THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW ROYAL MAIL STAMP!!!

Right, here we go....hope you've been to the toilet, because this is gonna be a big one...

So today sees the launch of a new Royal Mail stamp collection based on famous stage musicals throughout the years. As you can see, one of them is based on The Rocky Horror Show poster that I did bloody ages ago! How cool is that?!

I should add that the very cool Return To The Forbidden Planet stamp was drawn by my fellow comic creator friend, Garen Ewing (creator of The Rainbow Orchid), and you can read all about his Royal Mail story HERE.

Oi! Back to me! So anyway, folks in Britain can either purchase the stamps separately for 97p, from all good Post Offices, or there's also a variety of collector packs also from Post Offices, or online here for everyone else!

So how the hell did a bloke like me get to have his work on an official stamp that's been approved by The Queen? Well I'm very glad you asked.....READ ON!

Waaaaayyyy back in 2005, in the days before I was known for drawing zombies for 2000AD, I was recommended by my good buddy, John Higgins, to Shaun Webb Design--quality graphic designers and all round lovely people. They were after a new version of a poster for the return of The Rocky Horror Show. Shaun had a very clear idea of what he wanted for the poster and submitted this mock up for me...

 Here's the initial pencils....

 This is the inks for the girl. The background was drawn on a separate layer to allow them to move elements around easily. This wasn't the final version of the face...

 Here's the first crack at colouring her, though we decided against the flat colour style and later went for a more blended airbrush approach. Though I do actually like this version....

 I lost track of the number of alternate faces we tried on her. It got to the point where I'd rubbed out and redrawn her so many times, holes were appearing on my paper. Here's just a couple. One, not pictured here, was so bad, I swear it looked like a sex doll....

 This is the separate background. Such a shame the final version didn't use all the cool Berni Wrightson esque machinery on the top.

 And here's a scan of the final poster!

 We later even did a cool Christmas version of it....

 And as a special bonus because you're all looking pretty today, here's a few panels of the special comic strip I did that was in the collectable brochure...

This was a show that toured the entire country. I was jumping up and down like a girl when I saw it on the side of a bus in Oxford, and it was such a great day when it came to Liverpool and a bunch of us went to see it...

So that's my tale....6 years later I got a lovely call from SWD ( who I occasionally still do the odd job for) telling me that it was being turned into a Royal Mail stamp. The moral...?

I don't care! Just get my stamp! ;)

L

PIMPING MY FRIENDS ASSES AGAIN!!!

Yup, just to show that I'm a kind, selfless, sexy individual, here I am once again pointing you in the direction of a few of my friends new projects....

First up, is Geek Syndicate's very own Barry Nugent. The Nuge wrote a best selling supernatural adventure novel called "Fallen Heroes" that has just been adapted into a comic book series (with further spin offs just announced!)to be launched at Cardiff Comic Expo on 26th February and is accepting pre orders NOW. 

Barry's a good guy, a talented writer, and an incredible dancer, which is why myself, Emma Vieceli and Andie Tong all contributed exclusive pin ups to be include in his first edition.

Trust me, Barry's fought through a lot of crap to bring you this epic, and he and his creative team deserve to come out as winners, so check out his site here!

Next up is Andrew Wildman and "Horizon"-- a graphic novel about " love and loss, fear and freedom, a toy robot, and VERY big robots!"

Andrew's a guy with a big heart that I first met on the Draw The World Together campaign, of which he was the Big Kahuna. He's also an incredibly talented creator, most known for his art on Transformers!

Now he's writing and drawing his own graphic novel, but is using this site to collect funding, in return for lots of cool perks! Please check it out! I'm excited to see what a guy like Andrew can achieve when he cuts loose!

Finally, I'd like to pimp the lovely ladies Iz McAuliffe and Stacey Whittle of The Megacast podcast, a spin off show from the equally great Everything Comes Back To 2000AD with Rich and Flint.  Everyone involved in both these podcasts go above and beyond supporting 2000AD with professionalism, humour and talent, that quite frankly puts  actual paid radio djs to shame. And we love them for that.

But the reason I picked this particular episode, is that the girls have recently interviewed my Nemesis: fellow 2000AD artist and professional midget, PJ Holden.

PJ and my other buddy, writer Si Spurrier, have recently debuted an excellent creator owned series called NUMBERCRUNCHER in the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE that you should definitely check out.

Towards the end of the interview, the girls very kindly asked PJ the question I had submitted:

"If you were in a terrible accident, and the only key to your survival was if I donated either the top half of my body, or the bottom half of my body, which half would you choose to live with for the rest of your life? Bare in mind that both halves requires daily hair maintenance..."


PJ's answer was unexpected, yet commendable, and I decided to illustrate it for your viewing pleasure...

SFX WEEKENDER 2 REPORT!!!

Ok, ok, I'll admit it: I was a little apprehensive about returning to Pontins for this year's SFX WEEKENDER...because y'know....it's Pontins.

But, guess what? I had an AWESOME time! The convention itself had ironed out most of the kinks from last year, but what made it truly great was the company I was in, the fans we met, and all the new friends we made. 

Too many to name (you know who you are!), but a big manly hug to the Rebellion/2000AD/Abaddon Books family (Keith Richardson, Pye Parr, David Thomas Moore and Jenni Hill) for having me along again this year, and just being you!

Obviously I want to thank the entire SFX team for putting on a great show. Seriously, it takes balls, and talent to create something that cool out of, well, Pontins...thanks guys!

Things I learnt:  I want Geek Syndicate's Barry Nugent and David Monteith to teach me some of their above average dance moves...

That I wasn't the only one that took half an hour to figure out how to turn the shower on.

And I never want to see a certain well known writer in his underwear ever again.

Now....PHOTOS!

The Weekender opened to the incredible music of A.C.D.C as the fantastic Area 51 entertainers recreated the opening scene of Iron Man 2, with one of the SFX Magazine team as Iron Man welcoming everyone to the show!

The 2000AD booth, shinier, prettier and sexier than last year, with designer Pye Parr and graphics novel editor Keith Richardson making it look a bit camp.

The first of the Weekender's big ass drawings I did. This one being donated to the charity auction held that day, along side cool stuff like an actual Doctor Who Cyberman helmet, and a day at the SFX offices. And yes, I'm wearing a hat...

This beardy man is fancy pants 2000AD/Abaddon Books writer Al Ewing, pointing at a half eaten hot dog. Al actually wrote the two part Judge Dredd story ,"What The Hitler Saw" that I recently finished drawing, out in 2000AD come April.  We're all posing with the second big ass Dredd pic I did, that was later raffled off.

But then incredible artist Clint Langley turned up, and made me look bad by doing this gorgeous Nemesis piece...git.

Here's the winner of Clint's drawing! Ah, It's nice when it's a kid. Hopefully he'll be the next generation of 2000AD fans.

And this fine man is the winner of my Dredd! Remember: Take care of my baby, or I'll shave off all that lovely long hair whilst you sleep!

SFX WEEKENDER 2!!!

Hey guys,

Due to OVERWHELMING DEMAND from at least two people after last years event in Camber Sands Pontins, I'll be returning for another round at the SFX WEEKENDER 2, on the 4th-5th February.

Once again I'll be with the droids of 2000AD, sharing art duties with Clint Langley and signing with writers Pat Mills and beardy Al Ewing!

I can assure you that even though my name's not featured on the site as yet, I will be there! Trust me, I ain't spending 5 hours on a train for nothing!

Hope to see you there.

L

A NEW YEAR....

Hey guys,

Hope you all had a memorable holiday period! Me, I'm really looking forward to a fresh start this year....

Don't get me wrong, it had it's unbelievable moments like Niki agreeing to marry me(!), as well as some of my favourite people in the world having equally great life changing news, but professionally .... eeesh...I've never had a year like this where so many "clients" have attempted to take advantage of me. Seriously, I can't beliiiieeeeve the amount of people who think that we freelance artists survive by drinking the sweat from strangers armpits....NEVER AGAIN!

For a couple of examples, I'm talking about deluded @sshole musicians who see themselves as Jesus, and publishers who have had successful movies out wanting to pay me with books that I'm not even interested in reading (oh, and didn't even send those in the end!)...

So, I've learnt a lot of lessons, and this new year, I'm going all out to make sure that this is going to be a damn good one!

As well as working on Book 5 of Defoe and prepping the second graphic novel collection (out in October), I'm developing brand new projects to pitch, including finally finishing my children's picture book.

Above, you'll see a taster of what I'm working on now for 2000AD-- still my favourite company to work for, and the one that I kiss every night before I go to bed!

Apologies dear sweet reader, if this was seen as a rant. I honestly just want you to feel as inspired as I do right now. My God, I just wanna kick some creative ass this year! (And that pleb who thinks he's Jesus.)

Oh, and I also want to finally send this application form off to Total Wipeout....

Take care, and good luck to us all!

L

MAKING OF A DRUNKEN DRUID GETTING SURPRISED BY A REPTILIAN ANGEL THINGY!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS!

Y'know, nothing says "Christmas" more than a scene featuring a 17th century drunken druid guy, getting surprised by a scary ass reptilian Seraph angel in a dark corridor. And by a STARTLING coincidence I happen to have one here!!!

So here's the making of one of my favourite pages from Book Four of 2000AD's "Defoe: A Murder of Angels", from script to final printed page.

Script by Pat Mills...

My original design for the Seraph Angel...
Rough layout...
Loose pencils...
Finished inks...
Final printed page with lettering by Elle De Ville...
Right, bugger off now and have a fantastic Christmas!!!

(And don't forget to leave out some mince pies for the reptilian angel thingy when he climbs down your chimney...)

L

JUDGE DEATH COMMISSION!!!

Hey guys, Just a quick one here. I don't usually have much time to take on private commission work, but a couple of weeks ago, Pete Wells of the wonderful site 2000AD COVERS UNCOVERED caught me at a good time. Asking for an image of the classic Dredd villian, Judge Death, he basically gave me free reign....
Here's the very loose rough I got to him for approval...

...with the pencils shortly after. Sorry about the quality--I had to take a photo, as in a very short space of time I have found myself without a working A3 scanner, laptop AND iMac (piece of crap! Should've stuck to bloody pcs...)

Hope you like it, and please check out Pete's 2000AD COVERS UNCOVERED, which shows every new 2000AD cover without logos and text, and even some making of features!

Right, I've got a Judge Dredd story to get done so catch you later!

L

THOUGHT BUBBLE 2010 REPORT!!!

....And it was gooood......

Third year in a row that I have had a FANTASTIC weekend at Thought Bubble! And a large portion of that is due to the incredible Lisa Wood and her team of very lovely folk! (Hi to the other Leigh!)

I don't know why, but for some reason I always seem to be accepted more at this convention, and sold a pile of stuff! Next time I'll be sure to bring a bigger variety of prints, as I was surprised how popular the zombie ones were.

Once again, I met too many cool people to mention, but a shout out to my "neighbour", 2000AD legendary artist D'Israeli (a guy I've wanted to meet for a long time!) and his lovely girlfriend, and also hi to the folks of the Monkey On My Back podcast who I had a great chat with and shared my tasty, tasty doughnuts (I won't mention that they were queuing for D'Iraeli, not me *ahem*)!

The day ended with one of the best kormas I've ever had with some good friends, and a great aftershow party where, as usual, I couldn't find the time to talk with everyone I wanted to.

Here's a compilation of all but two of the sketches I did that day, with some close ups of my favourites. Enjoy, and see you there next year!

(PS: And thanks for all the thumbs up to the hat! It shall return next year!)

L