The Dalkey Archive

I'm unable to put up any of the work I've done recently. I'm still in negotiation over a book deal and it wouldn't be right to publish the pitch on a blog. So, in the meantime, here's something from the psychedelic depths of the mid-nineties. This is an illustration from the The Dalkey Archive by brilliant Flann O'Brien. This is the bit where mad scientist De Selby meets Saint Augustine in an underwater cave somewhere near Dublin.

This represents my early attempts at getting away from comics and into illustration. This was the only picture I ever did in this style. But there is something about it. I'm particularly fond of De Selby's diving suit.

Sancho

Like one of those befuddled marathon runners staggering about embarrassingly on the home straight, I am approaching the finish line on the Horrible Histories book and looking forward to the foil blanket and Lucozade. Next on the to do list though are two things I've been looking forward to, one is the Don Quixote pitch and the other is a short story adaption I've been asked to do. Above is a panel from the most famous scene in Don Quixote. I'm trying out 4B pencils instead of inks. Good fun doing stuff on paper again, although I have a nasty habit of hitting cmd Z to 'undo' any mistakes.

Good Dog Bad Dog

Dave Shelton's Good Dog bad Dog strips have been collected and released as the first book from the DFC library. As a celebration of the book's release on World Book Day I've done my own pulp novel pastiche cover of Good Dog Bad Dog. The kind of thing you might find in a charity shop for 10p or on eBay for £30. Meanwhile Dave's book is available from all good booksellers for a reasonable price. Well... what are you waiting for?!?

Beep the Meep

This month's Doctor Who Magazine, No 419, features my illustration of Beep the Meep from the Tom Baker Doctor Who Weekly strip 'The Star Beast' written by Pat Mills and John Wagner and drawn by Dave Gibbons. Tom Spilsbury (DWM editor) asked if I could do it in a Gibbons style (to which the answer is 'no') so I tried to at least make it a bit Gibbonsy.

Watch out Merlin!

The knife is sharpened for Merlin...

Looks like Random House have shelved plans for future Merlin adaptions. I only came onto the project for books 5 and 6 in the series which won't be published for another month or so, but had planned to work on books 7-10. It's a shame because I've enjoyed working on these books and as I've said before I think the approach that we've taken has real benefits for kids who are uneasy with chapter books.

Below are two more examples of how my hasty line work fits around a spread. I hope to modify this approach and use it with some of my own kids' fiction.

An action sequence from Merlin which mirrors the drama of series better than a single still image

These strips hopefully draw kids into the book, get the blood pumping, but you still need to read the text to get the full picture.