Lubbert-Das

Connan Mockasin

2012-01-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

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...?

2012-01-19T21:39:00.000-08:00

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.

What a lot of you may not realize is that I have been drawing and writing comics in some shape or form my entire life. My Beano knock-offs to 2000Ad inspired rips are still sitting in a dusty old cupboard in N Ireland.

I self published for a bit and have pitched quite a bit through the years. I was actually being considered for the comic Crisis (another old Brit mag) back in the day and had a little back and forth with Steve MacManus, however I had just been accepted into art college and to be honest three years of living like a tramp was most definitely the right choice for me at that time.

After art college I moved into animation and gaming and traveled quite a bit...but always kept up my love of comics...

Let's just say- this has been a long time coming...

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!

2012-01-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

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 does...

Kill List

2012-01-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-06T12:38:00.000-08:00

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

'appy new year!

2012-01-03T00:15:00.000-08:00

Sleep well kids....

2011-12-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

For tomorrow night this man will be coming down your chimney...

Credit where credit is due: freddyinspace.com

Ronald 2

2011-12-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

Listen...

2011-12-23T00:43:00.000-08:00

A WOMAN IS DYING HERE.........................HELP ME

2011-12-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

Catchy header eh!?

I must receive about 5-10 of these type of spam emails a week. With this one I can imagine the writer sitting there trying to come up with a really eye-catching tag-line, knowing that the usual type of header of 'Collect Your Reward' or 'Husband Leaves Me Fortune To Share' just wasn't pulling in the punters anymore.... it just reeks of desperation!

Since I'm in the holiday spirit I thought I would try to help said person out with some header suggestions:

TRUFFLES,TRUFFLES,TRUFFLES.............COCK!

MY PENIS EXPLODED ON BUS.....FORGIVE ME!

CROCODILE RATS ATE MY BABY!!

DEVIL DWARF BURNED DOWN MY CHURCH WITH TINY LITTLE MATCHES.......BASTARD!!

I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED TO A CHRISTMAS TREE WITH TOOTHPICKS!! ....PLEASE HELP!!!! DID I MENTION THAT I'M ALSO HANGING UPSIDE DOWN.......

BUM-FLUFF,SHIT-COBBLE, MANK-FUCK, WARBLE-WANK!!!

MILK IN FRIDGE IS SOUR! JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY!!!! HELP ME!!!!

---

OK I'm done...

Full email below - please feel free to write to Susan with a reply.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mrs. Susan Amson from Netherlands, I am 68 years old, i am suffering from a long time cancer of the breast, from all indication my conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that I can't work or do any stressful thing, according to my doctors they have advised me that I may not live for the next two months, this is because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad stage. I was brought up from a motherless babies home was married to my late husband for twenty years without a child.

My Husband (Roberto Patrick) died in a fatal motor accident before his death we were true Christians. Since his death I decided not to re-marry, I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum of $5.6 million dollars wishes, And the best part of it is, the paying bank in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia told me in the letter that they can have the funds released to my approved person that was authorized by me or transferred to his bank account and if outside Kuala Lumpur Malaysia then transferred to his or her bank account. Presently, i am using my laptop in the hospital at Frankfurt Germany where I have been undergoing treatment for my sickness. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only more 2 months to live. It is my last wish to see at least 60% of this money is invested/donated to any organization/business of your choice and distributed each year among the charity organization, e.g. the poor homes, the motherless babies home where I came from, the deaf homes, an

I seek for is a God fearing person like you ,who will carry out my last wishes and before I emailed you today I prayed and the holy spirit gave me the confidence to send you this email. I took this decision, before I rest in peace because my time will soon be up. As soon as I receive your reply I will give you the contact of the paying bank in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

All i need from you is a confidential assurance that the funds when received by you will be used for the said purpose, Nowadays there are so much scams going on in the internet and it is difficult to trust but I don’t know why the Holy spirit still approved me to email you about this out of few email addresses i have from the internet, yours was the only one that my mind convinced me to. You can contact me on my email: susanamson92@gmail.com

Waiting for your

Yours in Christ,
Mrs. Susan Amson
E-mail:susanamson92@gmail.com

The Cult Of The Wicker Man

2011-12-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

Uncut version of the actual movie is available here

Santa's a c**t!

2011-12-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

That was the original wording... I decided to opt for the more generic;)

All the best to you and yours!

-and here's the variant:

Muc Olla

2011-12-16T21:56:00.000-08:00

Harvest...

2011-12-14T23:36:00.000-08:00

Jim Valentino in an article with CBR has announced my other comic book project that's currently in the works :

Also this summer we see "Harvest," a new 5-issue series from A. J. Lieberman ("Cowboy Ninja Viking," "Term Life") and Colin Lorimer, another artist that's going to knock everyone on their ass, he's that good. And, of course, "Morning Glories," "Bomb Queen," the end of "The Infinite Vacation" and more. It just keeps on getting better and better -- who could ask for more?

Full article here

It's a great project. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to share some images...

Ronald

2011-12-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

The Armando Iannucci Shows

2011-12-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

The brilliant Armando Iannucci (Alan Partridge, The Day Today) in his own show which was apparently broadcast by CH 4 in 2001. Yet another show I seem to have missed out on...

Ah the wonder of You Tube...

UXB CMYK

2011-11-28T13:55:00.001-08:00

Opposed to RGB which I have used for the past ten years.

I'm liking the CMYK and not really missing the shiny happy brightness of RGB. The only downside being is that the files are massive and take an eternity to open...

However... that does give me an excuse to watch movies whilst working --I watched Tom Hardy in Warrior while waiting for page 7 to open for God's sake!

By the way; if the above makes no sense...Wikipedia is your friend and will make understanding the differences between RGB and CMYK even more confusing...

John Higgins draws UXB

2011-11-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

Feast your eyes on UXB as depicted by John Higgins (Razorjack, Judge Dredd, Hellblazer, Watchman)

A long time ago in a-- oh wait, that's Star Wars...

The first time I laid my eyes on John's work would have been in the Battlestar Galactica Grandreams annual of 1978; of course I had no idea who he was at that point....that wouldn't be until a few years later when he started to work for 2000AD.

Since then he has worked on numerous titles for various publishers. Two standouts for me personally would be his work on Hellblazer and the Garth Ennis penned War Story "D-Day Dodgers"

I could never have imagined that that same artist, almost 34 years later - would be drawing a pin-up of a few of my characters and I just can't thank him enough for agreeing to do it...

Top artist. Top bloke...

Thanks John!

...

Come to think of it has 2000Ad ever republished Freaks!?

UXB Comes to Dark Horse Presents #10!

2011-11-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

I'm proud to announce that UXB has found a home with Dark Horse Comics.

From the Dark Horse comics website:

Dark Horse Presents is renowned not only for publishing original work of comics luminaries but also for presenting powerful emerging voices of graphic fiction. Such is UXB by Colin Lorimer (Earp: Saints for Sinners), debuting in Dark Horse Presents #10.

In a shattered future postwar London, powerful experimental “life suits” that permanently graft to human bodies are created to counter the threat of terrorism. Given to three brothers, the suits could make the trio the saviors of mankind—if they can ever get past their obsessions for film, violent video games, and porn. Following in the dark footsteps of dystopian visions such as The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, DMZ, and Give Me Liberty, Lorimer’s UXB is challenging, thought provoking, laced with gallows humor, and illustrated with consummate skill.

“I’m thrilled that UXB has found a home within the hallowed pages of DHP. The journey of UXB is going to be rather dark and twisted and there’s no better place for that story to be told than Dark Horse,” says Colin Lorimer.

While you wait for Dark Horse Presents #10, be sure to check out Colin’s work at UXBComic.com.

Dark Horse Presents #10 is on sale March 21, 2012.

-----

The announcement can be found here and a preview is available over at at the Daily Blam!

Update: I thought I may as well pop the preview pages up myself...

New Beginnings...

2011-10-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

...and mini-update.

I've now made the leap from animation into comics.
I've rented an office downtown and am now working into two comic book projects.

I'll blab, and hopefully be able to post some stuff soon!

The Hitchcock Truffaut tapes

2011-10-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

Just found this little gem today : hitchcocktruffaut-tapes-
It's in 25 parts...

And as an added bonus here's 1000 Frames of Hitchcock

Interlude

2011-10-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

2011-09-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

Page 41 and 42 have now been uploaded to the UXB site...

40A

2011-09-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

I felt I was missing a bit of a beat by jumping into a new scene with page 41.
The sequence needed a better transition...

I also decided that we needed to spend a little more time with the 'horse guy' (actually let's call him Joe from here on in...) and felt he deserved a better send off! Poor sod; actually grew quite attached to him over the past few pages....

Here's 41 (well now 42...) as well:
I'll add the dial in the next couple of days....

UB40

2011-09-04T01:34:00.000-07:00

Time for some red, red whine.

...

Wait! That only works with the last post....this is UXB 41.
Either way, it's a fu*kin' crap gag isn't it!?

41 is almost complete...

Inkling

2011-08-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

Advertising Wacom on my blog...what a whore!

I'm all digital now as most people know(well...at the very least, those who follow the blog and my one-eyed robotic cat) So this little device looks like something I may have to add to my underground high-tech bunker!

Thanks for the link Donna!

40 colour

2011-08-28T02:38:00.000-07:00

-and now also lettered...
Click on image for the full size.

40 B&W

2011-08-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

Will pop the coloured/lettered version up over the weekend.

Goggles

2011-08-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

Teeth

2011-08-23T18:33:00.001-07:00

39

2011-08-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Made some time this weekend to complete another page.

Click on the image for full size:

With thanks to Francis Bacon.

38

2011-08-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Page 38 is now up

Not going to even bother with excuses for the delay in this one ...I'll add a new page whenever I can!

Cheers.

Ipcress

2011-07-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

Trying to get my hands on this movie for the longest time...and today I finally
snagged it! A store downtown, going out of business was selling everything with 50% off...so $35 for a hard to find oop DVD ain't too bad.

It also has a commentary with the director Sidney J. Furie and editor Peter Hunt.

Apparently the producer( Harry Saltzman) wanted to fire Furie right at the start of production because he thought his camera choices and style of filming was a little too unusual...thankfully he was kept on mainly due to the editor(Hunt) fighting his corner and explaining to Saltzman how truly brilliant Furie was. This little masterpiece of British cinema certainly would not have been the same without Furie's masterful direction . It's probably worth mentioning that some of those camera choices did come from the fact that Furie was a little pissed up at the time...

If that's the case he must have been blind drunk and in the midst of falling down a long flight of stairs when he directed Superman IV: The Quest for Peace...

DREDD

2011-07-28T14:24:00.001-07:00

OK...

I'm now genuinely excited to see this!

Images stolen from here: http://2000ad.wordpress.com/

Digital Pencils

2011-07-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

Now the comic Earp is done and gone ...I thought I would share some of the pencils with you. I know I put up a few pages previously, but here it is again- all in one big batch!

As you progress through them you will see variations in the rendering style. This was mainly down to the fact that as I had decided to work digitally I still wanted to attain something resembling a traditional penciled page. I feel I was successful to some extent, and well...you can decide for yourself.

I was brought on to the project towards the end of issue 1...Page 50 to be exact and below is that very first page.

I penciled the page up in Photoshop and then added a texture layer - lowered the opacity on the eraser and removed some of the texture, adding some highlights and depth.

With issue two. I decided to just keep it as line-work. This was not the best idea as every little detail then had to be rendered.

I was quite happy with how this page turned out. However when sending it to the editor, she quite rightly asked where the light source would be coming from...so I went back in and added some chandeliers- but in doing so, it pushed the scale of the characters off. So with the magic of Photoshop- I quite simply reduced them down a notch and fiddled a little with the bg until I arrived at this:

The style of Earp was quite realistic...so I had to ref a lot of photos for the female characters to made sure I didn't exaggerate their form too much and get too stylized. Researching the female form was tough- My poor eyes were faced with so much nakedness...

Product placement: UXB hat!

My son posed A LOT for this project...at least 4 of the 5 panels above feature him. Thanks little man! He even had a little Earp jacket that he wore ...awwwwwww!!!!!

With issue 3 I decided to add some gray scale to help add some depth and also to avoid unnecessary detail- especially when viewing the final painted pages and finding that a lot of the detail was being lost anyway...

Quite liked this one...nice angle. However Flynn's chin is literally sitting on the line of the bottom panel- not good! I also, for the first time, added some photographic elements into this one - such as the records on the wall and the casino floor in the BG.

In the second panel of the above page, Flynn is showing Rodney a doodle of his cock and balls! Third panel he is saying: "You like?!" Oh wait - that's my version of the script...getting a bit off topic there.

Have to say, I wasn't too sorry about whiny Morgan getting the rope!
Kyushik- when painting, seemingly tortured poor Morgan with his paintbrush- burned him up and everything - some really sick shit! So it looks like I wasn't the only one.

With issue 4 I opted to add in more photographic elements- usually something I would never do- but for this project in particular it made sense to do so- not just from a production point of view but it also helped to achieve the final art style that the project required.

The final page.

There are a lot of photo elements in that page and you would think it would have actually saved time...but it didn't... as everything had to be manipulated and drawn over and reworked to fit with the composition.

So there you go - a small sampling of the Earp digital pencils. I have to say that I had never had my work literally painted over before and being a bit of a control freak it did take a little time to get use to...but as collaborations go...I think it went pretty well. I met up with Kyushik Shin(the colourist/painter) at SDCC and it was great to finally sit down and have a chat. Great guy and very talented to boot. His website is here: www.shinybrush.com Check it out!

I also finally met with my editor Renae Geerlings. The best looking editor in comics perhaps!? (I may expect a cyber-slap for that comment...) She was fantastic to work with - and did you know that she was married to Eric Bana? He played the part of Hector in that Troy movie - the one that kicked the ass of Tyler Mane...

You can check out Renae at: OMFGeek.com interviewing none other than Paul Dini.

OK I'm done.

Earp Saint for Sinners is © Radical Publishing

SDCC 2011

2011-07-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

Just got back yesterday from another visit to the San Diego. This will have been my 4th time attending.

What did I get up to?

Well for the most part I just wandered aimlessly...
I did manage to chat briefly with the likes of David Lloyd, John Higgins, Mark Wheatley,Richard Starkings, Geoff Darrow ,Tharg (Matt Smith) and the one and only: Jordi Bernet(albeit through a translator). I also hooked up with an old art college mate: David Rabbitte, who was selling his wares...

At a restaurant I slipped our waitress twenty bucks to pass off a UXB comic to Grant Morrison who was sitting a few tables away from us.

Completely shameless! He probably used it as a coaster.

I was not surprised at all to see Slave Leia wandering around the con... however, I did not expect this:

Lot of sweaty nerds around that booth ...

2000AD represents!

...and finally- a little something for the ladies.

-and before you ask... No. That is not me.

...to colour

2011-07-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Layouts to Inks

2011-07-19T01:01:00.000-07:00

Les chiens isolés

2011-07-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks Jim!

Sail Away

2011-07-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

Perfection:

So good, it's worth hearing twice:

Harry Nilsson's version is a must listen also:

Hey it's my blog!

Umbrellas

2011-07-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

Detail of a splash page....and it is not UXB.

Summer in Vancouver maybe?

3 +10 = 13 - 3 = 10

2011-07-08T23:55:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that last month this blog became 3 years old..

ALSO AS OF MARCH 2011 I HAVE BEEN IN VANCOUVER CANADA FOR TEN BLEEDIN' YEARS!!

I'LL SAY THAT AGAIN JUST FOR ADDED EFFECT :

TEN YEARS !!!!!!

CAPS LOCK ACTIVATED WITH BOLD LARGE TEXT HELPS TO VISUALLY IMPART MY GENUINE EMOTION AT RECOGNIZING HOW MUCH TIME HAS PASSED. NEED TO FIND WAY TO SLOW IT DOWN!!!!

OK THAT'S JUST GETTING ANNOYING ...

To celebrate the fact that my life-clock continues to tick down:

I put it to you that if I do not get at least 3000 comments on this post I will be shutting this blog down. Yes, I am that shallow! I have seen other bloggers threatening followers/casual readers with their blog's imminent removal unless they are duly recognized for the joy they obviously bring to their readers somewhat sad little existence (Lots of comments seems to validate ones self worth...)

Remember such posts of erudite and intellectual excellence as these:

Lubbert Speaks!

The Beef Delusion.

My First Death threat.

Fuccerham

Me Meme.

James Spader's Cock and Balls

You want to see posts of this type again?

This blog is in your hands (your grubby, unwashed little hands I might add...)

I love you all!

Relaxation Podcast with Matt Berry

2011-07-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

Not a big fan of relaxation therapy; I always end up really agitated by the fact that I am supposed to actually lie still and do NOTHING. Expected to look at a white ceiling for an hour will just slowly make me very, very angry. The fact that I have a stain* on my bedroom ceiling that strangely resembles the face of a rather young Phil Collins doesn't help matters much either ... and believe me, having those beady little drummer boy eyes staring down at you for a prolonged period of time would make anybody angry! (Or possibly suicidal depending on your state of mind.)

Of course I could just close my eyes

..but I just don't trust that little bald headed bastard...take your eyes off him for a minute and he may start bloody singing!

In saying that, take a listen to the soothing dulcet tones of Matt Berry's podcast. You may feel strangely refreshed by the end :

More here:
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/podcasts/The-Matt-Berry-Podcast
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-matt-berry-podcast/id324147908

*Please note: Not wank-stain...I spilled tea up on the ceiling.

UXB concept art

2011-06-29T01:29:00.000-07:00

Bowbarella

2011-06-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Quantum Theory

2011-06-26T20:04:00.001-07:00

Page 37

2011-06-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

For the worded version go here

2011-06-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

Guess which two toys were a gift for fathers day?

37

2011-06-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a story.

I was halfway through this page 2 months ago when my hard-drive died on my imac and I had thought I had bloody lost the thing(along with a lot of other stuff) I had never heard of the blue screen of death until that very moment and believe me when I tell you ...it scared he hell out of me. I had just very recently bought an external hard drive and had moved a lot of my art on to it -so that was all safe; however all my photos and itunes data were not!

Thankfully the guys at the local computer store were able to retrieve and clone all the data from the drive allowing the Apple store guys to put in a new hard drive and mirror all the data back onto it- setting up my computer exactly as it was the day it had went kaput!

At around the same time I was also starting into another TV project whilst finishing off a comic book gig...so it all got a little too hectic to find the time to bring this page to completion.

Until now...(Well, OK...I still have the colouring and lettering to do!)

If you do have an Apple computer I would strongly advise setting up Time Machine. It is amazing how many Apple users do not use this device. If I had not been able to retrieve
my data from the hard drive it would have been lost for good. Time Machine allows you
to set up your "new" computer exactly as before with no hiccups or lost data...*

And I thought the 'red ring of death' on the 360 was bad!!!

*Yeah,yeah I realize all you techies out there already know all that...but remember I'm only semi-computer literate!! I only know what I need to know, like how to turn it on and open up photoshop ...

Panel 11

2011-06-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

... of page 37.

Supes and The Bat

2011-06-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

5 min doodles...

OK. Add an extra 3 for the Superman emblem.

Random randomness

2011-05-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

That month went by pretty quick! I've been pretty busy of late (I had mistakenly wrote 'busty' there and had to go back and remove the 't' ) although maybe I should just have left it in as I am becoming quite busty with all this constant sitting on my ass.

I will be updating UXB early June. Yeah, I know- it's being put on the back-burner a little too much these days...

Here's some random stuff:

The above is a few panels from my son's comic. He writes I draw...and he won't even give me a co-creator credit!!! Little Stan Lee in the making methinks...

36

2011-04-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

36 is complete:
This is the closest I've come to the type of palette I'd like to continue with for this section of UXB: Subtle washes of colour, purposely trying to keep it quite desaturated in tone. The grainy effect is achieved by adding various "aged" paper textures.

36 B&W

2011-04-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

Here's the black and white version of page 36. Will pop up the colored, lettered version before the weekend's out...

Japan

2011-03-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

It would be really remiss of me not to share this one with you. The artist is Yumiko Sasakawa(her full email below):

Hi Friends!

I am raising funds for Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami relief and was needing some friend-power to help me along.

I drew a picture for Japan and have been getting requests for prints, and it has now turned into a fundraising effort. The Financial Literacy Counsel Inc (flci.ca) has so kindly donated me funds to pay for my printing costs so that 100% of all donations can go towards the Red Cross.

I was hoping you could share my print and pass along the info to your friends and family, via word of mouth or social media.

---------------

Original post of drawing: http://yumsdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/03/nippon-makeruna-i-guess-that-loosely.html

Nippon Makeruna! (Japan, Don't Give Up!) print

8.5 x 7.5" digital print, 12 pt cardstock, coated on one side, packaged in a plastic sleeve

$10 minimum donation

100% of all donations will go to the Red Cross

People can purchase through my Etsy store at www.helloyumiko.etsy.com

or email me directly at helloyumiko@gmail.com

-----------------

If you or your group of friends are interested in a print, and would like to meet up with me to save on shipping fees, or you would like a batch of prints to sell amongst your friends, please let me know and we can work something out too :)

Thanks so much for your help and care for Japan!

Yumiko

ps: I will be at this event tomorrow, selling prints, if you are interested: http://bc-jerf.ca/friends-across-the-pacific

35

2011-03-21T03:08:00.000-07:00

And there she is:
Will add the dial tomorrow and upload.

Update:

I decided to remove Das's hand from Rifter's shoulder in the final panel. I thought in retrospect that it was a little too "touchy/ feely" for these characters .

It's now up on UXBCOMIC.

Update 03/04/11: Revised the colours on this one so it is more in line with 36. Also the sky colour in retrospect wasn't really working...it was too similar to Rifter's colours; he pops a little more now...

Page 35 update

2011-03-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

That update to the previous UXB post took a little longer than expected. I'm afraid other stuff got in the way of it's completion. It's tough with UXB- it really is a labor of love. There's no money involved, no co-creator to banter with over story issues or bitch with over the artwork, no editor on my back to help motivate me towards deadlines...

Just me.

I'm not complaining, just a late night ponder.

...and it is now 4AM. I must be mad! I gotta take my son to the Paddy's Parade tomorrow - F#*KING HELL!!!!!! BED NOW!!!

Oh yeah and this page should be complete for tomorrow!!

Doré was way ahead of his time.

2011-03-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

I don't think even Blake had visions to match this:

Process UXB

2011-03-11T16:35:00.001-08:00

I'm a little behind on the latest page for UXB. It's almost there...will try and finish it off tomorrow.

Until I get it completed, here's some images of the latest page in progress (Well to be more precise: the first panel)

1) Really rough doodle, basically just working up the composition and the rough posing.

2) Rough penciling. I usually skip this stage and just go straight into the inking stage, however sometimes it nice to have something a little more to work with...

3) Rough inks. I mentioned in a previous post that my inking technique is quite organic, as it's digital inking I can play around with the image until I get it to where I want it to be. Still a bit more to do to this one. The hands aren't finished and it certainly needs a little fine tuning- it's also minus the BG.
I'll update when complete.

MIA

2011-03-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

Hello there!

Apparently I messed up my settings on the blog and it was off-line for a bit.

Here's another couple of Earp from issue 3. I decided to add some grayscale to the work to add a little more depth. I was quite happy with how they turned out. The pages don't give too much away, so should be OK to post.

Earp 2

2011-03-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

As Earp 2 is out tomorrow I thought it would be a good time to share some of the pencils with you:

Update: Here is the top page coloured by Kyushik Skin. Looks pretty damn nifty !

UXB gone all superhero and shit!?

2011-02-28T01:14:00.000-08:00

34 is up.

...and here's some classic Fall (something for those who can't be arsed going to the comic site) It was either them or Shakin' Stevens...

UXB 33 and some process stuff...

2011-02-20T22:43:00.001-08:00

Well what do you know, I got the latest page up just in time...
I'm not going to set a specific day or time for the delivery of each page, I'll be happy just as long as I get it finished and uploaded "sometime" within the week!

I thought I would share some of the stages of getting this thing done.
OK, first is my really rough layout/thumbnail. I usually keep pretty close to the original thumbnail- however a few changes were made on this one. I changed the angle of the carriage in panel 1 and pushed the guys back a little in panel 5 for better readability when the chain comes up into frame in panel 6. I also decided at the last minute to give the "horses" gas-masks ...

I then create an ink layer- lower the opacity of the thumbnail and away I go. It's all pretty organic at this point- resizing when I need to, erasing and redrawing until I'm reasonably happy with the inks. The backgrounds are inked on a separate layer.

Then the speech bubbles are added. The lettering was done by none other than Sean Philips! Yeah, he had some spare time...

...

No not really. I simply used his font, bought and downloaded from the Comic Book Fonts website.
Then it's time to get into the colours. I decided to keep them quite muted and as a final touch faded the backgrounds out a little to give the art a little more depth (another good reason to keep the BG on a separate layer)

And that's it! I'm a terrible fiddler though (no, not a fiddler on a roof or the other type -- you know what I mean!) so I'm sure I'll hate it tomorrow- but for now, at least at this precise moment; I'm quite happy with how it turned out...

Now just to stick it up on the UXBCOMIC website.

Cars

2011-02-15T03:37:00.000-08:00

...in the french disco pub style:

I think Bill Bailey has just surpassed Numan's classic; and all it took was some bike horns and a dodgy french accent...

Distractions

2011-02-14T03:04:00.000-08:00

UXB 2 and other stuff

2011-02-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

Starting into the second run of UXB. The first page was posted last week and the second has just went up.

Will try my best to stay on track.

Other news: I was quite recently brought on board as illustrator for the comic EARP: SAINTS FOR SINNERS ( Radical Publishing.) I penciled only a few pages for issue 1, however with issue 2, I took over as the main artist. I had always wondered what having your work 'inked' by someone else would be like, well... here, I am having my work literally 'painted' over by the artist Kyushik Shin. It should be available early March.

I'll see if I can post some images further down the line.

The covers are by the excellent Alex Maleev.

Tom Baker and the lasso of truth...

2011-01-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

Friday the 21st was my last official day in the office. My latest contract for supervising the storyboard dept for the 2nd season of the animated TV series Hot wheels Battle Force Five has reached completion! We had some really great board artists this time around which made my life a lot easier...because believe me; the good and reliable ones are incredibly hard to come by. So Elie, Tom, Jean, Kenny, Todd, Dennis, Victor, Sam, Jae and Joey- Thanks!
Some of those guys may be first season, but whatever...

I never mention my day job on the blog too much as I like to keep the two quite separate...

Come to think of it... I don't talk about storyboarding too much on this blog either. I was asked, quite recently, if I would like to write (and illustrate) a book about the art of storyboarding. I declined the offer.

That's not to say that I may succumb to it at some point. If I did, I think I would like to do it a little differently than the usual text book type approach. The thought of also having to get permission from all the various companies that I have worked with over the years if I wanted to use their boards also puts me off...however, I could quite easily avoid all the red tape if I drew all the content up from scratch, creating completely new boards.

Perhaps it could be a more behind the scenes day to day look at storyboarding. An industry insider look, so rather than getting overtly technical and pontificating about the wonderment of the sequential image... I just bitch and moan and make it more like a comic book, and the comic book becomes the storyboard... hey, hey...that could be fun. Kinda like a Harvey Pekar slice of life, complimented with the wit of Peter Bagge's Hate.

It could be the Samuel Pepys of the storyboard/animation world (minus the eyewitness account of the Black Death of course...) However, I would fear it may end up more in the vein of the Kenneth Williams' diary...

The fact you would be writing about storyboard artists would possibly infuse the comic with an unhealthy amount of hate and despair ....maybe too much. In fact there would be no humour at all...just desperate souls; depressed and lonely crying out at their meaningless existence and onset of carpal tunnel (OK, now I'm just specifically talking about me...)

In all seriousness... do we really need another "how to" book? You would be better off picking up a Toth or an Eisner comic for staging and composition, read some online notes of Brad Bird for the technical blab or better still... watch some f#cking movies!

Myiazaki, Chuck Jones or Hitchcock would be a good start. Quite like that Batman animated also...

Happy New Year.

2011-01-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a freebie for your listening pleasure:

The King Is Dead the latest Decemberists album will be available for streaming in its entirety here until its release on Jan. 18.

As a bonus, here's a track from one of the best albums of last year:
Sufjan Steven's The Age of Adz.

Now that we are all a little older...

Swan Song

2010-12-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

A belated Merry Christmas/Season's Greetings to one and all.

I watched the movie Black Swan yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Natalie Portman was amazing in the lead role and towards the end pulled off a bit of a Gloria Swanson 'Sunset Boulevard' moment quite nicely (no pun intended!)

While watching, I did some doodling. The second illustration feels slightly more successful than the first. Or maybe neither are successful, you can decide...

Not really a Xmas post though is it? Well, don't forget, while your stuffing your face with turkey that other old bird: the Queen is stuffing hers with Swan! It is a well known fact that the Royals dine at this time of year on Swan rather than Turkey, and is just another way to let us little proletarians know who's boss...

I will not do into the details of how Prince Philip actually stuffs the bird, but let's just say that it not a stuffing in the traditional sense of the word...

Have a great holiday season and as the late great Dave Allen would say " Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you"

Cheers,
-C

Page 29 and 'You(U)can Kiss(X)my love Bom-mm-mmb(B)'

2010-12-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

The latest page is now over at UXBCOMIC.

This page is placement only. I had intended to revise...but again time was against me. Page 29 will in fact become two pages and rather than having the guys just walking towards cam, will show a little more functionality of the suits. My reasons for uploading this page was mainly due to the fact that this will be the last post on the comic site until the new year, completing the first issue(chapter) of the book. So rather than leaving a large gap I thought at the very least I should book-end the end of the year with a semi-complete story; hence the page...

Posting will resume again on the 16th January, giving me a little time to play catch-up over the Holidays!

You may have found that the comic towards the end did become a little too linear. Originally as I was pitching it, I wanted to have a complete little package that tied everything together, so that the reader wasn't scratching his head too much.

Of course I had a synopsis/plot breakdown as well, but I always find the best response is to the visual. So the last couple of pages (27,28,29) on the comic site were tagged on at the end solely for that purpose. Originally I had it scripted that there would be a lot more cutting back and forth between the present and the past. For example: after the monkey incident I had intended that we would cut back to the present and continue with our boys in London. The suit functionality and their current predicament would be hinted at and explained more through the character's dialogue, rather than direct exposition in the form of a narrator.

So I do foresee that further down the line (and once there is a more substantial amount of content)... some serious editing will take place .

Love to hear you thoughts on it!

Oh yeah, and before I forget. I should mention that Foster and Allen just sent me the above pic through the post! Apparently they have written a song about the boy's exploits...

It's called: 'You (U)can Kiss (X) my love Bom-mm-mmb (B)'

Darlin', I am growin' older, mmm
Silver threads among the go-old
Shine upon my brow today-ay-ay, mmm
Life is fading fast away-ay
You can kiss my love bom-mmm-mmmb...

But, my darlin', you will be as you will be
Always young and fair to me
Yes, my darlin', you-ou will be-ee-ee
Always young and fair to me-ee
You can kiss my love bom-mmm-mmmb...

When your hair is silver whi-ite
And your cheeks' no longer bright
With the roses of the May-ay, mmm
I will kiss your lips and say-ay
You can kiss my love bom-mmm-mmmb...

Oh my darlin', you will be, you will be
Always young and fair to me...
Yes, my darlin', you-ou will be-ee-ee
Always young and fair to-oo me

You can kiss my love bom-mmm-mmmb...

Kiss it tenderly, before it ex-plodes up in your face!

BOOM...

Doesn't seem to reflect any of the comic's actual content guys... but powerful stuff anyway. Thanks.

More Stuff...

2010-12-12T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here's some sample pages from something that is not UXB for once! I worked these up some time back(with a writer) for a project that never got any further than the pitch stage. I have also thrown up some of the initial character sketches for the two main characters...

It's a great story with a lot of potential. Hopefully we can return to it at some point...

Covers were to be by this very talented chap.

John Peel

2010-12-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

On -This is your life. Mark E, David Gedge and Bowie to name but a few. Worth checking out.

"Keep your feet off the upholstery Ronnie!"

2010-12-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

Yet another page is up over at Uxbcomic.com

I decided not to share the pencil/inks version of this one as you may feel I was taking the piss ;)

So instead; here's some Adam and the Ants for you:

Dirk Wears White Sox is still one of my all-time favourite albums. Makes you wonder what Adam(Stuart Goddard) could have achieved if he hadn't decided to go a more commercial route...

27

2010-11-27T22:57:00.000-08:00

A new page (27) is up over at UXBCOMIC

Little less detail than usual. I love working in silhouettes; this stuff is a little closer to how I would stage some of my story scenes (key script moments) in storyboards...

Mark 9:47

2010-11-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

Page 26 has been uploaded!

Continuing in B&W...
Personal unpaid projects are always the things that take the hit when your faced with the encroaching deadlines of paying work. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to keep with the page a week upload! Hopefully the colour isn't too much of an issue. I will certainly work back into it once things settle down...

Unless there is a colourist out there who wants to pitch in and give it a go?

40,000 Views.

2010-11-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

The guys at ebook send you out a congratulation note every time your book has hit a certain number of views. Apparently the UXB preview has been read(well, viewed) over 40,000 times. Imagine if I was charging a dollar a time? That would be a fair sum of monies... Of course the truth is; if there was a fee involved, the numbers may be significantly lower.

Everybody loves their freebies.

The numbers could also be so high due to dyslexic porn heads reading UXB as XXX.

Nilbog!

2010-11-20T02:24:00.000-08:00

George Hardy chimes in on the UXB comic. In return I feel I should give a big shout out to Best Worst Movie, a brilliant documentary about the making of the fantastic Troll 2.

Highly recommended!

Thanks George.

"Your only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

2010-11-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Monkey Sex and Dwarf Tossing!

2010-11-07T15:15:00.001-08:00

Or: Monkey tossing off a dwarf!?

No ...not really! But page 24 is up over at UXB Comic
Read it and tell your friends all about the awesome swear words.

Lubbert Das fun fact: The male Proboscis monkey defends his group(average troop is one male with 6-10 females and their young)by honking loudly, baring his teeth, and waving his erect penis at any aggressor!

Of course the monkey in the above comic is not a Proboscis - but his facts were just not as entertaining.

RED WHITE WITH SOME GREY AREA

2010-11-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

These were a couple of test samples I worked up a short time ago when I was prepping for a comic pitch with another writer. The comic itself was never picked up (well, as of yet...)

Musical Interlude...

2010-11-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

...with the uber talented Neil Hannon.

"I'd knee-cap Martin McGuinness to get my hands on a copy"

2010-11-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

The MP for West Belfast, Gerry Adams, has just endorsed UXB.

In a public statement he had this to say:

UXB is an anti-royalist, subversive document that informs as well as ignites. I'd knee-cap Martin McGuinness to get my hands on a copy (not that I would ever condone knee-capping- that's all behind us now! We have to keep looking forward... )

Gerry I presume on having just read UXB.

I feel you may have blown the Royalist connection a little out of proportion and missed the overarching story idea Gerry. However in saying that, I do appreciate your glowing recommendation and interest in the book itself.

Cheers.

Something wicked this way comes....

2010-10-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

Page 23 is now up on the comic site (and coloured I might add...) I should have 22 coloured by the end of the week and then I'll be back on track!

Below is the B&W version if you are at all interested:

I can now kick back, relax and watch The Walking Dead on AMC...

Halloween UXB

2010-10-30T23:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to pop something up Halloween related, so I worked a little ahead of myself and drew up page 32 of UXB. The guy in the pic has a whole back story that I hope to get to at some point...

Have a great Halloween!

UXB is the bomb!

2010-10-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

The inimitable Richard Simmons just sent me this fantastic pic!

Thanks Richard, when I finally get to colouring the latest over at:uxbcomic.com I'll think of you swinging by a rope.

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff

2010-10-25T02:04:00.000-07:00

In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years. Taken from IMDB.

Beg, borrow or steal (well, maybe not steal as I am sure the film makers could do with the extra cash...) This is a fantastic documentary on a truly great artist.

Highly recommended!

Page 21

2010-10-17T23:50:00.000-07:00

The latest is up on the UXB comic site. I enlarged the text (yet again) and played around with the composition and placing of the lettering on this one. It's certainly quite a bit different than the the first attempt...

I'll pop the black and white version up for comparison when I get a chance.

Tony Hadley reviews UXB

2010-10-14T00:56:00.000-07:00

Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet has been quoted as saying:

UXB is absolute Gold!

I almost wanted to reply with "True!" but felt even though I was just following up on his marvelous wordplay ...it may inadvertently come across as a little egotistical on my part and we certainly would not want that!

Also stepping on his line may not be the greatest idea! That man has a temper...

Thanks Tony! Your the one who is gold!

More reviews as they come in...

Carlos Ezquerra

2010-10-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know. Dear old Carlos Ezquerra the creator/artist of Judge Dredd was recently in hospital due to lung cancer. Thankfully he is now making a speedy recovery.

Mark Howard brought together a bunch of artists and writers to create a get-well card (in the form of a comic) to give to Carlos. More info can be found over at Kev Levell's blog (who has a strip within and also did the cover) There is also a link to download the comic.

A wonderful gesture to a fantastic artist.

Get well soon Carlos!

THOMAS SCOTT

2010-10-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

Something a little more important to talk about today rather than silly old comics ...

My son is working on a project for school whereby he has to research and write a short piece on a ancestor from the past. I had always been telling him stories about my grandfather Thomas Scott and how much of an influence he had been in my life - so I was quite happy when he informed me that he had decided to do the piece on him.

My mother sent some old photographs over to help him out, and I have to say on viewing them it brought back a lot of memories of sitting as a young child listening to his old war stories.

The man himself. This is from a newspaper clipping (Belfast Telegraph)

Aboard the HMS Hawkins. On the back of the photograph is written: Taken at Buenos Aires.

It has some of my Grandfathers writing on the back of the photographs, however the writing has been scribbled out due to the obvious censorship at the time. Whoever did the scribbling did not do a very good job as I can still make out some of the text. The first line I cannot quite make out, however I believe it may be the name of the ship in the picture. The rest of it reads: destroyer back from the Indomitable. Lost with all hands 4 days later.

This one reads: Carrier Eagle, almost finished by Stukas today but came through OK. Was sunk few days later.
Reads: Indomitable has near miss, (something else I cannot make out) and then continues: Destroyed 23 enemy aircraft today.

Actually there is part of another old newspaper clipping that may help put a couple of those pics in context as it happens to mention the Indomitable:

German bombers took up the attack, and out of a heavily escorted convoy of fourteen merchant ships, only five,including the crippled US tanker Ohio, managed to get through to Malta. In addition to the Manchester and the nine merchantmen lost were added to the carrier Eagle, the anti-aircraft cruiser Cairo and the destroyer Foresight, while the carrier Indomitable and the cruisers Nigeria and Kenya were all damaged. It was a heavy price to pay but the arrival of even five of the merchant ships, and especially of the Ohio, enabled air strikes to be restarted from Malta just as Rommel was preparing his offensive to drive the allies out of Egypt.

---

When I was a young child, traveling to my grandpa's house in Holywood, Belfast was always something I looked forward to. It was a small little council house with an outside toilet (that I hated using; bloody freezing in the winter and not without it's creep factor, especially at night!) however in my imagination his house was a vast sprawling castle that held within it an old King, that if you were lucky would impart some of his wisdom to you- or better still some of his old stories. It was a little oasis of pure escapism where I could just sit on the old couch wide-eyed and chat to my Grandpa about almost anything. Now, I should clarify that he wasn't the type for spouting off, constantly talking about or bringing up the subject of 'the war' no, not at all; in fact, you would literally have to prod and poke to get something out of him.

He would rather talk about my latest comic book purchases (he loved The Savage Sword Of Conan) and movies (anything with Clint Eastwood, I'm almost certain Dirty Harry was one of his favorites) When we spoke he never spoke down to me or treated me like a child, he listened and always showed a genuine interest in whatever I was babbling about at the time. He was also the first relative that I can recall showing interest in my drawing abilities and I do believe he dabbled a little himself. I distinctly remember him drawing on a couple of separate occasions some cowboys and Indians for me... the level of detail and draftsmanship still sits strong in my memory.

When he did talk of the war, it always varied from the lighthearted to the rather sombre. Like most war veterans he had lost a lot of friends, and you could always see in his face or hear within the tone of his voice when he was getting to a rather sensitive area of the story. As I got older he would give me the full and unexpurgated version of the stories which sometimes led to his emotions getting the better of him.

He was a boxer in the Navy (who I have been told if he had been so inclined, could have went pro) and also lifted weights. Even in his late sixties and into his seventies, he kept himself in good shape and would walk everywhere. Even when he came to visit us he would rather walk than take the train (which was a good 10 miles) He had quite a strong personality and wasn't known for taking any crap (a lot of those war stories involved various altercations and bar-room brawls) Maybe that's for another post... (Oh course, he was always the good guy, standing up for a mate...) I always remember my mum giving him that look of "Don't go there" when he would start to move into that territory ....

He died in 1989 at the age of 76 of a heart attack (his wife Elle had died of cancer ten years previous) As I mentioned he was (and still is) one of the biggest influences on my life and I miss him greatly...

I think he would feel quite honored that my son was doing a piece on him...

Always remembered.

The Midwich Cuckoos

2010-10-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

I really do wear my influences on my sleeve...

Another page over at the comic site...

I thought it may be an idea to share the black and whites with you also; like a bonus...or a DVD extra feature that you had never intended to access because it seemed rather pointless.

...

Unless it's a Get Carter commentary with the likes of Michael Caine, Mike Hodges and Wolfgang Suschitzky . You would be a bloody fool not to access that!

He can save everyone of us!

2010-10-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here's another:

I wasn't entirely happy with the colour on this one. The first try was a little more experimental but ended up quite washed out in appearance, so I fiddled around it somewhat, to get it to a place where I was a little bit happier and then suddenly realized I was out of time....

I fully intend to revisit some of these pages and rework them when my schedule is a little less hectic- but for now I guess I'll just have to let it go....

I finally got my Comic Heroes magazine in the post. Jes Bickham the editor mentioned that the work was like "John Higgins and Warren Ellis rolled into one" I can certainly live with that. It's comments such as those and general feedback from my fellow bloggers and friends that make it all seem worthwhile...

Now, I really should get that cheque off to Jes ... I think I mentioned 2,000 dollars if he mentioned Ellis, and now adding Higgins on top of that - Christ Almighty...!

...Did I just think and type that at the same time...!?

-Update: Slight colour rework. Note to self: Try not to put so much detail in the background as it may be unnecessary, especially when you finally come to colouring it.

...

Another page...

2010-09-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

The latest page has been uploaded and a little earlier than planned, I had mentioned that it was going to be every Sunday...but it was complete and just sitting there... so I felt that it may as well be sat on the comic website.

Comics within comics in this one. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not think that has ever been done before.

...

Comic Heroes and new UXB website.

2010-09-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

Jes Bickham, the editor of Comic Heroes very kindly agreed to run a six page preview of UXB in the Sidekick preview comic that comes as a bonus with issue 3. I believe it hits the shelves today (be a little while longer before I see it over here in Canada) Thanks Jes, I owe you one!

Another big thank you to Mr William Li for getting the UXB website up and running in such a short space of time and for doing such a great job! He even coerced me into creating a Twitter account for it- yeah, I know, something I said that I would never do...

I have to say that the Comic Heroes preview did give me that extra little push to finally go online and get the comic out there. I hope to add a page every week to the site and continue to do so until I finish the bloody thing.

Hopefully a few of you will join me.

Cheers.

UXB Pin-up by Donna Leong.

2010-09-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

Just received this painting of UXB from the very talented Donna Leong!

"I finally finished the pin up for UXB. It's my first time painting with Poster Color in this kind of style. At first I was thinking of painting with photoshop, but I really miss real paint.
The woman at the rocks is the main character's mom, but didn't turn out quite like her, unfortunately.."

I think it looks great! The colour palette and the compositions are wonderful! I'm well chuffed...

Thanks Donna(again)

Satoshi Kon

2010-09-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

I just found out that the incredibly talented Satoshi Kon passed away on Aug 24th at the age of 46. He was the director of such movies as: 'Perfect blue', 'Millenium Actress', 'Paprika' and Tokyo GodFathers.

He wrote a document(his parting thoughts..) in his final few days that I felt may be worth sharing. It was originally posted posthumously by his family on his blog and has been translated by Makiko Itoh and is available on her blog here: www.makikoitoh.com

If your not weeping into your keyboard by the end- your a stronger man than me...

They are doing a tribute to him over at: www.animenewsnetwork.com

Thanks Donna.

Scrap

2010-09-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

This is a UXB page from a section of the comic that I decided to revise. It had some narration from Das over the top, explaining the functionality of the suits- however, in reading through it and with moving into the next issue it just didn't seem to be flowing as well as I had originally thought. So I've replaced it with some imagery that seems a little more apt...

I'm sure I'll find a place for it further down the line. God! Who am I kidding!? It'll probably end up being the opening to issue 3.

Reuse and recycle that's my motto.

Other news: I have decided to put the comic online and update it every week by adding a new page; similar to what Cameron Stuart does with his brilliant Sin Titulo, or even closer to home... the Fractal Friction guys.

Should be up and running by Sep 15th.

Your Vinyl Resting Place?

2010-08-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

Sonic Death of the Day: And Vinyly, a British record label, is offering audiophiles a vinyl resting place to beat the band: For a nominal fee of £2000, your postmortem remains will be pressed into an LP containing an audio recording of your choosing.

"Cock, shit, piss; is that it!?" voiced by me, on a loop, backed with the Lone Ranger Theme, would seem pretty apt!?

Via: thedailywh.at

The Palsak T.

2010-08-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

Das from UXB wearing an Angie Palsak T-shirt.

Angie kindly did me a drawing up some time back and I said I would put the image on one of the kids T-shirts. The background image is also one of Angie's paintings.

Hope it's to your liking Angie.

Monster

2010-08-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

I thought I would give a mention to Rich and Deborah Burn's upcoming short movie Monster. I did some storyboards for them some time back and now having wrapped the shoot, I just recently got to see the rough edit... and have to say it's looking great!

They also snagged Jodelle Ferland (Silent Hill, Tideland) for the main role.

I can't show too many of the boards as they may give away some of the key plot (and Rich would probably throw a hissy fit and slap me -- oh wait, that's me fast forwarding to when he's a rich and famous Hollywood director and he won't hire me for love or money...!)

Here's a couple that I think are safe:
For more info on the movie, you can go here: www.monstertheshortfilm.com or here: www.richjohnsonstudio.com