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News 2005

Today's date 2nd December 2005

Original Artwork Available here!

Hello everyone - just thought I'd drop you a line from my crib (US readers - in the UK a crib is a child's bed with latticed sides, so the less said the better).

I'm halfway through episode six of Neverwhere oat the moment, with 3 1/2 episodes to go. This is actually the largest project I've been involved with at 202 pages and 10 paintings in total, with all the character and scenery design down to me | (in all of my time on the Preacher covers the only character design I cam up with was Jesse's dog).

So how's it all going down with the readers?

I decided to get Nikki to trawl through the Internet for some reviews, since I can't even turn on a computer without my head unscrewing from my shoulders.

Well the response has been tremendous.

From the Comic Book Resources Forum:

''I'm indifferent towards Fabry''

''Why is Door drawn like a hooker''

''Not a must-have''

''His art is not as fabry-ish as his (sometimes annoying) covers''

So everything's going well there then. Actually there were some pretty positive ones as well, but the main bone of contention seems to be the perceived differences between my version of the characters, and the ones in the book or TV series.

I've only watched 10 minutes of the TV series back in the day, and I've only just finished reading the book, as I wanted to know what happened in the end, and Mike's script for #9 hadn't shown up. So!

In my defense, (well I would be on my side wouldn't I) there are as many different versions of the book as there are readers of it, and I'm drawing my one. (My version that is).

Last weekend was a dream come true: A comics convention in Brighton!

It cost me £1.30 on the bus to get to Comics Expo '05 and it was worth every penny. Actually it was really, really good. I got to bump into old pals like Liam Sharp, Simon Bisley and John MacRae, saw Charlie Gillespie for the first time in years, Dougie Braithwaite, Sean Phillips and Bryan Talbot were there, Greg Staples too!

Didn't get the chance to chat to those guys enough. Basically all of British comic-dom showed up nearly. Marl Millar, Dave Gibbons and John M Burns (and many many more).

Dez Skinn was running the show and it looks like it'll be back at the Brighton Metropole next next year. Come down and give it a go.

Liams Event Horizon #2 is out, and even more impressive edition than #1. Tony Luke, my old mucker from the Neverwhere covers, was there showing his Dominator/Fakk2 computer short which he made with Kevin (teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) Eastman. Groovy.

Also at the con. The strangest thing - kids interested in comics!

There were five of them at least. All the kids I've ever seen in conventions over the last few years have been embarrassed ones there with their dads.

Hopefully this is a sign that the comics industry will once again rise like a dark Phoenix from the ashes and spread it's wings over a whole new fresh-faced audience eager to get into the marvellous worlds and incredible adventures on offer between the covers of the latest best-selling episodes of the weeklies and monthlies, raising the artists and writers once again to positions of demi god status that they enjoyed back in the hallowed days of yore!! Either that or it's just those five kids!

Only 23 shopping days until Christmas! Don't forget you can still purchase from this very website some not that annoying un-Fabryish drawings of Door looking like a Hooker, that you can feel indifferent too in the privacy of your own home!!!

All the best and a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Cheers, Glenn

Today's date 28th October 2005

Original Artwork Available here!

Hello everybody - long time no trousers!

If you're at all interested, we're now selling the original artwork from the best selling title 'Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere' through the website.

That way we can make a bit of extra cash to throw at the gaping maw of the tax man and finally pay off that leccy bill (hopefully!)

Now as I understand it, this is how these things are expected to go: A page or two of lesser known ancillary characters sitting about drinking a cup of coffee will sell for absolutely bugger all, or not shift, no matter how beautifully drawn, whereas a red crayon pinman drawing of Daredevil with his knob out will cost you a small family car. We have priced the pages accordingly.

Each page of Neil Caimans' s 'Neverwhere' for sale is the original black and white line drawing, uncoloured and unlettered, signed at the top with page and issue number. No computer effects were used at any pint in the creation of these pages, and no animals were harmed. Well maybe a moth!

Sizes are A3 UK and pages are on standard DC paper. There are 24 pages for issue #1 - an extra two.

The cover art originals are elements that make up the whole cover for the DC cover. They were finished on the computer. These are the only painted images available that I haven't already sold.

Prices range from £40 to £250 per page - double page spreads are no more than £400. Average page price £140.

I will write or dedicate any message that you want on any individual page bought. Artwork will be delivered not later than seven days after payment has cleared in the bank. Paypal invoices are included after each image. If you wish to reserve a page and mail me a cheque then email here.

Character rates: Door & the Marquis will be the priciest, followed by Richard, Vandemar & Croup.

Today's date 16th August 2005

My take on neverwhere... if anybody gives one!

It's doing every well apparently - at the moment, the best-selling Vertigo book (thanks people).

I've been getting a certain amount of feedback about the treatment of characters in the book and how I've depicted them in the comic.

Neil's fans are certainly a committed lot, and everyone has their own point of view - its mental imagery of the individual personalities that make up the story and that's basically my take on it as well: There's as many different versions of a book as there are readers of it.

The Endless Nights book was a big hit for Vertigo - New York Times best seller list, first time for a Vertigo graphic novel: they wanted a follow up but Neil Gaiman is a very busy guy - novels, movies, world scrabble championship et al, no time at the moment to capitalise on a major success in the beleaguered comic strip field with a catamnesis (looked that up in Rogets Thesaurus - 24 point score!)

What to do - there's Neverwhere of course, which I think was originally a commission for a telly series (could be wrong) and then became a novel. It's been around for as long as the age of out target audience, and no offense to those involved, I don't think that Mr Gaiman was completely happy with the TV version of his book, what with it being made on the budget of a fiver per episode or thereabouts.

My part in this came about because of the chapter I drew in Endless Nights. I'd met Neil a couple of times before the invention of electricity and he'd told me he like my work. The destruction chapter in Endless Nights came about because Liberatore (I'm a huge fan of that guy) couldn't do it for whatever reason and Neil suggested me as a pinch hitter (whatever that means) and after a certain amount of insistence from Karen Berger I took it on - I was doing 'The Authority' or 'Thor' at the time and had to fit it in at the rate of a page o as day. Consequently of course it will probably be my most available contribution to the world of graphic sequential rendering for some time to come. A) because it was a big hit and b)because I was rushed and I had to fit it in but I couldn't necessarily give it the attention it deserved.

To go off at at right angles, its a but like chatting up women. I'm off the market - now ladies , please no suicides - happily married an and all but when you're at your most needy, there's nothing there, and you couldn't give a toss, you get all the attention.

When it comes to work I want to just I just feel like doing it and also not to be rushed or harried, financially comfortable and reasonably happy, dedicated and only concerned with how beautiful or how ugly I can make it.

Mostly I am rushed (and in a way thanks god) and harried (moaning now) and whenever I do feel like putting in those extra hours to make something really good, two weeks later the leccy bill arrives and we can't pay it until the cheque comes in.

Anyway the upshot of this rushed job was neil Gaiman liked it so I was chosen as artist to take a third short at neverwhere, the lovely novel but woefully under funded TV series of 1994, in comic form top capitalise on the blah di blah di blah.

My preparation for this, which is quite frankly the largely body of work which I have so far undertaken, was ton read the novel the first time, and closely ignore the TV version of which I watched one episode back in the day (thought the actor playing the Marquis was excellent) and then just do what cam into my head when Mike Carey's scripts came in.

I met Mike for about 5 seconds at the Bristol convention a year ago, hungover and trying to draw a picture of daredevil (me not him) (the hungover bit no the Daredevil thing 0 - when I said me not him I didn't mean that I was Daredevil oh forget it) but he's completely doing the right thing comics wise - pacing dialogue, narrative involvement so it fits in with the 22 pages per episode etc.

Seems like a lovely bloke, obviously very talented.

The look of the characters and scenery and design is down to me, plus a few stupid jokes and what passes for acting from a bunch of line drawings so it's MY take on the material. They asked me to do it so it's not my fault officer, the general said pull the trigger. And Karen says Neil likes it so there!

Lots of love Glenn

PS John Vankin is a wonderful man I don't care what people say about him.

PPS Thanks again to Tony Luke whose Zen-like knowledge of the intricate workings of the computer have pieced together my rough components for the covers of this epic undertaking.

PPPS and thanks also to Tanya & Richard for the superb colouring job

Below - Reviews from the Vertigo website here

Below - Review from Aint it Cool News here

Today's date 9th June 2005

Hi Kids!

It's me again.

I'm 2/3 the way through #3 of the graphic novel version of Neverwhere by neil Gaiman, adapted by Mike Carey, coloured by the team of Tanya & Richard Horie and things, albeit a bit tardy (my fault) look promising.

I'm attempting to improve on my previous efforts in graphic sequential rendering with each consecutive comic I do for America, and so far, fingers crossed, touch wood, it's working out.

I did 'Kev' in a blind rush, I did Howard the Duck and Global frequency in even more of a blind rush, calmed down a bit for Thor, and evened out on More Kev.

I'm pissed off with myself for the Howard thing. Steve Gerber and Howard demanded so much more but \I was caught in a trap (I couldn't turn back (because I love you too much baby). Basically I lost a 6 month cover deal on the Authority because of Sept 11th. Took on whatever was offered and double booked myself, churned it out and c'est la vie - I've been re-reading Howard and Steve Gerber rocks and Phil 'King of Drapery' Winslade did a masterful job: it was a childhood dream but adulthood buggered it up.

Well I did, it's all my fault, come clean.

Back in the days of Slaine I worked for 3-4 days on a page mostly but for the US now it's 3/4 a page a day, a fair old workload in comparison, and I want to do a good job on everything: sometimes churning it out can give you a good result - more energy & vibrancy - or it can do your head in and end up as a stultified mess. Also spending too much time on things can end up with you being fed up with the image, or a static quality infusing itself on the piece; So I've got to find a way to do good work more quickly, and I haven't worked out a hack method that would let me go back to being any good after I've drawn the pin men and crappy elbows of the comics version of Macdonalds.

To help myself out on this, I'm looking at a lot of my favourite black & white artists: These are Gil Kane, Jack Davis, Jim Holdaway, Brian Bolland, John M Burns and BoucQ - and Moebius when he did Lt. Blueberry. Their is all over my recent B & W efforts.

What I myself can offer is solid anatomy, sense of movement, storytelling, characterisation and humour; I'm trying to make my characters act. To me, comics are all about making a 5 million dollar movie on a 2 million dollar budget, with a biro.

I'm avoiding everything about 'Neverwhere' apart from the scripts and the book. I watched an episode of the TV series back in the 1990's and I'm avoiding any influences from them that I might dimly remember the Marquis of Carabis in my version is a cross between Captain jack Sparrow and the mouth at the beginnings the Rocky Horror Show: Richard is basically Tim from the office with a bit of Jackie Chan round the face.

Door has a squid dreadlock hairdo and an eye tattoo shaped like a keyhole. All the denizons of London below are like the more extreme new romantic clubbers from the days when a night out was more like a fancy dress party; the bad guys croup and Vandemar are like the fox and the cat in Pinochio - Vanmdemar is dressed as a teddy boy, a British youth movement whose adherents very worryingly kept on going with the Edwardian day-glo suits and flick knives well into their 40's and 50's.

In all my years of comic strips until now, the only main characters I've designed up until this point have been Kev and the dog from Preacher: All the others were redesigns on established characters like Slaine or my versions of archetypes like Judge Dredd or Daredevil; - Also this book is very drapery driven, hardly anyone in it is showing off their muscles (lots of cleavage though). It's all about how to draw clothes, so I'm giving it a go. I've got this crappy grey jacket that's never been ironed and I sit in front the off the mirror in my studio waving my arms about to see where the creases go.

Liam Sharpes 'Event Horizon' is doing fantastic business, went down a storm at the Bristol Convention and is well worth your hard earned cash. For me Chris Weston's Heinrich Maneuver is a fantastic new character in the making, can't wait to see more of him. Liam's work is exactly the way it should be. I love to see his arty side in full swing, he's like an evil barbarian Edward Burne-Jones.

Read the SFX review here - and I did the gorgeous girl alternative cover!

See more about Mamtor here

It's a very tasty package with more that just a hint of golden-age Heavy Metal about it, and hopefully will be around for a long time to come. Diamond have already ordered 2 reprintings as demand has outstripped supply. Good on you lads, keep up with the brilliant work: I'm going to be doing some more stuff for issue 2, of which more later.

Congratulations to my good friends Alan Mitchell & Tanya on the birth of their daughter Annu.

That's it for now - my current checklist at the moment: Graphic Novels & Books:

Dead or Alive collected Preacher covers by me & Garth (DC Vertigo)

Slain the King (by Pat MIlls Titan Books)

Thor - Vikings (Marvel Comics Graphic Novel by Garth Ennis)

The Authority Kev (Wildstorm Graphic Novel by Garth Again)

Endless Nights (one of seven chapters by DC Vertigo by Neil Gaiman)

Monogram (My sketchbook in print)

Muscles in Motion (my sketchbook in print again but with more text)

Anatomy for Fantasy Artists (some of my writing and drawing plus a load of other people in their)

Howard the Duck (by Steve Gerber, one chapter)

Global Frequency (by Warren Ellis)

3 covers for Sal Abbinanti

8 Magic the Gathering cards

5 covers for the Magnificent Kevin by Garth Ennis & Carlos Esquerra for Wildstorm comics: chapter three of the Kev: Authority saga

Event Horizon: Alternative cover Mamtor Publishing - sold out!

Neverwhere ( buy neil Gaiman & Mike Carey for DC Vertigo.

Thanks once again to computer genius Tony Luke for pressing the right buttons and helping me with, and meet my deadlines for the covers of Kev & Neverwhere I don't know which end of the computer the toast pops out of: all of this website is my lovely wife Nikki's work; I'm always getting messages from computer types saying what a great job I've done but I don't even know how to answer an email by myself

Love to you all Glenn

Today's date 20th January 2005

Hello!

It's been a very very long time since I've dusted the cobwebs off the site, and the simple reason is this: not enough hours in the day or money in the bank, what with the mortgage and the kids and the deadlines and the bloody exchange rate; all the work there is to do and all the work that hasn't been done or hasn't been done well enough. I've still got to finish your girl with the lizard in Monument valley (you know who you are) I promise that I'll do it this month (February).

Things that have been done

For Quarto Publishing - 'Dynamic Anatomy for Fantasy Artists' - a collection of tips and hints and original artwork for different body types for aspiring pencil pushers. Originally I was to be the sole contributor but in the end I did the muscley woman, the ogre, the goblin, the cover, various illustrations and a step by step painting and some of the writing, which was mostly rewritten or edited in such a way that it bears little resemblance to my original text. (They took all the stupid jokes out),. But I believe that the main thrust of the information disclosed is sort of intact: There are some good drawings and painting in it - Liam Sharpe (of whom more later) also contributes (and Greg Staples too). Kate and Claire were good to work with but at the end of the day we couldn't access enough archive material and they pay bugger all.

Monogram

My collected sketchbooks, printed up by IDM publishing and Maria Cabardo, hard cover, biog, lots of drawings of women leaping about. These sketches were done to give me a reliable source of information about the human figure in motion and you can see some of them on this site all animated up. They weren't meant for publication, but they were lying around when Maria visited so she took them and printed them up.

Available from here for £25 and I'll do a little sketch and sign them for you: you can also get them from Bud Plant or Diamond, but I wouldn't see any cash for that (we sold them retail). It's quite a thick book (as in width) with some of my best work in it.

DC / Marvel

'Thor-Vikings' by me and Garth Ennis is still available (I think), 'The Authority - Kev and more Kev' are going to be collected as a graphic novel in April 2005 from Wildstorm. It got good reviews as a monthly and is very rude and funny. Cheers Garth again.

Apparently it's been 10 years since Preacher first started and DC Vertigo are reissuing all the books with a makeover (I don't mean a free visit to Trisha, they've glammed the package up or something).

'Endless Nights' by Neil,Gaiman, for which I supplied the artwork for one of the chapters, has led to an adaptation in comic form of one of his novels 'Neverwhere', scripted by the very talented Mike Carey and drawn and inked by me with covers by me and the fabulous Tony Luke and his computer trickery. (Tony's going from strength to strength with his computer generated metal death god 'Dominator' - 3 more movies in the pipeline: find the details on Tony's Renga site.

You can bet though that you'll be able to read 'Neil Gaiman' much much larger than any of us plebs on the covers: nine issues due out imminently and by far the main body of my work right now, and the best stuff I've done for interiors for some time now.

Other Work

Magic the Gathering cards for Wizards of the Coast - I've painted three of these so far with another three to do next week and hopefully it'll be on ongoing gig. The weird thing about it though is this: there's possibly five guys in the whole country painting these things (Kev Walker and Greg Staples do some incredible work on them - bastards!) the main body of these artists being from the US. One of the very best guys John Avon is British, and get this, our kids go to the same school! In fact I saw him before I knew him in the school playground Nikki had sequestered all these books he was chucking out for the school library. What are the chances of that happening (as harry Hill would say). I know you Americans sometimes think that there are only 35 people in this country - sometimes it feels like it!

Atomika

Two of my best paintings recently have been done for Sal Abbinanti, Alex Ross's art agent, who's putting together this comic about a Russian superhero made of cobalt who walks around in a red toga. (More information is available incidentally). Sal introduced himself to me in San Diego. He's a big, likable, confident guy, well-connected, well-dressed, the business: he'd seen some of my paintings at Simon Powell's underground art vault and commissioned me to do some stuff for him. The down (or up) side of the equation is that the other painters on this project are Alex Ross and Bill Sienkiewicz, the biggest bloody names in the world of sequential graphical narration (comic books n.b.) So this means I have to be on top of my game ion that company, and everything I do for Sal has to be as good as I can possibly make it...I try to kind of take that a[roach with everything I do but that really puts the pressure on......

Atomeka (with an e...)

Have reprinted 'Bricktop'n from A1 magazine in one handy volume - very, very silly - the story I mean!

OK - this is the way my life is right now...

6.30-7.30am Kids wake up, wake us up, sometimes I get up first, usually Nikki

8.30am Kids go to school

8.45am gym 2 or 3 times a week or breakfast. Dodgy knee

9.30-10am Down to work

12 noon cup of tea, read mail.

5pm make kids tea and muck around a bit.

7.30pm bed time clean teeth, read stories. 'Groo' is very popular with Tom (8) right now.

8pm back in studio, work through to 11pm some nights. Some nights 1 or 2 am.

6.30am Groundhog Day