SUPINFOCOM

Supinfocom is the leading university for computer animation in France. The work that comes out of that place is pretty amazing. As I've been finding out whilst making Grimmwood, there's animation and then there's fight choreography. Go check it out.

FORTUNE

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Fortune".

The word Fortune conjures up just one strong image in my head and that's those slot machines that tell your fortune or make you Big and head designer for a toy company. I wanted my Fortune teller to have deep hypnotic eyes, which again instantly conjured up another strong image in my head, Rasputin (or more specifically Christopher Lee's Rasputin in the 1966 Hammer Movie). I also figured I'd use the casing for the Fortune Teller slot machine as a way of framing the image.

RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON

King of the Rocket Men was a Republic Movie serial that I used to watch when I was kid. All I really remember of it was that there were gangsters, an evil genius called Doctor Vulcan and a hero with an atomic powered rocket suit. I just loved watching King duke it out with trilby and pinstriped hoods. And every time King flew up a building they would kind of warp the perspective so the building looked really tall. The climax of the series saw Dr Vulcan using "The Decimator" to destroy Manhatten (the destruction of which used footage from the 1933 movie "Deluge"). What does a Decimator do? It decimates stuff!

So, the mad bad Doctor Vulcan gets to wreak havoc but ends up getting his backside handed to him on a plate by Jeff King (the titular King of the Rocket Men). What was amazing about King of the Rocket Men was that it really did look (for the time...and for young impressionable minds) like he could fly. I wanted that rocket suit so bad!

By the time Radar Men from the Moon (which you can buy on DVD) came around, Jeff King was gone and replaced by Commando Cody (Interesting to note, in Star Wars Ep 3: Revenge of the Sith, one of the clone trooper commanders is called Commander Cody). The exposition heavy dialogue is glorious. The plot is ludicrously fantastic, and while some of the acting may be wooden, it has a wonderful veneer.

MONARCHS ON PULP SECRET

Fist-A-Cuffs got a mention at PULP SECRET... and the Monarchs got a spot. Saddly, Monarchs didn't get through to the next round.

Damn their eyes!!!!

TWO & "LIFE ON MARS" - THE END

My favorite TV show, Life on Mars, has finished. Two seasons totaling just 16 episodes of utter perfection. The makers of Lost ought to take note - leave while the music is still playing.

HELLBOY

(click to enlarge)

Here's my version of HELLBOY.

Duncan Fegredo is the artist on the next Hellboy miniseries from Dark Horse Comics (which I'm really looking forward to ... follow the link and you'll find a preview at the Dark Horse site) and is going to be doing a signing at the Nottingham Travelling Man store on the 28th of april from 1.00pm (he'll also be signing at the Bristol Travelling Man store 11th of may from 4.30 pm).

GREEN

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Green".

Don't forget to vote for The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs of Misery over at Sam Hiti's Fist-A-Cuffs while there's still time. They need your love!

THE MALICIOUSLY MERCILESS MONARCHS OF MISERY NEED YOUR HELP!

The first round of Sam Hiti's Fist-A-Cuffs tag team challenge is up!

Vote for The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs of Misery. (L-R) The Butcher Wieners (drawn by Woodrow Phoenix) and The Angry Ball (drawn by me) are the greatest. They only want to be loved. You know it makes sense.

DOCTOR WOO-WHO!!!

Proper Saturday evening telly has finally been restored. The new series (third series* with a fourth already commissioned) of Doctor Who began this evening on BBC1 here in the UK and very good it was too. A lightening storm sends a hospital to the moon (looks mad enough on paper doesn't it? Wait till you see it on telly). "We've got air," Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), the doc's new companion observes, "How does that work?" "Just be glad it does," says the Doctor. And he's right. Everything about the new Doctor Who works. Far be it from me to try to figure out why, it just does and I'm glad.

*for all Stargate fans, it's season twenty-nine ;).

SNAP

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Snap".

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOOD TODAY...

Here's two stills from my own personal ongoing project, Grimmwood, for which there's a production blog if you're a patient sort of person as it doesn't get updated very often. I'll be posting these again over at the other blog with more details in a short while. Now blogger has introduced a labeling system, and given the infrequent posts over at the Grimmwood blog, I am considering migrating the content of that blog over to here ... still undecided.

It's been a busy week again (but that's a good thing, because it means that as soon as the work is done I can go back to comic books and Grimmwood). Also, production of the Peter Baynton project that I'm co-producing, which I've mentioned before, is nearing completion (and the film looks excellent).

I SPY.... WITH MY LITTLE EYE

Another illustration based on this week's Illustration Friday topic "I Spy". The artwork here's a lot like my original pitch to Dark Horse Comics for Wild Talents, back in 2003 (which reminds me, I must dig up my original pitch (it was a Victorian zombie yarn). This particular image sprang to mind after watching "The Thirty-Nine Steps" last night (the Robert Powell version), which is a cracking spy adventure story based on the novel by John Buchan (who hailed from roughly the same neck of the woods as the Culbard Clan). There may be a Wild Talents Redux appearing at Strange Planet sometime soon.

Whilst drawing this I learned about the reasonably interesting origins of the term "I Spy". According to Phrases.org:

The game I Spy originated in the early 20th century. It remains a common pastime played by children - albeit often initiated by adults to occupy bored children on car journeys and the like. One person secretly choose an object that they can 'spy with their little eye' and the others take turns to guess the name of the object.

The game isn't especially old and the first record of it that I can find is in The Winnipeg Free Press, December 1937:

"Other games ... are: What is My Thought Like, I Spy With My Little Eye (children love this) and Bird, Beast, Flower or Fish."

The game spawned a highly successful series of I-SPY spotter's guide books made for British children. These were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

The guessing game was preceded by another children's game called I Spy (or Hy Spy). This was a variant of what is now called Hide and Seek and was known in the UK from the 18th century. John Brand refers to it in his
History and antiquities of the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1789:

"'I spye', is the usual exclamation at a childish game called 'Hie, spy, hie'."

NO REST FOR THE WICKED!

Live action!

Had to attend a live action shoot for a couple of commercials I'm directing at the moment (the commercials are animated with a couple of live action elements) and that involved getting up at 5am this morning (after realizing at 2am that the clocks changed ... so I had even less sleep than I'd anticipated) and traveling down to London on the early morning train.

The woman in the seat next to me fell asleep on top of me. Not just resting her head on my shoulder (like you get with people commuting sometimes) but properly laying on my whole left side because the arm rest between us had been left up between the seats (I'd fallen asleep myself, against the window). She was very embarrassed. I didn't mention that she had been snoring very loudly (which was what woke me up), I thought she was embarrassed enough.

All the live action for these commercials was shot against green screen, which basically means intensely hot studio lights. So today was a day of feeling intensely hot and sleep deprived. And sleep deprived meant drinking lots of coffee (which I don't normally drink) and feeling really anxious as a result. But I actually managed to enjoy today, even though I'm really wiped right now and have only logged on to write about it because I'm in one of those 'so exhausted I can't sleep' sort of moods.

More manic craziness tomorrow and then on Wednesday I may actually finally catch up on the sleep good and proper (I think I owe myself a months worth... wouldn't that be nice?)

Onward!

I SPY...

This weeks illustration Friday topic is "I Spy..."

I've just finished a two hour email ping-pong session with Woodrow Phoenix. We've been drawing our Fist-a-cuffs tag team, so hopefully I'll have links to that in the next few days. Be sure to vote.

UPDATE: I have produced a second illustration with regard to this topic.

TWO-FISTED TALES!

Well, it's Thursday now and I've had three monstrously long days already. Had another trip down to London yesterday for the actual production meeting for the commercials I'm working on. Didn't get back till 10pm last night.

Slightly quieter today. Looking forward to the weekend.

The above two images are a color exercise I did a while ago, exploring antique palettes. I'm a big fan of the pulps, which is the only reason for the subject matter.

TOTAL

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Total".

POOPED!

Last week was the week that was. Heck of a week. And next week, more of the same! Busy, busy, busy. Keeps me out of trouble. No Illustration Friday from me yet. Been too mad busy for that.

My wife woke to my son presenting her with flowers, a card and a present this morning (Mother's Day). We had a great day but we had to cancel our lunch because where we went was overcrowded (they weren't taking bookings and we even showed early but the wait for the food was way over an hour and it seemed like everybody and their mother had had the same idea as us at exactly the same time) so we headed home again, which, as it turned out, was no bad thing.

I've labeled my Dogface Doodles under Sketchbook and I'll be adding more to that over the coming weeks, months, who knows, maybe even years.

All I gotta do now is sleep. Monday is gonna be crazy.

LONDON CALLING

I traveled down to Picasso Pictures in London today for an informal preproduction meeting (a sort of pre-preproduction meeting) for a couple of commercials I'm going to be working on over the coming weeks. An enjoyable visit as always but there's something about going from the quiet solitude of my working day to the throng of the multitude that I find quite exhausting. I guess it must be the sheer volume of people I pass as I travel on foot from St. Pancras to Soho via The Brunswick.

On my way to my meeting I popped into Gosh! Comics and ran into Will Kane (a fellow blogger), which was very nice indeed as I haven't seen him in quite a long time. Gosh! is an excellent comic shop (along with Traveling Man in Nottingham it is one of my favorites). Gosh! also boasts a rather fine collection of Golden Books.

MORE DOGFACE DOODLES FROM DOGTOWN

More Dogface Doodles from Dogtown approved by Mrs. C.

Okay, so I'm thinking, she likes my drawings of people with hairy faces... wait a second, I've got a beard!! The penny has finally dropped!

Had a meeting yesterday afternoon concerning a film I am producing, a short animated film directed by the very talented Peter Baynton (who I'm mentoring) which is presently undergoing title changes. It is being co-produced by Margaret Milner Schmück and funded by EM Media's DV shorts scheme. It's was a very interesting meeting, not just with regard to the production, which is soon to come to an end as the film reaches completion, but also with regard to film in the East Midlands. I'm hoping to put together a pitch for funding later on in the year as EM Media really have been a great bunch of people to work with.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America is dead. Long live Captain America. Currently there's a MEME going around and this is my contribution to it.