CREATING 2000AD'S AQUILA!!!

Hey again,

So enough time has passed since the Aquila Prologue (written by Gordon Rennie, art by me, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Simon Bowland and logo by Simon Parr) debuted in 2000AD's Prog 2012 (bloggy post HERE), and I'm made up to say it's been VERY well received! So an overly long, uncomfortable awkward hug to everyone that's raved about it!

Got a bunch of stuff to share with you here so gather around...apart from you there...you smell funny.

I'm hoping that I nailed the design of his face first time, though that was probably due to all the research time I had to spend looking up "hot black men"...luckily Nik didn't walk in on me...

Next up, we have a pile of rough designs we considered for Ammit The Devourer--an Egyptian demon known to be part Lion, hippo and crocodile. We eventually settled for a design that was practically none of those things and I came up with a concept that highlighted "The Devourer of Souls" aspect...

This is the one we settled on:

Next we have the making of the final colour page you see at the top of this post, featuring Aquila and The Devourer. Gordon scripted:

PAGE TEN

Panel 1

Splash-page shot. Aquila, grimly walking away from the burning building he was held captive in. Shapes behind him in the smoke and flames.  The Devourer. The Egyptian Scales of Judgement. Images from Aquila’s past and (maybe even) future; battles, burning cities, monsters, gods and demons, emperors and conquerors, supernatural creatures from Ancient World mythology. Go wild here, Leigh. If we like the look of it, it’s going into a future story.

CAPTION:

From out of rebellion, a reaper will come.

Down from cruel cross, an avenger descends.

Servant of a demon, slayer of kings,

Hunter of gods and men.

The world will be this gladiator’s arena, 

And he shall know no rest,

Until his task is done.

• LOST FRAGMENT OF THE SIBYLLINE PROPHECIES, COMPOSED CIRCA 400BC.

Loose pencils:

Inks:

And GLORIOUS colours by that talented twelve year old boy,Dylan Teague:

Which brings us to the final published page lettered by my buddy Simon Bowland, seen at the beginning of this post.Gotta say, I'm pretty damn chuffed with how it turned out!

 I'm hoping to be getting the first script of the full series from Gordon in the next couple of weeks and I honestly can't wait!

Catch you soon.

L

LIVERPOOL MUSEUM COMIC STRIP!!!

Hey guys! Happy New Year to you all!

Righty, this first post of 2012 is one that I really should have done MONTHS ago, but I've just been caught up in deadline after deadline, that I just haven't found the time.

Good mate of mine, artist John Higgins, recommended me to Paul Gallagher (no relation and bloody nice bloke!), the Curator of Contemporary Collecting at The Museum of Liverpool. The job was to create a massive comic strip depicting the most famous local heroes of Liverpool and Everton football over the years, and the strip would be on display at the new museum in "The Wondrous Place" exhibition.

It was great fun planning this with Paul and designer Rob Harris (more on him later). Paul himself wrote a wonderful little tale of a Grandad and Granddaughter walking through Liverpool's Stanley Park and coming across a football game about to begin. Very soon, the two realise that the players are actually the "ghosts" of our most famous local heroes coming together for one special football game.

Here's the rough layout that I designed after reading his script. Bare in mind that the final image would be blown up to roughly 3 metres x 3 metres....

My original plan was to draw the whole thing on one piece of A1 board, but soon gave myself a big (manly) slap when I realised that there was NO CHANCE I could fit that many footballers into that space. So I had no option but to draw each panel individually on A3 and A4 pages, then forward the coloured files to designer Rob Harris of Haley Sharpe Design, who arranged the panels onto the layout template and lettered the whole strip from Paul's script. Haley Sharpe by the way, were the Lead Exhibition Design Consultants for the museum, and an incredible job they did too!

Here's some random pre-lettered panels.

I was very honoured and proud to be invited to the new museum opening in July with Niki and my dad. It was WAY fancier than the usual events I go to (I had to wear SHOES!) and the building itself on the waterfront is a beautiful piece of architecture. Here's a few photos of our football strip in all it's glory up on the wall:

So thanks once again to John, Paul and Rob. I'm genuinely proud to be part of such a project in my home city, so please be sure to check it out whenever you're in town!

L

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

AQUILA PROLOGUE IN TODAYS 2000AD!!!

Finally my latest project, AQUILA, is released upon the world in the mega 100 page year ender issue of 2000AD!!! Check out that beautiful cover by Greg Staples!

I'm very proud to be a part of this special issue as I'm sharing it with a lot of good mates of mine--too many to mention, but all the details of this prog can be found on the 2000AD site here. 

As for AQUILA, this issue debuts the 10 page prologue to the series starting later in 2012. It's written by Gordon Rennie, drawn by me, coloured by Dylan Teague, and lettered by my mate Simon Bowland (also letterer of my proposal comic to Niki!) Here's the official blurby thing...

Here's the fantastic logo that put a big smile on my face designed by design bot, Simon Parr, based on the scar on Aquila's chest....

And finally here's a few teaser panels THAT WILL MAKE YOU BUY IT!!!!

Bloody made up with how this project has come together, and can't wait to get started on the series next month!
L

JUDGE DREDD: THE ASSASSINATION LIST!!!

Ok, I PROMISE that soon I'll be back to posting cool "making of" features, etc soon. But I've just had back to back deadlines for AGES...

For now, check out my latest 6 part Judge Dredd story in 2000AD, called "The Assassination list", written by the legendary John Wagner! It's the next chapter in the ongoing "Day Of Chaos" storyline.

The first part is in 2000AD prog 1759 NOW! Here's a teaser panel (before it's sexily coloured by Chris Blythe and lettered lovingly by Annie Parkhouse).

ECBT2000AD INTERVIEW!!!!

Just a quicky post to tell you to head  HERE to the awesome 2000AD fan site EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO 2000AD where I've an interview up, talking about the latest Defoe release, the EXCLUSIVE on what my future project AQUILA is, as well as what else I've got coming up in the future! It's Leigh-tastic!!!

DEFOE:QUEEN OF THE ZOMBIES OUT TODAY!!!

FINALLY! The moment you'll tell your grandchildren about (or if you're just stuck with a bunch of cats, just tell them, I'm not going to judge)!

The second collection of DEFOE entitled QUEEN OF THE ZOMBIES is officially released today (13th October) just in time for Halloween, from 2000AD/REBELLION.

Once again, written by comics legend, Pat Mills, and illustrated by "The Most Handsome Man in Comics",um, me, this collection expands on the 17th century zombie world of Defoe and his brethren, introducing the likes of insane clock punks, freaks and even angels!

Personally speaking, this book is THE book to get if you're a fan of my work. I'm genuinely proud of it and can't wait to show it off. As with the original collection, I've gone back to update certain panels that I thought needed tweaking, but no where near the amount that I redrew that first time around.

Again, there's going to be a sketchbook section at the back (18 pages!), including the pencil version of what I envisioned the cover could be for this book, before it was decided to stick with the original zombie baby image (you can find the making for that here).

So please head to your local comic book store and tell them I sent you, with a little wink. They won't give you a discount or anything, but who doesn't like to be winked at?

If you're not lucky enough to have a local comic store, you can head to Amazon through the link at the end of this post (though ignore any mention of a hardcover--they cocked that up--it's paperback only). You can't wink at them unfortunately.

Thanks for your support guys, I really appreciate it. I'll have an interview posted on another site soon with even more info. Hope you enjoy the book!


L

AQUILA PREVIEW!!!

Helloooo...well here's a scan of the official announcement of the new/old (we'll explain that later) series I'll be drawing for 2000AD...AQUILA! Written by Gordon Rennie! All I can say right now is that it's set in Roman times....

We'll have a 10 page prologue coming out at the end of the year, with a full series following at some point. Even though the above image is black and white, the final strip will be coloured by that ridiculously talented artist/ 12 year old boy, Dylan Teague! Can't wait!

For now, I'm busy working on a 6 part Judge Dredd written by THE John Wagner and various bits for the BBC.

Busy, busy busy...

More soon!

L

SOMEONE OLD, SOMEONE NEW!!!

Yup, I'm back again.

Here's a commission I did for regular viewer of my bloggy, Eric Moore, AKA Mangamax. Eric has started a very interesting new blog entitled SOMEONE OLD, SOMEONE NEW, which asks an artist to draw their own depiction of a classic British comic book character meeting a current day character.

Eric's always been very kind and complimentary towards my work, so it was an honour to add to his collection, drawing my version of Janus Stark vs Defoe, and I'm very happy with how it turned out! You can check out the post HERE, which also shows a couple of my prelim drawings as well, but you have to view the rest of his beautiful collection from the beginning HERE!

PIMPING MY MATE'S ASSES AGAIN!!!!

OK, planning on doing a few posts over these next couple of days to make up for the dry spell lately due to me working incredibly hard doing the manly work of drawing.

First up: pointing you in the direction of a couple good friends of mine who have got some exceptionally cool stuff out!

Peter Collier is a man with the tiniest ankles I've ever seen in my life, but he's also one of the cleverest men I've known in my life, and so will probably be able to afford a hot tub way before me due to being an exceptional entrepreneur .

He, with his two friends Stephen Cakebread and Ben Ward, set up their own games company this year called HOGROCKET. Their very first game app, TINY INVADERS, is now available on the iTunes store and is quite awesome! It's a ridiculously addictive puzzle game where you play a band of space germs travelling from host to host, in a bid to take over the world by reaching The President!

Addictive gameplay, a soundtrack that will never leave your head, and graphics from a BAFTA award winning animation team, make a game that has  " The Leigh Gallagher: Most Handsome Man In Comics" stamp of approval! So head to The app store NOW ! It's well worth it's ridiculously low price! (And I'd really like at least one of us to get a hot tub soon, so we can start "Hot tub Fridays...)

Right, next is....who? Ahh crap, not this guy.....ok, if I have to....this next one is my fellow 2000AD artist (who probably only got the job because 2000AD had to fill their quota of employing little people), and my eternal nemesis, PJ HOLDEN.

Now PJ's always a busy, busy artist, currently working on ROBOCOP VS TERMINATOR (with lovely writer Rob Williams) and the soon to be concluded NUMBERCRUNCHER in the Judge Dredd Megazine (with writer Si Spurrier, who's just as lovely as Rob, but with a lot more hair).

But now, with writer Gordon Rennie (who yours truly shall be working on a new 2000AD series with next year!) has co created....THE DEPT OF MONSTEROLOGY! Never mind the fact that it has a really cool title. Never mind the fact that it has a bloody lovely logo. This series is written by a writer who everyone knows is a genuine talent, with glorious art by PJ that you can tell he's taken his time over. Just look at the preview pages!

Plus, if you didn't get it from the title, it's all about frickin' MONSTERS! I'm actually really jealous PJ's got this gig...

Look for it in the near future published by the nice folks at RENEGADE ARTS ENTERTAINMENT, and check out the Facebook page for lots of behind the scenes cool stuff!

Ok, that's enough of me being selfless....

L