DEADBEATS!

Deadbeats has arrived at SMH HQ - The first 60 copies anywhere in the world will be available at Thought Bubble this weekend. If you want one signed and drawn in by Lackey and me then BE THERE! I'll be there Saturday and Sunday and Lackey is there Saturday only. 

There's an interview with Chris, Chad and me over at the SMH blog - I talk a little about what's different about this book for me… silhouettes is one thing I mention in the interview and you can seen an example of that on the back cover (that's from a scene inside the book), but also layout. Layout on this book was different to anything I'd done before. This time layout was all overlapping panels and panels going off into the bleed (as seen in the last snapshot here)…

THE END IS NIGH!!

The FINAL ISSUE of The New Deadwardians will be out tomorrow and a five page preview of it can be found HERE.  I have really enjoyed working on this series, its been a lot of fun and I will miss the team I've been working with - Dan Abnett (writer), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer), Will Dennis (editor), Mark Doyle (Assoc. Editor).

If you missed The New Deadwardians or you waited for the trade, the collected trade is out next February from Vertigo.

THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME

Announced on my guest bio for Though Bubble is news of my next Lovecraft adaptation, The Shadow Out of Time which will be available Spring 2013 (in time for Bristol and Kapow 2013).

DEADBEATS SNEAK PEEK 5

DEADBEATS SNEAK PEEK 4

DEADBEATS SNEAK PEEK 3

DEADBEATS SNEAK PEEK 2

DEADBEATS SNEAK PEEK 1

BRASS SUN - THE WHEEL OF WORLDS

Forgive me reader. It has been a long time since my last confession. I've been busy.

2000AD Prog 1800 is out today and in it is episode 1 of Brass Sun written by Ian Edginton and drawn by me. It is 12 episodes long and opens with a 10 page kick off.

Drawing this has been as much a journey for me as it has been a journey for the characters. I have almost 9 graphic novels under my belt so far and each of those has afforded me a chance to go back through the work and make changes before its seen print. But with episodic work you really are thinking on your feet in a whole new way. It has been an education and a hell of a lot of fun. 

Its a science-fantasy and Ian's vision for it is epic. There's been a good opportunity here for me to blow everything up big scale and really dive into the bleed with some enormous double page spreads. And the format itself is generous - 2000AD pages are pretty big. Feels like widescreen comics. 

I've enjoyed it enormously and really do hope, with any luck, that we get to do more. 

I hope you manage to pick up a copy (available in comic shops but also pretty much any newsagent in the UK from today).

PAGING DR. WILLETT

My copy of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward arrived today. I only finished it in February so I was somewhat surprised. Oh my goodness, where to start, where to start?! Rather chuffed to bits. Many thanks to SMH for all their help and expertise - especially the wonderful Lizzie Kaye who put up with no end of nonsense from me obsessing about the color!). Unlike 'At the Mountains of Madness' there's no forward in this book - the marvelous Dan Lockwood* does however provide the jacket copy which actually serves as a forward - instead we leap straight in with a curious symbol… What could it be? Oh, the mystery! The book's out this May, so, not too many sleeps till you can find out for yourselves. 

*Aside from being a marvelous fellow, Dan Lockwood is also editor and occasional writer of The Lovecraft Anthology - volume 2 of which is just out NOW from SelfMadeHero. Get it. It is brilliant! Get it also because Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer (with whom I'm working on Deadbeats) have written two brilliant adaptations for it. Go get it NOW and make your Lovecraft collection like mine.

THE DEADWARDIAN ERA

(The cover to The New Deadwardians #5)

Many thanks to everyone who picked up a copy of issue 1of The New Deadwardians from Vertigo. The response has been fantastic. All your kind and generous words have been enormously appreciated by not just me but the team also - Dan Abnett (writer), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer), Will Dennis (editor), Mark Doyle (Assoc. Editor).

Writer Dan Abnett has a word or two to say also AND a competition to mark the occasion so do be sure to check out his blog here.

To celebrate this occasion, it’s time for another blog competition, and a dead posh one it is too. Mr Culbard and I have signed, with our own fair marker pens, two copies of the first issue - the standard version and the variant cover. I will happily send them to the winner.

What do you have to do? Just post a link here to the blog (or email the site) with the most amusing or exotic place you’ve been able to place the phrase ‘The New Deadwardians’. A camera phone snap or a screengrab will do. Have you put it in your Facebook status? Have you spelled it out in magnetic letters on the side of your fridge? Have you written it on a sheet of paper and held it up in front of you on the beach in the Maldives? Have you painted it on the side of Big Ben (okay, don’t actually do that last one)? Entries will be judged on originality and amusement, and our decision will be entirely mercurial and whimsical. Good luck. Entries in by the last week in April, please (in time for the second issue!).

Dan also spoke to USA Today about the book here, and a little while back I spoke to the L. A Times about working on the book and about adapting At the Mountains of Madness for SelfMadeHero here.

D-DAY. THE NEW DEADWARDIANS HAVE LANDED

Issue 1 of New Deadwardians (an 8 part mini-series from Dan Abnett, Vertigo and me) IS OUT TODAY! And to mark the occasion here's the cover to Issue 4!

THE STARS ARE RIGHT!

As was announced today over at SMH HQ - DEADBEATS is coming to a bookshop near you this autumn, both in the UK and in the US. I first talked about this Graphic Novel all of a year ago! Its finally happening!

In other news, the cover to issue 2 of The New Deadwardians is up and has been up a couple of weeks now over on the Vertigo blog (I have been frantic busy getting stuff done this month - much calmer now). I just recently finished the cover to issue 3 so you should be seeing that soon too. All very exciting stuff and a heck of a lot of fun.

And that's not all… more announcements coming up (in March I think). Stay tuned…