Little and Often

While it may not seem like it, I've been fairly productive artwise recently...I won't post everything but have placed some work above, including:

3 pieces done for Chris Askham's The Weekly Themed Art Blog

One of three pages for Too Much Sex and Violence (I thought I was lagging way behind but think I was the first to turn in pages!)

Design work done locally and for the local council (you won't believe the amount of tweaking and discussion some of this involved!)

Feeling able to draw again is quite nice, though it's distracting me from updating my book...though I'm also working my way through my backlog of reading material too, currently halfway through The Batman Vault, picked up cheap from the Works...

Fantagraphics Nick My Idea!

Two posts ago, I wrote that if i won the lottery, " One of the first things I'd do would be issue a collection of all Wally Woods's EC sci-fi stories (followed by a similar Al Williamson volume, then a Wood collection of his other EC work and yet another with his other short stories for other publishers)."

I later learned that six days earlier that Fantagraphic have accquired the rights to the EC library and are planning to issue some black and white collections. However, these are not simply collections of entire series but themed collections instead. They have announced a few but of particular interest to me are:

* Came The Dawn and Other Stories. This is a Wally Wood collection, but of his tightly-wound suspense stories rather than perhaps more traditionally lauded work.

* An untiled book featuring 174 pages of Al Williamson's science fiction tales.
Can't wait for these, and I hope a wally Wood sci-fi collection isn't far behind...

Dredding It

It's been quietly progressing under the radar but now pics are starting to filter out in the run up to Dredd, starring LOTR/Star Trek movie Karl Urban in the title role.

While the Stallone Judge Dredd movie isn't as bad as it's rep (it's a solid story with decent effects: it's just that Stallone and Rob Sneider scuttle every scene they're in...but you knew I'd say that), I'm looking forward to a new interpretation. I was disappointed when I first saw the uniform as again it was a deviation from the comic version: it wouldn't bug me so much if Comics International hadn't run a pic of a fan in spot-on accurate Dredd gear that looked amazing. However, the helmet IS spot on and I like the battle armour look of the movie Judges.

I'm waiting for the trailer but will be hoping this could be quite fun...

Wood You Believe It

I doubt it's just me, so I gues we've all pondered what we'd do with a huge lottery win. After securing a nice home and having a nice holiday in New York and the wider US, I always thought I'd set up a comic company devoted to quality products. One of the first things I'd do would be issue a collection of all Wally Woods's EC sci-fi stories (followed by a similar Al Williamson volume, then a Wood collection of his other EC work and yet another with his other short stories for other publishers).

While not exactly quite the same thing, I'm pretty excited by the news that IDW will be following their Dave Stevens Rocketeer and Walt Simonson Thor Artist Editions with a Wally Wood volume. Shot directly from the original art, these volumes represent as close as possible a reproduction of the original art as you'll ever get, corrections and all. Some of these corrections can be distracting but are nevertheless fascinating insights into the artists' work. At £75ish, I'm gonna have to save my pennies but what a collection...

...and I'm kind of tempted by the Romita Spider-Man edition too...