The Power of the pencil!

Look what a simple redraw can do. I was having a particularly bad drawing day and produced a panel that wasn't fit for print. A quick redraw later (I actually used the same reference for the figure in the centre/foreground for both versions, the background figures were drawn from my head) and the panel looks a lot better.

The second version (please don't judge me on the first) was inked using the new brush pens I reviewed last week. I've updated that review with these width comparisons (the update has the name of each brush used:

In other news:

• Insomnia Publications (publishers of Cancertown) have big plans for the BICS this October (less than three weeks away!). They're launching Burke and hare, Milk, and Buskers original graphic novels. They also have unbeatable special prices at the Insomnia table for all their current and books. I urge you to check out their blog here for more information and a lot more insight and previews of the upcoming graphic novels.
• Nic Wilkinson, Insomnia's creative director and letterer for Cancertown and Slaughterman's Creed has been interviewed by the girls at the comic racks podcast. Lots of insight not only the creative but the editorial side of comics publishing. I'm mentioned a few times as well :)
• Go and support your Irish Artists by voting for Will Sliney and Dave Hendricks The Symptoms over Zuda comics. It's well worth your vote (some lovely art and great characters) and they need votes if we want to see more.
• Speaking of Podcasts, I had the pleasure of meeting Stacey Whittle of Small Press Big Mouth podcast, of which I'm a regular reader, and Lee Robson, who has just signed his GN Babble with Insomnia, when I was over at newcastle (England, not the place with the bumper cars) this past week with Aimee. Great comic chat with lovely people.

The trip to newcastle was incidently why there was no Wednesday blog this week (no internet connection at all), but back to a regular schedule now...

Changing media...

Remember this double page spread from Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth?*

(Pencils and inks by me, Colours my Melanie Cook)

Well its currently undergoing one of the least expected interpretations anyone could think of. Its being made into a quilt.

Yes I too once thought of quilts as something you wrap around yourself, but after being introduced to their friend Ferret by my Cancertown collaborators Cy Dethan and Nic Wilkinson, I've been intoduced to this new media of art. I've still seen very little, only really what Ferret posts on her blog but its really fasinating stuff and can produce gorgeous results. Ferret's an award winning quilter and seems to be pushing the boundries of the media and in her biggest attempt yet (literally) she's re-creating the above spread in material form.

Here's an in progress photo that I stole from Ferret's blog (hope you don't mind) where you can follow its progress. Can't wait to see it finished!

Ferret's also got her own quilting book coming out that you can see a bit of information on her website here.


*If you don't, it means you probably havn't bought it yet. So get on over to Forbidden planet, Amazon, Waterstones, Whatever comics or order it through your comic stores with Diamond code JUL091827 (Phew!)

Until Wednesday...

2D festival

I'm heading up to the 2D festival in Derry/London Derry today. This was the first con I'd ever been to and sort of kick-started my committment to becoming a proper comic book artist. As I've mentioned elsewhere before, I'd always dreamed of becoming a comicbook artist when 'I grew up' but with music and studies had never quite made any real steps towards it.

I first heard about the Bristol and Birmingham cons through attending the panels (which in a good old Irish fashion are set in Sandinos Bar), which in turn led to hearing about the guys from Insomnia, which in turn led to Cancertown etc..

There are a great line up of guests including Rufus Dayglo; a great artist who has helped me a lot with my art, a bunch of the Eclectic Micks; Irish guys who draw comics professionally, Gary Leach; who gave me some great encouragement last year and Bryan Talbot; who of course wrote the foreward for Cancertown.

I'll be there both as a guest (which feels a little odd) and hosting the Insomnia table, along with Kronas City writer Andrew Croskery who will be showing off some character sketches for the upcoming Insomnia book. If you havn't got your copy of Cancertown I'll be bringing a few along to sell.

Have a look on the 2D website, for the full run down of events including workshops, panels, competitions, sketches and the comicbook open day. Every single one if the events is free of charge so if you like comics and aren't too far away you've absolutely no reason to not be there.

Blog-a-rama continues tomorrow after all, so come back tomorrow for something that isn't Cancertown or Insomnia related (for once).

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.

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:

Only one month to go until the launch of Cancertown: An Inconvienient Tooth

I really can't wait to have a copy of the graphic novel in my hands, it's been a year in the making and it will be nice to see it all pay off with a nice chunky 150+ page book to bring home from the Bristol Small Press Expo. Apparently tickets for their sister event, the Bristol comic expo
have already sold out, so if you were on the fence about attending the small press expo, where I'll be offering free sketches for anyone who picks up a copy of Cancertown, I'd get your tickets now.

P.S. If my semi regular blog posts aren't enough for you, I'm tweeting as twitter.com/stephenmdowney so you can follow my every move.

Its done!

I finished the final pages of Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth a couple of nights ago. Good timing too as for the last two days I've been teaching/playing/workshopping solidly!

Looking though all 148 pages is reminding me how much I've learnt while drawing my first graphic novel, so hopefully I'll be a able to share some of this soon.

No rest for the wicked I'm afraid so in a few days time (OK so thats a little rest) I'll be starting work on Slaughterman's Creed. Hopefully I'll something to show soon :)