YEAR OF THE SCARE BEAR

One of my new years resolutions is to post more artwork and more updates on my comics more often. So here's another Teddy Kruger pic for ya. As I said in my last post, Teddy's an old horror character of mine from the 90's and was influenced by films such as "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Childs' Play". He was one of a number of horror themed characters that me and my old comics creating buddy Rob Pocock worked on after making our own super hero comics for a couple of years. We created some posters and strips but never really managed to get a proper comic going. Anyway, after hitting a bit of a wall with the first issue of "S.C.I" and the "Britains' Best Comics" one shot I decided I needed to work on something else - something quick and fun. I knew Teddy would be perfect as it would allow me to work in a much simpler style than the reference heavy style of S.C.I. I just was'nt sure of the format until I went to BICS 2010 and picked up some mini comics by R. Claude. One of them, called "Immortal Ewan and the Rod of Rasputin", was just a sheet of A4 folded in half 3 times to create a 7 page comic with fold out mini poster on the inside. It was the perfect format for what I had in mind for Teddy. I'm drawing these at a size only slightly bigger than my normal thumbnail size, so it's not possible to get bogged down in too many details or rendering. There's not much room for dialogue either so it's a pretty good excercise for telling a story as simply as possible. Teddy Krueger will be a 4 issue mini comic miniseries with the cast of S.C.I appearing in ish 4. More details and artwork to follow soon.

Return of the Original Scare Bear

Crikey, we're about to close the book on 2010 and I still have'nt posted any of my artwork! Where has the time gone? - sheesh! Well we can't have that, so here we go; the cover and first page of issue 2 of Teddy Krueger. Teddy's an old character of mine which i've decided to bring back for a series of mini comics (4 in all). Issues 1-3 are pretty much finished. I'll be posting details soon on how you can get your eager hands on them. Until then, happy new year!

POW! SMASH!

Loved the piece on old British super heroes in the latest Comic Heroes. I'm very lucky that there's a shop not far from where I work that sells old toys, magazines, vinyl records and comics. I managed to pick up copies of the 1971 Smash! and Pow! annuals featured in this article. So for the last few days I've been engrossed in the short lived adventures of Tri-Man, Aquavenger, Electro - Super Security Agent, Magno - Man of Magnetism, and the ESPer Commandos. I was previously completely unaware of the existence of these characters. I knew about Marvel Man, Zenith and the Marvel UK stuff, but apart from that I just didn't think that us Brits really did super heroes. Out of curiosity I checked on the net to see if I could find out who owns the publishing rights to all these characters. Well, what a typically tangled web that turns out to be. What is it about British comics characters and disputed ownership? Such a shame as these are great characters, ripe for updating or re-imagining. C'mon, who wouldn't want to see Warren Ellis writing the new adventures of Gadget Man and Gimmick Kid? Garth Ennis writing The Purple Hood? Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch Ultimising The Super Security Agency (starring Mini Man, Mr Whizz, Flame man, Electro and ...er...Iron Dog)?

INCEPTION

Got a copy of Inception for Chrimbo (merry xmas and a happy new year btw) and sat down to watch it on Boxing Day. Um... am I the only one that thinks that this film is seriously overrated? I mean, it looks great and I love the idea of a heist movie where the aim is to plant something somewhere instead of stealing something. I just found it really difficult to care about any of the characters. I didn't care about Leo, his two faceless kids or his moody French wife. I wasn't rooting for anybody in this film. I wasn't worried at any point about any character getting killed off. I kept waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me but it didn't happen. There was nothing new here for anyone who has seen the Matrix, Dark City, 13th Floor or even The Truman Show or Fight Club. It's actually quite a pedestrian film. And the ending.....is it real or is it a dream? ....who cares? So disappointed

Granted

So here we have Grant Morrison, a contemporary of Alan Moore, being interviewed in the latest Comic Heroes magazine. Someone who has been through the same kind of crap in the comics industry and had similar fall outs with the Big Two as Alan Moore has. This is his response to Moores' statement that the constant rebooting of characters has has left the comics industry creatively bankrupt;

"....the reason they're recycled is simple: these are primal stories that appeal to human beings in every culture, at any time. They're designed to be told over and over again. If you were an Aboriginal kid or a tribal shaman, that's what you'd do; participate in the recycling of stories..."

Makes sense to me. Why doesn't it make sense to Alan Moore?

CLiNT - A REVIEW

Well, it's got a great cover hasn't it? A heavily bearded Frankie Boyle (so that's what he's been up to since he left Mock The Week) throwing down some kung fu moves, backed up by Kick-Ass and Hit Girl. There's something about the design of this cover that reminds me of the late, great Death Ray magazine. As for the interiors? Well......

The problem I have with this magazine is that I have read most of it already. I've already bought (and enjoyed) Turf#1 and Nemesis #1. Most of the non-comics material has already been done (or something very similar) in Zoo/Bizarre/FHM/Total Film. Frankie Boyle's strip feels like bog standard 2000AD. The only thing I enjoyed was the 8-page intro to Kick Ass 2. Not a good return on £3.99. Now I know that this magazine isn't meant for people who actually read comics (huh?) but I think it would benefit from having more comics related material. Maybe some variation on CBR's Comic Book Legends, Johnathon Ross writing about Manga, Frankie Boyle writing about the comics he loves, features on the British small press scenes, anything really cool or strange about comics that the mainstream may not be aware of. And more comics. I think this mag could make a nice new home for Graham Pearce's Sgt Mike Battle or Martin Eden's O Men.

Now the dilemma. Do I continue to buy something that is not value for money in the hope that it gets better or do I just spend that £3.99 trying out a different comic every month? I do like the idea of Clint, and I would like to see it succeed but I would also like it to be good. There's a lot of talented people in the small press scene that Millar could draw upon to improve the mag.

ABNORMALS

Just checked my Hotmail account for the first time in ages and found this rather cool pic by Grant Springford. It's of his new small press comic "The Abnormals". It's actually an old series of his but he's in the process of creating an updated version. The rather dapper fellow in the background is a character from his last SP series "Pest Control". I'm kinda curious as to why he's there and how he ended up there as things were not looking too good for our heroes in the last issue of PC. It's clear to see how much Grants' art has improved since PC #7 (a few years go). And just look at that perspective work! I don't think I'll ever get my head around perspective, but I'm always glad to see someone else master it. For more info checkout the Abnormals Facebook page.