THE CONVICT PART 2

(The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

Very very busy. Baskervilles is almost finished. 'A Study in Scarlet' starts this weekend with four pages and then I have a week off. Lots of research ahead of me for The Country of the Saints. Really am looking forward to that. Should be fun. That's the nice thing about this job - in all its various stages there's always something for me to look forward to.

You can see the thumbnail for this panel here.

No small amount of thanks goes to my dear friend Colin Fawcett, without whom this last week would have been a real struggle. He helped me enormously with my 'flats' and also guided me to this rather superb photoshop plug in which is a real time saver. Follow the link for more of an explanation as to what 'flats' or 'flatting' is.

Thank you also to Brian Sibley for awarding this blog an Premio Dardos Award. Enormously appreciated!

DARK HORSE PRESENTS VOL. 2

Dark Horse Presents Vol. 2 is out! It features a story I did with Ian Edginton (Edginton on words, me on pictures) last year called Retro Rockets Go! So if you want it in print form so you can read it in the bath, you can buy a copy here.

HOLMES STRETCH

(The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

Cock the hammer, it's time for action!

YOU WILL NEVER BREAK ME, CAPTAIN BAMULA

I should have blogged this days ago, but this week has probably been the most hectic on Holmes. HUZZAH!! keeps on rolling and at a fair old pace. It's not even February and already we're on Page 9. Exciting times. Go check it out! Rob Davis has just started a new chapter - 'The Claws of Xog', which introduces the wonderful Baron Kazam!

THE CONVICT

SHERLOCK THUMBS THE HEMINGWAY AND GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

(Thumbnail roughs for pages 40-47 by me
The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

When I started 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' I rushed out and bought a Moleskine (mol-a-skeen'-a) notebook. I've always wanted a Moleskine notebook but never been brave enough to draw in one. I usually work on loose sheets of office paper. As I've scribbled furiously over the past few months I've come to suspect that the reason I draw in blue pencil and the reason I wouldn't normally dare draw in Moleskine notebooks is because I have commitment issues when it comes to drawing. I can screw up a sheet of office paper, I don't have to scar a sketchbook by tearing out a page. And drawing with blue pencil, well, there's always been something less permanent about blue pencil over regular HB graphite. If you rub out blue pencil you still see the trace of your mistakes, but its not the horrible gray mess that graphite leaves behind (no matter how good your rubber is). And besides, its blue, and as all sensible boys know, blue's the best color there is. So that's the theory.

'Hound' from about forty pages onward has been scribbled in my blessed Moleskine notebook. As Holmes would correctly deduce, it took me till page forty to brave it. I didn't throw off all my clothes and rush head long into the roaring surf. I daintily dipped my toe. But hey, no turning back now.

I draw a cross in the center of the page and then allocate a page to each quarter giving me an eight page overview across two notebook pages (as above). I then scan these pages in their respective segments and import them into Manga Studio. I then roughly layout the lettering and work my pencil up accordingly - I figure out all my composition at this stage. After I have rough pencils I finish off the lettering with speech balloons and then return to ink the page.

I divide up my concentration throughout the art process. I don't work everything out at the pencil stage. I work briskly at this stage because I keep to mind that all I need is a roughly plotted course. So onward I go. I don't hang about because I know that I can come back to it at the inking stage and everything wrong will be right again. It's something to look forward to.

Inking can sometimes be equal parts tedium and joy. Tedium when you've plotted that course all too well in the pencil stage and the imagination at this point is sitting there in the back of my skull like some over-excited dog wondering why we've suddenly stopped playing. And joy when I find those parts of the drawing where I couldn't be bothered to figure them out at the time. Which is why, when I'm working to a tight deadline, inking is never tedious.

It's a golden rule. If I get stuck I don't stop. This is where the eight page overview comes into play. I know what's happening over the next eight pages. It's not un-navigated ocean. I know where be monsters. So if ever over those eight pages I get stuck I move on to the next panel. A panel I can draw. The complicated drawing gets thrown to the over-excited dog at the back of my skull like scraps from the kitchen table, and by the time I've finished drawing the easy panel, the panel I can draw, the problem returns to me magically resolved and I return to the panel I couldn't draw earlier and the sated over-excited dog takes a quiet nap.

It's then a quick export into Photoshop where I color the page up, re-apply the lettering with live type and that's that. Job done. Off it goes to my dear old chums in London town, to SelfMadeHero, where the book is laid out and proofed before it undergoes any revisions and finally goes off to the printers and hits the shelves in May!*

*The latter part of this process I greatly underestimate because by this point I'll be rushing headlong into the roaring surf and scribbling frantic thumbnails in my Moleskine for the next Sherlock Holmes adaptation Edginton and I are undertaking - A Study in Scarlet (due out in October this year).

THE GHOST OF A ROSE

My latest contributions to HUZZAH!! are on the HUZZAH!! blog, so go check them out.

AN EVENING IN

(The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

THE SIX-FINGERED MAN

It's been a hectic week so I've not been able to post. I had a solid week slated for coloring which meant blocking out the light to my room and working through night and through day. I do not exaggerate when I say my eyes now look like red onions. Alright, I am exaggerating and they don't look like red onions, but a day or two ago they did look like Christopher Lee's eyes in Dracula. Is one eye being more bloodshot than the other a fair indicator of which eye works harder than the other? I have my suspicions. Thankfully that boat load of work is done and a good solid chunk of Baskervilles is in the bag.

Onward.

Yesterday, whilst drawing Baskervilles, I drew the six-fingered man. A deliberate mistake, an Easter egg for my father-in-law to find. After he read The Picture of Dorian Gray I received a full report including notes. Bless! (he thought he'd found an anachronism but fortunately was mistaken). So I thought it only fair to now include 'the six-fingered man' in every book I do.

The six-fingered man originally appeared in a "Hornby Dublo" catalogue (1957) which he (the father-in-law), owns. It's a great picture of a father pointing at a railway set (I think the father's even smoking a pipe - that memory might be distorted - he's a very Church of the Sub Genius sort of father), only the artist has over compensated on the digits and the father has an extra finger. He (the father-in-law), loves this picture because its wrong. And so there you have it, the origins of the six-fingered man.

Right then. I've got pages to draw. I better be off.

(The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

HUZZAH!! SKETCHES

HUZZAH!!

MATT SMITH IS THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR

Quite a surprise. But also quite interesting and I think quite exciting. I like his hands. I reckon he'll become known as the Doctor with the hands!

HUZZAH!!

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We'll 2008 is now the year that was. And what a year it was! I knew 2008 was going to be a year of change, but boy oh boy, I wasn't expecting it too be so full of change!

Who Killed Round Robin? finally has the answer to that titular question (brilliantly concluded may I add by the wise and all too fabulous Colin Fawcett). And in its wake there's now a new round robin for 2009 named simply HUZZAH!! the first three plates of which I finished in time for the New Year launch. Please do go check it out. The rules are a little different to WKRR? taking many of the lessons we learned from that and hopefully setting the stage for something quite epic.

All the very best to you this New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

JOHN H. WATSON, M.D.

(The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2008 SelfMadeHero)

Here's a rough of Dr. Watson for one of the pages I'm working on right at this very moment for Hound of the Baskervilles. Thought I'd take a quick snap shot and post it here.

The wet proofs for a handful of test pages arrived yesterday morning from the printers so I could see how the color would print and I'm rather pleased and excited.

Now then. About Dr. John H. Watson:

IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.

The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.

- (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of JOHN H. WATSON, M.D., late of the Army Medical Department), A Study in Scarlet.

The beauty of what you've read above is, as I see it, what's there to be read between the lines. Doyle was superb at marrying fact with fiction, in order to make the fiction all the more plausible. In the introduction to Doyle's 'The Maracot Deep' John Dickinson Carr wrote:

'No small part of our author's genius was his ability to tell a story so persuasively that it sounded like a narration of fact.'

And it's that no small part of his genius that brings me to Dr. Watson and the Battle of Maiwand. Whilst many may know of Watson through Nigel Bruce's portrayal of a bumbling baffoon, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle portrayed Holmes' chronicler, Dr. John H. Watson as a capable and brave man - a 'whetstone' for Holmes' mind.

The bravery of the English soldiers that fought in the Battle of Maiwand was noted by an Afghanistan officer. The British had lost and were down to 11 men.

"These men charged from the shelter of a garden and died with their faces to the enemy, fighting to the death. So fierce was their charge, and so brave their actions, no Afghan dared to approach to cut them down. So, standing in the open, back to back, firing steadily, every shot counting, surrounded by thousands, these British soldiers died. It was not until the last man was shot down that the Afghans dared to advance on them. The behaviour of those last eleven was the wonder of all who saw it".

Now, given that Watson survived he clearly wouldn't have been one of the final eleven (if we marry fact with fiction for a moment as Doyle suggests) but another matter cements his courage and devotion to my mind.

In 'A Study in Scarlet' (re: above) it states that Watson was shot in the shoulder (wounded by a Jezail bullet), and its this wound that had him pulled out of active service. In 'The Sign of Four' (another of the books we're adapting), he makes reference to a war wound in his leg.

'I made no remark, however, but sat nursing my wounded leg. I had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and, though it did not prevent me from walking, it ached wearily at every change of the weather.'

Which was it, the shoulder or the leg? That's something that's sometimes been a matter of debate. Well, if our Watson served at the battle of Maiwand and if the description given by the Afghanistan officer is anything to go by then the answer's quite simple as I see it. It was both. Not only that, but Watson was already significantly wounded before he took the bullet in the shoulder which retired him from the battlefield for good. Had he, even wounded, tried desperately to save lives in the chaos that was the battlefield of the Maiwand? Watson was a courageous and devoted man and yet he himself is quick to note the devotion and courage of another! In factual context, Watson was truly an exceptional fellow.

2000AD PROG 2009 - SCROTNIG 100-PAGE CHRISTMAS MEGA-SPECIAL

Prog 2009 is on sale today! And in it you will find the Stickleback Christmas Special I spoke of back in November. The story is called 'T'was the Fight before Christmas' which is by strange coincidence the same title given to the Sinister Dexter story Stickleback co-creator and original artist D'israeli debued with ten years ago as a colorist. For those following the references slipped into these stories, Fishpaste is not the only one I managed to sneak in.

THE LION AND THE SKULL

New plate up on WKRR? A little different to what I normally do. Not long now before the strip comes to an end and a new Round Robin starts for 2009.

OLIVER POSTGATE

Just heard this morning that Oliver Postgate passed away peacefully aged 83. He created some of the best loved television for children, including the Clangers, Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and Noggin the Nog. He's certainly been an enormous inspiration to me. Let's not think the world a gloomier place for not having Mister Postgate in it anymore, rather it's a better place for Mister Postgate having been in it at all. The memories he leaves behind for generations of children are filled with Soup Dragons and small green locomotives and for that all I have left to say is thank you Oliver Postgate. Thank you.

HOLMES FROM THUMBNAILS TO INKS

The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2008 SelfMadeHero

STICKLEBACK CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Stickleback © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Stickleback created by Ian Edginton & D'Israeli.
Drawn by me.

The cat is well and truly out of the bag so I may as well show you a sneak peek from the story I've drawn for the 2000AD Christmas special (Prog 2009) which I mentioned back in September. It's a festive Stickleback story written by Ian Edginton. Stickleback is usually drawn by D'Israeli who's artwork for the series is three things; absolutely gorgeous, distinctly Stickleback and a blooming hard act to follow.

Many thanks to Ian, D'Israeli and Tharg for this opportunity. I had a blast doing it.

PATERSON JOSEPH THE NEW ... POTENTIALLY THE NEW DOCTOR WHO?

This is Phillip Rhys, who play Al Sadiq in the new series 'Survivors' who reels off the cast list and says "Paterson Joseph who's gonna be the n.... potentially the new Doctor Who". See what you make of this:

Thanks to Col for the heads up.

TALK TALK (UPDATED)

I went down to London Town on Sunday to talk to Paul Gravett in front of lots of people at the ICA about Dorian and a little bit about Holmes, the first two pages of which you can see projected on the screen in the background of this picture. That's me on the left, that's Paul Gravett in the middle and that's Ian Edginton on the right.

In other news, here's a review of The Picture of Dorian Gray from The Bookseller.

(click to enlarge)

(UPDATE): And there's also these splendid words:

"Films and graphic novels have a lot in common – indeed I could have used much of this as my storyboards. It's terrific to see Wilde's work in this form and it's a great way to reach a wider audience. The visuals are bold and striking and the text very skillfully abridged."

- Oliver Parker, director of 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'An Ideal Husband' and the forthcoming 'Dorian Gray'.

THE VIOLINST

The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2008 SelfMadeHero

BAF'08 STORYBOARD WORKSHOP CANCELLED

I arrived in Bradford just before midnight last night to find there was a problem with reservations and that I didn't have a room at the hotel I was supposed to be staying at. Unfortunately there were no vacancies in any of the other hotels in the whole of Bradford. So I had to get back in my car and drive all the way home again, not getting back till 3am. So, unfortunately due to these unforeseen circumstances the workshop I'd spent so much time preparing for had to, regretably, be canceled. My apologies to anyone who was hoping to attend.

MORE FROM THE PSYCHOHORIZON

My new plate for WKRR? is up. Please go check it out.

LIVE FROM THE PSYCHO HORIZON, FROM THE ABSOLUTE NOW

This is apparently what Harrison Ford said about George Lucas' script for Star Wars.

Ah, the Psychohorizon, finally. An infinite corridor of time, space and the mind. Lots of pseudo psychoanalysis like Transference Sickness. Transference itself is a phenomenon found in psychoanalysis but has very little to do with void virgins.

As correctly observed by Rob Davis in the comments section for this plate, this is a Poirot moment. Perhaps a game of motives and alibis is about to begin? We shall see.

Don't know why but I decided this page was all about fours. There's four panels, four sentences and each sentence is four words long.

ET CETERA

My work on the 2000AD Christmas special is done and I'm looking forward to seeing it in print. I've also got another 3 pager for something else that popped up towards the tail end of last week that needs to be done before the end of this month. More on that as and when I can spill beans.

And now for something completely different. Here's a letter I found addressed to me which mildly amused me.

Now, picture this. The young Master Culbard, to whom the above letter was addressed (I still have the envelope the letter arrived in and no it doesn't have a stamp on it, it has a royal stamp, but not an actual postage stamp with the Queens head on it), was at that time a little boy reading The Hobbit, The Wind in the Willows and The Lion and the Witch in the Wardrobe (the three main books of my childhood at that time) and listening to Mozart, Holst and Wagner (I really wasn't fond of 'pop' music). Some might say a precocious child. Others might say disturbing. And others might say - oh never mind them, they're not important anyway. But I digress. Imagine, if you will, my delight at such a wonderfully naive and innocent age upon reading the following:

"The Prince and Princess of Wales have asked me -"

They specifically asked. They said, "Henrietta dearest, do be a chum and write to that dear fellow and thank him for us would you. It was awfully kind of him to write to us and to spare a moments thought for us given how frightfully busy he is with all this and all that." Or at least that's likely the way I would have seen it aged nine.

"Their Royal Highnesses were most touched by the good wishes you have expressed"

What the heck did I write that gave merit to a letter from Buckingham blooming Palace?

I can only imagine it may have gone something like this:

DAVID TENNANT QUITS DOCTOR WHO

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!!! David Tennant has just announced that he's leaving Doctor Who after the next four specials which will be broadcast over the coming year.

Rumor has it that Paterson Joseph is to step into the 11th Doctor's shoes, 3-1 according to the BBC against four unlikely ones. Joseph can be seen here playing the Marquis de Carabas in Neverwhere:

And lastly, Russell Tovey was apparently RTD's tip to replace Tennant seen here playing the werewolf in the BBC pilot drama, Being Human (created and written by Doctor Who writer, Toby Whithouse - this show's getting a full series apparently):

HOUND INKS

The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2008 SelfMadeHero

WKRR? MWIP!

These are the last two pages of WKRR? I've appeared on. Thought I'd show the full pages as Dave Taylor's gone to all the effort and done a lovely job of sticking the pages together. You can see all the full pages of the strip shown in sequential order over here.

BACK FROM BIRMINGHAM

Got back from the Birmingham International Comic Show late on Saturday night. What a hoot!

Got to meet up with the lovely folk from SelfMadeHero again, signed some books for some incredibly nice people who were all saying incredibly nice things. And the first copy of Dorian Gray that I signed was for Mark Buckingham and his wife Irma. I also finally met Sean Phillips and got up to speed with Criminal and managed to get a copy of Seven psychos. Oh, and I got a comp copy of The Girly Comic (from marvelous Jay and Selina at Factor Fiction) which has 'War Canary' in it in full color! And I hooked up again with my dear chums Dave Taylor and Colin Fawcett with whom I ate food and drank wine (we actually got a free lunch).

In other news I'm going to be making more appearances in November. I've off to Bradford to run a workshop at the Bradford Animation Festival on Thursday the 13th of November (at 10:30 in the morning for two hours):

Storyboarding, alongside character design and scriptwriting, is one of the key stages of producing a quality animation. In this two hour workshop, Ian Culbard (animation filmmaker with experience in directing commercials, television, and short films) offers an insight into the skills involved in producing effective storyboards.

That same week I'm dashing off to London to appear on a panel. Over at Paul Gravett's site there's info on a panel I'm going to be on:

Turning Classics Into Comics
Shakespeare, Brontë, Wilde and Dickens are getting visual makeovers as comics. How does prose transfer to panels? What is lost, and found, in translation? Richard Appignanesi and Ian Edgington talk with their visualisers Mustashrik, Chie Kutsuwada and Ian Culbard, and John M Burns and Mike Collins discuss their versions of Jane Eyre and A Christmas Carol. Plus signings.
Supported by Classical Comics, SelfMadeHero & Letraset
Tickets: Each talk - £6, £5 concs, £4 members
Tickets: All three of today's talks - £15, £12 concs, £9 members
Where: Nash & Brandon Rooms, ICA
When: Sunday, 16 November, 6pm to 7.30pm

So November's going to be quite a busy and exciting month for me.

TOK

Snuck this one in late last night. Poor Bronx. I was listening to AC/DC's 'Back in Black' when I started inking. The last panel was drawn to AC/DC's Thunderstruck. I've no idea why I was listening to AC/DC at the time. I don't usually. But it certainly got me in the mood and thankfully spurred me on to finish this panel quite quickly.

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES

The Hound of the Baskervilles © 2008 SelfMadeHero

Work is well and truly underway on The Hound of the Baskervilles and momentum's picking up (we're a month in now). Here's an early idea for the cover (this won't be the final cover but you do get to see Holmes here, and an early Watson (Watson's nose is a little different now). We're shaking off the bumbling buffoonery of Nigel Bruce and the deerstalker and the Calabash of Paget and Gillette respectively.

DEATH RATTLE

Is it heck. My money's on no. What do you reckon?

BIRMINGHAM INTERNATIONAL COMICS SHOW SIGNING

I'm going to be signing copies of Dorian Gray along with Ian Edginton (I won't be signing copies of Ian Edginton - that would be weird) at 1pm on Saturday in Birmingham at the Birmingham International Comic Show.

Also, 'War Canary' a story written by Selina Lock and drawn by me, will be appearing in the latest issue of 'The Girly Comic' and will be on sale at the show, so make sure you pick up a copy while you're there.

Meanwhile ... I've done yet another 'plate' for WKRR? As the Astral team take on an Outer God, Mars Mesmer steps up to the plate ...

AICN GIVES "OVER THE HILL" A MENTION

Just a quick note. It's been all comic news of late but here's a teeny bit of animation news; remember that film I co-produced with Split-Second Films last year? Called "Over the Hill" directed by Peter Baynton? I co-produced it, mentored Pete as a director and even did a teeny weeny bit of animation on it.... well it gets a favorable mention over at AICN along with the news that its been entered for Oscar consideration for 2009. Exciting stuff.

CREEPY

A very quick brush, texture and typeface test for nothing in particular.

More news on something in particular forthcoming as Edginton and I will be producing a story for 2000AD in the very near future. My adventures in comics continue.

WASTED

Wasted- Matthew Bryan by Raymond Prado from Raymond Prado on Vimeo.

Great music video. Comics related round about the 02.30 mark.

ALAN MOORE KNOWS THE SCORE

This is just part 10. Check out the rest here.

LADIES FIRST (UPDATED: includes inks)

BEFORE: Drawn using a Col-Erase 20044 Blue pencil (which I always draw with) and inked using a Pentel brush pen.

AFTER: Scanned into photoshop, nuked with 'adjustments>threshold' then colored using numerous, glorious effect filters. Notably 'pixelate>Color Halftone' which I love using (turned all the way up to 11... the default is 8 but them dots is too small for that exaggerated four-color look).

WKRR? seems to be getting back on track after a two week long hiatus. Had to scratch out my effort as quick as Quentin because I've not got very much time to contribute to the WKRR? at the moment what with all the work I'm doing on Holmes. More on that in a bit.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

The Picture of Dorian Gray © 2008 SelfMadeHero

The Picture of Dorian Gray is out this October. I got my proof copy just the other day and am pleased as punch. Smells gorgeous (a good quality printing ink is like catnip to me) and looks and feels gorgeous too (SelfMadeHero pulling out all the stops as they always do with their books).

The Picture of Dorian Gray will be available from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon .com and Play.com as well as all good bookstores.

THE GAME IS AFOOT...

Right. Big news. I've started work on my next graphic novel for SelfMadeHero and their Eye Classics imprint. I'm rather excited to be working once again with Ian Edginton who's recent book "Stickleback: England's Glory" was described by SFX magazine as a "modern-day Victorian classic". Over the coming months I'll be updating this blog with sneak peaks, probably a few tutorials and the like, all pertaining to the production of this book. The name of the author who's book we are adapting is my favorite author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And the title of the book is The Hound of the Baskervilles. But that's not all. We're adapting The Hound of the Baskervilles with a view to adapting all the books. We're doing the lot. The Hound of the Baskervilles is just the first in a series which if all goes according to plan will be released semiannually from 2009.

The game is afoot.

DEATH STAR OVER SAN FRANCISCO

Thanks to Col for the heads up.

IT'S NOT POLITE TO HIT A LADY

This has 'epic' and 'kick ass' stamped all over it:

37, 42, 6, 2.

More numerical homage on the WKRR? Going from The Mothman Prophecies Number 37 to The Prisoner AND Battlestar Galactica's Number 6 right the way across to the end of the universe with The Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy's meaning of life the universe and everything with 42 and finally back to The Prisoner again with Number 2. Numerical nonsense aside, "Dickie Bird" is slang in this neck of the woods for "word" (so she's saying 'not a word' basically, for those not up on their cockney rhyming slang and not of the British Isles) and a reference to the fact that all the characters in this scene when they're not referring to one another as numbers are actually named after birds.

I wanted to keep the inking effects very 'in camera' as they'd say in the film business, with regard to this plate. Basically, the frantic cross hatched shading level has moved from being something I would normally have dropped over the background on an overlay channel to being part of the actual finished inks (likewise speech balloons).

THE KIRKMAN CRUSADE

A call to arms.

MWIP

I need to do more black and white work.

Following Nigel Parkinson's wonderful curve ball on the WKRR? I stumbled upon this idea just as I was waking up this morning with an somewhat unexpected and quite ferocious hangover. 'Wake up, Number 37' is a pop culture reference type thing (pertaining to "The Mothman Prophecies" wherein a character called "Indrid Cold" (aka The Mothman) who seemingly exists out of time, says it as a warning to one of the characters in the film. It must have got lodged in my brain because as I was waking up this morning it sort of popped into my head like a booming voice. Like the echo of a dream that somehow overlaps into the first few seconds of the waking day.

The number 37 is of course loaded with meaning as is every number and everything if you chose to follow the white rabbit down the hole. From the number of plays written by Shakespeare to a bad year for Antioch. From the first irregular prime number to the number of the beast (37 is 666 divided by its digits added together [37=666/(6+6+6)] ... and technically speaking, its the 'number of a man' associated with the beast, but that would mess up the lyrics to "The Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden). 37 means everything and nothing at all.

Will be fun to see who or what 37 is, presuming Nigel picks up on that as he's Huzzah'd the next turn.

Watched 'Maestro' for the second time last night. A new 'celebrities making complete asses of themselves' tv show from the BBC but unlike previous 'celebrities making complete asses of themselves' tv shows, I rather enjoyed this one as it was about one of my favorite subjects. Classical Music. And it proved that conducting an orchestra is not unlike driving a ruddy great big tank laden with very large guns. Wonderful stuff.

MAY THE DANCE OFF BE WITH YOU...

I love the Darth Vader Thriller dance. You'd have thought they would have let the Wookie win, right?

Which reminds me...

LAST THREE PLATES FROM WKRR? AND AN EXQUISITE CORPSE!

Here's the last three plates I did for WKRR? which oddly, when put together, even though they're divided by other contributors plates in the actual story, read straight through. Out of context, the three plates still wouldn't make much sense, but I do wonder if I'd tried this from the start if I'd been able to pull it off, having one through line in the story that could be read entirely on its own. Inspired by Dave Taylor pasting his plates together over on his blog.

And whilst on the subject of being inspired ... here's something pretty awesome:

'This is a game. It is inspired by the project "Round Robin" in where a series of professional comic artists join to create an unexpected history'

The work over on Cadaver Exquisito really is quite exquisite, so please do go check it out. I was able quite easily to work my way through the story with a translator widget (that's the glory of comics, not a lot of text).

Their contributors include Bachan, Edgar Clement (both of whom have contributed thus far), Humberto Ramos, José Quintero, Patricio Betteo, Lucas Marangon, Francisco Herrera and Tony Sandoval.

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK!

Rage incarnate indeed. Love how Hulk makes short work of Asgard's equivalent to the riders of Rohan by flying through the air and punching them off their horses. Nice work. See, you don't need a herd of stampeding Mûmaks after all.

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD

I'm looking forward to seeing this. Batman's going to be regularly teaming up with the likes of Aquaman, The Atom, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Doctor Fate, Fire, Flash, Green Arrow, The Green Lantern Corps, Huntress, Red Tornado and Plastic Man, with Diedrich Bader providing the voice of the not-so-dark Knight. It's also great to see Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle.

LION OH LION

Another Plate for 'Who Killed Round Robin?' This time hopefully further tying the Creature Constabulary and the Magical Hat into Zoctarian origins. This time introducing the not so cute and not so cuddly Kodoradomidion bounty hunters. As I currently see it they ride around the deserts of Zoctar on giant lizards hunting bounty.

Initially I was working on this plate in blue, but I eventually figured that Zoctarian moonlight would be red, as you do, so I washed everything through with red photo filter. Also, dropping the old paper texture over the top (which has a yellowed newspaper look about it) and playing with color burn channels really made the lines around Uncle Tulpa zing.

THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL

With all this talk of Gods and revelations I thought it only fitting to open this next WKRR? plate with writing on the wall (Daniel 5:1–31). Carrying on the unclaimed log entry from the previous two pages, I was sort of wondering when I did those if anyone would associate them with the character Penney or attribute them to somebody else. And I've been wanting to bring "the Detective" back into the story for quite a number of pages now, and suggest perhaps how such a story could have such a thing as a Creature Constabulary and magic hats.

When I first introduced 'the detective' (who has a name of course, Captain Noah Arkright), I actually had planned to introduce three. Basil Rathbone, Margaret Rutherford and Sidney Toler alikes, getting under one another's feet... but that would have been a nightmare so I'm glad I didn't venture further beyond the signs saying 'turn back, that way madness lies'. I settled for a cross between Basil Rathbone and Gregory Peck instead ... sort of.

Oh, one last thing - there's a joke hidden away in this one... it's written in Zoctarian across the ship as it passes overhead in the second panel.

If you've no idea what I'm on about then you've not been reading 'Who Killed Round Robin?' Shame on you.

WATCHMEN TRAILER!

Who watches the Watchmen? Well, pretty soon we'll all be watching the Watchmen as it hits cinemas March, 2009. I don't think I've ever watched a trailer so many times over. Wow. The Doc Manhattan transformation scene is really quite something.

Go and watch the Watchmen trailer for yourselves.... thanks to Apple.