Page 1 and a couple of additional panels from my contribution to Nowbrow 9. The theme this time around was "It’s Oh So Quiet" so not a word passed the lips of the characters in the strip, which was based upon an auld ballad.

Guns...Lots of guns

I was lucky enough to get to illustrate a story in the hallowed pages of 2000AD earlier this year. A high octane blend of heavy metal and horror, it was written by the excellent David Baillie and was just the excuse I needed to dust off my Maiden, Megadeth and Metallica records.

Below is a short sequence from the story, which appeared in Prog 1836 and can still be procured here.

To get the opportunity I took part in the 2000AD Portfolio competition, which takes place annually at the excellent Thought Bubble festival. Under the scrutiny of 2000 AD greats Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Peter Doherty and Frazer Irving I was fortunate enough to get the thumbs up. Anyhow here's a few panels from that submission.

Launching the Silver Darling - Gosh! Comics, 15th Feb, 7-9pm

I'm starting to run thin on sea-faring puns to tie in with references to my book The Silver Darlings, which launches at London's incomparable Gosh! Comics on Friday 15 February. This post's title refers to the fishing boat at the heart of the book, the Silver Darling, and deserves little more explanation than that.

The folk at Gosh! and especially Tom Oldham of Beserker Magazine and Breakdown Press have been really supportive of the book, for which I'm very grateful. This all kicked off with an exclusive bookplate edition of 200 (pictured below), which is still available free with every copy of the book bought at Gosh!

Next up is the launch itself. Details are on the flyer below.

I'm currently working on a design for the shop's window and on the night there will be an exhibition of original art whilst I merrily sign and sketch in copies of The Silver Darlings. 

Of course no launch would be complete without a a wee drink for all those that come along and what's more Caramel Logs (as rare as hen's teeth south of the border) are being generously laid on by Tunnock's. If you want to discover the secret behind Tunnock's Caramel Logs listen to the ad at this link (NB: No dragons are harmed in the making of Tunnock's Caramel Logs).

Finally, the salt-crust that will lend the evening a truly nautical flavour is a performance from Hackney's own City Shanty Band. I'll leave you with one of their numbers and hope to see you on the night!

Standing on the shoulders of giants

I've recently treated myself to the opportunity to draw a character by Warwick Johnson Cadwell...

Hunch Parsons - Shrouded in mystery it seems Hunch may take a little while to surface. Thankfully we can console ourselves with Warwick's upcoming run on Tank Girl and Dangeritis his web-comic based game of tag with the equally excellent Robert Ball.

The Hairlet

Many moons ago a posted a quick sketch of a young lad cowering beneath his bed-sheets with an ominous presence at the window. That idea has since percolated through my grey matter, to become a very short story set to appear in David O'Connell's sure to be excellent Ink and Paper volume II. He released a preview of the cover just the other day and I'm sure there will be plenty more tasty morsels to follow.

A character sketch

A character developed for a four page story in David O'Connell's Ink+Paper 2, due out in June. He's got the oversized school blazer, I just need to work out how to include the obligatory nose-trails on the sleeves.

"Nelson, Nelson every where..."

"...but plenty a drop to drink."

This perversion of Coleridges's Rime of the Ancient Mariner refers of course to the stellar launches of British comics anthology Nelson at the Cartoon Museum and Gosh comics (covered here) last week.

For the latter event I had a great time scrawling all over Gosh's windows with Sarah Macintyre, Jake and Woodrow Phoenix, the results of which are pictured below:

The source illustration for my window adornment was the character sketch I sent to the editors of Nelson (Rob Davis and Woodrow) prior to drawing my five page chapter for the year 1999.

Yoho ahoy

After several single panels posted, I thought it only right and proper to post a couple of panels in sequence. It may not be apparent from the various images I've posted, but I've seen my style develop quite a lot over the course of the book - I think mainly for the better. However I am prone to torturously examining my drawing, so it's just as likely that no-one will notice any difference when the book is available to read in February 

Stormy, stormy skies

It's certainly high time I posted something, so here's an establishing shot, which kicks off a (hopefully) dramatic section of the book.
I have to thank Warwick Johnson Cadwell for the doom laden clouds as I used a photo he'd taken and posted to Twitter as visual reference. On the off chance you've not visited his blog, I'd hot-foot it over there for a bevy of extraordinarily dynamic drawing.

The Silver Darlings cover & MA show

First off, apologies for the distinctly spartan nature of blog posts lately. I have been furiously drawing, painting and making imperceptible tweaks on Photoshop to prepare for my MA show (more on this later) and to get my book The Silver Darlings ready to print later this year. The book is being published on Blank Slate's awesomely diverse Chalk Marks imprint and I'm delighted to be in the company of some mega talent there. All credit to Kenny Penman and the team at Blank Slate for supporting new creators with such a luxuriant platform...On that note if you haven't already I'd recommend picking up Joe Decie's book The Accidental Salad, his off-key observations brightened an otherwise dismal tube journey and beyond. 


The illustration topping this post is for the wrap-around cover to my Chalk Marks book and below is the hardcover mock-up for my MA show, for which I liberally borrowed from the style of European graphic albums.

Finally on the subject of my MA show, it kicks off tomorrow (2nd September) and runs all the way through to the 8th. Please come on down to Camberwell to take a look and in case you want a preview of some of the work on show saunter over to this link.

The harbour

The calm before the storm...a panel from The Silver Darlings.

Toils of a Fisherman

A recent panel of fishermen mending their net from The Silver Darlings.

A Restorative Dredd

A quick sketch, just to freshen up between drawing fisher-folk.

Confronting perspective

I've never really gotten on with tools for rendering perspective, but this viewpoint forced my hand.

A Stuck Herring

Potential cover image for my upcoming comic 'The Silver Darlings'. The image is of a herring run through with a white handled gutting knife.

Kaleidoscope @ Orbital Comics

Excited to be exhibiting at the Kaleidoscope exhibition this March, kindly put on by Orbital Comics. It features a range of fantastically diverse, new British Cartoonists from the indie comics scene. Details are on the flyer I put together above and the Facebook event details are right here. No doubt I'll be found loitering covertly in the corner hoping to glean some useful feedback. Thanks especially to Camila at Orbital for making this event happen.

The Silver Darlings - Preview

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

Three preview pages from a new graphic story due to be published under Blankslate's Chalkmarks imprint later this year. The story concerns a few of the fishermen that I've featured in a couple of previous drawings, it's always great when you find something you really want to draw!

Uncharted Seas

Or was it? This short sequence is a preparatory drawing for a new graphic story I'm working on about a Scottish herring fishing family (the cast of characters can be found here). The story itself will be in black and white, but I wanted to experiment a little in colour...on the evidence of the first wash I was ready to cast the drawing into the ocean, however its proof to me at at least, that it's worth seeing things through to their conclusion.

The Bearded Detective - 3 Page Preview

Open publication - Free publishing - More noir

A three page preview of The Bearded Detective - a slice of silver-screen Noir, set in present day Kentish Town, written by Chris Bye with artwork by myself. The first part is planned for mid 2011 (once I've completed a couple of other projects) and stars Stanley Nicholas. He's a very fine detective, but despite his best efforts is more Prince Philip than Philip Marlowe when it comes to wise talking.

"Operator, the Bat-phone please."

A drawing of Batman, inspired by Lewis Wilson's Batman of the 1943 serial, a forgotten time when figure-enhancing latex suits were just a figment of the imagination.