Been away…

Went on a cruise with my dad, any one who knows me and my dad could predict the outcome, but we did it any way. He’s getting on in years (79 this year, falling apart but also in rude health) and he’s got a bit of money (not minted, largely what he got from selling me the house) and he likes to go on a cruise and he’s taken my brothers with him over the years, and I felt like I should go with him out of a familial duty (the offer of a free holiday sounds attractive, but honestly not to me).

In the course of that, I wrote rather a lot about it on bluesky, and quite a lot of people suggested there’s at least a autobiographical comic in it, so if I find time I’m going to organise those thoughts and try and do that.

Also, while away I wrote out the 42 page Terran Omega story, did it in bullet point, and I’m determined to write/draw that story, possibly by taking those bullet points and drawing one page per week.

I’d like to get to the end of this year with at least a couple of projects that are entirely mine.

Having come back to the blog, I’ve tried posting stuff over on patreon, because, well, some people signed up for my patreon and then, I suspect, forgot to unsubscribe, and frankly, the accumulated cash of two years of that patreon money was enough this month to make sure I didn’t feel like I was gonna go broke, so I bunged some content there, but honestly, I sort of hate how it’s displayed in the blog here. I hate having two places (three if you count bluesky) for writing my thoughts, but here’s what I think will happen:

Patreon for behind the scenes stuff that I absolutely can’t show around (ie unused sketches, covers, etc) that’ll be paid for.

Patreon / Blog for posting comics/updates/etc. Free stuff.

Blog for everything else (and that will remain free)

Bluesky for daily nonsense.

I’m going to try and disentangle the blog from the patreon, so you don’t get horrid “Oh you should sign up to Patreon to read this” I find it makes me angry so god knows what it’s doing to you, dear reader.

I found an italian book shop on the cruise, and later a comic shop, and picked up some Dylan Dog – I have some of the early Dark Horse English translations of Nathan Never, but never managed to pick up their Dylan Dog (which is a shame, and the books are insanly priced now) but the books I picked up in the comics shop and the book shop – both by Cavenago on art and just gorgeous looking! insanely beautiful work, and two coincidences came out of this, the first I was watching the new series of Love Death and Robots and the episode How Zeke Got Religion, was art directed by Cavenago – it’s a glorious thing, and I highly recommend it.

Frame from How Zeke Got Religion. Inside a wwii bomber, Zeke stands in horror aghast at something that he's looking at.

The second odd coincidence is from the Dylan Dog book I “Dylan Dog presenta I RACCONTI di Domani” (or “Dylan Dog Presents Stories of Tomorrow”)

One of those stories begins with the line “Mi Chiamo Holden” – “My name is Holden”. Anyway, weird world, what?

Photo of the page from the comic featuring the line My Name is Holden.

Best Hobby Zeo illustrations

Been doing some illustration work for a new table top game (with robots) called … Zeo Genisis, really great fun company to do work for and I started drawing in print for RPG fanzines, so it’s nice to go back and do some more of that.

Digital to Ink

This is the page where I think I finally broke my brain with digital drawing. It took no time at all to pencil and then ink digitally and I just thought “but actually, I’d like to have drawn that on paper”. So I printed the inks out and reinked it – on paper with a dip pen. Then scanned it and used the hand drawn. All in, inks took about 2-3 hours, which is no time, but absoloutely worth doing, because, gosh, it’s nice to be back on paper.

Plus, at some point, I’ll probably sell it, but it’s nice to be happy with a page and actually have the physical art of it too.

EC Comics The Honkering

Sometimes you’ll surprise yourself at the stuff that looks good, and John and I were both really super happy at how Page one of this turned out. Just a nice market! No monsters, no spaceships, just a bunch of junk around a market place.

Anyway this is another where I pencilled and John inked, though there’s a few pages where John ended up not getting to and so inked a few of the pages.

The Headmistress

Written by Greg Pak, this is one of the EC Jobs where I did roughs for John McCrea – these are largely about how detailed I pencil, though knowing John is gonna ink them up, I tend to not worry too much about the quality, John usually brings something killer to it (sometimes that killer thing is an eraser and he’ll rub it out and just redraw it, as he did with the main figure of the Headmistress on Page 2.

Anyway, intend to get more stuff going on the Patreon, since lots of people are still subscribed SURPRISE! I bet you forgot! I would’ve! – no harm no foul if you decide to just delete your subscription, but believe me that money has come in handy ! Usually I don’t even look at it unless my bank balance looks awful (usually every several months), by which time it’s usually wracked up a little bit of dosh, enough, at least, to make the month go a little easier – so thanks for that! (Even if you didn’t mean to!)

The reward will be, I’ll post more art stuff up here, I’ve a BIG backlog of stuff I’ve not posted anywhere, and you’ll get it – fair?

Pen on paper

Some notes on using nib pens to ink on paper. These are my observations only, and I wouldn’t call them rules, just stuff I’ve found handy. Happy to host more ideas if you can think of any!

Fresh nibs need to be readied for use – they will be coated in a thin layer of oil, you can clean it off with either warm soapy water or burn it (WITH FIRE!)

I’m heavy on nibs, I learn down hard, but you can invert the nib ( and lean on it a bit to get the original shape back – leaning hard over a while separates the two tines (see diagram) a fraction making ink lines a lot thicker. By inverting the nib and pressing down you’re closing the tines again and your line should be thinner.

The inverted pen

For me, I dip a pen until the tines have ink just before the reservoir, I do not fill the reservoir, I find if I do the ink is prone to leap out of the nib on its own when I’m moving the pen or blobbing on the page too easily.

Sounds obvious, but sometimes isn’t – if you’re right handed ink from the top left to bottom right (and vice versa if right handed). If the image is tricky to ink, rotate the page – in fact you may find yourself constantly rotating the page.

Lights! An overhead light is prone to reflections in the ink, this makes it slightly annoying seeing shiny black marks that are actually now reflecting white, BUT a light at an angle will not reflect ink that way – the reflections miss your eye, so you get a constant matt black from the ink.

If the room is too dark (I have a really good over head studio light, but it’s very reflective on black ink but my over the drawing table lamp is great for lighting the table but not much else) get more studio lights, just don’t turn on the overhead because even with multiple lights the overhead will still reflect off the ink.

Drawing straight lines with a ruler and a nib pen is easy – hold the ruler at an angle, and use the straight edge along one of the tines (ideally close enough to the nib holder that you wont smear ink along the ruler) and it’s best done with a metal ruler, simply when you press the nib against a plastic ruler the plastic may bend causing – making your straight line somewhat curved. (You can use a wooden one too, but given the abuse all my tools get in my studio, it’s likely a wooden ruler will survive)

Wait til the next day to erase any inked lines (ok, I never do, but give it as much time as you can!). And be especially careful on any blobs of black ink – even when dried they can smear.

On erasers, I love black erasers, they’re great at not smearing pencil – but be warned, I dunno what chemical stuff they’ve got going on, but after a few years of NOT using a bunch of black erasers, the black erasers have bonded with various plastic drawing tools – not just the erasers but the black eraser rubbings. And they seem impossible to shift. If you’re going to use them, and again – they’re better than white for rubbing things out, I’ve found – make sure to clear an eraser rubbings off any tools. Those things are deadly.

Been enjoying drawing on paper, I think I’ve also hit the point where I think of drawing on paper first rather than as a thing I’m returning too. I just have to sort out storage for all of these sheets of paper now.

So good on paper

“I know nothing stays the same”

Decided to give paper and ink another turn. And this time it’s taken. Drawn a bunch of pages, I still haven’t got the full measure of my tools yet (and many of them were packed away two years ago when I moved and they haven’t come out of their packaging) but it’s nice to be drawing on paper again.

I had felt somewhat stagnant on the digital front, largely I knew the tricks I needed to get the results I wanted and that’s what I did, but it didn’t feel like there was any forward movement (plus as I’ve said many times, if you do a good page digitally you really miss having the thing in your hands, a print out isn’t the same at all)

I don’t know how long this return to paper will last, and honestly it’s been maybe six years since I last bought supplies (I would always over buy – 20 blocks of A3 paper, I think was my last purchase) and I suspect the prices of much that stuff has doubled or tripled in the time, so my first time buying new supplies is going to be very painful.

BUT the range of marks you can get – I was doing explosions using a dry brush and dabbing tissue paper on the page – means you’re constantly getting nice new accidental effects.

Feeling freshly in love with drawing. Which is nice.

Improv Level 1

So, I’ve now completed Improv Level 1 and we had our graduation show. Scarier to think about than to actually do, I really enjoyed it.

Working a bit backwards, the name “Hot Air Cosmonauts” – given to the group because, well, all troupes have a collective name and you sort of get gifted it as you go. It came out of two moments, one where me and another performer were supposed to be two characters working a hot air balloon only to find when you get up and do it you literally know nothing about hot air balloons. Gas, we figured out gas eventually. But not before the idea that maybe it ran on coal came up. It was fun. And later, surrounded by people twenty years my junior you discover not everyone knows what a cosmonaut is. And so, on the day of the performance we find out we’re called Hot Air Cosmonauts. I don’t hate it. But suspect that name might not stick.

Some things I’ve learned about improv are that it very much is something you have to watch live, some short forms can be made to work recorded, but with an audience, but really you need an audience to be following you along with the run of the thing for it to work and be funny. It’s fascinating to see scenes (prior to doing improv I’d’ve called them sketches) just not working, but then a second swing at the same scene and… still doesn’t work, audience shift, another go and this time, uproar, as whatever wasn’t working before suddenly works because of a slight tweak in some part of the scene. And if you isolate any three of those scenes on their own they just wouldn’t play. Not even the one that eventually worked, because part of the reason it worked is because it was built on the bones of the previous two attempts.

Saw that happen more than once, and the lesson I think as a performer is that it doesn’t matter if it goes wrong, you’re not the entire meal you’re one part of the stew.

I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with the others from my class, Paul Mone who runs the thing is very good at making the space very safe, and it has to be because you really need to be able to trust the rest of the performers if you’re going to get up on stage with and be vulnerable – no prelearnt lines, just making stuff up.

I expected to enjoy the entire thing, I felt like this is very much for me – even before seeing improv live and before taking any classes (my 16 year old son, on hearing me describe the thing “you’ve found your people”). I used to watch whose line is it any way and have day dream about doing some of those games in front of an audience. if I have any regrets it’s that I didn’t do something like this 30 years ago.

Oddly, I am slightly jealous of the other people in the class who had no idea of if they’d like it, but they did it for fun and discovered they loved it. That little road to damascus must be great.

I’ve settled in for another course, 8 weeks level two, which pretty much all but a couple of people from the year one are also taking. At the end of that I’ll be looking for opportunities to perform (as well as workshops and other things) and taking it from there.

There are photos, but without context (and the context being, you’d really need to have been there) it’s a little odd posting them, so my cartoon memories is about all you’ll get I’m afraid.

It’s nice to find a new thing to love. One fun thing is, just before going to improv my wife (who I’ve always known wasn’t a fan of improv) had tickets to see me perform because she wanted to support me, and honestly, I appreciate it, but at the same time I thought she won’t like this. Plus I’ll be standing knowing she won’t like it and that’ll be playing on my mind as I get on stage. Eventually we agreed she’d stay home instead, much to both of our relief (even though we both denied we were relieved). The next day I sent her some photos and her single line response “I would have hated that”

So look I won’t think any less of you if it’s not for you, because it really isn’t for everyone, but I’ll tell you what – it’s very much for me.

One year on…

Ok, all anniversaries are abitrary, but I stumbled across this blog post of mine from about a year ago (actually 13th February 2024):

This is how x ends…

And I thought, that’s interesting, stuff has moved on and it’d be interesting to just go over some of that stuff.

“My twitter experience is starting to reach the point where … well, it has no point.”

A year ago I disabled my twitter account, with the intent of letting it die. Well, my use of it did die. Didn’t take instantly, for a long time I had a burner account (useful because people would post links to a twitter post and you couldn’t read it without having a twitter account). The big worry is someone could nab your name to impersonate you, well, that’s been true of every digital domain ever – but no-one is sitting worrying about someone cybersquatting their myspace account.

In that time Bluesky has really taken the place of twitter for me. My follower count is way lower – 6k rather than the former twitter height of 15k, but happily there’s many of the old twitter accounts I follow now on bluesky, so it’s become my new dopamine hit. I do think at scale (once people are following many thousands of people) algorithmic timelines have their uses (say even a simple one where you always see people you interact with even if they’re posting in a timezone utterly outside your own) but they are the devils temptation for companies to think “oh wait, why don’t we charge for exposure” – so blueskys like of main algo feed is good.

Last year I also posted:

“I’ve been trying to get out and walk a bit lately, as you’ll be unsurprised to find out my physical fitness is just dreadful.”

Well, me and my mate Jim eventually went from walks where my legs were aching and me looking to burn a modest 250kcalories, to couch to 5k, and actually completing it, to running my first 5k and then sort of sliding a bit, we now do every few days a 5k walk/run, combo. Look, it’s better than where I was before! and it’s sustainable. Did the park run for a little while, but usually we’ll go for a run(run/walk) monday, wednesday, and friday. Typically burning 453kcal (though my target is 500kcal)

Really long term if that is my exercise regime, that’s pretty good (I’m 55! if I wasn’t going to be a runner in my twenties it’s unlikely now!)

“I’m wondering if we’ve finally reached peak enshiffication yet?”

No, no we hadn’t – in fact, I’d argue, now Trump is in charge of the States and Musk has been given full reign to turn the US government into a digital project we’ve barely scratched the surface, an entire country is about the be enshittified, and from there the entire world. So grim.

“It’s coming time to update my passport, and genuinely I’m considering getting an Irish one. “

Ah, circumstances forced my hand, youngest son and wife were going to Disneyland paris and my wife took a dizzy spell, leading to vertigo for a few weeks and my passport had expired, so I ended up getting an emergency UK one. BUT she’s now got an Irish passport, and at some point possibly this year, I’ll end up doing the same (though it’s better if the two passports don’t overlap in time, because this stuff is expensive!)

“Tomorrow, in my old man is falling apart adventure, emergency dentist appointment”

And that marked the last time I had an NHS dentist, my dentist went private and gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse (“go private or go without”)

Hate. Hate it. Now I pay monthly fee so I can see them and if I need work done it will cost a fortune, and given I’m the generation of sweet treats and free dentistry, I’m largely expecting this to cost me a LOT of money before I eventually succumb to the sweet embrace of toothless death.

Anyway. A better year lies ahead, I guess.

Coming at you at the speed of comics

(I have no idea what to title blogposts any more)

Anyway, work of mine coming up in print, and why you should read it!

As mentioned previously, DARK PYRAMID by me and Paul Tobin., Final Order cut off date for that is 17th of Feb, that means if you’d like your comic shop to get a copy for you YOU MUST ORDER BEFORE THAT DATE! Do not assume you’ll be able to wander in to the shop to buy a copy, sadly that’s not how comics work for anything other than DC and Marvel. Sure there MIGHT be stock in some comic shop somewhere, but almost certainly if you’d like a copy you’re gonna wanna preorder it!

Here’s what a reviewer thought:

Comiccon

Dark Pyramid is a brilliant mix of looming horror balanced with the very honest reflection of what social media does to the people who consume it. The story feels like its timely and honest, rather than using the day to day trappings of our modern life as tools to move the plot along. Where Dark Pyramid really shines is the grounding authenticity of human behavior. It’s captured so perfectly that it makes the whole story feel even more lived in and real. That, as far as storytelling goes, counts for a lot for me.

Overall 10/10

And if you like you can read a preview of it here!

Also out at the moment, I’ve a short in Oni’s EC’s Cruel Kingdom #2, written by Chris Condon.

Here’s a short review:

“A Rare Immunity” effectively delivers both action and horror with striking, gruesome visuals.

And here’s a preview!

Not the end of the line for me and EC Comics though! Next time, working with my Pal John McCrea — in … THE HONKING!

More to come, stay tooooned!

Outside of comics, Improv classes drawing to a close – will be doing a show Sunday Week – this is our graduation show, so first time performing in front of other human beings (Look, I’m not gonna tell you to come or not to it, but I’ll say it’s on in Lavery’s in Belfast, and even if I’m rubbish other people will be good). I’m batting an average of two funny things for every three rubbish things, so let’s hope that average improves. Slightly astonished at just how many safeguards and pretty sensible rules there are for improv (and terms… so many terms! montages! french braid! ground water! object work!). It’s largely all games with good smart rules for making things work, and well stated boundaries established early and the closest thing I can think of is when I did a lot of acting in my 20s and we’d often do warm up games, but in those days the idea of boundaries would’ve been alien and warm up games were often chaos. Probably a good job that has changed.

I’ve enjoyed it immensely, and have signed up for Improv Level 2 starting in March.

That’s it, see you all on bluesky probably.