One of the hardest things about drawing a story set in a consistent visual setting, eg indoors, is maintaining consistency. Most of my comics are mostly set indoors and as I've written here before, I've slowly built 3D models of a lot of those settings to save myself having to lay them out over and over again without making mistakes.
For Great British Bump Off...
2023-04-29 08:40:55 +0000 UTC View PostWARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS A SPOILER FOR THE WHOLE FIRST ISSUE OF THE GREAT BRITISH BUMP OFF. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ A ROUGH BUT COMPLETE VERSION OF ISSUE 1, DON'T OPEN THE PDF LINKED AT THE BOTTOM.
For The Great British Bump Off (issue 1 in comic shops now) I scripted e...
2023-04-28 07:42:59 +0000 UTC View PostGiant Days isn't exactly back, it's being reissued in new twofer library editions later in the year. But I have a problem, and the problem is that when I am now asked about Giant Days, I have largely forgotten all but the broad strokes of the story. I've become frustratingly useless in interviews when asked about it.
So I asked ChatGPT to imagine an interview with me. And what an absolutely fascinating person I turned out to be.
Interviewer: Hi John, thanks for joining us!...
2023-04-23 09:14:28 +0000 UTC View Post
I realise that Steeple 16 hasn't appeared yet (I've drawn half of it as of today) but here's a sneak le peek at the cover for Steeple 17. It's pretty much done... as much as an image like this can ever be "done". It's a pastiche of something... BUT WHAT?
2023-04-20 15:35:47 +0000 UTC View PostWe've entered the period of the year where I repeatedly tell my friend Marc Ellerby that his great character Chloe Noonan "is back" while sending him bootleg images I "got from the Wednesday warriors at the local comics shop". He loves it†.
I did once offer to write and draw a completely new Chloe Noonan comic book but he thought I was joking and flipped my dinner up in the air. Little did he realise wha...
2023-04-13 13:37:55 +0000 UTC View PostYour PDF is linked under the cover image.
This is a weird, never-to-be-repeated one-off but I hope you like it. I had a lot of fun making it. If you have any questions, put them in the comments. I'm sure you'll have questions.
STEEPLE returns on May 26th, with a new two-part story, "Hell On Wheels?"
I start drawing a new Steeple story next week, so today I've finally modelled in SketchUp all the rooms in the rectory that I usually busk the layouts of. Half the rooms join up differently every time, which I don't like, so it feels good to put them together properly.
I laid out downstairs, which fit together better than I would have hoped. I even found spots for the utility room and the downstairs "netty".
2023-03-31 14:32:15 +0000 UTC
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Steeple will return in May with a new 2-parter. I've not been asked for a volume 4 from Dark Horse (also, I haven't pitched one) so I'll just be trickling stories out as and when inspiration strikes. Here's the cover for chapter 16.
2023-03-28 10:15:43 +0000 UTC View PostIt's been a while since you've heard what Desmond Fishman is up to. That's my fault, and I'm sorry. I stepped away from the conversation so that other voices could be heard. But Des has asked that I appraise you of his latest projects, visions and follies, and so I present them here, without prejudice. Commentary comes from Des himself.
"I AM WORKING ON A BIO-GRAPHICAL PROJECT ABOUT MY COLLEGE ...
2023-03-23 17:02:27 +0000 UTC View Post
The preview pages are out for GBBO #1!
"When she enters her country’s most beloved baking competition, Shauna Wickle’s goal is to delight the judges, charm the nation, and make a few friends along the way. But when a fellow contestant is poisoned, it falls to her to apprehend the culprit while avoiding premature elimination from the UK Bakery Tent… and being the poisoner’s next victim!"
Writer John Allison
Artist Max Sarin
Colours Sammy Borras
Letters Jim Camp...
Here are six Esther sketches, I spent the afternoon carefully inking these and applying my best and most treasured Copic grey pens to them. I even did some crosshatching. I mean, come on.
My only remaining task is to slice the pieces of A4 bristol board I have drawn them on (2up) in half with a scalpel, now there's a pulse quickening activity. I've only sent myself to A&E once on the old scalpel slicing beat. Once was enough.
2023-03-14 16:57:48 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm currently doing 20 commissions for Giant Days Kickstarter backers. I don't enjoy doing pictures like this but needs must and I have been trying my best to get some good drawings out. These are the sketches I did for 14 of them - I've lightboxed them for the finished pen and ink/grey marker illustrations. I'll post those up when they've gone out to backers. The remaining six, as you can probably guess, will be Esthers, and I want to find her some special outfits so those will be done next ...
2023-03-11 16:23:11 +0000 UTC View Post
After many months of uncertainty, a period of calm has begun, and I am attempting to fill it with new ideas and good work. First and foremost is KIT + THE WOLF, which I am six pages into drawing, and I am certain will charm and delight you from soup to nuts (though some parts of it are less charming than others, as it does feature the freewheeling attitude to physical harm that characterised the 1980...
2023-02-27 15:47:19 +0000 UTC View PostYour PDF is linked under the cover image - please let me know if you enjoyed it in the comments.
For new $3+ Patrons, your Solver stories so far (links are to the PDF download posts)
Issues 1 & 2 - Circus Windows part 1 & part 2
Issues 3 & 4 - Aut...
Be sure to pester your parents for this incredible new range of plastic thought-haunters. Only from DANCO®
2023-02-18 07:59:07 +0000 UTC View PostAfter a few weeks off, I did a bit of inking practice yesterday to warm up for a return to drawing pages. I found some pencils by an up-and-coming artist, kind of obscure, you know? One or two of you may recognise his work even under my sloppy mark-making. I got it about 95% done.
I was moving house last week, hence the silence. But here's a little teaser, the cover for the story that follows Boys Like Fun part 2. It's exactly what it looks like. An outlaw Kitty Pryde and Wolverine comic set in 1985. It was all I felt like making. I'm pretty exhausted.
I've written and roughed it and all I can say is, it's exactly the hybrid of me and Chris Claremont you would expect it to be. Satisfying no one but its creator, perhaps, but at the moment, that's all I wa...
2023-02-15 15:47:55 +0000 UTC View PostAfter a feverish spell of work finishing Solver #10, I've got a couple of weeks off making comics to move house before I start the next project. My intention is to do a new Steeple story, but before then, there's a standalone fill-in comic that I don't want to talk about too much until it appears here. I've been breaking it down and will start writing in earnest once my moving break is over. Everyone I've spoken to about this new mystery project seems to like it. You might enjoy it... you mig...
2023-02-01 20:55:50 +0000 UTC View PostI am currently plotting out a "doujinshi" comic that will emerge at some point in the near future. In discussing this with my good friend Marc Ellerby, he said that I should do a Gen 13 fan comic. Gen 13 is a nineties comic which I read one issue of, nearly three decades ago, and I do not feel like I am the person to undertake this project. But with an hour to kill before a lunch reservation, in the environs of Central St Martins art school, I tried to capture the wonder of Gen 13 fo...
2023-01-22 21:12:48 +0000 UTC View Post
My new four-issue limited series with Max Sarin on art and Sammy Borras colouring has just been announced by Dark Horse. It's out in April.
I will write more on it closer to the time, as there is a lot of background nonsense attached to this long-gestating tale (as Patreon subscribers will be well aware, it has been in the works for a couple of years in various forms). But I'm confident that wh...
2023-01-19 17:52:20 +0000 UTC View PostOne of my dumbest acts as a mid-teen (I estimate 15) was to burn all the superhero comics I'd drawn between 11 and 14 on a bonfire at Tom Rowley's house. I remember his dad, an artist and designer, being genuinely aghast when he heard what I'd done. At the time I thought of it as a cleansing fire as I moved towards the work of pure genius, away from the embarrassment of those faltering steps into becoming the new Jim Lee. Little did I realise that the greatest embarrassment would be the immol...
2023-01-17 17:09:42 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been messing around with the 1980s Marvel colorist's palette. There are only 64 colours, plus black and white, and no shades of grey. You're forced into decisions that make you ink like it was 1984 in order to render depth. Extremely educational.
I think this might be the first time I've ever drawn either of these characters from scratch (I did ink some of those weird John Byrne pencil pag...
2023-01-12 15:24:16 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm beginning to block out plans for a new Steeple story, hopefully beginning in the spring. As always it will showcase RAW TERROR and DAZZLING FASHIONS. Whether it will run for 22, 44, 88 pages or more or less, I cannot say. It'll be a proper one, though, not some mad strips about toilets.
2023-01-03 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostYour PDF is linked under the cover image - please let me know if you enjoyed it in the comments. And thank you for supporting the creation of these comics.
For new $3+ Patrons, your Solver stories so far (links are to the PDF download posts)
Issues 1 & 2 - Circus Windows part 1 & 2023-01-02 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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A variety of exciting concepts and relatable characters in this selection from the latest batch of Daily Draws from Instagram. I'm sure you'll have your favourites, and I know I do. For me it's the Pub Shouter Triplets. In a few etchings you'll even see my dear son Proteus, depicted at last in all his sooty glory. At the end, the artist wishes you a very happy new year.
2022-12-31 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostLook forward to a new print series announcement in the next few weeks, and here's the cover for Solver issue 10.
Nothing to worry about!
Very best wishes to all my Patreon subscribers, thank you your continued support.
2022-12-23 14:46:44 +0000 UTC View Post
I've started a new project where I have to do a new pencil drawing every day for a year, as I have neglected my sketchbooking and got quite stale over the last few years. Not bad, just creatively mundane. So the idea is to do something every day, even if it is only very small due to other responsibilities.
Here are the first batch. My hope is to see the green shoots of recovery, or open up some new ground, over a year.
2022-12-20 08:43:19 +0000 UTC View PostI’m currently trying to work out what stories I want to tell next year. I have Solver 9 and 10 set for January to March, and a print miniseries due in the spring, but beyond that my slate is empty. Everything I’ve done over the last three years has come out of the confusion of the early pandemic, where I was very productive, but I can feel the weird, shut-in energy of that period fading fast now and I am looking to find a new direction. I have a vague sense of what I want to do but it lac...
2022-12-17 20:50:29 +0000 UTC View PostI've had plenty of time to listen to music this year; my Last.fm profile shows this will be my biggest listening year ever; I'm not sure this means anything but who doesn't like a high score? The chart is below and here's a Spotify playlist with a selection from each record.
1 BLUE REV ...
2022-12-12 16:00:40 +0000 UTC View Post