Blog-Me-Do Part 5: Dirty Rotten Comics

I contributed a comic to the 10th issue of Dirty Rotten Comics in 2017. I wanted to try something a little bit different, so it's a 4-part story made up of 4 single page strips, themed around the subject of Fake News. My original idea was to have the pages printed individually throughout the comic, so that they were almost like those news reports on tv, interrupting the regularly scheduled program. In the end, because of page count and the length of some of the other strips, this wasn't possible and it ended up being printed as two sets of spreads. Either way, I'm happy with how this strip turned out...
(click on the images to enlarge)

The Corbyn Comic Book

UK comics publisher SelfMadeHero recently ran a Call for Submissions for an anthology of comics about the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to be published later this year. I thought I'd take a crack at it and produced the following one page comic, just before the deadline, based on the recent incident where Corbyn helped a mother up the stairs at a station, and also reflecting on the way certain parts of the media seemingly twist his actions to fit their own agenda...
[Click on the image to enlarge]



I received an email to say that my entry, unfortunately, did not get selected for inclusion in the anthology, but I'm still pleased with what I produced, so at least I can share it here!

Recipe Comic

Hmm...I haven't posted anything for a while. I have been working, but not on anything that I can post...just yet! But one thing that I have done is draw a comic based on a recipe for a competition. I decided to draw a comic about how to cook okonomiyak, which is a Japanese savoury pancake. The results of the competition will be released at the beginning of July, but for now, here's my one page comic...

(click to enlarge)


[UPDATE]: My comic got selected for inclusion in the book, and is available here: http://centrala.org.uk/shop/comics-cookbook/

Tempo Lush Tales

So one of the Secret Projects I've been working on recently has been a 12-page story for Tempo Lush Tales the new anthology comic created by Mr Tempo Lush himself, Richy K. Chandler. All the stories in the anthology have been written by Richy and illustrated by a cavalcade of artists including Matt Boyer, Francesca Cassavetti, Martin Eden, Tim Hassan, Steve Horry, Inko, Chie Kutsuwada, Mike Medaglia, Aaron Murphy, Van Nim, Karen Rubins, Keara Stewart and me! The book is being released next Friday and there will be an epic book launch for not only Tempo Lush Tales, but also three other books that Richy has been involved in creating: the second volume of Rosie and Jacinda, the third collection of Richy's webcomic Lucy the Octopus, AND a pre-school children’s comic/picture book Bang! Crash! Whizz!. Phew!

The launch will take place at Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, from 7-9pm on Friday 3 October, and there's a Facebook event set up here. Come along! It'll be fun!! And I might even scribble in your book!

Anyway, all of which is leading up to me sharing a sneak preview of the story I've been working on, called The President Of West Tibia...



What happens next? Well come to the launch, buy a copy of the book and find out! :)

ANGRY BIRD!

I've been fairly busy with work since I got back from holiday, but one interesting thing I've noticed from my Twitter Feed which is quietly chirping away in the background on my laptop, is that a lot of the people who were apoplectic a few days ago at the news of the upcoming release of a new Royal Baby, are now chomping at the bit at the prospect of new iPhone.

I made a quick comic about it. I was slightly pushed for time because of my other work, so might revisit it at a later stage, but think it gets the main point across...

House Party!

I was asked by the amazingly talented Rachael Smith to draw a pin-up to be included in her upcoming comic House Party (published by Great Beast Comics). Here's my image featuring some of the characters from Rachael's comic... (click to enlarge)



There'll be a Launch Party for the comic on 13 June at Orbital Comics from 7 – 9:30pm. Rachael will be there to sign and sketch in copies and to be generally lovely to everyone who comes and of course there’s free booze! Yayyy! See you there!

@OFFLIFE_comic's #QuickDraw

Here's a comic I drew the other week for @OFFLIFE_comic's #QuickDraw over on Twitter for the theme "Everyday Magic"...

Things I Want To Achieve in 2014!

Frog-Thor

Thor 2 is released tomorrow in the UK, and I recently read the first eleven issues of Jason Aaron's Thor: God Of Thunder comic, which might explain why I suddenly got an idea in my head for a comic about Thor. More specifically, the time that Thor got turned into a frog...

Yes, there was an actual storyline where Thor turned into a frog!!
In 2011, Thor #363-366 was voted in at number 5 in MTV Geek's 10 Best Thor Comics - Ever!. I haven't read it (yet!), but I hope that it featured a scene like this...

Summertime Blues

I had the idea for this comic the other week with the sudden arrival of Summer in the UK, but hadn't managed to sit down and actually draw it until today...



This is (mostly) just a joke, and I'm very pleased that the sun has finally decided to make an appearance. Although I would like it to be just a little bit cooler...

It doens't rain, it pours...and then it's sunny...and after that it rains again...

So often in the last few weeks, I've woken up to bright sunshine and blue skies, only for torrential rain to start as soon as I step foot outside my house, with the sun deciding to make a return appearance once I get back inside.

Here's a comic I drew the other day that pretty much sums up my thoughts about the "English Summer"...

Back to work!

It's been a while since I posted new work (I've been busy!), but here's a one page comic I drew the other week...

Process: Optional Exercise #1 (Casablanca Comic)

I started going along to Process, a monthly comics workshop/discussion group set up by Steven Walsh and based at Gosh! Comics. It takes place on the first Wednesday of every month and prior to this month's meeting Steve posted an Optional Exercise online for people to have a go at: to adapt the following scene from Casablanca into a comic.



I wanted to give this a go, although because I didn't have much time to work on this before this month's meeting, I decided to focus on part of the scene (from 1.44 in the video). Because Process is partly about "How" people make comics, I thought that I would also include my step-by-step process here.

So after watching the scene and deciding that I wanted to do it as a one page comic, I found the script online and drew a rough thumbnail sketch...



Because that part is filmed from a fixed camera angle, I wanted to replicate this, with only changes in facial expression and some minor changes in the characters movement. So I drew a sketch of the panel and then copy and pasted it on the computer to set up the page before printing it out and drawing in the additional panels and writing in the dialogue...



I then drew over this on a lightbox and then scanned and coloured the final page in Photoshop, colouring in full colour and then converting the file to greyscale. And this is the final page: