LATEST LEGO BIONICLE COMIC ONLINE!

Yup, your eyes do not decieve you--not a hoax, not a mirage...my penultimate issue of BIONICLE can be viewed free online, semi animated HERE !( listed as number 9 on the site)

How good am I to you?!
L

LEEDS THOUGHT BUBBLE!

Helloooooo....

I've been kindly invited by the lovely folks of LEEDS THOUGHT BUBBLE festival to attend the show on Saturday 15th November, and I can't wait!

I'll have a table set up where I'll be doing free sketches for people, as well as selling various bit and pieces like finished drawings of popular characters and maybe limited edition A3 prints of some of my colour work.

But get this....with every free sketch or purchase, I shall be giving away a Krispy Kreme doughnut!!!! Let's see Mark Millar beat that!

Of course, if no one approaches me, that just means more doughnuts for me, so nah,nah....

You'll be able to find me there by looking out for the 2 metre tall stand that I've just had made up (picture attached)!

All the info on the festival can be found here!

Stop by and say hi!

L

BYE, BYE BIONICLE...

Yup, you read it right folks....I guess now it's been officially announced, I can confirm that I'm leaving BIONICLE.

Believe me, this was not an easy decision for me to make. I was planning on drawing BIONICLE throughout 2009 and hopefully beyond, but sudden schedule changes to accommodate an extra issue to next year's run left me unfortunately unable to commit, without seriously impacting on my other professional, and personal commitments.

It was one of those rare moments in life where you have to decide what's really more important to you. Hopefully this decision won't come back to bite me in the ass, but right now, it feels like I made the right choice--though that doesn't mean I don't feel sad about it.

But hey! I'm very happy with the work that I did throughout my run, and my final issue is still to be released in November! And what a great final issue it is (I've attached a teaser panel)! It'll be a very natural end to my time drawing BIONICLE, leaving a clean slate for the next artist to take over (I know who it is, and he's gonna ROCK!).

Bionicle fans should also know that I recently finished a poster that I think will be included in a future Brickmaster magazine.

So thank you so much to the entire LEGO/DC team, and of course all the lovely BIONICLE fans for making me feel welcome. 2008 has been an incredible year for me!

Take care for now.

L

BIONICLE "ENDGAME"

Hellooooo.....well it's that time again...

Right now lots of Lego fans around the universe are recieving issue 14 of BIONICLE, so I'm allowed to post a few scans of my line work, though I've also attached a scan of the cover, wonderfully coloured by Ulises.

This issue introduces the REALLY COOL vehicles piloted by the Bionicles. Seriously, the kids are gonna love playing with these toys--though they're lucky they don't have to draw them! Have you SEEN how frikkin' detailed they are???!!! GAH!!!!!

Take care for now,
L

BZPOWER Interview

I recently got interviewed by a nice chappy called Greg on behalf on the premier BIONICLE fan site, BZPOWER.

We could have discussed poetry, economics, science and religion, but in the end we just stuck to talking about comics and toys...

Click HERE to read my insane ramblings! (Once there, you need to click the highlighted bulk of text)

Next: My interview with PLAYGIRL Magazine.....

Life of a freelancer...

Well so much for taking a month off to recover....unexpected work commitments forced me to cut it down by 2 weeks, so apologies for those waiting for the "studio tour"--I'll get to it as soon as I can. My room is once again covered in Bionicles, cake wrappers and underwear--and you don't wanna see that (though if you do, maybe you should try one of those specialist sites that charge you £20 a month...).

So for now, here's more random Defoe pages. Defoe Book 2 has recently concluded in 2000AD, and seems to have gone down well with readers. I've already got Pat Mill's script for Book 3 and it's fantastic! There's so much happening in the first episode and the pacing is sooo good, I can't wait to get into it!

Also on my list this year is an album cover and a 4 page backup story for these lovely guys.

See ya,

L

Bionicle comic online!

My next Bionicle comic is now on the official Lego Bionicle site for free viewing, and semi animated, you lucky lucky girls! It's listed as number 8 on the site.
You can find it here.

And a few more Defoe...

These DEFOE pages have been out in 2000AD for a while now, so I guess I can post them.

Hopefully these won't be too scary for the Bionicle fans that have been finding their way here.

The final page with Bendigo turning into a zombie is one of my favourites...

I'm back!

Well the craziness of my schedules is over, and I'm taking some downtime for a couple weeks to rejoin the human race, get a hair cut, eat some pasties, and chill out with my incredibly understanding girlfriend.

Here's some uncoloured pages from issue 13 of BIONICLE that's currently being mailed out to a milllion fanclub members around the world...

In the next couple of weeks, I'm hoping to do a bit of a "Studio Tour" so you can see how a freelance comic artist lives. OBVIOUSLY I'm gonna have to take a couple of days to tidy up, so you don't see the reality of half eaten bowls of porridge, 15 Bionicle toys in bits on the floor, and assorted cake wrappers around the base of my bin that I really should have emptied days earlier...but you'll get the general idea...

Zombie Leigh...

Christ...I really do feel like one right now. My life has been...crazy...for the last couple of months, and will be like this for another 2 weeks. Not really something I want to go through again, and when I'm done with these deadlines, I'm taking a month off to recover and rejoin the human race.

In the meantime, here's a few random pages from the first few episodes of Defoe that have already come out.

Catch you in a couple weeks.

L

REEK AND DESTROY...

DEFOE is back in 2000AD Prog 1589 this Wednesday and runs for 10 weeks!!!

You can find it in WHSMITHS and all comic shops with good taste.

Written by Pat (creator of 2000AD) Mills, and drawn by me, Leigh (looks good in a mankini) Gallagher, DEFOE will hit you in the gut harder than a midgit with a sledgehammer!!!!!

GO BUY!!!!!!!! (And make my girlfriend understand why I've locked myself in my studio for months!)

L

GENE COLAN CHARITY AUCTION

I can count on one hand the number of artists that have inspired me. Gene Colan is one such artist.The same day I was reading through his classic black and white Tomb of Dracula, looking for inspiration, I heard that he was suffering from liver failure and urgently needs aid. His friend Cliff Meth has arranged an auction, looking for professional artists and writers to contribute artwork or signed books.

I really wished I had time to do a Dracula picture for this, but unfortunately my deadlines are ridiculous right now. Instead I've contributed the original page 1 of 2000AD's Defoe Book 2:Brethren of the Night (a nice moody zombie page)and also a Justice League Unlimited pencil page. This particular page was requested by DC Licencing to be used as a pitch for promotional comic to help kids who wet the bed(???). The project never went any further than this page featuring the characters who would have appeared in the comic.

More about Gene's situation can be found at Cliff's site HERE.

You can bid for the 2000AD Defoe page HERE.

And you can bid for the Justice League page HERE.

Even if you're not interested in these pages, there's plenty of other cool signed stuff from other pros in the business.

Thanks guys!

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED!!!

Justice League Unlimited is by far THE BEST SUPERHERO CARTOON EVER.I have all the dvd boxsets, and the statues have pride of place in my studio.

A couple of years ago, lovely hippy editor Michael Wright gave me a shot at pencilling the JLU. After I wet myself, I accepted this great honour and proceeded to draw the issue wearing my Superman underpants.

Here's some of my pencilled pages. The colour image is a cover I sumitted, but unfortunately was rejected as they already had a regular cover artist...

And yes, that is a man being held hostage with a STAPLER....

My little sister...

Right, here's a pic I did for my sis, Jade.

We're in direct competition for the affections of our parents--me with my doodles, her with a guitar. She's a very talented musician who's supported the likes of Bryan Adams (!), Westlife, The Sugarbabes, Katie Melua, Hanson, and most recently, The Bee Gees (but don't hold that last one against her...)

You can find her Myspace page HERE, so check out her very cool songs and decide for yourself who's the more talented sibling!

BIONICLE!

Ok....so now we come to my other job, drawing the LEGO BIONICLE comic for DC.

This gig came along as a pleasant suprise this year. Though between you and me, I was a bit hesistant to take it on as I thought I had more than enough on my plate drawing Defoe. What changed my mind was that it's four 17 page issues per year, meaning that I could JUST squeeze it in, though at the expense of sleep, and also at the expense of room to move in my studio as LEGO send me every BIONICLE toy for reference! Seriously, I have NO IDEA where my life sized Iron Man bust is going to go when it arrives....

I've been told it has around a MILLION copy print run, but unfortunately it's only available to foreign members of the LEGO Club.....however, you lucky girls can view it for FREE in a fancy Flash animated format HERE! (My run starts from number 7.)

By the way, drawing BIONICLE is the furthest thing away you could get from DEFOE. It's also coloured beautifully by a chap named Ulises Arreola.

Here's some black and white pages from my first issue anyway.

DEFOE:Brethren of the Night...

As I mentioned earlier, Defoe Book 2, Brethren of the Night, is starting in Prog 1589 of the weekly 2000AD. It's 10 episodes of crunchy zombie goodness! Also a big moment for me as it's my first ever 2000AD cover!

More Defoe!

Bloody hell, if I'd known how easy this bloggy business was, I'd have done it AGES ago!

Here's some more images from Defoe's first book...

Hellooooo...

Hey there! Cheers for visiting my little blog here--don't forget to wipe your feet.

I'll try and update this with bits and pieces whenever I can, but for now I'm just gonna throw a pile of my favourite pieces of work on here as an introduction.

The first of my 2 current gigs is drawing DEFOE for the fantastic British comic, 2000AD. It was created by the legendary writer, Pat Mills and myself, so whether that makes me the "mummy" or the "daddy", I don't know...

DEFOE tells the tale of a 17th century zombie hunter, Titus Defoe, set not long after the Great Fire of London. I LOVE drawing this book. The main reason being that I'm a huge fan of early black and white horror strips, like The Thirteenth Floor, and Tomb of Dracula, and Defoe takes me right back to those times.

DEFOE Book 2, Brethren of the Night is coming back to 2000AD prog 1589 in a couple of weeks. You can see the cover to this following these images from Book 1. Hope you like them!