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...

Sketchbook 040

ABC Warriors: Red Spice

After last years 'Anderson, Psi Division: The Line of Duty', I've been fortunate to work with writer Lee Robson again for Zarjaz magazine. This time had the luxury of brick-batting with him from the ground up something we'd both enjoy working on and would hopefully play to both our strengths.

Always had a love of the dark, weird elements of Pat Mills 2000AD universe such as Nemesis the Warlock and elements of ABC Warriors. Lee had a look over my portfolio and saw recurring psychedelic-style elements and mystical hoodoo voodoo motifs such as Tarot card designs. This led to us putting the focus on Deadlock.

Within the strip there is a section that happens on a mystical, spiritual plane (ask Lee to explain, he wrote it!) so to differentiate this section, I brought in ink washes to the background. I'm learning the hard way that ink washes aren't just a gung-ho case of slapping it down, there needs to be a degree of consideration, getting an even wash and gauging the darkness of wash applied (always seems to dry out lighter than it goes down). So not altogether sure how successful this comes through on final pages, but hopefully creates a differentiation between sections happening in the real world (the real world of mercenary robots on Mars) and also brings a bit of hand-applied grime to proceedings.

Really enjoyed working on these pages, hopefully it shows to some degree. The 10 year old me that devoured Best of 2000AD monthlies would be very happy. Found it a really smooth process working from Lee's script. He lays out concise direction, clear and easy to visualize action and he knows when it's fine to step back and let the artist take the wheel and have fun when it comes to defining things. Also, real down to earth guy to have correspondence with, a big help moving things along.

Here's two character sketches I did initially to help me lock in to drawing the lads...

'ABC Warriors: Red Spice' appears in Zarjaz no.25, available now. Spread the word.

A - Z: B is for...

Following on from Aretha Franklin at the starting line, here's Black Sabbath...

Have really got in to 70's era Black Sabbath in the last few years. Really appreciate the really heavy unique sound they created, all done with real conviction and relish. More than that though, really appreciate the songcraft, melodies, light and shade that they offer, it's not just all one gear turgid heavy (something that I've got problems with with a lot of the sounds that stemmed from them). It sounds obvious to me that they really learnt from the songcraft of The Beatles before them, they just dragged it down in to a damp open grave.

 

This started off as an ink drawing with ink washes applied. It's been some time since I applied ink washes, happy with the noise and dirt they subtlely added to the mix, a sidestep from the usual combo of clean ink work then Photoshop colouring. Will definitely be utilising it more often, hopefully with more confidence, in the future. 

 

 

 

Not 100% happy with how Tony Iommi turned out, he looks like a random footballer from the 70's. I am happy though, with the background tower/bell, I like the hazy look of the ink wash without being supported by any heavy ink linework.

Ladies & Gentlemen Anthology

Over the summer I wrote and drew this following two-pager for inclusion in the upcoming third anthology-style issue of 'Ladies & Gentlemen' from Water Closet Press.

Richard Worth and Jordan Collver are creating fun Victorian-set ripping yarns and monster mash hi-jinx so far in the first two issues of 'Ladies & Gentlemen'. I really like the art style of Jordan Collver, check out the teams recent work, 'Weird Planet', for some really fluid drawing and dynamic page layouts.

There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing tweaking (twerking?) the dialogue but all for the greater good.

 

 

The unlettered final pages can be viewed over at my main portfolio site.

 

Below are the initial greyscale ink pages. I attempted adding an ink wash to bring some old timey noise and dirt to the pages. Although the washes seemed heavy enough when initially applied, they dried in lighter than I would have wanted. 

 

The anthology edition will contain multiple story and pin-up contributions from numerous creatives so looking forward to seeing how others filtered the material and world of 'Ladies & Gentlemen'.

 

The Water Closet Press team will be releasing the anthology at Thought Bubble convention in November.