Evil Vampirical Thing

Knowing me this'll get tampered with again in a week or so, but it's pretty much finished. It's called "Vampire". That's right. "Vampire". "Wow Nelson," says you, the reader, "You surely went on an epic mental journey to arrive at that one".

After years of mucking about in Photoshop, I'm finally getting cosy with a defined set of techniques which feel just right, and that means the production of this stuff seems to be speeding up and up. Not before bloody time!

Vampire Cover / New British Comics 3

My agency suggested it might be an idea to knock up some "pretend" book covers to go in my portfolio. They're absolutely right. I really should have been doing this sort of thing - young protagonist having a to-do with very bad thing, or things (with space for letters at the top) - for ages. Here's the beginnings of a vampire themed one, vampires being good subject matter because they quite simply refuse to go out of fashion.

Speaking of covers, how about this utter beauty by Lawrence Elwick?

Can't wait to see this. Check out the NBC blog for the "tracklisting".

Lunar Yetis Catching Frisky Facefluffs

Working on covers for Penguin US and Andersen Press at the moment, which is all very secret - so to keep this here blog rolling here's a sample page from a picture book idea my girlfriend and I are quietly knocking together. I roughed out a tentative first draft of the whole thing in pencil recently, and figured one or two pages worked well enough to make for decent portfolio pieces. Draft no 2 will be underway before too long, hopefully...

Sci-Fi Art Now Interview

I mentioned Sci-Fi Art Now a few months back, just prior to it's release, but never followed it up with a post about what a bloody gorgeous book it is. I was blown away when I got my copy. It's full of pure cream - top of the range creamy sci-fi cream. The maddest thing was turning the page to see my own work in there, prompting a huge double take followed by a reassuring feeling of relevance. It was like, "Gosh, is my stuff really valid? Crack open the champers darling!"

The editor, UK comics veteran John Freeman, has been running a great series of interviews with some of the contributors over on the book's blog - mine has just gone live, so, you know, if you want to read me waffling about drawing and 2000AD and stuff...

Oh, and buy the book! It's fantastic! UK and US editions.



UK Edition