Batman: Black and White Vol 4 (collected)

Received my comp copies of this wonderful book today, and what a happy surprise it was! Hardly have to mention how thrilled I am to be a part of this much loved series, and it's a great joy to find it's a lovely hardback, "Filled to the brim with gorgeous artwork and fun, well constructed stories." (IGM) The book will be on sale July 23rd.

Image comics wish me Happy 50th!

My long awaited issue of Image comics Prophet is out tomorrow, perfectly timed for my birthday! Cheers Guys! Nice timing!
Having now read the book, with added script, poetically penned by the modern visionary Brandon Graham, I can say at last how thrilled I am with the outcome. Brandon furnished me with a lose plot, allowing me to jam on his ideas, after which (when I'd drawn the pages) he then went in and scripted it. It's a joy to read! And as Brandon and I share great respect and love for Jean Moebius Giraud, this book never existing without his masterful inspiration, we decided to dedicate this book to him, as it should be.

Tom Tom Macoubre graphic novel #1 first page

In 1987 I self published a 20 page comic called Tom Tom Macoubre (inspired by my love of Heavy Metal magazine and the works of Moebius, Bilal and Druillet) which, at the time, was meant to be over 100 pages. I couldn't afford to draw and publish such a big book so it was crushed down, squeezed into that little pamphlet, now dog eared and dusty. Many years later my pall Liam Sharp invited me to contribute to his anthology Event Horizon for which I produced a ten page gimps at what I then envisioned as my first huge graphic novel, re-telling Tom Tom's story. That book left me feeling that I HAD to one day sit down and write the epic tale but, as my career and life got in the way, it never happened. Last year I decided to finally gather my thoughts and ideas, my long festering plans, and get the damn thing written. After a few months of sporadic note making I found that I'd written the first 48 pages of what I then realized could be the first of at least 3 graphic novels. What I'm presenting here is a look at the first page, done as a sample to gain a publishing deal. Using the methods I've developed over the past year or so I first drew the page roughly using a blue pencil, then "inked" over that with a grade F graphite pencil, then, after scanning it into my computer and sharpening the line work I coloured it using photoshop. 

The first step is taken.

Now what?

After cracking on with my work on Judge Dredd I'm going to produce a few more sample pages and get them sent off with my written proposal, while keeping my fingers crossed that this highly esoteric, weird, downright bizarre story will find a home...at last.

Dark Judges commission

Can you tell I had fun with this?!

Transmetropolitan

As my last few posts have been lacking in colour and as I've been meaning to post this for a good while...here's my pin-up for the 2011 Transmetropolitan: All Around the World limited edition book.

Batman: Black and White #6

The final issue of Batman: Black and White is out this week featuring my little contribution. It's the first Batman story I've had published that I not only penciled and inked but also wrote. I had no idea how hard it would be to write an interesting and original story in only 8 pages, but hopefully I've pulled it off (let me know!).

"FOO"

Here's another page I recently finished for The UFO Truth online mag. EC comics look out!

Happy new year!

Here's a link to the short interview I did recently for the Huffington Post regarding my old buddy Batman. The image here is a commission I did for my Batman writing partner and all round awesome guy Alan Grant.
Happy new year folks!

Prophet pans

Here's another wee look at my work on the awesome Image comic Prophet, written by the equally awesome (no, really, I'm a HUGE fan!) Brandon Graham. We met up for the first time recently at the great Thought Bubble comic con where I had the pleasure of looking at some of Brandon's original art and chatting briefly (both of us busy signing our lives away and doing sketches etc). (that first pan is based on one of my other new fave artists from Prophet, Simon Roy. No...no, he doesn't look like that. I mean it's based on one of his pans, silly!) More to follow...

London Film and Comic con sketch

UFO Truth

As some of you may know, recently retired police detective Gary Heseltine and I have been working on a proposal for a film and TV series concerned with the famous (but not famous enough!) Rendlesham Forest UFO incident that took place in 1980. Gary has also been busy producing an on-line magazine, the UFO Truth Magazine, in which can be found articles regarding all manner of things concerning UFO's and related topics. He's asked me to advertise the first UFO Truth conference here on my blog, and as I'm a contributor to the mag and supporter of his work, which also includes his web site Prufos which is an on-line police database for working and retired police officers to report sightings, I was more than happy to oblige. For info please contact Gary here... heseltinegary@hotmail.com

As a witness to the UFO phenomenon and firm believer that we, the public, have a rite to know the truth about the world we share, I'm prepared to stand up and take the inevitable flack that comes with such talk. There are those of you that will have already ether stopped reading this or have thought "what a nutter!". Fair enough. And then there are those of you who share a vague interest in the subject, knowing that it's not too much of a stretch of the imagination to consider that, in this seemingly ever expanding universe, we surely can not be alone. Then there are those, like myself and a staggering amount of folk world wide, that share a keen interest and know that this is a hugely important subject that has far reaching consequences for us all. If you're in the last two groups then I'd like you to think about attending the conference, which I know from experience, will be well worth the effort and cost.

To those of you still reading who say "but where's the proof?" I'll say this...that's a fair question. The answer is not an easy one, it's difficult and frustrating when searching the net because this subject is mired in illusion, misinfo, disinfo and aggressive debunking, not to mention the ridicule. Consider this...why, when ridicule is the reward, thousands of highly respected, highly trained, sensible people all over the planet are willing to stand up and openly report seeing disc-like objects, flying causers, cigar shaped craft, and all manner of unusual and unidentified objects on a daily basis? Why does that happen? What's the point if it's all fictional? The answer to that question is...for the truth to be told about something that could, if finally admitted to by the worlds leaders, change all our lives for the better.

Finally, to answer the question "if all this is true then what's it all about? What IS the point?" The point is that our planet is one of possibly millions of planets that supports life, and here on this particular planet our leaders are hell bent on destroying it and each other, along with all of us. If there are intelligent life forms "out there" who have the ability to journey across the cosmos, societies possibly thousands of years older than us, thousands of years in advance of us, don't you think they'd take an interest? Don't you think they'd be concerned? Don't you think they'd attempt to do something about the problem "we've" created? Our media has bombarded us with tales of invading aliens, big ugly creatures insistent on eating our brains. For more than half a century we've been soaking this stuff up to the point where we might think that if "aliens" really do exist then they are probably very nasty and not good for us at all! I personally don't believe a word of it. I certainly am not putting forward the notion that we should all relax and accept "aliens" are all jolly decent folk, but what I do believe is that we should approach the subject carefully and with an open mind, free of the "all aliens are evil" propaganda. For our children's sake, our future, isn't it best we grow up and face our problems intelligently, with honesty, clarity and respect? I invite you to leave your comments, thanks.

A little bit more Batman: Black and White

When I was asked to write and draw a Batman: Black and White story for the new series, being published from this September, there was only one stipulation - that I approach it in my "European style" and not the recent pencil method I'd implemented on my Batman: Death by Design (did I mention it's now a New York Times best seller...twice?!). Fair enough thought I, knowing what was meant by the comment. What was meant was "do your best Moebius"! Well, I haven't hidden the fact that Jean Moebius Giraud has had an enormous affect on me and my work, that's widely known, but I didn't want to do another homage to the master, I wanted this to be purely my own work, with maybe a nod to the great man, out of respect. If it comes out looking like "another Moebius rip off", as a certain highly respected DC guru once said of my Tongue Lash books, then so be it. I can live with that. What I'm hoping is that folk see me doing my best work, with no limitations in story or art. We'll have to wait and see.

Batman: Death by Design NY Times best seller...AGAIN!

Again? Yes folks, this time it's for the trade paperback edition.

Prophet cover mock up

Prophet #43 first pages

Brandon Grahem has kindly allowed me to show you my first pages, a double page spread, for my upcoming full issue of Prophet, issue 43, for Image Comics. This has been in the pipeline for a while now so it's great to be able to show something from the book I've cosmicly been looking forward to starting.

Don't worry, my Batman: Black and White is still on it's way!

Glasgow and London film and comic show sketches

I'll be attending both Glasgow and London film and comic shows soon where you'll be able to collect these specially produced, limited prints. Find my table and get them signed, buy a copy of the trade paperback edition of my Batman: Death by Design and other goodies. I'll also be doing sketches and taking commissions and selling original art from the Batman book and my Judge Dredd work. See you there, or there. (Glasgow 24/25 Aug, London 5/6 Oct)

Batman: Death by Design poster

Back when Batman: Death by Design was still in it's infancy, in it's design stage, I came up with this as a "feel sample", an experiment in texture. It was never used but helped a great deal in showing all concerned how our book might look.

Batman: Black and White 2013

This is some of the most exiting news I've had for many years and it's a great honour to be able to finally mention it here on my little blog. DC recently announced the news that a new series of Batman: Black and White will be starting this coming September. And guess who's been invited to contribute to this very prestigious project. Yes folks, little old (hey, less of the old) me! Not only have I been asked to contribute my art but I've written the story too, which, I have to tell you, was somewhat daunting to say the least. I'm not a natural writer, head full of ideas but not in the habit of sharing them. That said, I seem to have come up with an original idea, not an easy task considering the vast amount of Batman stories produced over the last 70 years (is it really that long?!), so...colour me delighted! No, I mean black and white me delighted! 

2000AD prog 1841

Here's the cover to prog 1841, the last part of my latest Dredd, out this week. I say "my latest Dredd" but I should say John Wagner's and mine. I suppose I should give him some credit! Absent from the prog for a while now this story arch was his very warmly anticipated return, so it was an honour to illustrate the story. So what's next then? Well, I've got two jobs lined up. The first is a little Batman project, which I'll reveal more on later. The second has been mentioned here but will be talked about more soon, it being an issue of the highly acclaimed Prophet series. Then, Dredd fans, I'm back working with the planet sized talent that is Ian Edginton! Yay!

For a step by step look at the inner workings of this cover take a look at the awesome site that is the 2000AD Covers blog here.

fast robot "sketch"

What this world needs is more fast attack vehicles. There just ain't enough of them, and there should be, obviously. So, here's my fast doodle of one in my attempt to balance things a little.