Stephenson's Robot.

I've spent the last few weeks getting back into colouring Stephenson's Robot. This is the book that is an alternative history Victorian mixture of science, magic and steam, drawn by the incomparable INDIO! and written by myself and Jon Ayre.
This page is the first from Issue 3,

 

Issues 1 and 2 are coloured and lettered, and the four pages that INDIO! has completed of Issue 4 are also coloured. I did them before starting Issue 3 as I had a clear idea of the effect I wanted to achieve and couldn't do Issue 3 until I'd tried it out.

Colouring is a long process, and you wouldn't believe how much time and effort goes into it unless you've had a go yourself, so I really do respect those who colour for a living, it's a hell of a lot harder than you might think, even to do it to the level that I do it.

Righto.. on to page 2..

It's been a strange few weeks. I went to the opening of the Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition and was a little humbled by the professionalism of the other entries. True to any form of art there were those that I liked and those that I didn't, but overall I felt a certain amount of pride that Belmat was even there.
He didn't get a prize of course, but he did look the toughest exhibit in the room and I certainly noticed that none of the other exhibits would look him in the eye.
I have plans for entering something next year, but we'll see if I ever find the time to make it.

Yesterday Accent UK had a table at the Comiket in London and sold a good number of our books. All was going very well until I sold a copy of Robot Shorts to a Spanish (I think) couple.
'My partner makes robots', the lady stated, very proud of her chap.
 'Hey, so do I', I felt a bond forming between myself and the gentleman. 'I make mine out of paper mache' I explained.
'Oh, he programmes his to avoid objects...'
'Oh... real robots...' I felt a little like Androx The Mighty and crawled back behind the table to deal with the next customer.
Still, it feels good to know that a Robotics Engineer now possessed a book of my about robots.
Next weekend I'll be at the Leeds' Thought Bubble Festival, so do pop in and say hello if you're in the area, and if you happen to be a Robotics Engineer it might be best to mention that early in the conversation, to avoid my embarrassing myself... again.

Belmat delivered...

I dropped Belmat off with Jennifer Collier yesterday for the Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition, which opens to the public from the 1st Nov - 25th Nov 2012.

Jennifer referred to me as a 'Maker', which is the term used to describe people who are in the craft world. I quite like the term. Looking around Unit 12 I'm certainly feeling inspired to make some more robots and have something in mind to enter next year, it won't have the charm of Belmat though so we'll see how it goes and how it is received.

Belmat gets selected for a Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition

On the insistence of my wife, I entered Belmat in the Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition at Unit Twelve, in Stafford. And he has been selected.

Both my wife and I love visiting galleries and workshops around the country and we have been drawn more to the 'craft' side of the art world these last few years.

I would never have considered entering Belmat, but Jane was convinced that he deserved to be seen by more more people and so I agreed, never expecting for him to be selected, but there you go, the little guy won through.

The exhibition will run 1st - 25th November, and all visitors will be entered into a prize draw to win £100 voucher to spend with madebyhandonline.co.uk

Sadly One-Eye wasn't selected, but he'll get over it I'm sure.

If you've not been to one of these Contemporary Craft Open Exhibitions before then I'd recommend it. Very inspiring and it's amazing how many ideas from one medium can leak into another, so I'd be surprised if any comic creators who might happen to attend don't come away with some new ideas.

Facebook comment...

Manny over at Whatever Comics sent me this the other day. It always gives me a lift when I get something like this. Thanks to Manny for continuing to promote our books in his store and also to Josh for taking the time to pop this on Facebook.

All Quiet On The Western Front ?

I've been pretty quiet on the blog for the last few weeks. But rather than that mean that I'm not very busy it's actually the opposite. I've a number of projects in various stages of development at the moment and it's hard at times picking which one to focus on. A nice place to be.
In order of publish date I guess, I'm finishing off the final touches of Missing - Have You Seen The Invisible Man ? with art from Joe Campbell. Just playing around with the back cover, assisted as always by Andy Bloor, and then it's pretty much off to the printers.

Sample of a page from Joe Campbell

I'm also starting to pull together the script for Issue 3 of Josiah Black (WesterNoir), following a gerat couple of development meetings with Gary Crutchley, meanwhile Gary is busy completing art on Issue 2.

Gary Crutchley unlettered page

 And then there's Has Kane Mesmer Lost His Magic Touch ? illustrated by Marleen Lowe. Our follow up to Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? but obviously not featuring Bobby Doyle himself.


Marleen's artwork shows Kane Mesmer taking some down time.

A new project From SuperZero to SuperHero, is now also underway. Sebastian Velez is providing art on this one. It's my first all out Superhero book, and of course it's my take on things so you know what to expect. Seba draws a great superhero.

Seba's design for 256 (pronounced Two Fifty Six)

I've also been pretty busy at work (the day job), and even had time for a Community Day, where we are let loose on the community to do some good... or try to anyway. This year we moved weeds from a pond to a lake in a park in Bolton. A good fun, if tyring, day. Alan Rigg was the team photographer (and you can follow his blog on the right), and so I had him take a couple of extra photos for me.

Photo by Alan Rigg

I'm not sure what it is about me and rust...

Photo by Alan Rigg

maybe it's that there's something slightly 'old-robot' about it all.
No wonder I'm finding it difficult to get back into Strange Times Book 2...

A relaxing 10 days on the Kent Coast.

Well, it's been too long since I've last seen my parents, who have moved out of London into a nice retirement bungalow on the Kent Coast, so this year we decided to combine a long visit with our Summer break.The Kent Coast used to be the favourite summer holiday destination for us growing up and many a holiday was spent in Broadstairs, where we dug holes in the sand outside our beach hut and swam in the cold sea, when the heat got too much.
We spent most of our holiday in and around Birchington, where my folks now live, where we walked along the coast line, cycled to Reculver Castle and also took the plunge in the Channel (and it is as cold as I remember it). We did however also spend a day in Broadstairs and had lunch in Bleak House (of Dickens' fame), or as Jemma and I called it Beak House, home of Darles Chickens.

I must confess to not recognizing much, but I guess that's because my sister and I were always either building sand castles or swimming, we weren't much for taking an interest in the local shops and buildings when we were kids.
Jane and I also visited Canterbury, Jemma deciding to stay behind with her grand parents, and had a great day discovering art galleries and an amazing little book shop. No visit to Canterbury would be complete, of course, without a visit to Whatever Comics, and a chat with store owner Manny.
It was great to see Manny as passionate about comics as ever, and my wife even popped in to suggest a school bag for Jemma (a Marvel one no less), Jane's first comic shop visit in many a year.
Leaving Manny with a Magnificent Seven WesterNoirs (the number seemed appropriate) it was soon time to leave, but I'll pop into that great little store whenever I'm in the area, which is all the more likely now.
The only other 'time out' from the holiday was taken to watch the new Batman movie. Jemma and I went to The Vue at Westwood ( a retail park). All I can really say is 'Wow', what a great end to the trilogy.
No rest for the wicked of course, as we're all off to Carlisle next weekend fopr the MegaCon, which I'm really looking forward to.. be good to see you there.