Last years Christmas Card

Just finished this years Chrimbo card and in the grand tradition here's last years:

Front (I got a bit confused here - it was a backwards gatefold with the second half of the turkeysaur on the back):

and inside:

Click on the label below to see all the cards of years gone by.

When Hitch met O'Casey

Promotional comic for the excellent Culture File Podcast on when director Hitchcock met Sean O'Casey the Irish playwright. Have a listen here.

I should also add - regular collaborator Liam Geraghty (Gazebo, Littlest Arsonist) did the script duties on this one. You can also be in with a chance of winning the original black and white line art by following and retweeting the Culture File Tweet.

It's A3 sized, black ink on heavy weight 300gsm cartridge paper - make a great Christmas present or self-indulgence!

It's digitally coloured and I did a few colour versions of this, the following of which were slightly brighter ones than the final chosen piece:

Prosperous Market in the Workman's Club

I'll be in the Prosperous Market on the terrace of the Workman's Club, Saturday 9th December from 2 - 6. Will be tabling the usual swathe of comics and will have some brand new A3 colour prints of 24 Panels in the Life of Terry Popov - perfect xmas gift etc. etc.

Every purchase of a poster also gets a panel of original artwork in the post some time in the future - see here for some previous panels.

Man vs Kids

Illustration for the 1935 Dancehall act featured in the latest Rabble - free to pick up now.

Rainy day coffee junkies

Illustration for a coffee shop menu.

Avatars

Avatars I did for people who invested in that extra option as part of the Stray Lines Fundit Campaign. I didn't have reference pictures for them so I used my imagination:

Captain Sap

Stray Lines now in shops

Stray lines is now available in Dublin in The Winding Stair, Forbidden Planet, Sub-City and Dublin City Comics. Order online from here.

Also, great review and an interview on ICN with artist and publisher Paddy Lynch.

Stray Lines back cover

The line work for the back cover of Stray Lines, the recent anthology I've got a 12 pager in. Paddy Lynch did a sterling job on the colour work and layout to really bring this to life on the book itself. (Available for order very soon!)

Waking Nosferatu

Note Lately

Larry Fan Art

Some awesome Larry the Leprechaun Fan art from Rian!

Specials

Mo' Quality Book Project

Check out another excellent project crowdsourced by Fundit that I've got some comics in. You can get in on the ground floor and get a really nicely put together book from the crew behind Tinderbox Network (bona fide lovers of hand-crafted Book stuff). The project is inspired by the documentary about that spooky nuclear waste storage place in Onkalo, Finland called 'Into Eternity'.

My effort is a sideways science fiction piece that you won't see appear anywhere else:

Stray Lines Postcard

Here's my design for the Stray Lines limited edition postcard set:

The project has achieved full funding way ahead of target and as of writing, there are just 3 days to go to bag your copy of Stray Lines via Fundit. Despite what I wrote earlier about October, the book will actually be available for advance contributors towards the end of August (way ahead of general release). Also remember the additional offer for regular Blackshapes orderers still stands.

Nota Bene

You too can get your own personalised 'Note' - simply order a copy of Stray Lines in the €15 or above sections and let me know. More details here.

Stray Lines: Endless Lap

Since I finished the 'Where's Larry' book earlier this year I've done more comic pages than probably the last 3 years put together. So far most of the pages are yet to see the light of day but they are coming.

One story which I'm really excited about and that will appear first in October is the 12-pager 'Endless Lap'.

Here's a few discarded panels I added ink wash to:

The story is straight black and white but these capture the mood I think.

It's going to be one of five long stories in Patrick Lynch's new anthology 'Stray Lines' which also includes stories from Paddy himself, Chris Judge, Barry Hughes and Gus Hughes. I've seen some parts of the other contributions and with what Paddy has in mind production-wise it's guaranteed to be one class package.

Paddy has been funding the project via crowd sourcing site Fundit.ie and demand has been such that over 3/4 of the target reached in the first 10 days. I'd encourage any Blackshapes regulars to get in at this point and bag an advance copy as the numbers of the book will be limited. It doesn't mention it on the Fundit site but the cost includes postage to anywhere in the world. As an added bonus if you're a Blackshapes shop regular (I'll know!) and you order the 15 euro or over package, I'll do you one of my notes.

I won't go into the details of my contribution to the anthology - it's one of my usual 'Cryptic blind alleys' as Paddy succinctly puts it in the Fundit description - but here's some of the character designs:

The girl character I borrowed from the periphery of another in-progress story. She's based on a real person I spotted at life-drawing class - one of the other artists rather than the model! When she came in (late) she had on a sharp looking business suit and a really stressed head which gradually chilled out over the course of the drawing session.

This page has my first notes after that life drawing class:

There isn't a huge amount of room in 12 pages for a character's back story and I like a face to suggest a bit of history without being a typical hip comic chick so I tweaked her a bit for the Endless Lap story:

This was the final look I settled on:

The dude is perhaps a bit more opaque and less interesting. Here I was playing around with varying degrees of 'toughness':

A girl and a guy as the main characters? Is it a love story you ask? Buy the book and find out!

Comic Cast Where's Larry interview

I sat down for a jive-talking chinwag podcast with the Comic Cast all about 'Where's Larry' and what else is on the cards - listen to it here!

Media Larry

If you haven't heard it already - a lovely stop press review of Where's Larry over on the Comiccast.

Also a nice considered review in the Echo:

Furthermore a mention and a competition to win a copy in Ireland's favorite airbrushed celebrity cover star TV listings mag the RTE Guide:

Larry on the loose

I've been holding off on the Larry related posts till now just to make sure he's actually in the shops but I've had the book first spot today in Chapters, Parnell Street, Dublin - there was only one left and all so better make it snappy if you want one from there!



They're down in the Irishy kids section at the moment.



Expect a slew of Larry stuff in the next few days.

Generico

You heard it here first folks! I hereby renounce comics as a means of personal expression and commence the sequenta-picto-saga 'The Mega Men' beginning with the story of Generico below. His powers are to make all television like the X-Factor, all music sound like Adele and all beer taste like Coors lite. He won't rest until the world is like one big pan-continental multi-plex cinema/airport.

Only joking. It's a pencil sketch left over from 2d in Derry that I've inked and coloured.

Where's Larry almost landed

Great news - I just got my author copies of 'Where's Larry' from O'Brien Press and it looks the business with a topper job on the print production.

Keep an eye out for it in shops very soon - official release date is 21st June but if you're careful you might spot him sooner.


Procurement from your local bookshop is always preferred but if you must go online it's available from Amazon as well as the  O'Brien Press website.

On the Glendalough scene a certain amount of conflation of the main elements was necessary.
To go from this:



into this, getting the angle just right:

You won't see these groovy cows on the final print spread though - they're just behind the textbox:

2D sketches

The 2D comics festival in Derry this past weekend is a great laugh to exhibit at. It's very family orientated and exhibitors do simple sketch requests for free as part of the participation. Usually you get asked to do at least a few sketches of superheroes with which I have little or no experience of and it's a bit of fun to do a version as close as memory will allow. Please excuse the poor cellphone quality pics:






Here are some other ones - Optimus Prime (I just did the head to save all the fiddly robot body bits):
Emo dude from my Chemical Romance (from a photo ref):
Finn from Adventure Time (I've never seen this show and I think the chap who asked me to do the sketch showed me a reference on his phone from someone's manga version of the character):
Finally I got to do one of my own characters - the artist guy from 'Weird Face' but the person never came back to get the drawing!:
I didn't get to photograph any of Paddy Lynch's sketches who was beside me at the fest but he was really knocking them out of the park - check out his tumblr for similar class: http://patrickl.tumblr.com/

Terry Popov Panels

If you bought a 24 panels in the life of Terry Popov poster from me you were supposed to also get a panel of Terry artwork. Only finally got round to completing some of the panels now - they're on their way.