Otherworld Sailor

Otherworld Sailor Page 1, lineart created in Manga Studio

I recently completed another short story, "Otherworld Sailor", with my frequent collaborator, writer and editor Matt Gibbs. The story is being published in "Overload #1" which is launching at Kapow next week. Cribbed once again from Matt's site;

Overload #1 launches at the Kapow! Comic Convention on May 19-20th, 2012. A black and white anthology put together by Martin Conaghan, its aim is to showcase the work of established talent in the UK and introduce new creators to the comics industry.

This issue features a story by James Reekie and I called Otherworld Sailor, which is set in a Viking village soon after their conversion to Christianity and tells the story of the community dealing with a strange visitation.

FutureQuake 19: Yesterday Today

Page 1 of "Yesterday Today", Written by Matt Gibbs, Art by James Reekie

FutureQuake 19, a regular anthology of 2000AD Future Shock-style stories from FutureQuakePress, is now available. It features a whole host of writers and artists, plus a story from Matt Gibbs and I called Yesterday Today. Go check it out!

Spirit of Hope - Wave Man

Crop from "Wave Man" by Matt Gibbs, artwork created in Manga Studio and Photoshop

This post is grossly delayed and I should have put something up much sooner. Shortly after the devastating earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand earlier this year, my frequent collaborator and pal, Matt Gibbs, asked me if I wanted to illustrate a short story for the "Spirit of Hope" an anthology being put together to raise money for disaster victims. You can read the full tale of the anthology here, see a list of the wonderful artists involved here, and buy the book here. 

Matt sent me over a quick outline and in four crazy days we produced the strip which you can read in it's entirety below. I hope you like it and do us a favour and get yourself a copy of the anthology. A fantastic book for a very worthy cause.

Have a great week!

The Ballad of Frank Sartre

Panel art from "The Ballad of Frank Sartre", Artwork produced in Manga Studio

For the best part of the last two years, in my downtime, evenings and weekends, I have been working on an original graphic novel, "The Ballad of Frank Sartre". On Friday we launched a website to publish the entire book, online for free, in 4 page instalments. Below is the blurb with a little more detail about the story.

THE BALLAD OF FRANK SARTRE - By James Peaty & James Reekie

"What have you done?"

Washed up club singer FRANK SARTRE is in the grip of depression. A depression fuelled by haunting, recurring dreams of a girl. A girl that holds the key to so many answers… yet seems forever out of reach.

As Frank fumbles around the surreal city of COSMOPOLIS, desperately trying to resurrect his career and find meaning, a mysterious killer is on the loose, terrifying the freaks and oddities that populate the metropolis. Intrepid reporter SAM PARADISE has smelt a connection, but can he join the dots between Frank and the killer before it's too late?

The Ballad of Frank Sartre is a original graphic novel, recommended for mature audiences, that will be published in it's entirety for free online every Friday on www.franksartre.com starting on Friday 15th July.

Please do go check the website out and have a great week!

The Ionmonger's Daughter

Page art detail from "The Ionmonger's Daughter" written by Matt Gibbs. Line art in Manga Studio, colour in Photoshop.

In between all the other things I'm involved in, I've been drawing some bits and pieces for a new graphic novel project, The Ionmonger's Daughter, written by the fantastic Matt Gibbs. More details to follow soon.

Have a great week!

Post Modern

Panel art from "The Ballad of Frank Sartre", Manga Studio and Photoshop

Yep, a comic book character reading a comic book that we're about tell the story of within our comic book. It's all getting a bit... arty.

Have a great week!

Lights, Camera, Action

Panel detail from "The Ballad of Frank Sartre", linework in Manga Studio, colour in Photoshop

I'm busily preparing the sets, sewing costumes and casting extras. More news on this project soon.

Have a great week!

Back2Hell... Finished.

Back2Hell page 98 lineart - Ink on Bristol board.

Yep, it's all over. Very excited by the prospect of working in colour again!

I'll be catching up on posting the last few months' Illustration work over the next few weeks so please stay tuned for that.

Have a great week!

Back2Hell Airship Shootout

Back2Hell page art, ink on board

Back2Hell continues into the final stretch. Have a great week!

Back2 Hell: Church

Back2Hell page art, digital pencils in Manga Studio

Back2Hell continues, have a great week!

Back2Hell Pulp

Pencil page artwork from "Back2Hell" drawn in Manga Studio

Back2Hell continues. Have a great week!

The Silent Planet Cover

Pitch cover for "The Silent Planet" By Paul J. Salamoff. Lineart in Manga Studio, colour in Photoshop.

First things first, I am now back in the UK for the time being and in the process of flat hunting in London. All very exciting but moving and trying to keep a full time work schedule is pretty challenging. I've become very accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle over the last 6 months and am well versed in grabbing a few hours work whenever I can and wherever I am.

The image above is a cover for a pitch of "The Silent Planet" by Paul J. Salamoff, (you can see some page art here) which is being pitched next week so everyone please keep fingers crossed for that. It's an excellent script and I really hope the project will get the green light. More news on that when I get it.

Have a great week!

The Silent Planet

Here's a couple of final artwork spreads from the pitch pages of "The Silent Planet".

Title spread from "The Silent Planet"

Interior art, "The Silent Planet"

The Silent Planet

Work in progress ink linework from "The Silent Planet"

by Paul J. Salamoff

Over the last couple of weeks in between other things I've been working up some pitches pages of a new graphic novel project, "The Silent Planet" by Paul J. Salamoff, the writer of the Vincent Price issue I completed recently. It's a science fiction story about the crew of a spaceship sent to find a group of scientists on a remote planet.

It's all still very early days with the project but I'll post some more stuff from the pitch pages once they are finished.

Images 34

AOI Images 34 call for entries artwork by Frazer Hudson

Every year since I was as a student (so, 5 times then) I've entered images for The Association of Illustrators best of british illustration annual publication and show "Images". As per usual this year I checked the list of selected entries and grinned a sly smile to myself as I saw my name was absent. "Maybe next year" I thought.

So, it was to my confusion and brewing excitement that I received an email last week asking me why I hadn't confirmed my page and stumped up the cash for Images 34. A frenzy of emailing back and forth to the organisers followed and after a lot of "we posted things", "I moved house", "Oh, it seems we missed you off the list", turns out my astronaut image below has been selected for the "books" category.

"Today Was Not A Good Day" image selected for Images 34

To put it mildly, I'm completely thrilled. Having a image selected has been one of my major goals both professionally and personally since I first found out about Images in college. Also Ralph Steadman, the reason I got into illustration as a lazy talented kid who was always getting balled out his tutors for not doing his homework and chatting up girls in art class, is in this years book. Me and Ralph. Together in one volume. I can't get my head around that one. Imagine if we're on opposite pages...

So, there's a show, awards ceremony and the all important book which all happens next summer. I'm sure I'll post more information but your best bet to find out more is to check the AOI Images site.

Have a great week.

Vincent Price Presents "The Effigy"

So, the other project to come out of my initial round of pitch page promotion was a one shot on the "Vincent Price Presents" series for Bluewater Productions. The issue I've now completed for them is "The Effigy", written by Paul J. Salamoff, and is a classic slice of American small town horror. Scarecrows, cornfields, bullying... all the good stuff!

Inspiration and reference

One of the major discoveries I've had since starting this comic book journey is something I suspected, but perhaps I should have known. Producing lots of images on one page is just like producing one image. The process is exactly the same. Reference, sketch, final artwork. The only difference is you have to do 10 images across a spread over a couple days. As soon as you make any less effort with a panel than you would for any single image then the art suffers.

If you have a strong process as an illustrator I've found you don't tend to panic... or a least you panic less! You simply drop into your system and knuckle down. All the art for this book was 100% digital, sketched and inked in Manga Studio, coloured in Photoshop using a graphics tablet.

I always produce tonal roughs (thanks "classical" Illustration degree) as it really helps with composition and with the colour stage.

Panel Process

Final Spreads

Hopefully no spoilers there! The pages are currently being lettered and I'll let you know when the book's coming out.

Pitch Pages

So, like a teenage cat burgler, I want to break into comic books and graphic novels.

Well, I don't want to break into a store and steal them, so that unfunny metaphor really stinks, I just want people to pay me to draw them. My illustration work is heavily influenced by comics and graphic novels and I've drawn a few small strips but I've always shied away from trying actual page art as, well, firstly it's really hard and secondly... everyone wants to draw comics so I figured no one would give me a break.

The move to Athens has freed up my week a bit and, taking deep breaths, I sat down and thumbnailed out a pitch script.


I couldn't have dialogue but I would've have put any in as I wanted to concentrate on telling a simple story with pictures. I knew I had to show pacing, mood, action... and in 6 pages I didn't want to trouble myself with concluding anything. I just wanted it to feel like part of a larger story.

I've posted all the pages I sent to around 40 or so publishers below. All drawn in Manga Studio, coloured in Phototshop.









Within a couple of hours I had some responses! When I had finished dancing around the room I started emailing back and... well. There's a couple of projects on the horizon, contracts pending, and when everything's final I'll post all the exciting details here!

Stay tuned. Good things are coming.

You've got to be in it to win it

The first email of 2009 was from my good friend Tom Gaul (illustrator, designer at Redesign) asking me if I was free to work on a comic book for Enfield council. "A comic strip you say? Tell me more..."

The strip supports the "You've got to be in it to win it" campaign to get kids to stay in school. I believe it goes into schools as part of a teaching pack or similar (when I actually get the real thing I'm sure it'll make perfect sense!). We developed the two main characters based on the guidelines from the council and style direction from Tom, "Sean" and "Samera".


The script for the strip that came through from the council was written in more of a film or stage script style than a comic book format. It was mainly dialogue and "boys in playground, Sean says" stuff. That was fine, but it meant that I had to do several roughs to really nail down what was going on and add some bits of dialogue to make things flow a little bit better.

I thumbnailed the 4 pages out, figuring out the panels I would need to get everything in. The final pages are actually pretty close to these inital roughs, bar the cover, which would need a bit more thought as the artwork would be used on posters and adverts for the campaign.



I then pushed on to more detailed roughs to send through to Tom to show him what on earth I was planning on doing.


As I had chopped things around a little to make them fit in, we decided that I should go ahead and produce a full pencil rough for the council to approve, complete with all the dialogue. It was quite time consuming but given the script "looseness" it became very helpful in the long run.



On approval, I then inked the pages. Generally prefering pencil for my illustrations, I would have liked to keep things more textural, but we decided to go with the more "generic" style established in my concepts.



I must admit, I hadn't quite estimated just how long the colouring was going to take. It's pretty simple colouring and toning but for some reason it seemed to take a long time to get right. It was also at this stage that the council asked me to rename "Samera" to "Hannah".


Next up, lettering and playing with the cover. In the end, Tom set the type on the cover over my artwork, the shield design was also his.

Below is the full comic book, if you want to read, click on a page to enlarge. To give you a flavour, I leave with a quote from the supporting material;

"Don’t be a fool – Go to school!"