Thought Bubble Sketches XI

Fin Fang Foom

Behold - Googam, Son of Goom!

Lakes Sketches V

FACTS Sketches VII

LFCC Sketch Roundup IV

Everybody's favourite ancient lizard demigod.

Popeye vs Fin Fang Foom

Frogs and Lizards

Popeye vs Fin Fang Foom

The Foomster is going to have to eat a lot more spinach than that, I reckon.

Spare Monsters

Vague Fin Fang Four analogues which I'll almost certainly never use, but they're fun to sketch.

Fin Fang Finale

Rounding off the Fin Fang Four posts, here are my roughs for the first three pages of the original one-shot. I actually like these a lot.

Fin Fang Follow-Up

I promised you some more of these. Our initial pitch was for a four-issue series, so there are a couple of characters represented here we never had a chance to do anything with; our story was crammed into one single issue to go with the "Marvel Monsters Month" they were doing. These are scanned straight from pencils, I believe.

Fin Fang Frippery

Another forgotten tidbit from the hard-drive sort-out: some of the initial drawings I did for the pitch Scott Gray and I originally sent to Marvel for our original Fin Fang Four one-shot. When I look at how much work I put into these drawings I guess I must have really wanted this badly – for financial reasons partly, but I think part of it was also so I could tell people I'd ticked Marvel off the list. It's the sort of credential it's nice to have under your belt. And I really wanted to get Scott writing comics again, which is not something he was doing right then. He's one of the very best, in my humble opinion.

There are some more of these to follow tomorrow.

Thor vs Fin Fang Foom!

I'm looking forward to attending Heroes Con in a month or so in lovely Charlotte, North Carolina. They've been wonderful hosts to me for a few years now, and it's always a hugely enjoyable experience. Every year they ask their guests to donate a piece of artwork which they can auction off to defray expenses, so here's my contribution for this year - a recreation of Chris Samnee's fabulous cover for Thor: The Mighty Avenger #6. Got out my paints and did it all nice. I trust it will find a good home.

Oh, and a little update: it looks like Thor: The Mighty Avenger has been nominated for an American Library Award for Great Graphic Novels for Teens! Details here, I believe.

Many Happy Returns of Fin Fang Foom

Last Saturday, my friend and colleague Scott Gray, he of Doctor Who and Fin Fang Four fame, got married. It was a fantastic day - a beautiful ceremony in the woods, great food, great company, a Tardis on the lawn and at least one person wearing a fez (who that was, I couldn't possibly comment). Anyway, this is the card I cobbled together for the happy couple, using the original Kirby/Ayers splash page as a starting point.


Have a great life together, you crazy kids!

A Hasty and Ill-Mannered Update

Couple of things I should mention that won't wait: The Fin Fang Four Returns, a collection of Fin Fang Four short stories which have previously appeared on Marvel Digital, hit the stores today. This has only just come to my attention. The nearest date I had until now was "sometime this year". So there's that.

The other thing is that it turns out I will have a table for the Saturday-only Small Press Expo (the indy show affiliated with this year's Bristol Comics Expo), which is good news, as I get to flog my wares and still wander around on Sunday in a happy fog looking for old issues of Kamandi. Best of both worlds! So look out for me at Table 3 at the Mercure Holland House, between Renegade Arts Entertainment and Al Davison.

(From the map I have here it looks like my table is in the Orchard Suite, whatever that is - it looks like you have to walk past the entrance to the Orchard Suite to get to the bar. Mmm... bar.)

Vigil of the Mad and other stories

I should like to draw your attention to the recently-released Giant-Sized X-Men: First Class #1, which features two pages written and drawn by me. The brief was to do something involving Charles Xavier as a kid in a Village of the Damned/Midwich Cuckoos type scenario, which I ended up doing in the style of Edward Gorey. Why? I don't know.

Something I keep forgetting to mention: I've got a piece in the upcoming Fantagraphics book, Beasts! Book 2. I draw Spring-Heeled Jack. The book promises to be a thing of beauty by all accounts, featuring a veritable Who's Who (or in my case Who's That) of alt-comix talent.

Last but not least, I've been working on the cover to next year's Fin Fang Four special this week. Continuing with the Silver Age theme established on the first one-shot, here's where it's at right now...


This one makes me stupidly happy for some reason.

Treading Treacle

Officially, The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels came out in the UK yesterday (I believe it's been out for a while in the US). This is the book by Danny Fingeroth that I illustrated 30-odd pages of in "graphic novel", i.e. comic strip, format. It's the longest bit of sustained comic bookery I've done for a while, my comics tending to be of the 7-to-10 page variety lately.

Apart from that, on the face of it, I'm exactly where I was last week -- one page left to go on "Jailhouse Crock", a good chunk of the first Muppet issue still to be scripted. Getting there slowly, an hour or two every morning before I start working on whatever else I have scheduled for the day.

On the Muppet front, I can tell you that the first issue will feature the Planet Koozebane, the Swedish Chef, and Kermit playing the banjo. I'm working from a fairly tightly-constructed subplot, and inserting sketches between the character bits which I'm making up on the spot -- an attempt to give Disney something to look at and approve/alter at the plotting stage while a the same time trying to keep an element of spontaneity. Harder than it sounds! Disney occasionally asks me to insert a degree of sentimentality that is, shall we say, outside my comfort zone. I'm finding ways around it that keeps everybody happy so far, but it's a tightrope I'm walking here...



Here's a half-page from "Jailhouse Crock" to whet your appetites (click on it for a closer look). Before you ask, no, I have no idea where or when it's going to appear. But all the Fin Fang Four shorts will eventually be collected (at least, that was the plan when we signed on to do them last year). So look out for that some time before the Second Coming.

Newsaramalamadingdong

I just received an e-mail from my frequent collaborator Scott Gray telling me that our latest story, "How Fin Fang Foom Saved Christmas", is available in its entirety from Newsarama. If you want to take a look, pop on over.

And that Doctor Who story should be out any day now, because I received my copy in the mail yesterday (issue #377, fact finders). Thanks to James Offredi's extraordinary colouring, it looks absolutely bee-yootiful. (I think the Goon Noir #2, with my Pete & Dud story, is out now as well -- but don't quote me.)

This weekend I'll be at a comics festival in Lille, so to both my French fans, I'll look forward to meeing you!

Things to Come

I suppose now would be a good time to let you know what I've been working on that has been keeping me too busy to maintain a blog. Well, there are a few things coming up:

(1) The Goon Noir - a five-page story in #2, written and drawn by me, which should be out this month.



(2) A Howard the Duck story for one of those Civil War things Marvel are chugging out - script by the simply brilliant Ty Templeton, and I only wish I'd had a bit more time to do it justice.

(3) A story for the next issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#377), featuring David Tennant as the Doctor, plus Rose, Mickey and Jackie. Called "The Green-Eyed Monster", it's written by Nev Fountain and it's loads of fun.



(4) A story for the upcoming Marvel Holiday Special, sort of a follow-up to last year's Fin Fang Four, called "How Fin Fang Foom Saved Christmas". Script by Scott Gray.



I'm going to appear really, really busy for a month and then disappear off the face of the earth...