Scottish or English Splank?

Splank NHS Thank You art by Joseph McCafferty

Further to my mentions of the newly launched Splank digital comic annual, thought it might be fun to compare the 'Scottish' and 'English' versions of one of my strips!

I have other contributions in Splank 2020, but the panels below come from a fun one-page strip called 'Boom from the Room', which is a hospital inspired piece originally included in Colin Maxwell's CHAS charity comic. The story is fired by children's imagination, regardless of where they are and was originally in black and white and, CHAS, being a Scottish charity, in my native Scot's dialect. It was fun to do and perhaps a homage of sorts to my artistic hero, Dudley Dexter Watkins, of Oor Wullie and Broons fame; Boom from the Room = Broon?

The very talented and reliable Matt Soffe provided the colours and for the strip's new audience, I took the opportunity to 'translate' the dialogue into something more recongisable to most readers, although I do have rather a fondness for the original!

Don't forget to download Splank! for the full story and some 150 pages of comic goodness and also to please contribute to editor Peter Duncan's NHS fundraiser if you are able.

LIFE SUPPORT!

Life Support is a wonderful idea to raise funds for Children's Hospices Across Scotland - the charity CHAS. It's the brainchild of Colin Maxwell, a Fife based comic creator who before Christmas made a request for comic creators to donate Sci-Fi themed strips and pin-ups to form a comic to be launched at Edinburgh's Capital Sci-Fi event in early February, which is also an important fundraiser for CHAS.

Many creators answered the call and I wanted to contribute but not having any existing 'Sci-Fi' themed material to hand quickly wrote a hopefully fun one-page comic strip which I drew over the festive period, completing in the New Year to get 2018 off to a creative start!

I won't reveal my finished strip but show instead a panel's progress from 'BOOM from the ROOM!', my wee homage to the Tin Tin & Oor Wullie strips of my youth!

Pencils

Inks & pencils (Uncleaned)

Cleaned Inks

Finished Lettered Version (Scots edition!)

I submitted the above finished black & white version but wondered how it would look in colour so turned to Matt Soffe, who has done an amazing job on several of my Moments of Adventure strips (and forthcoming ZULU!), who once again did a splendid job!

Matt's fantastic colours!

Complete coloured & lettered version

You can support the project and guarantee yourself a copy of the finished comic by backing the current Kickstarter campaign to cover printing costs here or at its launch in Edinburgh on 3rd & 4th February.You'll have to wait a little longer to see the full coloured version of my strip which may well be included in one of my future projects 😉

Comics Go Home!

Well okay, not quite home but close enough, Dundee is only about an hour's drive away from my hometown so a perfect excuse to visit!

The Dundee Comics Expo is a new show organised by Dr Chris Murray and team from the University of Dundee. I've not yet had the pleasure of meeting the good doctor but he is behind the MLitt in comic studies course at the university and the annual 'Dundee Comics Day' run the last few years in October as part of the city's literary festival. Last year's event continued its excellent track record of attracting top guests including Grant Morrison, Frank Quietly, Frazer Irving, Dave Gibbons and more!

As far as I can gather the Comics Expo is a new stand alone event evolved out of the previous (and still ongoing) manga themed events held at the university.  I'd heard good things about these by our long-term comics friend Jenika Ioffreda, (creator and publisher of the rather groovy  Vampire Free Style) but, not producing anything manga related had been put off exhibiting ourselves. This new event is though more generally aimed at all comic fans and intends to offer something for everyone.

Colin and Jenika at Thought Bubble in Leeds 2010

The inaugural show will include a talk from its main guest David Lloyd, (artist of V for Vendetta and others and the driving force behind the recently launched Aces Weekly digital comic) and a comics workshop from rising indie star, Karrie Fransman (The House That Groaned) as well as a selection of artists, indie comics creators and comics dealers.

Big thanks to the ever useful UK comics news site Down The Tubes who's article brought the show to my attention.

I'm just excited as I've long wanted to 'do' a show in Scotland and while we came close to attending Hi-Ex! in Inverness, it sadly just proved too far away from deepest Cheshire. Dundee is still a fair hike but we can at least catch up with realtives at the same time and make a nice Easter break of it. Plus of course Dundee is home to the mighty D.C Thomson who's various comic publications I grew up and probably started my life long love of the comics medium, they've a lot to answer for and it'll be a pleasure going back to where it all kind of started......

The Broons and Oor Wullie - D.C Thomson's favourites