Spandex 4 progress

What a strange weekend - 4 days off work - it was so surreal! So nice lol...
And I've done soooo much on Spandex 4 - in fact, I probably should have taken more breaks. I'll probably regret that later.
So anyway, I'm almost there, I think. I need to send it to the printers a week before Bristol (mid May). The bulk of it is done, so I'm now just tidying up bits and pieces.
One thing I've learned - I'm going to create my own font for issue 4. The amount of time it's taken to letter all this has been crazy. I hand letter it, scan it, but I'm rarely happy with how it looks, so I go over every single letter in Photoshop, tidying it up. I reckon if I create my font I can cut off about 2 months of work! The hardest part is sorting out all the layers - sometimes, a page will have around 200 layers, so it's hard to keep track of what's what!
And naturally, I usually leave the hardest parts of the comic til last, and a lot of today has been taken up doing background scenes - but I've actually really really enjoyed it. I came up with some cool ideas today for most of the pages I wasn't looking forward to doing, and had a lot of fun drawing in different styles.
Anyway, I've attached here a little teaser of some of the fun background extras I've been working on. None of them are big story points, and almost all of them are probably unnoticeable in the issue, but I had a lot of fun doing them anyway.

More 4

Spandex 4...

Something a bit different

I've been a busy beaver recently. I did a cover for a cool anthology comic! It's for the chaps who make the Do You Want To Kiss It Better comics, and this issue's theme and title is Play. All proceeds go to the War Child charity, check out more here!
http://dywtkib.blogspot.com/2011/04/its-comic.html
or here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136876383019891
I think it's only available in Canada at the moment tho, but contact them if you're interested!

New pic

This is one for the Matt Smith/Doctor Who fans, a piccie based on his new TV show, Christopher and His Kind
http://blog.zhooshbrighton.co.uk/files/2011/03/christoperandhiskind1.jpg

Norwegian Woe

Watched Norwegian Wood today. Everything you've heard is true - it's very slow! And depressing - but then what else do you expect from a Murakami novel - jesus, they're novels for manic depressives! I really can't cope with them - I've never got thru a whole one. The author's insecurities seep out and I find it a bit overwhelming.
I think the movie just about works, because you don't feel like you're reading someone's tale-of-woe biography (kinda like one of those near-the-knuckle indie autobiography comics) - you're watching the movie star instead.
I kind of enjoyed it, mainly cos the main guy is cute (jeez, he's doing well for himself - Death Note, Gantz...), and I thought it was unfair of 'Little White Lies Mag's review to call him a 'dullard'. It looked nice too and I was quite surprised by some of the sex scenes.
But it really does get harrowing in points. Let's put it this way, there's one scene where things get way too much for the main guy, so he has to take himself off to a remote area where he spends his time (literally) wailing with his drool blowing in the wind. Good drool though!

Generation No Hope

I have been on a spending spree this week - I thought I'd treat myself as I rarely spend money! One of the minor purchases I bought was the new issue of Generation Hope, which has the creative team of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. Now I don't know these guys personally, but I have seen them doing their bit on the small press scene over the years, so it's nice to see big things (really BIG THINGS!) happening for them.
But sadly the comic is soooo indicative of what is utterly wrong with comics at the moment. It's a good comic - the characterisation is spot-on, the art is lush but....NOTHING HAPPENS!!! Just like in FF 1. Grear art, great writing but...NOTHING HAPPENS!!!!!!
When are the comic companies gonna realise that we really do need value for money!