Sunday 12 December 2010

Looks Like It's Going To Be A White Christmas.


About this time last year we took in a rescue Dalmatian. Having lost Smugde (also a Dalmatian) to old age a few months before, we came across Tara on a website for dogs looking for new homes. Well, she settled in pretty quickly and is nothing like our previous dogs, not that we expected her to be.

I thought I'd share this photo taken of her last winter and wish everybody a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2011.

Friday 5 November 2010

The Eagle Has Landed...



Well we did it :o)
Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has won the EAGLE award for Favourite Bristich Black and White Comic published in 2009.
We collected the award at the London EXPO MCM event last weekend, a shame that we couldn't all be there and as it was Colin and I couldn't make it down for the awards ceremony and actually received it on Sunday in the end.
As you can imagine I'm feeling pretty happy at the moment :o)

Wednesday 20 October 2010

The Fastest Man In Brazil...


Mauricio of Gal Editora sent this photo from a recent convention over there... Fastest Man gets a great position on the poster :o) Mauricio is pleased with how it's selling, which is great news.

Monday 4 October 2010

Whatever happens we'll enjoy ourselves...



... was the last thing I said to Andy as we stepped out of the car to meet Manny of Whatever Comics in Canterbury. Manny has been a great supporter of Accent UK for a few years now, selling more copies of our books than any other store, anywhere.
We had decided to launch Fall Of The Wolfmen at Manny's store mainly because it would give us the opportunity to meet him and thank him in person for being so helpful and encouraging ever since The Wolfmen first hit the shelves. To be honest I've been to enough store signings to know how they can go, and so my expectations were set very low.
I was completely blown away, however, by the response we got.
I knew Manny had pushed our books on a number of his customers, maybe even most of them, but to a man they all told me that he had been right to do so. They had enjoyed them so much.
We met a lot of really committed comic fans and had a good chat with a lot of very interesting and interested people.
It was a really really great day.
We were working the table from 1pm to 5pm. Not a moment passed when we weren't doing something, and the time just flew.
I can't imagine better hosts than Manny and Debe, as they took us under their wings and sorted everything out for us. Also the work done, as a favour for a friend, by Karol (and later Carl) in walking the streets in Wolfmen garb to raise the profile of the event worked incredibly well, so a big thank you to them as well.
I've written a fuller report over on the Accentukcomics website, with a lot more photos. Also pop over to the http://www.whatevercomics.com/ to find out more about the store, and take part in the very active forum, and visit Andy Bloor's blog (follow the link on the right).
I'm still buzzing from the launch even now ....

Sunday 26 September 2010

Wolfmen Figures...








Well I've created my two Wolfmen figures ahead of the Store Signing at Whatever Comics in Canterbury on the 2nd October.
Merging Reservoir Dogs and Dog Soldiers figures, when seemed only appropriate, adding plenty of milliput and then a lick of paint and there you go.. what could be simpler :o)
One of these I'll keep and the other is a gift for Andy Bloor, a small thank you for all the hours he's spent slaving over a drawing board to produce another great piece of almost cinematic story telling. Over to you to choose which one you'd like Andy... they look better in person than on the photographs so you might want to wait until you see them for real.







Sunday 19 September 2010

Fall Of The Wolfmen...

Yep ... Wolfmen 2 - Fall Of The Wolfmen is back from the printers ... I'm a very happy man as it looks really solid. Andy Bloor's artwork and design skills just get better with each book he's involved with, as you can see from the image above ... I've even copied his photograph as it's better than one that I'd take :o)

We'll be launching this at Whatever Comics in Canterbury on the 2nd October, so if you'r local, in the neighbourhood or just fancy a day out then do come to the store and say hello ... you can then get your hands on a Collector's Edition cover version that'll only be available at Cons and Store signings ... once they've gone they've gone I'm afraid ...

Sunday 12 September 2010

Brazilian Edition of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?

The Brazilian edition of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? is now available in stores across Brazil. Published by Gal Editora you can see their version of the cover above. Looks great !!

Two Templars


Whilst being very busy with Wolfmen 2 (should be in my hands next week :o), Strange Times and a little Robot book I'm pulling together with Steve Holder, I'm also playing around with designs (well, as close as I get to such a thing) for my Two Templars book.

In other news, the Brazilian edition of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? is available very soon, and Gal Editora (the publishers over there) have put a great little trailer up on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpjZ6hIkS1I, check it out.

Saturday 28 August 2010

Strange SFX Times...

My Strange Times webcomic (also available in collected hard cover edition ;o) got a great little mention in Issue 200 of SFX this month, which is nice as SFX is read by a whole load of SciFi fans across the UK, and possibly the world.

I'm an SFX reader myslef and use it to judge what films I should be catching (usually on BluRay as I don't get to the cinema much) and what books to read. I tend not to bother with their Comic Review pages though as they are always a bit too mainstream for me, I get my Comic info from Tales From The Parent's Basement Podcasts.

It's a great advert for Strange Times though and all I had to do was email the link to the email address at the bottom of the article (see above) ...

Sunday 8 August 2010

The Captain America blues ....


Been a busy week this week ... catching up with the 300 odd emails at work ... yep ... things just carry on when you're not around.

More interestingly I've now printed off Andy Bloor's Wolfmen 2 pages and they are great. Really impressive work. Our process is that I now sit down and script it more tightly, as Andy has put many of my words into the images. This typically means that I end up writing it from scratch with his visuals as the thread through the story. I'm not sure if other people work this way but I enjoy the opportunity to re-write the script in this way and believe that a better comic is the result.

Well, back to work ... if you can call this work :o) Did I mention that I've now seen all the pages of Andy's fabulous artwork ... and everyone else has to wait another month :o)

Sunday 1 August 2010

Jersey... The place to be if there's a Zombie attack.

Just back from a very relaxing holiday in Jersey.

As always when I'm travelling, my mind starts to wander and subconsciously look for good hide outs in case of a Zombie Attack (Yep ... I probably should visit the Dr.). Well Jersey has the best structures I've ever seen. Whether built to ward off the Normans, the French or the Allies, it has a lot of solid buildings with elevated windows and doors that can be easy enhanced to make them proof against the mindless creatures. No glass windows at ground level for them to burst through, in some cases a great surrounding wall and others surrounded by the waves at low tide. Yep ... come the Zombies Plague I'm heading for Jersey.

Sunday 18 July 2010

It's all about proportions...

I've been playing around with proportions.. thinking ahead to when I do my Two Templars book that'll follow Strange Times. I want to have a different look and feel to the characters, but also to bring across the kind of cartoony feel that I've now got to grips with. At the moment I'm playing with some recognizable (hopefully) characters, but soon I'll start to define the look of the Templars.

Sunday 11 July 2010

Solomon Kane had the feeling he was being watched...

I watched the Solomon Kane movie and it was... OK.

Again they failed to capture the magic of Robert E Howard's stories and instead went for an adventure film that is probably a safer bet financially that trying to aim for something different. Sad really as they could turn out something memorable, and generate some real buzz if they took a few more risks. I wanted a horror story with a central hero and got Indiana Jones in olden times. What this film has successfully done though is lower my expectations for the Conan film that's in the making.

Saturday 3 July 2010

It was the 22nd June and Norman's internet purchase wasn't all he'd hoped for...


... he'd wanted 'Three Lions' on his shirt and not 'Three lines'. Still, in a couple of days it'd turn out to be a wise purchase.

'Norman' has been created by Dave Hughes and you can read a load of gags about him over on Dave's blog (follow the link on the right), They always make me chuckle so I decided to vent my frustration at England's World Cup performance through Norman.

Norman is copyright Dave Hughes.

Saturday 19 June 2010

It's just one Thing after another.

Thanks to Steve Holder for the idea for this one ...

Busy as always on a number of projects ... I've just finished greyscaling some of Steve's great interpretations of some of my short stories for our little Robot Shorts book, which we're both working on in the background, and I'm now colouring the Martian pages of Stephenson's Robot Issue 2 from the pencil, and pen, of INDIO!

Saturday 12 June 2010

A few months of no pain in the gym and Superman had to accept that therefore there'd be no gain. His body would never look as good as Batman's.


I've been busy catching up with things the last few weeks, but feel that I'm getting there. I just hope that 'there' is somewhere nice to be.
The date for voting on the Eagle Awards has been set as the 4th July, now that dates seems familiar but I'm not sure why, maybe Cally can remind me :o) If you've not voted yet then pop over to http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/vote.aspx, and if you liked Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? then it wouldn't hurt if you voted for it whilst you were there :o)

Tuesday 25 May 2010

After a few years away from the action Iron Man was getting a bit rusty.

Just back from another fantastic Komiks.DK event in Copenhagen. The Danes are a very friendly and hospitable bunch and we're always made to feel very welcome. Over the last 8 years we've made a lot of friends over there. I'll post a full report over on the Accent UK website this weekend (hopefully) but in short, we sold every Accent UK title we took, and between three of us and a box shipped over, it was a lot of comics ...

And I come back to find out that Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has made it to the shortlist of 5 comics up for the EAGLE AWARD (http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/vote.aspx ) for Favourite British Black and White Comicbook, so if you voted before then please do so again as all previous votes have been removed and everyone starts again from scratch. It'd be great to win this, so if you enjoyed the book more than the others shortlisted then now's the time to vote for it ... As Clint Eastwood said, 'Go ahead .. make my day.'

Sunday 16 May 2010

After many years of searching, Thor began to believe that Jörmungandr might not actually exist.

As I'm hopefully off to Denmark this coming weekend for their Komiks.DK event, I thought it only appropriate to have a go at Marvel's version of our favourite Norse God. Let's hope that Thor uses his powers to keep that ash cloud away.

Sunday 9 May 2010

From very early on Bruce Wayne realised...


... that if this super-hero thing was going to work, then he'd need to find a much quicker way of getting around.
Been busy this week catching up with pages for my Strange Times webcomic and getting ready for Komiks.DK, the Copenhagen Comic Convention that takes place every two years. One of our favourite Cons.


Sunday 2 May 2010

Dormammu decided to see a Doctor about his 'flaming head' condition...


Thanks to everyone who voted for Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? over on the EAGLE Awards 2009 nominations. If we succeed in this step of the process then I think everyone is asked to vote again ... and then it goes before a final panel ... or something like that ... anyway ... thanks everyone ... I'll keep you all posted.

Saturday 24 April 2010

Eagle Awards 2009

Well, Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has been nominated by some kind soul for Favourite British Black and White Comic over on http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/nomination.aspxhttp://www.eagleawards.co.uk/nomination.aspx
so if you read it, liked it and think it worthy of such an award then please pop over and register your opinion on the appropriate drop down.
I think the 5 with the most such votes go through to a panel of our peers for the final vote.

Friday 23 April 2010

The Thing meets a bigger Thing...


I guess this is one of those, 'no matter how big you are there's always someone bigger' ideas. Or maybe it's an image about your biggest enemy being yourself... hmmm... that's all a bit deep isn't it ... maybe then it's just a strange idea for an image that occurred to me on the way to work one morning ...

Monday 12 April 2010

Waiting for the cosmic wave ...

.... so, does The Silver Surfer ever run out of cosmic waves on which to soar ? I don't know how cosmic waves work, but it seems likely ...

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Captain America loves all creatures ....

So, Capt America is off to foil another of the Red Skull's evil plots to take over the world, but has a bit of an accident on the way. This delay could spell 'doom' for mankind, but at least the bunny is OK.

Tuesday 30 March 2010

'' That's not Batman !!! ''


... 'His nose is too big ... his ears don't go like that and his car doesn't have smoke like that coming out the back.'
Well, my daughter's views on my latest little illustration are quite clear :o)
The title was going to be 'Batman takes a leasurely Sunday drive in the country ... what could possibly go wrong ?', but my daughter would probably have commented that he doesn't look like Batman at all, so I went with her title instead ;o)
Everyone's a critic ....

Saturday 27 March 2010

Best Comic of the Year You Probably Haven’t Heard Of ...

Well, Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? was nominated for the 'Best Comic of the Year You Probably Haven't Heard of' award over on http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1715467.html?thread=55955211.

We didn't get the most votes and so didn't win ... hmmm ... wait a minute .... doesn't that mean we should have won as we were therefore the one most people hadn't heard of ?;o)

Nice to be on the list with such great titles.

Monday 22 March 2010

Alan Scott and Emerald City Con

This one is for Jim Schwitzer of 'Tales From The Parent's Basement' fame ... over the weekend of the Emerald City Con Jim asked if I'd had a chance to do an Alan Scott - Green Lantern image in my 'style' ... I hadn't and apologised ... but in discussing it with Colin on the flight home we both had the same idea for what the image would be.

Hope you like it Jim .... and 'Yes' .. I spotted that he wears his ring on his left hand ... but only just in time :o)

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Sleepless In Seattle ...


I know .. it's an obvious title for this entry but so apt.
A plane flight of some 10 hours or so, hit me pretty hard. I found myself waking up at around 2.30am every morning, even if I'd gone to bed at around 12.30am. In fact, and typically, the one morning I didn't wake until 7.00am, was the day we came home.
OK, so it was a long way to go, but was it worth it ?
It certainly was.
This was never going to be financially viable, we knew that going in. In fact I don't think we could have shipped enough comics out there to balance the price of air fare and hotels. What this was all about was meeting people (both friends from Tales From The Parent's Basement and new collaborators and customers), getting Accent UK books in front of people who had never heard of us, meeting retailers and showing them what we produce and seeing some of Seattle.
We acheived all of our goals.
The guys from Tales From The Parent's Basement were great, to a man, and great hosts for our shared table. We had a load of fun with them and they introduced me to Burretos and reintroduced me to Churros. A quick thank you to them all.
We sold a whole heap of comics, ZOMBIES proving most popular (as always), met a load of new customers, met our Vancouver counterparts Cloudscape (again nice people), met Val Mayerik who will be contributing to a future anthology and maybe more.
We talked to about a dozen retailers, all of who seemed genuinely interested in our books, and some of whom already stocked them. This was a great response and something we need to do more of.
Vanessa, Wei and Wai of the Vancouver Collective, Cloudscape, were all very nice and as enthusiastic about the independent comic scene as we are. Hopefully we'll be able to support eachother in the future from different sides of the Atlantic.
We also had a interesting chat with Val Mayerik, who does a pretty decent London accent, and he's shown a lot of interest in working with us in the future.
Bald Eagles in Pioneer Square, never seen before, was a fitting end to a great 4 day adventure.
We're not sure we'll visit the same Con for a while, but it has certainly got us looking to attend more US cons ... we'll aim for 1 a year I think.
I'll be putting up a more comprehensive report on the Accent UK website in the coming weeks ... with photos etc. I need to get some rest now .. the jet lag hasn't finished with me yet.

Sunday 28 February 2010

Follow the yellow brick road ...

Well, Accent UK are off to our first ever US Comicon, Seattle's Emerald City Comicon to be precise. We've been invited to share a table with our friends over at Tales From The Parent's Basement, where we will help them sell copies of their anthology '8am', which contains contributions from a few Accent UK regulars, including a prequel to Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ?, written by myself and illustrated by Marleen Lowe (of course). We'll also take as many copies of Accent UK stuff as we can fit into our suitcases, hand luggage and pockets.

It's a fair old trip ... but I can't wait !!

Check it out at http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Moonlighting Wolfmen .. with words


I had these words in my mind as I pulled this image together ... thought I'd finish it for the blog.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Shane Oakley is having an 'Almost January Sale' ...

.. over on his blog ... and does commissions ... he's got a very unique style ... so if you collect sketches around a theme then your collection will be all the better for having a piece of his artwork in there ..

Check out his blog at http://shaneoakley.blogspot.com/ for more ...

Wolfmen Moonlighting


When times were hard The Wolfmen could be found moonlighting as bouncers down at Roxy's.
Well ... you can blame Mr. Bloor for this one ... hope you like it Andy ... I seem to be growing a little list of characters to have a crack at ... good fun so thanks for the suggestions.

Saturday 30 January 2010

Lobster Johnson meet Frog ...


Well Gary Crutchley suggested I have a go at Lobster Johnson, although I think he was meaning a head shot, so you can blame him for this one ... think I'll have to have a go at The Wolfmen next ... phew ...

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has landed ....

... in the UK anyway .. and gets a mention over on
http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/

.... and they also mention that we are in talks with Gal Editora, a Brazilian comic publisher, about printing a Portuguese version ... that'll be cool.

Saturday 23 January 2010

Dr. Strange 2 ...

Still playing around with these little A5 efforts .... this one'll go to Rob too .. if he wants it.

Friday 22 January 2010

It's in the shops ....

Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? is now available in the UK stores.

If you can't find one and want to read it then can you please ask your local comic shop to order you a copy through Diamond. It'll help raise our numbers with Diamond and give our next book the best chance of them listing it.

Great to see the comic on the shelf in Millennium Comics in Nortwich. Thanks to Dan for ordering a good number of them.

Sunday 17 January 2010

The Shadow .... of his former self.

I was asked if I'd do a sketch of The Shadow for a collector of images of the character. I did it in my usual 'Strange Times' style, but used watercolour rather than computer colour it. It's an A5 piece ... on bristol board ... I enjoyed doing it as it's fun to try out more famous characters than Mr. Rock :o)

Saturday 9 January 2010

Dr. Strange doodle ... with watercolour ...


At conventions I've found myself stood next to a very busy Andy Bloor as he turns out his wonderful 'sketches' of the likes of Dr. Strange, Batman and .. well .. pretty much anyone the collector asks for and I think ... I wish I could do something like that ... maybe I should practice a style for 'convention sketches' ... well ... I've got a way to go yet but here's my first attempt ... not as whacky and freeflowing as I wanted it to be ... I really do need to loosen up a whole lot ...

Thursday 7 January 2010

Strange Times indeed ....

Another review of Strange Times has popped up on the net over at http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/strange-times-indeed/ ... which is nice ... I'm hoping to have book 2 done before 2015 though ... hopefully :o)

Sunday 3 January 2010

Best of 2009 ....

Jason has listed Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? as his best comic of the year over on a report he did for Forbidden Planet. I've just come across it, skipping across blogs for the first time since Christmas ... I couldn't ask for a better start to the year. Thanks Jason.

Check it out :- http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2009/best-of-the-year-jason-cobleys-selection/