MCM EXPO FUN AND WACKYNESS!!!

Well we had a FANTASTIC weekend at the London MCM EXPO! A huge thanks to organizers Emma Vieceli, Anna Peterson and Andrew Ruddick for the invite and all their hard work!

It was our first time being around that many cosplayers, and it made it so entertaining to watch them go by inbetween my sketching for folk. SOME were a bit kinkier than others (not that I was complaining) but these guys put so much effort into their costumes, you can't help but be impressed, and sometimes a little jealous...

Hung out with lots of good mates, made some new ones---basically all the things that makes for a great convention!

I'll be making an effort to go to the next one in May!

I did a short, fun interview with David Monteith from one of my favourite podcasts, Geek Syndicate, in the latest show 137, which you can find here! A great episode about the Expo--my interview can be found around 41 minutes into it!

LOADS of photos below, my favourites being the ones where cosplayers beat the crap out of me....ENJOY!

L

A cool manga portrait of me and Niki by Asia Alfasi!

Hey ladies, it's Al Ewing!!!

Hey kids, it's Declan Shalvey!

My sketch of Niki....

I just had to end on this guy dressed as 2000AD's Rogue Trooper!!!

LONDON MCM EXPO THIS WEEKEND!!!

Helloooo....just a reminder that I'll have a table (C7 in the Comics Village) this Saturday only at London's MCM Expo. The actual event is for the whole weekend, but this is a new event for me so I just wanted to spend the Sunday just wandering around, enjoying it as a spectator for once. From what I've heard, this convention is HUGE and there's loads of guests from the world of comics, anime, film and tv, so I can't wait!

Anyway, for the Saturday at my table, I'll be doing the usual sketches, selling copies of the Defoe collection, and I may have some limited edition prints to sell.

See you there--just look out for the zombie baby display stand!

L

2000AD REVIEW INTERVIEW!!!

For all of those who aint sick of my jibber jabber (always wanted to say that!) yet, here's another interview I did with Gavin Hanly for his 2000AD REVIEW site!

Whenever Defoe is published in 2000AD, his site is usually one of the first I go to, as their reviewers are pretty good at giving a fair and balanced review. So a big thanks to Gavin for asking me for an interview!

Make with the clicky here to read the interview!

L

MAKING OF A WEREWOLF PRINT CARD!!!

Well I can finally show off this werewolf illustration I did for the top blokes at Renegade Arts Entertainment.

The company's Big Kahuna, Alex Finbow, basically said I could draw ANY horror image I liked for their upcoming print card series, so i immediately thought WEREWOLF! I'd just never had the opportunity to illustrate this classic hairy assed monster, and it literally took me 3 minutes to do the rough drawing below.

Before I show the rest of the illustrations, check out Renegade's site here to learn all about the card series, and what top creators they have working on them!

Right, turn the lights off, and get under the bed sheet, whilst we take a brief look at how I created the werewolf...

Below is the 3 minute sketch of my first thought which got approved by Alex. I immediately wanted to have the creature in a forest as it's a naturally creepy environment, and I just love drawing them to be honest.

Here's the more fully realized pencils. I think at the time I may have moved him higher up in the tree so I could feature the moon in the background....um, not quite sure what happened to that....And here's the final inked version! Pretty happy with how it turned out. I actually really enjoyed inking all the hair on the body. I'm just hoping I didn't over complicate the background detail. You have to bare in mind that when printed as the collector card, it gets reduced in size dramatically.
Finally, here's a small preview of all the cool print cards together in the series.

Hope you like it guys. It was a very fun job to do, and believe it or not, you may see me drawing more werewolves alot sooner than you think....

L

JUDGE DREDD TEASERS !!!

Apologies for not posting sooner guys. Basically been busy getting the first episode of this Judge Dredd for the Megazine done! Here's a few non-spoilery panels.

When you finally see the full pages, you'll see a significant difference from my usual Defoe pages. Most noticable, I'm using more imaginative layouts and having elements break out of the panels.
Plus I'm cutting back on the usual crosshatching to give the colourist space to do his/her thing...have to say, I'm both nervous and excited at the same time to see how this baby turns out.

No idea when this is due out yet. I've still to do the second episode as well as a cover. As for future posts, I've been told I'll be able to post the cover I did for "The End is Nigh" magazine within the week, so we can have a good natter about that soon over a cup of tea and a custard cream.

By the way, I'd like to say a big thanks and congratulations to Ed Kaye of Hypergeek, who got his first credit in 2000AD Prog 1656 last week, with an interview with both Pat Mills and myself about Defoe!

Catch you soon.

L

MY NEW BABY!!!

He likes eating corned beef hash....

And it's a boy!!! This beautiful fella's going to be joining me on all my future conventions so look out for us!

Unfortunately I can't make this weekend's Birmingham show (gotta get this Dredd story finished), but I'm signed up for London MCM Expo on Sat 24th October, and also Leeds Thought Bubble on Sat 21st November!

Right, I think he needs feeding again....

L

POST TRAVELLING MAN SIGNING!!!

Above: Ian Edginton, Steve Yeowell and Dave Taylor.

Above: Antony Johnston, Me, and Al Ewing.

Girlfriend extrodinare Niki, and comic letterer extrodinare Simon Bowland, turned up for support.

It was a Joker sketch face-off between me and Dave Taylor!

Once again I had a FANTASTIC experience at the day's signing at Manchester's Travelling Man for the "We Love Comics Mini Comic Con"!!! Fans turned out in force to warmly greet myself, writers Al Ewing, Ian Edginton, Antony Johnston, and artists Dave Taylor and Steve Yeowell (who were all top blokes to hang out with). And as you can see, this time I have photos!

A big shout out to the cool customer who made us all enough cakes to feed Russia (though still confused by the cake design we weren't allowed to show the public....).

We were also joined for a night on the town by my lovely girlfriend Niki, and top comic book letterer Simon Bowland (who I can garantee is always working in the middle of the night at the same time as me).

For reasons I cannot disclose, Simon and I found a new hero in writer Al Ewing. All I can say is that Al is a STUD of the highest caliber, and he fully deserves to be on SFX Magazine's "Hot 50" list with Megan Fox from earlier in the year....

So a huge thank you to Haroon (who taught me the meaning of "Whack"), Nabil (who bought us all dinner!), and Abigail Ryder of Travelling Man for inviting us and showing us a good time! And congrats to Abigail for her soon to be published colouring work on Kingdom for 2000AD!

L