Killer Klowns

I love that film

Johnny McClane

I'm currently drawing a Die Hard prequel series for BOOM! set during John McClane's rookie year of 1976. I thought it was about time I stuck a picture of him up on the blog in all his beat cop glory. Drawn with Manga Studio on a Cintiq.

Mmmmm tights

Heres another pic from those Superman Batman practice pages i've been workin on. Right back in the thick of Farscape now all pumped up from the huge reception it got at comic con. Still gutted i wasnt there but i pretty much got to see everything through twitter, you tube and various boards around the place

OSCAR. HE'S A GROUCH

"Of course i'm a grouch....... i live in a f**kin' trash-can!!!"

Months ago i mentioned my interest in street-level characters and in the comments section someone (i'm looking at YOU Liam) joked/requested Oscar. I guess you can't get any more street-level than that. Never let it be said i don't bow to peer pressure.

Dec.

Hellboy

Knocked this out with a brushpen in literally 20 minutes. It's insane how quickly you can get things done when forced to loosen up to that extent, and yet I still can't contemplate drawing actual sequential art that way. Not enough control for my tastes.
That way chaos lies.

I want to be an Autist when I grow up

Wotcha. Finding it hard to get my draw on right now, as I'm busy writing TRANSFORMERS: LAST STAND OF THE WRECKERS for IDW, which got announced on Friday at SDCC. Like some sort of Rain Man, I find it nearly impossible to have my writing brain switched on at the same time as my drawing brain. And any sketches I do are character designs for The Wreckers. So here's a page of scribbles I did while waiting on an email from work this week. (Long wait, by the way.)

2000AD Pencil Doodles

Here's a couple of pencils doodles of characters that I rarely draw: Sinister (of Sinister Dexter fame) and Slaine. I'm unlikey to ever draw Slaine (especially how it's drawn here) but, at some point, The Mighty Tharg might let me have a crack at S&D.

Hope you like 'em - I won't know, as I'm on holidays, and I'm posting this from your past into my future! woooooo....

OOHHHH YEAHHH!!!

Does he need any other introduction?
Catch up with those wacky Hollywood moguls in this Fridays SPAZZMOID. C'mon, you're worth it.

Ummmm...

Here's...whatever the hell this is. Some kind of superhero gerbil thing maybe? 

Superman

Finally got my hands on Superman Spectacular no.1 last week. Printed in 1982. It was the first comic I ever had, what with me only being born in late 82. It was mental reading over it again for the first time since I was a kid as I was getting huge throwbacks to the way i felt back then when I read it as a wee nipper

28 DAYS LATER

Been sitting on this drawing for a while. This is the first 28 Days Later drawing i did before i actually got the job drawing the series for Boom Studios. It's of Selena, a character from the film, and the main character in the story i'm currently doing. At the time i had very little reference to go on. In the series she appears much like she did in the movie, but i wasn't aware of that yet and i hadn't even seen the movie since it was out in the cinema. I had to go on the character description and the promotional image Tim Bradstreet had already done.

I made this extremely rough, as i wanted to make sure that a rough approach was something Boom was willing to go with. Looking over the pages i've done, they haven't been nearly as rough as this image, i think. Must work on that.

Anyway, hope ye like.

Dec.

Black Cat

I always figured Felicia seemed like way more... fun than Mary-Jane.

Death

Rogue

I think I've wanted to draw Rogue Trooper since he first turned up in 2000AD. Having been weaned on a diet of Warlord (warlord was to Battle as Multicoloured Swapshop was to Tizwas) and then moving over to 2000AD when the war comics ended (I suspect they lasted LONGER than the actual War, but not by much).

In order to bring about the ambition of drawing Rogue, I took a couple of swipes at it, with Gordon Rennie, I drew a daft one page Rogue Strip (before I'd gotten any work from 2000AD) called "The Adventures of Rogue's Other Biochip Buddy" - riffing off the barmy idea that Rogue's mate all had handy names that seemed to work well with the equipment Rogue ended up slotting their biochip's into ("Helm" ended up in the helmet, "Gunner" the gun, "Bagman" the bag) - Rogue's other biochip buddy was called "Buttplug".

The next step on Mission: Rogue, was to ask Si Spurrier to write me a Rogue strip I could draw for Zarjaz - Si and I were at the first gentle shoots of our careers (his is still moving on, mine feels like it's wilted). Si did it, I drew the first page (which I've included...) and then... Si revamped it as a story for Warhammer - which meant a) he got paid, and b) I ended up drawing that and I got paid to. Win, win. I took that strip (which was greywashed and very much set in a Rogue Trooper like universe - the Warhammer 40k world being filled with various places that look like they might have been nicked from 2000AD) and showed it (and Rob Williams suggestion) to Matt Smith (at this point, I think I'd done a Dredd and a futureshock). He liked it and said it'd really suit Rogue (I hadn't made the suggestion.)

Gordon Rennie was still writing Rogue at this point and then, when Staz Johnston moved over to DC and while I was on Honeymoon in barbados I received an email from the Mighty Tharg asking if I'd be interested in doing a six part series for 2000AD. And with that, my 2000AD career started properly.

This big image is a cover I did for Stak! - the Rogue Trooper fanzine. I haven't seen the fanzine so presume it's either been published and I missed it or it has yet to see print. Hope you like.

(and one final post script: I still think the page I did for the Si Spurrier Rogue Trooper strip for Zarjaz is the best page of Rogue I drew... sorry Tharg!)

Ape thing

Here's a goofy pic for a fan drawn on actual paper and coloured with a letraset marker. An actual letraset marker.

SPAZZMOID does the Buggy Wuggy this week

The Holy Trinity

Mooney here, Thompson's off galavanting and asked me to stick this up for him.
This here piece is a real blast from the past. It features Thompson, myself and our good friend Adam(Avatar of Human Perfection) Kelly as a Jedi, Rick Deckard and a colonial marine respectively. Yes, those were nerdy times. We used to spend all day every day drawing in my house, followed each night by a vigorously contested game of Mario Kart wherein myself and Adam would do our utmost to win, while Thompson just killed me continuously while completely disregarding any aspirations of winning himself, just because he knew it annoyed me so.
Ah... good times.

Same Bat time, Same Bat channel

Second Batman of the last two days for ya, third if ya count the one on Mooneys blog.
Hey look Dec, theres even some splatter in the back ground.
For this I used a masterful ancient splatter technique called the Metallica method of splattering on images

BAT-DAN

Hello there. Something a bit different this week. Below are my inks over another artist, being Dan McDaid who is currently drawing the brilliant Jersey Gods published by Image Comics. Dan posted a rough pencil drawing on his blog last week (also below) and invited anyone to try and ink it. It obviously looked like Dan's drawing, but it was rough enough to allow some interpretation, so i thought i'd have a bit of fun with it.

So, here's my inks....























And Dan's original pencil drawing.























Also, another artist, Chris Samnee, tried inking the same drawing and wielded really different results. Have a look. I'd urge you all to look through Dan's blog, as there's some wonderful stuff on it; much better than the crap i'm putting up here.

It's worth mentioning that the first trade paperback of Jersey Gods is out later this month, so if you've never heard of it, do yourself a favour and pick it up. Read the whole first issue here first if you like.

Dec.

Air Jordan

This is one of the drawings I did for the ill-fated Micks sketchbook(it's also part of a 5-page GL sample story I drew, I like to make sure stuff gets used.). Green Lantern. Still happy enough with it. I have a Catwoman piece that was pencilled for that book too but haven't managed to ink it yet, hope to get that up in the next week or 3.

TrimmTrabb

All right, titwitches?

Spending the weekend at Oxegen, or as I like to refer to it, the bins 'round the back of the abortion clinic. Fuck, it's grim out there.

Nonetheless, I finally caught Blur live, something I neglected to do before now, as I spent my teenage years enjoying the three songs of Oasis, mainly to antagonise my Mockney-loving sister. (I also backed the wrong horse in '93 by proclaiming the Super Mario Bros Movie to be better in every way to Jurassic Park.) And though I'd much rather be stuck in a lift with the inimitable Noelly G than Damien Allbran, Blur doth fair knocked the crust from my pants the other night. So here for you, and in the hope that I can tempt all the 90s Indie chicks into buying Transformers comics, is Damon Albarn in a scene inspired by Friday night.

Tom Strong

Another sketch drawn for the book that never was - the Eclectic Micks Sketchbook - it's Tom Strong!

Somethings I like: the splatter (I even went to the half-effort of using a mask - it was made of paper and cut out so didn't quiet fit...) and things I don't like: Nazi Tom Strong's profile, Tom Strong's waist (which is thin to try and mimic how Chris -hallowed be his name- Sprouse draws anatomy, which is great looking for weirdly pulled out or something...)

Anyhue, I should run of out unseen art next week which may necessitate drawing something fresh. But look at the great jobs the other mick's are doing!

Grumpy pants

This forlorn fellow is for an upcoming 2000AD thing.

More importantly I finally got to draw my favourite page of Uncle Spunk Nugget this week

The Sweedish Murder Machine

I know Mooney did a Brock Sampson recently, but when I came to draw a Venture Bros. piece I couldn't bring myself to do anyone else. He is the man. Maybe I'll pick a more obscure character from the show for next week.

Felicia

Did I mention that I love Manga studio? Doing my first proper cover in it right now actually for Boom

WOLVERINE

My last few Micks drawings have been a little loose, so i thought i'd put a bit more work into this weeks one.

I loved drawing Wolverine when i was a kid; i basically copied the Jim Lee/ Andy Kubert way of drawing him as that's who was drawing X-Men when i was really into it. For some reason, when i got older he got harder to draw; maybe because i don't draw the same way anymore, or maybe he's just so recognizable now he's become intimidating.

Anyhoo, here's my take now. Drew him in his brown-and-tan outfit as i'd never drawn it before.

UPDATE: A friend suggested i colour this bad boy up. So i did.






















Dec.

Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja

After last weeks rather half(quarter?)-assed effort, I tried to put a tad more work in this time. Continuing my series of X-Ladies pieces, here's your and my favourite Japanese-British telepathic assassin, Psylocke.
I think we can all agree that she really puts the 'ass' in assassin. Twice.

UPDATED with the more rendered version, cos Dec suggested to. And Dec is He Who Must Be Obeyed.

Who is she? Who IS she? WHERE did you find her?

Phew! I promise I'll be a much more diligent Mick when it's not the Transformers' 25th anniversary, Dec, honest!

On that note, thanks to Stonefish Munnery for sticking my pic up last weekend, and a similarly-sized wodge of gratitude to everyone who showed up in Orbital Comics last weekend to check out the mini-exhibition and hang around for the marathon signing session. It was chips.

Fresh scraps from the sketchbook this weekend, featuring an unidentified character from my upcoming Transformers series wot I'm writing AND drawing. (...and breathe...) It's actually not 100% that she's gonna make the final cast cut at this point. (Actualy had to go back and rename her file - THAT almost gave the game away what's coming up) I've been tasked with tackling a book that's heavily populated already, but I've got a soft spot for this lass, so it's be great to see her in the thick of things. And it'd sure pretty up a Transformers comic, huh?

Hulk Smash Ugly Bugs Face IN

Hulk smush! Drawn to go with a friend's Hulk proposal in 2004 - sadly unused...

Thompson is a prick

What are you doing looking at this crap for when my main man Thompson posted by far the best pic here yet yesterday. I feel like I need to post my swimming and first aid certificates along with this to try give me some credence.

HIDDEN TRACK: My webcomic features the Punisher vs Transformers this week

Hugsies

I'm a bit dead from pulling an all nighter to finish an issue so here's an oldie from back in the dim and distant Painter days. This was a colour sketch for what was intended to be a more elaborate painting. Now I shall crawl back to bed from whence I came....

Wonder Woman

Man i just watched Unbreakable again, what a movie. Me first Micks piece done in Manga studio. Just started it today so im just learning but man oh man is it fun to use, Im excited by its potential