Half Past Deadline

So, Mr. Mooney's excellent first issue of Half Past Danger is out today. I hope you'll all buy many, many copies. I know I will! (not really, he better give me a free one) Anyway here's my not-at-all finished piece in honour of this happy day.

Dial T For Tomorrowness

Tomorrow's the day. Here's a photo from the Big Bang comic shop in Dundrum, Dublin showing the first issue's arrival with their deliveries. I still haven't seen an actual copy myself, but from all accounts it looks pretty decent!

All I can do now is wait to see how it's received. The past 20 months have flown by so fast, it's crazy. Thankfully the book seems to have taken on some real momentum, and is garnering an awful lot of good will. I'm honestly truly grateful and humbled by that fact.

So. Roll on tomorrow...

BONUS!

Here's my fearless EIC Chris Ryall holding up a couple of copies of the second issue. I still haven't seen issue 1!

Nick Roche - Issue 5 Variant Cover

Today's entry comes from the fabulously talented (and flamboyant) Nickelback Roche. Nick was at IDW way back even before I was, and blazed the Irish skidmarks therein. A master of all things Transformable, Nick always shows a whole different set of chops when unleashed on some honest-to-goodness human characters, like the HPD cast.  (Or are they..? They are.)

Nick has been pulling double-duty on HPD so far, along with being one of an elite-ish cadre of variant cover artists, he's been helping out a lot on the scripting front with numerous proof-reads and many excellent suggestions. I stole a couple of his lines verbatim for my pitch for the book. You're welcome, Nick.

It'd be hugely remiss of me not to point out the amazing Josh Burcham's colour work on this piece; as usual he took what Nick did and sprinkled gold dust over it. Josh coloured my favourite Nick-related TF project to date, Last Stand of The Wreckers, and I urge anybody that hasn't read that book by this point to find that sucker and eyehale it.


And yes, to those wondering, I DID ask Nick would he add a teeny Grimlock to the T-Rex portion of the cover, maybe peeking out of the jungle.

He, and Hasbro's lawyers, graciously declined.

Big Bang Exclusive - HPD Launch Print

This is the print that'll be handed out Free with the first 100 copies of HPD issue 1 sold at the launch night in The Big bang store in Dundrum on Wednesday next from 6:00pm. Well, the first 99, since I plan on stealing one for myself.

I'm told the original art should be hanging on a wall somewhere in there too, so keep at least one eye open.

Can't wait for the launch party that night; seems like there'll be loads of Ireland's best and brightest joining us, and promises to be great fun altogether.

I'll also be signing copies of the first issue on the following Saturday the 25th, in Sub City Comics on Exchequer Street in town, from 2-4 in the afternoon, for those that can't make it out to the launch on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll see ye all at one or the other!

It's PJ!!

PJ Holden doesn't grace these digi-pages nearly as much as we'd like anymore (that said, the rest've us aren't exactly regular contributors these days...), but he still remains very much a founding member of the Micks. Gone are the days where he'd draw several great images for each theme, then not be able to decide on one, then re-draw it again, then lose the hi-res when the sketchbook is due out, then draw it again...

He's got one interesting attention span. Plus he's got amazing bloody talent. One of the most naturally-gifted of our gang for my money, PJ produces the goods week-in, week-out in the pages of 2000AD and the upcoming, fantastic-looking MONSTEROLOGY.

Will Sliney + Guest Mick Tom Galvin

Will Sliney is another man who's really supported the book all the way along. He's doing great things over at Marvel and here at home with his Celtic Warrior book, which is selling like hotcakes.

Here, he depicts Irish and his whiskey, two pals ne'er to be separated.

Though, (ambiguous) truth be told, this is pretty much me on any given Friday night in the studio.

BONUS!

This is a pinup done for the book drawn by legendary Irish Storyboard and Layout artist, Tom Galvin.

I worked with Tom for 2 years in Dublin animation company Boulder media, in the BG department, straight after college. Tom is one of the most talented fellas I've ever worked with, and I learned an awful lot from him about basic storytelling and framing techniques, plus annoying youtube clips. We were led by the fearless David O'Sullivan, then head of the BG dept. in Boulder, now drawing The Crimson Blade for Atomic Diner comics!

Declan Shalvey + Guest Mick Stephen Byrne

Declan has been a huge supporter of the series from day one, really helping me get the message out there and banging the drum for HPD. I owe him a lot, figuratively and literally. Here's his variant cover for the second issue, coloured by the delightfully red-maned Ms. Jordan Bellaire, to whom I am also in fairly constant debt. Top sort, both.

BONUS!

Also! Here's a rather great pinup done by the extraordinarily talented friend to the Micks, Stephen Byrne. Stephen is a Dublin-based comic and freelance artist who's really going places. I'm a genuinely big fan of his work, and am so glad he decided to aim his talents in HPD's direction. DIRECT HIT.

HALF PAST DANGER: T-MINUS 1 WEEK

This day next week sees the launch of the first issue of Half Past Danger, the book I've been working on for the last year and a half. It's been a long road, but I couldn't be happier with how things have turned out. I asked the other Micks if it'd be cool to have a week-long buildup here to count down the days to release, and if they'd all contribute a piece for the book. Everybody obliged with some truly amazing stuff; some of which you'll have already seen in one form or another online, but plenty of which you won't.

Tomm kicked things off yesterday with that bloody amazing new piece you can see beneath this post, and he's really set the bar right where I want it to be.

For today's post I'll show again all five of the images I've completed for the regular covers of the series so far, with the sixth and final cover still to come.

In the days to follow I'll post HPD images by each of the other Micks (assuming Thompson finishes his soon enough...). They're all well worth the wait!

Mooney

Half past danger

Trying to rustle up something as a tribute to Steves upcoming masterpiece ...fun stuff

Desperately seeking

They say God loves a trier, so he really must have a warm spot in his heart for myself and Dirk Manning. Now I'm back to the Micks after a prolonged absence and we're both back to Farseeker, now titled FARSEEKERS. Dirk went to C2E2 to do his magic and I put this piece together to gussy up the pitch. How far will things go this time around? Too early to say, but we're very hopeful indeed. In any case, I hope to be bringing the rest of our first story arc later this year, by hook or by crook.

Mirror, Mirror

This is one of the first things I've drawn in yonks- it's Ywehbobbobhewy, yucky minor god of magic mirror portals and it's (naturally) for a D&D book called PETTY GODS.
All a bit of cthulhu-y fun.

Oh, and be sure to go and pick up your FREE COPY of CLA$$WAR #1 today as part of Free Comic Book Day at Comixology! Written by Rob Williams, with art by Trevor Hairsine and colors by me.