#OPENCOMICS

The Guardian is running a project to showcase one page stories. It is called #opencomics

They have gathered a stellar review panel, with Benjamin Dix, John Harris Dunning, Paul Gravett, Bianca Jagger, Amruta Patil and Joe Sacco.

I contributed a story called "No Greater Love", and it is up now at the website. To have a look, please click here. If you are so inclined, hit "recommend". I'd appreciate it!

SOME OLD COMIC BOOK PAGES

I bought a new magazine on Star Wars related artists yesterday.

Flicking through, I came to the image above. This is the caption:

"Randy is a great fan of mixed media - yes, that background behind Leia really is some old comic book pages"

I have never seen Al Williamson's art from the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi comic adaptations referred to in such an offhand way before. This statement lazily - and I would imagine unintentionally - belittles Williamson, and comics themselves. It seems they are not artworks by a particular artist, but are just some old things an artist finds lying around and can stick in the background of their artwork.

Such ignorance from any source - but especially from a magazine purporting to be about Star Wars artists. They show no signs of knowing who Williamson is. He is arguably the top Star Wars comic artist ever, and also influenced Lucas before he'd put the film together.

I must add that I have no idea what Randy Martinez's take is on Williamson - he is not asked about him. Nor is Williamson mentioned anywhere in the article.

"...some old comic book pages"

It's just a little thing, a caption, but it really pissed me off. It actually made me sorry that I'd handed over money to justify such ignorance.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMIC ART: DUNDEE COMICS DAY 2014

The new edition of The International Journal of Comic Art is out now. It has an article by myself in it. It’s a report on the latest Dundee Comics Day.

More details can be found here.

STATE OF THE SMALL PRESS NATION: PUBLICITY and PROMOTION

The latest in Andy Oliver’s series on the UK small press comic scene has been published over at Broken Frontier. The topic this time is publicity and promotion. I throw in my 2 cents. 

It’s billed as the last chapter for now, hopefully there’s more to come.

Have a read here.

REFERENCE REVIEWS

The latest edition of Reference Reviews - Volume 29, issue 5 - is out now, featuring a review I wrote of Gary Hoppenstand's "Critical Insights: The Graphic Novel".

Reference Reviews is an academic journal aimed at librarians. For a look at the abstract of the article, please go here.

DUMP #3 at THE BIG GLASGOW COMIC PAGE

Gary Smith has written on Dump #3 over at The Big Glasgow Comic Page.

Have a look here.

DUMP #3 at MIDNIGHT FICTION

Dump #3 is listed here over at the Midnight Fiction website.
Many thanks to Richard Krauss for the mention.

WORK IN PROGRESS 6 - FINI

It is always comics making time!

Last page today.

In the course of drawing this one, a change in the events occured to me. I thought it got my story across more strongly than what I had originally written, so I went with it.

Here are the pencils:

 Here are the inks:

I had also left a storytelling problem I knew I had on this page hanging, trusting I'd come up with something at the drawing stage. I did! So a succesful session at the board today.

Tomorrow night I will have a look over the four pages for any glaring mistakes I've made, or changes I want to do. Then I'll scan the pages and send them off.

WORK IN PROGRESS 5

Yes, it's still comics making time.

Today I've been working on page three. Here are the pencils:

It's important after a few hours at the drawing board to stretch your legs and have a break. I'd recommend a cup of tea and some buttered toast.

 

Then on to the inks. Here they are, all done:

One page left to do. It's great to get these under the belt, one at a time, slowly but surely.

WORK IN PROGRESS 4

Hey. It's comics making time.

Here are the finished inks for page two:

As with inking, the first things to be done on the pencil page are the lettering, captions, speech balloons, etc. Here are the beginnings of page three:

I'm aiming to have the four pages done by Monday night. On track so far.