Slaughterman's Creed is Open for Orders!

Slaughterman's Creed is now available for pre-order, to be either delivered by post or picked up at the launch in May at the Bristol Comic Expo! This was a huge project for me, with 110 pages that I either pencilled or fully inked and coloured. It's a great, complete story by Cy Dethan who's blog I'm going to quote ordering details from because I'm too lazy to reword:

"Things are ramping up towards the launch by Markosia comics of the hardcopy edition of Slaughterman's Creed at Bristol Comics Convention in Mid May.

There is going to be a convention special edition, signed by all the creators, on sale over the launch weekend at the special price of £10.

Everyone who buys it on the day, or pre-orders it before the 14th May to be sent out after the show will be entered into a competition to win an original piece of art pencilled by Stephen Downey and coloured by Vicky Stonebridge.

We know that not everyone will be physically going to the con, and some people will only be there for one or other of the days, so if you would like to reserve a copy to be held behind the stand, or posted out to you, please then you need to get in touch with us now and we will add your name to the list, and email you to let you know the options for how to pay.

If you are not coming to the show there will be postage added to the £10 which is £2 in the UK and £4 for overseas delivery."

So there you go. You can always get in touch with me about pre-ordering a copy instead if it's easier for you.


Here's a gory little panel, with colours by Vicky Stonebridge and inks by Andy Brown to whet your appetites:

Slaughterman's Coming, Cancertown's Back!

It's been a great few days for my creator-owned projects.

From yesterday all 6 chapters of Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth are back on the Playstation network as a digital comic, published through Markosia and complete with audio commentary from Cy Dethan and I. Well, Cy does most of the talking, clocking in a couple of hours of facinating insights spread over the chapters, while I chip in with a few art process snippets. The first chapter is free, so if you have a PSP why not check it out. Markosia have also announced that Cancertown will be coming back into print sometime later in 2011.

Look at that beautiful cover! Harry Markos at Markosia has also let us announce that Slaughterman's Creed will launch at Bristol International Comic Expo! Above is the all-but-finished graphic novel cover (pencils by myself with digital paints from Ryan Brown). Cancertown went down a storm 2 years ago at it's Bristol launch so we're hoping things will go as well for Slaughterman's Creed. It'll also be in stores some time after that. Must book some flights now...

Badmouthed at Bristol

So I was over at the Bristol comic expo this past weekend...

It was a lovely Sunny weekend, scotching hot, not a cloud in the sky and not an air conditioner in site.

I'm still exhausted, not having had a decent nights sleep in a week, so I'm going to have to write in bullet points:

• Met up with frequent collaborators Cy and Nic as per usual, but also got to meet and talk to Vicky Stonebridge properly for the first time. With Andy Brown also making an appearance, it marked the first time the Slaughterman's Creed team were all together in the same room. 
• Was given the brilliant Badmotuth bust by Simon Wyatt as a very generous present. Some people think that Cancertown's Morley was based on me, but you can see  below I actually used myself as a base for the badmouth: 

• Flew in late-ish on the Friday, so only had time for a quick pint in the bar before retiring. I made up for it on Saturday night when I got very drunk with Aimee, my Torchwood editor Martin Eden, the Brown brothers and a few other comic creators. I ended up staying up while the staff tried to hoover around myself and Martin Conaghan's feet at 5am. I remember slurring out a conversation with Mark Buckingham about comic art, but for some reason can't remember a word of it. 
• Picked up Com.X's 45, Valia Kapadai's Twisted Visions, the latest issue of Dogbreath (mostly due to the fantastic looking strip by Rich Clements, kev Levell and Vicky Stonebridge) and Martin Eden's Spandex. I've only read parts of each, but thoroughly enjoying each one so far!

Really Wish the event was longer than a weekend, so many people I only got to say a few words to that I'd like to have spent more time with. Roll on Derry and the 2D fesitval next weekend!

I'm drawing a Torchwood comic..

As the title quite plainly states I've been asked to draw a Torchwood comic. Its an 11 page story that will be published within the Torchwood Magazine that's available not only in comic stores, but Easons, WHSmiths and all good newsagents nationwide! Quite excited about this one as I'm a fan of the show, not to mention it'll be my first real foray into licenced characters.

Unfortunately I can't mention anything about the story, other than the fact it involves Torchwood and aliens, or even show any art as everything needs to be approved by the BBC. The strip should be great fun to draw though, with great action sequences, set pieces and some nice character work.

It all came about after I went for a Titan portfolio review with Martin Eden, the Torchwood comics editor at BICS last October. If you're a creator and needed a reason to go to a comic con, apart from the great geek drink-a-thon, there's one right there. Martin will be at Bristol this year again launching issue two of Spandex, so you should stop by his table and check it out.

I'll be at the Bristol International Comics and Small Press Expo myself this weekend coming (ash cloud permitting), doing sketches, having a nosy, a drink and there's a Cancertown signing scheduled at the Mercure for 2:30pm of the Saturday and midday on Sunday.

Hopefully see a few of you there and more details on the Torchwood project as it develops...

Facing the end..

Been doing a lot of work on Slaughterman's Creed these past few weeks, but unfortunately as we get into the last chapters the pages, and even most panels, are all getting a little spoilery so I can't really post much here.

Speaking of Slaughterman's Creed, Ollie Masters, who gracefully posed for a couple of  Mr. Green reference shots at Bristol comic con last year, has his short story that he contributed to Bob Heske's 2012: A Final Prayer GN on show over at Wowio. The story acts as a preview for the GN (which features 8 pages of art from yours truely) that's now available to download at the Heske Horror Wowio page.

Panel progression. Loose pencils, tighter pencils, then grayscale rendering for panel featured in 2012: Final Prayer GN

I've booked tickets and flights again for this year's Bristol comic con, or rather the Bristol International Comic & small press expo to give it its full name, so I'll be hanging around the hall with my portfolio on May 22nd and 23rd. We'll also have a signing session for Cancertown which I should have times confirmed for soon.

Cancertown: Escaping to the real world

Wow, what a difference a weekend can make.

The Cancertown launch on Saturday went exceptionally well! Over the Bristol Comic and Small press expo weekend, Insomnia managed to sell around 150 copies of our little baby. We have to thank everyone who splashed down their hard earned cash and hope you enjoyed the book (at 150 pages long that a nice 1:1 sale per page ratio :)

Now that Cancertown is officially out there, you should see copies start to appear at your local waterstones and the best comic and book stores. If they're sold out locally you can get your mitts on a copy via the interwebs from Whatever Comics, Amazon or Waterstones.

Speaking of our proud sponsers, Whatever Comics, Cy Dethan and Nic Wilkinson will be signing copies at their store in Canterbury on the 6th June so if you want to adorn your copy with a golden signature you can pick one up there and then. We're in the process of organising a Belfast signing soon and continuing a Cancertown signing tour which you can follow on Insomnia Publications spiffy new website. If you're thinking of submitting a project or just want to check out ours, there's plenty on info up there too.

Also if you don't believe my hype, check out Ep 118 of the Geek Syndicate's podcast which includes a glowing review of Cancertown. I got a chance to catch up with the guys again this year at the Bristol Con and they're always a good laugh. Going to have to try to get my hands on a copy of Barry's Fallen Heroes (Special Edition) which has been picked optioned already and receiving great reviews.

Also thanks to Rich Johnston for the mention on LITG this week. His mention has certainly helped out our Amazon rating. Earlier today Cancertown was somewhere around the 20,000 best selling book on Amazon. How amazing is that! His coloumn is read by some high profile people and hollywood is already sniffing around the project. I wont say anymore in case I scud it but wouldn't it be nice to see a Cancertown movie...

I'm going to try to keep this blog updated more regularly. If not with ranting and ravings, at least a little bit of art. My goals are to have a new post every Wednesday and Sunday so check back tomorrow for something new.

Right, enough writing, here's some of the cancertown concept art you won't see anywhere else: