WORLD TOGETHER charity have recently started an EBAY auction for a limited edition HEROES print, illustrated by top artist MIKE COLLINS, signed by him and the cast of the tv show! Very, very cool and at the time of writing this there is just under 5 days left so you can bid for it HERE!

There are more friends to rave about, but another time, as we've been sworn to secrecy about they're upcoming projects....

Right, I'm done. I'm genuinely proud to know such talented, dedicated folk. Some of you will never know just how hard we have to work our asses off, and how many knock backs we've had to endure to get where we are now, so it's heart warming to see my friends succeed in a profession that we love.

Wow...how girly was that...

Normal service shall resume shortly where I shall soon post some more Defoe pages, some Judge Dredd news, and maybe a peak at some of the commissions I've been working on....

Ok, hang up....

No, YOU hang up....

Ok, we'll both hang up at the same time....

L