Karloff for Zuul

I've just done an Artswap with a good pal and long time supporter of mine Graeme Neil Reid. A while ago, Graeme was doing a series of Ghostbuster illustrations and I asked if he was doing a Sigourney Weaver as Zuul, could I have the original in return for an illustration by me...


I'm chuffed to say he was up for it and chose a very broad topic of "Characters from Hammer and Universal Horror movies"... I have to confess to a soft spot for Frankenstein's monster (one of the first things I ever shared on this blog was a "Frankie"). So it was long over due to do another... this time I tried to capture Boris Karloff in his career defining role as the monster...


I hope Graeme likes the illustration when he finally receives it (weather permitting), and I look forward to the Gatekeeper arriving in due course!

Thanks Graeme!

One Cool Cat

Jim Campbell has helped me out more times than I care to mention. He's lettered samples, collaborated on un-paid submissions and has recently worked with me on a tricky job to produce some poster sized comic pages.

Jim has just launched his own blog, Clint Flicker, where the man of letters will deal with his highly under-rated discipline's subtleties.

This weekend is the Birmingham Comcs Convention and hopefully I will have already managed to give Jim the original inks to the illustration of Catwoman below - small thanks for his efforts on my behalf.



This piece also figures as new porfolio piece for the convention and all things being well you can see a coloured version over on Scotch Corner today.

Modesty Blaise Sketch

I've had a quick attempt at Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway's Modesty Blaise.


It's the result of a suggestion made by James Corcoran, who when we were doing the Art Swap included a little bonus sketch for each of us... I only found this fab little depiction of Dirty Frank by chance when I was clearing up, and I'm so glad I did.


Dirty Frank is one of my favourite characters from 2000ad's Low Life, a story about undercover Judges, written by Rob Williams.

An Emperor for The Emperor

So here's a little sketch I did a while ago for the enigmatically named Emperor, a long time supporter and collaborator of mine.


Simply put, it was as part of the Art Swap that my cohorts on Fractal Friction and I were doing, I've just been notified that it's arrived at it's destination (and thanked) - so I can now share it with the world, well, those of you who visit here anyway!

Here's a quick reminder that I'll currently do an A4 sketch of this kind for £15 inc. P&P.

Art Swap: Angry Dredd

Here's another of those art swaps, this time for Conor Boyle, who wanted "a suitably annoyed Dredd".


In return, he's done a fabulous version of Halo Jones - my all time favourite female 2000ad character!


If anyone out there would like a sketch similar to those I've done for my Fractal Friction buddies, you only need ask. I'll do A4 sketches of this kind for the bargain hunt price of £15*. Times are tight, paying jobs are scarce and the concept of an arts grant is laughable, so consider it a form of sponsorship, you could even commission me for something a bit bigger...

* inc p&p for UK, leave a comment or send me an e-mail with your request.

PS. I've had some lovely comments recently - I don't tend to comment on my own posts or other people's comments, but I do appreciate them, so I would just like to thank all those who've been here recently and left such encouraging remarks. You're all superstars, cheers!

Art Swap: Aimee Nixon

This one was done for Chris Askham, who simply asked for a female 2000AD character... Who to choose? Halo Jones, DeMarco, Venus Bluegenes, Niamh? A plethora of sexy maidens were before me to choose from... so who did I choose? Yep, the hard nut resident of the lowlife and wally squad Judge, Aimee Nixon, who you'd want to be careful to ever describe as sexy, but is still one of my favourite female characters of recent years.


In return, Chris did this top notch piece of Judge Anderson for me.

Art Swap: Bull's eye Belle

The art swap continues, this one is simply a WWII inspired 'something'. I realise now that Bullseye Bombshell would have been a better name - oh well!


Done for Matt Soffe in return for this deliciously vampish Lulu Romanov. Lulu is the sister of the roguish Nikolai Dante, swashbuckling hero of the 2000ad epic tale of the same name.

Art Swap: The Spider

My Fractal Friction chums are doing an Art Swap, simply put, each has asked the others for a sketch and in return, you guessed it, they get a sketch... see? Art Swap, simple innit?

First up for me is James Corcoran who asked for The Spider... I'll be honest, I only vaguely knew this character existed and so, I'm not 100% sure I've done him justice.
To me this looks like the Count from Sesame Street and there are a couple of obvious things wrong with it as well, but I set myself the task of doing each sketch within a quarter of an hour, I've done them all now and none took more than about 30-40 minutes. I'm pretty happy with them as sketches and I'll post them up as I receive each of my requests.


In return for The Spider, James has already done me this lovely rendition of Jenny Simmons from Caballistics, Inc. Caballistics, Inc. is a 2000ad strip, a fabulously dark paranormal and supernatural story written by Gordon Rennie and drawn by Dom Reardon... if you haven't read it, I can thoroughly recommend it as a sort of UK version of the Hellboy spin-off BPRD.