Fubar - cover sketch

Firstly, happy Boxing Day everybody! Hope Christmas was loads of fun.

I finally finished all the pages of the first issue of Deadly Alien Microbots. Woohoo! Fully inked, scanned and cleaned up until I decide they need more work.

Unfortunately, now I need to start thinking about a cover (Urngghh!) so here is a sketchy first attempt with Fooba's looming tendrills approaching the hapless trio of microscopic robots. I really don't know much about comic book cover design so I tried to get all the elements of the comic in without revealing too much (i.e. what Fooba looks like). I imagine the whole thing to be mostly silhouette-esque black and white with the red of the blood providing a nice backdrop. I might make the heroes' stances a bit stronger, especially Ballistik.

So, is this any good? It's DAM hard (pun intended, hehe!) to come up with something eye-catching for all the peeps who have no idea what they'll be letting themselves in for if they ever pick up a copy. Being such a noob, I've got my work cut out...

-- UPDATE --

I've considered saving the window opening into a view of blood cells for a later issue's cover (yes, I am planning on this being a long running thing, if people choose to buy it, of course!), so I hastily drew some alternative ideas with some colour. This is all very rough, I might add!

I'm favouring the last one with all the characters in white, though I'll probably make the robots nice and metallic looking. But the first one with the bloodied background does seem to give off the unintentional image of a Western, which is also quite cool. Decisions, decisions...

Please let me know what you all think. Which one catches your eye the most?
Which would make you part with your pennies/dollars/euros...? :)

Fubar page 6

Page 6 of Fubar and the Deadly Alien Microbots are reunited with an old acquaintance.


I've been real busy recently and have got the pencils for this comic all the way up to page 20! Just another 5 to go, followed by inking it all, and chapter 1 of this epic is finished. Can't wait!

Fubar page 5

Page 5 of Fubar.
I wouldn't want to be the Deadly Alien Microbots right now.

Fubar page 4 + TAGGED!!!

Page 4 of Fubar and something's lurking behind the big bad door. Nothing like a little fear to bring the Deadly Alien Microbots back together!

Oh yes, almost forgot... I've apparently been tagged... twice. Once by Kenneth Anderson and secondly by Robi Pena. Thanks guys, I'll cut the acceptance speech short, though, as I'll only cry! Now, I'm not sure how the rules go for 2 tags but since I'm combining this in one post I'm assuming it counts as one tag. (And nobody better say otherwise or you'll be sorry!) So on with the game...

Here is the game rule:
1. You must link to the individual who tagged you and post the rules of TAG (which you are currently reading).
2. Post 7 random facts about yourself
3. Tag 7 friends and link to them and
4. Let them know that they have been tagged by leaving a nice little message on their blog.

My 7 facts are:
1. I love Italian food, especially ice cream!
2. I sing along to the radio on my way to work.
3. I'm half Maltese. Or is that a quarter Maltese?
4. I often get bored of projects I come up with half way through. My ambitions far outway my enthusiasm...
5. Despite all that I did write a full novel recently. It wasn't very good and didn't get published but the dream's still there!
6. I'm 28 years old... getting older... by... the... second :(
7. I've got my name on the credits of 3 great video games -- Damn, almost broke my "no shameless plugging" rule, there (Don't tell anyone!)

Really sorry to have to do this to you peeps but rules is rules, so here are my tag victims (mwah ha ha):

1. Chris Phillips
2. Mirella
3. Silvano
4. Jeremy Melton
5. Bógar Chancay
6. Andrew
7. Aleta Vidal

Well, that's the lot. Till the next time...

Fubar page 3

Page 3 of Fubar and it looks like the Deadly Alien Microbots are at each others' throats while they hide out from the ominous slimy looking thing lurking behind the big door.

Enjoy!

Fubar page 2

Page 2 of Fubar and the Deadly Alien Microbots are hiding out from some mysterious slimy thing that's torn apart their already torn apart ship and damaged the most powerful, yet strangely inept looking, security robot . Oh well, at least they have each other for company...

Fubar page 1

And here's page 1 of Fubar. It probably doesn't make much sense right now, but it will soon... hopefully! I've got another 10 pages or so lined up to show you all full of black n white goodness.

Fubar page 0

Well, it has been a while, hasn't it? I noticed I hadn't posted anything for exactly a month and I was starting to slack with my artwork so what better than to clear my backlog.

Here's the title page of the new Deadly Alien Microbots saga called Fubar. This one's a lot longer than Blood and Gorebot was and has more of a story.

Enjoy!

Oh, and thanks for all the positive feedback on my last comic.

Blood and Gorebot page 6

And so here's the sixth and final page of my mini comic that introduces the crazy microcosmic world of the Deadly Alien Microbots. I hope you enjoyed the ride and please let me know your thoughts on it all, good and bad.

I'm hard at work on a much longer comic with an actual plot now, but rest assured it's just as insane as this one is.

Blood and Gorebot page 5

And here's page 5. Only 1 more to go now and then... who knows? Not me, that's for sure!

Blood and Gorebot Page 4

Another page up for you to enjoy. There are only 2 more remaining for this mini story, but have no fear as I have already drawn 9 pages of the big epic saga, which will involve more blood, more gore but not nearly as much of Doktor Von Gorebot as I'd like.

Blood And Gorebot page 3

As if by magic, page 3 appears.
Please enjoy and calm my fears.

Interloper

New comic page coming around Monday-ish, in the meantime here's a quick doodle I did to keep you happy. And yes, that is a giant robot clinging on for its dear life in the hope of getting off this awful planet. Partly inspired by the brilliant WALL-E no less.

Blood And Gorebot Page 2

So here's Page 2 of the DAM mini comic.

Enjoy!

Taking the dog out for a walk

Thanks for all the positive comments on page 1 of my comic. Page 2 will be arriving any day now...

In the meantime, here's a little doodle I did of a giant robo-doggy (that doesn't really look too much like a dog but what the heck) taking its pet out for a walk.

Blood And Gorebot Page 1

It finally begins!

Here's page 1 of a 6 page short involving the deadliest of Deadly Alien Microbots, Doktor Von Gorebot. He's really quite twisted... hope you love him.

Let me know what you think as this particular episode was very experimental. I've got 5 more pages lined up to show you and I'm already at work on the awesome mega series involving the regular microbots, which explains the immense delay between this and my previous post.

So click the pic and enjoy!

More guitars

As promised, here's a colour version of my previous picture. It's nothing to shout about, but an improvement on previous colour piccies.

Guitar girl

I'm very pleased with this one. I reckon this is the best girly picture I've drawn yet. It almost makes me look like a real artist... as if!

Hey, I might even try colouring it in for a later post. It seems to be calling out for me to do it.

What do you think, guys and girls?

Oh, and please excuse the wonky feet. Maybe she's trying to do the splits?

Cityscape

Yay for me, I'm back!

Crunch-time is pretty much over and as the world eagerly awaits another brilliant game full of piñatas and candy (sweets to those of us the other side of the pond), I finally have a bit more time to devote to my personal creative projects.

I've got back to drawing my comic - 6 pages to go and then maybe I'll start posting some pages up - but meanwhile here's a melancholic piece showing a slightly - though not very - futuristic city encroaching upon nature... or it's just an excuse for me to learn how to draw different types of buildings.

As usual, it's 99% done with ink and paper, because I'm a bit of a purist really (I don't like all this new-fangled fancy tech) so excuse the roughness of it all.

Enjoy!

Head Frogs in other blogs

Over in http://igetthepicture.blogspot.com/ Chris and I have been drawing crazy creatures. Here's the black and white one, but over there is a colour version so go check it out!

Sorry about the delays between posts by the way, but been really busy at work finishing up the game we've been working on. I'll try to post more frequently!

Go steam racer, Go!

After the Trojan Toy in my previous post, I decided to learn how to draw mechanical things and this conveniently led to steampunk, which has always been a fun favourite of mine.

Anyhow, I decided to break with tradition and throw a bit of colour in the mix and it ended up as one of my best colour pictures so far (there aren't that many to choose from!)

So enjoy my first attempt, hopefully of many more...

Funny how this started out as a poetry blog

There was an old city called Troy,
Whose king was a pompous playboy.
The Greeks they invaded,
Then they blockaded
And snuck in with a huge wooden toy.

That's what really happened in Troy. None of this wooden horse nonsense. They were in fact the first people to construct a gigantic mech, albeit one made of wood. But it had an axe twice as tall as a man and that's all that really matters.

Giants walk among us.

Not sure what this all is as I got the idea from a dream I had after binging on sci-fi. I liked the visual aspect of this woman cheering on giant robots walking across a vast jungle landscape and the image kinda stuck in my head so much that I had to put pen to paper.

As usual, picking a rather pointless element from the scene, I'm particularly pleased with the trees, which mark a new milestone in my efforts to represent vegetation with only 2 colours. The only bit I dislike is the beast in the distance, as I drew it longer than it should be and the shading is a bit too obvious.

Maybe one day I'll draw the place they're all heading for, or perhaps where they're coming from...

robo doodle

Just a quick doodle of a robot I did to pass the time.

War. What is it good for?

Wading through swamps at 3 in the morning sucks, but not as much as getting a bullet in the head while you're still asleep at 4.

Not my best picture, but this was just a quick doodle to try out something different. I plan on doing more quick rough doodles just so I can post more stuff.

Also, you may have noticed a few changes over the look of the blog. Gone is the colour and the wolf to be replaced with pure black n white loveliness better reflecting the kind of pictures I'm drawing now.

What do you think?

Cyber angel

As humans slowly released themselves from the shackles of gravity that tied them to the Earth and the flesh that tied them to mortality they soared into the sky. From their new perspective they witnessed the damnation of their Earthbound brothers and sisters. The civilisations beneath them crumbled while the angels built a new harmonious society amongst the stars. But when they returned to the ageing planet that reared them they discovered a new breed of humanity, one darker and more sinister than any other before, and the cyber angels devoted themselves to finding a way to steer Earth from the path of chaos that it had begun.

The wrath of the robodemon

Here's a robodemon, created from a spark of mechanical insight that turned on its master and is now damned to spend the whole of eternity guarding the Catacombs of Vengeance from the organic plague that rusts the fiery Engines of Fury below.

I'm board...

A skateboarding chick.

Just a quick doodle I did as an experiment (hence the poor quality of it).

And I'm working on something a much better that I'll post up shortly (and I do mean shortly, given how I've only managed about 2 posts in the last couple of months).

In the meantime, it seems that everyone is doing it so I might as well join in, even if I am a little late. Here's some really cool pictures. They move and everything.

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of the comic I'm doing, showing my favourite anti-hero robot, Doctor Von Gorebot.

I'm not intending to do the comic in colour but thought I'd give it some just as an experiment and to make a change from all the black n whites I've been posting here. It looks much better in black n white is all I'm saying!

Till the next time...

Frankendude

Yet more delays in between posts, mainly because I've been hard at work drawing my comic. I've done 6 pages of a short short, and hopefully will be able to show you some of it soon...

Anyway, here's a frankenstein hunchback type guy I just doodled, who is in no way a self portrait of myself. And thanks for all the comments. Keep them coming as there isn't any better motivation than to know some people are enjoying your work!

Dinosaurs

Firstly, apologies for the delay so I hope this makes up for things...

Why am I drawing dinosaurs? Well, I've got another blog that I share jointly with my colleague, and actual artist, Chris Phillips where we get each other to draw stuff we don't normally do.

Anyway, as you can see from the messy state of it I haven't really cleaned it up from the original ink scan. Head over to http://igetthepicture.blogspot.com/ for more crazy art gubbins (of which there isn't much yet but there will be soon).

Mega Priest

Final image from Chris Phillip's Candleman is Mega Priest. It was meant to look a million times better than this with the Vatican behind him and rain and everything that makes pictures drawn by Frank Miller so amazing. Unfortunately the original turned out really awful because I'm not Mr Miller.

A last minute save and you can kind of get the gist of the image. Drawing this way did help me learn a bit about how to draw clothing but I think I prefer drawing a simpler style of noir than this.

Candlewax on, candlewax off.

Here's my attempt at drawing Chris Phillip's (who you can find in the links section) excellent Candleman and his mentor Mega Priest with a bit of a Karate Kid thing going on. I actually wanted to get Mega Priest looking like he's fed up and walking away in a huff, but ended up with him apparently moon-walking.

Anyway, makes a change from microbots!

M is for Microbots

The final letter in the alphabet of DAM is M and it means robots in miniature. And so Deadly Alien Microbots is finally born! Woohoo! This final image in the trilogy of posters represents the final watershed in my decision to draw the comic. Now I can start working on the actual comic book, which will be drawn entirely in this extreme black and white silhouette style.

This also happens to be my 50th post. I never imagined I would still be blogging after 7 months, or that it would reignite my passion for drawing and comic books but life is full of surprises.

Here's to another 7 months!..

A is for Alien

The second letter in the alphabet of DAM is A and it means a whole lot of alien goodness! Yes, our hapless group are not of this planet and neither are the snaky-eyed cybernetic things chasing them.

So we have Deadly Alien M...

What does M stand for? Any guesses? I can tell you this, it's probably not what you think and there's an incredibly subtle clue in this picture, which is more of an in-joke really...

See you next time!

D is for Deadly

The first letter in the alphabet of DAM is D, and this is what it stands for - Deadly! Thus this post disproves the popular theory that it stands for Don't Ask Me.

Expect to find out what the letters A and M represent in the near future.

Anyway, this image also makes it pretty clear in my mind that this art style is definitely the way forward for the comic.

Enjoy!

Relax!

I wanted to try drawing a DAM picture in a Miller-esque noir style. I liked it so much I decided to make it look like a promotional piece for my comic. This is also a second first (is that even possible?) as I didn't touch up any of the main picture after I scanned it in. All I did was add the text and fill in all the remaining black areas.

This image shines a light on the identity of the final main character. The floating bubble-bot in the middle is named Claws. As to what DAM actually stands for, well all may be revealed soon.

Anyway, I'm thinking about doing the entire comic this style, but not too sure. Film noir robots? It's certainly different. What do you think?

Hot babe

Contrary from popular opinion, I don't have a one track mind. It's a two track mind!

Anyway, another cool pic from me that I'm really pleased with, even though it's quite a generic pose. I think I got most of the body right apart from the foot, which I spent too much time on.

The robot spaghetti monster

This is another robot, believe it or not, from the DAM comic I'm working on. Drawing robots is one thing but drawing big blobs of something-or-other is quite challenging. I'm not too sure about the final look for this character but this is the general direction I'm aiming for.

The robot's name is appropriately called Fubar, by the way.

Cool pic

I'm really pleased with this picture. Well proportioned (I think), nice atmosphere all round. I definitely need to do more pictures like this.

Spark of genius

Here's the third robot from that DAM comic book idea of mine. This guy's called Spark, more or less for obvious reasons, and is the self appointed leader of the gang.

I'm trying to draw most of the robots full size so there'll be a few more, but just in case you're a robotophobe, I'm having a go at drawing another noir style black and white, which I hope to put in the next post, and I think is my best yet...

Robots reunited

And so Christmas has come and gone, it's a new year and here's the first of my posts of 2008, albeit a little delayed due to an unscheduled bout of laziness.

Actually I've not been entirely lazy. I've been busy preparing my first venture into the crazy world of comic books. And here's one character from my robot idea I've been playing around with.

This guy's called Doctor Von Gorebot and you really wouldn't want him poking around inside of you...