friday 9th Sept

Phew! What a week! Been all over the place sorting out this and that.

Stag Party update:
Here are the roughs for the fifth page:

The pencils for the strip are now complete! However deadlines for printed strips have now forced a stop on this strip. I’m planning on having two-three weeks grace and then getting stuck into the inks. This definitely means no to Dreddcon for this strip.

FutureQuake news: the table is booked! All we need now is some product….

Lost Property 2: revenge of the strip is gaining momentum and I’ve taken receipt of some really nice strips. This collection is very different to the first one, and I’m not sure still just how different.

I’ve accepted a commission to work on a strip with long-time collaborator Richmond Clements to work on a three page strip for the Loup Garou projest (click on the Graveyard shift link for more on that)



And finally, this is intended for use on PJ Holden’s Pencil monkey forum:

D

Friday 2nd September

Hey there, back from Hols and up to speed. I got some nice sketching done whilst away and managed to complete a couple of Webstrips that will see the light of day sooner or later.

Stag Party update:
Here are the roughs for the fourth page: The only page awaiting final pencils is page 6, which id giving me some severe grief. I’m not satisfied with the look of that one and it needs so more re-working.


I’m still hopeful of having this ready in time for the October 1st Dreddcon, but it could well be close.

This weekend is the Moniaive festival, in Scotland. Apparently the last one, I’ve contributed the art for a strip by Paul Glasswell. This is the preliminary scribble I did—



Had some bad news on the FQ front; looks verry unlikely that we will have a finished issue in time for Dreddcon, so instead we are launching at the Brighton Expo Fingers crossed for no more bad news.

D

Mighty Yammer 37 Last for now

Mighty Yammer 37- last for now

Did anybody notice the new look? I’ve learned a few things and will be trying to finally get this place all personalised over the next few months.

This week:
My strip for Moniaive is all finished and delivered, really pleased with how it has turned out. 3 pages of B&W line work and I’ll post up a scribble or two as time moves in closer.

Stag Party update:
Here are the roughs for the third page: Full pencils are done for the first two pages.


If you look to the right of this you will see the Bloglet subscription box, which will let you recieve these updates over the Email, and I’ve begun putting up a list of links ! The latest there is for Cavan Scott’s Graveyard shift, a blog promoting his latest publishing venture. I’ve been asked to draw a strip for this and I’ll keep you posted as to any news !

Work has begun to snowball on Lost Property edition 2, with several creators new to me showing interest in contributiing. For anyone interested, please Email me and I’ll happily tell you all about it !

D

Mighty Yammer 36

Presenting :



This week has seen the strip I’m doing for Moniaive move into high gear. Page 1 is completed (&lettered) and I finished the inks on page 2 at 7am today. I aim to have page 3 inked by the end of the weekend and then It’s back to the-

Stag Party update:
Here are the roughs for the second page: Full pencils will be done soon.


In other things, I have begun lettering the strips that have so far arrived for FQ05- and even 1 for issue 06 ! That one is taking some time as we are trying a few different approaches to the lettering to those I normally do.

The FutureQuake website suffered at my hands last weekend, when our Webmaster updated some of the formatting for me and I forgot to save it before overwriting with my latest waffle. Now though all the Monster Squad webstrips are hosted (even some that were not on the orininal Monster Squad website) and more are being developed.

D

Mighty Yammer 35

Presenting :



Stag Party update: I’ve completely finished the roughs for the six pages, but due to an emerging case of deadline doom, I’ve had to put that strip to one side. What am I working on? Can’t say yet- but it is for the Moniaive comic festival so I’ll be able to say more when the time comes.

Here are the roughs for the first page: Full pencils will be done soon.




The second of the Small Press multi-ads is in the new Comics international, and I urge anybody reading this to have a look at the delightful selection of titles on sale. There will be a further ad next month, then we are resting till nearer the Brighton Expo in November.

D

Mighty Yammer 34

Presenting :



FATTIES!


This weeks fattie sketches. I’ve now managed to block in four of the pages for the Stag party, though I’m hoping for a productive weekend so I may be making more progress soon.

I’ve been practising my editorial and layout skills (such as they are) by working on an article By Ed Berridge for the next edition of Lost Property. He’s written a really strong piece covering the history of the three panel shortform and some of the art to go with it is truly breathtaking.

Ed has been a busy boy as well for FutureQuake, he has designed a poster promoting issue 6 (Due spring 2006) that I lettered for him.



I’ve seen a real slow-down in my page-rate since Bristol this year- why? Couple of reasons: I’m busier with other things (lettering, organising strips for FQ etc) and I’ve decided to alter the way I put a strip together in that I’ll rough a whole strip out and then tighten the pencils before inking. A more time consuming business all together, but the inking is a lot quicker and it can pay dividends in terms of all the pages being more immediate.

D

Mighty Yammer 33

Presenting :



FATTIES! I’ve drawn nothing but fatties this week in prep for the Stag party.



Just some of the scribbles I’ve done this week. Starting to get there I think.

On the job interview: Not going to be changing job anytime soon, but that’s cool.

I’ve spent this week living as a single parent, as Mrs Bolt has been on her residential in Edinburgh for a week. I had all these plans for getting copious amounts of drawing done but all I’ve managed is 1 page of pencils so far.

And to top it my dog sat next to the PC last night and bent my flash drive! I’ve managed to get it to access the data again but I’ve lost some files that weren’t on any other system.

Ah well,

D

Mighty Yammer 32

Presenting :



Not really done much this week due to having to prepare for a job interview. I’ll have to wait till Monday to discover whether or not I can lay my stores key down to join the ranks of the data crunchers!

I ‘have’ been doing some sketch work for my next major strip, The preview image for this was presented at last years Dreddcon and looked like this:



I’ll have some of the sketches up here soon enough as well.

D

Mighty Yammer 31- Reprise!

Re-Presenting :



This is the last episode of the Yammer that I ran earlier this year., seeing as the next episode picks up from this one directly then it aint rocket science to realise that I’d be best to start here!

This week I’ve finished Dry County, and I’ve done three new Jon & Gorath strips, which mark the start of the next batch of strips for Lost Property Vol 2.

I’ve had some interest from folks who didn’t work on issue one wanting to put stuff together for issue 2 which is really nice, especially as the first issue didn’t do very well at all. Still at least I’ll be able to keep it in print!

Over on the FutureQuake website the shop is almost complete and there should be some strips going up soon to boost the actual ‘comic’ content.

FutureQuake also features in this months Comics International! We get a decent review, as does Tales of the Contrary.

FutureQuake also appears on the first UK Small Press multi-Ad organised by Mr Solar Wind himself, Paul Scott.


D

Jon & Gorath 10

Presenting :



This week I’ve reached the inks on page 4 of Dry County, which is coming along nicely, and I’ve completed the latest six episodes of the Mighty Yammer! (remember him) I’ll be starting to run those next week as I start work on the next batch of Jon & Gorath scripts.

Over on the FutureQuake website I’ve begun hosting webstrips for those loveable rogues in the Monster squad. These are due to be changed each week for the foreseeable future, and as the strip progresses there will be a succession of guest creators including me!

This is all thanks to a new FTP program that I’ve bought. Thanks to those guys over at Cuteftp for all the help with getting going with this.

D

Jon & Gorath 09

Presenting :



Strontium Dogs: Dry county. This week I’ve finally managed to finish the pencils for this strip. I’ve only been working on this since before the Bristol Expo last month. I’m hoping that the extra time taken will pay-off in the reduced inking time as I don’t need to noodle.







This will be in the next edition of the Strontium Dog Fanzine DogBreath logo

Due in the autumn.

I’ve also begun sketch work for a strip to be pitched for the Monaive festival later this year. I don’t want to say too much about that yet, but it will be a cracking little strip if it gets the go-ahead.

D

Jon & Gorath 08

Presenting :



This week the first strips have been assigned for issue 05 of FutureQuake, and we’ve even begun looking at the content for 06. The new roles for the editors are being defined and things are beginning to settle down.

Over on theFutureQuake website we are gearing up for the launch of the shop and the weekly webstrip. Hopefully these will prove popular

Jon & Gorath 07

BLOG PREP!

Presenting :



This week I’ve been trying to make a start on the next FQ, whilst decorating my lounge and discovering a fear of the inking pen L

I’ve managed to complete some new episodes of the Mighty Yammer, ; which ‘ll be running when Jon & Gorath finish their current run, and then hopefully I’ll have some new J&G for you all.

In other news : Mr Boo Cook has proved once again that he is an absolute gent by allowing me to use some of his pages for a lettering submission, and sending a rather nice birthday pressie through for Mini-bolt. I’ll try to get a pick asap.

D

Jon & Gorath 06

Jon & Gorath 05 & post Bristol

Presenting :



Back from Bristol!

It was great to meet everybody there and we all had a complete blast. Futurequake did better than we could have hoped and has almost broken even.



Work is now beginning on the next issue, with the script editors reading feverishly to determine the tales for issue 5.

D

Jon & Gorath 04 & FutureQuake! launch

This is the biggest week of the year so far. Saturday and sunday see the Bristol comic Expo happening, and the launch of what seems to be the largest amount of UK smallpress yet.

2000adreview's Small press round-up has a partial list of the titles available, but there are many that aren't on this list.

Lost Property and Tales of the contrary also launch this week.

If you are around, come say Hi.

This weeks Jon & Gorath was painted by my wife. She did the pic in watercolours over my original ink-lines. I'm thoroughly pleased with the result.

I've also begun work on a new batch of Yammer episodes. I'm hoping to reach the end of runaround robot soon, as I want to tell other stories about the hopeless hero.

Jon & Gorath 01 (V2)

Re-presenting:



This was coloured by my eldest lad, the mighty Mini-Bolt. I've chained him to the monitor till he colours the rest of the strips, so I've decided to hold on to them for now and show the new vwersions as they arrive.

Jon & Gorath 03

Presenting :




Lost Property is printed ! The contributor copies for the post have been sent, and I am working my way through the rest of them, collating wildly. Hopefully I can sell almost all the run, as that way I can hide the hole in my bank before the wife notices ! We have made the funding for FQ available but I’ve done this out of my own pocket as I needed to, and those colour pages don’t half eat ink !

Tales of the Contrary has reached the stage where the cover is being done, so here are
the rough sketch and
the almost completed final. The tones for this collection are all by Richmond Clements apart from the Complete Revolution strip on the back cover.

The final tale for the collection, The captain, is the only stumbling block left to conquer- I know the illo’s that need to be done, yet I can’t seem to put anything on paper that I’m happy with. Need to relax I suppose and let it happen.

Also this week has seen me enlist Richmond to help with the greyscale on the Ghouls of Grafton Street. Intended for Solar Wind, here are the thumbnails I worked from



The strip has been delivered and Cosmic Ray has given it a thumbs-up, so I’m glad to be an androit once more!

Five minutes before I typed these words I put the finishing touches to FutureQuake and saved the document for the printers. At last. The next thing will be waiting for the printers to tell me I’ve made some awful error in the formatting and the comic is ruined; or not.

Ah well, I finish work today till Tuesday, and the Bolt clan are off to Blackpool for a weekend of roller-coaster action!

D

Bloglet link fixed.

Just noticed that the bloglet link was broken. I've fixed it now, so If you want to, you can:

Enter your email address below to subscribe to Lost Property!





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Jon & Gorath 02

Hopefully in the next week or two, the Jon & Gorath strip will be moving to colour (at least on a temporary basis) courtesy of the mighty Mini-bolt !

I aim to print the last few pages of Lost Property tomorrow, and I have a page and a half of inks left for the Ghouls of Grafton Street.

Tales of the Contrary is nearing completion, with the last text imminent. Hopefully it will be ready in time for the Bristol Expo.

I have all the art in for FutureQuake, and only two strips to letter. I aim to have it at the printers by this time next week.

Fingers crossed that is.

Jon & Gorath 01

Presenting :



This is the first episode of a new strip I’ll be running each week till I run out. Written by Mark Woodland, this was the strip that caused me to begin the collection of strips called Lost Property.

In other news, I have begun using InDesign to lay out the pages for Futurequake. The inside cover is getting the most effort as the rest are comic pages.

Work continues on the Ghouls of Grafton street, having reached the third page in the finished pencils leg of the job.

Friday 8th March 2005

This week has seen the final line-up for FQ 04 decided on, resulting in having several strips ‘in the bank’ for 5.

The cover has been prepped for Tales of the Contrary, and I am hoping to receive the final story from Andrew over the weekend, a tale called simply: ‘The Captain.’


Lost Property is almost printed. I just need to get hold of some more A5 paper and it will be complete. As nice as the format for this is, it is snowballing on the expense side. I think next issue (if I do one) will adopt a more traditional look.


I have finished the Whistler strip and have also done illustrations for a story by Richmond Clements, which has possibly the best last line I’ve read this year. I’ve got a sketch from that somewhere….


In other news, I have signed up with Cosmic Ray for another tour of duty with Solar Wind. I am currently pencilling the exploits of a school football team with a difference. A cracking script by Ben Clark ensures that at least the words will be worth reading!