Wonder Who This Is?

Few months ago, I reorganised my art files and considered an old pinup I did for the small press back in the 90s. I didn't mind it but for whatever reason, it didn't sit right with me: there was something about it that I just didn't like. A few years ago, I tweaked it and turned it into a pic of the Black Cat, which was possibly even worse than the original but whilst reorganising the art, I lightboxed the figure again and waited until I could think of a suitable character to turn the semi-pencilled figure into.

Then, along comes the new Teen Titans relaunch...I really like the Kid Flash design but the new Wonder Girl was perfect for the figure, as it was sleek, skintight and dark (ish). I eventually had to download #1 to get decent refs for the new Wonder Girl outfit only to discover that the design for the armoured bits is incredibly inconsistent, changing from panel to panel: at one point, her bracelet looks like a weird skull, at others barely ornate so I had to make up my own version of the armour in the end anyway.

So anyway, here's my new WG, not great but I think I've finally nailed that old pic now...

Anatomy Of A Cover

Now that issue 1 is out and available at http://rolhirst.co.uk/, thought I'd run through the cover process...

Rol sent me a brief idea or two, which I developed around 20 crude thumbnails designs from and sent on to him, who picked out elements that he liked, leading to a more refined second round before a design was settled on.I drew the art at full US size, then reduced the line art down to A4 and added gray tones that I scanned in (untidied version above) and sent to Rol for approval. Once that came through, I began colouring in Photoshop, knowing that I would add the signage in once all the colouring was complete.
Once the colouring (except for the sky, as I was doing that separately on a separate layer) was complete, we hit a snag: when I did thumbnails, Rol told me I needed to add the pier but he was unable to fully view the line art I sent him as he was away and only had his Blackberry to view from. Later I figured out that mentally my geography of the town layout was about 90 degrees from the actual locations, leading to about three different amendments removing the pier and inserting a new one. Eventually I got there and when #1 turned up today, I was relieved to see that you actually can't tell there's any jiggerypokery.

Anyway, once the art was corrected and locked, off to Dave Metcalfe-Carr who added the logo and job done. Now go buy the comic, it's probably the best new small press comic you'll read all year...

Jibba Jabba 2!

Absolutely disgusted by Sainsbury's..well, it was actually the Danny Dyer DVD boxset. Yes, that's right: Danny. Dyer. Boxset. WTF?! I felt my brain losing intelligence just looking at the cover...

Also had to buy a new hoover this week. That sucks.

Last night, held my first pubquiz. A few technical issues aside, went down well and free drinks are never to be sniffed at...

In the midst of a ton of books at the minute. Been a fan of Al Williamson's ever since his Empire Strikes Back adaptation art blew my 9-year old mind (c'mon, compare his work to the weird Infantino stuff that came before...) so cracked through the first volume of his Secret Agent Corrigan/X9 work from IDW. To think this was running at the same time as the cruder art seen in 60s superhero comics is a bit of a wonder...

Also reading Supergods, Grant Morrison's historical placing of the superhero in the cultural consciousness, peppered with his own autobiographical comic career trajectory. Immensely enjoyable, high-falooting but always relatable, this is a seriously absorbing read.

ALSO picked up a kitschy Catwoman book for £2.99 from the Works: for that price, just nice to look at the poppy old artwork: given me the bug to draw Catwoman in her classic costume now though...funny how some designs you hate as a kid, you evolve to appreciate more over time...

Jibber Jabba

Brian Bolland has a blog now. Kewl.

Avengers trailer hit yesterday, featuring the first look at the new tweaked Hulk (looks the same as from the Norton film but seems to have better skin texture closer to the Ang Lee film). Think I might like this film.

Saw Red State and quite liked but want to see the alternative version where THAT music means the OTHER thing (I'm avoiding dropping spoilers). That end would have made the film bloody awesome but scary...

Enjoying the Fades but looking forward to the return of Misfits hopefully later this month. Maybe in the Smallville slot but dunno if they'd be able to show Misfits at 9.0o...think it's time Smallville went as it's been treading water for ages, the main problem being lack of imagination from the writers more than anything else, although the appearance of DC characters usually livens things up a bit...

Laid out and ready to go, think I'll be pencilling pages for TMSV #2 this weekend but have also been developing another project to draw alongside Silver John, this time in a clean line style. Bit of research to do yet though...

Set a pubquiz for tomorrow night, could be interesting. Manager's also asked to speak to me for five minutes tomorrow, THAT could be interesting too...I didn't ACTUALLY put a chair through the window only thought it, so should be safe on that account...

Time to fly...

Just for Me(Na)

Haven't done any drawing for drawing's sake (IE, not for a specific purpose) for a while, so thought I'd do something this weekend while recuperating from a slight bug...read the latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen recently and really enjoyed so thought it'd be fun to draw Mina Harker as depicted in 1969, mainly as my style is completely different to Kevin O'Neill's. I picked one of Mina's less garish outfits and did two backdrops, not sure which works best so here's both versions...