ONE HUNDRED BROKEN FIGHTING MEN

(The Valley of Fear @SelfMadeHero)

Round up the usual suspects.

I have been drawing a lot of criminals today. The Valley of Fear certainly does have its fair share, including head bad guy number 1, the greatest fictional villain of them all, Moriarty!

I do quite enjoy drawing extras - characters that won't likely appear again in the story. Here we have a line up of unsavory associates of that Napoleon of Crime. Pickpockets, blackmailers, cardsharps... each and every one a ne'er-do-well of some description or other.

MORE VALLEY

(The Valley of Fear @SelfMadeHero)

ANOTHER PANEL FROM VALLEY OF FEAR

(The Valley of Fear @SelfMadeHero)

DOWN IN THE VALLEY

(The Valley of Fear @SelfMadeHero)

I have been drawing a lot of square panels lately for our latest Sherlock Holmes adaptation, The Valley of Fear. Here's one.

CERTIFIED MADNESS!!

My advance copies of At the Mountains of Madness arrived today!! Very excited!! Must calm down!! Maybe later!!

Rather pleased with the gate fold cover which means you get pretty much all of that cover I did ON THE COVER!! and not just on the outside but on reverse side too!!

The book is out in just a few weeks time and you can order your copy here!!

KALEIDOSCOPIC & A SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION

(The Valley of Fear @SelfMadeHero)

I'll be attending Kaleidoscopic this Friday where Edginton and I will be talking about Sherlock Holmes.

Have also been in discussion this week with SelfMadeHero about future projects... exciting times! Also I noticed quite a few people have cottoned on to this MEME that's spreading... called an Influence Map. So, without further ado, here's my seven-per-cent solution.

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS SNEAK PEAK 5

(At the Mountains of Madness © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

This is the full wraparound art for the At The Mountains of Madness cover. Finished the interior art today. Yay!

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS SNEAK PEEK 4

(At the Mountains of Madness © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

A double page spread (with ample bleed I might add). Pages 28 and 29 to be precise. When I set about working on this book I wanted it to be significantly different to the Sherlock Holmes books I've been working on. This book was my first opportunity to work in full splash double page spreads and the process has been one I'm certainly keen to adopt for future projects. The scene as centrefold. I've left off the text here because it is a bit 'spoilery' - that said, I've always liked seeing pages with empty balloons. Reminds me of what reading comics was like before I could read.

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS SNEAK PEEK 3

(At the Mountains of Madness © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE POWYS

I got back yesterday from the Guardian Hay festival in Hay-on-Wye where Edginton and I did a talk about the Holmes books we've been working on for SelfMadeHero to a packed out tent of 200 people (it was originally supposed to be 50!)

And I have to say, the festival organisers and our publishers, SelfMadeHero, looked after us tremendously well.

Hay-on Wye is a book town. The first of its kind. Richard Booth (the King of Hay-on-Wye) changed Hay from a small market town into a book town for book lovers and it's full of second-hand bookshops. Had I died and gone to heaven? It was an almost surreal experience. And Booth's own bookshop itself is absolutely wonderful. I was stood in the theology section when I was approached by the bookshop cat. I was so giddy with the idea of being in a small town with millions of books it wouldn't really have been such an unusual occurrance if the cat had asked me if I would have liked a glass of red wine!

Glorious bliss. I hope to return one day.

LAUGHTER IS NOT THE BEST MEDICINE

So.

I attended the Bristol Comic convention this year. Just 10 days after another hernia operation. I thought I was fine. No heavy lifting - had kept myself sensible for a good few days and not raced back to work - I had rested! Little did I know that meeting up with HUZZAH!! squadies at the con (the likes of my dearest brethren, Colin Fawcett, Dave Taylor and Rob Davis) would result in me ending up in Bristol A&E on Friday night. And why? All because Rob Davis cracked a joke that made me laugh SO hard I actually did quite literally bust a stitch. We were sat in the bar in the Mercure Hotel and after an evening of raucous laughter I got up and noticed a flowering circle of red blood appearing on my t-shirt that signaled I was bleeding and quite badly. So Col, gawd bless him, ensured I got to hospital and got sorted. The night ended with me at one in the morning getting patched up proper and sent back.

But this of course meant that on the Saturday I could not lean over a desk in the traditional hunched manner of an artist and do sketches for people. And for that I apologize. I only wish I'd had the presense of mind to those who asked to say 'but if you find me at the bar do say 'hey, how about that sketch' because the bar counter is higher up = no leaning involved I could quite easily do a sketch - but alas no.

Anyway. More now on who I met:

Simon Gane. The illustriously illustrated illustrator. Lovely chap. Helped me narrow down my choices of tattoos as he has many and they are marvelous.

Garen Ewing. Equally lovely chap. Flattered he thought I would look like Holmes (I suspect he was disappointed).

(The Sign of the Four © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

Interesting conversation regarding goofs! Fair play. Managed to nab a copy of Rainbow Orchid vol.2. Just beautiful.

Overall a lovely time was had even if Friday night was a bit of a horror. Bought a lot of books from Cinebook as has become traditionally the case. They're set to start publishing Valerian & Laureline in July and I cannot wait!!! Only wish I'd got to speak to Geek Syndicate. Damn!! Maybe next time, gadget!!!

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS SNEAK PEEK 2

(At the Mountains of Madness © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS SNEAK PEEK

(At the Mountains of Madness © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

(The Sign of the Four © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

(The Sign of the Four © 2010 SelfMadeHero)

AND WITH STRANGE AEONS...

FROM THE CRYPTIC REALMS OF ICE AND DEATH...

A STUDY IN SCARLET - GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE MONTH

A review of A Study in Scarlet appeared in The Observer last Sunday, declaring it Graphic Novel of the month!

"Culbard and Edginton are adept at concision... I relished every page”
- Rachel Cooke, The Observer

Also, Richard Bruton over at the Forbidden Planet International blogged upon the books release:

"SelfMadeHero’s Sherlock Holmes is turning out, thanks to the combined brilliance of Mssrs Conan Doyle, Edginton and Culbard, to be a wonderfully entertaining series of books. I can heartily recommend them and I’m already finding myself lamenting the fact that there are just two more in the series after this."

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (cover)

Sneak peek of the cover for At the Mountains of Madness from SelfMadeHero which you can find over at their brand new site.

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)