scarygoround

SNEAK PREVIEW: Author Unknown pt 2 cover

I'll be uploading the second part of Author Unknown for $3-and-up Patreon subscribers on May 31st, so here's a sneak preview of the cover I commissioned from Nick Roche (SCARENTHOOD, TRANSFORMERS: SINS OF THE WRECKERS/LAST STAND OF THE WRECKERS, SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS etc etc etc). I know you all wanted Milo Manara but Nick, one of my favourite artists and a fairly agreeable person if you catch him on the right day, was surely a close second. I think he's done an amazing job!

2021-05-21 08:06:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Professional Development Week

A couple of weeks ago, I took advantage of a break between stories to spend a week trying out different drawing techniques. Using traditional materials, I drew a couple of pages like I used to back in the day, but I soon remembered why I stopped doing that. No matter how much I love drawing in my sketchbook, I can't get that carefree feeling onto a "proper comic" page. I became the opposite of carefree, in fact, the stress after a couple of days of it was extraordinary. And no one was every g...

NEW BOBBINS BOOK 3

Here's the third of the New Bobbins ebooks, it's a short one, collecting the post-Mordawwa Erin and The Boy stories from 2016/17. There's a new essay at the start that might only be notable for containing the synopses of the issues for my rejected Mordawwa pitch. PDF at the bottom of the post.

The fourth and final PDF will follow in a couple of weeks.

Go-Party

Here's a comic that I broke down a plot for in 2016, then set aside forever. I found the notes for it today. It's a 22-page rip on Father John Misty (ahem, "Papa Joe Foggy"). You will agree that it is better left in the vault. As a period piece tied to the old ways, its time has passed. As a cover and a 1-page Word document, however, it's peerless. 

1 Claire welcomes Mimi to the back to th...

The hinterland

When Bad Machinery was finished, Giant Days was entering its final year, By Night was coming out and before I started work on Steeple, I should have taken a rest, but my mind was a factory making nothing, a machine that would not turn off after 20 years. I have a whole folder marked simply '2018' full of failed experiments, one-off comics, oddments called things like "line experiment 15", re-draws of ancient comics. Not a good time for the mind. There's a series pitch I came up with (on reque...

NEW BOBBINS BOOK 2

Here's the second of the four New Bobbins collections. PDF link at the bottom of the post. It runs to nearly 100 pages, with a new essay. Thank you for being a patron!

Here Comes Gothy 12

Here's the final installment of Here Comes Gothy. You can't say there wasn't a sort of logic to this story.  A circularity. Similar to a fever dream.

Catch up with previous episodes on the Here Comes Gothy master post.

Who knows what the next KRAZY KOMIC for Patreons will ...

NEW BOBBINS BOOK 1

The Scary Go Round site has had to be taken down, so my older archives are unavailable. I'm not sure when they'll be back up, so I'm collecting some of them into pay-what-you-want PDFs on my Gumroad. $3-and-up subscribers will get the four New Bobbins collections (A Magical Pink Being, Out Of The Woods, End Of The Road, Hard Yards) here for free.

This work has never been (and p...

Here Comes Gothy 11

It's a double Gothy week! The only downside to this upside is that this is the penultimate HCG. Catch up on all the eps on the HCG master post.

Here Comes Gothy 10

It's a cruel world, but sometimes good things happen. Here's the 10th episode of Here Comes Gothy. Can you believe there are only two more?

You can catch up on the HCG Master Post if you've missed any episodes.

I realise that "do one" may not be an international term. It's a slightly more polite way ...

Dummy

The second part of Author Unknown should emerge with a cover by an Undisclosed Star Name (it's Milo Manara (it isn't)) but I did a quick dummy cover for the PDF I sent out to my  friends once I finished drawing the pages. It came out a lot better than I intended it to.

My brief for this cover was "draw the sort of cover we are made to do by comics publishers, months in advance, when we barely know what is in the comic at all". This, by the way, is the industry standard. It keeps yo...

Here Comes Gothy 9

As promised, the 9th Here Comes Gothy comic. I'll stick this one on the HCG Master post (where you can catch up with the story) later today.

As I wrote last week, I'm trying my hand at some traditionally drawn comics again; this is the first one I felt good enough about to post. I don't kn...

Drawing stream, archived (plus results)

I'm streaming a redraw of a classique Scary Go Round comic this afternoon, plus some reminiscences, come watch and chat!  

POST-STREAM UPDATE

On this redraw stream I tried to take different decisions to those I made drawing the original comic. Here's what I ended up with, plus the original (from Dec 2007) for comparison.

2021-04-19 12:53:29 +0000 UTC View Post

A quick one

I'm trying to improve my traditional inking and to use my lightbox. It's proving hard but there are signs of improvement coming with practice. The most important thing I have to remember is not to trace my pencils, but to draw anew, with purpose, the way I do on the computer. Here's a rare example of a drawing where I think I actually managed that. 

One of the best pieces of advice I ever ...

Cloake-ing device

Here are my designs for John Cloake from Circus Windows. I knew what I wanted him to look like, he was based on the circus correspondent from the World's Fair newspaper group, where I worked in 1998/99. That John was pretty old (though I was 22 at the time and these things are relative, I think he was in his...

Read Author Unknown? part 1 in full, now

If you prefer to read it in webcomic form, or just want to comment as the pages go up, the story is running M-W-F at steeple.church for the next 14 weeks. Part 2 will arrive on Patreon on May 31st.

I was very careful when writing this story to make it accessible to anyone who didn't know my various comics, you can be the judge of wh...

Onion Dan's Cosmic Run

It's a short life, and here's how I spent a portion of it. This started as a blank page and maybe it should have stayed that way...

...but I don't think so!

To think some Patreons are just pictures of comic artists' sexy lady characters in the nip. Those lads are barely scratching the surface of what's possible.

Onion Dan issue 3

A lot going on in Onion Dan #3 (from IMAGE COMICS, HOME OF SPAWN) - remember, Onion Dan is not recommended for anyone of either a nervous OR stout disposition! Not available in the USA, Canada or the UK for legal reasons!!! Try Russia!!!!!!

My face, huge on a screen

I did a video interview last week to assist my French publisher Akileos' Giant Days hardcover edition crowdfunder. I go into a few things much more deeply than I have elsewhere - you may find it interesting! If you can read French, and want more Giant Days hardcovers, take a look. 

Radical edits (with 'tood)

I redrew the last three pages of Secret Sentai for Steeple Volume 2 (due in July from Dark Horse). The clock is always ticking for someone to tell me they liked the original version better when I do this, but these three were all drawn when I was having some bad eye and hand problems. I was a brave soldier and finished them at the time (longtime Patreon subscribers may remember that the first one is a cut and shut of three failed attempts) but they looked very wrong to me now.

The new v...

Steeple chapter 11 cover, work no longer in progress

This one came easy. A truly ghastly colour scheme; a cover for a story that is scheduled to start July 18th. Talk about "early access". To all things a season!

EDIT (below): My friend Robert Ball, responsible for many great book covers, made a colour suggestion I think really lifts it, proper venus flytrap vibes!

Steeple chapter 11 Work In Progress

With writing on the crossover complete and the artwork half done, the next story up on the drawing board is a 4-part Steeple arc. In my work folder, I’ve continued the issue numbers from the Dark Horse issues (1-5) so Silvery Moon was issues 6 & 7, Secret Sentai was 8 & 9 and Christmas With Clovis was issue 10. The crossover is strictly speaking a "special" (it is reasonably special, I think) so above is my rough cover for issue 11. It might end up looking completely different but i...

On WICKED THINGS/CIRCUS WINDOWS process post

I hope you are enjoying (or if you are a $3/month patron, have enjoyed) Circus Windows. In this post I will take you through the thinking behind it, the background to it, and some of my sketches for it.

After Wicked Things was cancelled, I was in a bit of a bind. I say "cancelled", let's just say, if it had been more successful, there would have been more than six issues. That's life. We can ...

The BCJ

In the upcoming Author Unknown crossover, Billie wears a garment I dubbed the Backless Clerical Jumpsuit. A sort of reverse Fleabag and Hot Priest in one. It’s very Church of Satan.

Live stream! Live stream now!

Come to Youtube and be entertained! All good, nothing bad.

https://youtu.be/vjhL9PoZNa8

UPDATE: The stream is archived at the link above so you can watch at your leisure.

Here Comes Gothy 8

You only had to wait a week for thrills and spills at a very high level, as Here Comes Gothy returns! So many relatable characters in this episode who we must hope return soon!!!! Spooky woman! Steam le punks! Adoring emo! Others!

I've not written the senses-shattering conclusion to this story yet ("written") but that's my next job. I think more than 12 parts is probably too much dessert for even the hungriest Horace.

2021-03-09 05:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post

CATTYWAMPUS #1 Master Post

I did a master page for Here Comes Gothy, here's one for Cattywampus' first story arc so you can read all the pages in one place.

In "Cattywampus", Desmond Fishman moves to Tredregyn to (let's not put too fine a point upon this) continue his career in the Scary Go Round Cinematic Universe. Consider this a safe space where he cannot pollute the laboured-over pages of my masterworks (my term but indisp...

Author Unknown pt 1 cover preview

My Steeple - Charlotte - Shelley crossover starts on April 12th (on the Steeple site, after internal deliberations that lasted well into the wee small hours). I have drawn nine pages so far and declare them "good". I will share some process work in the coming weeks, but for now, here's the cover.  It's based on the classic box of Guess Who, obviously.

This is the rough...

2021-03-03 16:54:54 +0000 UTC View Post

Here Comes Gothy 7

After a break of a month, which must have seemed painfully long, here's Here Comes Gothy #7. To read all the Here Comes Gothy comics on one page, just go to this page.

Here Comes Gothy Master Post (COMPLETE)

Updated May 6th 2021

...