Headlocked

Well, because I clearly have some pathological need to have more work than any mortal man could hope to cope with...and because I've become rather accustomed to drifting off to sleep with the sound of the dawn chorus ringing in my ears...I've signed on as colourist on Visionary's hot wrestling comic, Headlocked.

There is a HUGE buzz surrounding this groundbreaking title set in the world of pro-wrestling and I'm really pleased that I'm able to be a part of it. You can find out more about Headlocked on the Visionary website, or you can visited series creator Mike Kingston's Myspace page here.

In other news - I just picked up Civil War #'s 1 and 2 yesterday. I really enjoyed them and I'm looking forward to where Marvel are going to go with this. This series needs to have serious long lasting repercussions though. There is a rift now between Captain America and Iron Man that neither one should be able to just shrug off...so...when the dust settles, I'll be disappointed if they're both still Avengers. Got to admit though, I have no idea where Marvel are going with this one.

I'm really getting back into reading comics at the moment and I've really surprised myself by getting into Marvel's Ultimate's line. I picked up the first year of Ultimate X-Men in TPB form, and also the first Ultimates trade. It's impressive stuff. I remember when this tuff first came out, just when I was getting out of reading comics, I really didn't see the point of it. I have a great fondness for the Marvel Universe, its history and its continuity, and new books that just threw away all that didn't make much sense to me. Now I'm approaching them from the point of view of someone who is not regularly reading comics, and suddenly I get it. Excellent stuff.

That said, I wuld like to get back up to speed with the mainstream Marvel Universe. I recently read the House of M trade, which I found to be quite impressive. As you may have noticed, I've been buying a lot of trade paperbacks. Again, the TPB market didn't make any sense to me when I was buying something like forty regular monthly titles. Now TPBs are exactly what I need, and a stack of them is much more convenient to read than a stack of bagged and boarded back issues. Consider me well and truly sold on the whole TPB thing.

So...now I want to catch up on the main X-Men books...but I'm resisting because I know it means reading the Morrison run....

In other, other news - I have just three days left of my twenties. Ugh. Ageing has never been a big deal for me before but there's just something about turning 30. It's some consolation, however, that I can look back over the past thirty years and see that I've achieved most of the goals that I would have liked to have achieved before I turned thirty. I've fathered two great kids, recorded live and studio CDs, had songs written and performed by me played on the radio, been on an insane road trip to visit a refugee camp in Macedonia, performed live in front of a festival crowd...and....most importantly of all...become a published comic book artist.

So...what is there left for me to do?

I guess, going into my thirties, it would be good for me to set out a few goals...so here goes...

- Become a published comic book writer (looks set to happen before the year ends).

- Attend the San Diego Comic Book Convention (hopefully next year).

- Do work for Marvel Comics (yes...DC would be cool, but I'm Marvel through and through).

- Write a Pete Wisdom mini series.

- Win an Eagle award.

- Win an Eisner award.

Well.....we'll see...