Harvest

DHP #18

Another UXB strip featured in the latest DHP which is now available at your local comic shop...

http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/21-684/Dark-Horse-Presents-18

Wild for Wednesdays...

Great chat with Natasha over at www.wildforwednesdays.com about all things UXB.

UXB DHP

Here's a page from the next UXB short to be featured in Dark Horse Presents-  on sale October 24th.

Harvest #3

I've really been neglecting this blog of late....

Just to let you know: Harvest #3 is on the shelves tomorrow.

Cheers.

Harvest #1 came out today and to celebrate I thought I'd share this with you:

Mind blown? I think so.....

DHP #17

UXB is back in DHP #17.  It's a two part story that continues into issue #18. 

I got to pay a major homage to one of my all time favorite movies with this one.

COVER OF DHP #17

Dark Horse Presents #17

This issue features the return of Colin Lorimer’s UXB and Michael T. Gilbert’s Mr. Monster! Plus, another Edgar Allan Poe story adapted by Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee Richard Corben and a new short written by Michael Avon Oeming and illustrated by Victor Santos!
* Crime noir, horror, fantasy, science fiction—this anthology has it all!
* The DHP conclusion to Tony Puryear’s Concrete Park and John Layman and Sam Kieth’s Aliens: Inhuman Condition!
* 80 pages! No ads!

http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/20-286/Dark-Horse-Presents-17

Another Harvest Interview...

You can check it out over at http://www.tfaw.com/

USA Today pick up on Harvest : http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-06-07/Harvest-comic-book-series/55444716/1

HARVEST FIVE COVER SPREAD

Harvest stuff

Image have started to release some teaser art for Harvest. Also up is the first 'final' cover - that old mock one is floating around though...

The first 5 covers all interlock to create one image. I believe they are releasing one a day.

There's also an interview with Andy and myself over at  CBR
if you are so inclined.

A Brief History of John Baldesari

HARVEST #1

 Not long now-

 I should be able to share some previews soon.

story AJ LIEBERMAN
art & cover COLIN LORIMER
AUGUST 1
32 PAGES / FC / M
$3.50
Human traffickers. Rogue medical teams. Yakuza-run organ mills and a six-year-old drug fiend. Welcome to Dr. Benjamin Dane's nightmare. His only way out? Bring down the man who set him up by reclaiming organs already placed in some very powerful people. If Dexter, ER and 100 Bullets had a three-way and that mind-blowing tryst somehow resulted in a kid, that kid would read HARVEST. Medical Grade Revenge.
TAG: New from the author of Cowboy Ninja Viking and Term Life!

Explosive

I don't know if you have heard of Face Book  but it's this new networking site  --I've heard whispers that there is even a movie in the works...!!   So I've been hanging out with my 53 followers (actually they are called 'friends' over there)... you know,  just chit-chatting, shooting the breeze and in general - just being really social.

However the old blog is now suffering because of it...

My old college friend Jason Kevitt kindly worked this up for me ...a fake whiskey bottle logo that's going to play a small part in one of my up-coming comic book covers.

Think I'll listen to some MP3's now -- that's another term for 'digital' music!

UXB Q&A

Image from DHP #10

I was asked to do an interview some time back for a UK publisher- but on supplying the material-I never heard anything back (maybe I was bumped for the Batman teams with Teletubbies news-  who knows;)

As I'm not one to let anything go to waste; I thought I would share it with you :


What would be the high concept pitch?

A Clockwork Orange meets Black Adder.

What was the genesis of the concept?

Well, they always say write what you know- and I really just wanted a vehicle to let me ramble on about movies and my distain for what passes today as popular entertainment. So I created a world were the three main characters were the only ones who could still access and view various media such as video games , music and movies and it was their suits that afforded them this “luxury”

-Sort of post-apocalyptic movie critics….

So it grew and developed out of that basic concept—however I soon realized I just couldn’t have them sit around watching movies all day and had to find them other things to do.
The movie theme as it progressed became less important as I got into the meat of the story. Although the rambling about various pop culture will still be quite prevalent throughout.

The design of the suits stemmed from the fact that I wanted to avoid the typical superhero type costume clichés where everyone is seemingly trying to come up with the coolest looking design. I decided to negate that and take it in a completely different direction; making the characters look somewhat absurd. Yeah, they have a suit that makes them incredibly powerful but there is nothing aesthetically pleasing about it. It just makes them look ridiculous.

I also have a great love of old British science fiction/horror and UXB is somewhat of homage to the works of HG Wells, John Wyndham and Nigel Kneale. Wyndam’s The Midwich Cuckoos is a huge influence.

UXB = unexploded bomb or something else? What’s the significance of the title?

No that’s exactly it. Quite simply these guys are the most powerful beings on the planet and they have the capabilities (yet unbeknownst to them) to destroy what’s left of the world. It also could be taken quite simply as a metaphor for their volatile angst-ridden nature.

Dark Horse has described UXB as following in the dark footsteps of dystopian visions such as The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, DMZ, and Give Me Liberty, What are your thoughts on those comparisons?

Flattered! That certainly set’s the bar pretty high…I’ll have to work very hard to achieve anything even near that level.

Who are those three brothers?

Das Bombast (Real name: Wilfred Brian Atherton) has a penchant for movies, everything from Kurosawa to Kubrick. Das is the leader of the group. Pragmatic, austere and highly intelligent.

Muc Olla (Real name: Donnchadh Flaherty Atherton) has a thing for soap operas and spaghetti westerns. Muc was adopted by the Athertons at birth. He’s the sensitive one.

Rifter (Real name: George Galton Atherton) enjoys porn and gaming, he also likes to burn and occasionally kill things. Rifter is slightly psychotic and dangerously unbalanced. Of the three he is the most damaged.

What are their motivations?

They just want to continue where they left off before the war came. They are so immersed in their comfort zone that even when faced with the end of the world they still cannot break free from their petty addictions.

Is there a main antagonist? If not, what drives the story forward?

They have quite a few interactions with the other “survivors” and there are some interesting scenarios that develop from that, however, there will be a big reveal at the end of book one, which will answer a few questions.

What is the main theme of UXB?

Basically it’s an excuse for me to rant about the state of the world, especially the entertainment industry; I’ll not tell you what Rifter does with the corpse of Simon Cowell….

What's the back story?

Here's the blab: When their mother is apparently killed in one of the many terrorist bombings of London in the build up to the great war, their father, a self made billionaire (A Richard Branson type), decides to protect his children from the same fate. His company develops state of the art anti-terrorist skin suits; a combination of nano-tech means military. When the highly experimental suits are finally placed on the three young brothers, they malfunction, fusing into the muscle and bone of the boys so completely that they can never again be removed.

When the war finally arrives, the genetically modified bio-strains are anti-biotic resistant and immunosuppressive. Within two weeks all of Britain is infected and in four most are dead or dying. The viruses corrode and degrade plastics, fuels and metals rendering computers, telecommunications, travel, hospitals and the military powerless to act. Britain is thrown back into the Dark Ages.

However, Das, Rifter and Muc survive, impervious and self-sufficient in suits that could sustain them for up to sixty years. The world is theirs for the taking -- but their suits while being state of the art protective devices, capable of emitting force fields, repairing injuries and recycling bodily waste also have the most advanced multi-media entertainment units built into them for playing movies, video games and music… so in a world so inherently poisoned and laid to waste and with their only company being the diseased and dying they decide to take residence in Buckingham Palace, kick back and continue right where they left off.

Also, what type of mood are you trying for? What style of story are you looking to tell? What audience are you aiming for?

It’s quite a dark story with black as night humor peppered throughout. I think anyone that enjoys a good end of the world horror tale will get something out of it.
I should also mention that this is not a superhero book. It’s more kitchen-sink drama than X-men. Imagine The Road as written by Mike Leigh and directed by Wes Anderson.

What sort of challenges did the project pose for you as a writer?

The characters once created -- wrote themselves. One pitfall of being an artist/writer is that it is very easy to get so enamored with the art that you forget about the need to keep driving the story forward. Instead, drawing a bunch of splash pages just because you can. As the story progressed(web-comic)I was much more cognizant of that and the story and layout became a lot tighter.

How does the Dark Horse Presents story tie in with the UXB web comic? Will newcomers be up to speed from the very beginning? Will fans of your web comic be familiar with the story you’re presenting?

Yes. The Dark Horse stories interlock into the web-comic. I’m also in the process of re-editing certain sections of the web-comic making it a little more reader friendly.

What was the attraction of producing UXB for print?

I self-published UXB (a preview issue) some time back- but found that the work involved marketing and promoting the comic left me little time for anything else. The web site actually came after that as I felt it was a more immediate and direct way to communicate with your audience. Still haven’t figured how to make money out of it though…;) Personally speaking I like to have a hard-copy of a book and even though I respect and see the value of going digital I always wanted to see UXB in print.

Nostalgia Post

Well I have finally embraced facebook. I had avoided it for the longest time as, quite honestly, I couldn't find anything good about it...

I had a page set up some time back and completely abandoned it. Then my web guy(William) set me up a UXB page with the launch of the UXB site in 2010- that I also quickly forgot about-- that was until an old friend used it to drop me a line. So I accepted the request and it was nice to get back in touch, and since then, there has been quite a few nice surprises.

You see, I have traveled quite a bit over the years and lost contact with a lot of people-- I left my hometown of Carrickfergus in 1990 to go to art college in Dublin and ended up staying there for ten years; in effect, setting up a new base of friends and kinda losing contact with the old ones. Then,the option arrived in 2000 to travel to Vancouver and it's been the same thing yet again-- I've never been very good at staying in contact. So if we take it back to my hometown of Carrickfergus there are some faces that have been popping up that I haven't seen in over 20 years and I must say it is interesting to see how certain lives have panned out and somewhat sad also to find that a few have died along the way...

Anyway...

My 100th member of the blog(who I remember as being very turgid..)is one of those old mates I use to work with in a place called Irish Heritage(my first job out of school- painting awful,bland ceramic cottages and the like on an rather endless production line....)This is the guy who introduced me to some of the music that I am still listening to today. I remember him passing me the Wedding Present 'George Best' cassette and hearing it for the first time on my crappy walkman and just being completely blown away by it. There were numerous other bands that I probably would never have heard of if it hadn't been for him-- He was like my little own John Peel.

 So yeah, Facebook has it's uses after all! -I think I'll stick with it for a little while this time around and see how goes... Friend me here-- you lovely bastards!

Stitch

Finger point

My comic pages are always a little dark, both in terms subject matter and tone --so here's a page detail that's a little lighter in flavor...

The Church Of Noah

Yeah I know I blogged this image before- but this time... I have mirrored the image!

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Crazy Irish man! Probably mimes in his spare time!

You know if you split a pic of Simon Cowell and mirror one side it ends up looking like a bi-sexual giraffe! Oh wait a minute... that WAS a giraffe pic taken from gay animal weekly...

What! You don't read Gay Animal Weekly...?
I just get it for the articles...

Expressive Organs

I lean more towards the Moog myself...

Pesky Pinky Piglets High School Musical...

It should come as no surprise when I tell you that the Weddos played a blinding gig last night.

The support bands Zarigani$ and Toquiwa(both from Tokyo)were fantastic also. I was a little confused as originally Pinky Piglets were mentioned as the support band- but apparently Toquiwa is the NEW name (or line up) for the Pinky Piglets.

This is Zariganidollar. Scroll to 1.30 if you just want to catch the track...



When these girls(Toquiwa) first went on stage it felt like I had mistakingly wandered into a high school concent as they all looked about twelve years of age... however once they started playing...



They also did a fu*king fantastic version of 'Kennedy'
Sadly most of the versions available on Youtube are kinda crap....


Anyhow- a great night was had by all!

Nobody's twisting your arm...

I almost forgot that I'm going to see one of the best bands on the planet this week... (No Galvin- not the fu*king Bee Gees!!)Not that I would be against seeing the Bee Gees; I love me some Staying Alive...but I guess it would have to be promoted as the 'Bee Gee' as Barry is the only remaining...um...'Gee' left.

Anyway- getting off track.

Of course it's THE WEDDING PRESENT!

They are going to be preforming here in Vancouver on Thursday revisiting the Steve Albini- produced Seamonsters – which is just a cracking album!

The last time I seen these guys live would have back in 89 at Queens University, Belfast. I was just a skinny teenager back then...with actual hair and a washboard stomach.

So no change there then!

...

DHP #10

Just a reminder that Dark Horse Presents #10 featuring UXB goes on sale tomorrow - you can check out a preview HERE

Sharing pages with Evan Dorkin, Geoff Darrow and Brian wood (to name but a few) how cool is that?

I hope you enjoy the story!

I'm now currently working into the next UXB short for DHP.

Quatermass and the Pit (Complete Series)

Good God! The full series in one sitting...

It's going to be a long night.

Ralph McQuarrie RIP

I'm saddened to hear about the passing of Ralph McQuarrie.
He was a brilliant artist with a vision and natural talent that was beyond reproach.

George Lucas certainly has a lot to thank him for!

ralphmcquarrie.com

Updated:



"I am deeply saddened by the passing of such a visionary artist and such a humble man. Ralph McQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision Star Wars. His genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'Do it like this.'

"Beyond the movies, his artwork has inspired at least two generations of younger artists—all of whom learned through Ralph that movies are designed. Like me, they were thrilled by his keen eye and creative imagination, which always brought concepts to their most ideal plateau. In many ways, he was a generous father to a conceptual art revolution that was born of his artwork, and which seized the imaginations of thousands and propelled them into the film industry. In that way, we will all be benefiting from his oeuvre for generations to come. Beyond that, I will always remember him as a kind and patient, and wonderfully talented, friend and collaborator."

—George Lucas

CNV

Congrats to AJ Lieberman(Co-creator and writer of Harvest)as he has just had his(and artist Riley Rossmo's)CNV comic book picked up by Universal Studios. Details below:


Universal Pictures has acquired the action film Cowboy Ninja Viking and has Marc Forster ready to make the graphic novel adaptation his next film. The graphic novel and a Disney-developed script by Zombieland writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were acquired by Universal after the script came in and was deemed too edgy for Disney’s family film mandate. The intention is to begin production later this year, after Forster completes the Brad Pitt-starrer World War Z for Paramount and Skydance. The hope is to spawn a franchise.

Cowboy Ninja Viking is based on the Image Comics graphic novel by AJ Lieberman and artist Riley Rossmo. The title character comes from a secret government program to turn schizophrenics into assassins. The protagonist comes through the program with the skill sets of a cowboy, ninja and a viking. While most of the patients involved in the program are sent back to insane asylum after the program went awry in Iraq, he escapes and uses his skills to track down the billionaire who masterminded the program.

The film will be produced by Guymon Casady, Ben Forkner, Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff through MG360, the joint venture between The Mark Gordon Co and Management 360. Wernick & Reese are also producing. The scribes are repped by WME, and Forster by CAA and Management 360.

Forster’s zombie apocalypse World War Z will be released by Paramount on December 21, 2012.

www.deadline.com

HARVEST

Here's a cover mock of Harvest #1 that I worked up for the Image Expo that was held over the weekend.

Not by any means a final image.

Tyrannosaur

Starring Eddie Marsan, Olivia Colman, and the brilliant Peter Mullan. Has Peter Mullan ever given a bad performance?

Written and directed by Paddy Considine. This is also Considine's directorial debut and for his first outing he doesn't put a foot wrong. It's working class, social realism in the vein of Alan Clarke and Mike Leigh (minus Leigh's quirkiness- there isn't much relief or humour within the movie) Considine does not believe in pulling any punches and it will most certainly leave you emotionally exhausted as the credits begin to roll, but, if you do decide to take the journey- you'll be strongly rewarded!

Considine also wrote(alone with Shane Meadows) Dead Man's Shoes which is another movie worth tracking down--

It also features this song on the soundtrack- never has a song complimented a movie so well:

Galaxies greatest...

Not only 35 years old- but it features a bloody lovely Mike McMahon cover:
I actually started reading 2000AD with Prog 86 when another British comic called Starlord folded and merged with it. Around that same time I was reading Savage Sword of Conan and the Star Wars Weekly- with extra helpings of a lot of the British humour mags : Whoopee, Whizzer and Chips and the like...

Looking back I'm surprised that I didn't pick up on it for nearly a year and a half, especially as I was always picking up new comics in the local newsagents...how 2000AD passed me by for so long - I have no idea!

Most people in the industry of a certain age (whether it be in film or comics) always mention Star Wars as the defining moment when they decided "this" is the type of stuff that they want to do with their life! It's true for me also, to some extent-- but I think I would have to give that pride of place to 2000AD.

While Star Wars was definitely one of the many sparks; 2000AD was quite literally the 'blaze' that kept me engrossed with incredibly imaginative ideas, story content and characters for the longest time...

Long may it continue...

Lou, Leonard and Shane...

Some great finds on Youtube:

Almost 5 hrs worth - should keep you busy for a while...

SOUND IT OUT

I must admit I do enjoy my digital tunes, they are immediate and compact- meaning I can have a ridiculous amount of music on my ipod at any given time.

In saying that, I do miss the days of going to record stores and picking up Vinyl - it just seemed you got a little more bang for your buck- gatefold sleeves for one, I mean in general the bloody size of them was impressive opposed to your little cassettes and then your CDs and now, well...there's nothing of any tangible value whatsoever...

There was just something more personal about owning an album or a record; even the scratches held distant memories (-usually being too pissed to place the needle on the record properly in my case...) The sound of the needle was a comforting sound in itself-- like the rumble of a train as it moved towards it's track 1 destination... (bit of a wanky metaphor- but bear with me...)

I do also remember my sister and myself as kids using a bunch of my dad's Beatles and old Elvis singles as stepping stones-- and the sound they made as they crunched under our feet...

GOD IN HEAVEN!!!!

Anyway...that brings me on to this:

TRAILER: SOUND IT OUT - A documentary by Jeanie Finlay from Jeanie Finlay on Vimeo.

This is a fantastic slice of life documentary of the very last surviving vinyl record shop in Stock-on Tees in the UK.

I bloody loved it! I think you will too...

Website: www.sounditoutdoc.com

Connan Mockasin

That name alone has got me hooked....



And here's the Public Dims with a great name for a song:


You can download their free album here:
bandcamp.com

That one from the Bash Street Kids...?

Oh yeah-- PLUG! That's the one.

Solicitation for DARK HORSE PRESENTS #10 went up early December...It would be a bit remiss of me not to give it a mention on the blog...

Hopefully you've all pre-ordered already;)

I've been working on UXB for quite some time now(as most of you know...) and to have it picked up by DH was really quite something, and now when I see the list of who I am going to be featured along side...well, that's just the icing on the cake.

I put a LOT of work into the UXB strip that's featured in this issue and think you'll all dig it!

...

If you do decide to pick it up I promise I'll never use the term 'dig it' again!

You cool cat cats you...


DETAILS BELOW (taken from CBR)


DARK HORSE PRESENTS #10
Brian Wood (W), Colin Lorimer (W/P), Carla Speed McNeil (W/P), Steve Niles (W), Evan Dorkin (W), Al Gordon (W), Steve Horton (W), Andrew Vachss (W), Neal Adams (W/P), M. J. Butler (W), Kristian Donaldson (P), Christopher Mitten (P), Thomas Yeates (P/Cover), Michael Dialynas (P), Geof Darrow (P), Mark Wheatley (P), and Fiona Staples (Variant cover)

On sale Mar 21

FC, 80 pages

$7.99
Ongoing
Evan Dorkin is unleashed in House of Fun, and Steve Niles weaves another web of paranormal intrigue in Criminal Macabre: They Fight by Night. Three brothers in a grim, postwar England of the future are given experimental suits that could make them the saviors of mankind—that is, if they can ever get past their obsessions with film, violent video games, and porn in Colin Lorimer’s UXB!
Brian Wood’s The Massive finishes up, Carla Speed McNeil begins an epic new arc of Finder: Third World, Al Gordon and Thomas Yeates’s centennial celebration of Tarzan concludes, and much more!

Start smoking kids!

I mean look at how sophisticated and suave you can look.









I always meant to take up pipe smoking myself. But even if I did, I'm pretty sure that I could never look quite as debonair as that kid above does...

Kill List

I didn't expect much of this movie and actually just stuck it on as background noise as I was working. Now having watched it three times (that's a rarity for me nowadays...) I would have to say it is one of the best horror movies I have seen in years! My hat is off to the director Ben Wheatley for delivering a movie that quite literally floored me.

I won't say anymore than that- highly recommended!




I also just heard about this:


A sequel to The Wicker Man...with Robin Hardy as writer /director- say it ain't so....!!!

The Wicker Man is one of my all time favourite movies- along with Night of the Demon and Village of the Damned ...and of course If, O Lucky Man, Through a Glass Darkly( Okay- don't get me started on my top movies or this will be a very long post)

...did I mention On the Buses?

Anyhow- looks interesting. I'll certainly be checking it out....

Break

Break is a movie written, directed and, edited by Becky and Nick Sayers.

Reunited for the weekend, a group of friends are driven to violence when an unknown force seems to bring out the worst in them. Who will be the first to break?

I was sent a screener version of this movie some time ago and think it's about time I got my ass into gear and wrote a review.

The movie itself is reminiscent of old-school fare; early Raimi, Argento and Romero I feel would be a fair comparison. Comparisons could also be made to the movies The Signal and The Crazies but Break takes a much different direction once it gets going.

What struck me most was how well it was directed. It has a hand-held feel, almost documentary style and the constant motion of the camera only helps to add to the general feeling of unease that the movie is obviously trying to purport. The almost jump cut style of editing plays well too and they really know how to frame a shot and keep the story moving forward. The art direction in places is excellent; the use of colour to help imply a mood or scene change is clever and used to great effect.

The acting is quite good; serviceable in some areas whilst more effective in others. The scenes with Jonathan Bruno (Hector)and Melissa Fisher(Angela) in particular played very well- the confined one room set with only two actors to deal with seemed to help focus the director(s) both in story and visual and it's here where the film really shines. Bruno has a genuine screen presence and his rather calm demeanor, delivering his lines in an almost somnambulistic state only helped add to the creep factor. I wouldn't be surprised if we see this guy Bruno in a few years having been caught for some nefarious dirty deeds of his own....drowning dwarfs or experimenting on his own rat-chickens!

My only criticism would be that could do with another edit pass- I felt some sequences were a little on the long side and could be tightened up somewhat.

There is without a doubt some real talent involved here and that coupled with their obvious passion for the craft - it can only be onwards and upwards!

I look forward to their next venture.

It's not easy when your self financing while also trying to manage every aspect of the process along the way when trying to get something like this to final. It takes courage and great perseverance so I would urge you to get over to Becky's blog and give her your support.

horroreffect.blogspot.com
everyonebreaks.blogspot.com