Xmas Exploitica!

Many thanks to Neill Cameron for allowing me to have a play with his fantastic Santa artwork and post the results here.

Have a jolly marvellous Christmas, people and catch you in the new year!

Celebrate Xmas in Style - with Neill Cameron

Looks like me old mate Neill's been up to his usual mischief again!

In the countdown to Xmas he'll be bringing a new visual interpretation of Santa to his website every day. As well as my new favourite 'Blaxploitation Santa', you can also catch the likes of Kung Fu Santa and Zombie Santa.

Just what will this Care in the Community mad man dream up next, I wonder? Find out for yourselves at: http://neillcameron.blogspot.com/

(Blaxploitation Santa art (c) Neill Cameron 2008)

B-movie made in 48 hours!

Well, I had a fun packed and slightly surreal weekend making a film for the Portsmouth DV Missions 48 hour film challenge.

The way the challenge works is every group's given the same title, genre and line of dialogue and then has 48 hours to make the film. The title this year was 'Blood On The Moon', the genre was B Movie and the line of dialogue was 'Go on then...I'll play your vicious little game!'

The B-Movie genre certainly proved popular, and there was lots of terrific entries with giant mutated lobsters, vampires, zombies and all sorts of madness.

We went with a creature feature for our entry (courtesy of a 99p ball of wool from C and H fabrics...no expense spared on our movie) and although it had very little to do with the actual title, it went down rather well at the viewing. Phil Palmer, who plays the villain of the piece constructed the sound track in a matter of hours and did a damn fine job. My main role this year was 'Head Tribble Wrangler' which is of course the highlight of my film making career!

Last year our entry Dark Mesh won 'Best Film'. This year we won 'Best Soundtrack'.

Anyway, enough waffle...Click the link and enjoy the madness!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCyAvQQSsx8

Animated Zombies for Halloween!

Myself and that rather pleasant writer chap David Baillie (http://www.davidbaillie.net/) have teamed up this Halloween to bring you a few short animations based on David's Zombie Interviews comic series. So, prepare yourself for some highbrow intellectual zombie antics!

Incidentally, the original comic series is contained within the pages of Accent UK's Zombies anthology, available from http://www.accentukcomics.com/

Faceless heads for Bulletproof!

With the imminent arrival of myself and Dave Thomson's new weekly webcomic 'Faceless', I thought I'd post a few of Dave's early designs for the character and villains here.


Although it's only an eight pager, we've tried to pack as much mayhem and bloodshed into those pages as we possibly could!


So, who's this Faceless chap then? Well, he's a psychotic headless robotic assassin with a distinct liking for over the top violence. He also likes kittens, long walks in the park, murdering folk, cartoons, chocolate bars, beheadings and crossword puzzles.


keep watching http://www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk/ as the first page will be going up in the next few days.


Incidentally, me and Tony Suleri's Highway Robbery webcomic has just reached its 20th page (2/3 of the way there!). Give it a look if you're into violent monkey carnage (and who isn't eh?)

One Eyed Wench preview

Whilst Matt Yeo's putting the final touches to Bulletproof three, I thought I'd put up a preview page from one of the strips I wrote for the issue. It's illustrated by Dave Thomson and based on a character design he did a while back.

We've tried to put as much gunfire, explosions, sleaze and vomiting into the story as we could, so keep your eyes peeled for the One Eyed Wench!

Small Press Directory

The Temple APA (an on-line community of comic writers and artists from around the UK) is in the process of putting together a Small Press Directory to feature in the free downloadable Temple Showcase.

If you're a small press publisher from around the UK who would like to have your comic added to the listings, then simply join the Temple site (it's completely free) and add your comic details here:

http://templeapa.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=827304%3ATopic%3A10312&page=1&commentId=827304%3AComment%3A10319&x=1#827304Comment10319

If you're interested in contributing to the quarterly Temple Digital Showcase, or would like to include previews of upcoming comics, the next deadline is 19th December. More details can be found on the website at: http://www.templeapa.ning.com

He is the Law! (and so is the artist)

Thought I'd post a preview page from a Dredd strip myself and Stu Giddings are working on. We'll probably put the strip up in the fan section of the 2000ad website when it's done, and perhaps send it Dave Evans way (as he runs the majority of 2000ad related fanzines).

Stu only has two pages to go, and is doing a rather brilliant job (which I put down to extensive research gained from his real life job as a copper)

BICS pics

There's a nice report up at the Bulletproof website of the Birmingham International Comics Convention, partially run by me old mate Shane Chebsey. Thought I'd nick a few photos to post here (taken by Matt Yeo, I'd assume. Except the one that he's in, which was most likely taken by someone else) as their stall looks rather eye catching. (Pictured are Tim Perkins of The Wizards Keep, Matt Yeo, and, er, Some Other Chap)

Also me and Tony's Marren Kane 12 page sampler comic is now available to buy for a quid on the site's shop at http://www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk/online-store.php

We're hoping to finish the comic off when we get the chance (it's more likely to be a one-shot than a mini-series), though we've got a lot of projects planned for the new year that'll demand our attention first (including the Technofear collection to be released through Bulletproof, and another long running series we've been planning for quite a while).

Bulletproof 2 Overview

My contributors copy of Bulletproof 2 came through today (along with a rather snazzy looking Marren Kane 0), and it looks like another well presented offering.

The addition of colour to almost half the comic is a welcome change, and ensures that John Freeman and Mike Nicoll's Ex Astris strip really stands out from the crowd. The 3d graphics style has never looked better, and I was very pleased to see some bloodshed, violence and nudity had been added into the mix. Hurrah! Definitely my favourite of the bunch.

Alan Burrows artwork on Funguys (concerning the adventures of two hard drinking party crashing alien mushrooms) is also a visual treat, with plenty of freaky-ass aliens to feast your eyes upon. The only thing I found slightly odd about the strip was that is seems to take place in Dec 31st 2009, and, er, Clinton pops up as President of America. My guess is that the date was changed from 1999 so that the strip wouldn't appear so old, though since the Funguys are time travelling mushrooms this was unnecessary, and might provoke pernickety little gits like me to make pointless comments such as the one I'm making right this very moment (it's also possible that it's just a typo, but that's far less dramatic).

Sideburns is another strip that's growing on me, with some mighty fine artwork from Jon Haward and an amusing story by Jim Alexander (well, the idea that a criminal would be brought to justice when the detective realises he had his fingers crossed behind his back amused me anyway) .

Plenty of other good strips in the issue, but I'm bored of talking to myself and must depart, in search of that mystical substance known as 'lunch'.

If you haven't brought yourself a copy yet, it's only three quid and available from http://www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk/. I've got some strips in there, but don't let that put you off - it's actually a bloody nice read.

Oh yes, and here's some previews from a few strips appearing in Bulletproof 3; Bunk Mates, by Paul Harrison-Davies, and Backtrack by Tony Suleri. Plus there'll also be a One Eyed Wench strip illustrated by Dave Thomson.

Temple Comic APA Issue One Launched!

The first issue of the Temple APA's digital showcase is now available online to download as a free PDF.

It's 36 pages long and contains contributions from 10 members, including the likes of Paul Harrison-Davies, Simon Mackie, Malcolm Kirk and more. Inside you'll find cartoons, full strips, previews of soon to be released small press comics, work in progress, and a behind the scenes look at making a webcomic.

If you're a comic artist/writer who's interested in joining the Temple APA, then more details are available on the site (it's as simple as clicking 'join'). Although this is the first digital issue (apart from Issue 0, which is also available on the site), the Temple's been running for more than ten years now and seen a wealth of talent come and go. Everyone's welcome, from the rawest amateur to the most seasoned pro. It's a good place to learn from each other and hone your skills, or simply draw more attention to upcoming projects.

Anyway, click the link to be taken to the site:

http://www.templeapa.ning.com

Robots Reviewed (at bloody last!)

At the Bristol convention in May, Colin Mathieson and Dave West of Accent UK were kind enough to give me a review copy of their latest Robots anthology.

Due to the amount of writing projects I've been working on since then, I only just finished writing the review today. You can read it on Down The Tubes here: http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-review-robots.html

Typical...it took me five months to write the review, and it took John Freeman five seconds to put it up on his site, along with links to every single creator mentioned. What a truly marvellous chap!

Anyway, I probably won't be reviewing the next Accent UK anthology (Westerns) simply because I have a strip in it, and wouldn't want to appear biased.

The strip's illustrated by the hugely talented Paul Harrison-Davies, and you can see an 'alternate' preview page of it below. Paul's finishing it off at the moment, so I'm very keen to see how it's looking now.

Futurequake 11 Available at BICS

The latest issue of the twice Eagle Award nominated Futurequake will be available to buy at the BICS convention this weekend. Preview images can be viewed on the messageboard of the website at http://www.futurequake.co.uk/ and comics can also be purchased online.

One of my favourite collaborations with Tony Suleri appears inside this issue; Spare Parts (a tale about a scavenger who gets a little more than he bargained for when he ventures into the sewers). There's also a second offering from myself and Tony inside, titled 'Waste Of Time' - a cautionary tale about the hazards of using the past as a third-world dumping ground for all mankinds rubbish.

So pick up the comic if you get the chance. It's got zombies, pirates, cannibals, aliens and gunfire in it! What more motivation do you need?

Comics to look out for at BICS

Okay, here's a few previews of some of the comics containing my work that'll hopefully be available at BICS this weekend.

You'll notice from these cover illo's that one particular creation of Tony Suleri's and mine will be featuring quite strongly; Marren Kane.

As well as a black and white strip appearing in Bulletproof 2 and a behind the scenes look at the art in Bulletproof 1/2, Matt Yeo's been kind enough to give Marren his own title. It's very much a mini-comic, being a mere 12 pages in length, and it ends on a cliffhanger which me and Tony hope to resolve once we've got a few other projects out of our way.

Anyway, seek out the Bulletproof stall (number 151) at BICS. There'll be plenty of goodies available.

A hearty welcome

Well, since my Geocities site and its whopping ten megs of space has become somewhat redundant of late (especially since it tends to struggle under immense bandwidth pressure if more than one person visits it a year), I thought I might as well give one of these 'blog' chappies a go.

With so many projects in the works at the moment, this might also help me keep track of what I'm doing from one day to the next.

I'll put up a few samples later of the various comic strips that'll be available at the upcoming Birmingham Comic Con. In the meantime, welcome to the barren featureless landscape that is my blog!