SFX WEEKENDER PHOTOS!!!

Apologies for the lateness of this guys. I've actually been ill with "convention flu" since the day I got back from the SFX Weekender....bit frustrating with all the work I've not been able to do!

Anyhoo....here's some pics! Here's incredible ABC WARRIORS artist Clint Langley and I doing our thing at the 2000AD booth...

Mega stud and 2000AD writer, Al Ewing and I were drafted in to do a workshop where we had to create a comic book page in 45 minutes.....Al asked the audience for suggestions on what the story could be, eventually ending up with a Dredd tale about an MP with a sexbot that rips off his head.....

In all seriousness, I have to say that Al was INCREDIBLE engaging the audience on the microphone...where as the audience had a great view of the back of my head and my ass...

Check out the Ghostbuster creature on both sides of the stage!

Yeah...you aint gonna see the final page...not my best moment...but what the hell do you expect in 45 minutes?! It takes at least 45 HOURS to do a bloody page! The audience seemed to enjoy it though...

The next day, Clint had the FANTASTIC idea for us to do more finished drawings on huge boards for us to later give away as prizes. For every purchace at the 2000AD booth, you would get a raffle ticket. I really hope 2000AD adopt this idea to use at every convention now as it was really popular. Below is Clint's HUGE Judge Dredd on 4 boards together, and my Defoe/zombie piece...

At the last minute, Clint decided to knock out a third prize of this gorgeous demon drawing!

The talented sod doesn't even pencil first--just goes straight to inks!

A big thanks to our lovely PR, Charley Grafton Chuck, who arranged for Clint and I to jump on the stage with Gareth David-Lloyd who played Ianto in one of my favourite shows, Torchwood (!) and give away our drawings!

I'd like to say that Ianto and I swapped emails afterwards...but we didn't...

That's your lot! A big shout out to SFX and 2000AD for the invite and graciously putting us up, and it was great to hang out with mates new and old--the married couple that is Geek Syndicate, the wacky gang of Abaddon Books, Murky Depths, Genki Gear, and of course all the lovely folk who stopped by to say hi and get a sketch! (Apart from the one who got me sick....gggrrrr...)

L

SFX WEEKENDER!!!

Probably should have mentioned this alot sooner, but I'm a guest at the SFX Weekender held in Pontins Holiday Park at Camber Sands, Sussex, this Friday and Saturday!

I'm actually joining a batch of fellow 2000AD droids, and in particular I'll be doing a workshop with writer Al Ewing, attempting to create an improvised comic book page in front of a live audience, in um, 45 minutes. Should be interesting....

Never thought I'd see the day that I'd be back at Pontins, but I'm really looking forward to it. Now i just have to think of intelligent things to say to all the authors and tv stars that will be there....

L

MAKING OF A JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE COVER!!!

Helloooo.......Above is the cover I did for the latest JUDGE DREDD MAGAZINE 294, out in stores in the next few days, you lucky ladies!

Inside this issue is the second and final part of "Dog Soldiers" written by Robbie Morrison, drawn by myself, coloured by Abigail Ryder and lettered by Annie Parkhouse.

The Mighty Tharg asked me to come up with a cover based on the cliff hanger ending of the previous episode, with a werewolf pouncing on Dredd...have a guess which version he picked....


So going with my first idea, with Tharg asking me to flip the image, I went to pencils....though would you believe I actually drew this bugger out at least FIVE times! I was never happy with the Dredd/werewolf ratio, as well as deciding whether or not to show his free hand--in the end, deciding not to as I'd have to make Dredd smaller to fit it in, and I also knew that text would cover that section anyway. But here's ONE of the pencilled pages....
Inks...this actually took a couple goes to get right as well...it was part nerves as well, knowing it was my very first Judge Dredd cover, and not wanting to balls it up.
This here is the rocky background I decided to add on a separate layer so that the graphic design droids at 2000AD wouldn't have to "cut around" the werewolf that I knew would be going over some of the logo.
Colours next...no problems here for once!
I faded out the dense blacks on the background so that the foreground characters could stand out more.
All that was left was to dim down the lights, put some Barry White on, and leave these two alone in a room for 20 minutes...eventually they made this....
Ok, that's your lot for now.....NOW GO AWAY!!!

BLOODY KNACKERED, BUT HERE'S SOME NICE NEWS!

Ok, so I've just finished two all nighters in a row to get this first episode of Defoe done...been a while since I've done that, but nice to know I'm still capable of doing them when I have to! Here's a taster panel below with all the gang together, as it'll be at least 6 months before this comes out!In other news, Defoe 1666 has recently been named in TWO "Best of 2009" lists. A big sloppy kiss to Ed kaye at Hypergeek, and Graeme Neil Reid at the Forbidden Planet International blog!
Finally, I'm very proud that my zombie baby cover for 2000AD prog 1643 was voted as one of the "Top 5 covers of 2009" by some lovely fans at 2000AD forums, and ALSO got a shout out from Richmond Clements on the 2000AD Review site! Thanks guys, it made a nice start to 2010!

JUDGE DREDD "DOG SOLDIERS" PART 1!!!!

Have to keep this quick guys as I'm in "deadline panic mode" (seriously, what idiot decides to draw every bloody brick of the Tower of London??? Oh right, me...).

Anyway, earlier this week the Judge Dredd Megazine issue 293 appeared in stores today, featuring the first part of the Dredd story "Dog Soldiers", written by Robbie Morrison, drawn by myself, and coloured by Abigail Ryder.

Here's some "page stages"--sorry I couldn't find my rough layouts though.

My first Judge Dredd story! WOOOO!!!!

l

RETURN OF....THE STUDIO TOUR!!!!!!

Hey there!

For those of you who don't know, I did a very in depth studio tour way back here.

Since then, I've made quite a few changes....read on.....
As you can see, my shiny, expensive drafting table has finally arrived! So it was a tearful farewell to my old, loyal, homemade table of 12 years or so. It served me well....

This baby is specially weighted so I can adjust the height or rotation at the press of a foot pedal, with a lever to change the tilt. Also got me one of those "daylight lamps"--we'll see if they're any better than regular lamps....

With the table I also purchased this special stationary tray that fits onto the side of it.
Earlier this year I got sick of going through laptops like underwear, so decided to join the cult of the IMac. Had a pisser of a time trying to get my A3 Mustek scanner to be compatable with it. If anyone has a similar problem, let me know and I'll push you in the right direction.

And beside my moniter is the Judge Dredd helmet replica I puchased from Termight Replicas.
Yeah, I'm vain enough to put up my display stand in my room....do YOU have one?! No! So shut up and leave me alone....
Here's my other baby....my life sized Iron Man bust! This was my present to myself after I finished the DC/Lego Bionicle series. Ah, bollocks....I forgot to turn on his light up eyes....



Ok, that your lot! Very happy I got this organized in time for the New Year. Feels like a fresh start, and you wouldn't believe how many refuse sacks of crap I threw out (why the hell did I still have books by Franz Kafka???!!! I don't even read!)

There may even be a THIRD studio tour in six months if we get this house extension sorted out...

Hope you enjoyed this updated tour!

L

SOMETHING FROM THE VAULTS 2!!!!

Well it's still a bit too soon to show off the latest stuff, so as promised, here's another "Golden Oldie"....we're jumping into the Deloreon, speeding up to 88mph, and travelling all the way back to 2003 when everywhere was green fields and we all rode horses or something.

Like in the previous "Something in the Vaults 1" I was STILL working in a Liverpool cinema, very sick of serving the public and VERY sick of still trying to break into the comic book business--despite by this point having been auditioned a few times by DC/Vertigo comics with no luck.

I was getting desperate now. I was so fed up, I had actually made a decision that if I didn't get a professional comic book commission by my 25th birthday, I was going to pursue an alternate artistic job, like game design, instead...

But it must have been fate, as ONE WEEK before my 25th birthday, I got granted my very first "Future Shock" story by 2000AD...I still remember this day very clearly, as I was standing in the cinema foyer and got a call from my sister telling me the news, and I started jumping up and down like a freakin' maniac in front of everyone!

The Future Shock was a tale called "Bad Thoughts", published in Prog 1342, written by Richard McTighe, pencilled by myself, inked incredibly well by Dylan Teague (one of the very rare times I've been happy with an inkers work over my own, and haven't wanted to cry my soul out like girl), and lettered by the late Tom Frame.

And so here are the pencilled pages for my VERY FIRST 2000AD job....enjoy! (And don't forget it's 7 years old.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU LOVELY PEOPLE!!!

Hey guys, I've got another "Something From The Vaults" coming soon, but in the meantime I'd like to wish you all a fantastic holiday and New Year. Sorry I didn't have time to come up with a festive drawing--you'll all have to make do with this image above!

I'd like to thank everyone sincerely for contributing to a great year I've had, and especially being kind enough to visit this bloggy regularly. I wish you all success in whatever it is you strive for.

I've finally managed to cross off a major thing in my "Life List", this being to have a collection of my work on shelves that I'm proud of, and I've done that with Defoe 1666 and also the recently released Bionicle collection! Hopefully 2010 will be a year that I can cross another thing off that list (Heather Grahem, Michelle Ryan and baby oil)....

Anyhoo, sorry again for the delay in posting more drawings--I'm currently in the process of revamping my studio, with the big difference being a brand spanking new drafting table! I love it so much, I'm gonna give it a girl's name....

Have fun and lots of mince pies!

L

SOMETHING FROM THE VAULTS 1

Hey guys,

Apologies for the ABYSMAL lack of posts this last couple of weeks. I'm at that awkward time when it's too soon to show my latest stuff, as well as signing a "confidential agreement" about another piece of work.

So, as I'm feeling guilty about this, I've decided to start this "Something From The Vaults" feature. Everytime I'm stuck for new work to post, I'll have a look through my dusty files and see what I can find. Generally I've shied away from posting old stuff, as I don't want casual browsers to see it and think that's the standard I'm at now, but I thought "Screw it"....it may be good for me to see these old horrors as well.

First up, we travel allllllllllll the way back to around 2001, when I was still working in a Liverpool cinema trying to break in. I actually have a chap named Marc Sobel to thank for getting me noticed by DC/Vertigo. He'd written a nice little story called "Starfish" that I had illustrated, and we eventually met at one of the UK conventions where Vertigo editor Shelly Bond was looking at portfolios.

Unfortunately, I had to leave before having a chance to show our work, but Marc stuck around to meet her. She must have liked what she saw as a while later she called me up to try me out for the then in development, "Fables" (which I'm sure alot of you have heard of).

Below are the two pencilled sample pages I submitted featuring Snow White and Bigby Wolf, but obviously didn't get the gig. With 'Fables" being the big hit it is today, it makes you wonder what my life would be like now if I'd got it! But hey, I aint complaining! I couldn't be happier how my life has turned out now!

Catch you soon!

L

JUDGE DREDD COVER TEASER!!!

Well my 2 part Judge Dredd story will be out in the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 293, January 6th!!!

The above image is a tiny section of my colour cover for February's Megazine 294.

I'm currently working my way through episode 1 of the latest Defoe book for 2000AD, entitled "A Murder of Angels" once again written by Pat Mills, so it shouldn't be long before I start posting up more teaser panels of tasty, crunchy zombie goodness.

Hopefully 2010 will be a year that I can move forward on other personal projects that I've had to postpone due to "proper" work. So whilst I'm working on Defoe, I'll be making an effort not to take on extra work in favour of finishing the children's picture book that I'm writing and drawing. It's a project I actually began around 3 years ago, and only yesterday dug it out from under the dust and Krispy Kreme wrappers, and was gobsmacked as to how freakin' cool it still looks! I know, modest....

Bye bye.

L