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!!!

(UPDATE: Unbelievably, when Neil Gaiman himself got wind of this image via the Twitterverse, thanks to Steve Gettis, my blog received around 5000 hits in 24 hours!)

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

REDRAWING DEFOE 1666!

Sooo....DEFOE 1666 is OFFICIALLY out today, even though it's actually been on sale early all week! I noticed yesterday that AMAZON UK were actually down to their last TWO copies, but have since restocked! By the way, you should really check out the Amazon review we have there....I'M A GUY DAMMIT!!!!!

Which brings us to this post. When I first found out that Defoe was getting a collected edition, I asked the Mighty Tharg if he would let me go back to the earlier work and redraw certain things that made me cringe looking back at it. I like to think that I've progressed as an artist over these last few years, and to be honest, there's something wrong if you can't look back over your work and see flaws. Thankfully he said yes (after he made me clean his toilet) and so a week later, I had redrawn/retouched Twenty-odd panels throughout the book.

What follows are some of the more obvious redraws, arranged in useful "before and after" panels. Enjoy, and don't forget you can find out more about DEFOE 1666 and where you can purchase it HERE.

Bye bye, and thanks to all those who have bought it up to now!

L

MAKING OF THE DEFOE 1666 BOOK COVER!!!

Hello again you lovely, lovely people! As promised, here is the making of the Defoe 1666 graphic novel cover out now from 2000AD!

I actually first submitted this rough cover idea waaaay back in 2007 after the first chapter of Defoe was completed. In my naivety, I thought there may have been a chance of it getting collected if I offered to pad it out with "bonus material"...what a tool I was...

As you can see, I thought it would be cool to have Defoe posing in a 17th century style portrait, holding a decapitated zombie head, with the chaos of the Great Fire of London behind him. Of course, this would mean that I would have to actually paint it somehow, but I figured I'd worry about that later.

Two years later, whilst in the midst of drawing Defoe "Book 3", I get told we're going ahead with the collection of the previous two books, and so dug out this old design which I thought could still be great if it worked out!



Here's the photo I took as a loose reference. I chopped off someone's head especially for it....

Below is the loose pencil guide I did. Bear in mind that at this point I still had never even attempted any "digital painting" and was pretty nervous about trying to make it pass for a 17th century style portrait.

This is the 80% finished version of the main figure. Luckily, I didn't have a strict deadline for this so I was able to take my time learning on the job, experimenting with different brushes in Photoshop.

I was having problems with Defoe's eyes--up close it looked great with the glints in his eyes, but when shrunk down, it gave the illusion he was cross eyed. Not really the look you want for a hard as nails zombie hunter...

I soon added the background of London burning, based on a famous painting by Lieve Verschuier (1630-86). As you can tell I also placed an orange overlay over Defoe to help him blend more with the fire in the background. Still not quite there yet...

I made various touch ups here and there, the most notable being the wig of the zombie head. I was struggling a bit with depicting realistic strands of hair, but by sheer luck I had bought the latest issue of Imagine FX, which included a new set of digital brushes--one of which was perfect for the look I wanted to achieve!

Next, I had to figure out how to do the baroque-esque frame. I spent hours online looking for a high res image that could be used with no copyright issues attached to it, but no luck. My lovely girlfriend suggested looking in IKEA of all places, and she was right!

So I purchased this cheap black plastic frame, painted HALF of it gold with a black ink wash, and took a high res photo of it....

Next I imported the painted half of the image into Photoshop, manipulating whatever I could, deleting elements and adding bits here and there to make it look more "fantastical".

I then sculpted a skull face out of regular modelling clay, painting it to match the frame....

Then the magic happens...I copied the half frame, flipped it, joined the two halfs together, pasting the skull face at the bottom.

I always knew I wanted the background wall to have some type of texture to it. I ended up using a stipple effect with the "dodge" tool in Photoshop. I also blackened out some areas of the frame using the "airbrush".

And at last I get to join the two elements together and pray that the bloody thing works! Originally, I added a "canvas" texture to the painting, giving it a more authentic look, which i thought worked really well on screen. Unfortunately, I discovered when I did a test print, the canvas texture distorted horribly for some reason, so I had to get rid of it. But I was still made up with how this final image turned out, considering it was my first attempt at digital painting and photo manipulation.

Finally, it was sent to 2000AD uber designer, Simon Parr, who added the logo and text. I'm afraid my awkward frame design probably didn't make it easy for him to fit in the logo, but I think it looks fantastic!

Right, that's your lot. You can bugger off now!

Catch you soon, and buy my book!!!

L

DREDD SKETCH!

WOO HOOO!!! Got the final episode of Defoe , Queen of Zombies, finished this weekend so I'm taking a short break before I get back to work. First I need to spend a full day in bed reading a big ass bag of comics surrounded by Jelly Babies and caramel donuts, then I'm joining a gym...yeah, you heard me....

Before I get stuck into the next Defoe book, I've a few small jobs to get out the way--looking forward to drawing a werewolf for one of them!

In the meantime, I visited Tharg at the 2000AD Nerve Centre and passed him this Judge Dredd sketch, hoping that one day he'll let me draw him....

I shall return in a couple days with another "making of" feature for the Defoe 1666 graphic novel cover.

Wear something pretty...

L

DEFOE 1666 GRAPHIC NOVEL!!!

Hey there!

Ok, finally 2000AD's DEFOE 1666 graphic novel, written by Pat Mills, and illustrated by me, is hitting stores on August 15th!

It collects the first two "books" of Defoe, as well as a sketchbook section where I have alot of the original character designs, plus an afterword written by John (Watchmen, Razorjack)Higgins!

Here's the official description:

London, 1668. It is two years since the city was devastated by the Great Fire, the inferno caused by a comet passing over the capital. But from the ashes rose the undead, hungry for the flesh of the living. Protecting the populace are zombie hunters like Titus Defoe, a former soldier who now makes it his mission to purge the ghouls.

This collection also features around twenty or so panels redrawn/retouched by me, so this is the "remastered" edition if you want to call it that!

If you haven't asked for this at your local comic book store or book store, here's a few links where you can get it online (by the way, the sites don't feature the final cover as shown above): AMAZON UK , FORBIDDEN PLANET INTERNATIONAL and for the rest of the world THE BOOK DEPOSITORY where they actually ship worldwide for FREE! Bargain!!!

Above is the digitally painted cover I did for it, as well as a reminder of some of the images inside. Hope you like the cover--it's my first crack at digital painting. As soon as I'm finished drawing this final episode of the current book (Queen of the Zombies) in a week or so, I'll post up another making of feature, as well as a side by side comparison of the redrawn panels in this collection.

Spread the word guys!

Catch you soon,

L

MAKING OF A ZOMBIE BABY PAGE!

Have to make this quick guys. My schedule's pretty damn hectic until the end of the month as I'm finishing the last episode and a half of this book of Defoe. May have to try and pull an all nighter (though to be honest, I think I'm too old for them now--plus I haven't got any cakes, energy drinks or chocolate to get me through it!).

Anyhoo....last weeks zombie baby episode and cover went down as well as I'd hoped--nobody seemed to get their knickers in a twist about the cover in particular, so it looks like we got away with it! BWA HA HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! That was supposed to be an evil laugh...

Below is a brief walk through of the making of the first page of that episode. As usual, once I read through Pat Mills' script, I do a very rough layout. What you need to understand is that the layout is just for my own benefit--for 2000AD I don't need to get layouts approved, which is why they usually only make sense to me. I really enjoy this part of the process--it's actually very fun and relaxing working out the story and the compositions.
Next up, we have pencils. As I'm inking myself, I can leave them pretty loose...

Then finally, we have the inks. As you can see, that's where I have to really put the work in. I try to ink as much as I possibly can with a brush first, then go to battle with my fineliner pens!

Right, that's your lot people. Gotta get back to work!

L

EXCLUSIVE DREDD/DEFOE PIC AND SCOTS, MICKS AND HYPERGEEKS OH MY!

Hey guys,

Back from an enjoyable weekend where I consumed WAY too many pasties...

Right,first of all I'd like to guide you into the furry arms of the talented folks at SCOTCH CORNER where I'm today's "guest artist" and contributed a drawing of Judge Dredd with Defoe that I did a year or so ago.

SCOTCH CORNER is a daily art blog, hosted by six uber talented Scottish blokes in skirts--sorry, I mean kilts : Graeme Neil Reid, Gary Erskine, Andy Hepworth, Jon Hodgson, and Thomas Crielly (with one more artist to be announced) and a guest artist once a week.

Everyday a new piece of art is posted, each artist posting on a certain day.

It's a FANTASTIC idea and the guys freely admit "this blog is shamelessly inspired and ripped off from the ELECTIC MICKS."

ELECTIC MICKS will forever be known as the creators, the originators, the mummy and daddies of this very successful style of daily art blog.

It's said that if you speak the names of these seven Irish men out aloud, a tiny leprecahn appears and kicks you in the nuts. I'd rather not risk that, but if you do, their names are Declan Shalvey, Will Sliney, PJ Holden, Stephen Mooney, Stephen Thompson, Nick Roche, and Bob Byrne.

Both these art blogs deserve all the success they get, so please stop by and say hi--you will not regret it. If you do, I'll apologise and say the sacred names of the Irish men three times...

Finally, I'd like to give a big shout out to Edward Kaye of the comic book industry site HYPERGEEK!

Edward reports comic book news, reviews, interviews all the way from Canada, but what's really great is that he's flying the flag for 2000AD, so may the mighty Tharg bless you sir! We humble droids salute you! He's wrote a great piece (click on the link) called:

"2000AD in North America--Why you should be buying it, where you can buy it, and how you can help make it a household name."

He's also starting a new weekly feature called "Thrill Power Thursday" where he'll be talking about the latest 2000AD issues, as well as any other related features he can come up with. But you can read more about his "Statement of Intent" HERE.

Thanks again Edward!

L

THE MAKING OF MY NEXT 2000AD COVER! (UPDATED!)

Hey guys,

Before I go away for the weekend, I wanted to post this "making of" feature for my next Defoe cover for Prog 1643 of 2000AD, which subscribers should be receiving in the morning, and it'll be out in stores from Wednesday.

Oooohhh, I've been looking forward to showing this cover....

Here's what happened: Before the writer of Defoe, Pat Mills, starts writing a "Book" of Defoe, he very kindly asks me for my input of things I'd like to possibly draw in the future, and he'd do his best to put it in if it worked. So a year or so ago, I mentioned a certain scene featuring zombie babies that I thought would be very cool (that scene actually features in this episode of Defoe, so I can't spoil it).

So, inspired by that scene, the idea for this cover just flashed into my head, and I was so certain would work, that I didn't even bother pitching my master and editor, Tharg, different ideas to choose from. I REALLY wanted to draw this idea: Just a simple image of Defoe clearly struggling as he is COVERED in zombie babies!

But even though I thought it could be a great image, I knew it was debatable that Tharg would go for it--after all, if you think of what zombie babies actually are, it's a bit close to the line and could be perceived as "bad taste"...

Anyway, the very crude rough drawing I pitched is below:

So thankfully Tharg liked what he saw, giving me the go ahead to carry on, but understandably voiced his concerns. These being what I predicted: that if the zombie babies looked too much like deceased babies, then obviously some stores may find it too offensive to stock, which is fair enough. It's ok to have zombie babies in the interior story, but it's probably not a good idea to have them on display on shelves in mainstreet stores.

Below is the photo reference I used of myself posing as Defoe, followed by the pencilled cover.

Here's the pencil version I sent for approval. I basically just drew them as angry,drooling, dirty babies, with no sign of decay or "zombieness". But Tharg still thought they screamed "deceased babies" so asked if I could make them look more "demony" instead.

It took a while for me to think of a solution that would still make the creatures on the cover relevant to the story inside, but eventually I thought to give the babies scaled skin and sharp teeth. Also at the suggestion of my buddies John Reppion and Leah Moore, they would eventually have red glowing eyes and a more alien green blood pouring from their mouths, so basically they now looked like little monsters which is alot more acceptable. And Tharg thought so too!

Can I just add at this point in the inking I wasn't happy with Defoe's eyes and expression--he seemed a bit too scared, and I originally wanted more "angry desperation", so before I coloured it, I repositioned one of his eyes in Photoshop and messed around with his eyesbrows abit.

Also, Pat quite rightly mentioned that having the inscription of "Killing zombies since 1666" on Defoe's weapon probably wouldn't do us any favours.

And here's the finished colour piece! We got there in the end. Personally, I'm made up with how it turned out and I'm hoping it could be a memorable cover. But of course, it's up to the readers.

Hope you like it!

L

FUTURE COMMENTS

Hey guys,

Just a quick post to let you know that I've enabled comment moderation and that word verification thingy from this point on.

More and more of my friend's sites and favourite forums have been targeted by spammers lately, and it's only a matter of time before this blog is too. So rather than risk wasting a full day deleting unwanted spams, I thought it best to set up this protection first.

On to fun stuff--I'll be posting up the making of my next cover tomorrow night!

See ya.

L