The Gentlemen Ghouls - Lord of this World

It's been a long time and a lot of change since writer Martin Hayes got in touch with me in autumn 2015 to work on a project for Aces Weekly digital comic. Elevator pitch; The Sweeney meets Hammer House of Horror. It's been a bit stop start going through three volumes and approx 120 pages of art drawn and coloured in that time. In that time I've experienced leaving London after 10 years, relocating up north, bouncing through a job or two, home ownership, Brexit, Trump, Boris and a global pandemic. And in that time also our Gentlemen Ghouls have chased vampire overlords, decked dodgy occult-lovin' rock stars and been dragged through it by the scruff of their pointy 70s lapels.

It's been really enjoyable spending time in the company of these characters again on this third volume, especially the coppers Pike and Roach; they're car-crash creating areseholes but they mean well, relatable. And the world of 70s London grime and seediness and shoddy decor and clothes is a treat to work within. I've really enjoyed pencilling and inking this stuff but have had a bit of crisis of confidence when comes to colouring. I feel more and more like a pretend colourist and begrudge the time-swamp of colouring eating into drawing time. On this material actively tried to make it a bit garish and... shite. Wanted to create nods to the over-saturated stylised colour schemes you'd get in a good over the top Hammer production twinned with ropey colour printing limitations of the 70s time period. It becomes a very fine line though between creating controlled bad work and plain bad work.

Martin Hayes has really wrapped things up a treat on this third volume. Things get batshit crazy along the way, he must have dusted off some devious dusty occult tomes and VHS cassettes for this one. The letterer Bram Meehan does his usual lock it down hassle-free lettering, it's just right for the project. Been a treat working with these two gents along the way.

Hopefully will get a chance to return to these characters and the demon-riddled dark streets of 70s London. The Gentlemen Ghouls: Lord Of This World begins in volume 47 of Aces Weekly starting 7th September 2020 and runs through volume 48.

Opening page for the first installment - 'Leper Messiah'
which featured in Aces Weekly vol. 21

Opening page for the second installment - 'What Is And
What Should Never Be' which featured in Aces Weekly vol. 31

Opening page for the third installment - 'Lord Of This World'
which runs in two parts through Aces Weekly vol. 47 & 48

Emanata - Update

 

 

A (belated) update to highlight that I've got more material available on the Emanata app.

The app is available to download on Ipad, Iphone and Android and gives you the opportunity to view and download the work of many independent comic creators, with a lot of material available to view for free.

There's my 18 page story 'Light and Dust' available to download for $1.99 and also spooky short wrtitten by Mark Kavanagh, 'The Hollows' to view for free.

Older material is still available, the first issue of 'Charlatan Tales' and also 'Random', which is available for free.

It's a decent app with a smooth interface and it does no harm to support independent creators doing what they love.

Charlatan Tales - The Second Coming

The second issue of my self-published material is now finally available.

It contains two main stories, 'Light & Dust' and also 'The Hollows', scripted by Mark Kavanagh.

It can be bought through my etsy shop, where you can also pick up issue 1 and 2 as a set for just £5(+p&p).

 

It is on sale at:

 

Mega City Comics, Inverness Street Markets, 18 Inverness Street, Camden Town, London, NW1 7HJ

 

Orbital, 8 Great Newport Street, London, WC2H 7JA

 

Sub City, 2 Excequer St, Dublin 2, Dublin

 

Also available online at Big Cartel.

Consume!

Light & Dust - Charlatan Tales 002 - Cover Design

  

 

This is the cover design for the next edition of 'Charlatan Tales', which I'll be releasing at the end of this month at London Super Comic Con.

The main story 'Light and Dust', references classic horror movies and is set largely in a ciema so I wanted to bring an old movie poster feel to it.

 

I had a specific idea for the type treatment so this involved me designing and hand drawing it.

Emanata - iPad - uPad?

I've got comic material for download on the American-based Emanata app for iPad. This is a comic reader for the iPad which focuses on the work of independent comic creators.

Older material 'Random' is available to view for free and my more recent material 'Charlatan Tales' can be downloaded for $2.99.

It's an easy to navigate app with some great work from a really varied mix of independent creators, they hope to roll the app out on to other tablets in due course.

Random No.2

Finally, another volume of comic work and odds and sods. It's available to buy along with the first edition at my Etsy shop, here!

The cover image is a usual mix of hand-drawn elements with a bit of watercolour work thrown into the mix.



Below is a shot of the interior pages, highlighting the inked pages seen in a previous blog post:



It also contains a short story, 'Magic' (opening page below), which I submitted to the Observer/Cape graphic short story competition last year. Also, are a few sketchbook examples.




Buy, buy, buy!