Long time no blogging...

Well... has it been that long for the 3 people that read this blog? Yes it has... to be honest I kind of forgot all about it until today and thought I'd best update it a little with what's been going on.

Harry & Alfie celebrated their first birthday on the 26th April... can't quite believe how quick the last year has gone! They're turning into proper little boys now too, which means burping, farting and causing poor mummy and daddy loads of mischief! Bless' em :-)

Western has got accepted by Diamond which is great news, there's more news on the Accent UK website... orders didn't quite hit the threshold but they allowed it anyway, which is great for getting the book into as many hands as possible and also that it means we can print both 'Whatever Happened to the World's Fastest Man?' and 'Man of Glass'. Superb news for all concerned.

Pencilling on Wolfmen 2 is finally done and I'm now on the orduous task of inking it all... and corrected stuff that didn't look right the first time. I will post some work in progress on here as soon as I get stuck in and get some pages under my belt. I'm inking slightly smaller this time in an effort to speed up the process. I'm also leaving black areas blank as well to be filled with photoshop ink... which will please my poor suffering Pitt pens for using them up too quickly!

Also part way through my pinup for the 'Fastest Man' book, and have also completed all the design work on Dave's 'Strange Times' book... it's a fine looking book and a real testament to Dave's skill as a writer and artist... I'm sure all of you who enjoyed it online and from his little mini-comics will look having it as a collectable hardcover book. I know I will. We just have to give it the final once over and upload it to the printers and let them do their bit. Very exciting stuff.

I'm also got a pinup for next years anthology 'Predators' in production, and have done the cover design for 2011's anthology 'Victoriana' which you can see on the AUK website. The cover was drawn by the mighty Dave Hitchcock, and it was a pleasure to do it too. Dave is without a doubt one of the best artists I've ever met. If there was any justice he'd be working on Hellboy or Batman... you can check out his stuff by following the link to his blog on the right hand side of the page.

Long time friend of Accent UK, Dwight MacPherson had a strip entered in the Zuda Comics competition and only went and won it! Many congrats to Dwight and the rest of the team... which would be yours truly as well, as 'Sidewise' features a logo design by me. Great stuff.

Speaking of 'Predators', I'm very lucky to be working with John Reppion and Leah Moore on a story for this, and I couldn't finish this post without wishing the most heartfelt congratulations to both John and Leah as they are expecting a little addition to the Moore-Reppion household later this year. The very best to you all.

Phew! glad that's over... more soon... promise :-)

Andy

Western in Previews

Yep, considering Diamond's current stance with regards small press comics/publishers, we at AUK headquarters all feel pretty chuffed that Western got accepted to Previews and is in the June issue (so go pester your local comic dealer to order a copy... or two... or three).

Now it still has to meet their new minimum order threshold so the hard work isn't done yet, infact Dave is busy emailing US stores with a link for them to download a full pdf file I created so they can see the quality of the book and hopefully put some orders in. Fingers crossed!

I'm hoping there might be some art to show on this art blog soon... I'm now working on Dave's Strange Times collected edition, some more Wolfmen 2 art (and the last page I did is probably the worst thing I've drawn for quite some time... hopefully I can correct some of it when I come to ink it) and I still have this pinup for Fastest Man to do, which I'm going to get around to doing very soon. I've got an idea for a pinup for Predators (next years Accent UK anthology) that I want to get moving on too. Lots on as usual.

I'm also deciding what my next project might be after Wolfmen 2... I think a break from that would do me good and enable me to come back refreshed for the third and final book... I've got a great script from Dave that's a possibility. I've also been talking to Cy Dethan, the talented writer behind Insomnia's superb Cancertown book (that's understandably getting a lot of positive buzz) about the chance of doing something too.

Original art sale

I'm thinking of selling some of my artwork to raise some much needed funds.

I've never done this before as the thought of someone actually wanting to buy some of my work seems odd in itself... but times being what they are, and the work is just sitting there I thought I might give this a go.

I'm currently deciding how best to do it... whether a website listing (with a paypal payment link) or ebay, but haven't thought that far ahead yet.

What will be offered will be all the work from my Accent UK work, namely Twelve, Monsters, Zombies, Robots (both stories), Western and of course Wolfmen.

More news this soon.

Strange Times

Dave West produces a brilliant little weekly webcomic (available for free on the Accent UK website) called 'Strange Times'.

Now I'm helping him produce a hardcover A5 collected edtion that will reprint all these strips and with all new material (and I believe Dave is taking this opportunity to correct a few niggly things with some of the strips that you get sometimes with having to do a strip a week) and of course some pinup art too.

He asked me to do one and in typical fashion (for me anyway) it's taken longer than I wanted to get it done. Yesterday I finally finished it and here it is... presented along with the original doodle.

The book also features some superb art from Garen Ewing, Shane Oakley and Indio to name but a few.

I imagine that after Bristol is over we will be getting this done, dusted and off to the printers.

Speaking of Bristol, there's an off chance I might be going... watch this space.

Another Western review!

Courtesy of David Hailwood and the fine folk on the down the tubes website:

Great review, thanks David!

Clickity, click!

Another day, another review... ZOMBIES!!!

Yep, another review from the fine folk at Comics Bulletin.

Not sure I agree with a lot of what he says here, as I think this is still a very strong collection of stories, but he likes my work so I'll let him off :-)

In other news, recently Kieron and I were contacted by 2 film students from Derby who wanted to film our story in 'Zombies'... called 'Zombies' strangely enough. We both thought this was very cool and gave them permission to do so.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing the results... hopefully we'll be able to post it on the Accent UK site... until then, watch this space for 'Zombies: The Movie'!

Newsarama reviews Robots!

Yes indeed... popular US comics site Newsarama has reviewed ROBOTS as part of their regular 'best shots' feature.

Good review too, the guy seriously seems to like the book, and he says it's a better anthology than Image Comics' own 'Popgun' book. High praise indeed.

Above is a screengrab of the review, but clicking on the link below will take you to the full site. Enjoy!

Clickity click!!