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