The Life And Times Of L.R.G.Carter

So It's Time We Talked About February...

2012-02-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

It always seemed to me that February must have stolen some prized possession from all the other months, such they they formed a lynch mob and cut off its hands in a horrible homage to a Medieval witch-trial. Even after February was bitten by that second cousin (three times removed) of a werewolf, causing one of its hands to grow back for a single day every four years, I can still feel only suspicion that February may return to its criminal ways, and cannot ever trust it to be a real month.

As such, following January's wonderful Dr WTF?! theme, I found myself wondering if I could cluster all of this month's posts around a similar, singular idea, and decided that "Any Random Stuff That Doesn't Fit Elsewhere" was the best that February deserves.

Let us begin with this old doodle of the ABC Warriors. I found it while clearing out some crud to make room for the electrician to completely rewire our house. The chaos (Khaos?) this process caused cost me a few nights of comic work, so it is only fair I'm getting a blog post out of it.

An Actually Canon Picture Of Doctor Who!

2012-01-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

Well, no, that was a lie. What I mean is that it isn't Doctor WTF?! this time round. An old picture that some may have seen before, but it still makes me chuckle on that annual inevitable day when I find it buried in my archive.

Hauptmann Who In... First Glimpse Of The Coming Race!

2012-01-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

This is the fourth and final post in what has been my Month Of Dr WTF?! At one point I did wonder if I could try to theme these posts around the same four part structure that most Doctor Who stories used to adhere to, but then I decided that my time would be better spent doing something that was actually productive.

Remember earlier in the month when I said I was going to get a bit experimental? Well, where better to experiment than Doctor WTF?!

"Um, in your own time and not when you are rushing to meet a deadline?" I hear the editor lament.

And yes, there is that I suppose. But I've decided to try for some colour. And I've started every sentence in this paragraph with a conjunction! So it's all sorts of innovative fun all round!

So let's have a look at what I've been up to. Still a little more work to go, but everything is trundling along nicely.

That's it for Doctor WTF?! Month. Next time you see me talking about this project, it will be when Owen brings news of its completion, and then not even a TARDIS would be able to contain my excitement!

Regeneration!

2012-01-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

Editor Owen Watts is no doubt going to throttle me for this unwanted piece of continuity, but my two Doctor WTF?! characters both have the same monocle, so it was an alternative canon just waiting to happen.

While we are talking about good ol' Doctor 23, it occurred to me that I'm not sure how many people will have seen this:

Owen had the idea of putting in DVD-extra-esque goodies for people who bought digital copies of Dr WTF?! 2011, and this is my contribution. It is the panel that you can't remember reading and I can't remember drawing. I do remember waking up to find I had scribbled all over my face with what had, until that point, been my best pens. Go figure.

Anyway, enough of Doctor 23, he is sooo last year. Now is the hour of Hauptmann Who, and next week I'll be previewing some finished art! See ya then.

Sometimes The Script Is Easier Than You Think...

2012-01-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

One afternoon, late last year, I spent some small amount of time considering how to make a spaceship that resembled a severed head. I made a little sketch of an actual head to start me off, and went from there.

Two doodles later I thought to myself, "Hmmm, this isn't working, let's check out the script for more inspiration."

Upon rereading the scene, I found that writer Greg Meldrum didn't want me to make a spaceship that looked like a severed head, he wanted me to have an actual severed head floating about in space. Which is bizarrely easier to draw. Who would have guessed.

So What Do I Want From The New Year?

2012-01-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

As well as continuing with Halo and the Gryphon, and hopefully an episode of Rise of the Mekkosapiens, this year I'm striking out in new directions. I have a few non-comic projects planned, and I intend to get a bit more experimental as well. This may well mean post after post of both successful and unsuccessful artistic try-outs, but however it goes I'm hoping to keep up a roughly weekly schedule of blogging, so you get to hear all about it. Doesn't that sound promising.

First though, January will see me finishing off my pages for Doctor WTF?! Let's start off with some design sketches. Everyone loves design sketches.

End Of Year Review

2011-12-31T10:35:00.000-08:00

Last year I discovered that there is something of a tradition among small press bloggers of creating a yearly review of everything recently accomplished. I found this out a little late to write anything up myself, and probably would not have thought much of my achievements at the time.

This was unfortunate, as it meant I failed to thank my brother for getting me to create this blog, the Legendary Shark for dishing out his scripts to all who would wish to practise on them, Matt Mclaughlin for seeing this practise work and for letting me work on his own strips, and the wonderful people at Temple APA for publishing our first collaboration; Lugal.

Lugal: Temple APA Issue 8

Not to worry though, as this time I am more prepared! The year got off to a good start when Dirk Van Dom saw my art on Lugal and asked me to contribute to Vanguard. The first issue was released in July, and my story Halo And The Gryphon was met with pretty good reviews.

Halo And The Gryphon: Vanguard Issue 1

As we were working on this project, Owen Watts released Dr WTF?! in which I provided some art for Oscar Maltby's story of Apocalyptic Whovian Fan Girls. I got to draw varying standards of cosplay, and expressed my view on the term "Homo Repticular" (no italics).

Back To The Wreckage: Dr WTF?! 2011

By the time Vanguard burst free from it's release date, I was already working on episode 3 of Rise of the Mekkosapiens. Matt Mclaughlin once again trusted me to put my pen to his words and I got to draw crowd scenes, chase scenes, and all round robot action. This has recently been released in Paragon 9, so go check it out.

Paragon Issue 9: Rise Of The Mekkosapiens Part 3

Halloween saw the release of Hallowscream, which answered some reviewers requests that I put fewer lines into my art work. I got to add another writer to my list of collaborators, and Lizzie Boyle seemed pretty pleased with the results. Don't forget this one is available for free, and can be enjoyed not just at Halloween, but every other day of the year as well!

Storage: Hallowscream 2011

That's the last of my publication credits for the year, but it certainly doesn't finish the list of work I've been involved with. The art for Halo And The Gryphon part 2 is already finished, and my work for the next Dr WTF?! continues apace. I've also managed to ensure that I have made over 52 blog posts this year. That averages out at one a week!

Next year I'm hoping to be even more productive, but I feel that will be a tale for another day. Hope you all enjoy your new year's celebrations, everyone. See you in the future!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T04:10:00.000-08:00

Tis the time of year when we celebrate the birth of He who has died and yet will one day return.

I speak, of course, of Great Cthulhu!

Many and various are the reasons I associate Christmas and Cthulhu, and it isn't just because Christ and Cthulhu are as one! Life has been pretty busy, and it has been a while since I have drawn any Mythos pictures. As such, this year's festive offering comes from my friend Jenny, and none other than Henry Flint! Mr Flint did this "doodle" for Jenny when she bought his new book, and Jenny said I could show it off here for Christmas! Her request was for Cthulhu eating a kitten. As you can see, the kitten does not look best pleased about this.

Henry Flint's Cthulhu Eating A Kitten

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Work Here Is Done

2011-12-13T18:04:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post this week to celebrate the completion of art for Halo and the Gryphon part 2. Here's a preview picture of the story's leading lady. We saw her from a distance last issue, but now we get to find out a little more about her.

In Halo And The Gryphon Part 2...

2011-12-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

Things go badly for this fella...

Things go badly for this lot as well...

In fact, things don't go well for anyone really...

Well, okay, the guy driving this helicopter comes out ahead, but something tells me his luck won't last...

A Preliminary Glance At Halo And The Gryphon Part 2

2011-12-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

I've been working on Halo and the Gryphon part 2. Next week I'll have some preview panels, but for now it's character-development-sketch-time!

This is Lissah, Sabillon holotype and catalyst for a whole lot of stuff that happens in this story. You may remember my earlier attempts to narrow down her look.

There will also be a helicopter in this story! Flying about in the sky, being all happy and free. Oh what a life helicopters must lead.

Paragon 9: Rise Of The Mekkosapiens Part 3!

2011-11-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

You go and say something like "That's all my blogging for this month," and then the inevitable happens, and by 'inevitable' I mean 'something I can't wait until Thursday to shout about!'

Paragon 9 is out!

Jikan the time travelling Japanese warrior could well be fighting some sort of demonic incursion. Icarus may possibly continue to have his mind blown by the alien mermaid who rescued him from the whole flying too close to the sun thing. Nazi secret societies will likely be getting up to all sorts of nefarious deeds, only to have their plans potentialy thwarted by the heroic Spencer Nero. And there's a one off story called No Compromise which looks like it might be about cowboys maybe?

Want to find out how many of these predictions are fulfilled by reality? Check out the comic and see for yourself. It is just 99p from lulu! The last 'jumping-on issue was number 7, so you may want to pick yourself up that one and number 8 as well, just to help you follow the stories.

My entierly biased reason for bringing this to your attention is that I have some art in it! Matt McLaughlin's Rise Of The Mekkosapiens Part 3 sees me drawing some robots, who end up having all sorts of adventures! I enjoyed drawing them, and hopefully you will enjoy reading them!

So That Was November.

2011-11-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

Been a busy month. Been a busy couple of months. As such I fear I have completely neglected my Weekly TAB duties. Last theme was Self Portraits, and so I was able to cheat and post up a few old pieces of work.

Ignore what I wrote on that page. Quill? What was I thinking? It was a stylus. The fact that it was made of glass rather than a feather should have tipped me off.

That's all my blogging for this month. Next month will be seeing me talk frequently about the next episode of Halo And The Gryphon. I've been intensely enjoying that project, and I think you will too!

Me And The Rest Of The Internet Went To Thought Bubble...

2011-11-19T17:13:00.000-08:00

... and it was simply brilliant and I'm going to ramble on about how much fun I had. For the easily bored, there will be pictures, and oh... what pictures!

Now, I am not one for crowded spaces full of people. As such, I would like to congratulate the organisers for making it feel less packed than last year. I am going to assume this is because they spaced the tables a bit wider apart, that was a brilliant idea. If the space was in fact created by lower attendance, then, er, just forget I said anything. I do not believe this could be possible though, last year was good fun, who wouldn't come back? And this year was even better!

First point of call was the Zarjaz stand, for which we were waved down by Bolt and Owen Watts. If you like 2000ad, then you will like Zarjaz and its sister publications. I will need to wax lyrical about these at some point, but I feel that is a post for another day. The stand also had some copies of Dr WTF?! for sale, which was pretty cool as I haven't seen these in the flesh before. Here is a picture of me with my art!

Next it was over to the Pirate Drawing Competition! This was being run by Gillian Rogerson and Sarah Mcintyre, respectively the author and illustrator of You Can't Scare A Princess. I was once again impressed that this convention welcomes people of all ages. Last year I met Sarah as she was getting kids to design aliens for You Can't Eat A Princess. This year I met Gillian, who seemed a little confused by my habit of being older than ten, but let me draw Captain McArrgh anyway. Regular readers will recognise this yellow toothed rogue as the villain from Marlypee Monkey And Baal The Bear, and he'll be returning next year in an exciting new project I can't talk about just yet. Oooooh, cryptic

We met the Planet Replica people, and Matt Booker and Ian Edington, and that was all wonderful. Then it was time to head back over and see what was happening at the 2000ad stall.

Simon Davis was doing sketches, that was what was happening. I hesitate to call them sketches though, for despite considering the sketch to be a proud and noble art-form, such a term falls short of describing what was happening. At several points I thought he was finished, but then he just kept on going, and, well, look at this, just look at it.

Simon Davis's Sky Ripping Elder Horror

He charged me nothing for this, and as he handed it over to me he said, "I'm sorry, the paint is still wet." He was apologising for giving me this thing of beauty. I felt humbled.

This feeling continued as I headed over to see Mick Mcmahon. He was giving away free sketches too. I got a Hammerstein for myself and a Deadlock for my wonderful lady friend. Mick was also the very definition of lovely.

Mick Mcmahon's Deadlock

Mick Mcmahon's Hammerstein

So was Henry Flint, who, it would seem, looks just like his avatar! He has released a book of non-comic art that he claims are 'doodles,' and this was the launch day! The people who sold me this book told me that Henry would "be along shortly to give me a 'personalised doodle'," and so I was expecting a quick scrawl that would none-the-less be pretty awesome. I love a good doodle I do.

So anyway, I wasn't expecting this.

Henry Flint's Nemesis

He also did that thing where every time I thought he was finished, he just kept on going. Once again he wasn't charging anything! There was another person who had stood beside us while Simon Davis was working our magic, and she ended up with us here as well, due to having similar exquisite taste. Henry drew her a Shakara, and my friend Jenny got... well, Jenny got what I consider to be a somewhat Christmassy picture, so I'm going to ask her if I can scan it in and post it up here as we reach the festive season.

That was my time at Thought Bubble. In a mildly intrusive moment of My Other Life (the life I live when I'm not on the internet or drawing comics), I haven't been overly well recently. This day has cheered me up no end. If I ever need reminding of the fact that there are good people in this world, I'm going to look up at these pictures as they hang from the wall, and think back to meeting all these brilliant people. It will help me, so thanks all, and if you've got this far in reading the post, I thank you for that as well.

Goodnight all, see ya next time.

Marlypee's Monkey Tail Mission

2011-11-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

Following Dirk Van Dom's praise of Marlypee Monkey And Baal The Bear, I have decided to present what exists of the sequel.

It was during the creation of this work that I realised the size, format, and quality of these stories were simply not marketable, and my creative energies began being pushed in different directions. As such, two pretty important pictures exist only in pencil form, and not even with pencils that would lend themselves to scanning. Still, I'll push ahead regardless, and try to fill in the gaps. As before, I will spare you the terrible poetry that accompanied this art; there is even more of it than there was last time and it is not pretty.

Do you remember how Marlypee had his tail bitten off by a monster two parts mouth, three parts maggot, and one part Tyrannosaurus arms? Well, Marleypee certainly remembers, because it isn't the sort of thing you forget. Here we see him sat in sorrow beneath his tree. The blue bird is still there. I bet that bird was enjoying all sorts of loud music while Marlypee and Baal were off on their adventure.

But wait! Who is this raven that comes flying by? Why, it is a Good Samaritan! Not the one of biblical parable obviously, I am talking analogously. This charitable avian just so happens to have about their person a magical book containing the secret to reaching the legendary Old One, a wish granter of some repute who would easily be able to give Marlypee back his tail.

Marlypee decides to take this gift, offered with nothing but kindness, and begins ploughing through this voluminous tome. As the raven promised, the book contains a spell for finding your way to a key that opens a gate and takes you to the Old One. Or something. So far, so good, what could possibly go wrong?

What a surprise! The spell works! Marlypee and Baal travel through those strange and iridescent spheres to a strange land not unlike one experienced in dreams. Being new to the area, they do what any lost travellers would do, they find a member of the local police force and ask for directions.

Polly the Police Pufferfish swims through the air and blows out floating bubbles of water every time she exhales. What a topsy-turvy place this is. She knows the way to the Old One's castle and leads them through the forest of thorns, where armadillos jump and dance with sausages and prawns.

On the way they pass a warty toad person trying to sacrifice a cat amid a circle of ancient, other-worldly stones. Polly is having none of this, and bops the toad on the head with her trusty police baton. Law and order has prevailed, and Max the Manx is grateful that his life is saved. He takes great interest in Marlypee's plight, for would you know it, Max is lacking a tail as well! Their desires combined in common purpose, our party of four set off on their way.

Emerging from the forest, Polly reveals the citadel of the Old One, flying amid the clouds. Marlypee is uncertain of how to reach this castle, but Polly explains how they simply need to jump into her floating bubbles and swim in them as they float into the sky. They put this plan to the test and it works pretty well!

Here is where we miss one of the pictures, showing the interior of this grand building, wherein sits the rave atop a massive pile of treasure!

"Welcome Marlypee," says the raven. "I am the Old One of legend. In your humdrum world I can take the form of naught but a scrawny raven, but here in the Dreamlands my powers are almost without limit! Thus do I return your tail!"

And with the wave of a wing, Marlypee's tail grows back out of nothing! However, before they can raise the matter of Max's similar wish, the raven continues.

"And now I have grown a new tail for you, I will bite it off and swallow it whole! Then I shall grow it anew and bite it off once more! You are now my prisoner, to provide me with monkey tails forever, for there is no snack I find tastier than a fresh monkey tail.

Baal remains silent through all this, but you can tell he is sighing inside. Once again he steps up to defend his friend, releasing wrath as only a bear can. The raven remains unphased.

"Foolish bear! As I said before, it is only in your would that I am trapped in the body of a raven. Behold my true form!"

And then there is a massive green tentacled eye mouth monster, which starts picking everyone up with the afore mentioned tentacles and begins stuffing them into the afore mentioned mouths.

Yet in a fortuitous twist of fate, the Old One finds it's prey somewhat hard to swallow. Sneezing is instead the order of the day, and the next missing picture reveals it to have an adorable hanker-chief, with the letters 'OO' embroidered into the corner.

It would seem the Old One is allergic to cats! So it was a pretty good job that Polly rescued Max. Everyone runs away while the Old One sneezes so hard that it starts making the castle collapse all around it! Amid falling masonry, our animal friends find the fire exit that let the raven into their world, and they find themselves back where this all started.

Marlypee, Baal, Polly, and Max all retire to their treetop boat, and enjoy a meal of butted scones washed down with glasses of lemonade.

The End.

There was a third story written but the art was never started. It involved Marlypee and Baal going out for a picnic on Claire the Cow's boat. They end up somewhere called Zombie Island. Things go badly for them. There is a reason it is the last in the series...

Vril-Ja? Vril-Nein!

2011-11-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

Owen Watts has taken my picture of Hauptmann Who and worked his glorious colouring magic upon it. I sat there for some time earlier giggling at the picture; this story is certainly playing to my interests. Er, by which I mean nineteenth-and-twentieth-century-western-mythology, rather than Nazi-ism. Just thought I'd point that out to make sure people do not stumble upon this blog, find this as their first post, and jump to all sorts of erroneous conclusions about my personal ideologies.

Oh dear, I'd better get some more pictures of the cuddly monkey and bear up here quick.

In the mean time, enjoy this teaser, and keep an eye on the Dr WTF?! Facebook Page for more from all the creators involved.

"Hauptmann Who, it's snowing!"

"No, Von Hendrix,
that is merely the ash being spewed out by the TARDIS's
Dimensionally Transcendental Holocaust Ovens.
They're bigger on the inside too..."

Marlypee Monkey And Baal The Bear

2011-11-10T05:46:00.000-08:00

As part of my work on Vanguard, I need to do some work in Full Glorious Technicolor. I know, shock, horror, and such like, me doing colour! Anyway, more on that later, for now I want to dwell on what I discovered when I went looking for my watercolour book.

You see, there was a time back in my youth when I wanted to write and illustrate children's books. This ambition has taken a back seat for now, as it requires the promotion of both writing and art skills at the same time, while it is difficult enough to promote these skills individually. Yet there was a time when I thought that all I needed to do was chuck a few pictures and words together and send them off to some agents. This post is about the results of that youthful naivety.

I have spared you a full rendition of the poetry. It... isn't good. The art is also, well, patchy is a polite word; but it is so full of enthusiasm that I could not help but share it with the world. Be forgiving in your judgement, this is a decade old, and I have grown as a person and an artist. Enough waffle, let's get started.

This is the story of Marlypee Monkey and Baal the Bear. They live in a tree. So does a little blue bird, but the bird won't be mentioned again, so don't worry about that.

One day, Marlypee noticed that there was no food in their cupboards. Where are these cupboards? In the boat that is atop the tree. I didn't mention the boat earlier, but that's okay because I didn't draw it in the picture either. Anyway, Marlypee wants to go shopping so drags Baal off with him. They go to a fruit and veg shop.

It would seem they want to buy some peas. I don't like peas, so I don't know if 99p is a good price for peas or not. Did I mention I drew this 10 years ago? Take inflation into account.

Oh no! Pirates attack!

They land their flying ship on the fruit and veg shop and start shovelling the food into treasure sacks. Maybe they are concerned about scurvy. Marlypee tries to stop them, because he is that sort of monkey. By which I mean; blind to his limitations. Did Marlypee not notice the swords and guns? Apparently not.

So the pirates put Marlypee and Baal in a cage. They leave Claire the Cow in the wreckage of the crushed shop, maybe because she would not fetch such a good price when sold to illegal and unethical zoos or something. Don't worry though, she returns in the second sequel, "Marlypee Monkey And Baal The Bear Picnic On Zombie Island."

Anyway, the bad news is that Marlypee and Baal get hung above loads of monsters in the deepest, darkest hold of the ship. The good news is that the keys are just within reach of Marlypee's tail!

Well, that all goes predictably badly. Marlypee gets his tail bitten off and cries about it a lot. He cries about it so much the monsters start to feel guilty and all learn a valuable lesson about respecting personal space. They unlock the cage and help Marlypee and Baal escape.

The pirates are a bit miffed about this whole situation. Especially when their prisoners steal one of their flying life boats. They fail to appreciate the irony of pirates having things stolen from them, and promptly give chase with blazing cannons.

Remember what I said about Marlypee being blind to his limitations? Can he pilot a flying boat? He can not. Crashing ahoy-hoy all round.

But who are these happy little people they have found themselves crashing upon? Why, it is a village of sentient peas, hidden away in unexplored mountains! What are the chances?

The pirates catch up with our reluctant heroes. Baal has finally lost his patience as far as their intrusive behaviour goes, and sets about ladling out the wrath. The pirates realise too late that they put down their guns and swords so they could play tiddlywinks. Too bad for them, me thinks.

The peas are all pretty chuffed with this series of events. The pirates had for years pillaged their village, but now they will think twice about returning.

To show their appreciation, they help their new friends back home. Marlypee and Baal ride an avalanche of peas back down to the lowlands. It is pretty much the best slide ever!

Marlypee Monkey and Baal the Bear are soon back at their tree. They scoop up loads of peas, shove some of them in the freezer for later, and begin tucking into the rest for dinner. I'm not sure how much peas present a balanced diet, but they will suffice for one night before a new shopping trip tomorrow.

A happy ending for all!

Many Apologies...

2011-11-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

To Bovril, to Doctor Who, to people who cringe when they see terrible lettering, to pretty much everyone really...

Dr WTF?! Coming next year to an internet near you!

Hallowscream: Storage

2011-10-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

This cheerful chap is Mark. He likes surfing and quad-biking. He enjoys a good night down the pub, but also relishes the quiet solitude of the open countryside. His favourite book is The Beach, though he didn't think much of the film.

Mark works at a storage warehouse. It's Saturday evening, and he was just getting ready to lock up when the inevitable happened. Because there's always one isn't there? Someone who turns up mere minutes before you head off home. But you grin and bare it, because that's just good customer service.

And then they start messing about...

Find out what happens next in this year's Hallowscream. Over one hundred pages of horror themed comics, all at the super cheap price of Absolutely Free! The story you are looking for is Storage, the second story in, page 9 according to the contents. It's written by one Lizzie Boyle, drawn by myself, and lettered by someone who appears to be uncredited, sorry mysterious letterer! Previous editions of Hallowscream are still available, also for free! Why not check them all out?

The Spinning Of Many Plates.

2011-10-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tis my birthday on Monday, and as far as creativity goes I feel I have the next year all completely booked up.

As regular readers will know, most immediate on my schedule is Halo and the Gryphon, closely followed by Dr WTF?! These projects are still in the design/storyboard stage at the moment, with November seeing the beginning of The Great Gryphon Push. Unlike the war, this one will be finished by Christmas, with the good Doctor landing his Tardis in the editor's tray some time in the new year.

These pictures were attempts to create an alien species for the story, but I think I have gone in entirely the wrong direction. The thing in the bottom left corner is a Glitter-Shark, best if you don't ask.

Back to the drawing board tomorrow, I feel. Not to worry though, for these designs will be put to use in the next project: Age of Iron, or, Bigfoots and Dinosaurs. This is going to be a collection of non-sequential art I am creating to illustrate a role-play text. It should hopefully allow me to experiment with different styles and techniques, and I think my art will only benefit as a result.

That project needs to be completed by next summer, and may well prove to be quite time consuming. I'm hopefully still going to be working on a few comics at the same time; episode three of Halo and the Gryphon will inevitably drop into my inbox shortly after the release of Vanguard 2, and I've also been asked to draw one of next year's Mekkosapien episodes.

Finally, we have perhaps the most exciting news at all. In fact, it is so exciting I dare not speak of it yet, lest I jinx it all with my careless tongue. I'm just going to leave you with this little chappy, and I'll return to the matter when I have a little more to say.

Not that you will have to wait quite that long for a new update. I'll be back soon with news of where you will be able to find the last few pieces of work I've completed over this past year. Thanks for reading!

Some More Reviews!

2011-10-14T16:23:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember a few months back when I posted some reviews of my work. Well, I'm back to do more shameless self promotion, on this blog that is almost entirely shameless self promotion! Go me!

To start with, my work for the next Dr WTF?! is already getting good feedback, and I'm not even past the preliminary sketch stage. Greg Meldrum seems happy with the work so far, while over on Facebook Owen Watts claimed that "This is easily going to be the MOST INSANE story in Dr WTF?! 2012." So while editor, writer, and artist all stand around slapping each other on the back and marvelling at their own brilliance, let's anchor this post to the ground before it disappears up our collective backsides.

Forbidden Planet International has a less glowing review of Vanguard. It's not a completely bad review, but is certainly the least positive we've had so far. Here's what it says about my work;

The art by Louis Carter starts out so strongly, that very first page above of really nice, almost abstracted shapes as the Halo makes planetfall. But after it gets too damn busy, panels just so full of detail, with everything a mass of lines and shading. It’s not bad, not at all, but if it were stripped back just a little, to what we saw on the opening couple of pages it would be so much better. But the potential here is huge.

Not to worry though, for if that was our least positive review, this next one is the most positive! Comics Bulletin has seen some cutting reviews in its time, and I think many of us were waiting for this one with nervous anticipation. It all turned out well though, take a look at this;

"Halo and the Gryphon" feels like an underground comix adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix; the big selling point for me is the art of Louis Carter, a strange and evocative mix of fine detail on the characters and a far more blocky, abstract approach to backgrounds. It looks like nothing else I've ever seen -- aside from perhaps David C. Sutherland's artwork in the early days of Dungeons and Dragons, and even that's not quite the same -- but it's stunning work.

Amusingly, the page that they picked to illustrate the Comics Bulletin review was the one that I find the most crowded, while the Forbidden Planet one chose a page in which only one of the six panels has a background to distract you.

Still, I welcome constructive criticism, and I will be considering my strengths and weaknesses as I continue working on part two of Halo and the Gryphon. As such, I would like to offer my thanks to Richard and Kelvin, and all those who have taken the time to offer their opinions elsewhere. The next few weeks should see me posting some sketches of some new characters, so don't forget to drop by again!

Doing The Time Warp Again

2011-10-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

What have I been up to over the past month? I've been drawing a comic strip for Hallowscream. The work is done now, and writer Lizzie Boyle has paid it some much appreciated compliments. I'll be shouting all about the comic come the end of the month, but for now why not head over here to find more about it? The editors are particularly asking for people to make some noise about their IndieGoGo project, so that's my signal boost.

Onwards now to the next project, like an ever advancing artistic blitzkrieg. The happy go lucky chappy above is the star of what may well turn out to be my best work yet. Greg Meldrum's 'The Reich Stuff' is certainly the funniest, most idea packed script to have ever crossed my email account, so hopefully my art will do it the justice it deserves. Er... by which I mean, I hope my art fully realises the script's potential, rather than bring it to trial for war crimes.

Yes, Doctor WTF?! is back, and about time too (that was a Radio Times joke, not a request for people to make their heads explode trying to get the comic out quicker). Once more we shall see all manner of completely-non-canon time-travelling hi-jinks. That word again is non-canon, so the design on that cap will be replaced by a big Blackblood style skull just to play things safe.

This is our time traveller's companion. I'm really not wanting to spoil any of the jokes here, so that's pretty much all you're getting for now. What I will say is that the script asked for a sound system and guitar that looked like it had been designed by Jack Kirby. Now, obviously I am aware of Kirby's work due to being alive, but as I have a pretty minimal interest in super hero comics, I wasn't sure how to approach this. Then my good friend Jenny found me this, so I'll be using that as a check-list as I build on these initial sketches. Thanks Jenny!

Here, Have A Face.

2011-09-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

This is from a comic that should be appearing in this year's Hallowscream.

I Found An Old Sketchbook! Look Here For Lovecraft Stuff!

2011-09-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

I'm going camping this weekend, and didn't much like the idea of a few sketchy scribbles being the foremost representatives of my work while I was away. So how am I going to fix this? By showing some artwork that is at least seven years old! There is some logic here; only today someone found my blog by typing lepenski vir lovecraft into their search engine. Check that out, five links to my blog on the first page alone, you can sure as hell make a 23 out of that!

In conclusion, Lovecraft pulls in the hits like Innsmouth men pull in the fishy ladies. So who am I to not give people what they want.

This first piece is the one that alerted me to to the fact that I was missing a sketch book. All the way back in June, the Weekly TAB did a Doctors and Professors theme. I wanted to show this picture, but where had it got to? The living room, that's where, right underneath my Wonderful Lady Friend's Transformers Animated Megatron. Why didn't I think of looking there?

Ah well, found it now. Not sure if West ever graduated actually, but I like to think he was granted his doctorate by a far higher power than any Harvard or Miskatonic...

This one is a drawing for a comic I dreamed up in my first year of university while waiting for a lecture to start. I might even have some of those note book sketches somewhere, I'll do another post about that if I can find them. If I don't find them, and any writers out there are intrigued by the title Machiavelli's Monkeys enough to want to raise the project from development hell, then feel free to get in touch.

As it is, this is a Mi-go Brain Cylinder, complete with some nifty additions to make it more functional for the occupant. Since reading The Whisperer in Darkness many years ago, I have read much in the way of Lovecraft critique. My interpretation of the story seems to be completely different from that of everyone else, in that I see it as the very optimistic story of a man transcending his human limitations. I certainly don't believe it actually features Nyarlathotep as anything other than a name drop. But this is a tangent for another day...

These last two are part of a series of pictures I have already posted here and here. Not much to say about them really, shoggoth and byakhee, simple as that. Did I say last two? Well, they are the last two Lovecraft pictures, but I did also find this little dude among the pages, and thought he was just too cute not to share.

More Doodles

2011-09-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Been busy the past few weeks, but soon there shall be some slightly more polished work than the stuff I have been posting recently. These are some sketches of two characters I've been designing. Neither are quite there yet, but I feel I'm heading in the right direction.

Godzilla Verses Martians, And One Must DIE!!!

2011-08-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

For this weeks TAB, 1950's Sci-Fi & B-Movies, I was in two minds over what to draw. So I took both ideas and made the fight. Seems to do the job.

And Here Is Where Those Faces Went...

2011-08-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've got the preliminary layouts sorted for all five pages and the main character is starting to look the same every time I draw him. All seems to be going well...

Going For An Everyman Feel

2011-08-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am just doodling face after face, trying to get the right look for the main character in a comic I am working on.

They Live!

2011-08-15T01:04:00.000-07:00

With Rise Of The Mekkosapiens in the can (in the... editor? letterer? Printer? What is that the comic equivalent of that phrase?), I've got more time to do the Weekly TAB. There have been loads of good pieces up there recently, why not go and check them out?

An Agglomeration Of Things!

2011-08-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

Thing 1: Vanguard Revisited

The much mentioned small press comic extravaganza Vanguard is now available on-line! Download it here for £1.01, or here for £1.00. I... don't really understand why there is that difference, sometimes life is just strange like that I guess.

Here is some slightly stripped down praise for Vanguard; cut from its source material in such a way as to highlight its comments about me! The links provided take you to the pages where good stuff is said about all the other people involved.

Everything Comes Back To 2000ad "liked the art in this which felt very kids story book." Hilary Lawler over at Irish Comic News liked it even more, saying "Halo and the Gryphon is great. The style is busy but throughout the detailed artwork you don’t lose focus on the story. Overall the page layouts are fluid and easy to follow, with some beautifully drawn pieces nicely scattered between pages. This is a well crafted original take and a completely fresh approach to comics which works." Thanks Hilary!

Thing 2: Rise Of The Mekkosapiens

I've just finished drawing a strip for the next issue of Paragon. I would have mentioned this yesterday, but I was too busy debating which individual picture to post with the news. The sequential nature of comics left no individual picture with quite the right 'feel'. Writer Matt McLaughlin solved my quandary by shoving these three pictures up onto the net together, as they were always meant to be seen. Thanks Matt!

This story will be published in Paragon 9. While you're waiting for that, why not check out Paragon 8, which has just been released, continuing stories that began in Paragon 7, a good 'jumping on' issue for those new to the comic.

Thing 3: The Future

So now that art is safely heading the letterer's way, what lies in store for me next? Well, Van Dom has already sent through the script for the second part of Halo and the Gryphon, Dave Candlish has offered me the art duties for one of next year's episodes of Rise of the Mekkosapiens, and just to prove I'm not in a rut, I've got another project lined up as well! Over the next month or so, I'll be working with writer Lady Festina on a script for the annual Halloween comic Hallowscream! More on all of these as they develop!

Thing 4: Going So Far Into The Future That It's Mildly Scary

I have a twitter account. I'm not completely sure I know how it works, and I can in no way guarantee that I'm going to check it on a regular basis, but I'm going to give it a try. You can follow me if you like, I'm LRGCarter.

Well, that's all the news I can think of at the moment. See ya later, internets!

Still at work on Rise of the Mekkosapiens...

2011-08-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

I've now finished inking eight panels from page four of part three of Rise of the Mekkosapiens. This leaves me with four panels to do on this page, then I have just one page left. Once Matt has finished swimming through all those numbers, he might express surprise that the number of panels I'm drawing for this page has doubled the number requested in his script. Oops. Guess it just happenned to happen that way...

I See Robots. I See Big Robots. I See Big, Gun Toting, Robot Killing Robots!

2011-07-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well hey, look at that, I have a tag at Down The Tubes, a blog that brings you all the new news of the British comics scene. This probably shouldn't make me smile as much as it does, but it does! I feel like a real small presser now!

Work continues on my contribution for Paragon. Over half way through it now, and I've been having fun designing stuff that hasn't featured in earlier episodes.

Back To The Wreckage

2011-07-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Owen Watts has begun collecting scripts for Dr WTF?! 2012. You can keep an eye on forthcoming developments over at the Dr WTF?! facebook page. While you're there, why not drop Owen a line and get yourself a digital copy of the 2011 issue?

My contribution to Dr WTF?! 2011 was some art work for the story Back to the Wreckage, written by Oscar Maltby and lettered by David Withers. You can see this entire story right here, by simply scrolling down the page and enbigginating this artwork!

Vanguard Is Out!

2011-07-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

Cover by Liam Byrne

Last night, I watched The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. This film includes a brilliantly realised Griffin, and upon seeing it I was compelled to speak out to my fellow viewers on my admiration for Ray Harryhausen. For the Griffin is a treacherous beast. It looks so majestic, so regal, so in control of all it surveys. The king of the animals and the lord of the birds, fused together into one single being.

Yet look closer, and you will see the animal is not all it seems. That look of supreme poise can only be maintained as long as the thing stays perfectly still, its front legs locked straight. The moment it moves, you realise...

A Griffin has four knees!

Oh what a cumbersome creature it becomes. This four kneed fool falls suddenly from regent to jester, cantering about in such a way as to leave the whole animal kingdom jeering at its folly. The courtly mountains are replaced by a wicker cage, and this king for a day pays the ultimate price of the cycle of life as it is left screaming out that the crops will not grow and the harvests will fail, and next it shall be we who are left burning in that pagan idol!

Er, by which I mean... Harryhausen solved this problem by giving his Griffin the front legs of the lion rather than the eagle. Brilliant! I chose the other option. I broke the Griffin. My Griffin has four elbows instead, and I feel dirty just thinking about this crime against anatomy.

What Griffin am I talking about? Why, the Griffins that feature in the rather wonderful comic Vanguard! You can follow that link for more information, though the most important bits are here:

The best way to order is via paypal.
Our paypal ID is vanguardcomic@gmail.com
Costs are as follows:

In the UK:
Comic - £2.00 Postage - £1.50
In NI:
Comic - £2.00 Postage £1.00
In ROI:
Comic - €2.50 Postage - €1.00

So why not go order a copy today?

What's That? It's Been A While Since I've Updated?

2011-07-04T05:43:00.000-07:00

Ah, must be because I'm dedicating all my time to the story I'm doing for Paragon. Completely fallen behind with Weekly TAB submissions and other things that I can actually post here, must try harder with that. In the mean time, here's a sneaky clipping from Rise of the Mekkosapiens to tide you over until normal service is resumed.

Heralding The Mekkosapiens

2011-06-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

So, with the Glumpies in the bag, it's onto the next project.

Have I mentioned Paragon before? If not, consider this rectified!

Due to Matt McLaughlin's continued and appreciated support of my work, I'm going to be in the Autumn issue! I'm drawing episode three of Rise of the Mekkosapiens. You can get the first episode in Paragon issue 7, and the next episode is previewed here. The other stuff in the comic is really cool too, so why not just buy all the available issues? A while back I promised the editor I would do a full review of the whole run, so I must get round to doing that at some point.

In the meantime though, here is some sketch work I've been doing for my episode. It has been quite interesting working on a character that has already been drawn by two other artists. At first I was thinking I would have to rigidly adhere to the previous design, but then I held them up next to each other and realised that there has been a fair amount of variation already. This has led to lots of fun as I've been finding my own view of the character.

Have I mentioned he has elbows? Full, honest, proper elbows, and only two knees? This might not sound like a big deal, but I suspect I'll be explaining this in my next post...

A Full And Detailed Study Of The Glumpie And Its Natural Habitat

2011-06-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1: The Humble Glumpie

Editor's Note: The following text is taken from the surviving fragments of a field-book found among the possessions of one Mae Shanks, an undergraduate Xeno-zoologist who attended the Neo-Mernanshire University of Unified Arts and Science. Sadly the absence of Mae's body and the general disarray of her camp-site suggested that she, like so many of her predecessors, fell victim to that inexplicable curse that has for so long benighted her family line. It should be noted that, as a student standing at the threshold of a whole new area of research, Mae was only just beginning to understand the full complexity of her subject. As such, future researchers should be wary of reading too much truth into her interpretations. Much work has been performed in the years following her death, and though many of her conclusions concerning the life cycle and habits of these creatures have been debunked, it is the hope of the publishers that this text remains of both historiographical and artistic value. For a more accurate study of Glumpies, please refer to Matthew McLaughlin's forthcoming Xtrominator Field Guide.

Day 1.

During one of my regular supervisor meetings with Professor McLaughlin, I was given the following field sketch that had been passed on to him by the illustrious Ryan S Thomason.

Ryan S Thomason's Glumpie

"This is a Glumpie," said the professor in his usual distracted way, seemingly engrossed in simultaneously writing the scripts for several educational pictorial pamphlets. "I need a field guide on these creatures and those that they live in. I've booked you a place on a research vessel leaving tomorrow, so you had better start packing your interstellar exploration equipment. Oh, and don't let it distract you from that dissertation about the robots."

And that, as they say, was that. As I write these words, planet fall has been achieved, and we have had distant sightings of the glumpies, or Mentulavermis Primigenius to use their official title, though I believe the higher echelons of academia are currently engaged in yet another nomenclature war which may change that. I hope that tomorrow I can get closer to the creatures and begin to begin recording them.

Day 2.

I have identified two Glumpies that are to be my case studies. The larger one in this picture I have named Mr Greyback, after the colour of the ridge that runs from tooth to tail. Ms Brown is shown here in her expanded state, though Kimi, my guide on this world, says that I am foolish to assign genders to these creatures though she will not give reasons for her ire.

I was originally going to call my two subjects Little and Large, as we found them relaxing in exactly the state I have here attempted to capture. However, as soon as they noticed our presence they began crawling towards us, and I realised the folly of this system. The glumpie is a very malleable beast, and can in fact twist into all manner or shapes as it moves.

Day 5.

I have begun gaining the trust of my glumpie partners. They have been allowing me to get close enough to make more detailed sketches of their forms. Kimi claims I am the one being too trusting. She says I am getting too attached to them, underestimating their deadly nature.

Day 17.

Kimi has begun drinking this strange black tar stuff from the outer rim, and shouts at me that it is I who have driven her to it. Tensions between the two of us are... developing, to say the least. However, the alcohol has loosened her tongue. She has begun describing some of the glumpies she has seen on her travels. The intra-species variation of these creatures is more amazing than I have already witnessed. Here I have drawn hypothetical illustrations of her accounts. Apparently there are two headed glumpies that allow for these gentle giants to move more easily through their tunnels. Others have been witnessed "eating their own heads then crapping themselves out in one swift movement," turning themselves inside out to form a spiky shell of their teeth!

Day 22.

Kimi drank a full bottle tonight. She went on to describe what she has heard of the glumpie reproduction cycle. Words escape me, I have illustrated the process here. I feel she is trying to scare me into abandoning the project.

Day 23.

Kimi has begrudgingly admitted to having never actually seen a "Glumpie Rut Pile". I'm sure it must be an stellar-myth, surely? When I questioned Kimi on the matter she simply shrugged, and told me not to call her Shirley.

I have been getting close enough to the partners now to make detailed records of their faces. This has caused Kimi much consternation. She claims they have my scent, and refuses to continue sleeping at our camp.

Editor's Note: This was the final entry into Mae's journal. We have collected here only some of the assorted pages detailing the Glumpie itself. In our next instalment, we shall go back over the pages that investigated the natural habitat of the Glumpie, the Flesh Planet itself.

A Brief Catching Up.

2011-06-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

The next few weeks should see some good stuff going up on this blog; but before we get too excited about Glumpies, Mekkos, and the encroaching Vanguard, lets see what's been going on over at the Weekly TAB!

It has been over a month since I pointed you towards this blog. The first image I've got is for the Dan Dare prompt that feels like it happened an age ago. My, doesn't time fly and all that Jazz. This is the Mekon, baring imposingly down on the viewer from atop his little hover disc thingy. That was the intention at least, but I have a feeling that he actually just seems to have an unfortunate piggy nose. Oh well.

I was on much more familiar ground with the next prompt, Doctor Who! I decided to go for that little remembered scene at the beginning of the Paul McGann movie where the Master gets put on trial and then exterminated by the Daleks. This makes sense when you read the comics that were given the task of hammering this plot into something usable. You see, it turns out that the Daleks wanted to smuggle a Half-Time-Lord-Half-Giant-Shape-Shifting-Slug-Monster into Gallifrey, and... oh, nobody cares do they?

Eventually the time had to come for me to pick the prompt for the week, and I chose Fighting on a bridge! As I had privately predicted, the Star Wars fans were right in there from the start, but they were quickly followed by some fine art that struck a chord with the Robert Howard fan in me. There was some Warhammer, some moon axes, some Spider-Man, some trolls, and even Daffy Duck. All good stuff, but don't just take my word for it, get over there and check it all out!

I did Deadlock fighting against the Sorcerer's Apprentice. I'd like to try colouring this at some point, we'll see if I get the time or not.

Last week saw the prompt Fairy-tales and Folklore. I drew a Jiaolong, a sort of Chinese water demon that could shape shift, often switching between that of a man, a fish or... oh screw it. Fine. I drew a Deep One. You happy now?

The newest theme is Norts vs Southers. I feel Antarctica will need to be involved somehow.

Dr WTF?!

2011-05-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Dr WTF?! cover art by Carl Pearce

Remember that comic I was going on about a while back? The Doctor Who anthology featuring some of my artwork among other great stuff? Well, you may not be aware that Dr WTF?! has been loose in the wild for a few weeks now. Actual paper copies have been on sale at conventions, and now it is time for PDF versions to begin worming their course through unknowable web-ways.

Editor Owen Watts has this to say on the matter:

"Oh Dr WTF looks so tempting with it's big shiny cover and it's cavalcade of forum talent and interesting contents - but I LITERALLY CAN'T WAIT"

Well I have good news! There's a sexified £2 PDF doing the rounds - also I'm doing AMAZINGLY AMATUERISH sketches for any buyers. For a limited period!

The best way to get at this would probably be to drop by the Dr WTF?! facebook page and drop a scrawl on Owen's wall. Or, like, whatever the slang is.

Vanguard Continued!

2011-05-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

I have just finished the final page of my Vanguard strip, Halo and the Gryphon. Just a little tinkering with my scanner is required and it will be off, whizzing through the internet and into Van Dom's computer.

Talking of Vanguard, the newest issue of Temple APA is out, and it features a page drawn by me! It stars Redbat, who as far as I understand is to be the editorial face of Vanguard. The short strip serves as an introduction to the sample pages you will have seen by following the links from my previous post, as well as giving a bit more information about the various creators involved. Why not go and check it out here.

Vanguard Unfettered!

2011-05-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

For a while now I have been referring to a secret project I have helping Dirk Van Dom with. Well, the silence has now been well and truly broken. Van Dom has created a new blog for his creation, and the great push for publicity has begun!

Vanguard is an anthology comic which will contain stories of various flavours by Van Dom and various artists. That blog link will take you to all the elaboration you need; make sure you scroll down to check out the sample pages!

I've managed to miss this weeks TAB deadline because I've been concentrating on finishing off my strip, Halo and the Gryphon. It was a worthy sacrifice, and I hope to get back on the TAB wagon next week.

As I don't like to finish a post without having a picture in it somewhere, here are some design sketches for some characters who will hopefully turn up in later issues of Vanguard.

Oh look, Glumpies!

2011-05-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

Some work in progress design ideas for a forthcoming project.

And I'm Back...

2011-04-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

I disappeared a week ago to go camping. While I've been back since Tuesday, it's been that sort of "back" that is mostly taken up with unpacking, catching up with laundry, trimming the hedge that grows stupidly fast during hot weather, and other such minor obstacles to returning to the drawing board. I even managed to miss the TAB prompt last week, that's how distracted I have been!

So now I'm getting back on track, I have remedied this situation the only way I know how; by cheating! Mangling this week's theme together with the last has produced this:

Those who I am currently doing work for, fear not! normal service will now be resumed. In the meantime, have a doodle I have done recently. The cross between a maggot and a foreskin is the important one, I have no idea what the bottom ones are meant to be.

Xtrominators!

2011-04-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

Xtrominators is the name of that top-secret-doom-project I'm constantly alluding to. You may notice that opening sentence has lifted the long benighting shroud of secrecy. This is all down to writer Matt McLaughlin having posted this picture on facebook, revealing the two main characters wonderfully rendered by Tony Rothwell.

Hopefully you can see those pictures. I'm not sure if you need to have a facebook account yourself or not. If you can see them, check out these pages too. I hadn't seen them before, and it was cool to see people say nice things about my art!

Whether you can see those pages or not, take a peek at some of these sketches I drew over Christmas. Matt claims that a few of us working on the project ended up drawing Jezzail in the same way. This leads me to think that I was not the only one who read the character description and thought "Wow, this character has two pairs of testicles for a head!"

Keep an eye out for more news on this project in the future!

In other happenings, I noticed yesterday that it has been just over a year since I started using this blog. It has been quite a year, and the future looks to be even more exciting. Thanks to all who have offered kind words and encouragement, or even simply tuned in to read what I'm up to!

Busy Times!

2011-04-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

Life is a little hectic right now. This is mostly due to the fact that I'm going camping in a few days and have ridiculous things to prepare. How ridiculous, I hear you ask? Well, this totem pole was last year's effort:

This year I'm making stuff that is a little easier to transport, but not that much easier! I've also been doing a few more pages of comic, so keep an eye out for the next issue of Temple APA for more news on that front. Then there's that super secret project I keep mentioning, news of which is now seeping into the public domain! But that deserves a post of it's own, so I'll say no more of that for now.

On top of that I've been managing to keep up to date with the Weekly TAB. I can't offer enough recommendations for you to check that place out. We've recently been witness to dinosaur statues, Zoids, thuggish kids that look strangely familiar, and all sorts of other goodness. Here are my last few pieces, now I'm off to draw something for the new prompt: SHAKARA!!!

And Lo, We Behold The Creatures Awoken By Our Meddling In The Lost Vault Of Kor-Avul-Thaa

2011-04-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

I've spent a fair amount of today working on that comic I keep mentioning. The page in question is shaping up to be my favourite out of all the comic pages I have ever drawn. I guess an artist's most recent page should always be their best, but there is something about this one which I personally feel goes beyond my usual scale of "another page, another minuscule improvement."

This positive attitude has allowed me to make one last trip into that oft mentioned portable hard drive of lost wonders. I was going to post these a while back, but baulked at associating my name with such crude spectres of a life long lost. Another day, another frame of mind, and now the beasts lumber forth from their shattered prison.

Several years ago, those delightfully crazy people at the HPLHS (check out their breakfast cereal) thought it would be a good idea to create their own copy of the dreaded Necronomicon. They created the Necronomicontest, which invited people to enter submissions for this tome in the hope of winning a nicely bound copy for themselves.

Sadly, to the best of my knowledge, the text was never completed, probably due to the level of authenticity the society always attempts to achieve. One of Lovecraft's letters suggests that the book has over 984 unnumbered pages. This would be a tall task for any editor, let alone one that is not getting paid.

I drew a few pictures for the contest. I posted the Shoggoth over Christmas, and there are one or two smaller pictures hidden away in some sketchbook somewhere, which I will dig out for a future post. Until then, enjoy this selection of memories from more carefree days.

Cthulhu

Deep One


Yog Sothoth

On the surface of Yuggoth
with inhuman screams,
a Byakhee and Shoggoth
fought in my dreams.

Plenty Of Progress On Projects Of Portent

2011-04-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

News has been spreading of the Doom-Prophesying Project with which I am involved. Yet as this project spreads death through its mere uttering, I cannot speak freely of that right now.

Let us instead talk of Van Dom's increasingly less secret project, work of which is continuing with one hand even as I type this with the other. I am bound by oath not to reveal any completed art work, through fear of drawing down the eyes of inauspicious fates. However, sketches seem not to have done us too much ill so far, so maybe I am safe posting these rough scribblings. Van Dom may think otherwise, so quick, take a look, before he unleashes one of his dreaded Dom-bots to snuff out my sorry existence.

Even closer to full fruition comes Dr WTF?! . Like many contributors to this fine project, I have a completed computerised copy of this on my laptop, and have been dipping into the brilliant stories with the result of much amusement. Owen plans to make this comic come to life by actually putting paper into your very hands. Yes, that hand that is currently resting on you mouse, and that other one that is doing... something else, I don't know.

Are you not convinced you want an anthology dedicated to a series of unconnected, anti-canon Doctor Who stories? Well then, short of having science declare you officially-not-human, all I can do is regurgitate the collective promotional picture that has been doing the rounds:

Yeah, you like that, don't you.

Return To The Crystal Temple Of The The Lost Vault of Kor-Avul-Thaa

2011-03-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

By which I mean it is once again time to look through the Ancient Portable Hard-Drive Of Mystery!

These images represent some of my first experiments with GIMP, even more so than my previous archive post. The first two pictures are entries into old 2000ad Forum Art Competitions. To give you an idea of how old they are, this was back in the day when the 2000ad Forum was just a white screen with a blue margin and a big long list of threads arranged in order of recent additional posts. Which, if you don't know the 2000ad Forum, is probably more recently than you are thinking.

This one was for the prompt Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun!

Next up we have Mega-City 1. Those few words do not fully convey the difficulty one would face in approaching such a topic. The world of Judge Dredd has had some spectacular artists work on it in the past, and trying to even come close to emulating their work only made me appreciate it more.

As a warning before clicking, this image is a little on the big side.

This final one is not from an art comp. In fact, I'm not even going to try and elaborate on this one; if you know, you know, and if not then it is a little bit difficult to explain...

Plenty O' Pimpage

2011-03-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Have you checked out the Dr WTF?! facebook page recently? If not, you may have missed the various teaser pictures that have been thrown onto the net by sundry creators, but restrain your despair for that link will set you right. Editor Owen Watts has been claiming between bouts of maniacal laughter that his unholy starborn creation is ready to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world, and apparently Dr WTF?! is almost ready too.

Owen is one of the many people involved in the Weekly TAB, which is something you are no doubt also following, being a swath and sophisticated individual. There are a host of diverse treats behind that link, and special mention must go to Chris Askham, who is the one putting in all the hard work to make sure this blog is actually happening.

Last week's TAB theme was Tron. I know next to nothing about Tron, but I do know a little about Mega-tron. An initial plan to draw Megatron in a tuxedo with a Martini in his hand and saying "The name's Tron. MEGA-tron!" was discarded due to being rubbish. That and the fact that his fusion cannon really obfuscated his drink.

So instead I drew this, a piece which I call Mega-Tron: Legacy.

This obviously swipes the pose from one of the posters for Tron and replaces the spinning death disk for the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, all set against the square grid floor thing that can be found in both franchises. Remember how battling Megs and Prime fall into that gridded swirling abyss during the original theme tune, possibly representing the ultimate futility of war for all sides involved? Well, you can see this as depicting the final result of that fight if you like.

Or not, its up to you.

Everyone is currently having great fun drawing Video Game Icons, leading me to draw this picture:

And what can I say to follow that sentiment?

A Sketch

2011-03-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

A few week ago I mentioned the Weekly Themed Art Blog, which is providing a regular incentive to actually get something out there for the world to see.

The second brief was Diesel Punk Ladies And Their Machines. Over on the TAB you can see my original sketch, but today I have got round to adding some colour to the piece. This serves to demonstrate why I usually work in black and white.

Following this came the prompt of Tron, but I'll wait until my image goes up on the blog before I post it here. Everyone is currently working on Video Game Icons, and I think I'm going to enjoy doing that one a lot.

So why not pop along to the TAB and see what everyone's up to?

Doodles!

2011-03-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

I promised more content, and so here it is:

This comic was an attempt to homage Kate Beaton's brilliant work. How much that actually comes across is perhaps debatable, so I thought I would spell it out here just to be sure.

Whenever I do Transformers pictures, I always get the feeling that the joke has probably been done a thousand times before. Yet I draw them anyway, because Transformers are so fun to draw! It was not until I had finished this picture that I realised that Optimus had found a shop that sells some damned big groceries. Feel free to assume that either he had found some planet full of giant, G1 weirdness, or else he had a moment of strange shifting proportions, like that episode where Soundwave tripped over a tree root.

In other news, here is some recently revealed work by Christov and Lee Bates. I am drawing your attention to this not only because it deserves to be seen, but also because Lee is working on a strip with me, the afore mentioned one about pirates. This is an event that fills me with much excitement.

I'm Back!

2011-03-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

Phew, February was a bit dead here wasn't it? Some (one) readers of this blog that I know in the "Real World" have expressed admonishment over my recent lack of posts. This has largely come about because I have been working exclusively on Van Dom's super-duper secret project, and am as such unable to reveal the rightly guarded mysteries of Vandemonium . I did find some other stuff in those archives I have mentioned, but filling my blog with embarrassing relics didn't seem like a wise thing to do without newer work to go alongside it.

Then lo! A solution came from that lovecraftian chaos realm that is... The Web! Over on the 2000ad forum, Chris Askham presented the idea of an Art Blog. Such a concept will be familiar to all those who have studied the "Pass-Around-Mobiliary-Art" discovered beneath the previously hidden city of Commoriom; but for those who have not kept up to date with recent developments in Pseudo-Crypto-Paleo-Hyperborean-Art-History, I shall provide a brief summary.

The idea is that an eclectic assortment of adventurers from every walk of life would once a week take time out from their dazzling heists, quests for vengeance, Antarctic expeditions and the like, to bring into one place a small sketch that celebrates the nature of a theme chosen at random by one of their merry band.

Thus was born The Weely Themed Art Blog, or the Weekly TAB for short. The first theme chosen was Exorcism, and following the link will take you to a great many interpretations of that single word, revelling in the flexibility of language and the diversity of human vision.

Here is my effort. In case it isn't clear, it's Nemesis dragging the ghost of Torquemada, by the nose, out of a possessed Terminator. I was originally going to do something involving Solomon Kane, having recently been reading The Castle of the Devil which is brilliant. Then my Wonderful Ladyfriend suggested this idea instead, which I instantly went for because I love drawing Nemesis.

With the Weekly TAB being... er... weekly, I should be able to get a half decent sketch on this blog every seven days. Then I just need to throw up some other work occasionally, and this blog will once again have content. Huzzar, content!

The Secret Project Progresses!

2011-02-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

More character design sketches.

Remember how a while back, I mentioned there was a secret project I was working on? The slightly secret project, as opposed to the incredibly secret project that might destroy the world? Well, word of the project is starting to slip out, as Van Dom has begun to reveal his evil plan.

As you can see from that link, the project is called Vandemonium, and aside from that I can say very little. I can reveal than I am finally getting beyond the character design stages, and have begun finishing some actual pages! I will also say that I really like that second picture by David Blankley. It is the sort of picture that makes you think "Wow, I'd better make my stuff even better than I was hoping I would, just so it holds up to being published next to high quality stuff like that!"

Van Dom also mentions that Dr WTF?! has its own facebook page, and this is a development that I also have a vested interest in promoting.

Raiding The Lost Vault of Kor-Avul-Thaa

2011-02-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

By which I mean; I have recently been searching through a portable hard-drive filled with time lost curiosities. Hidden within were various writings and pieces of art that had been left on an old house-mate's computer. Sifting through them was a bit like opening a secret portal into the past, and though it was a past not too distant, it is still a disturbing and unsettling place to visit. There were extracts from my woeful dissertation, photos of the skulls of species long extinct, and toe bones, lots of toe bones.

There was also a variety of sketches, entries into art competitions, and a collection of ideas for a Lovecraftian kid's fun activity book, which is a project I really need to revisit one day. Then there was the Random Violence art.

Random Violence is a board game being produced by a friend of mine, and back at university I was doing some artwork for it. The game was like a table-top version of Unreal Tournament, set in a near future cyber-punkish Japan. My brief was to make the character cards, which would show the character you were playing, and also be covered in lots of statistics and boxes that you would put equipment cards on and such like.

The necessity to put in lots of information goes some way towards explaining why there is so much dead space here, but this is also due to these pieces representing my very first experiments at making art using a computer. You will notice I used colour! You will notice I didn't really know what I was doing! You will notice I haven't worked this way since!

23, 1000 hits, And The Whole World Goes Topsy Turvy

2011-01-23T00:19:00.000-08:00

According to how counting actually works, this is my 23rd post! So how better to celebrate than by featuring the specially spruced up colour version of Doctor 23? There is no better way, is the answer you are looking for.

The colouring was done by Owen, who has begun lining up his promotional images here. I mention above that the world has gone topsy turvy. The first example of this is that Owen has thrown aside his previous orders, as is the right of every good editor, and decided that I only really need to do one promo picture. So, no longer needing the element of surprise, here is the sketch of the four different images that I had assumed Owen would pick one of:

Owen liked the idea of doing each of these with their commentary, so the 'Boring "Doctor-Pokes-Head-Out-Of-TARDIS" Promo Image' would have been labelled as such. The title to the fourth image was going to be 'The Nonsensical "A-Time-Lord-is-the-sum-of-his-parts-and-some-of-those-parts-are-CONAN!" Promo Image'. I would have enjoyed that, but ultimately I think the best image won its way to being completed.

Owen has even gone as far as to promise an imminent Dr WTF?! website, so there is much excitement on the horizon.

Which tenuous nauticality brings us to the second way that the world has gone topsy turvy, for I have written a script!

Over on the 2000ad forum, Christov recently proposed that the world needs more pulp comics, and set out to make one himself. He expressed particular interest in getting some swashbuckling adventure in there, and while at work the other day I pondered how I would approach such a thing. By the next morning, a script had been written and sent, and before lunch it had been accepted. Huzzar, exciting times!

Particular thanks must here go to my friend Jo Clegg, whose recent historical and geographical observations inspired the story. Thanks Jo!

I don't want to say much about this story, lest I spoil any surprises. What I will say is that it involves pirates. As I am not going to be drawing this one, I don't even have any doodles to show off, but here is a suitably themed picture pulled from the archive:

This is an old picture of a character called Henry Shanks, who features is a series of stories I have been writing for the past several years. One day I hope to get them published, but I fear that day is still far off yet.

This picture has recently returned to me, as an old house-mate found a load of my stuff on his computer. I suspect I will enjoy going through the files, and will post anything of interest that I find up here.

In other news, since my last post, this blog has reached the point of having had 1000 hits. I realise that this is a microscopic fish in a multidimensional ocean, but it means a lot to me. A blog a created entirely to talk to my brother with has started taking me in all sorts of interesting places, and I hope this will continue. Thanks to all the people from all around the world who have dropped by. Why yes, I am obsessed with the stats page, why do you ask?

And finally, just to reassure Van Dom that I haven't forsaken him, here are some of the more presentable sketches I have been doing for his secret project.

Post 22

2011-01-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

At the time of writing, this is what the post count on my dashboard currently looks like:

I'm just mentioning this, so that anyone reading my last post doesn't think I've gone mad. Because nothing says sanity like being obsessed with one particular number, obviously.

Talking of the number 23, it's time to see what has been happening with the Doctor WTF?! project.

The other night, Owen sent out a call to all artists involved to create a promotional image for their strip. I jotted down a few ideas, waited until the morning so that the noise of the scanner would not wake my wonderful lady friend, then sent off all four doodles to suffer the wrath of Owen's judgement.

Why did I draw four images, you ask? Well, I expected most of them to receive appraisals such as "Louis, these ones are rubbish," and "Louis, these ones have nothing to do with your story," and "Louis, seriously, what have I told you about copyright infringement?!?!"

What was his actual answer?

"Louis, these are awesome, can you do all four?"

Those quote marks are misleading, these were not his exact words. I'm summarising for effect here. The thing to get out of this is that I am now drawing up four promo images for the comic. My initial hesitation over this extra workload was quickly replaced by the realisation that four new images will result in four new blog posts. That's the next month or so sorted then!

So, here is the first of the set:

23! Post 23!

2011-01-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

This is my twenty third post! As you may already be aware, I am a bit of a fan of the Illuminatus! trilogy, so this is a special post for me. As such, I wanted to write about something a bit good. Fortunately I have an exciting few months ahead of me, so at the risk of sounding self-centred, I might as well talk about that.

I am currently linked to a few comic projects! The one that I can talk about most is Mekkos, which Matthew Mclaughlin is getting published in Paragon, a rather fine comic put together by one Davey Candlish. This is going to be an ongoing serial, and I have been pencilled in for episode three!

When Matt told me about this, he mentioned the story would include G127. The text of the email was practically waggling its eyebrows at me, but I could not think where I had heard that name before. I even did a google search, in case it was a film reference or something similar. Then finally it clicked. G127 was from Lugal! (You will remember Lugal from that time a few weeks back when you looked to the list at the right and downloaded issue 8 of Temple APA).

This is one of my sketches from when I was drawing Lugal, little realising the future (or past, I guess) that this robot would have. My wonderful lady friend described him as 'hot', and she knows her sexy robots.

The next project is a little more secret. It is a strip written by one Dirk Van Dom, who I have in the past mistakenly referred as Von Doom, due to having a bizarre blind spot when it comes to reading names. Apologies Dirk, I do that a lot!

Can't talk much about it, so just look at some of the pictures I have been drawing.

The third project is sooooo secret, I dare not speak its name lest I put the whole world in danger! More on that later, I hope!

So, to take the number of projects I have talked about up to a nice round three, I will finally add that Owen Watts has started setting deadlines for all the Dr WTF?! stuff, so there is even more excitement coming soon!

That's three 'so's in the past two paragraphs. You can make a twenty three out of that.

Not even out of January yet, and already 2011 is shaping up pretty well!

EDIT: Haha! Having just looked at the archive list to the side, it would seem this is only post 21, whereas my Dashboard was telling me otherwise. Seems there are some duplicate posts in the dashboard list, for reasons I cannot fathom. That I have mistaken post 21 for post 23 is in itself fantastic, but to explain why would require too much of your time. Trust me, you are better off not knowing.

Tattered Remains Of The Holiday Season

2011-01-06T04:14:00.000-08:00

Way back at the beginning of December, I made this post about the 2000ad Christmas Calendar.

Well, Christmas has come to an end, and the calendar has been completed. Now, there is a lot of good stuff over there, and everyone involved put a lot of love into the project, but my incredibly biased opinion leads me to pick Party Crash! as my personal favourite piece.

Yes, Party Crash is a Choose Your Own Adventure surrounding a 2000ad office party attended by all your favourite characters. I say "surrounding" the party because, if you are anything like me, it may take you a few goes to actually get in there. It was written by one Van Doom, and illustrated by a whole host of talent

For this gargantuan feat of collaboration, I managed to call shotgun on drawing a picture of Slaine having a bit of a warp spasm. I first encountered Slaine in secondary school, and if they still existed, my English rough books would be full of doodles of twisted Irishmen spurting oil out of their head all over the place. It was this rough sketch quality that I wanted to revisit in this picture; a bit of seasonal nostalgia that only I would feel nostalgic for.

So, that's it for the Christmas posts until next December. All that remains is for me to put up this picture which I made to finish last year's calendar.

Where To Find My Stuff

2011-01-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

You know how just before Christmas I posted a link to Lugal, claiming I would make the post look all pretty once I had returned to York? Well, this is that post.

That name in the credits? The one next to the word 'Art'? That's my name! I am more than a little pleased to see such a thing. It was only around Easter 2010 that I decided to get back into drawing, and now, as we leave that year behind, I have both a blog to show off my work, and a published credit to my name.

How can you see this fine story? Simply cast your eyes to the margin on the right, where you will find a list of Places My Work Has Found Print. It is but a paltry list at present, but I have high hopes for its growth over the coming year.

The Shadow Out Of (Christmas) Time

2011-01-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

In the lead up to the holiday season, many years ago, my wonderful lady friend expressed an interest in obtaining a Hnefatafl set. In response, I decided to make her one. Rather than spend a long time constructing an army of minuscule Viking golems, I decided instead to mould the pieces after something a little more shapeless, and, well, you can probably guess which author I turned to for inspiration.

In this post, I'm going to show off some pictures of the result, a game I entitled...

"The Flight Of The Great Race."

This game is based on Lovecraft's story The Shadow Out Of Time, which follows the plight of the Great Race of Yith as they are mercilessly persued through time and space. The chase brought these aliens to a land that would one day be called Australia, long before the present day.
Australia was at this time inhabited by a race of Adorable Giant Cone People, who lived in buildings resembling helter-skelters and who wore fittingly colossal satchels. The adorable Cone People had their adorable lives destroyed when the Great Race used their interstellar body-swap techniques to take control of the conical bodies, presumably trapping the Cone People's minds amid whatever catastrophe was forcing the Great Race to flee Yith in the first place.

Once on Earth, the only things the Great Race had to fear were the natural predators of the Cone People; ancient black and bubbling horrors that rode the winds that flowed through subterranean tunnels beneath their feet (their monopodic, slug-like feet, obviously). These creatures were easily contained by the cone people's electricity firing black boxes, but in time the monsters came to overwhelm the Great Race and their boxes, and the poor aliens were forced to run once more into the twisting spiral that is eternity...

So, with this brief and slightly inaccurate summary in mind, I created a game around that epic retreat from their helter-skelter city.

The game was created to look "In Character", by which I mean that I wanted to create a game that could have been played in the setting of the story itself. To this end, I wrote up some correspondence between some fictional yet familiar academics working in Australia, allowing me to sweep erroneous information beneath the carpet of unreliable narration.

A particular problem was to be found in the writing of the rules, as at the time I had yet to meet two people who played by the same set. One particularly frustrating source had a tendency to change rules every time I played against him. As such, these are not the rules that I currently understand are the most standardised, but there you go, such is the way of things.

Professor William Goodman,  

32, Jenkins St., Marble Bar  
Pilbarra, W. Australia, 
March 28, 1935

Professor T. M. Freeborn,

Anthropology Department,

Miskatonic University,

Arkam, Massachusetts

U.S.A

Dear Tyler,

      I recently witnessed two young Pananangu playing a board-game by the light of the fire. A conversation between myself, Mandawy, our guide, and Arthur, my research assistant, brought the interesting story of the game to light, and I thought I might share the details with you. I have enclosed a game set with this package, that you may explore this cultural insight for yourself. 
  

      The game is essentially that of a siege. The central force must aid the escape of their leader as they are beset by surrounding enemies.  

The central force are referred to as the Ny-Pananangu, which I translated, concisely, as the “Old People”, or “Old Ones.” Arthur noted, however, that the “Pan” in “Pananangu” donates greatness above the mere Anangu, the other tribes and people of this land. Taking into account Wilson’s subtle interpretation of the pre-fix ‘Ny’, Arthur offered the longer term “Great Race Who Were Here Before Us”.  

      The attacking force are known by several names, and combining the common themes of all these gives the translation “Older Horrors That Ride The Winds, That Were Once, And Shall Be Again, As Well The Ones Who Were Great Before Us Knew.” This long winded approach is again the fault of Arthur. My translation was simply “Different Old Ones”, amended to “Elder Things” to abbreviate, distinguish the two sides, and to satiate Mandawy’s insistence that while the defenders can be seen as men like us, the attackers are certainly not, hence ‘things’ instead of ‘people’.  All horribly egocentric, but is refreshing to note that we of the west are not alone in such prejudices.  

      The game is based on a local myth that, at the beginning of the Dreamtime, the Great Race travelled without their bodies to the end of the Dreamtime, where they became the Beatle. This great flight through time was performed to escape these Elder Things, who they could not prevail against.  

The Great Race certainly do not seem to look like people, but they do appear to have stylistic arms and a head, presumably lacking only legs due to the problems of balance this would present the figures. It should be noted that among many tribal people it is considered taboo to present the human form in what we would consider a realistic manner.

 

The Elder Things, on the other hand, take on a bizarre representation. They are described as beings that can fly, despite being represented as almost slug like creatures, and are said to lack the sense of sight, which I found surprising as I had presumed the bulbous tops of the figures to be eyes. What those spheres are exactly, none could tell me, indeed, details of these Elder Things were incredibly difficult to tease out of those I spoke to.  

So, to the rules!

      The Leader of the Great People is placed on the centre square. This, and the four corner squares marked in the same way, are the Leader Squares, and can only be occupied by the Leader, though any piece may pass over the central square if the Leader is not occupying it.

      The Great People are deployed in the surrounding marked squares, and the Elder Things are placed on the marked squares upon the edges of the board. One person plays as the Great People, the other as the Elder Things. The Elder Things move first.

    
      The Great People win by moving the leader onto any one of the corner Leader Squares. The Elder Things win by trapping the Leader between four Elder Thing pieces, one to each side of the Leader.

      Each turn, a player may move any one of their own pieces along a row of squares, either horizontally or vertically. This piece may move through as many available squares as desired, but may not jump over an already occupied square.    

     If a player traps an enemy piece between two of their own pieces, the enemy piece may be taken off the board. The enemy must be trapped on two opposite sides to be taken, and pieces diagonally next to their enemy are not relevant when trapping.

     A piece may be placed between two enemy pieces without being trapped.    

     The corner Leader Squares may be counted as Trapping Pieces by either side.

So, there you have it, The Flight Of The Great Race. Doctor Francis Morgan of the Archaeology department, who as you know is studying ancient megaliths in this area, talks of a similar game played by a tribe of Eskimos, which is most apparent in the current archaeological record due to a set having somehow fallen into the hands of Norse traders about one thousand years ago. How this happened I am unsure, but I certainly see no possibility of any connection between The Great Race Game and that of the north. For one thing, the pieces of the Eskimo set seemed to depict octopi and starfish, which is completely at odds with what I am seeing. Unfortunately, the tribe was wiped out by a strange localised tsunami, and all of Morgan’s papers and artefacts were destroyed in a freak fire, so I see no way of continuing that branch of research.    

      I hope you find all that informative. I will write to you again before the end of the season. Send Eve my love, I hope to return to America for Christmas, so perhaps I shall see you both then.

Your loving friend,

William

Hoping You All Had A Good One

2010-12-30T16:23:00.000-08:00

Wow, turns out the internet was a little harder to get hold of back home than I anticipated. I was hoping for at least one more stop off at a computer, but it was not to be. Still I'm back in the Big City now, so the internets are mine once more!

Hope everyone had a good time, and a big thank-you to everyone who sent their holiday well wishes through various mediums.

As previously mentioned, this is a time of year when I like to consider that great individual who died, but did not die, and who will one day return as the world comes to an end. Yes, this is Cthulhu's season, and as such, there are a few more pictures I thought I might share with you.

First off, here is a picture of a hot-water-bottle-cover. What more would you want to keep you warm in bed than a furry green representation of your favourite, cladistically-ill-defined, beast that slumbers. I made this for my wonderful lady friend. She liked it.

Next up, another gift, this time making use of the clay left over from this. One of the things I love about Lovecraft is the way he grounds all his horror in reality; not by providing "gritty" portrayals of violence like some modern horror movies do, but by pointing out that there is a lot of real stuff in the world that is deeply unsettling.

A lot of people overlook this aspect of Lovecraft's stories. Some even say that the reason his stories work so well is because they are so fantastically unrealistic. Yet, having grown up in a small Cornish seaside town, I can promise you there is nothing at all improbable about degenerate inbred country folk, wonkey buildings that do strange things to people who live in them, landscapes littered with traces of lost and forgotten peoples, cannibal cults who are slowly mutating into dog people, or any of the other things Lovecraft wrote about.

Delve into history, and even more stuff pops up. This is a recreation of a Lepenski Vir sculpture. That wikipedia article claims "numerous piscine sculptures and peculiar architecture are testimony to a rich social and religious life led by the inhabitants". In other words, it's a Deep One Cult. They were sleeping with the fishes, and getting all kinds of good stuff coming back to them in return. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Finally, here is a picture of a Shoggoth. I drew this several years ago on a beach in the middle of summer. Other kids were swimming and playing beach sports. I was drawing an A3 Shoggoth. That's just the sort of kid I was.

Lugal Rises!

2010-12-20T06:33:00.000-08:00

I'm stuck in the internet deprived wasteland that is My Partents House. I've just nipped into the library to find that Temple APA issue 8 is up and downloadable. So, you should all just go read it, cause a comic that I have drawn is in it.

GO HERE! DOWNLOAD LUGAL!

This is that comic I said I would link to in my next post, several posts ago. Well, I found other stuff to talk about. These things happen.

Later, I will smarten this post up, make it look nice, correct the spellings, and such like. Right now, the timer in the corner of the screen is ticking down to zero, so I need to be off!

Christmas Is A Time For Cthulhu

2010-12-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

At least, such is the association that has been firmly implanted in my head. This is in part due to the brilliant Christmas albums produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, but also to the diverse range of gift ideas that become available when you are buying for a Lovecraft enthusiast. My Wonderful Ladyfriend and I both love these works, and as such there has not been a recent Christmas that has failed to involve some sort of tentacled presents.

As well as making use of the vast range of books and other merchandise, I like to turn my hand to making some gifts myself. As such, before the Twelfth Night, I hope to put up some pictures of my work.

Let's start with a bar relief made of clay, obviously inspired by both the original Call Of Cthulhu, and the splendid prop made by the HPLHS for their silent movie adaptation of this classic story.

Next up: a prehistoric Deep One, and a hot water bottle cover.

I'm Sure This Has Been Done Before...

2010-12-04T04:36:00.000-08:00

But just in case it hasn't:

Made this for my wonderful ladyfriend. I think she liked it. I think.

Christmas Time Is Here Again!

2010-12-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

In select parts of York it currently looks like this:

A view from Fred's camera.

Due to my recent discovery of the stats page, I realise that people from all over the world check out this blog (thanks all!), and I'm guessing that many of you will be mocking our joy of snow. Here in the Gulf Stream, however, this is a BIG DEAL!

Yet snow is not the only indicator of festivity. Today has seen the start of the 2000ad Advent Calendar 2010. This long standing tradition is now in its second year, and you can catch the collected edition of the first one here!

I haven't put my name down for this year's calendar, as time is pressing against me. However, Dirk Van Dom has come up with a wonderful idea that I will be contributing towards, along with a host of others. The allotted day for this is not until the 22nd, so you will have a bit of a wait before this inevitable masterpiece is unleashed.

Until then, I thought I might as well chuck my entry from last year up here; keep all my work in one place, and the like. This effort was valiantly lettered by Bolt-01 (AKA David Evans), who volunteered to do the job without realising that when I threw out my general lettering request, I hadn't even decided what I was going to do. The result is a story where I drew the art with a vague idea in mind, then wrote the dialogue based on what I thought might fit into the pictures.

I didn't always guess quite right, but Bolt did the job without a negative word. Thanks Bolt!

This Time, Doctor, It Shall Be Your Last!

2010-11-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

This is probably the last Dr WTF?! picture I will be able to post without giving any of the plot away. Once it's all finished though, there's going to be some colour added, which, as you may have noticed, is a bit of a New Thing for me. So I'll probably put up something a little more revealing once that's all done.

In other news, the previously mentioned Lugal has been marvellously lettered by HdE, who, on that site, compares Sunstreaker to internet trolls. As someone who doesn't get how Sunstreaker is so popular, this entirely works for me.

Lugal has even found its first home, but there will be more about that in my next, hopefully imminent, post.

Remembrance Of The Revelation Of The Resurrection Of WTF?!

2010-11-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

So, when I put up these preview pictures, I don't like to give away too much of the story they come from.

This is why I have chosen the following picture.

Dr WTF?!

2010-11-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some drawings of a character I like to call Twenty Three.

Why? Because knowing a Doctor by his number is how people do this sort of thing.

Or so I have been led to believe.

This is Doctor WTF?! and his companion Septaline, the lovable scamp. These characters were created by one Oscar Maltby (AKA Ozebane), my partner in crime for the deranged brainchild of Owen Watts.

You see, Owen had a dream. He dreamt of a new vision for that old family favourite. In a fictional world where, canonically, canon is non canon (see RTD's comments at Den of Geek ), Owen wanted a Doctor that was less canon than any other Doctor ever!

So move over Peter Cushing. Forget about it Rowan Atkinson. There is a new Non-Canon Champion, and not just the one! Owen has assembled a whole host of writers, artists, and other creative types. I'm sure by the end of the project we'll have shown that "13 lives" rule where it can shove itself.

Right up the Eye of Harmony, is what I mean.

Some Art I Have Been Drawing

2010-11-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

As I have occasionally mentioned, I have recently been working on a comic strip written by Matt Mclaughlin.

Well, my work has finally been completed. It has been rolled up, squeezed into a cable, and sent whizzing through the internet; heading to that mystical, secret land inhabited by unicorns, letterers and editors.

By which I mean, there is more work to be done, but it is all out of my hands now, and I'm not sure why I mentioned unicorns at all.

So here are some preview images from Lugal

Blog Beast Demands Feeding!

2010-10-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

And so feed it I must!

I'm currently finishing off work on that strip I'm always talking about. Should be all done bar the scanning by the end of tomorrow.

So, as Halloween is upon us, I thought I might as well chuck up some of the photos of a pumpkin I carved a few years back. It won the monthly 2000ad art competition of their forums, on which the standard is constantly high, so you should check them out. My victory was no doubt scored through the gimmick of using a pumpkin for a canvas. Although I normally hate gimmicks, such is the way that battles are won.

DINOBOT COMICS

2010-10-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Work continues on the comic I am currently working on, and once that is complete, I'm going to start work on another comic that will hopefully see the light of distribution-day!

As such, I won't be able to put any complete pages here for a while. Rather than let this place grow fallow, I will instead post something I knocked up the other day.

Obligatory cut off Livejournal title: As Galvatron once said, "This is bad co

Hover-over Text: Me Grimlock not time paradox! Me Grimlock KING!

Anyone a little confused by certain artistic choices displayed here should check out Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North. Kate Beaton once did a Dinosaur Comics Homage, and she was herself homaged (sure, that can be a word) when Livejournal user Astersyn turned this comic into this. I feel that by combining Transformers and Dinosaur Comics, I have somehow completed a circle of life.

Project Supersquirrel

2010-09-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Two updates in two days! How rare!

The reason I return so soon is because today saw The Legendary Shark (aka Mark Howard) post a public link to Supersquirrel Undefeated aka The Secret Project.

That last link will take you to where all the action has been happening, but to summarise, after hearing that Carlos Ezquerra (why yes, I am going for the 2010 Most Redundant Link Of The Year Award, thank you for noticing) had undergone an epic lung operation, the Shark thought up the idea of creating the Get Well Card to end all Get Well Cards. It was a Secret Project that truly earned its capital letters, bringing together fans from across the globe to show their appreciation for the great man's work.

Basically, if, after seeing this, you ever receive a get well card yourself, it will not fill you with the warm feeling of being loved, but it will instead act as a reminder that you will never amount to even a fraction of Carlos's lifetime achievements or manliness. Because you are not Carlos Ezquerra. Unless Carlos Ezquerra is reading this. In which case you are Carlos Ezquerra, and can just ignore this paragraph.

Anyway, enough wittering, just go here and look at the thing yourself.

Host 1: http://www.zshare.net/download/8035759096751fc8/

Host 2: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9075096/supersquirrel_undefeated_pblc_cpy.20100903-175749.zip

(Both links lead to the same file, in case you have difficulty with one or the other.)

The final word should go to The Legendary Shark himself, for achieving such an amazing feat. Many have called for him to be awarded the Krill Tro Thargo, and if Tharg was a democracy rather than a brutal, condescending, alien tyrant, then I would add my vote to the heap.

Win Some, Lose Some

2010-09-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

And so September draws to an end, and I have only managed to complete four out of five pages for this month.

Yet I am not disheartened, for there is good reason for my slowness! I have been taking my time with my newest project, as there would seem to be a good chance of getting it published. I am currently three pages through a script by Matthew Mclaughlin, and a damned fine script it is too! As we intend to see it in print, I can't show you the work so far, but here are some sketches that may whet the apatite.

"But wait!" I hear you cry, in a largely figurative sense. "If you are only three pages into that story, then where does your fourth page come in?"

Well, that would be a page that I drew for my wonderful ladyfriend, and it is one that I can reveal to the world. I have brutally disfigured the piece by attempting a fat fisted attempt at lettering. If any letterers read this, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry.

This jolly sequence is entitled Megatron Builds A Fort

In other news, the 2000ad forum has led to a vast expansion in the numbers of those following this blog! Hi all, some of you I have followed back, others I haven't yet due to not quite being able to work the computer properly. Some people have links in their little pictures, others do not, and it is taking me a while to get my head round the crazy variation. Please forgive my faltering steps at using this new Blogger contraption, I am awfully slow with such things.

Holed Up

2010-08-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

As the end of June approached, I set myself the task of drawing a comic a month for the rest of the year. Hopefully this will give me lots of practice, and help me iron out the various flaws in my work.

So here is August's effort, an attempt at a Future Shock originally published in 2000ad, prog 1249. The script was written by Richard McTighe, originally drawn by Cam Smith, and you can read the script for youself over at Barney

Ultimate Sacrifice

2010-07-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

Another comic, this time with a script by Mark Howard, who sent me this script to try out after seeing my work on the Moby Dick strip. This is a silent comic under the title of Ultimate Sacrifice.

2010-05-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have recently been trying to get into the habit of drawing comics. This is my first attempt at drawing a script that was written by someone else, and I have decided to use this blog as a place to share my experiments. I know there are loads of mistakes here, but such is the way with the learning process.

The art is based on the script “Old Red”, written by Simon Spurrier, originally drawn by Staz Johnson, and published in 2000ad, Prog 1232.

You can read the script here

Welcome One And All

2010-04-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about you, but as I write this, it is 21.04 according to the computer clock, so I hope you are having a good evening. I certainly am, and not just because you can make a twenty three out of that number.

This is the first post of my new blog, and I’m happy for anyone to wander along and see what I’m posting here. I must confess, though, that this blog has been created entirely as a way of keeping in touch with my brother. As such, you can probably expect it to be full of conversations that go along the lines of “Hey, do remember the time Gran did that thing and we all laughed?” “Oh boy, do I!” and other such spurious drivel that will be absolutely meaningless to anyone outside the Carter household. I make no apologies for this, but at the same time will attempt to regularly post something of more general interest to any other friends that happen to stumble past.