THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NAO (PART DEUX)

JANUARY 30
Woke early to the tiger after a night in Nao's bed. Got dressed. Got ready.  Met the rest of the lovely Dillon clan. Said hello. Said goodbye. Cab on time. St "Pancreas" bound.

Paul Gravett greeted us in the International departure lounge. He really is The Man at the Crossroads!! He was Angouleme bound via a different route and we parted ways.

We rendezvoused with our publisher, Emma Hayley. Quick coffee. Quick chat. And off again. After being dragged out of England and through a tunnel backwards and tangoing with the Paris metro (considerably cheaper than the London Underground and just as efficient! Grrrr!!!) we we're on the Angouleme train rattling through the French countryside.

We arrived in Angouleme to rain we didn't bring with us. Something Brits from an island of inclemency are often blamed for, but seriously, it was like that when we got there! And then it was goodbye Emma as she headed off to her hotel and hello to Mara, an Akileos auteur from Switzerland (speaks excellent English and puts us both to shame for our lack of even basic 'Allo 'Allo French).

Our French publisher, Emmanuel Bouteille (aka Manu or Mr Good-Bottle), picked us all up in his car and we headed for our booth in town.

The town was abuzz with the set up. Vans parked up on curbs with people carrying boxes into the convention centre, and inside, people sorting tables, setting up stands. It's not unreasonable to say that the whole of Angouleme is commandeered by this festival. When I say convention centre here I'm actually just talking about our marquee which houses all the main publishers… there are marquees dotted all over Angouleme with various things going on in them. It's huge and when you're signing at Angouleme you don't really get a chance to see it all because you're signing. All the time.

We waded through bubble wrap and empty cardboard boxes. We had arrived. We met with Richard Saint Martin (the other half of Akileos). We saw the tables we would call home for the next few days (an excellent spot, right opposite Dargaud) and then off to accommodation. Glyn stayed in town in a beautiful apartment I'd stayed in before and I was staying with my extended family, Akileos, in the countryside. We drove out to a beautiful farm/manor house. The room I got was gorgeous. I dumped my bags and we headed back into Angouleme for food and drink!

Later that night, Ted Naifeh (Courtney Crumrin) joined us for dinner. We ate. We drank. We talked. We had the entire plot of The Life of Pi spoiled for us, Glyn discovered that he quite likes Camembert, we discovered that Manu does not, and then we parted ways with Glyn and headed back to the manor house and to bed.

I closed my eyes and bid the long day goodnight.

No Tigers.

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NAO (PART I)

Okay, it has been awhile since I updated this blog. It has been a very busy year. Hot off the back of last year which was insanely busy too. Plus, I lost a month due to surgery back in March which went horribly wrong but that's another story for another time and really less important than the fact that I'm alright now! No amount of time in hospital is great when you're freelance. So, I've been playing catch up and working hard.

Now I'm sort of back on top of things I'm determined to update this blog more regularly. I have a new book out, The Shadow Out of Time, and I'm currently drawing the second twelve part series of Brass Sun (due out in 2000AD this Autumn) and I've just written my first original graphic novel, Celeste. Celeste is not an adaptation and not remotely Lovecraftian. It is going to be nearly 200 pages long and full colour and there will be more about this over the coming months as I'm working on it right now and it will be out next spring in the UK and the US simultaneously from SelfMadeHero.  And to top it all, Dan Abnett and I are also set to start working again quite soon on a new collaboration.

In short, exciting times! Much to do and much to write about the doing there of.

For now, let me begin with a story that goes right back to the beginning of the year, back to January 29th.   Glyn Dillon (writer and artist of The Nao of Brown) and I travelled to France together for the Angouleme 40th year festival (where the French edition of Nao was in the running for the Jury prize) at the invitation of our French publishers, Akileos.  I kept a sort of incomplete journal of our adventures, so, here it is, this is just the first part of four which I will post over the next few days…

Cue swirly flashback graphics and harp.

JANUARY 29th.
Set off late. Wanted to say goodnight to my bairns before I hit the road. My youngest said 'see you in the morning' almost breaking my heart before I'd even set a foot out the door. 

Arrived in Mother London, tired, nauseous for eating carbs on the train, and outraged at the price of an underground ticket! I caught a train to Glyn's house, but at that price I was expecting a piggy back at the very least.

He opened the door barefoot and dressing gowned and I realised I was considerably later than I'd anticipated. The rest of the house was abed so I trod as quietly as any six foot four galah could. He made me tea and asked if I recognise the room I was standing in. Took a moment for me to realise… it was Nao's kitchen and living room.  I was in Nao's house. A surreal moment as fact and fiction collided. When I read the book, Nao became a sort of tulpa, she became real, and here I a was, one half sitting in Glyn's house, one half sitting in Nao's.

I was to sleep in Nao's room, the actual room at the actual house in the actual bed. The bed was Nao sized. My feet stuck out at the end.

I wrote my Angouleme diary long hand in the absence of a smart phone and in the light of a lamp I christened 'the moon' even though it wasn't even moon shaped. The off switch was guarded by a tiger.

So many books. So many wonderful things. But I had to sleep. Cab booked for seven am.

Tiger be damned…

THE NEW DEADWARDIANS - GOSH! EXCLUSIVE BOOKPLATE EDITION!

This is the bookplate I produced for Gosh! They have 200 bookplate editions of The New Deadwardians tpb (out tomorrow) signed by both Abnett and me. Their site has details about how you can get a copy of the bookplate edition:

"If you’d like one reserved or if you’d like to arrange a mail order send us an email to info@goshlondon.com and we’ll sort it out for you. Postage is a flat-rate of £5 within the UK, £5.50 to Europe, £7.80 to the USA and Canada, and £8 to Australia and NZ (if you’re elsewhere let me know and I’ll get a quote for you)."

They may take a couple more days to be ready, I only just posted them back to Gosh! today. They arrived at my house when I was in France attending Angouleme which I kept a diary account of and am currently writing up so expect that over the next day or so.

THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME

Oh my dear long neglected blog… I've been busy. Deadbeats hit shelves Nov last year - debuting at Thought Bubble where we sold out of every copy we brought with us and hot on the heels of that comes The Shadow Out of Time which is out this May from SelfMadeHero.  Here's the cover. Sneak peeks to follow over the coming weeks.  I shall endeavor to update this dear old blog more often. 

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…

THE NEW DEADWARDIANS

The cat is out of the bag. Vertigo have announced a new mini-series. The New Deadwardians by Dan Abnett and me! I have had to keep that one a secret for absolutely AGES!!! But its out now (well, first issue is out in March 2012) but I can finally say I'm doing a series for Vertigo! 

And here's the opening line to Dan's original pitch:

"May I just confess that this is a story that involves both zombies and vampires, two things I swore I would never write about because they had both long since jumped the shark. Then this idea came to me and wouldn’t leave me alone. Please be tolerant of the zombie-and-vampire-ness of this until you’ve heard me out. It’s essentially a detective story set in an alternate history England, circa 1900.”

Hence - I've been busy. 

Here is the cover to issue 1! Be sure to keep an eye out for it. 

SEA FOOD

Here's another Quai Des Bulles doodle (colored in when I got home). 

THE JOB KNOWS

The job knows.

I haven't been able to sit down to update this blog in a hell of a long time. Let's have a look - May 28th. Yeesh! That's a long time (I actually thought it was April so already I'm telling myself 'oh, its not that bad').

Okay, so where was I? Right. I've been busy. REALLY busy. I started work on Charles Dexter Ward earlier this year then midway through took a break to draw A Princess of Mars (that's right, I took a break from working on a graphic novel to work on a graphic novel - in my world it makes sense there's just less holidays) and now I'm back again on Charles Dexter Ward finishing that book off before Christmas and starting something new. It's been busy. And I've only had one book out this year (technically three books if you count The Lovecraft Anthology Vol.1 and Blankslate's Nelson). Last year I had two! But before you think for even one second I've been slacking off- STOP! I have THREE GRAPHIC NOVELS out next year, AND a mini-series (can't say anything about that just yet) and a 10-12 part weekly at some point in among all that.

I've been busy.

Oh, AND At the Mountains of Madness won best graphic novel at the British Fantasy Awards 2011 back in October - you can read about that here!!

Now, a couple of weeks ago I went to the Quai des Bulles festival (I'm going to write more on that in another post quite soon, I promise) which is in St Malo (the picture at the top here is one I drew at the festival and brought home and colored up - now I got my scanner working again! YAY!). Right up to that point I was working crazy hours getting A Princess of Mars done. And about a week before the trip to France (my only break since April really) I was thinking 'this is great, this is going great. I'm gonna get the book done and have time to relax a little and unwind before I go away. I've got DAYS left! Everything is gonna be just fine.' What could possibly go wrong, right?

Well, nothing did go wrong really except that I worked right up until the very last second of the very last minute of the very last hour before my flight to St Malo. Literally no time to spare. I used up ever second I had. It was like THE JOB KNEW. There I was thinking "I've got a week, I'm on the home straight, this is easy." But no. It's like the job knew exactly how long I had left and that was exactly how long it was going to take. Not a second more. Not a second less. THE JOB KNEW!!!

And since I got back from St Malo I've been catching up on my sleep and getting in the right headspace again for Charles Dexter Ward and I'm back in Lovecraft country where I can post sneak peeks (this picture here isn't one of them - don't worry, a Gug doesn't show up in a suit in the middle of the story).