Resurrection

Here then, as promised in yesterday's post: Johnny Alpha, back in the land of the living.


If you missed it yesterday over on Scotch Corner, here's my Durham red piece mocked up into a prog cover.


And The Johnny Alpha one too.

Scotch Corner is Two

Well, last month I was delighted to be invited to contribute once again to Scotch Corner, the Caledonian Comic Artists Collective who're celebrating their blogging birthday this month with a series of guest slots. I'm am amongst some seriously talented folk contributing, too many cool people to name have already contributed - and there's more to come!

Previously, I've submitted Bat-world pieces to their guest slot: a Harley Quinn, a Joker, and a Catwoman, but no surprises, it is 2000ad that I have turned to on this special occasion. Specifically the world of Strontium Dog, and as is usual for me, I gravitated to the girl in the gang - Durham Red.


You can see the full coloured version of that over on Scotch Corner. Also note the edited hand... after I'd inked it, and saught the advice of trusted indivduals, I felt this version was too claw like.

If you like this, then please come back tomorrow as I'll be posting up a piece that celebrates the return of Johnny Alpha, in fact, the resurrection of Johnny Alpha and his imminent return to the prog - as trailered in prog 1742, see the prog or ECBT2000ad for the details!

Surrender Dorothy!

Now in Technicolor!

I'm just about done on the Wizard of Oz, Judge Dredd and Johnny Alpha cross-over commission.


There's still a decision to be made over the final dialogue though...

Mutants in Judy Garland Block

I've been working on a commission for another member of the 2000ad forum.
Ian Leonard asked if he could have a Johnny Alpha and Judge Dredd team-up, where those two bad boys were surrounded by mutants and zombies etc, but also including characters from the Wizard of Oz!


These are the cleaned up inks ready to colour.


The raw scan shows through where I've printed out a 'blue-line' version of my digital 'pencils'.

Here's a few stages of development, including the proposed dialogue on the first.


I feel like Johnny and Dredd should be saying something smart arse too, but inspiration is lacking on that front.

Super Secret Squirrel

About a month ago, the sad and sudden news that Carlos Ezquerra had been taken ill with Lung Cancer broke on the 2000ad forum. The good news was that it had been caught in time.

A short while later, I, and many others (including some professionals) were contacted by Mark Howard (The Legendary Shark) and asked if we would like to contribute something to a get well comic that would be given to Carlos. The importance of Carlos Ezquerra's work in 2000ad's history and it's meaning to hundreds of adoring fans cannot be understated. With John Wagner, he created both Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, two of the comic's most enduring characters. His work was also something of an inspiration to me in my youth, so my answer to the question posed was a resounding yes, I want to contribute something!.


A quick e-mail to Rich Clements and Dave Evans to ask whether they'd like to collaborate on a special 'Teen Wulf' for the project and a simple suggestion that it involve Wulf's Dad, who would be a doppleganger for Carlos yeilded the swift and genius response from Rich, a script for 'Cucumber' (a favoured word of Wulf's in his dealings with Johnny Alpha) arrived in my in box. I had enormous fun illustrating the strip, and I'm sure I've not done Carlos justice, but it's the thought that counts, right? I'm not going to share Dave's lettering for the page here, because there will be a publicly available link to a download of the whole comic that I will share when the time comes.


With my contribution made, I thought nothing more of the project until I received an e-mail via Dave that Mark had secured a deal for printing the comic, the printer would do the job for a substantial discount if he could get a logo designed for his motorcycle club... could I help out? Well, again, it was an easy decision, of course, if I can help out - I will.

Luckily the illustration above, did the trick and with one happy printer, the project could go full steam ahead!


Again, I thought nothing more about the project until Mark posted on the 2000ad forum asking if anyone could help out with special duties... In the spirit of the project's secrecy I responded simply to ask what the problem was and if I could help again... Mark desperately needed a cover, had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted and needed it pretty swiftly - I should have been working on other things, but it felt like an important job to help out on, so again, I found myself contributing to the project.

Yesterday, the comic was received by Carlos and he expressed his gratitude to all involved through a message to Mark on facebook. It has meant a great deal to me to be involved in honouring a hero of mine and I only hope it helps speed his recovery.

To Mark the Shark, all who contributed and those who simply kept the secret, I salute you, it makes me proud to be a fan of 2000ad!

Tharg Touts Teen Wulf

Check it out... Zarjaz and Dogbreath get promoted in the Nerve Centre in this weeks' prog (1681) with a special mention for Teen Wulf written by Rich Clements, centre spread colours by Vicky Stonebridge and lettered by Dave Evans (and drawn by me, as if you didn't know already!).


I consider it the highest praise indeed that his majestic greenness chose to mention our strip and if you haven't already, I suggest you do as The Mighty One says and visit The Quaequam Blog for all the info!

Time Bomb!

I inked up that sketch for someone on the 2000ad forum.


Pretty happy with how it's turned out.

HiEx 2010

What can I say about HiEx that hasn't already been said elsewhere? What superlatives are left? The answers are not much and none, HiEx was a great experience and although it was over almost a whole week ago, it's still fresh in my mind as being one of the best conventions I've had the pleasure of attending. Thanks to Rich and Vicky for organizing such a great event!
As a result of going, there are some interesting pots of goop bubbling away nicely that I might be asked to taste if I'm lucky. But more about those culinary delights as they reach the table.


I still don't have anything much I can show, but here's a rough for a sketch of Johnny Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer.
In other news, I have been nominated for an Eagle Award in the best newcomer category! Seriously! I know! Thanks then go to the very kind soul who did that for me!
Fractal Friction, Jim Campbell and Rich Clements have also all been nominated in various other categories! I'll be sure to let you all know if I win, but let's face it, the opposition is mightily impressive!

Wulf Whistle

I'm back! This post has nothing to do with Whistling however! Unless a 'Phew', counts!


PHEW! I've just finished up the last pages for the Teen Wulf strip for Dogbreath.
In total it's a whopping thirteen page strip written by the wonderful Rich Clements, lettered by the immensely underappreciated Bolt-01 and has another logo designed by me.


Yes it's (in part) trying to mimic the 'Teen Wolf' logo from the Michael J Fox film... but the 'Wulf' lettering is all my own!

Strip will be published in issue 22 of Dogbreath and is launching at the HiEx Comic Convention in Inverness in just over a fortnight!

Leap of Faith

Once again my good lady and I are moving, this time hopefully though will be the last move for a long, long time! Internet will not be hooked up for a couple of days and so, this might be the last post for a while!
To tide the old blog over then, here's another teaser for that Teen Wulf strip.


The page this comes from was an absolute joy to do, I'd devised an interesting panel layout and I think it really worked.
I've just seen Vicky's final version of the colours for the double page spread too... it's gonna be pretty special when that issue of Dogbreath is released at HiEx...

Teen Wulf

Ahh, some news has been reported on thequaequamblog about my involvement on a fun little project that has been brewing since last year's Bristol Comic Expo.
Teen Wulf, a two part story about Wulf Sternhammer's youthful exploits. The first part will be available in the next (imminent) issue of Dogbreath!


I did this sketch as a warm-up whilst Rich Clements, (who should need no introduction to regular readers of my blog) was writing the script.
I've blogged about this in one, two or three teaser postings before...
I'm working on the second part now, and then it's onwards with Corvus, also written by Rich!

Credit to Nic Wilkinson at Insomnia for the great punning on the title.

Happy New Year

Here is a very quick sketch of Strontium Dog (Johnny Alpha). I've just finished reading a story called A Traitor to His Kind in my catch-up reading of the weekly progs. It's a great story, and like A Portrait of a Mutant it really gives background depth to Johnny's character.


This year, according to various sources, John Wagner will revisit/rewrite the death of Johnny Alpha, I'd like the story to give Johnny back his future. I didn't think Johnny should have died in The Final Solution and don't mind if there is a twist in the tale that gives him his life back - I'd like to think Johnny eventually finds happiness and gets to retire to an alien planet somewhere...

Hopefully that's a nice positive thought for the start to the New Year.

Johnny and Wulf

Been away for a couple of days. Seeing family & friends and speeding around like some sort of guided missile.


I snatched a few moments to sketch this one morning, whilst my lovely lady slumbered. No idea how long it took but I'm happy with it and as I'm still busy on a project I can't show - I thought I'd share it. Can't let the blog go without an update for too long!

Wulf and Johnny

's 'nother one of those fifteen minute jobs. Surprising how short that time is when you're trying to do two full figures - this sketch really is just the bare bones of a layout.


There's lots wrong with it too... that's ok though, 'cos it's only a quick sketch for fun!

15 Minute Dredd Head

Been sick as a dog ever since I went to Birmingham, and haven't really been up to much since. My good lady has the anti-viral medication for the flu - and both of us have been rattling around drugged up on a smorgasbord of other cold remedies for the past week.
Today, I feel almost back to normal - and to ease me in gently back to work I've done a quick Dredd Head as a submission for a drawing thread over on the 2000AD forum.


15 minutes to draw Dredd's head... This was 15 minutes, sketched in photoshop with my wacom. I'm not really that happy with how this has turned out - oh well... back to the drawing board!

Edit:
Johnny Alpha, Stontium Dog... 15 minutes digital sketch:



"Stimpy, you eediot!"

Did you spot the 'deliberate' mistakes in these two?

No? It's '09 - not '08, obviously, I'm still a bit foggy in the head!

Another edit:
Durham Red:

Pencil Pusher's Progress

Ye Gods! Nearly a week between posts...


I'm pretty chuffed though... six pages pencilled in less than three days - which I think is pretty quick and close to the necessary speed. Here's two panels from those pages as a taster - you'll have to wait a long time to see the final things as these are for a strip not scheduled to appear in Dogbreath until next spring!


I don't really want to say too much about these - as it might spoil a nice surprise...

When the pages are finished, I'll probably still post a panel or two more though...

Zarjaz and Dogbreath Strips

I've been doing some fanzine work for the splendid chaps at FutureQuake Press. I've already done a six page story for the next issue of Zarjaz and I've just finished a three page Gronk story for the next issue of Dogbreath... I'm pretty chuffed as I lettered this strip too. I've got another strip for Dogbreath in the works as well that should be pretty cool too...

Find out more about these two brilliant publications at The Quaequam blog. If you need some reading material until your next Prog or Meg arrives, swing by their shop and order yourself some of the finest small press sci-fi you're likely to read.


This panel is from the six pager, I won't say which 2000AD 'parent' story it's from as I don't want to give too much away until the strip is printed. I felt that I should use a hatching style on this for a number of reasons, evoke part of what the original strip had and also because this is set in the 60s, I wanted a traditional 'older' look to the work - on reflection I'm not sure my hatching is up to the standard I wanted.


This panel is from the Gronk strip. I've used a home-made digital tone as I wanted to control how the 'grey' areas would appear in the final print. I also wanted to test-drive something I'd experimented with before. The other thing to mention for those of you are just along for the ride is that this panel has my depictions of Johnny Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer from Strontium Dog.

I'll submit these (and the Dredd Pin-up) to Tharg, and hopefully share his feedback as soon as I have it!

I do have some more, enormous, headline grabbing news that I can't blog about yet, but when the next issue of Zarjaz comes out... you'll know about it!

***EDIT***
Just had feedback from Tharg - man he's a speedy alien that one!
(copied from his verdant e-mail which pinged into my inbox with a certain authority)

Thanks for the samples, Kevin. Your linework is quite strong, and the pages are nice and clear, but I think you need to work further at your human figure drawing and anatomy. Dredd's foreshortened arms in the pin-up don't look quite right, for example. The characters need to feel like they're moving and have life, and that they have substance to them.

Right, onwards and upwards - I've got more samples to produce - I'll keep working on my figures - I do have some problems with anatomy and foreshortening that I'm working on and hopefully once I've cracked that...

Strontium Dog

Since last week I've felt like someone came along, replaced my hands with pig's trotters and then crept away cackling. Call me paranoid if you like but I've seen the results in my sketchbook go from bad to worse, that and I've found myself rooting around at the base of trees...

Which is where I found this, or so you'd think from the looks of it!

I've been trying, possibly a bit too hard to get some sketches together for the new Judge Dredd script I have sitting on my drawing table... I hate everything I've done to date. I think I've got a bit too precious about it and somehow now I can't draw a thing.

I've booked a ticket and hotel for the Leeds Thought Bubble convention... in an attempt to kick start my creative juices with an injection of deadline adrenalin. Four short weeks away, I hope I can re-learn how to draw in time.