Strontium Dog: Nice Little Town detail

A long time ago, before Futurequake, I illustrated a story by Richmond called Nice Little town. It appeared in Dogbreath 11 (iirc) and was never remarked upon again.

Now Richmond has decided that he wants to present this again over on the website with the illustrations in colour. Not a problem says I, I'll send the pics over and you can colour them and we will all be happy.

Then I looked at them.

I'm not the biggest fan of my stuff, in fact there is very little I've drawn over the years that doesn't make me cringe eventually. But there was one illo in here that I would not want to inflict on anyone again. Therefore I'm redrawing it. That is a part of it at the top. Hopefully I'll have this in a sort of finished state over the weekend and then rich can work his magic colour stick on top.

Invasion- Chippy.

Here is the first of my entries into this months 2000adOnline messageboard comp. Lots of fun and one of my favourite jokes.

Bristol countdown: 15 days...

Been a busy old week for me; On Tuesday I turned 38. Feeling old is just around the corner, but I'm not there yet!

I delivered FutureQuake, Dogbreath and Zarjaz to the printers this week, so barring 'The Great Warlord Sugi & Other Tales' that is it for prep for this years Bristol con.

I collected World of Weird from the printers, a comic I've been putting the finishing touches to for Ed Berridge & Bryan Coyle, and has been in the pipeline for almost three years! The finished product looks good, so hopefully it'll make some folks happy to read it.

MangaQuake 06 was also ready for collection, and includes an absolute gem of a strip. Titled 'love is not wrong' it is a superbly paced tale with art by first time published artist Sophia Grant. Sophia is also one of the folk who took part in the portfolio session at HI-Ex earlier this year. Nice to see someone dipping their toes into small press after that.

Art-wise I'm now inking page 3 of the Kingdom strip for the next Zarjaz, and I'm making sketches for a perspective based shot of Mega-city one for the 2000ad message board. Not sure if that will turn into anything though.

In the near future I'm thinking that we well make a third issue of FutureQuake next year, as we have a significant page count already in files ready to print. Things will have to be discussed before a proper decision is reached though.

I'll try to get a picture for next time I post...

Dogbreath 18 Detail

I've posted the full version of this on the Quequam blog, but I like this enough to want to post the line art here. Very pleased with how this came out.

Time passes on...

This week I've been busily working on Kingdom. Page 3 was completed (pencil-wise) in a flurry of activity and page 4 is coming together steadily.

We lost the cover artist for Dogbreath 18, which was a bit of a blow, and is still not sorted. I'm working on a back up plan of doing it myself if I have to, but I'm not keen on that to be honest. Think Dogbreath deserves a 'pro' on the cover.

The running order for the next FQ is all sorted now, and I think it is going to be a well received issue. Hopefully the last few pages of strip will be here within the week so I can get to the printer early for once!

Walking Wounded.

Bit of a bias here, as I lettered the second issue, but the Bros Denton have sent me copies of both WALKING WOUNDED comics that are in print, and damn fine theye are too.

Featuring the war-time exploits of a group of supposedly unfit for duty soldiers, this is a well written and drawn series that will leave you wanting more.

Massacre For Boys

Work so far...

Progress is slow on the kingdom strip. As the deadline for the latest crop of comics gets closer, the amount of time I have to devote to the artwork that I love shrinks.

Still, I can't really complain as I agreed to take all this on.

So far I am pencilling the third page (of five) and I think this is some of the best work I've done. However I feel like that about all my work till the ink is dry, then I can barely look at it.

Here's a rough scan of pages 1 & 2.

Set the controls for the heart of the sun!

My latest entry into the wild world of 2000ad art competitions. The colour on here was provided, as ever, by Richmond Clements.

Kingdom! Coming soon

As a taster for the strip I'm about to start for the End of Year Zarjaz, here are a couple of pics of the mighty Mutt- Gene the Hackman.

Gene the Hackman Copyright Rebellion.

Mecha KONG!

The new art comp thread over at 2000adOnline is running well, and I've managed to get an entry sorted for it. The BG is taken from a photo and run through the 'Live-trace' function in Illustrator- twice. Once for the grey tones and again for the black line. I then composed the image in Photoshop.

Check the thread out, as it has some stunning artwork.

http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=fan&page=messagethread&choice=21685&skipto=-1&Replies=102

Merry Christmas!

Just realised its been a month since I last posted, so it is time for an update…

Working on:
Whistler is all finished and ready for printing. Need to sort myself a story so far page for this as it may seem a bit disjointed seeing as it will have been a year since the last episode.

Latest from FQP:
We’ve just posted the 2007 christmas card, thanks to the amazingly talented Johnny Mcmonagle for the artwork featuring Neroy Sphinx.



Something Wicked
ON THE CARDS is a strip I’m working on for issue 04, and here are pencils for pages 1 and 3. I’ve almost finished the pencils for page 4, and then it is time to start inking.





DogBreath & Zarjaz
Zarjaz is now all ours. Scripts are being read and artists contacted. I’v also begun a blog for the combined might of the galaxies greatest fanzines- nothing to show yet, but I’ll be linking it when it goes live.

Dave

Mutterings and rambles....

Quiet today, so I thought I’d have a mutter to myself over here…

Working on:
I’m still putting pages together for Duke Etranges’ World of Weird, and apart from one sizeable strip, this is almost ready. Lots of faffing around with page layouts still though.

I’ve just sent a strip off for colouring that features PHOTON! In a healthy slice of action.



I’m in the Greytones stage on Whistler- up to page 4 at the moment, nearly finished.

I’ve also broken the A3 out for a strip for NEXT YEAR’s Something wicked. A four page strip called on the cards. I’ll be lamping bits up for it as time goes by no doubt.





Latest from FQP:
All pretty quiet at the moment. Lots of scripts being read- some going to artists for future issues, others being worked on to make sure they are as good as can be.

DogBreath & Zarjaz
Oh yeah, this is good. I’ve just secured the cover artist for the next issues of these titles (Seeing as it is going to be our first Zarjaz I am even more chuffed) and as soon as I can say who it is, I will.

Peeps the butler droid has been pressganged into our service and is in the process of collating the current files for Zarjaz ready for transferring into the Bolt-01 ‘Beast’frame so that I can begin sorting the new issue. Plans are already underway for some mighty impressive happenings.

Dave

Teamwork

Hola!

Teamwork, that is what makes things like FutureQuake possible. I know full well that I am part of a solid team and that if I need back-up I'll get it. Comics are by there very nature a solitary pleasure, yet the biggest pleasure I get in this mad hobby is actually meeting up with my fellow comic folk and having a good natter about stuff. I know that If I was trying to do all this on my own I'd go mad, so thanks and thanks again to all those folks who are part of the team at FQP.

The current crop of FQP titles is barely in print and I've already received all bar 12 pages of the next FQ, AND the cover!



The new website is doing well, though the forum is dead, mostly due to me being unable to add new bits to it that I'd like. However, I'm sure that as soon as our Webmaster notices the emails he'll sort it.

In other news I am assured that I'll have all the info I need to take over on Zarjaz soon, and the enigmatic Duke Etrange has camped out in my back yard and won't leave till I get his comic ready for him either.

I've also had to raid the FQP bank account in order to pay for not one, but two conventions for next year already! Next year is going to be a busy one- with Hi-Ex in Feb, Bristol in May and Brum con III in October! PHEW!

Friday Sept 28th

Phew, what a week! Too many late nights, followed by too many early mornings has left me a bit frazzled today- still, all be worth it in the end.

Working on:
Still pencilling Whistler, as I’ve had a couple of last minute jobs dropped on me which has swallowed a lot of my time. Still, I’ve got six months to finish!

Latest from FQP:
The Cd’s for FQ, MQ and SW are at the printers! I had a call this morning about a formatting error I’ve made on MQ, which I’ll sort for Monday, but the others are all okay! I’ll be collecting in two weeks today- maybe sooner if I can.

DogBreath
After all the grief I gave one artist about delivering his strip on time (and him doing so) I’ve had to delay this getting to the printer due to another artist having issues. Hopefully I’ll have this sorted over the weekend, which will still leave me enough time to get the comics printed.

Dave

Print deadline 4 days...

‘Ow do? Decided to try and keep plodding on with this, as I always enjoy reading other folks talking about this.

Working on:
Still pencilling Whistler, reached page 4 of 5, so after that I’ll be doing the lettering and making sure it all works before I lock it in with the inks. I’ve also completed an entry in a comp for Mike Carroll’s New Heroes on the 2000ad messageboard

Latest from FQP:
Got my copy of Meg 263 this week, featuring NEROY SPHINX in the small press slot! The team for this episode are Dan Whiston (as ever) Johnny McMonagle, with colour by Richmond and the lettering by ME!! The strip looks great and I’m really chuffed for Dan and Johnny.
As for the new crop- Nearly there, Printers on Tuesday and still loads to do yet.

FutureQuake
The mighty Johnny McMonagle sent me a set of amended Neroy pages to make sure that the format difference between the Meg and FQ isn’t too apparent.

Something Wicked
Still waiting on three pages in order to make page count. I’ve been promised them, so hopefully we are good to go. Still waiting on some bios from creators, but if I don’t get those I’ll make them up myself. The worst thing is getting a strip finished and realising that there are issues with some of the text and that the writer isn’t answering emails. Do we amend as best we can or do we run a strip that has confused people on proof reading and needs explanation? It is a quandary worthy of Pat Mills himself…

MangaQuake
Nearly there. Got the amended strip we were waiting for and Rich has completed the list of bios. Nest up is sorting the inside page and away!

DogBreath
Shh, don’t talk about it or I’ll jinx it…

Stak is all printed and ready to go! Need to sort some preview images in the next week, but for now I’m not worrying about that.


Dave

Hey ho. Not posted for a while, and I suppose I’ve only myself to blame for that.

Working on:
I’ve just completed some work for Cosmic Ray, and I’m pretty chuffed with it at the moment. Can’t really say what I’ve done, but it was great to have a chance at a character I’d not handled before.

I’ve just begun work on the third episode of the new Whistler, which will be in the spring Dogbreath. I agonised for ages over this and rewrote it several times to increase the action to a point where I was happy.

Latest from FQP:
Almost time for the printers! Each issue is at a different stage at the moment, so…

FutureQuake
All I need to do is sort out a half page and then it is ready to go.

Something Wicked
This is possibly going to be a slim volume. Some of the strips may not make deadline- yet if all goes to plan then we’ll still be able to run.

MangaQuake
Almost ready, despite some strips being missing due to creators apparently dropping off the face of the planet.

DogBreath
This is the tight one. One strip is only just being started and another one is hopefully going to be with me on the night I burn the CD! Talk about running close.

In other news, I’m hoping that STAK! Will be ready for the convention in Birmingham in October, and with Zarjaz on the stall as well, we are possibly going to be one of the most thrill-powered tables at the con!

Dave

This is the first image I've been happy enough with to share for folks. I'm starting a strip which is going to have a completely different look to my usual work, so I'm spending this week putting together sketches and sample panels in an attempt to get the look 'right'

Tales of the GI: In the zone...

I've not posted much lately- seeing as I've not really had anything to say...





FQP is plodding along really, sales are slow for the current crop, but we are in the period between issues now so I expect things to just carry on till we start to get some new strips in for the next issues.





I've finished a strip for Something wicked 03, written by my Jon & Gorath collaborator Mark Woodland it has a couple of panels I'm really proud of.





I'm also hard at work on the next episode of a strip with the mighty Sprout, see image for a tease. The second strip in this saga is five pages of fun, and I'm enjoying it so much i've managed to reach my fourth pencilled page since last Friday, a personal record, and the images are just falling out of the pencil.

The first episode of this characters tale (In the Dark) is over at 2000adreview at the moment, but it will appear soon in the Rogue Trooper fanzine "STAK!", that is fast approaching completion.

More soon...

Jon & Gorath 31

Well, we didn't get the Eagle- that went to HERO KILLERS by Andy winter. Which I've now read and it is a top little book, well worth reading.

Forgive the length of time between posts, I'm all out of webstrips. I may still drop something in on here every so often, but until the next load of J&G get started then this may be it.

Jon & Gorath 30

This is the last of the Gorath goes on holiday episodes, sorry for the wait.

Since last posting- FutureQuake has been nominated for an EAGLE Award! Please vote for us, as the creators who have worked on the title over the years all deserve some extra recognition!