Story Time

An illustration before we all head off for the weekend! This one is more in the style of the recent children's book I've finished; using loose pencil and watercolour. It's a really refreshing, relaxing way of working, and is nice to do alongside the more detailed 'ink and digital' approach I use. I'm also not as used to it; so every day I'm doing it is that little bit more exciting. Like an adventure. Into the terrifying grips of the unknown void, with only a torch and a chocolate bar as my weapons, and a juggling squirrel as my wise-cracking companion. But it's all fun, and that's what counts! I hope you like it!

Magician

I'm grabbing this brief down-time I find myself having by the horns to enlarge my children's book portfolio a bit. Even though I've been doing some children's books, I've realised a lot of them involve mainly animals and various critters (I love drawing them, but admitting it is the first step), so I'm going to try out a few more pieces involving children or at least some anthropomorphic (AARGH, that word again. It needs one less 'O' I feel. Or at least, one more.) animeaux's. And I'll tell you want; these chances to draw whatever pops into my head is rarer and rarer these days, and I'm completely LOVING it! It's like being unleashed in a playground of truth and wood, where you can't touch the ground, otherwise you fall in the lava. You know. Ahem. I've been sketching quite a lot, I'll try and get a few more up soon!

As always; thanks so much for stopping by!

Cogg and Sprokit Again (but more regular!)

Have Cogg and Sprokit met their match?! *GASP* This week launches the first of (hopefully many!) Cogg and Sprokit extended adventures that will be featured in The Phoenix! I have also begun writing the next extended story, so hopefully Cogg and Sprokit will be regularly spreading their adventurous wings in these longer stories, which is always cool, as more space means more action and even cheeky amounts of character depth! This one is called 'The Hunt', and will be a 5-parter running over the next 5 weeks, and it involves some rather vicious Genghis Khan-esque wolves and lots and lots of rope. Seriously didn't see that much rope being involved. But you know what they say; the more rope involved, THE MORE AWESOME AN ADVENTURE. It's true, I know.

But seriously; I hope that those of you who catch it enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. I have also been scouring my sketchbooks and have found lots of character designs for both Cogg and Sprokit and Atomic!, which I will post up hopefully next week for your perusing pleasure. If only I could show some stuff from my children's book too. I'll ask Hodder very nicely and see what they say...

The Phoenix Issue 9.

Hello guys!

Just a quick blog post to say that Issue 9 of The Phoenix contains the next thrilling installment of Cogg and Sprokit, available to all subscribers, people who venture to Waitrose AND other assorted comic shops around the island as of this weekend.

I'm really happy with the mini-story in this issue; it's the first one that really sets Cogg and Sprokit off on their treasure hunting adventures, and I got to draw a weird sabre-toothed cat chasing a boy and hippo, which is basically why I got into comics. I hope you guys enjoy it!

I've been busy again recently, hence the lack of blog updates; but the good news is; I finished my debut children's book with Hodder Children's Books this week. High five! The bad news: it won't be available to buy until next year. BUT it's done, I loved doing it and I am very proud of it. Lots more to come throughout the year. I'm also currently rounding off a 5-issue longer story arc of Cogg and Sprokit, which will be hitting shelves soon - and in this baby the action REALLY heats up for the unfortunate yet heroic duo. Until then, team, fare ye well.

'Atomic!' Launches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Comic book amount of exclamation marks, there)

Jonny and Tommy Atomic are OFF!!
FFWWWOOOOOOM.
Yup, those random sentences and noises can only mean one thing: The 'Atomic!' series, both books 1 and 2, are released today! I'm going to go hunt them down on a book shelf somewhere, just to make sure it's actually real. I remember when I first got this brief, it felt like a lifetime until they would be out. That was one QUICK lifetime. And I'm...*sob*...so...happy. They grow up so fast. Now that the books have been released, I'm going to hunt down some concept art and sketches of the characters to put up on the blog over the coming posts. And whilst I'm talking about it, the creator and writer Guy Bass is doing a cool peek into the Atomic world and its characters over on his blog. Enjoy!

A Week of Releases!

Next week is going to be an intense week. Everything I have been going on about over the last few months will be released in one big explosion of stuff being put on shelves (not the mightiest of explosions, I know, but an explosion none-the-less).

First up we have 'Cogg and Sprokit', my mini-series being serialised every few weeks in the magnificent Phoenix Comic. The first episode launches TOMORROW in Issue 4 of The Phoenix, or today if you've subscribed, I think, and I could not be more excited. Let me know what you think of it, I really hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. It is basically one (mis)adventure after another as the dynamic (read; unlucky) duo go in search of treasure, adventure and ways to keep their heads attached to their shoulders whilst doing so in a world full of anthropomorphic animals, monsters and gorgeous sunset vistas. Aahhh. I may have lied about the vistas. If this sounds like your cuppa, and you have not subscribed to the comic, I know you can buy the individual issues in any Waitrose store every Saturday, and from some independant comic stoes such as GOSH Comics in London.

Next up if the fiction series I have been working so hard on with the fantastic and awesome award-winning author Guy Bass; 'Atomic!' Both the books in the series, 'The Vengeance of Vinister Vile' and 'The Madness of Madame Malice' are out on the 2nd of February, published by Scholastic UK, and they are going to ROCK! Guy has written such a fun, energetic, funny and intense story, and it was an absolute pleasure to illustrate it. What could be more fun to illustrate than a story of two boys who are the children of the world's greatest super-hero and the world's most evil, diabolical super-villain?! I've worked super, mega-hard on the illustrations (there's comic sections and everything in this book, take a looksee here), and am thrilled to finally see them on the shelves. But yes, phew. Enough self-promotion. I need to get back to work.

Atomic!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!

I am very excited to introduce the twins, Jonny and Tommy Atomic!!
These two are the stars of my first ever illustrated fiction book 'Atomic! The Vengeance of Vinister Vile', written and created by the fantastic Guy Bass and illustrated by, well, me, soon to be released by Scholastic UK. (And the second book, 'The Madness of Madame Malice' will be soon to follow!)
I am SO excited about this series. Full stop. Super heroes, flying islands, monsters and one bad tempered crocodile; Atomic has it all. The story is exciting, action-packed and hilarious. And I have worked my derriere off on this badboy, and am very proud of it. This is the project I have been working on that made me disappear from the blog world for a while, but I believe it was well worth it. I will blog about it in-depth soon, but in the meantime, why not check it out over here? It would be most kind of you, and we can high-five each other whilst saving the world from Vinister Vile.

EXCITEMENT.