Sketchbook 028

Zombies Hi: Brain Chompers

Before Christmas I pencilled and inked a 4-page back-up strip for the Uproar Comics flagship title Zombies Hi! issue 12, out now to buy.

The script was written by Glenn Matchett (industrious Northern Ireland-based writer, can be followed on Twitter: @glenn_matchett) and had that old-school 2000AD black satire bite to it I love. Enjoyed doing these pages, wanted to set myself task of producing them relatively quickly so didn't want to get overly precious about level of detail/polish, hopefully I came close to hitting some kind of happy median. Though looking at them now, they've come out a bit on the sparse side and level of quality isn't maintained as much as I'd like throughout.

Below are the final clean Bitmapped inks:

For those of you into the kinky under the bonnet stuff, here's original pencils:

 

Anderson, Psi Division: The Line Of Duty

The latest issue of the 2000AD fanzine Zarjaz, issue 23, contains my first artwork I've done for the Zarjaz/FutureQuake stable.

It's a 6-pager Judge Anderson story, script by Lee Robson, based on an original story by Bryan Coyle.

It was a real luxury working from Lee's scripting where everything led on from scene to scene in a natural, realistic way rather than my own stab at writing my own material over the last few years, which was usually a patchwork of plotholes and massive coincidences.

Really enjoyed depicting Anderson and spending time in her smart, strong company. On my initial image search researching Anderson I was a bit crestfallen to see one too many busty Babs Windsor 'ooh, my zipper just came down and I ain't wearing no bra' style depictions. She definitely deserves better than that.

The full colour promo image was released online just prior to the sad news of Brett Ewins passing. Picking up the baton from Brian Bolland's original Debbie Harryesque depiction of Anderson he really solidified the smart, funny, sexy, humane take on Anderson. As a kid I think I scanned over Ewin's artwork that bit too quickly, but in later years have begun to really appreciate the economy, clean design and humour of his work. So much strong work from one creative; Anderson/Dredd, Bad Company, Johnny Nemo and Skreemer. Also with the founding of Deadline he gave a springboard to Brit indie artists that I love, specifically Philip Bond and Jamie Hewlett.

I'd like to dedicate my work on this strip to his memory and note his passing.

I'm currently finishing up artwork on an ABC Warriors strip for an upcoming Zarjaz, scripted again by Affable Lee Robson.

The latest Zarjaz, and also back issues can be purchased here.

Go support a lot of creators honest passions!