New Moments of Adventure Review!

Yay! As I'm finishing off lettering the second issue, I'm delighted to flag up a new review of Moments of Adventure:Collection One by The Comic Vault, (an online Bat Cave of all things geeky - so it says here!).

This is a very timely review as I only met the writer, Jamie Ryder at Manchester MCM at the weekend so for him to have quickly read, reviewed and written about the comic so promptly is (hopefully) testament to the strong impression it made on him!

You can read his own thoughts on the comic here and if you haven't already got yourself a copy, check out our convention appearances, order online or add a comment below. Right I'm back to lettering Moments of Adventure: Collection Two with a big smile on my face and for those wondering, yes it 's planned to launch at The Asylum :)

Unlettered preview of the Pirates strip appearing in Collection Two!

MCM Manchester!

Fantastic 'Ziggy Bowie' cos-player at this year's show (pic MCM's own site)

Last weekend's Manchester MCM was fun, busy and inspiring with lots of interest in our books and sales at the same level as last year. So although not a return to the 'heady' heights of 2015, the recent decline seems to have eased to a sustainable level. Certainly a 'hometown' show like Manchester with minimal costs is a welcome boost and helps offset other shows where travel and accommodation costs can eat into finances.

The show was very crowded both days and seemed busier that last year but the reported 36,000 attendance (gulp!) is, I think around the same as 2016? In any case the celebrity guests and special attractions seemed popular and everyone we spoke to had said they'd enjoyed the show and would return which is nice to hear.

For the first time since, I think, last year's Thought Bubble show, the whole Accent UK crew was there with WesterNoir co-writer & artist Gary Crutchley joining Jemma, Scott, Dave and I. Its always good when we all get together and make plans on what's happening next, in this case co-ordinating our forthcoming trips to the Asylum Steampunk festival and separate MCM Glasgow & Thought Bubble shows which fall on the same weekend this year.

We had a fun social time too meeting up in the evenings with fellow creators and comic dealers which is always an important part of being on the 'convention circuit', both swapping notes on various events and just letting our hair (what's left of it) down!

Dave moonlighting at Mike Garley's table

MCM Manchester Returns!

It's been a very quick year but this weekend sees the return of my (adopted) hometown show MCM Manchester, this time with added HULK!

The full Accent UK crew will be pitching up in the Comics Village with our latest comics, prints and special offers in what is always an enjoyable and friendly show and being one, for me, involving minimal travel for once - yay!
 

You can see some pictures and reports of previous Manchester shows here, here and here but if you're around please stop and say 'hi' - just be careful not to make us angry, you wouldn't like us when we're angry!

Re-making Robots!

My comic strip 'Null 'n' Void' which featured in Accent UK's sold out anthology ROBOTS (Andy Bloor cover above) will soon be reborn in the forthcoming Moments of Adventure: Collection Two! I thought therefore I'd share a little of the process behind the development and 're-mastering of the strip prior to it's printing and publishing.

Me being me, I tend to hold onto things so here's a scan of page 2 that I made at the time from my original pencils!

For ease, let's zoom in and concentrate on the last panel:

Next this is the inked and hand-lettered version that appeared in the ROBOTS anthology:

The original inked art was re-scanned and cleaned before lovely colours were added by Moments of Adventure: Collection One collaborator, Aljosa Tomic, (based in Serbia no less!):

The hand lettering was then carefully removed from the newly coloured art:

 Finally, I added computer lettering & effects using my favourite Bryan Talbot Comic Craft font:

And there you have it, what a difference from the original with the colours breathing wonderful new life into the art which hopefully  enhances the whole story. It may all look rather simple but sadly it isn't, I can't speak for Aljosa but my computer skills aren't the best and lettering on top of existing lettering and balloons is as finickity as it sounds. Necessary adjustments had to be made to both the text and balloon placements in the above panel, including 'colour paste-ups' to hide the originals, a process which sadly had to be repeated on virtually every panel on every page of the strip!

Much as I love hand-lettering and placement of it on the original art to form an integral part of the page and story, I no longer use this technique as I know the difficulties it can cause! Plus the flexibility and legibility of computer lettering - once mastered - is really second to none!

We're getting there and I'll look forward to sharing more as the whole second collection of Moments of Adventure is built and ready for release, hopefully reasonably soon! In the meantime copies of the first collection are still available to buy from me at conventions - see list to the right - and direct from the Accent UK website here. 

Matt's Movie Prints!

While I remain busy with comicy things, here's a wee reminder of the splendid art being produced by Matt Soffe who coloured some of my Moments of Adventure comic strips and my - still progressing - Zulu War graphic novel and of course many Accent UK covers.

As well as colouring though, Matt is extremely talented at producing his own art in many different mediums and his site of prints and images is well worth a browse and you'll be sure to find something of interest for you or a gift for a friend! Check his webshop here.

I'm fortunate enough to own the original of Matt's Michael Caine Zulu image above, which I commissioned from him as a pin up in the aforementioned forthcoming Zulu graphic novel, but he's also produced similar striking images from many other movies and genres, enjoy! 

Accent UK reviews!

The indie-centric website Pipedream Comics has a nice catch-up review of some of Accent UK's recent and current titles, check it out here!

Pipedream themselves have recently published a new issue of their 'Pull-List' indie news & reviews magazine which is always worth a look, reminds me a little of the old RED EYE that we once published with Barry Baz Renshaw as editor-in-chief back in the day!

Go-Go Granite City Comic-Con!

Gary Erskine's Splendid Granite City 2017 Poster Art

The Accent UK tour bus is revving up once again to complete 'Colin's Celtic Comic Trilogy Tour' with this weekend's Granite City Comic-Con in Aberdeen!

Can't believe its a whole year since the last Aberdeen show but there we are, although in some ways its come round a little too quick as my planned launch of the second Moments of Adventure collection is sadly not quite there. That's the problem sometimes with doing a large number of shows, there's no time to make the actual comics!

Having said that I have been busy producing some new sketches to go in the special Moments print packs:

......and there are still several new Accent UK titles since our last Aberdeen appearance.

So if you happen to find yourself in the North East of Scotland this weekend why not visit Granite City Comic Con, enjoy the fun and say 'Hi' to us.