#124: Frying pan, fire.

I am both hot and busy.

Jun 13, 2023

ALL THE LATEST

Since last writing to you Decolytes, I jumped out of a frying pan of work, into the nice pool of a family holiday [where I still did some writing] then back into the fire of getting OLD DOG #6 finished.

-Did someone say fire? Well allow me to show you this variant cover for GHOST RIDER! A variant cover for #18, I believe. Should be solicited in a week or so.

Please don’t show online! This is a treat for Declarations readers only.

-So yes, I was away at Málaga for a cousin’s wedding, which was a wonderful time. I actually got a bit of colour and no, for once I don’t mean sunburn! Was a nice break to have in the last few hectic weeks. I worked in a signing at Comic Stores while I was there which went great. There was a seated audience for a Q & A [turns out my razor sharp wit translates well into Spanish], then I sketched in all the hardcovers that the Europeans always collect work into. No silly paperbacks for them!

Everyone was lovely and Comic Stores were wonderful hosts. Thanks to my Spanish publisher Norma for helping me set it up.

-I took the opportunity to take a lot of photos of magnificent churches in Málaga[there’s so many of the there!], for reasons. Well, those reasons being reference/inspiration for PROJECT ARCHA that I plan on starting soon enough.

-But yes, I’m now up to my eyeballs trying to wrap OLD DOG, had to get material together for the TIME BEFORE TIME trade together and do some ALIEN script edits. Once that’s all cleared, I have PROJECT FEAR to write, a slate of covers to do, and soon start work on drawing PROJECT MINER, assuming the script is approved by then. Once that’s taken care of, I have a work for hire pitch I want to work on, start on PROJECT ARCHA and reeeeallllly need to get some overdue commissions done. Like a YEAR overdue :-/

Wait, where’s the ‘break’ I was planning…?

-Heads up, my ~~friend~~/enemy Stephen Mooney has a new ROCKETEER mini series coming out on12th of July!DEN OF THIEVES is written by Mooney with art by David Messina and covers by Gabriel Rodríguez.

-Found this while looking through some files, a cover for ELEKTRA: BLACK WHITE & BLOOD that just seemed to get lost in the editorial machine, so never ended up drawing the final. Shame, as I think it could have turned out pretty.

-Lastly, keep an eye out online this week as I’ll likely do another OLD DOG colouring stream on Twitch. Can’t say when exactly [as I don’t know for sure], but sometime over the next four days.

OLD DOG

Issue Five is out tomorrow!

OLD DOG #5 at Brave New Wolds, Philladelphia

Please do let me know what ye think, this issue is the weird one where I was a bit more ambitious in the storytelling. Some might say pretentious, but not I.

Well maybe.

Figured ye might like to see my layouts/colour map for Issue Four…

As ye might see from the actual issue, I stayed very close to the map in this installment. The maps are getting more detailed, from a colouring standpoint admittedly but I find it easier to try things out in this stage, solve problems, that means when I’m colouring pages, it’s a smoother ride.

With all the covers out in public, wanted to show ye my approach with the OLD DOG covers. I wanted to do full-page illustrations but use a more dominating trade dress to force my compositions into a specific space, making these cover different to any other covers. I basically have a live area of half the page to condense any important information, and push me to play with negative space.

I was considering launching each full illustration as a print as each issue come out, but I got busy and also, didn’t get a sense that there was huge demand. What do ye think, would any of ye like to see one or two of these covers as prints? Would be willing to do one if there was enough demand.

I’m currently finishing washes/inks on the last pages of Issue Six, to start colouring tomorrow. I just did my lettering draft for Issue Six over the weekend. Normally I’d wait until the colours are done, etc, but I’m running cloooose to my deadline and need to get the draft to Clayton asap so he can letter off my inks. Its not ideal, but it is what it is! Gotta keep the gears moving.

Once this is issue is done, I’ll start work on getting the REDACT ONE trade together as well as make proper plans for an OLD DOG/Art Deco project. Watch this space! Also want to start working out the story for the next OLD DOG installment.

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ALIEN

I just handed in my 7th ALIEN script, now I’ll have to wait on notes from 20th, which is fine as I’m up the walls for the next week with OLD DOG. I’m happy with it though, in just 7 issues of this book I feel I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool stuff already.

Not content with blasting out brilliant ALIEN pages every day, artist Andrea Broccardo has been doing an ALIEN commission or two for some very lucky people.

Here’s a peek at his inks from Issue Three.

This issue has just been handed in to the printers I believe, coloured by Triona Farrell with some assists by another Irishwoman Ruth Redmond, who was part of the Red Cube Apprenticeship program I ran with Jordie Bellaire many years ago. Now she’s colouring part of a book I’m writing at Marvel…? Life is wild sometimes.

The sixth issue I’ve written for ALIEN is for a guest artist who has just handed in his layouts, which look excellent. It’s a pretty fun standalone issue, hope to see it announced in the next 2/3 weeks. Here’s a peek at some layouts…

TIME BEFORE TIME

Issue 24 is out soon! June 21st, to be precise. I really can’t wait for this issue to come out, definitely up there with one of my favourite issues we’ve done.

Photo by Will Morris

Chris O’Halloran has coloured Issue 25, [Geoffo’s first issue] and it looks fantastic.

I’m always so impressed with how Chris elevates each artist who joins us on the book. He’s managed to keep the more subtle approach he did from the start on Joe’s pages, while also adapting slightly to each style, enhancing each artist while still keeping the feel of the series. I talked with Chris about this in the TIMELINES section of #24, so check that out in the new issue too.

Another peek! Revealing here ahead of solicitations, my cover for #27. We also have this wondrous B cover by Malachi Ward [below].

We just got everything together for or Vol 4 trade, thanks to some Herculean efforts from our designer Sasha Head. Here’s her finished trade dress.