vimanarama revisit

vimanarama revisit, a photo by philipjbond on Flickr.

found amongst the piles and piles of old artwork

4-up #3

4-up_2012-03-03, a photo by philipjbond on Flickr.

what's been passing across or close to the drawing table of late
1) Space Commander Ursa
2) Dr. Ernst Bunn
3) struggling through three attempts at the piece on the WhatNot blog
4) gratuitous bikini sketch

What Not: NO NAKED FLAME

My first posting to the illustrious WhatNot blog, following Jock's suggested theme 'naked'. Fretted over three versions before throwing pens and pencils in the air and settling on this one. I'll keep it simpler next time I think. What Not: NO NAKED FLAME

4-up #1

What’s been going on.

it's my 9 /11 tenth anniversary post

September 10th 2001 I was in our Midtown Manhattan apartment drawing the fourth issue of Vertigo’s Angel & The Ape reboot. I’d been living in the city for almost a year and for most of that time I’d been working on the four-issue series. Writers Howard Chaykin and David Tischman set the story in New York and I was feeling the art was something of a love-letter to my new city, from the tops of the downtown skyscrapers to the steps of the uptown brownstones.

I’d just finished page one and, bearing in mind the top tip of never leaving yourself a blank page for the morning, drawn the first panel of page two, this scene-setting view looking south past the Empire State Building to the Twin Towers. And off to bed.

By mid morning the next day, when I should have been all caffeined-up and back at the drawing table finishing the page, no one was thinking too much about comics. Our little apartment had filled up with evacuees from the nearby DC offices, unable to get trains out of the city to their own homes, quietly watching events unfold on TV.

By the time that issue of Angel & The Ape went to press someone in DC’s production department must have been given the odd little task of removing the towers from the skyline in the panel. Too soon, too soon. Sensitive times and all that. Despite my kicking up a tiny fuss The World Trade Center is missing from the page in the printed book. Shame, I love New York and I loved those towers.

characters I never expected I’d have to draw #87

I can now cross Howard The Duck off my list.

Another big clearout. Original pages from that old chestnut Kill Your Boyfriend have been making their way over onto eBay. Close to the bottom of their box now so if you ever fancied one now’s the time.  Or if ever-regenerating self-aware buffoonery is your bag (and you want to avoid the eBay machine) I’ve just added a whole bunch of Deadpool art to the catalog of available original pages here.

dispatches from the road / rail / capsule #23

I know it’s late to bring this up but it’s the Bristol Comic Expo here in the UK this weekend. No big fuss, I’ll be in the bar, say hi.

since we last spoke…

Aw, can it really have been six months? They grow up so fast and before you know it they’re out in the world on their own. Probably shacked up with that mouthy girl from the rough side of town. No, wait – I was talking about Red Herring, the conspiracy caper book by David Tischman and myself, the final issue of which hit the streets just a few weeks back. The man at Wildstorm says there’s a chance we might see the six issues collected in single book one day, but try to grab the originals and you’ll be able to spoil the ending for the latecomers.

Also out now, issue 50 of Brian Wood’s DMZ. I get to contribute a page to this collection of "Notes From The Underground" alongside real proper artists like Fabio Moon, Dave Gibbons, Eduardo Risso, Ryan Kelly and etcetera and etcetera

Up next - Marvel’s Prelude To Deadpool Corps event has an issue for each week of March and I get to draw part 3, Dogpool. Watch as I slowly overcome my dread fear of drawing dogs.

Bonus feature: Douglas Coupland for the wonderful Hey, Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobberin’ Time!