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

The Gentlemen Ghouls - What Is and What Should Never Be

 

Along with writer Martin Hayes and letterer Bram Meehan, have returned once again to chronicling the macabre adventures of Professor Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mister Simon Bathurst, The Gentlemen Ghouls, alongside Detectives Jack Pike and Paddy Roach.

'What Is and What Should Never Be!' kicks off on December 4th 2017 in Volume 31 of Aces Weekly.

They were last seen in Volume 21 of Aces Weekly and this adventure picks things up not long after that. It's a similar mix of grimy 70s cop work and Hammer-infused hammy hi-jinx with a bit of decadent rock'n'roll guest star shenanigans along the way.

Really enjoy working on this material and hope the fun I had shows in the final pages throughout its seven week run. This time around I added a bit of ink wash to my pages, I'd like to think it helps subtly add a bit of dirt and grime and additional texture to proceedings.

 

 

Always a pleasure to work with Martin and Bram. Feel we're into a good groove with this material so hopefully a third outing clicks in to place in time ahead. Watch the skies...

Rent

I met Rory McConville at Thought Bubble last year and talked about possibly collaborating down the line. Between other projects and life in general couldn't commit to anything longform.

Rory got back to me about doing little single page gag strips. So... we came up with this.

Tis but a page but great to collaborate with Rory, he's got great writing chops and really works hard at self-generating projects and work, commendable. The range of strips over on his Tumbr site are really worth taking in with a really nice diverse range of artists he's collaborated with so far. Hopefully get to work with him again down the line.

Over the last year, I've worked on a few things that were mainly black and white interior work so found myself a bit rusty when it came to colouring this page. The more things going on on the page the more it ends up feeling like you're slapping down random colours that don't work cohesively and at worst it all ends up hectic and garish.

For those that enjoy the layers of the onion, here's the pencils and inks...

Flute Magic

What do you get your talented flute-playing 10-year old nephew for his birthday. Answer: Flute Magic! This was fun to piece together and helped scratch an itch to do basic, bright, elasticy kids illustration (which I haven't done in some time).

 

 

This was probably the equivalent of someone giving me a 78rpm shellac record when I was 10, but created a little cd package containing fun tracks that all have flute playing present in them.

 

 

Also, printed an A3 print complete with shaky googly eyes. These always make me laugh as they're so harmlessly stupid.

 

Here's the tracklisting...