Little Blue Car

I was surprised the other day to see what looked like the car I made up for my little Strange Times book parked opposite my house.

You can search this blog for the cover image :o) ... actually strangely I don't have that cover on the blog, I only have Book 2. I'll sort that this weekend and update this post.

I keep expecting a man with spikes yellow hair to walk up to it...

Strange Times 3?

 Someone recently asked me if I was working on Strange Times Book 3.

He wanted to know what exactly happened to those guys?

I must say, I did enjoy drawing those books and enjoyed the way the characters created their own story really.

Maybe, maybe I should get my pencils out...

Strange Times Book 2.

Well it's finally happened.
I've finished Book 2 of Strange Times.
Andy Bloor helped make give it the same feel as Book 1 and I'm really happy with how it came out.

I'll just have to see if anyone remembers it now :o)
Oh, and as is traditional, here's the adapted Lego figure to accompany the book.

Not as scary as the last one... I think.

Strange Times Book 2 is ready for the printers.

Well, after a lot longer than I'd hoped, due mostly to me getting carried away with having too many projects on the go at the same time, Strange Times Book 2 is finished.
Andy Bloor has once again worked his design magic and also done a lot of tidying, despite me best efforts I always seem to leave dots here and there or pages with different sizes ... sigh.
I'm not sure when it'll actually see print, I'll need to get the necessary cash together, but it will be sometime in 2016.
It'll be great to have another of my little books on the Con table.

The last page of Strange Times 2.

Well it had to happen eventually.
I'm just finishing the last page of Strange Times Book 2.
People have been very patient and very gracious, coming up to me at Conventions and asking if Book 2 was available to buy yet, only to be told, once again, that it was nearly finished.
Well, not for much longer.
I'm very happy with how it all resolved itself, and it may seem a strange thing to say (as I'm writing it) but that's actually how it feels. These strange little characters have kind of told their own tale as the book has gone along. I started each page knowing where I thought it would go and quite often found it taking a slightly different path.
Challenging me to hold the story together.
I've really enjoyed travelling it with them.
But, it had to end and end it has.
So, when will it be ready ?
Well, a very good friend has offered to proof read it for me (Thank You Claire), even after having read Book 1 :o).
Once that's done it'll be over to Andy Bloor to work his usual magic for me and pull it all together, injecting some nice design elements, as he as with the cover.
...and then it's off to the printers.
I'm considering having it available for Thought Bubble, but I've another book being launched at Thought Bubble already, of which I shall tell more soon... should I launch two books at the same Con ?
Oh, why not :o)

Strange Times Book 2... the end is in sight.

I'm focussing my efforts on finishing Strange Times over the coming weeks. Book 2 sees everything resolved, although there's always going to be a temptation to come back to the characters at some future point.

Here's a recently finished page, without the words (mainly because I haven't written them yet).

Whilst not drawing the Leyton Angel I've been trying to remember how to update the Accent UK website, and believe I've now added WesterNoir Book 3, so you can see a few sample pages and also buy a copy if tempted. If you find any errors, and I'm sure you will, then please let me know and I'll try to fix them. It's a complicated website (for me anyway) and infrequent updates mean that I almost have to learn how to update it every time I try to do so. Ah well, good job I've not got a job in IT... wait a minute... damn.



Strange Times Book 2 - Evolution of a cover.

Strange Times was always going to be a trilogy in two parts, and I'd always intended the cover of the second book to reflect that of the first. I wanted it to be similar, but different.
The danger though, as I've experienced a little with my Blessed/Cursed books, Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? and Missing - Have You Seen The Invisible Man ?, is that this can confuse people. I've had customers at the table in conventions say that they'd read The Invisible Man when I knew that they couldn't have. When I then show them Fastest Man and point out that it's different they have all then bought the new book.
So.
Strange Times Book 2.
How to make it similar, but different.
How about use a different character in a different car. How about it being a car that flies (which does appear in the book). Hmmmm ... still looks too similar...
OK, how about setting it at night.

OK, that seems to work. I had to lose the animal this time as it's night but I quite liked it.
Time to send it off to Andy Bloor to work his magic.
Andy had problems with the moon. I hadn't thought about the placement of the book title.
That's why I'm not a designer.

Yep. I like that. I had thought to make the lettering red, similar to the car but once again Andy had been right to make it blue.
A day or so later however I wondered that maybe the background fields were a little too light and that they lost the impact of the vapour beneath the car.

And there you have it. I'm really happy with the finished look.
Now I just need to sort out a quote for the back cover... oh, and finish the internal pages.
Thanks as always to Andy for his help in making our books so polished, and for being patient with my 'ideas'.

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...

The Inter-Dimensional Society of Rufus Trimbles.

Had another little play with collage, I really enjoyed creating the look of the different members of the Society and this has set my mind to telling their story, and so they may well end up in a future book ...

I just wish there were more hours in a day.
If you have trouble reading the text on the collage it reads -

Before their final battle with the self titled ‘The Great Mind’, the founding members of the Inter-Dimensional Society of Jethro Milners breakfasted in Kensington’s wondrous gardens and discussed the day ahead over scones and a pot or two of Earl Grey tea.

In other news, a friend at work is sorting out a way to get Strange Times back on the website as a webcomic again, which'll focus my attention away from cutting and sticking and back to drawing and frowning.

Lego does Samuel Close.

This is the figure that my daughter gave me that would start me off trying to get a Lego figure for all of our books.

Samuel Close's hair was part of a Mad Scientist figure and the conversion took the slightest of modifications.

Next up ... Bobby Doyle from Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?

Robot Shorts nears completion.

Whilst I'm busy on the more traditional Accent UK books, the anthologies and one shots, I always have a couple of more personal projects on the go.
With the printing of Strange Times vol 1 in the form of a nice little hard cover edition I knew that this format would suite me going forward and have paused in my Strange Times Vol 2 efforts to collaborate with Steve Holder on a collection of robot short stories.
Robot Shorts is the result of this, with one of Steve's robots gracing a cover designed by Andy Bloor in the style of the old Haines Manuals.
I'm just waiting on a couple of pin-ups for the Gallery section and then it'll be off to the printer.

Right ... back to Strange Times then...

Robot Shorts is getting there ...

This week I received the artwork for Steve Holder's last contribution to Robot Shorts, and very nice it is to. Very nice indeed.

I've also finished my last full story, in my usual style ...

So, we're getting there. My intention is to have this printed in time for Xmas ... Strange Times is at this very moment getting its second printing, which is great, but of course it's all relative as it only means that I've sold out of the number I printed in the first print run ... could be 10 .. could be 10 thousand but is probably somewhere between the two :o)

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)

Merry Christmas Everyone ....

I'd like to thank all those who have supported us over the last year, either with contributions to our books, advice, feedback, reviews or just words of encouragement. It all helps and is great appreciated.

A couple of interviews have made there way to the web ...

Firstly a podcast interview, which also gave me a chance to chat to the guys over on Tales From The Parent's Basement, can be downloaded over on http://talesfromtheparentsbasement.com/ and secondly an interview conducted by email can be read over on http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews310.htm.

I tried to sound lively and energetic on the podcast but I'm afraid my natural character kept breaking through .. still ... hope you enjoy it ... it was fun to do.

Robot Shorts - A to Z. K is for ...

OK .. so 'K' had to be Kingdom. Kingdom first appears in the ROBOTS anthology, and his look is pure INDIO! We liked the whole set up to much that we then drafted in Jon Ayre and together wrote a 7 issue mini-series around him ... titled Stephenson's Robot. This will be a full colour production, the first issue is already coloured and issue 2 is fully inked and awaiting colouring. It looks really amazing and allows INDIO! to show just how damned talented he is.

In other news here's another review of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ?

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2009/whatever-happened-to-the-worlds-fastest-man/

and it's another great one :o)

I need to knuckle down now to doing some Strange Times pages as the web comic over on the

http://www.accentukcomics.com

site has just completed the pages that are in Book 1 (as I won't be putting up the Secret Origin of Mr. Rock) ... and although I have started Book 2, the web comic is fast catching up with pages that I have finished. Made all the worse by the fact that I'm sat here with a cold ... still .. nobody said it would be easy :o)

Robot Shorts - A to Z. J is for ....

It's been a really busy few weeks ... I really must get back to doing some Strange Times pages ... the website entries are fast catching up with me ....

A Strange Times - Book 1 review ....

... from the guys taking shelter in their Parent's Basement over there in the US ... http://talesfromtheparentsbasement.com/reviews/?p=153.

Strange Times Book 2 .... in progress ... honest.

I thought I'd pop an image up to show that I am progressing with Strange Times Book 2, and not sitting here with my feet up watching TV. As you can see from the image, if you're following the web comic, there have been some changes in Barrington Cully's life of late .... is he happy about them ? We'll have to see ....

Strange Times and Fastest Man mentions ...

.. over on Mark Clapham's Blog http://rollbackandmix.blogspot.com/ ... Mark does contribute to our anthology titles and so may be a little bias o) Thanks for the reviews Mark .. glad you enjoyed them both ...

Strange Times - Book 1 ....

.. collects some kind words from Garen Ewing over on his blog ... just follow the link on the right for his view on the little book ... Thanks Garen.