True Story 1

I figured I would start keeping autobiographical comic strips about funny things that have happened in my life before I forget and lose them in the sands of time.

 

April 2012:

 

 

 

I am truly blessed to have some great friends.

They're fucking hilarious too.

Post Thought Bubble 2012 Reviews: The Complete Rainbow Orchid

Image lifted direct from Garen's own blog.

Well last weekend saw the return of the Leeds based "Thought Bubble" Comic Convention. This was my second time attending the con and I had a prewritten list of everything I wanted to buy a while in advance. This mainly consisted of a few DC Vertigo and Dark Horse graphic novels I had fallen behind on along with one or two singular small press titles I had gotten in to at previous conventions over the last year.
Now since I was going to be there selling my own comic book "Lou Scannon" I wanted to find out what other titles I hadn't previously heard of would be available there for me to take a look at too.
For this there are two Comic Blog sites I use regularly. One is Comics Anonymous - Great bunch of guys and girls who do great reviews and have really taken a liking to my comic. The other is Small Press, Big Mouth. Now it was on SPBM that I first heard of the adventures of Julius Chancer, the protagonist of "The Complete Rainbow Orchid".
There were many titles that SPBM said to keep and eye out for, each with a small paragraph accompanying a photograph of said title but for one reason or another, Garen's work leapt off the screen at me.
Now I was instantly drawn to the charm that comes with Garen's art. It has a distinctly old school feel to it which I found to be reminiscient of "Tin Tin" but with a twist and that can never be a bad thing. The colour scheme was simple but effective and overall it had a classical comic feel to it which I absolutely adore.
So based on the art alone, I decided I wanted to find out more about the title. I discovered it to be a tale of high adventure, with the character getting to travel the world! It hinted at ancient civilisations and criminal organisations! A femme fatale was surely a guarantee too! It brought to mind the image of old television serials, adventure romps. Indiana Jones would not be out of place in this sort of setting!
My mind was made up. I was buying the complete volume as soon as I could at Thought Bubble. Garen was offering what I considered to be an absolute bargain. Normal retail on the graph is £14.99 but he would be selling them for £10 at the convention.
So Saturday morning came and the second the con opened, in my hungover state, I made my way over to Garens table, which was the other side of the hall to my own. I was already too late to be the first served as he was sketching the inside cover for a chap who must have been purchasing the first copy of the day. Seriously, I didn't waste my time getting there. That's how popular this comic must be. The doors had literally just opened and he was already busy.
I patiently waited my turn and then eagerly thrust my money in to Garen's face, he then offered me a sketch and signed it to me too as his daughter eagerly looked on. It's wonderful that he had taken his family with him and his little girl is as cute as a button.
I quickly made my way back to my table to stop my fellow team mates from lynching me for my abscence and flicked through the book to be greated by wonderfully detailed art such as this:

There's no skipping attention to detail and Garen has more detailed backgrounds than most titles on the market these days.
Seriously, if there were to be a computer game made of this comic, it would be a point and click adventure in the same vein as the wonderful "Broken Sword" series. It really does have that flow and feel to it.
Now I have read on Garen's blog that he has come under fire for the cost of the graph when it comes to things like postage etc etc. Let me say now that there is absolutely nothing about this book that isn't high quality. Everything about this is beautifully produced and highly polished and with it being a COMPLETE story, it has a bit of weight to it so of course it will cost a touch more to post it!
I think his pricing is completely reasonable and the £10 convention price is an absolute steal!

Now I think I have covered its initial appearance and appeal. At least, from my own point of view.
Time to move on to the story.
Julius Chancer is assistant to Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey in a post WW1 era. They are historical researchers who seem to specialise in retrieving... hard to acquire ancient artifacts. Garen's set up is perfect. It brings you straight in to Chancer's world immediately with the story starting at the end of another adventure. You learn that despite the excitement of the all the adventures they have had to go on, it hasn't quite left Sir Alfred and Julius in a strong financial situation as far as their business is concerned. So when a rich aristocrat turns up with his famous daughter in the hope of hiring them to find a rather rare flower, Julius thinks it's a great idea.
Now I'm skipping over a rogueish reporter here - William Pickle. Basically he's a reporter in the same sort of intrusive way as Lois Lane is. With the exception that he is actually pretty good at his job and doesn't rely on a guy in blue spandex to come and save him. He seems to be full of self importance and does not seem to feel fear. Something which gets him in to more trouble than any one man would want. He writes a story in the paper that mentions Sir Alfred and brings him to the attention of rich aristocrat Lord Reginald Lawrence and his daughter Lily. It also draws the attention of a shadier element.
Lord Reginald wants to pay handsomely for Sir Alfred to locate a very rare orchid which should he find it, would save Lord Reginalds estate from falling in to the hands of an evil businessman. This is after a gentlemans agreement Lord Reginald made one night whilst intoxicated.
Thus starts a tale of high adventure involving travel by Boats, planes, trains and automobiles! Gun fights, cults, international travel, brawls and ancient cities, this book has it all!

I don't want to give anything away in what happens during the story as such as I know a lot of people if not all, loathe spoilers.
I will say though that Julius Chancer is a thoroughly likable character. A strong leading man and Lily makes for a good heroine if not love interest too. There are some great supporting characters that form part of the team too. A slightly overweight Hollywood agent who plays the role of comic relief. A ballsy French stunt pilot who seems to be up for anything - personally I would have liked more of him appearing as he was my favourite supporting character. There is also Meru, a mysterious man from a lost civilisation who basically comes across as the warrior member of Chancer's group.
Start to finish you will love this book. The pacing is perfect throughout. It never lets up or has a dull moment and the art is equally consistent all the way through.
Now in the interests of being fairly balanced I think I should point out the less positives, though these are very, VERY minor but one does have to have balance. At the end of the book I found the history of a civilisation a touch confusing at first as it was all thrown at me rather fast with the explanation behind it a touch hard to follow. I would have liked to see more of a resolution with the situation Pickle finds himself in. Finally, I really wanted to see the Stunt Pilot Benoit again at the end as part of the stories resolution. I wanted to see more from Meru's ending too but something tells me we haven't seen the last of him. That's it. Those are my only niggles in a 117 page story and I'm only mentioning these as I have to mention something in the interests of balance. Hard to find fault with this book really and hard to go in to detail without giving spoilers.
I was left feeling satisfied though that I had read a great story but absolutely gutted that I had reached the end. The one thing I did love though was that it has been left very open for more Chancer stories and it does look like we haven't heard the end of the bad guys that cause Chancer so much trouble throughout!
So all in all, I will say that this is one of the finest things I have read in a while. It has charm, laughs, a lot of likeable characters with brilliant extra content and I do genuinely long for more from Mr. Ewing and his delightful cast!

All in all, I would give this book 5/5
Definitely check it out!

I'm not dead

I know that you probably all know I'm not actually dead as you either follow me on Twitter, are facebook buddies with me or both... But it HAS been a while since I updated here.

This is just a quick post as I have what I feel is going to be a big tattoo in shortly. I'll do a bigger update when I have more time and inclination.
Things are all go for me at the moment! I have two comics I need to be working on (Once I get the immediate workload out of the way... The shop has been mental lately) with a few possible commissions too.
On top of that, there is the Thought Bubble convention next weekend which I shall be attending with my homies and we'll be pimping our wares. I'm very much looking forward to that!

On top of that, I currently have a t-shirt which has been approved by Qwertee but is in need of votes before they will put it in to production. This is where YOU can help me out. I'm not doing too badly so far on the votes but I could always do with more!
If you could head over to my shirt here and vote for me and leave a comment, I would be very grateful!
The t-shirt design should appeal to you more if you are a Dr. Who and/or Dr. Horrible's sing along blog fan!
Take two minutes to check it out. I would love you forever. And ever. And ever. That's a nice t-shirt you're wearing by the way *Stalk* *Stalk* *Stalk*

Also, what do we all feel about Lucas selling his company to Disney and the fact that there are going to be a batch of new Star Wars films? I'm intrigued to hear your views. Lets see if we can get a decent comment thread going on this bad boy!

First major update in a fair old while...

I have been meaning to update here for a while but every time I think I have five minutes to do it, something comes up or I get sidetracked with something else... This also includes the shitty internet reception we've been getting in the studio as of late which still hasn't been repaired after about three months of being faulty.

Anyway, I have been rather busy as of late. With a mix of illustration gigs, the Lou Scannon comic and work at the tattoo studio.

I'll start off with the comic. Lou Scannon issue four is finally finished and is being printed as I type this. Hopefully we'll have it available to buy at some point over the next week or two. This issue has probably taken the longest to produce so far with various real life issues delaying it for one reason or another. I really pumped a lot into the backgrounds of this issue. Far more so than with any of the other issues. I also changed the way I've been working as well and was... breaking in the new format which may have slowed me down somewhat too.

We changed a lot with issue four. This one wasn't coloured straight in greyscale for a start. It was done in full colour and then greyscaled afterwards. This was done in the hope that when it comes to doing the graphic novel, we will be in a position to do the entire thing in colour but in a slightly smaller (UK not US) format.

I have to be honest, it's looking absolutely brilliant in colour. Kris and Jim have really out done themselves.
That said, certain pages seem to work better in black and grey and give off a great noir feel. So there's reasons to buy the comics in black and white and the graph in colour *Hint hint*

Here's a promo poster we did for issue four:

Obviously the August release date is a little wrong... But we did it with the best of intentions! Although we all know the road to Hell is paved with them...

Back in June I was commissioned to do a two page comic for a clients partners birthday. It was a big surprise for him as not only did he have no idea the comic was being done but the comic also starred him as well. It was to a fairly tight deadline but only in the sense that I was going to France and wouldn't have the facilities to finish it out there and get it posted to the client in time for her partners birthday. So I pushed to get it done for her before I went. From the feedback I had, he loved the gift so I was quite chuffed with that. Plus it was a lot of freaking fun to do! I got to play around with a lot of iconic eighties characters AND kill Anakin Skywalker (The Jake Lloyd version...) so it was a great project. Oh I should mention I had free reign on the script as well. It's very hard to come up with a complete story like this in two pages but the challenge was as I said before, a lot of fun!

Here's the first page of the comic:

and here's the second: 

And I also drew this for the couples wall at home (They have an art wall - awesome!)

So with that down, I went on what turned out to be a rather traumatic family holiday to France which I wont get into detail about here. Suffice to say it wasn't pleasant... So I came home and work on Scannon resumed albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Eep.

When everything else settled down I went back to a commission I was asked to do quite a while back that I knew was going to take a while. My friend Llinos asked me to do a picture of her friends who had just got married in a Zombie style. Now Llinos works in fashion so when she asked me how much it would cost, rather than give her a price, I asked if she would be willing to exchange trades if you will. So in exchange for the following picture, Llinos is making me a Lou Scannon jacket AND gloves! Totally stoked about that! Can't wait to see what she comes up with. It will be ready for next February's comic convention in Cardiff!

Anyway, here's the final picture for the newlyweds!:

The reason for the discolouration in the sky is because I had to scan the image as two separate pieces due to its size. Waddya think though guys? I really hope they like it. Again this was a lot of fun to draw.

I've done a few other freelance gigs too but they were for a media company and i'm not sure of the legal ins and outs of posting that stuff. That stuff though was done to a really short deadline.

On the tattoo front, I have been a lot busier. Although I have to admit that September so far has been rather dead for me. Students are back soon though so hopefully it will pick up then. I previously posted a pic of the Hulk tatt I was working on. Well I have finished it now. It's not a great pic as it's literally just after I finished it and the black has yet to come back through the green in this pic (Although it has now of course as its healed) but here it is:

The client was happy with it, as was I.

I think I may start posting more of my tattoo work here as I go too.

I think with my next post I'll put up the cover for Lou Scannon issue five that Kris Carter and I have done. It's a pretty nice looking Planet of the Apes homage. I have a few other bits and bobs to show you too but for now?.. I think I have waffled on enough!

Take it easy guys.

Lou Scannon and Other Shit

Been a little over a month since my last update so figured I'd post here what i've been up to!

I've had a lot going on what with a trip to France and then tattooing and doing the comic. I've sort of fallen a little behind but on the comic but there has been a helluva lot going on so it can be forgiven I reckon :)

Lou Scannon Issue 4 is at about half way done now pencils-wise and is looking pretty good (I think...) and here's a bit of work i've recently finished for it:

This bad boy is going to be coloured soon and i'm pretty stoked to see the colours Kris uses on the new Rad-suits I have designed in the bottom panel.

E4 are also launching a new show on July 5th called "The Midnight Beast" after the band of the same name that has been making waves via Youtube. I checked them out a couple of weeks back after noticing the adverts and I really liked their stuff. So last night they performed live on E4 (Which was a first for the channel) but they wanted to drum up some Twitter support so I knocked this picture up:

Well the picture was... Very popular on Twitter to say the least. It's probably the most popular tweet I've ever made with it being RT'd 50 times and favourited 23 times... That was bizarre but also really cool. It was only a quick sketch.

Finally, I did another sitting on a tattoo I'm really enjoying doing at the moment! One more sitting for the colour and it's done! I've been calling it the Inkredible Hulk! Anyways I hope you like it! And that's it for me for now! -

Bristol Expo 2012

Last weekend saw the return of the Bristol Comics Expo to the old Temple Meads train shed just outside of the main part of the train station. It's been a few years since the con was held there (Some problems with cost I have been led to believe through the grapevine...) and this was the first time I had been there with a table as part of Team Scannon.

It was pretty exciting to be a part of it as an exhibitor as I have been to this con a LOT in the past but always as someone on the other side of the tables. In that sense, being an exhibitor there didn't QUITE live up to my expectations as I found it exactly the same as every other con I've worked. I don't know why I thought it would be any different but maybe it's because it's the con I've sort of gone through my twenties with. Maybe.

It has changed a lot over the years it seems. I remember I went in 2004 at the age of 23 and you had the likes of Bob Shrek, Rodney Ramos and Jim Lee going to the Bristol con back then. No such names there this year but unlike a lot of people, I don't think it really took away from the event. If anything took away from it, I would say it's the unfortunate situation the organisers had of having Kapow the following week and then the MCM con the week after. I think this may have affected attendance a little and for the people who did turn up, maybe it stopped them splashing out as much as they normally might as they are saving for the bigger cons. I don't know, I'm just speculating.

Our table in the process of being set up

With Team Scannon being somewhat... skint for this con, we were kindly put up for the weekend by Team Scannon ally Dani (@Bintykins) Abram. She was pimping out a graph she had worked on herself at the con so she was happy to let us crash on her living room floor. Bless her heart. You can check out her blog here.

So with a slight hangover we opened on time on the Saturday thinking we were really lucky as we were right by the con entrance... Only to find out that this year the entrance had been moved to a door on the other side of the hall. Balls. The Saturday was so slow that sales weren't quite what we had been hoping for but that said, I had a great time. The thing I love about doing the cons is catching up with old friends and making new ones. Especially amongst the small press crowd. It's always good to get a fresh perspective from someone who is in the same boat as you.
I would specifically like to give a big shout out to the following guys for once again helping to make the convention a lot more fun that it may have been otherwise:
Jim, Kris, Joe, PJ, Drew, Luke, Ian, Rob and of course, my bromosexual life partner Gavin (Sexy eyes) Mitchell

Gav lusting over my work

As has become tradition at conventions we both attend, Gav and I drew each other a Monkey Island themed picture. The subject of this draw off being "Zombie Le Chuck"



Gav's is the more serious one, mine is the cartoon one with the voodoo doll.
So who wins the draw off this time around?..


The Sunday ended up being much better in terms of sales which we found unusual since normally sales plummet on the Sunday at these cons! Or so has been our experience. Granted we haven't worked a cajillion of them yet but that's besides the point... Sunday did give us the chance to chat or catch up with more people there though which was good fun! Even if they do mock you for a passing comment someone has made about you not wearing a hat (Kerry!)
As a thank you to Dani as well, I spent a chunk of my Sunday at the con doing a sketch for her. She was handing out a free seven page preview of a comic she and her bo Ian are working on so I based it around that. Here's the result (Though I did add a touch more after this pic was taken but not much!)

I was even asked by someone who bought all 3 issues of Lou Scannon if I would do a sketch of their own character for them. This was so cool that I of course said yes! Hopefully he liked the end result and wasn't just being polite but being a douche I totally forgot to take a pic of the finished article...
We launched the new cover for issue 1 at the con too and that seemed to go down fairly well...

Pencils and inks: Gavin Evans. Colours: Kris Carter.

I didn't attend any panels over the weekend as I spent most of my time on the stall with Kris and Jim but I don't feel I missed out simply on the basis that I had such a good time with the guys.
I am sort of questioning as to whether or not we should do Bristol again next year though. The good thing about it is it is so close to home for us unlike the London cons but if the London cons are so close to Bristol next year?... Well there's a chance we may get a good deal more exposure there or reach a vaster market so maybe they would be worth giving a go to see if we can expand our reader base.
At the end of the weekend every last one of us was completely wiped out I think it is fair to say. There were a few gripes from some people and valid though they may be, I do think that these people still had a good time despite this. Though your opinion may differ to mine!
A BIG shout out goes to my boy Rob from Fish 4 Comics for sponsoring the event and having a kick ass stall there! I'm so glad he's doing so well. He has been a staunch supporter of us working on Lou Scannon and really does push us out there and for that we have a lot of love for the guy.

I already think I have gone on too long but I'll sign off by letting you know that we now have Lou Scannon badges for sale!

If you see them, buy them! Or...

I'll send Kris after you! Grr!

Blood Blokes #1 - A review

So this blog initially started up as a place for me to post my Last Frontiersman webcomic. That soon changed into a place for me to just post any art I do in general but now as I take a day off to recover for the weekend at Bristol Comic Expo, I have decided just to use this blog as a place to write about comics in general.

This brings me to the whole point of this blog update - The Small Press Comic known as "Blood Blokes" by Adam Cadwell.

The Blood Blokes Issue 1 cover. Obviously.

When we got to the Bristol convention we in Team Scannon were conveniently sat on the table next to Adam so as the weekend wore on we had the opportunity to talk to the man behind the comic and I can say he is a thoroughly nice chap. He is also up against us in the Eagle Awards "Favourite British Black and White Comic" categorie.
And a well deserved nomination it is too.

In a Post-Twilight world where the market for the vampire genre has gone from "Vampires are cool" to "Oh God. Please no. Not another fucking vampire story..." anyone who wants to create within that genre has it stacked up against them to give something new... Or fresh. A lot of Vampire stories seem to quite happily sink in to what is expected of them. They're made to look gothic, or horror, or as it would seem in recent years... Shiny.
Blood Blokes has managed to avoid sinking in to these pit falls or traps if you will. Of all the vampire things I have seen or read lately, I can actually relate to this comic more than any of the others.
The main character is a chap called Vince who is so distinctly average that he reminds me somewhat of me. Just a guy trying to get by with nothing particularly special about him. He's someone that most of us could probably relate to on some level. The setting is end of 2000 too and it seems that all of the interests he has mirror mine from that time period too.
I guess what I mean to say is that the character is totally believable. The way he reacts to his girlfriend, his boss... It all feels like Adam Cadwell is writing the real world. Things I daresay at somepoint he may have experienced himself. Though I have to say Vince's courage in the comic as he talks to his boss is something I could never quite bring myself to do. The vampire element is there but so far that is a sidenote to the character development. I loved that about this title.
I don't want to waffle too long as I am prone to do as I may end up giving away spoilers but what I will say is that I thoroughly enjoyed this comic and it really has left me wanting to read issue 2 (Which as Adam told me at the con, should be available within the next month).
If you were to ask me for a feel to this comic, what sort of vibes or styles I would use to describe it, I would say it has the atmosphere of Scott Pilgrim with an art style that is reminiscent of Richard Moore (The Creator of the Indie comic "Boneyard") of whom I am a big fan.

If you see it and you like the Indie genre/Small Press titles, buy it. I doubt you would regret it.

More to follow on the Bristol comic Expo!