Leed Time

This past weekend was my first time at Leeds Thought Bubble and it certainly won't be my last; a really welcoming and friendly event packed with people. It was also the first time I'd been behind my own table for the entire con, sharing with my Torchwood cover colourist Ciaran Lucas and his traveling companion Alan Beirne. I'd spent a few hours behind Ciaran's table at the MCM previously, but this time I was properly prepared with a few prints and proper drawing materials and was able to make back the weekend's expenses (not counting the whiskey's on Saturday). 

Here are a handful of the many sketches I produced during the day. Thanks to Alan for his photography skills. 

Daredevil 

Portrait of a customer

Hellboy (with Horns)

 On the Sunday I went to the John Romita Jr workshop (did you know he only sleeps 5 1/2 hours a night and works a 12 - 15 hour drawing day!), attended Bryan Talbot's Grandville talk and had a very positive portfolio  review from a Marvel editor. I also managed a quiet drink with Slaughterman's Creed colourist Vicky Stonebridge and Rich Clements and may have agreed to work on a short project. This is what happens when you buy me whiskey. More on that later. 

I also seemed to have picked up my first Con Flu. A comic con Rite of Passage I believe. 

Colour me suprised

Well who'd have thought, but the Cancertown profile has leaped again since the weekend.

A combination of word of mouth, great reviews and a little column called Lying in the Gutters, Amazon's stock of Cancertown has been completely wiped out. Reorders were quickly posted and should be at the Amazon warehouse now, so even if its out of stock on the Amazon.co.uk site, you can still order and it will arrive in a few days.

Anyway here are a couple of colour Cancertown characters sketches (trying saying that 10 times fast). They weren't used for the project, just something I did for experimentation and don't compare at all to Mel's moody and gorgeous style. Some of these were done before Mel worked her magic on my pencils so they don't even match the colour designs in the book.

I also got news yesterday of Bryan Tablot's new project. As a lot of you know, the very famous and genrous Mr. Tablot wrote the forward to the Cancertown graphic Novel. His name alone has made it a lot easier to get Cancertown into book shops after the success of Alice in Sunderland. So without further ado I present the trailer for Bryan Talbot's Grandville:

Wow! I want that Graphic novel!

Well one day into my 'blogging every wednesday and Sunday' schedule and I'm on target. See you on Sunday if not before and I'll hopefully have news on the Belfast Cancertown signing.

I gots some compliments

"the visceral, hallucinogenic art of Stephen Downey working in tandem with the hard-bitten script"


Thats what the legendary Bryan Tablot wrote about my contribution to Cancertown: An inconvenient Tooth. He wrote a very complimentary foreword for the graphic novel, but since I'm selfish and promotarious* I've only cut and pasted the sentence about me.

You can however read the whole thing over at Cancertown writer Cy's Dethan's blog or indeed Insomnia Publications Blog where the contributions of all Team Cancertown get their mention and there are also details on how you can get your hands on the trade for cheap.




If you're too lazy to do that, you can always pre-order straight from Amazon!




*Yes I did make that word up . Its an adjective describing one who is 'self-promoting'. Its not neccessarily a negative trait, but a too much of it can be bloody annoying!