Finkle and Crumbert

Coming soon to the pages of Ri-Ra, the fantastic Irish language comic. Here is an unlettered page. Forbidden Planet Dublin tomorrow, come and watch me palm off sketch requests to Dec.

Check out Mr Amperduke on the cover of Judge Dredd Megazine this month. The cover. Italics

T.U.R.T.L.E. power

So here's something from the vaults that dates from the dying days of the 1990's. Possibly. My memory is very hazy about this. It's definitely one of the Ninja Turtles, probably Donatello. It's based on some hideous re-design where he has a gun for an arm, either from the old Image comic series or from a range of action figures. I think I did this for some competition, or maybe just to try and get some fan art published in the comic. I do remember it was the second picture I ever inked with a brush, the first being a shot of Qui Gon Jinn.

CAD BANE

Any of ye out there watching the Clone Wars. I thought (especially on seeing how it started) that the new 3d Clone wars wouldnt be a patch on the Original Cartoon Network series, but since the mediocre movie it started with, every single episode has improved. By the time it hits late season one the show its turning out some really great episodes and Season two starts even better. Infact I would go as far as saying it adds a lot more to the folklore than the Cartoon Network series did. Heres Cam Bane from the show, who replaces good ol Boba as the most badass bounty hunter in the galaxy. I hope the guy gets his own series.

By the way, just as a reminder, apparently Forbidden Planet in Dublin are hard at work rearranging the shop for our siging there. It should be a blast! I'll be sporting my Ireland Jersey for it!

And Now For Something [Reasonably] Different

As the Moondogger mentioned yesterday, OFFSET (a design/illustration conference)was on in Dublin over the weekend and it was absolutely brilliant. It gave me a real artistic kick up the arse. So, i thought i'd just lash-out a non-comic character; something from my head with an emphasis on drawing a little differently. I literally did this in like, 2 minutes, but like how it looks. I used to do stuff like this in art college all the time.

Dec.

Appleseed

Jesus, but Offset was brilliant this past weekend.
Loved many, many of the speakers, but my favourites had to be Chip Kidd and Oliver Jeffers. Truly inspiring stuff and no mistake. I was so moved by Jeffers' 'Lost and Found' it's almost disturbing. A friend of mine is convinced that the penguin is my spirit animal and i think she may be right.
Back to Offset, it really felt like we'd got a brand new, utterly worthwhile event to add to the annual art calendar, huge kudos to the organisers. Who knows, may see the micks there next year!
Anyhoo, Appleseed this week. In my delirium last week i watched an awful lot of Anime for some reason(I still don't understand the politics of Ghost in the Shell and don't get me started on the sequel...) One of the movies I enjoyed most was Appleseed, great straightforward action-adventure with gorgeous character/vehicle design by Shirow Masamune.

Mullet of Steel

What-ho, Wankstas. Didn't have it in me to do my threatened Bret Hart drawing this weekend, so instead I focused on another similarly-coiffed nineties superstar. Behold! "The Return of Superman" Superman!

Robocop

Pencil sketch inked on a Cintiq using Manga Studio 4. Which seems strangely apropos for Robocop.

I'm still finding my way with both the cintiq and manga studio, but I've become so comfortable with a brush and paper that I suspect the cintiq will get most use from touch ups. I had hoped to use it for layouts/pencils or inks, but, as I pencil at A4 and enlarge and then print, it means I'm pretty fast doing it all the old fashioned way. It is invaluable for correcting mistakes - certainly much better than the Wacom graphic tablet that I had before -and I had more time I'd probably get stuck into it properly. I've turned the pen tool way up to 5.10mm to get this brushy feel, big and bold inking is fun on the cintiq, much more fun than real life - but I lack the control that I need, at least so far.

My mate Rob Williams is writing Robocop for Dynamite and you can read an interview with Rob about it here. Sounds like great fun. (Dynamite also publish Battlefields - of which my three issues are now complete, and the first issue is set for December - so BUY THAT TOO!)

-pj

Schnuckies!!

Hey chums, here is a cheerful sample from the new Amperduke book. The new site is finished and you can read full stories, see the making of and a whole bunch more.

Mister Amperduke microsite clicky clicky

Conan returns

I think this is my first repeat character on the Micks blog, Conan. I thought I'd Christmas it up a notch and do a snowy scene, although in retrospect that's probably not the most suitable outfit for the weather.

Hulk Hogan

Well I spent the other night running around Cork City dressed as this fella so I figured I'd do a quick hulkster piece for the Blog. His face is so leathery

POSTER LAYOUT

Fought the urge to do a finished drawing this week and decided to put up an ACTUAL sketch for once. This was the layout i came up with for the Dublin City Comic Con that was supposed to be happening in a couple of weeks. I actually did finished inks for this too, but i really like the layout in itself, so here it is. I think it was too big originally (lots of text was gonna be added), so i shrunk it down a bit and badly photoshopped in some extra cloud at the top.

UPDATE: Actually; screw it; you can see the finished inks here if you want.

Dec.

There's Criming Afoot!

Have to stick up a con sketch this week as I'm still pretty out of it due to these gosh-durned shingles.
This particular batman sketch has passed into legend in the halls of Mick Towers, as 'the one where Mooney drew the batsign wrong'.
You see kids, if I can half-ass my way into the comicbook industry then you can too! I also tend to need somebody's help with the Superman emblem.

BOO!

In a belated nod to All Hallow's Eve, I felt like drawing this fruity-noggined ne'er-do-well, Samhain, from The Real Ghostbusters. Not the scariest spirit from that oft-times terrifying cartoon (That honour goes to The Sandman, or maybe the Boogeyman) he's got a classic Hallowe'en look to him that fits the season. Expect my Santy drawing sometime in February.