(or maybe next week, it’s hard to keep track) You can fill your boots with work I’ve done, that, somehow, is all coming out now or next week (it’s largely backups or shorts so even if you’re not a fan of me, there’s probably something else in there to enjoy…)
I’ve mentioned it all in the past, but now it’s all come out…
Harley Quinn Knight Terrors#2 (8 page backup)
Harley Quinn Knight Terrors #2 Cover
Catwoman Uncovered (bunch of simple illos, as a connective tissue for a whole load of catwoman variant covers in a pin up like book)
Drawn by Jame McKelvieCatwoman Winking.
Ahoy Comics Project Cryptid 10 pager with Paul Cornell (“Wormy and Me” that’s not how I describe me and Paul, that’s the title of the story)
Battle Action #4 “Death Squad” short by me and Rob Williams (I’ve forgotten the page count! 10-12?)
There’s still the Soul Plumber collection to come, The Skulduggery Pleasant Bad Magic graphic novel, The collected Fantastic Folklore, and starting next month (I think) the 8 part Judge Dredd story for 2000AD.
Been a busy old week, really not sure how you’d categorise this style of publication. I doubt even my mum would pick up all of those things, but if you pick up any of them know that I’m extremely grateful. It’s all feast or famine round these parts.
This morning I woke up having very briefly dreamed I was putting together a comic, and I thought you might like to know what it might have looked like.
As with all my favourite things it was an anthology – it was nameless, but I’m calling it “FLUX” because – well, I remember sitting with some people way back in 1992/93 talking about doing a comic and flux was the title of that, and why not.
Fully formed from the dream was that it would contain a black and white western strip (weird western) stuff … strong potaganist, having strange adventures – drawn by Dan McDaid and here’s a link to his blog (and his Twitter/X account and bluesky). Dan’s a muscular artist, chonky and great to look at and also a fab writer. He could do this. Also: not afraid to draw horses…
(lifted from Dan’s blog, hope he doesn’t mind!)
Secondly, Gustaffo Vargas – a Peruvian comic artist based in Edinburgh (here’s a link to one of his successful kickstarters) and here he is in a couple of the social media places we have to spread ourselves thinly across these days: Twitter/X, BlueSky
I posted about this on bluesky, and because I was just waking my subconcious knew I meant futuristic fairytale but my conscious mind thinks I meant something else. Subconscious wins it though!
Here’s some of Gustaffo’s artwork:
That’s it, when I woke I had a vision but as the day has worn on that vision has blurred a little. I didn’t even give myself a gig in this dream comic (annoying) but come on, this comic looks like it would be cool, right?
I suspect if I’d slept a little longer I’d’a dreamed up something cool for Artyom Trakhanov to do whose artwork has a dream like quality (and if pushed I’d say give him something galaxy wide, far future space opera?)
I mean just look at that!
Given those distinct strong voices, we’re gonna need something much more visually calming (god I hope that doesn’t sound negative, because it’s not!), and my old mate Dylan Teague (bluesky) might be the balm we all need. Dylan’s thing is almost certainly space opera though, so I’d have to think of something else, maybe earth based far future about a vigilante who is taking down the corporations who’ve ruined the earth. Nice political scifi adventure (with a protaganist with a bob, because I know Dylan would enjoy that)
I would probably find myself a job in that book, I’ll take b&w cosmic horror, thank you.
Oh and a final humour strip? (maybe not humour? maybe pulp noir detective?) By Dan Schkade (bluesky)
I’ve had three deliveries of comps (complimentary) copies over the last week. One box every few days and it’s been fun!
First issue #2 of Knight Terrors: Harley Quinn wherein I do my best “Ok., I’m not Ben Templesmith but I’ll try” (Ben had drawn part one and I was drafted in for part two)
Next, a big ol’ box of the paper back of Soul Plumber – I’d forgotten entirely it was coming, but it was fun when it arrived.
And then, today, “Catwoman Uncovered” a collection of Catwoman covers, which I drew some images for which I assumed where for a backup article, but nope! turns out they were for a little connective tissue between pin ups, genuinaly gasped out loud to see my catwoman on page 1.
I’d forgotten how fun it was to get comps, and how quickly you feel buried by them.
Issue 2 of PJ Holden’s A4 – a free micro fiction ‘zine. This issue contains the stories: Death Awaits, Love at its Core, Body-Fu, Tok Tik, A Reflection of You, The Shimmering Tower and Command
Hey! Look, I did it! A proper issue 1 of my A4 ‘zine, A4!
Most of these stories were written in a flurry of activity after I’d finished the zero issue – itself more a test of concept than anything else. To my surprise we’ve had a decent number of downloads (around 400+ I say that because I only thought to add a download counter sometime after doing it, so there’s a good chance it’s closer to 500+)
Anyway, if you’re interested, here’s the download for issue 1:
So, looks like (somehow) I have three books all coming out in October, and they are:
Soul Plumber
Concept by MARCUS PARKS, HENRY ZEBROWSKI, and BEN KISSEL
Written by MARCUS PARKS and HENRY ZEBROWSKI
Art by JOHN McCREA and PJ HOLDEN
Cover by KYLE HOTZ
$16.99 US | 152 pages | Softcover | 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16″ |
ISBN: 978-1-77952-068-5
ON SALE: 3 Oct 2023
From the creators of The Last Podcast on the Left, exorcism just got a whole lot easier. After attending a seminar hosted in a hotel conference room by a mysterious group called the Soul Plumbers, Edgar Wiggins—disgraced former seminary student—discovers what he thinks is the secret to delivering souls from the thrall of Satan. But after stealing the blueprints and building the machine himself, out of whatever he can afford from his salary as a gas station attendant, Edgar misses the demon and instead pulls out an interdimensional alien, with dire consequences for all humankind. Get ready for things to turn bizarre, barfy, and biblical!
Collects DC Horror Presents: Soul Plumber #1-6.
A small town in the middle of Ireland, a string of unexplained deaths and a monster on the loose. Better call in the experts.
When Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain drive into Termoncara, they discover a town with a dark past and a people haunted by their own secrets. There is a creature stalking the streets – a creature who delights in cruelty, who feeds off the little hatreds, who grows stronger with every drop of blood spilled.
Horror and mystery collide in an original graphic novel by Derek Landy, P.J. Holden, Matt Soffe, Rob Jones and Pye Parr.
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN: 9780008585785 Number of pages: 144 Weight: 270 g Dimensions: 260 x 170 x 9 mm
Due date: 12th October 2023
Fascinating Folklore: A compendium of Comics and Essays
With their combined talents, John Reppion and PJ Holden have created an astounding compendium and a unique way to learn about everything folklore from around the world!
The creative seed for Fascinating Folklore began under the popular hashtag #folklorethursday. Each week Reppion tweeted a different writing prompt on a folkloric theme that PJ would swiftly adapt into a stunning single-panel comic. What began as a creative challenge between two friends rapidly developed; Reppion expanded each of his original prompts into a rich essay corresponding to each of PJ’s stunning comics. The range of folkloric topics in the book is genuinely expansive, from Hawthorne, Blackberries, and the Willow tree to the legend of Boudica, the Wandjing spirits of Western Australia, and the Japanese ghost, Okiku!
As you may or may not know, I bought a Huion Kamvas (sic) 16 graphics tablet and – for the price – it is FABULOUSLY impressive – honest. Resolution, while not 4k (it’s HD, but in a 16″ screen that’s about 140dpi) is actually pretty damn good and price wise (I got it for around £300) it is hard to beat.
Currently it’s on sale on amazon for £349 (and there’s a 15% voucher off the price too right now).
Mine is a year old. Within a very short period of time, I’d scratched the display up. At that price, it was slightly annoying but not maddening. One thing I didn’t buy with it, largely because I’d bought similair for the ipad pro and hated it, was a protective screen. BUT – I bought one recently an placed it on the screen and it’s really made a big difference, firstly the scratches (while still present and still visible) you can no longer feel – the pen just glides over them, and better – new scratches will only effect the screen protector and I can always buy a new one.
I did have a bit of a painful time getting the dirt out of it, accidentally adding more little bubbles of dirt when I tried to fix, and then I tried a different technique (I’ll not recommend it just in case it’s not great long term, but certainly short term it really helped)
I half lifted the screen protector off (half of it had lots of speckles of dirt the other half was pretty clear – all, I stress – my own fault) then sprayed lens cleaner, and wiped the dirty area with the screen protector cloths that came with the protector, then placed the screen on – which left slightly excessive bubbles of liquid under the screen, but I pressed those out to the edges (using a credit card) and it seems to have picked up all the dirt and restuck to the display perfectly well.
Next time I buy the screen protector and apply it immediately and if you’re buying the Huion I recommend you do the same.
Way back in time (2010?), Gordon Rennie and I kicked around the idea of a book called “Monsterology” (which needed renamed cus it turned out there was already a book called Monsterology). And we ended up finding a publisher in Renegade Arts. And it was a fun book and I’d’ve loved to have done more, but the audience wasn’t there, and while it’s nice to draw a book for money it’s no fun if there’s no readers.
Anyway, I stumbled across these in my photo library and thought you might like it.
You can find the book digitally on comixology, there were two books in the series and they’re both great fun.
I have an immense and somewhat impressive library of “How to Draw Books” which, I’ll be honest, I’ve barely read. So I should make the effort, right?
And I am. Starting with the grandaddy of them all – How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema – this edition is Titan, 1986 – so I’ve carried it with me a long time. It’s a slightly odd book, compared with a lot of other how to draw books. Probably down to Stan’s bombastic stylings where you might want some more thoughtful words from John Romita. And it feels dated, Marvel comics certainly don’t look like this any more (for shame!)
Anyway – heading in to the first section one and – I suspect because I’m older, and I’ve read a bunch of how to draw things, I’m seeing things in the art that aren’t at all explained by Stan but are pretty fundamental concepts. Take the first real how-to-section where Stan is talking about building objects and making them solid from simple geometric shapes.
Here’s John has drawn an ellipse at the end of the gun barrel, importantly he’s drawn a centre line on the ellipse that correctly matches the orientation of the ellipse – rather, as I’ve done for decades from force of habit a centre line based on a box shape. The weird thing is having a centre line that follows the ellipse you want to draw makes it much easier to free hand that ellipse. So I’ve annotated my own version of the book with those notes. It’s now a living document!
What John Romita is doing largely mirrors some solid advice I saw from Sean Gordon Murphy on drawing tyres (or really any cylindrical object)
Here’s the Sean Gordon Murphy advice (which was a nightmare to trackdown, stumbled across this on pinterest so apologies for the rubbish resolution) (If you can find the original of this advice, I’d appreciate it – I’ve never seen anything like it in any book)
