The Asylum event was great fun.

Time Bomb Comics had a great time at this year's Asylum steampunk event in Lincoln.

It was my first time in a few years due to Covid and then a health issue that I had all on my own, so this one was all the more special for me.

A great chance to catch up with old friends, and that's how we feel about the people at the Asylum events. Customers and fellow creators/stall holders, they all feel like friends.

This was the first time that I had the Kingdom figure on the table and he drew plenty of interest.

It made me laugh that Steve, having never painted a figure himself, just thought I'd used a silver paint spray can. Assuming that it had taken me mere minutes to 'paint'. I explained the true process and whilst I'm not convinced that he believed me he did take this photo of me with the collected Stephenson's Robot graphic novel and Kingdom.

It was really nice that people snapped up copies of the Graphic Novel, which they'd been following in comic format up to issue 5. The book collects the remastered issues, with additional pages, and has been completed with what would have been issues 6 and 7. A nice little package with the addition of the original short story from our ROBOTS anthology, coloured by myself, and some design sketches for the characters from El Indio! All wrapped up by a wonderful cover design from Andy Bloor.

Kingdom seemed to enjoy the day, especially when the belly dancers did their display.

We had a really enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend, I should be fully recovered by Saturday.

Looking forward to next year.

WesterNoir Volume 2 is in the September PREVIEWS

The good news is that as WesterNoir Volume 1 did quite well in the PREVIEWS catalogue Diamond have accepted Volume 2 as well.

If you'd like your local comic shop to order you a copy (saving you postage), so you can follow Josiah Black's tale further, then you just need to ask them to order is using the Diamond code SEP232020.

Quantum 3 is now available in the High Street.

Yep, Q3 has landed and it's a great moment for me as mine and Jemma's WesterNoir story is featured on the cover with great artwork by David Morris. 

Issue 3 will also be available in:-

Although some countries will need to wait a while.

Great to see Malta on this list from Issue 3 as we enjoy a great Comic Convention there in December every year.

The Kingdom Figure

Well, it's finished.

It's been quite a while since I've painted anything like this. I used to paint figures to play D&D with but haven't done so for many years.

I'm quite happy with how it came out.

Well worth the time and effort.

I still need to glue it all together and then varnish it.

I'll try a few varnish samples first though as I seem to remember never being overly happy with the effect varnish has on a figure.

If you're at next weekend's Asylum Steampunk event in Lincoln then you'll be able to have a look at it in person.

Kingdom Figure - The Arms and Wrench

Which just leaves the arms. 

I used the same silver / gun metal variation as I did with his legs.

I wanted to make the wrench appear as if it was made by someone else, at a different time, and so I added some dark blue to it to give it a different feel.

And that's it then.

The next post will be the completed figure.

Kingdom Figure - The Legs

 Ok, so the arms and legs are much easier. Much less detail on them.

I decided to paint the joints and sole of his boot a more silver colour.. but then put some black washes on to darken them a bit.

All the while trying to make sure that the metallic colour was consistent.

Looks ok.

Just the arms left then.

Almost there.

Oh yeah, and his wrench.

Kingdom Figure - The Body

 Ok.

Colour scheme sorted, and it's pretty much all gun metals.

Now to try to get the same colour, or close enough, for the body.

Once again I started with the fire glow through the vents.

And then it was just a matter of laying on the metal colour and plenty of washes.

and of course, those pesky dials.

I quite liked that the figure had little flaws.

Little pitted holes, maybe where bullets had hit him.

I'm pleased with how it progressed.

And once the upper body was nice and dry I could focus on his lower body.

I like the way the red dial displays stand out.

And all that left is to see how it works with his head on his shoulders.

Yes. I'm very happy with that.

Kingdom Figure - The Head

I couldn't put it off any longer.

I tried a few samples with these news washes (they call them 'contrast' and 'technical' paints, which I don't really understand) and I decided to go back to the way I had always painted my figures, back when I painted them for Dungeons and Dragons.

Again the head started that grey colour and the first thing was to paint in his fire glowing eyes.

It's quite daunting when you start. 

You have an image in your head as to what you want it to look like...

and then you start putting on the paint and layer of washes.

trying to get it to come out something close to that.

All in all I'm quite pleased, it's good start.

Now for the torso.

It has plenty of detail and needs to fit with the colours and effects of the head.

Kingdom Figure - the base

 In the background we've been playing with producing a figure of Stephenson's Robot himself.

Jon Ayre, co-writer on some of the Stephenson's Robot back stories and the martian sequence (to be collected in Book 2) has modelled him and Gary Crutchley's son Jason has printed one off for me to paint.

I've started with the base.

It comes in two pieces. One is the rock formation and one a plaque with the Stephenson's Robot logo, designed by Andy Bloor.

I decided to paint this a a basic grey, to keep it boring looking, so as not to distract from the robot himself.

Quite pleased how it came out.

Just need to work on the robot now.

Wish me luck.

Quantum issue 3 is off to the printer.

 

  Yep, the good news is that we hit the deadline for getting issue 3 to the printer in time for it to hit the shelves of local stores on the 22nd August, and as you can see from the image above, this issue has a WesterNoir cover by David Morris.

   It's a real challenge pulling these together in time for proof reading and correcting bits here and there and still hitting the date for Andy Bloor to work his magic pulling it all together, which always seems to involve a little reformatting here and there. Andy pulled out all the stops though and I do sense that he worked a little later than intended and on the last day he even started early so we could get a small correction into the issue before printing started.

   Our printer, Rich Hardiman (Comic Printing UK), also went the extra mile and popped into his office for 30 mins or so on one of his holiday days so we could get this moving through the print process rather than wait for his return in 2 weeks. Had that been the case we would have missed our dates.  

   It's this kind of support that makes the difference.

   Willing to help out as we learn the ropes and hit the little bumps in the road.

   Lesson learned, we'll make sure we discuss dates around holiday times (Summer and Christmas) etc much earlier in the future.

   We'll get there.