Life, The Universe and Comics!

In contemplating what to write in this update, it occured to me that the first paragraph of my autobiography is likely to include the words "four foot nine, Glasweigan lesbian", which I've always found to be a bit of an attention grabber.

Anyway, I thought it was time I put fingers to keyboard again and updated everyone on where I am with the various projects I've been working on (assuming anyone out there's actually interested...). So, here we go...

Shadowmancer
I have just completed forty-four of the sixty-six pages I have to colour for Shadowmancer. This has proved to be something of a mammoth task, bear in mind that my published colouring work so far has only been Smoke & Mirror vol 1 #5, and Smoke & Mirror vol 2 #1...that's only forty-four pages, so my work on Shadowmancer will more than double the amount of published colouring pages I have out there. I've encountered a fiar few obstacles along the way, not least of which have been my PC crashing over the Christmas break, a rather nasty stomach bug and being made redundant. However, the home stretch is now in sight and I've started work on #10. Unfortunately, these three issues will only be available in tradepaperback form, and only in the US.

Smoke & Mirror
As many of you will know, Smoke & Mirror vol 2 was sadly cancelled after #1. This was a shame because not only was it great fun to colour, it was also very, very quick to colour (unlike Shadowmancer!). Smoke & Mirror will always have a special place in my heart as it provided the first instance of my name appearing on the cover of a comic book - something I've wanted for as long as I can remember. It was also great to be involved in both series, and it was deeply unsatisfying that the second series only lasted for one issue. The first series got great reviews, and I know that many people were eagerly anticiapting the events of Vol 2 #2.

Well, the good news is that Smoke & Mirror is set to return later in the year! I don't know too many of the details but, Dan Bradford will be returning to pick up where he left off with the art, and I will also be returning to colour it. I'll post more information when it becomes available.

The Intergalactic Adventures of Slam Ridley
I'm sure you won't have failed to have missed the adverts we recently put up everywhere advertising for an artist on The Intergalactic Adventures of Slam Ridley. So...who's the new artist? Well, after receiving dozens of applications, and trawling through hundreds of sample pages, deliberating, cogitating and flipping several coins...Garth Graham returned from the wilderness, apologising for losing touch, and promising to have the six pager done by the end of the month! For those not familiar with the awesome art styling of Mr Graham, you can see them on his regular web-comic at www.comedity.com. Now, it strikes me that the end of the month is on Wednesday, so hopefully I'll have some more Slam goodies for you very, very soon. Having the six pager complete will mean that we can start shopping the book around to publishers, so hopefully things are about to go into hyperdrive for Slam. Another interesting development on the Slam Ridley front is that, after talking with Garth, we've decided to change the format. Slam Ridley's debut was originally conceived as a 48 page one-shot, but we've decided that Slam's story is just too big to squeeze it into one giant-sized issue, and we're busy re-writing it as a four part mini series.

The Young Gods
So...what to do with all those very, very talented artists who expressed an interest in ullistrating the Intergalactic Adventures of Slam Ridley. Well, as fate would have it, just as Garth Graham returned from the wilderness, the artist who was attached to The Young Gods had to depart due to a schedule chock full of other goodies. So, the creme de la creme of the artists who applied were contacted and asked if they'd be interested in working on Young Gods, and we are currently in talks with two artists who are interested in taking on the artistic chores on the book. In other The Young Gods news, I can now confirm that the series will be making its debut in print in the pages of Eleventh Hour #1, which will be published by Orang Utan Comics and will be launched at the Bristol Comics Expo in May. We may also produce a Young Gods mini-comic, featuring those same six pages, with a full colour cover by 2000AD cover artist, John Charles. This may or may not be a free give away, we haven't decided yet. This cover is currently in production and I hope to be able to post up the pencils for you to admire later in the week.

Orang Utan Comics
I've mentioned Orang Utan a few times already, but I thought I should give them a section of their own, heh. Basically, things are progressing nicely with the production of Eleventh Hour, our debut anthology title. This will be on sale at our stand at the Bristol Comic Expo in May. This is sure to be a future collector's item as it will not only see the print debut of The Young Gods but, assuming that Garth actually comes through for us now, it will also see the print debut of The Intergalactic Adventures of Slam Ridley. Featuring a cover by jaw droppingly amazing Austrain artist Franke, Eleventh Hour is sure to be the surprise talking point of the Bristol Expo (unless Tony Lee steals all our thunder by climbing more trees). Plans are well underway to make the Orang Utan Comics stand a cut above the rest, and we hope that everyone will leave Bristol talking about the new kids on the block (as in us...not the rubbish boy band from years ago...). While it would be great to have boththe first issue of Slam and the Young Gods graphic novel ready by Bristol, it's highly unlikely. It would be great if we could announce publishing deals for both books by then though (and interested publishers should contact either myself or Pete by email via info@orangutancomics.com).

Other Stuff
Yes, there's tons of random other stuff, of course. For example, I've just done some digital edits on a few pages of a Headlocked six page story which will hopefully be seeing print somewhere at sometime, I'll let you know. I've also been working closely with the new editorial team at Markosia on a few things, but I'll keep those under my hat for now until I know if they're definitely going ahead or not. I've also been busy doing a few logo designs for Tony Lee. Tony's great fun to work with as he has no qualms about telling you that he hates something, which I personally find rather refreshing. I've also just agreed to provide sequential CG art for Cher's comic book, Project: Raven, but it's very early days on that right now.

Well, that's enough of my waffle for now. Hopefully I'll have more to post on both Slam Ridley and The Young Gods later in the week, so don't forget to check back for updates!