Nige's Page a' Rage

Top Ten Comic Characters

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Wow, this was alot harder than I expected and it took me a few days to finalise this list which surprises even me by some of the characters included and omitted. I perused some encyclopedias and my accessible comics to make ensure I considered as wide a range as possible. I found that alot of the characters I liked were purely because of their costumes or I had liked them in the past but they're so messed up now, I've lost much of the fondness I have them.

Considered male characters included Booster Gold, the Marvel and DC Captain Marvels, Captain Britain, Cypher, Doc Samson, Dr Fate, Gambit, Guardian (from Alpha Flight), Havok, Jesse Custer (Preacher), Nighthawk and Wonder Man while females rejected included Chance Falconer, Power Girl, Rogue, Saturn Girl and Supergirl. While I read very little superhero stuff now, there was still no candidates from other fare I've enjoyed (such as Bone, A Distant Soil, Aldebaran/Betelgeuse, etc) so with no further ado, here's my personal top ten:

10: Hank Pym. While Marvel completely cocked up the character with that stupid spousal abuse crap in the early 80s, I always enjoyed Pym as Ant-Man, Goliath and especially Yellowjacket. His character has been rescued somewhat over the last decade and I wish he was allowed to show the potential he holds as a Richards/Stark/Banner-level intellect.

9: Nick Fury. I never liked war stories so Sgt Fury held no interest for me but as Marvel's premier spymaster, Fury has proven to be tough as nails and always one step ahead of the enemy.

8: Nova. I loved Nova as a kid (not realising for years that he was a basic Green Lantern/Peter Parker hybrid) and was really happy when he returned in the New Warriors. Despite his current success as Marvel's premier space hero, my favourite treatment of him was during the second year of New Warriors.
7: Rick Jones. Loyal and brave (but often flawed), Rick has moved beyond the eternal sidekick role (to Hulk, Cap, Cap Marvel and Rom) to shine as a character in his own right. The recent Peter David Captain Marvel series relied less on the title star than Rick, currently running around as the idiotic A-Bomb (will somebody please just stop Jeph Loeb?)
6: Pre-Crisis Superboy. Although I appreciate his art now, I hated Curt Swan's Superman stories as a kid as he seemed so fuddyduddy and old. Then I discovered Superboy: a younger, fresher take on the character who palled around with a bunch of cool pals in the future. The pre-Crisis version remains a fond favourite, despite me having no particular affection for his older counterpart.

5: Blue Beetle. I had picked up the first six or so issues of his DC revival but of course it wasn't until Giffen & DeMatteis worked their comedic magic that Blue Beetle (together with best pal Booster Gold) blossomed into a beloved fan favourite character. I can live with the horror of Countdown To Infinite Shite due to the unofficial fact that's running around alive after being rescued in a Booster Gold arc.

4: Donna Troy. There's many attractive heroines but as a kid, the New Teen Titans was one of the first superhero titles to really invest its characters with personalities and Donna Troy developed into a warm, independent person loved by everybody without ever being too sweet and saccharine. Afflicted with a confusing post-Crisis history, the character remains true to the personality created by Wolfman and Perez.

3: Jack Knight. I hold the Starman series as one of the best superhero series ever, a complete career of a reluctant hero running throughout its run, Jack developing from a slightly rebellious and selfish but likable character into a true hero, maturing to heal longstanding family wounds before retiring to start his own family. (I'm looking forward to the upcoming Starman#81 even if Jack's not in it!)
2: Wally West. First as Kid Flash and then as the first protege to officially take on their mentor's role (as the Flash), I grew up with Wally as he developed from something of a right wing hothead to a more laid back Lothario and into the assured family man that he is today. I always loved the Kid Flash and Flash costume though I'm not sure about the new post-Flash:Rebirth mask, but he remains a favourite character and the most interesting Flash.
1: Cyclops. I've banged on about why I like Cyke before so it's no surprise that he came in at #1, the only easy choice in the whole top ten.

Anime Shun

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:37:00 +0000

Well, TV's still a no go zone for the most part (although I still enjoy the new Enterprise shots in Star Trek:TOS and found myself quite getting in to Misfits) so, exacerbated by the snow here and the lack of concentration to read anything substantial, I've been forced to look to mt DVD collection for entertainment.

I found myself enjoying Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle from the famous Studio Ghibli company in Japan and mostly enjoyed other works of theirs I managed to catch on E4 (and other than the original Solaris ferreted away in the middle of the night, when was the last time E4 had any interesting new movies on?). As a result, I picked up four Ghibili movies from a cheapie DVD shop in Wolverhampton as you can usually never find them under £10 each. I later searched on eBay and took a risk by ordering a boxset of 18 Ghibli movies from Malaysia. Pirating is rife in that territory but the pic supplied made me hope it was worth the gamble: for the just slightly less than the price of a single UK Ghibli film, this boxset contained 18!

Luckily, it seems to have payed off as the four-disc set is great (and not a pirate!). The 18-film set contains every Ghibli release (other than the comic-strip based My Neighbours The Yamadas, which I wanted to avoid as it looks so ugly anyway) but includes studio founder Hayao Miyazaki's pre-Ghibli films LupinIII: the Castle of Cogliostro and Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, right up to the latest film, Ponyo, which is the only film on disc four.

The other films are spread out across the first three discs and contain multiple dialogue and subtitle tracks. Due to the amount of data crammed onto each disc, the prints used are not always as crisp as the UK prints but are generally just as good. With a Disney film, you know what the tone will be but not so with Ghibli. There are the child friendly fantasies like Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro, slightly more mature fantasies like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, adventures like Laputa: Castle In The Sky and Porco Rosso and non-fantasies like Only Yesterday, I Can Hear The Sea and the moving Grave of the Fireflies (a film you know ends badly from the opening sentence but is still powerful at the end).

I found myself surprised by how much I enjoyed Nausicaa (mainly because I always associated it with the intolerant food-labelling Fabio Barbieri, who loved it which put me right off) and Ponyo (which just seemed kiddie fare) but I still can't get into Castle of Cogliostro, a 1979 crime caper than tears at my patience. I doubt I'll sit through the testicle-morphing of Pom Poko again though as it swiftly runs out of direction).

For anybody who thinks anime is all cyberpunk or Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh/Gormiti /Beyblade competition arena bash 'em ups, this is a great way to sample some of the lesser known but more widely respected animation from Gojira's homeland...

Free Beer!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:33:00 +0000

Earned some free beer today as a thanks for doing a (full colour Copic marker) pic for somebody at work, which I won't post as I don't really like the results...but you can't argue with free beer!

Posted above though is a piece I AM fairly happy with (or as happy as I tend to be with my stuff). I was asked to do a combined family portrait which is to be copied and given as Xmas gifts to the relevant family members. I love drawing people so sounded fun: Carolina e-mailed me a bunch of refs and I was off...

I got the refs late on Sunday afternoon and the failing light by that time presented a challenge. As this was for a few people, I wanted to take my time and get this right. I had the visual in mind (after being given the basic concept) and began with the heads: the likenesses would take the most time, everything else being relatively easy. After doing Carolina and her boyfriend Neil's heads, I realised I wasn't going to have room and had to rethink things.

Starting over, I pencilled, inked and grey-shaded with the Copics each head individually. I managed to do about five before the failing light meant I had to switch on the light and abandon work due to shadows from the light ahead.

The next day, I came up with a way around this: I lay my pad on my lightbox and used the light from that to balance out the shadows from above and voila, I could draw again! It wasn't all easy though as the refs were jpegs so I threw them on a memory stick to put into my digital photo frame so that I could comfortably work from that rather than the PC monitor. Keeping the frame in position was tricky but I eventually completed all the heads...

...except one, which I had missed as I had misunderstood the request so I stopped work to add the extra head onto the memory stick to work from. Once this was finished, I roughed in the sledge, pencilled the bodies, inked them all and finished with the dog before completing the whole thing with a quick gloss over with the markers.

I wasn't sure if Carolina would like the finished pic as I felt some likenesses were better than others but thankfully I think she did. Job done and another possible two request for the office to follow this weekend (the thought of which I shudder at as I may have to brave the Xmas shopping hordes, brrr!!)

Xmas Time, Mistletoe & Whine

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Well, the festive season is well and truly upon us and I'm starting to have the same ambiguous feelings about it that I do each year.

Religious origins aside, I like the basic modern concept of Christmas: a time to relax and unwind with those you want to be with and forget your everyday worries for the briefest of moments. I enjoy the process of picking out gifts (though I do it early enough to avoid the hell of Xmas shopping in December) and the glimmer of kitschy decorations (not that I'd have them at home) ((though I have to confess to the guilty pleasure of wandering around town earlier this week in my lunchbreak with Carolina as she searched for Christmas chintz to deface, um decorate our workspace)) but for some reason, I always get depressed at this time of year.

Maybe it's because of the constant barrage of images of fun and cosiness, but I always end up feeling isolated and kind of fed up with the whole thing by the time the 25th eventually rolls out. Maybe this is why the season tends to be the suicide peak of the year: or maybe it's just the annual churning out of Morecambe & Wise, The Snowman, So Here It Is Merry Christmas and It'll Be Lonely This Christmas...

Random Roundup Resurrection

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:02:00 +0000

Blimey, it's been a while since I posted. Still getting my head around some personal issues so not been up to too much so here's some random happenings...

While I await the returns of Lost, Heroes ans Smallville (look above for some of the characters in the newly promoted JSA Smallville telemovie: Dr Fate looks excellent!), some minor channels have been rebranded. I can now catch two episodes a night of Two And A Half Men on Viva, Moonlighting on CBS Drama and Star Trek on CBS Action (Sunday marathons!). This is the original and best series but with new FX shots, mainly of the Enterprise and the planets it orbits. Some of these shots are stunning but they still have dodgy phaser effects and the retro hairdos/fashions (although sometimes this works, as Sally Kellerman is still stunning in a 40-year old episode). Updating these effects is a weird decision as a result of this, but I'm just happy enjoying the Enterprise shots (though I prefer the movie Enterprise).

One other show that I'm watching is E4's Misfits, the Heroes-meets-Skins mashup of a bunch of youths serving community service inheriting superpowers after a storm. I wasn't sure if I was going to like something where all the main characters would be ASBO horrors but I've found it quite enjoyable and unexpectedly laugh out funny in places. Not a great show but fun and well-produced so I'll stick with it.

Not been doing much drawing but have done a few requests here and there, like the one above. I've become quite smitten with the grey Copic markers I've been using (although the main one I use has already run out). I wouldn't use them for everything but I like the results you can get with them. I plan on getting some flesh tones and doing a couple of test headshots (Erica Durance and Kristen Bell, I'm considering you!)...

I'm finding I've been buying less and less from the big comic publishers and more stuff slightly off the beaten track. I still can't get into manga as a whole but enjoyed the two books by Sonia Leong that I picked up at BICS and have been picking up a few more Cinebook editions after BICS and seeing as how they are now prominently stocked at Nostalgia in Brum. The high business action shenanigans of Largo Winch have been enjoyable but future editions will be single volumes. Currently each edition contains two volumes, one setting up a threat and the second resolving it, so spreading the individual volumes in separate editions may affect how effectively they read. Still, I've got the next edition of my fave Cinebook series, Aldebaran/Betelgeuse, waiting for me to read on my day off this week...

Blowin' Through

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Well, it's been a while since I posted, what with , well, I won't get into "what with" and my concentration level is woefully low at present but here's some stuff I've done lately for one project or another...

Gordon's Alive!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Way back at the dawn of time--which for me was the 70s--I was definitely a kid of the Star Wars generation. Only 6 when it came out, the space opera phenomena loomed heavily over my childhood and so did its' influence. In the wake of its success, the BBC began regularly screening the great Flash Gordon serials starring Buster Crabbe and the movie came out the same year as the Empire Strikes Back. The Filmation Flash Gordon animated movie and series aired around the same time so I grew up with a great affection for the character. However, like many fans of today's popular comic characters, I had never read any Flash's printed adventures.

I knew Flash's original Alex Raymond-drawn strips were considered classics but were unavailable to me back then. I enjoyed Dan Jurgens' 1989 Flash Gordon miniseries for DC but the title sequence of the live action movie, featuring lovely clipped Raymond images set to that infamous thumping theme tune, made me want to search out the original strips.

Then in 2003, Checker Books started a seven volume set of hardcover full colour landscape format reprints of Raymond's work on the series on glossy stock, starting from the strip's debut in 1934 to its creator's departure in 1944. I snapped the first volume straight up and it has to be said that I was fairly disappointed. These crude pages had none of the grace I saw in the movie title sequences and the plots became quickly formulaic (Flash and co stumble into a new domain, lead uprisings against Ming while fighting bizarre monsters , Dale becoming jealous of any woman glancing at Flash, etc) but there was enough improvement throughout the first back that I continued with the second. Thankfully I did because when Raymond hit his stride in later years, the art becomes beautiful.

Despite becoming more popular than the Buck Rogers strip that it was created to directly compete with, the Flash instalments do suffer when read in chunks rather than in weekly instalments. They were never meant to be read this way though as they were created as disposable entertainment before the strip hit big.

Daily strips followed for Flash intermittently but his main home was the Sunday sections. The strip continued happily enough following Raymond's departure but received a real shot in the arm when famed Captain Marvel Jr artist Mac Raboy took over in 1948. In the wake of the Checker books, I sought out Dark Horse's four-volume set of black and white reprints of Raboy's run, averaging five years worth in each edition. To be fair, the stories are less clunky than the earlier episodes but become similarly repetitious as Flash leaves Mongo (Raymond first had Flash leaving Mongo to temporarily return to earth during World War II) and joins a space agency to travel across the galaxy. As with Raymond's work, Raboy's work elevates the strip into something graceful and beautiful and even though Raboy's final episodes were not as polished as his earlier work (the artist continued working on the strip until he succumbed to cancer in 1967), it's still pretty great throughout.

When George Lucas was developing Star Wars, he clearly based Han Solo's design on the Al Williamson spacemen in the 1950s EC sci-fi comics (which themselves often featured likenesses of Buster Crabbe as the hero). Williamson's work on the Empire Strikes Back adaptation was a revelation to me, his naturalistic style in stark opposition to the Marvel house style and dodgy Carmine Infantino that had preceded it. Williamson had been a huge fan of Flash Gordon and loved drawing those types of strips the best.

As a fan of both Williamson and Flash Gordon, I was chomping at the bit for Flesk's recent collection of every piece of Williamson Flash Gordon art, from the King comics of the 60s, rare advertising and portfolio art, the sumptuous adaptation of the 1980 movie and the 1990s Marvel miniseries. Reprinted on glossy large format pages, the art is a joy to behold, especially the art for the movie adaptation: shot directly from Williamson's originals, the ornate panel ,bleeds carry on further than the crudely printed originals issue allowed and the high quality scans even enable the reproduction of the ink washes used instead of featuring solid blacks, feeling like a true reproduction of the original art and an insight into a master's finished work.

All of this has been leading to the recommendation that if you truly appreciate comic art, do yourself a favour and buy the Williamson Flash Gordon book and you won't be disappointed (though don't expect much of the scripts!)

Anyone For Scribbles?

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:16:00 +0000

For a number of reasons, I'm not able to concentrate on drawing at the moment. Despite laying out a six page sequence for an Image art talent search that I could easily do (quality issues aside) and wanting to do samples for BICS, I'm finding that really I just can't produce. I try and it just farts out like a deflated souffle.

Even blogging seems to be a chore at the minute (as does everything really!) so while my Flash Gordon post percolates, here's some recent things I've been working on. (Bugger, just remembered I was asked to do another poster today for work!). From the bottom:

Line art of new Who sidekick Amy Pond, actress Karen Gillan: she looks great in the most widely publicised pic of her so I tried drawing it. This will eventually be pencil shaded so hopefully the dodgy likeness will come together a bit more...

Next, one of the officers from work requested a pic after seeing the pic I did of another girl in the office (previously posted here somewhere): despite being a bit basic, I actually quite like this drawing but the face is generic and I had to approximate the hair, so it looks nothing like her. I won't show this to her but it's good enough to post: I couldn't gather the enthusiasm to add pencil shading so just flat coloured this, adding some dark tights to further distance it from the officer (the clothes are sort of what she wears but again, I had to fudge details and specifics).

Finally, another request from a girl in the office, the same person mentioned above. She said "You've got to draw another picture of me, bursting out of an Ikea bag or something!" She sits opposite me at the minute so it was easy to doodle a quick likeness to draw up at home but I again failed dismally at capturing her features. She's one of the most naturally pretty girls I've met so this does her no favours and the art's pretty shonky throughout. I drew her in the outfit she was wearing the day she asked me to draw another pic but I had to again fudge details like the belt and boots, which I couldn't really look at without looking like I was ogling or something. I tried pencil shading to save it a bit but I still think it's a poorer pic than the first one, although she liked it so job done I suppose...

Kick ARSE!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:53:00 +0000

Now I know it's hardly surprising for me to kick off a post with some Romita Jr art, seeing as I'm such a fan (cough) but bear with me...

There's a surprising amount of hidden talents and skills around you if you get to know people. In my office alone, there is a comedy script writer who plays in a band, another person in a band actually playing on CDs, a former interior designer and a talented cook (I know that doesn't sound much but you should taste how she makes the most innocuous looking things taste eye-flutteringly devine!).

Today I found myself walking home with somebody who I overheard talking about her recent work as an extra on a crime show or something. Being a film/TV fan (though increasingly less of the latter), I began asking her about this line of work when she said (being short) "I had to play a little girl in a movie recently!"I asked her more and she was hired as the stand-in: y'know, the body double used to set up lighting and block out shots before being replaced with the actual actress. When I asked her what the film was, she said "It's not out yet, it's called KickArse...". (Yes, Kick ARSE, OK?Not Kick Donkey Synonym, Kick ARSE)

"KickArse?!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, have you heard of it?"

"Ohhh yeah, I know KickArse, I..the writer's not my favourite..." (Actually, I like Ultimates but his FF, Spider-Man, Wanted, Civil War and War Heroes have all ranged from meh to offensively mean-spirited).

"I don't know him but I couldn't take to the director Matthew Vaughn, he was right up himself.."

Bloody hell, I work in the same office as somebody in a comic movie (before you shout "She was only a stand in", for one shot she was a hand double of the little sword swinging girl, so there). You really never what lies below the surface until you scratch, do you?

You could even find something like, I dunno, a Kryptonite heart giving me an excuse to post a cool-looking pic of Metallo from Smallville's next season.

Hulk Smash!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:05:00 +0000

'Kay, I trundled off to the quack's recently for a routine blood, piss 'n' whatever else test and everything was fine...except my blood pressure, which had spiked. I was expecting this as work's got to such a manic stage that the non-stop bollocks is driving me nuts (so to speak). Not to mention the fact that I'm the only person taking every single call in the second busiest section of work but I'm thwarted in trying to achieve my own job by three other sections in the same department. I'm a fairly easygoing person but I'm a slow slow burn and bottling the pressure has steadily been getting to me, causing me to want to throw a Hulk-like tantrum. Course, I can't so the mounting pressure builds within, resulting in thumping headaches and nauseous, swimmy spells...

I've been popping a few paracetamols and taking the odd breath of fresh air but quite frankly, my resilience and patience have gone. Whereas up to a few weeks ago, I felt energised when i left work and was eager to get on with my own time, now everything's all a bit...meh.

I can't be arsed at work (and capability apart, I've always been fairly conscientious) and constantly space out. What's worse, it's spilling over into me personal time as I'm horrendously apathetic at the moment: I've only managed breakfast for the past few days, can't even be bothered to get lunch or make dinner. I just can't summon the will to draw or even read (my read pile currently numbers 60ish back issues, two books and about five GN/TPBs), I just want to..well, I don't want to do anything. At work I get so (cumulatively) infuriated that I just want to kill myself, stab my own hand or pluck out my own eye (I won't though---I'm not actually suicidal, just driven to loony rage) but at home, intellectually I want to get productive but emotionally can't engage. I'm spending too much time pondering my sanity...I don't feel like I'm having a depressive bout but god damn if I don't have the same symptoms.

I started doing some samples (Superman above) and gave up as I couldn't focus: dunno if its because I'm angsty or the art's crap but I gave up as it just wasn't coming together. I started compiling a portfolio for BICS this year...and find that the Oni pages are lacklustre, with nothing yet to boost them up. I printed off a few nice colour pics I liked at Staples and they came out nice but too dark so I don't know what I'll show. Maybe I won't. maybe I'll pack in all the drawing, what's the point? (Well, I still want to draw my own stuff...but what's the point of working in a vacuum if you're not an astronaut?). I doubt myself at the best of times, let alonee when on the verge of a titanic hissy fit.

I halfheartedly scanned in a tweaking of an old pic and coloured that as it was all i could be bothered to do..I don't like the art or (basicly flat) colours at all but kinda like the way the red pops...kinda sums up my mood right now...

This Week I Have Mostly Been...

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:47:00 +0000

Well, I actually started some pencil samples yesterday and am happy with the main figure but have doubts about the background and I have a few things to do online so no drawing tonight. So what else has been occupying my time?

Well, I ordered Al Williamson's Flash Gordon back in December and it finally turned up, on my birthday of all days. I haven't done more than flick through it yet but I know this will be a firm favourite: an over sized black and white collection of ALL of his Flash Gordon work, his first stuff as strong as his last work decades later. I've been a fan of Williamson ever since his Star Wars issues and loved Flash Gordon as a kid so this is pure gold for me.

Sitting on my box of Legion issues to get through are a Modesty Blaise collection (an Amazon bargain with art by Romero), Insiders: Chechen Guerrilla (a Cinebook reprinting of a Euro comic currently being developed by Jessica Alba...lovely drawing but all plot and no characterisation, so a bit of a slog to read) and Arthur The Legend, a glossy Welsh (but English language)reprinting of a French comic retelling the roots of the Arthurian legend.

I don't really have the concentration or time for reading any fiction or anything overly taxing but have enjoyed two books lately: although a brisk read, Was Superman A Spy? is a fun collection of stories from Comic Book Legends, a column at Comic Book Resources that reveals the truth behind various comic book rumours. The book covers more recognisable properties than some of the more interesting stories around minor properties but is still intriguing.

The most enjoyable book I've read in a while is Charlie Brooker's dawn of the Dumb. I haven't really read daily papers since working at Smiths, where I read the Guardian and always enjoyed Brooker's writing. His Screenwipe, Dead Set and current C4 game show thingy were enjoyable so I picked up this book, collecting some of his Guardian articles . He is slowly revealed as not only a closet sci-fi, comic and techno geek but also a hilarious misanthrope. I read this at work and found myself giggling like an idiot every few pages at a turn of phrase or amusing notion. Well recommended.

TV wise, there's absolutely sod all on but luckily my TV pimp Mr McGee has supplied me with copious hours of TV fun. I'm currently watching the first season of The West Wing, intrigued by Rol's listing of President Bartlett among his best TV characters. I only ever caught the odd show but always enjoyed it so when offered the chance to view a season, I took it. Other than the Ivan Reitman-sounding end music and Josh's obnoxious media consultant ex-girlfriend (seriously, I haven't hated a character so much so instantly since reboot Starbuck!), I'm really enjoying it so far...though I can't believe a democratically elected government is ruled so much by favours and trade offs instead of genuine values. On the other hand...is it wrong to find CJ kinda foxy?

Anyway, best TV I've watched recently is the end of Lost Season Five. This has benefited no end from having a definite direction to follow, despite a few plot holes like if one character died from time travelling because she was born on the island, shouldn't another character have also died after time travelling at the same time? However, the double final episode opened up a whole new can of worms: free will vs destiny, the manipulation of the crash survivors and a major change for the final season. That character down the mine shaft in the end? Quite liked them but as they're in the new V, they won't be around much next season but I wouldn't be surprised if we see more departed characters. Great stuff and alot more rewarding than Heroes, which hit it's peak with season one, spiked during the first half of season three but looks to experience an excruciating fourth (and hopefully final) season..

I also enjoyed the two seasons of Carnivale, which only represent the first third of the planned six-season series before expense cut the show off but can still be viewed asa complete story in and of itself, albeit with a dangling plot thread or two. This is one od the best TV productions I've seen, the title sequence alone being damned impressive, and I liked the slow build in an epic tale of good vs evil. The second season really tied together the two opposing elements, leading them to each other while subtly highlighting their similaities and differences, mirror images of each other. There's moments of haunting despair and fleeting exultation but overall it's a grimy depiction of a turbulent era. Shame it didn't last though...

Ringading

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:33:00 +0000

Not much to say except here's the finished version of the Arisia pic...coulda spent more time on the colours but lack of time 'n' all that...also cropped the right hand side to place the figure better on the image.

Right, I'm off to watch Grizzly Man...

Somewhere Oa The Rainbow

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:10:00 +0000

A week ago, I happened to catch a glimpse of the new cg-animated teen Iron Man series and the new kiddie-friendly Spectacular Spider-Man show. Of the two, Spidey was definitely the best as there was something just too weird about Iron Man to be palatable (it would have been better if it was an original character rather than a licensed show). Spidey had the fashionable faux anime style but at least the show stayed true to the spirit of the comics, mixing Silver Sable, Silvermane, Hammerhead and even Foswell aka the Big Man into the mix. The best Marvel animated series at the moment is still Wolverine and the X-Men however, which I find odd to watch having emotionally divorced myself from the X-line now...it's like watching home movies of an ex-lover...

Still, while musing how DC rules the animated airwaves over their Marvelous competitors, I began watching the new Green Lantern: First Flight animated DVD and wondered why their animated features are also much more enjoyable than Marvel's. It's not that Marvel's are terrible, it's just that they're usually misjudged reimaginings that make the characters unlike the originals and a result in forgettable adaptations. DC's animated features however stay true to the roots of the characters and results in a great set of films. New Frontier is definitely the best but Green Lantern is pretty fun, a great rollicking template for the upcoming live-action version.

I've been coincidentally reading some GL stuff recently (such as the promising Blackest Night and the first Sinestro Corps War collection) and as I wanted to try and do a new colour pic, I decided to draw Arisia from the GL Corp. Her costume stands out from the other GLs because of the large amount of white so she immediately draws your eye, as she did in the DVD.

I remember her from the 80s as being quite a naive, innocent character so I wanted to keep a doe-eyed look (not modelled on but kinda like Beth from Neighbours wot sung Torn) instead of a smiling sexpot. I liked the face on the first attempt but wasn't sure I was going to comfortably fit the second leg in and had concerns about twisting the torso musculature correctly. The second version quickly went off the boil: I tried the same face but it came out wrong, the hips went wrong and the pose was boring. Luckily third time's the charm and I managed to pencil and ink a version today. I'm going to reduce this down, pencil shade it and colour it on the PC so hopefully it'll all turn out well in the end...

Rapid Random Returns!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:13:00 +0000

Giant mecha roams Tokyo (genuine picture)!!

Bloody hell, Geoff Johns follows his Legion episode by introducing the JSA in the next season of Smallville! Even better, more Lois Land than last season!

Silver #1 on the way!

Submissions to Oni also in its way! (Despite poor copies as Staples are getting more crap with each visit).

Boo! Missed out on the freebie Black Lantern rings as I'd already bought Blackest Night #1 in Nostalgia...

Yay! The new Green Lantern animated DVD is great (fuller post to follow)...

And finally, the real reason James Earl Jones had to dub over Darth Vader...

http://tinyurl.com/snatch186

My Little Oni

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:02:00 +0000

Following up from the last post, here are the opening and losing pages of the Oni strip.

I was leaving the first page til last as I knew the main panel would be a pain. I pencilled and inked the other panels first then began thumbnailing the main panel. I didn't get very far as after thumbnailing only the bottom most office worker, I roughed him in on the actual page and then proceeded to rough out the rest of the panel direct on the page with no thumbnailing. Unusually, things just flowed together really easy so four hours of inking later, job done!

Oni Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Recently Oni Comics announced an artist talent search for the convention season Stateside but they are also accepted postal submissions. Supplying three five-page scripts, the only guide is that at least one strip must be included so even though the deadline's mid-August, I thought I can easily get five pages done so I'm considering submitting some work.

Each of the three strips present their own challenge. One is a Western and I have enough reference from my old Wolf Who Thunders research to be able to make a pass but it's still a daunting thing to do a historical strip. The second strip was an espionage strip that not only involved a double-page spread (which I've never done before so I'm unsure how the bleeds/gutters work on those at this point) but some late 1980s references: as my phoneline's been disconnected for a week or so, that put online referencing out of the way so I chose the last strip.

So far, this has been fairly straightforward (there's a main panel on the last page that I'm leaving till last as it's gonna be tricky) but I'm not sure about the results. I've been putting alot of time in on these (mainly as the blocking of blacks takes time due to lots of little areas of black in the backgrounds) and don't feel like the results match up to the hours put in.

Anyway, here's three pages, with me set to ink another tomorrow...

Donna Kebab

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:26:00 +0000

After a few weeks of not really drawing much (mainly due to work being such a leech on my time and energy but a few other inconvenient interruptions too), finally got back to a bit of drawing today and thought I'd go in and finish off that Wonder Girl pic I finished recently.

Bit of an odd history to this one: first roughed out when I was trying to practise drawing characters at a larger (ie A3ish) size than usual, I never really had an idea of who the character would be. (Original version previously posted here: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kEt7mVB6EUU/SY3hql_WNXI/AAAAAAAAAjY/ilrHPlvaeC0/s1600-h/net+sketch.jpg) For a while I figured I might use Power Girl but the proportions seemed off to me so I abandoned it. Still, there were elements I liked so I photocopied the pencils at A4 in order to better determine the errors and hey, presto, things became clear and I drew in the correct proportions.

During this recent fallow period, I dusted off the original, tweaked it and decided to turn it into the Donna Troy Wonder Girl: I always loved Perez's depiction of her and can never get her quite "on model" with his version but I still kinda like this one. Using pens to draw the lasso was a mistake though, so I pencilled a new lasso and used Photoshop to tinker with it and drop it to replace the original and ta-da, Wonder Girl is finished!

Rapid Randoms!

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:25:00 +0000

Not posted much lately as the things I was considering posting were not particularly interesting even to me. Subjects rejected were:

Terminator 4: Too uninteresting to gather up the requited concentration...

Blood: The Last Vampire: Bloody awful...

Political Correctness: Work-related shenanigans that I decided not to post as it might get me the sack...

Blue Beetle & Booster Gold: The first figures I've bought in yonks are the rather cool DCUniverse Blue Beetle and Booster Gold figures...

Shite Saturday: How I nearly got into a fight as I wouldn't back down to twat with a chip on his shoulder just after getting a call from my bank telling me they've cancelled my card due to fraudulent activity (thankfully they stopped the transactions pretty sharpish and stopped them)...

Carnivale: May still post about this show after I've watched the second season...

Artwork: Not done much but a teaser above plus an old semi-pencilled figure that I returned to and turned into Wonder Girl. Not too bad in the end but the lasso's wonky (used Pilot pens rather than a softer smoother pen that would have been as amooth as the pencils. I maycolour this and photoshop a better lasso in...

Michael Jackson: Actually I couldn't care less, so never even thought about posting about him..

He's Baaaaaaack.....

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:51:00 +0000

Seems to be a whole heap of tumbleweeds blowing through the blogs at the minute and the endurance test that is work at the moment means that mine is no different. Haven't had the time or energy to draw much this month but above is the cover to the impending Silver #1...not the greatest example of visual sequential storytelling as I was more interested in churning the story out in as small a number of pages as possible (12!) but hopefully it's fun to read. Two short backups fill out the 24-page first issue, with #2 being an edited version of the last Silver #1, with an all-new conclusion (and possibly a short strip rounding out the package).

This Weekend Oi Have Mostly Been...

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:49:00 +0000

...watching episodes of Lost, playing with animals and struggling to sleep but I did also manage to script some pages, tweak the text to the Silver script and complete this illo...

Anatomy Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Well, following on from Dave's thread ("The Key"), thought I'd do a post following the creation of a page...quality aside, let's begin...

As I've just completed a Silver strip, I'll use that as an example. As I wrote this myself, I worked in an unorthodox way: I wrote down the basic beats that the plot had to hit and assigned a page to each, although I did commit the cardinal sin of switching locales on the same page (or else I'd Havw to do an extra page to facilitate the switch). Hopefully the switch is subtle enough that you'll only know there's been a switch when you read the caption. I'll use a specific page as an example for all stages, except the comparison between pre and post-black spotting (as I forgot to scan the same page before blocking in the blacks!)

I usually thumbnail a few pages on a sheet of A4 at roughly 3 inches each in scrawly scribbles that probably only I can decode as they're just placeholder to remind me of the images in my head, but quite often what I end up drawing can be quite different. I only scrawled a few lines of dialogue here and there so had to leave space for text later as I only had a basic idea of what I was going to write. The nature of the panel requirements usually preclude the necessity for multiple page layouts, although there is probably something to be said for a few different takes.

I start a page by ruling the borders and then ruling the panel borders with a Berol or Pentel: experience and my thumbnails usually guides me pretty well as to how much space I'll need per tier. If I was lettering onto the art, I'd also do all the lettering first (EC-style) and do the balloons after the pencilling but before the inking. In this instance i wasn't lettering so cracked straight on with the pencilling. I usually pencil a page a day over the weekend for me to ink through the weeknights: I usually start on a Saturday morning as Jonathan Ross starts on Radio 2 at 10.00 and usually finish around the end of his show at 1.00, sometimes earlier and sometimes later. There's been some discussion over how tight my pencils for myself are: I'd class them as layouts as really only the figures are usually properly detailed, but others tell me these are complete pencils. What I class as full pencils must be ultra tight!

I usually a start a page (both pencilling and inking) with the easier or more fun panels and get into things for a while before tackling some of the more involved work, so I never complete a page sequentially. Currently I usually try to ink about two hours a night, completing a page over two nights. Sometimes I surprise myself and ink a page in a night and other times I end up nearly doubling the time spent on inking, all depends on what I'm drawing. The fewer panels per page, generally the quicker it is to complete but it all depends on what I'm drawing.

As I'm useless with a brush, I inks with a variety of Pilot pens...I can get a consistent line and as the nibs wear down (the ink last far longer than the nibs), I switch back and forth but generally try to keep the same new pens in use for the main drawing of each strip. A set of Pilots used to see me through an issue of the Jock but generally wear out a lot quicker now. Brand new pens started to thicken out about two thirds of the way through the current 12-pager. Again, I use the Berols and Pentels for ruling lines as I find ruling lines knackers Pilots really quickly.

Many artists ink all the heavy blacks first and work out from there but I save that stage to last. Once all the details are inked, I'll erase the whole page and go in with permanent markers or Sharpies to block in the large areas of blacks, using older knackered out Pilots that I can only use at a certain angle to edge into the linework. Once this is done, I'll do any cleaning up or spotting effects using Tippex pens...I used to use the standard bottles but the brushes would frequently clunk up, resulting in lunar surface-like deposits of correction fluid that often needed to be chipped away. With the bottles now using sponges instead of brush tips, I find the pens much better all round.

And then, the page is done and it all starts again...

Anyone For Scribbles?

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:28:00 +0000

Well, pretty good weekend...as well as kicking back a bit and catching up on some reading, still managed to get quite a bit of art done and I received a cheque for my upcoming Back Issue article. Being tied up today meant I got caught up on inking the final page of Silver two days ahead of schedule. I managed to complete the line art for the cover to Pjang #3 and was a bit unsure about it but Rol likes it so I'll colour that asap. I won't post that here as that's his to reveal so I thought I'd post some other bits I've done this weekend...

Asbo Adam has morphed into Asbo Avenger but the bug has spread around the office. Above is the original version of a superheroine version of one of the officers (she didn't like the face or the cape, leading to the much better disco version posted previously) as well as two versions of another officer. She asked for the manga version but when I pointed out that manga characters just look like manga characters rather than bearing any resemblance to actual people, she decided she wanted a superhero version too. The detective is for a (non-work) project with yet another officer and the top picture is of a colleague in our section. She wanted a picture but a "nice one", hence a fairly straightforward depiction. I actually quite like this..it's not a spot on likeness but is close enough to be recognisable, I suppose. She's very pretty in real life so I've probably not done her justice but as a drawing, I quite like it.

Coming soon, a post using an idea nicked from Dave (who I always suspected was making it up about Bar-nolds-wick but now I'm sure when I heard Barnolds-wick being discussed on telly...much like Slawit...)

Drawing My Arse Off

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:35:00 +0000

Phew!! Pretty knackered at the minute as I've been knuckling down and keeping to a pretty strict drawing schedule of about two hours a night of inking Monday-Thursday and at least a page of pencils a day over the weekend. Mostly this is fine (sometimes if it's a panel light page I can pencil or ink a whole page in just a few hours) but once or twice over the past wo weeks, I've stayed up really late (1.30 one Friday night after I got in round about 11.00pm!) to keep on this schedule, usually if I've lost a day to visit the cinema. Quality issues aside, I'm happy with the schedule and amount of work completed at the moment. I only have two pages on inks and one complete page of pencils and inks left and I've completed the Silver strip, then next month I'll knuckle down and start some more samples (if I can think what to draw!).

I still have to complete the cover to Pjang #3 too, which should be a fun job although I have to see if I've left enough room in the layouts I've started as I may lightbox things to move them down slightly. I've also said I'd do some artwork for someone working in our office. Adam's a great guy who is the local anti-social behaviour officer and a former comic reader, particularly liking Green Lantern and the Flash. I've turned him into a superhero called...Asbo Adam. The whole idea makes me giggle, particularly as this character will be run in the local full colour newsletter mag to all council tenants and will be involved in a competition and colouring activities for the kiddies (ahhh!).

I've done a few pics so far but this has led to two other officers requesting to be turned into super heroines! One requested a manga version (so it doesn't look like her, just like every other manga female really) and the other said she likes disco: resisting the initial urge to emulate Dazzler, the result was pretty similar anyway. Adm is also a comedy writer and has had interest in a few scripts and ideas he's written and I'll be working on a few illos for a 20-set hard boiled detective idea he's working on. Should be fun but I tried using a sharpie to see if I could emulate the heavy blacks of a Milt Caniff/Noel Sickles style strip but failed miserably so it'll be back to the Pilot pens for that.

I was also asked to produce a poster to go in our reception area, which will be printed in colour at A3. The good thing about this was I was given the necessary time to draw it in working hours so I was effectively paid to draw, so that was a welcome project. I came up with about ten rough variations on a theme, which were cobbled together and off I went. Drawing took from about 8.00am-10.45am (bar the odd interruption from intrigued co-workers) but I then coloured and lettered it at home, dropping in the required logo as necessary.

I scripted all but one page of Silver yesterday so hopefully, Silver, Pjang #3 and the detective illos will all be done within two weeks...

PS Uploading the third image above seems to have altered the colour drastically fr some reason, the original jpeg has all the proper colours..that bloke still looks like Vernon Kay though...

Trek or Wreck?

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:07:00 +0000

Well, this week's biggest movie is the new Star Trek film and I duly went to see it, excited by the trailers but fearing the ghost of the original cast would loom over the proceedings. I grew up loving the original series and love the TOS movies (particularly II, IV and VI) but the rest of the shows are dull by comparison so I wouldn't class myself as a Trekkie...but Kirk is the kind of leading hero you rarely see anymore. So what was the film like?

Well, I won't reveal spoilers as it's too early to publicly discuss but the film opens really strongly. You're thrust into things not knowing who characters are, what's going on, when things are, etc and this works incredibly well to guide us into the journey of Kirk from rebel to captain. You need no knowledge of Trek at all (though there's a few nods to fans in the details) and the whole thing is given a nice lick of polish (though those of you who thought the bridge of the Enterprise looked like a mobile phone shop will at least know what brand they sell after this!). The effects are great, there are no slow bits at all and the action pretty much carries on throughout the entire movie.

There are surprises: a larger role for Uhura than expected, a surprisingly good Scottish accent by Simon Pegg (though his wife is of the Scottish persuasion so he should have plenty of practice!) and a more pivotal role for Leonard Nimoy than expected. The new Kirk is pretty good actually...never quite reaches Shatner's easy charm but ably fills his boots otherwise. Quinto is great as Spock, at no point making me think of Sylar (so that's a feat in itself!) and Uhura is likable for the first time (she always seemed so confused on the TV show and undeservedly up herself in the movies).

There are a few niggles: Karl Urban pulled off a great DeForest Kelly approximation as Bones but still came across as kind of bland and the weird facial skin of Kirk and Spock's five O'clock shadow become weirdly distracting. Similarly, the perennially youthful Winona Rider seemed suddenly aged and the internal debate about whether they aged her to be believable as Spock's mum or if that's her natural look threw me out of the film in places (though that may say more about the random thoughts that distract me in films!). The plot doesn't really kick in until midway in a really fast-spoken info dump and I was like "Was that the plot they were just explaining there?". The second half of the film kind of steam rolls on to a satisfying but not great finale. There were a few jokes but nobody laughed at them.

So, overall? Great fast-paced reinvention but lacking the deeper plots and characterisation of the earlier films...

Arty Farty Had A Party

noreply@blogger.com (Nige Lowrey) — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Been a few tumbleweeds blowing through here recently so thought I'd post a quick update and after rejecting a post about how much I hate public transport (when really it boils down to the people on public transport), gonna revert to the old art posts again.

I picked up an issue of Crikey! to read on the train and enjoyed the article on Romero, who used to draw both Axa and Modesty Blaise. I've never read any Modesty but always liked the idea but the density of the recent collections can be off putting...I think I need to look at them again for another considered choice for a purchase. I thought I'd try a Modesty Blaise pic but don't like her usual hairdo so changed it, resulting in a fairly generic 60s gal instead. Dunno if I'll ever get around to colouring this as it's only so/so.

After a few quick points for Rol (a logo to send to Dave and thumbnailed cover designs for Rol's approval), work continues apace on Silver. I lost some pencilling time this weekend due to catching up with pals in London but still managed to complete two pages of pencils (plus the Modesty pic). I was quite chuffed to manage a whole page of inks tonight and realise that's due to few panels with minimal backgrounds. I'm still worried about these pages being panel heavy but I'm trying to keep the page count as low as possible as I want to get started on submissions next month. I've worked out the general plot for this story but still need to complete all the layouts but I reckon another six pages will bring the page count up to 13, which will probably run alongside a touched up reprinting of the last Silver one-shot, probably with a short new conclusion to that long-forgotten cliffhanger.