Here’s the opening two pages of the latest strip I’m working on. Hopefully get it finished by the end of the year…but knowing me etc etc etc!!
The reason I’m churning out strips so slowly is my habit of getting carried away with pin ups…and here’s two recent attempts!
I realise that my occasional posts on this blog are becoming more infrequent as time goes by…I’m now averaging one per month I think, not exactly breaking any records am I? The thing is, I generally like to post when I have some new art to show off and, well, to be honest I haven’t got anything. Not that I haven’t got a ton of work done…I just haven’t got around to scanning it on. Apologies due.
So in the meantime, and while I feel like typing, I might fill in some time with a bit of randomness. So here goes a bit of my comic reading biog!
My earliest memory of looking at comics comes from when I was around six years old or so. Every Sunday down in my grandparents house all the cousins would meet up for general mayhem. After a few hours of messing around my uncle, who still lived there would appear with handfuls of old Marvels and DC’s and drop them on the floor for us to scrap over. My uncle was an avid collector, lucky for him my dad was a docker and collected handfuls of comics as they arrived from the states every month. These eventually ended up in my grubby hands and the seed was sown.
From then on I was hooked, mainly on the Marvel titles, DC didn’t seem as rich to me at the time. The Hulk title sticks out as my favourite, but I also remember having copies of the Miller run on Daredevil, Byrnes Fantastic Four and X-men, even Buscema’s Conan. These guys were my original hero artists, the writer didn’t matter to me. As time went by I began to collect my own. Strangely enough I jumped from American Monthly titles to the British weeklies, most likely because of the cost factor, and that the local newsagent didn’t stock ‘proper’ comics. 2000ad, Battle, Scream…and occasional Beano’s or Whizzer and Chips, became my new fad. While it took me a long time to really appreciate the style of Mick McMahon, he is the hero of this era. His ability to make it look so simple but to rachet up the drama is unbelievable, even to this day I read his stuff with great admiration.
So as time went by I lost track of the comic industry, teenage rebellion and all that. But the love of the medium never left, and the age of the graphic novel took hold. Immediately I began to collect again, Moore, Ellis, Ennis, the list goes on….and I built up my old favourites again, Nemesis the Warlock, Slaine, ABC warriors. So now as I look at the groaning shelves of books as I type this, I have to wonder….how much did all that stuff cost!
Damn you Amazon!
So how’ve you been…??
Believe it or not I’ve been pretty busy….yeah, makes a change. Well the idea was to get issue two of DubCity Comics up and running, and as usual I made great headway, only to lose track midway. Discipline is a little bit of a problem for me these days!
I’ve scripted three tales for the ish, finished one completely, pics, lettering and a bit of greytone, and have started pencils for the next tale, that is I have almost 3 pages pencilled! Going at a good pace I can finish in a week, fingers crossed!!
The new thing for me is I’ve applied the Marvel method to these scripts…that is writing short synopsis of the story, then laying out the pencils, refining and inking then deciding on the text to finalise the story. Can prove tricky if you don’t leave enough space in your panels. All in all it proved a better way for me to tell a story, quicker to formulate, and as I write for myself I didn’t have to refer to a script when thinking of the sequentials!!
Make it sound so Professional don’t I….I’m really just a chancer!
Here’s an image from the completed strip….as a sneak peak!
Here comes another pin up…
Now for the next strip to go into issue 2. This is a six pager, I’ve written it and sketched out some thumbnails…so should start in earnest next week. The hope is to have issue two printed in time for Dublin City Comic Con…and believe me, going at my pace this will be tricky! I’ve opted to have three strips and a few pin ups…and a generally more ‘Art’ heavy feel to this iss, so lets sit back and see how this works out!!
Oh here’s the pin up before I forget!
I did say I was working on something, didn’t I? Well, here it is, once again it started off as a random sketch of a head, then slowly turned in the following pic.
Greyscaled in photoshop, I’m planning on adding a few pin ups to the second issue of Dubcity Comics Presents…can’t get too carried away though, need to do a few strips too!!
Well you might ask, regular blogging doesn’t seem to be my thing at all…maybe I don’t have enough innermost thoughts to share!
But I have been busy…first off I read loads, All Star Batman and Robin (hmmm, not so good), Transmetropolitan, (better, I like Darrick Robertsons work), and just putting The Boys book 4 to bed now (ennis/robertson always a winner!)
So after the reading whats been doing…eh put up some shelves, but thats not comic related, did quite a bit of cleaning, no thats not comics either…oh yeah I got it!!
Finished the first of three strips for the second issue..this was a 12 pager, not going to reveal the storyline, but its a twisty tale as usual. I also completed pencils for 2 pin ups which I’ll be putting in the book. I love doing them, more so than strips I think…I’m actually pretty pleased with them so I might pop them up here once inked….as a treat(and cos I haven’t put any art up for ages!)
So once again, busy doing nothing…or so it seems!
——–subliminal message to all——–
***BUY THE FIRST ISH, ON THE BUY IT PAGE***
Is, as of today, also available in Comics…thats on Crow Street in Dublin. More good news eh…and while you’re in there you’ll most likely find some other stuff to catch your eye…it’s like Aladdin’s cave for comics!!
Don’t worry if you aren’t in Dublin…you can still get the book via the ‘Buy It’ page…..and there’s free postage and packing on that so the deal is just as sweet as being in the shops!!
Whats else can I say…except BUY IT, YOU’LL LOVE IT! (Or something like that!!)
Cos I’ve put the first couple of pages up there as a taster!
Great news for me today!
Finally got around to getting issue one onto the shelves of Dublin’s premier comic store. As of today Dubcity Comics Presents can be picked up from Forbidden Planet on Crampton Quay. Check out the Irish Comic section downstairs, and tell them I sent ya!(You’ll get fuck all for saying it, but it’ll sound cool!)
All in all, I’ve been buying books and comics in FP since I was about 13 or 14…and was even photographed with a copy of Infinite Gaunlet #1 at the Dawson Street store for the Daily Star many moons ago.
So, as yo can probably guess….I’m well chuffed!
And I forgot the second blokes leg…
DUBCITY COMICS 