LILLE COMICS FESTIVAL!!!!!

We're off to France!!!!

Hey guys, just letting you know that the lovely folk at the LILLE COMICS FESTIVAL were kind enough to invite me to their show this weekend, where I shall be sketching, selling original art and prints!

I'll be joined by a host of fellow 20000AD droids!

They asked us each to draw a limited print for them, depicting a mashup of a movie poster and comics characters. Here's my Ghostbusters/ Judge Death!

See you there!

L

MALTA COMICS EXPO!!!!!

Hey guys, I have a couple of exciting convention appearances coming up before the end of the year! 

For my first one, myself and PR droid Michael Molcher have kindly been invited and will be representing 2000AD at this week's MALTA COMICS EXPO on Friday 31st October till November 2nd!

I'm guessing I'll be sketching most of the time, as well as providing the eye candy for the 2000AD booth.... I'll bring along some original art to sell as well from Dredd, Defoe and Aquila. Have to remember bring my mankini...

Should be a great show! Hope to see you there!

AQUILA PREVIEW OF TOMORROW'S 2000AD PROG 1897!!!

Well, I finished drawing the final part 10 of Aquila: Carnifex just in time, and tomorrow in 2000AD prog 1897 you can read episode 8! Here's a 2 page preview written by Gordon Rennie, drawn by me, coloured by Dylan Teague and lettered by Annie Parkhouse, with a preview of the rest of the prog on the 2000AD Tumbler HERE....

As ever, you can buy 2000AD from your local comic shop, newsagent, or digitally from the 2000AD online shop every Wednesday!

Now...back to drawing DEFOE!!! ;)

A PAIN IN THE ASS DOUBLE SPREAD IN 2000AD PROG 1891!!!

Y'know what, I'm just gonna come out and say it: I %*&$£"$%!$ HATED drawing this double page spread! But, it just goes to show you what we 2000AD droids go through in order to bring you quality THRILL POWER every week!

2000AD prog 1891, featuring AQUILA:CARNIFEX episode two is out in all good stores and digitally from the 2000AD online store, tomorrow!

AND, as a bonus, it also features a brilliant new story called BLACK SHUCK, written by my old university buddy Leah Moore and her beardy hubby John Reppion, drawn by   Steve Yeowell, coloured by Chris Blythe, and lettered by my buddy Simon Bowland! 

You can find a preview of all the stories at CBR HERE!

Anyway.... onto the making of this pain in the ass double spread! First, script by Gordon Rennie....

Afraid I can't find my pencil files, so here's my inks...

Then onto Dylan Teague for colouring....

And finally Annie Parkhouse for lettering!

So yeah, this took me a bloody long time to do, but it worked out nicely in the end, and we have some even nicer pages to show off in the coming weeks,,,,, right, I'm off for a chicken fillet burger.....

AQUILA RETURNS TO 2000AD IN "CARNIFEX"!!!!

I'M BACK!!!! Did ya miss me??! No? WELL FINE!!! SEE IF I CARE!!! (Sniff...)

So yeah, sorry for the blog silence. Having a baby kind of side tracked a lot of things, but I've been working hard in the background and in tomorrow's 2000AD prog 1890 you can find the return of AQUILA in "CARNIFEX", written by Gordon Rennie, drawn by me, coloured by Dylan Teague and lettered by Annie Parkhouse!!!!

There's a preview of all the stories in the prog from a wealth of talented fellow droids on the CBR site HERE.

Here's the lovely cover digitally painted by Karl Richardson (with a making of it on 2000AD UNCOVERED here!). Always fantastic to see another artist's take on a character you've co-created, and he did us proud!

And speaking of a "making of", I've not done one for a while, so here's how the first not one, but TWO pages of the first episode were put together, starting with a brilliant script from Gordon Rennie....

After scratching my head a lot, not because of a rash or anything, but because I have to get back into Roman research mode, I created these loose pencilled pages. I was pretty happy with the layout of the first page with a nice dramatic opening for our hero. It's just a shame that the ferocious man-goat kills Aquila on the third page, making it the shortest series ever.... ;)

Inks....

Next up, we have Dylan Teague's gorgeous colouring. Particularly happy with the sense of depth on the splash page.

And then finally it goes to the marvelous, and recent True Believer Comic Award winning Annie Parkhouse, to letter!

So that's it! It's bloody good to be back in 2000AD! You can find this in all good comic shops, newsagents and digitally at the 2000AD shop, every Wednesday for the next 10 weeks!

Right, now I just need to finish the last few episodes....

BYYYYYEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

2000AD COVER OF THE YEAR!!!!

Well THIS was totally unexpected!

First up, the lovely guys at the 2000AD fan site EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO 2000AD voted for their top five covers of 2013, and I was totally honoured to be their number one, despite some ridiculously strong competition!

THEN, not long after, the official 2000AD forum had their own vote off, and I won again!

As I told the guys, I'm very humbled by this, especially as I know that Defoe isn't one of 2000AD's "A-listers", so it's great to see him get some props!

Anyway, if you'd like to revisit the making of this cover, make with the clicky here!

And uncomfortably long hugs to everyone that voted!

L