THOUGHT BUBBLE 2010 REPORT!!!

....And it was gooood......

Third year in a row that I have had a FANTASTIC weekend at Thought Bubble! And a large portion of that is due to the incredible Lisa Wood and her team of very lovely folk! (Hi to the other Leigh!)

I don't know why, but for some reason I always seem to be accepted more at this convention, and sold a pile of stuff! Next time I'll be sure to bring a bigger variety of prints, as I was surprised how popular the zombie ones were.

Once again, I met too many cool people to mention, but a shout out to my "neighbour", 2000AD legendary artist D'Israeli (a guy I've wanted to meet for a long time!) and his lovely girlfriend, and also hi to the folks of the Monkey On My Back podcast who I had a great chat with and shared my tasty, tasty doughnuts (I won't mention that they were queuing for D'Iraeli, not me *ahem*)!

The day ended with one of the best kormas I've ever had with some good friends, and a great aftershow party where, as usual, I couldn't find the time to talk with everyone I wanted to.

Here's a compilation of all but two of the sketches I did that day, with some close ups of my favourites. Enjoy, and see you there next year!

(PS: And thanks for all the thumbs up to the hat! It shall return next year!)

L

LEEDS THOUGHT BUBBLE 2010!!!

Yup, it's that time of year again where I attend one of my favourite cons of the year!

As always I'll be selling books, doing FREE head sketches, and I'll see if I have time to do any inked drawings to sell.

Also, I'd like to add that I shall be trying out a new hat look that day, so please be honest and tell me if I pull it off or not....

So I'll see you guys this Saturday 20th November! You can find all the details for this wonderful event here!

L

THE MAKING OF THE 2000AD PROG 1709 COVER!!!

ALRIGHTY! We're back to normal business after an INSANE time....Again I'd like to thank everyone for their kind messages. I'll admit that the amount of attention around the net STUNNED Niki and I, but it's genuinely heartwarming to know that there's so many lovely folk out there.

Ok, I'm a week late posting about this for obvious reasons, but the final part of Defoe: A Murder of Angels appeared in last week's 2000AD Prog 1709 (that you'll still be able to find in all good comic shops!). I had a lot of fun doing this cover so read on....

Right, I actually screwed up with this first rough idea that I submitted months earlier. It was going to be a cool Bernie Wrightson-esque image with the two monsters fighting and Defoe jumping in. BUT, as I was about to draw it, I realized that I bollocked up the timing, as it showed a character that DIED the previous episode.....
So after begging for Tharg's forgiveness, he suggested a cover with the lizard angel about to kill Defoe, and so I had a think on the train, and scribbled down these two ideas on the move...
When I got home, I did them in more detail and sent them to the Big Kahuna, who approved the first idea....

Here's the loose pencils....
And here's the inks, which I THOUGHT were fine, but then I decided I'd send it to Pat Mills one weekend as we were talking, who suggested I show more of Defoe's face...
And he was right (plus you don't argue with the creator of 2000AD!), so here's a patch I did to digitally paste over the original.

I really enjoyed colouring this piece. I had to research various lizard skins for it...
And here's the two different backgrounds I offered. Luckily they went for the red version which I thought "popped" more!

Finally it was then sent to 2000AD designer Pye Parr, who did a cool job adding the logo and text which you can see at the top of this post!

Ok, more "Making of" posts coming up over the next week. Take care for now!

L

AND THE ANSWER WAS.....

OF COURSE SHE SAID YES!!! Did you not see me in the comic?! Im dreamy!

Seriously, thank you so much for all the kind words guys. It was a bit of a headache to plan as I didnt have time to do the lettering before I left to meet her in Shanghai. I had to draft in my good mate, 2000AD/MARVEL/DYNAMITE letterer Simon Bowland, as well as sneaking away to mess around with the coloring a bit on my other mates laptop, and getting up at dawn to silently finish it whilst she was asleep in bed 3 feet away from me.

The final reveal was done in a lovely hotel room overlooking the incredible view of the Tokyo skyline at night!

Back to work in a couple of days so catch you soon you lovely people!

Leigh and Niki (The future Mrs Gallagher)

A message for Niki.... (UPDATED!)

(Click to enlarge.)

(UPDATE: WE GOT MARRIED! CLICK HERE!)