Roll on 2014.

When sunbeds go wrong

So I've just finished two scripts, to appear in the small press near you. Yay! Except both aren't likely to be released into the wild until 2014. A whole year away.

I'm not going to say any more about them. I'm only mentioning them here so my last post here isn't Christmassy. Leaving a Chrimo post up in January is like leaving your lights up outside the house all year round - the neighbours will talk. Plus, this way I get another couple of posts out of it and make it look like I'm doing stuff. Which I am, obviously.

Anyway, they'll hopefully be drawn by the jolly talented Jon Taylor, who drew the lovely lady above. Unless he starts to get even more proper paying comic work. Swine.

Elf Harm

So this was the submission to the 2000ad Forum's 2012 advent calendar, written by me and drawn by Jon Taylor.

He hasn't said anything to me, but a little helper elf mentioned that John REALLY enjoyed drawing all the elves on the second page.

Merry Christmas!

Alcohol! Adultery! Poverty! Servitude! It's Christmas, innit?

You know the worst thing? That's yellow snow.

I've written a script for the 2000ad message board's Advent Calendar. It's being posted on the 19th.

Jon Taylor is drawing it. He's worried it's not festive enough. I don't know why. It's got Santa in it and everything.Then again, so did last year's entry.

Prickly...

Big stompy robots: improving fiction since 1951

When is it a good thing that the folks at Zarjaz say they don't want a six page script? When they tell you it's because they want it to be twelve!

It's been a long time coming this one - I wrote it two and a half years ago (June 2010 - yes, that is two and a half years ago!). Looking at the script now, I can hardly remember it and the way I lay them out now is defintely better. But, you know what, I love this story.

What is it, I hear you ask? Well, I'm not telling. Not a word. I don't know when it will be published but I guess it is ages and ages away - I think the art deadline is the end of next year. So I don't want to spoil it.

It's going to be drawn by Mike Bunt and the snippet above is from a sketch of the eponymous lead in the strip.

One clue: I'd love to say it's like nothing you've read before. But it is!

Oooh. Pretty.

I'd see a doctor about that, mate.

See that, up there? That's the cover for Dogbreath 26. In which I have not one, but two, stories. So, um, go to the Futurequake Press shop and order two. It should be out in November, at Thought Bubble. You can find out more at the Dogbreath and Zarjaz site.

And did I mention the cover is for a story written by little old me? It is, you know.

A hankie full of colour...

My first Zarjaz and first Dredd strip can be seen at the Zarjaz blog, right here:

Rich Pickings - 6 pages of Dredd, not to be sniffed at!

I'll probably post the whole thing here later - I need to figure out if I can re-size them.

Anyway, I hope you like it! This was in Zarjaz 14 in B&W. You all bought that, didn't you?

Written by me, drawn by George Coleman, coloured by Owen Watts, lettered by Bolt 01.

Sick kids, sick wives and splash pages: A crisis of confidence

Head-shot!

By Jon Taylor, from a story I've written and to appear in Dogbreath sometime soon.
 

Leg-shot!

Owen Watts's colouring of George Coleman's art of Rich Pickings, which was in Zarjaz 14. This colouring is done and it should be on the Zarjaz site in a little while.

Cause of death? Let's just say, Dredd and Alpha REALLY don't like helmet gags.

A panel from Spike, which will appear in Futurequake, by Jon Taylor again. I feel kinda bad as this page was re-written and this panel was dropped.


This stuff has been posted because my wife and one of my children have both been sick (that is, "in hospital sick" rather than "got a snivel sick") over the last few months. I'm therefore using that as an excuse for not writing as much as I want - well, that and Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3. As a result, I'm suffering a crisis of confidence. I've got three scripts and a 10,000 word story sitting on my computer that need edited and submitted to somewhere (anywhere!) but I've not shown them to anyone and feel quite nervous about it.

So, these pictures are here to prove to myself that I can still write stuff that people will draw and print. Although getting paid for it seems somewhat harder.

Writing is not like riding a bike. It's less fun, harder, and if I stop then I fear I may never start again. Also, if you put a playing card between the keys on your keyboard it doesn't make a cool noise that lets you pretend you're on a motorbike.