Sunday, August 31, 2008

Stuff I've been doing

So, what have I been doing for the last couple of weeks...

* Lettering issues 2 and 3 of Brit Force.
* Reading The Umbrella Academy trade (it's so good it almost made me feel guilty about all the hateful things I've said about My Chemical Romance).
* Sending Declan Shalvey admiring emails about his beautiful full-colour Tim Skinner pages.
* Rolling home at 1.30 in the morning from work (ouch!).
* Reading comedian Mark Steel's latest book, What's Going On?
* Following the American Presidential election even though I can't vote in it and wouldn't vote for McCain or Obama even if I could.
* Loving every minute of Dexter season two on the FX channel.
* Telling my kids to be quiet about a hundred times a day.
* Inching ever closer to getting this movie option stuff sorted once and for all. The contract is now with a solicitor...
* Putting a few ideas together for a couple of new projects.
* Realising that I shouldn't be thinking about new projects when I have lots of perfectly good old projects to be getting on with.
* Enjoying the heck out of the Luna Brothers' new Image ongoing, The Sword.
* Taking the kids to see Space Chimps. It sucked.
* Visiting LegoLand with the family. It also sucked.
* Itching to get back to the comics writing on September 9.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Declan Shalvey interview




MY good friend and collaborator Declan Shalvey has been interviewed by the Indie Review website. Dec talks about his work on Classical Comics' adaptation of Frankenstein (see his lovely cover above), as well as good and bad comic shops, why studying fine art is no use for comic artists, Hero Killers, Tim Skinner and loads more.

You'll find it here

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Inactive

THERE'S very little to report on the comics front as I've done bugger all work for a couple of weeks. The main reason for my indolence is that the kids are on their summer break from nursery which means the house is about as quiet as King's Cross at rush hour. It also means I've been filling my days off with trips to places like Legoland in a forlorn bid to keep the little buggers happy and entertained.

The redundancy scare at the Daily Mirror (i.e. where I work) hasn't helped matters either. Basically, my department has been closed with the company accepting voluntary redundancies. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I've ended up with a new job – working on the paper's sports desk. The hours are a bit more demanding but I suspect this is what they call falling on your feet.

So, all in all, I'm just waiting for life to return to something approaching "normal" before I can crack on with things again. Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen until Monday, September 9, the day my eldest son starts school. I suspect Duncan Nimmo – the artist who was supposed to be working on the long-delayed Kurse – will have grown old and died by then.

* THIS week Declan Shalvey sent me some inked Tim Skinner pages to see and they look terrific – even better than the top-notch work he did on Hero Killers. There's one panel in particular that is really going to blow people away. Can't wait to see it all in full-colour.

* CRIKEY, the Birmingham International Comics Show is less than two months away (October 4-5). Guess I'd better book a hotel then...

Friday, August 1, 2008

Septic Isle in Previews

THIS month's Previews is out and, look!, there's SEPTIC ISLE on page 313. ISBN: 978-0-9542739-3-4, Diamond order code: AUG08 4213. Order it from your friendly local comic store!