PATREON UPDATE

Couldn't really time this strip better.

Hey guys! So the Patreon is up and running and has gotten off to a great start!

Becoming a patron is pretty cheap! It starts at $1 a month (About 80p sterling) and gets you access to my Patreon comic "The Bunker: Tales of the last frontiersman" which is updated every friday!
$3 a mnth gets you access to the comic as well as access to behind the scenes stuff and even access to my one page comic strips (Example of that sort of thing above!)

Promo for the upcoming second chapter of The Bunker. You can read the story so far on Patreon!

"The Bunker" is approaching the end of its first chapter and I'm currently drawing the second one but you can read the entire story so far at any point when you sign up!

Here are some examples of the $10 reward tiers perks!

There are more tiers including ones with original art sketched on the back of postcards I have designed! If this sounds good, get involved here!

Please pledge... I HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU.

Druid Investigations #2 and Patreon news!

Hello everybody and a Happy New Year to you all!

It's been a while since I posted an update, so I thought I would give you an update about what's been going on with me!

I've recently finished the artwork on #8 of my other comic book, Lou Scannon. That's currently in the hands of two of the other guys I make the comic with who are in the process of colouring it. Then it will be sent to the fourth member of the team to get the comic lettered! It's been a long process but we have finally got there with it.

WHAT THIS MEANS is that i *should* hopefully be able to make a start on issue 2 very soon. This will take a while but the issue is written and primed, ready to go. I write, pencil, ink and colour Druid on my own so forgive me, I work as fast as I can, but I may take a while. It WILL be done though, I promise you! I miss drawing those guys! 

Would have been so much easier had I just done the whole thing in black and white... but probably wouldnt have looked as good!

Being a self employed illustrator can be quite tough at times though. I take the work as it comes in which takes time away from time I could otherwise spend on drawing comics. Which is why I'm looking to start up a fun Patreon account very soon. For that, I will be updating a couple times a week with a new comic strip I've been working on in one of my other styles, in the little spare time I've had. It's a simple, fun style with a limited colour palette, meaning I can draw up the pages a lot quicker. 

The comic strip is called "The Bunker: Tales of the last Frontiersman" and I'm going to show you guys a preview here now.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

If you like the look of the comic and would like to be kept posted on when the Patreon is ready or if you would like more information, feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me a message! Tweet me! If you end up choosing to support me (I'm hoping to have a tier starting at $1 and working up from there!) then you will be enabling me to spend more time on the projects I want to instead of the ones that I have to take to pay the bills (Meaning Druid 2 will be ready quicker :D)

The hope is to post Bunker updates twice a week! 

The Patreon will also include some one page comic Ideas I have as they come to me, as a sort of interlude to the Bunker stuff every now and then. These will look something like any of the following:

The one page strips will be posted to Patreon before anywhere else whereas The Bunker is a Patreon exclusive only (Until the day I can do a printed collection)

So if you like what you see and fancy supporting a struggling artist, I would love you forever ;)

And for those of you who didn't already know, I also do geeky prints. I'm currently having a January sale on some of them on the Pencil Pirates facebook page. Here's what's currently available in the sale:

These are A4 in size and normally £10 each (Plus P&P). So you could save yourself a whole £5! :D

If you're interested in any of these or would like a better look at them, you can click on the above picture to be taken to the Facebook page! Then you can message me there or on here to arrange me hooking you up with them! The Labyrinth/Dark Crystal/Princess Bride mash-up has been rather popular! 

I genuinely hope you all had a nice Christmas and New Year and look forward to hearing from you guys! 

New prints!

I've recently been working on a couple of new print ideas in between pages of Lou Scannon issue 8.

I've been focusing on Final Fantasy 7 specifically and have come up with these two bad boys:

The one on the left is the main one. I did the one on the right first but then wanted something a bit more... dynamic, so I did the one on the left.
This main one is going to be limited to just 100 copies hand signed and numbered and will be available for £10.
The one on the right will only be available as part of a bundle with the first one and the two together will be priced at just £15. There will be an exceptionally limited run on this print. 20 in total.
This bundle is literally the only way to get both of the prints.

I've also had my 80s mashup print redone so if you have been waiting around for that one, you will be able to get it VERY soon!

comment here if you'r interested in the prints or you can follow the Facebook page over at www.facebook.com/PencilPirates!

Bruce Outback: Now on Kickstarter! and other Attic Studios news...

As those of you who follow my blog will already know, last year I ran a successful Kickstarter for my new comic book: Druid Investigations.

Back from the Printers! Two covers but one was a Kickstarter Exclusive and is no longer available.

The book has been on sale for near two months now. I've worked one comic con with it thus far. It's had some great feedback and has been reviewed by Pipedream Comics.
If you've liked my posts on twitter or instagram or even if you liked the Kickstarter campaign but didn't back it and you like the look of the book you can get yourself a digital and/or physical copy of the comic from the Attic Studios Website!

Pipedream Comics also ran an article based around the idea of Indie comic creators having been assigned to work on various different books for the new DC rebirth. I was quite chuffed to see they put me as working on the big guy in blue! Read the full article here.



From one Kickstarter to another, my friend and colleague, Kris Carter, is currently running his own Kickstarter campaign for a comic book that he's developed based on an idea he, Jim Bampfield, Kirsty Winskill and I had one night a few years ago.

Art by Kris Carter

The campaign is currently just under the half way point with 16 days to go!

As Kris states on the campaign:

"Bruce Outback is Australia's greatest detective, sent back through time with his Koala to help crack previously unsolved crimes!"

It's sort of like Crocodile Dundee meets Quantum Leap. Kris and Jim wrote the story and Kris has done all of the artwork for it with a print design from me along with variant covers by me and our small press compadre, Dean Beattie!

It's a great book and is going to lead on to some even more epic storylines. It's worth a punt at the very least! If not only for the cracking video that we made to go with the campaign.

Kris talks about the book on the latest episode of the Awesome Comics Podcast. This show is great. I've been on it myself and it makes for great Monday afternoon listening! Follow them on twitter, here.

If you like the sound of Bruce Outback, then follow and/or back the Kickstarter, here!

Finally, for this update:

As mentioned above, the Awesome Comics Podcast is a bloody awesome show and a great way to learn of other Small Press comic book titles that you may not have discovered otherwise (I've picked up a few myself, based on their recommendations.).

The podcast is hosted by Vince Hunt and every week he's aided by Tony and Dan.

On the most recent podcast, they have annoucent their combatants for their own version of "The Hunger Games".
It features an incredible gathering of Small Press comic book characters, including Attic Studios very own Lou Scannon and Bruce Outback!
I present to you: THE AWESOME GAMES!

Lou is in District 6, Bruce, 11.

I'm really stoked and excited to see out characters included in this!
The one thing I didn't do, was put for Merlin from Druid investigations for the book.
This is maaaaainly a case of fairness. In my book Merlin is already over 1500 years old and he has an incredible amount of power, drawing from the earths natural magic. So it would be pretty hard to beat him.
All that taken to account, I'm intrigued to see how they will work this and I'm even more intrigued to see how many of the characters creators will disagree with their rulings (Myself potential included in this too!)

You can check out the back catalogue of their awesome comic podcasts HERE.

Lou Scannon Issue 4

So this week I have made a start on the fourth issue in my comic series. I figured I would post some of the images so you guys could see how it is coming along so far.
The issue is going to be a massive homage to a couple of our favourite sci-fi films from the 80's.
We did the cover a while back- in time for the Cardiff Comic Convention so we could launch that as a sneak preview. Here's what I pencilled and Kris coloured:

Ten points if you can tell what 80's film this cover is a spoof of ;)
Anyway, after that preview we had a little bit of a break from the comic because we almost burnt ourselves out doing issue 3. We did the issue in a month and that includes whilst still working our days jobs. That was... hard! So we wanted a break so we could start issue 4 fresh and ready for the challenge.
The break ended a few weeks back when we started outlining and planning out the story for issue 4. We took our time writing it just to make sure we got it right and got all the geek references in we wanted to and with the script finally being ready, I started on the pencils.
Here's page one.

I don't normally post images of my work for the comic as it is in progress but I thought it would be good for you guys to get a look at my work process. Plus this page doesn't exactly give too much away and I figure that if someone who has yet to read the comic sees the cover and recognises it and then likes the interior art as well, then they may be more inclined to take a chance on it!

If you like what you see, Issues 1-3 can be bought and issue 4 pre-ordered from www.LouScannon.co.uk

Hope you like!

The First Casualty of War is... Innocence

Heh, excuse the Platoon header there but it kinda seemed like it would apply to todays post :D
Yesterday whilst conversing with a friend on Twitter she started reeling off bizarre things I should have a crack at drawing. My favourite of the things she suggested was a baby with Winston Churchills face. Fuck knows how she got to that but it amused me so I aint gonna knock it.
So today I drew this:

Now I'm not entirely sure if I am done with this yet or not as I think there are certain things that could use some working and there is a bit too much empty space for my liking but I kinda like how it has turned out. At least... so far!
Of course this is not to be used without my permission and the usual blah blah blah but I enjoyed doing this so might see what other weird things I can do in the same vein.
When Gav saw me start sketching this out whilst at work today he suggested that I replace Churchills Iconic cigar with a dummy so that's why it appears like that in the left hand.
Hope you guys like it and feel free to let me know what you think and if this creeps you out or not!
I've already had two people tell me it reminds them of the mutant from Total Recall. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not though! Haha!

WHY I HATE MICHAEL BAY #1

Disclaimer: I know the studio execs wouldn't have reacted like this in reality but I really hate what Bay has done to my childhood and what he seems to be hell bent on continuing to do with his taking the helm on the new Turtles movie and making them ALIENS.

FUCKING ALIENS.

I may do a few more of these but other than that, normal service will resume shortly.

Fuck Michael Bay.

#2

The second of my new ongoing series.
Will try and update weekly if I can! I'll also be using this blog to showcase some of my other works as well as this project. Be a nice change to using deviantart as this seems a touch more personal somehow...

#1

This is the first of what I intend to be an ongoing series about a Frontiersman called Itchy who is just out to explore what is left of the world after some sort of extinction event.

I came up with the idea as something that would be a break from drawing the Lou Scannon comic but would still keep my foot in the comic book game.
Hope you enjoy :)