More Petal

Above is a full page from Petal, the horror/crime project I'm working on with Argentine artist Nicolas Armano. This is a sequence from a nightmare that Petal's daughter is having and it features a character called 'The Frozen Man', who pops up throughout the story. He isn't real but what he represents most certainly is...

Support Reincar(Nate)

KEITH BURNS (the co-creator of Blood Psi) is the artist on a project currently looking for funding on Kickstarter. It's called Reincar(Nate) and Michael Moreci (of Image's Hoax Hunters fame) is the writer.

There's a page of Keith's lovely art above and here's the lowdown on the project from the book's Kickstarter page...

Reincar(Nate) is a 102-page, full-color graphic novel that tells the story of Nate McCoy, a well-meaning, down on his luck P.I. who has a special ability--he can see and interact with past versions of himself. The people he reincarnated from. With the help of Jameson (a Wild West lawman) and Alan (a 1960s-era hitman), Nate works to solve his latest case, one that digs straight to the heart of the city's criminal underworld.

If you're a fan of stylized, character-driven noir in the vein of Chew or Terriers, you'll find a lot to like in Reincar(Nate).

Sounds great, right? The project needs another $2,880 (£1,178) to reach its total of $8,250 (£5,094) by next Friday (May 4). A mere 20 bucks will get you a signed and numbered first edition of the book, 30 will get you a signed and numbered book, plus your name on a special 'thank you' roll of honour inside.

You can make a pledge right here.

Petal

I'M currently working on a pitch for a crime/horror project called Petal with Argentine artist Nicolas Armano. Here are a couple of panels. We've based the look of the central character - Detective Inspector 'Petal' White - on a young British actress. Bet you can't guess who...

Disintegration

I haven't updated this blog since October 25, so Happy Halloween, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all! It isn't as if I've spent the last four months sitting around with my feet up watching TV... actually, there has been a fair amount of sitting around with my feet up watching TV, but I have been doing other stuff, too. Comics stuff.

I currently have several projects at different stages of development and the plan is to submit pitches, including finished artwork, to publishers in the next few months. Just to prove I'm not making it up, above is a page (no letters or colours yet) from a project I've been working on with brilliant Brazilian artist Edu Menna. It's for a story called Disintegration, a mad mash-up of small-time London gangsters and bizarro sci-fi.

We're currently on the look out for a colourist to work their magic on a few sample pages, so if anyone out there might be willing to help us out for very little in return (a family bag of Maltesers, my eternal gratitude and, er, that's about it) please get in touch...

There are other projects, too, but you're going to have to wait to find out about those. Hopefully not for four months, though.

We could be Heroes

THERE'S a lovely review of mine and Duane Leslie's Scoregasm webcomic in Comic Heroes magazine, issue #9 of which is out today (October 25).

Choice quotes from Rob Power's piece include: "Leaves you gagging for more", "Breathlessly entertaining" and "Gloriously evocative black and white artwork". He also gives it four stars out of five and the review itself features three big panels of Duane's art.

In fact, so happy am I with Rob's kind words I'm willing to forgive the fact that Scoregasm is misspelled (as Scorgasm) throughout the review!

* WE'VE had a couple of other nice recent reviews, too. A four-star one from
Comics Bulletin, and the other from Ain't It Cool News. The latter is full of praise for Duane's artwork - "Leslie captures the speed, style, and excitement of football to near perfection" - and deservedly so.

* THE fact I haven't been blogging much recently isn't because I've been idle. Far from it, I'm working on three pitch samples with a trio of artists at the moment and am really looking forward to getting them 'out there'. The stories are all very different to each other and from anything I've done before (no superheroes, vampires or spies). With the artists' permission I'll post artwork up here as and when...

An extremely smart book

THE first review of Scoregasm is in and it's hugely positive. A few highlights from David O'Leary's piece over at comicrelated.com...

"This is an extremely smart book."

"Duane Leslie is a great artist with a keen eye for detail."

"I was buzzing a bit after reading this issue."

"In a perfect world, this would be a weekly comic."

Here's a link to the full review

* WHILE I'm in the mood for irksome self-congratulation, Mick Trimble recently pointed me in the direction of a link to Demonoid in which Septic Isle, the graphic novel we worked on together, is listed as one of the 'best comics of the decade/ever'.

I don't know what made me laugh more; the fact we're being mentioned in the same breath as Joss Whedon and Frank Miller, or that the heading above the list reads: MANY THANKS TO ALL THE SCANNERS WHO MADE THIS COLLECTION POSSIBLE. Yep, turns out Septic Isle's biggest fan is also an illegal downloader!

Here's the link

Scoregasm is go!

MY new football comic - Scoregasm - is now available for your delight and delectation over at www.scoregasm.co

You can read it at the site or download a PDF of the entire thing to keep. Whatever your preference, the 38-page book is totally FREE.

Scoregasm is part-homage to the football strips I grew up reading in the seventies (things like Billy's Boots, Hot Shot Hamish and, of course, Roy Of The Rovers) and part-poison pen letter to the cynicism of the modern game.

Duane Leslie has done an excellent job on the art (see above) and many thanks to Eva de la Cruz for colouring the cover and Kay Downes for her fantastic website design.

* I'M keen to do more web-based stuff and one of the projects I'm looking at would be to bring back Tim Skinner: Total Scumbag (star of 2009's critically-acclaimed one-shot). Obviously I can't ask Declan to get involved as he's somewhat busy at Marvel, but, if anyone else might be up for it, just give me a shout.