I'm not dead... honestly.

I know... I suck at blogging.

But let's not dwell on my laziness... since it is almost Christmas let's have a look at some nice art by the warm and lovely WJC...

...featuring the Black Sheep and Georgie!

I might not have been blogging much but I have been hard at work offline.

Honest.

I have now finished three scripts for short stories featuring the Black Sheep... one of which I have shown to a small handful of people I trust... and so far the feedback has been encouraging. I have outlines for about thirty more short stories and i'm working on a couple of longer stories that are a bit more ambitious.

I have also been putting together a revised edition of my Black Sheep bible with updated character bios and designs for over a hundred characters.

I'll try to post more often in the new year... but no promises because I don't like lying right to your cute little faces.

Meanwhile you can check out more from WJC over on his blog and his gorgeous new Quinthaven poster book is currently available to buy.

His Friend and Companion, the Lovely Georgie Gilmour

It's been a while sooo... let's talk about the woman in our hero's life... Georgie Gilmour.

Georgie is a young widow living alone in a crappy little flat and struggling to make ends meet with very little money. Originally from a lower-middle class family she fell on hard times and had to sell her house when her husband was killed in the war. Now she survives on her husband's war pension and makes a living illustrating children's books... later on in the comics she will enjoy modest success with a newspaper strip she creates about a little bear called Sidney.

I think because of the turn her life has taken when we first meet her she is quite a sad figure... melancholy and lonely. But after a while she starts to come out of her shell and it turns out she actually has quite a fun and adventurous personality. She is down-to-earth and smart and mischievous and cheeky and sometimes a little bit of a tomboy.

Georgie and her husband were not on good terms when he left for the war... their relationship had been strained for some time because of debt and she said some things she regrets... she was anxious to work it out with him but he never made it home.

Since she lost her husband she has trouble sleeping at night and often goes to a little all-night cafe near where she lives to sit and sketch... this is where she meets our hero. As i mentioned in a previous post Rupert is also unable to sleep since the war and has taken to wandering the streets at night incognito. Georgie likes to watch the people around her in the cafe for inspiration for her sketchbook so she sees through the working class clothes and accent and realises there is more to him than he wants people to see. Over time the two begin talking and confiding in each other and become close friends... two lost souls connecting.

But their relationship is complicated... both of them are damaged goods since the war... Rupert is a mess of nerves and emotions and Georgie is still grieving for her husband and is feeling guilty. So there is a strong attraction and connection there but also a sense that it is wrong and shouldn't be acted on... it all feels a bit illicit really.

Georgie was a tough nut to crack frankly.

I must confess that i have read almost none of the Shadow pulp stories... but i love the 1930s radio show and i listen to that over and over. One of the things i like about the show is the relationship between Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane. Margo isn't some clueless damsel in distress who needs to be rescued every week... she is capable and intelligent and witty. Cranston treats her as an equal... a companion and confidante. And the scripts dance around this with subtle innuendo and flirting but you just know the two of them are at it like rabbits secretly.

Similarly my favourite comicbook couple is Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont from Sandman Mystery Theatre. I love that they have a mature and adult relationship that has ups and downs and is comlicated and interesting. It feels real. Dian is one of the most well observed and believable female characters in comics... over the course of the series you watch her change and grow as a person and discover who she is and what she wants out of life... which in comics is a rare and endearing thing. And of course we are left in no doubt that these two definately are at it like rabbits.

So i had those characters and relationships in mind when thinking about Georgie.

I said before that i wanted the Black Sheep to explore the seedy underbelly of interbellum Britain... i wanted to do something different than the usual posh-person-investigates-cosy-drawing-room-murder-mystery story which is all we ever seem to see in this era... i wanted to take a look people who didn't live in lovely country estates or twee little villages and who committed crimes that were horrible and grubby.

But because of the Batman-meets-Bertie-Wooster premise the Black Sheep had to be one of those posh persons... so i had to find some of way of drawing him into this other world that he would never be exposed to normally. I thought the easiest thing to do was make Georgie working class.

My original idea was that she should be a nurse. In fact she would have been a nurse in the psychiatric hospital where Rupert is sent to recuperate after the war... she would have formed a connection with him and continued to see him in secret... in the beginning just as someone who understood what he had been through and wanted to support him as he struggled to adjust to civilian life again... and then later as conspirators and lovers.

I liked that this idea made their relationship seem a bit more illicit and interesting.

But the more i looked into it in practical terms nursing just didn't work. Altho not unheard of it was rare in the 1920s for working class women to become nurses. Also most psychiatric hospitals were located way out in the country and for the sake of the stories Georgie really needed to live in the city. More to the point tho nurses work ridiculous hours so she just wouldn't have the time for any amateur crimefighting with some guy in a funny costume.

So i needed a bit of a rethink... it seemed like my options were limited badly.

I mean these stories are set in the 1920s and despite all the freaks and monkeys and death rays you have to ground them in some semblance of realism or it all becomes a bit too silly. In the 1920s the reality was that women did not have a lot of opportunities open to them in terms of careers... mostly they were expected to stay at home and be mothers and housewives... and what jobs they could get tended to keep them busy all day.

On the other hand i didn't want to go too far in the other direction and make her too independent and capable because that would seem unrealistic and silly.

I thought about resorting to the plucky investigative reporter trope but it seemed a little too cliche even for me... Lois Lane, Vicky Vale, Linda Park, Dale Arden, April O'Neil, Polly Perkins... it's been done to death... and in real life in the 1920s female reporters were very rare anyway.

I even thought about making her Rupert's maid or cook or something but i didn't want her to seem subservient or beholden to him... she had to be able to stand on her own two feet and make her own way.

And while i was thinking about all this i also had a notion that she should be active in one or two charities and women's movements too so that i could use her to look at some of the social issues of the time... so i was doing some research on the suffrage movement and i noticed that almost all of the more notable suffragettes were middle class and writers or artists of one kind or another.

Hmmm.

I don't think i'm clever enough or well-read enough to write her as a serious writer... and i didn't want her to be too bohemian so i thought it best to avoid making her a painter or a sculptor or something. But the image of her hunched over a drawing table churning out work-for-hire illustrations and newspaper strips for little money and no recognition was for some reason quite appealing.

It all clicked from there... and hopefully people like the character and find her interesting.

So... that's Georgie Gilmour anyway.

Merry Christmas

I need something to focus on that isn't sad and horrible... so i suppose i should start thinking about writing again.

So... while i dust off the keyboard and fire up the little grey cells here is another Black Sheep picture to tide you guys over...

Nice eh?

Dave Flora did this one a few weeks ago.

I have been bouncing ideas off of Dave from the beginning and he always has something useful or encouraging to say. I really appreciate all the support he has shown me in the last few months... he is a good friend and a ridiculously talented guy.

Check out his characters Ghost Zero and Doc Monster over on his blog.

WJC Sketches the Black Sheep

It's been a few weeks since i last wrote... misfortune and illness and blah blah blah... but i am still hard at work on the Black Sheep comic whenever i have the chance and things are moving along.

In the meantime i thought i would share this sketch of the character by Warwick Johnson Cadwell...

...and here it is after i tried to throw some colour on...

I think i am right in saying this is the first drawing of the Black Sheep done by someone other than me... and it's a beauty. I cannot tell you what a buzz it is seeing something i created brought to life by such a talented artist... it's amazing.

WJC was one of the first people i told about the Black Sheep and he has been really supportive and encouraging. I was chatting to him about Ramsden a while back and happened to mention this other idea i had floating around in my noggin. I mean it was all there from the start but i thought that at best it might be fit for a short throwaway story. Warwick seemed quite excited about the character tho and his enthusiasm convinced me that maybe i was on to something bigger. I began to properly brainstorm the character and his world and it sort of snowballed from there.

So... uh... blame that guy.

The Devil is in the Details

I mentioned in a previous post that i am not much of an artist and that i have some things i do when collaborating to help artists visualise whatever it is i am imagining.

One of the things i do is make little photo reference collages.

I don't remember how i got started doing this... a lack of confidence in my ability to draw probably. I have used these collages quite a bit with the Black Sheep and showed them to some artist friends and the feedback has been encouraging. It seems that they really benefit artists as visual aides... but also they seem to be a fantastic way of stimulating interest in whatever it is you are working on.

I also find that they help me really focus on a character and refine his or her personality. I created a PDF of collages and sketches and character bios and stuff for the Black Sheep which has been invaluable... it lays out all my ideas neatly in one easy to read document that keeps me focused and prevents me forgetting things... and i can update it whenever necessary.

I thoroughly encourage budding comicbook writers out there to try putting together something similar when looking to attract artists to collaborate with... or even when pitching.

Anyway here are the collages i did for the Black Sheep and his alter ego...

Pretty self explanatory hopefully.

I should mention also that sometimes when i come up with characters i like to imagine who might play them if it were a movie... it helps me visualise mannerisms and speech patterns etc and hopefully results in the characters feeling like distinct individuals... that's the idea anyway. And with the Black Sheep i usually have the awesome Craig Parkinson in mind while writing.

So now you know...

The Man Behind The Mask

I thought i should talk a little about the Black Sheep's alter ego... the man behind the mask... Rupert Rumney.

I am a big fan of the 1990s Sandman Mystery Theatre comic... also the 1930s Shadow radio series... and one of the things i love most about those is that the focus tends to be more on the man than the mask... it's all about the character and what drives him and how he relates to those around him... an approach i hope to take with my own comic.

In an earlier post i think i summed up the Black Sheep as Bertie Wooster crossed with Batman.

I'm assuming most people are familiar with P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster... but if not then Bertie Wooster is basically a rich idiot whose long-suffering valet is forever having to extricate him from various awkward situations... the stories are really very funny.

I was reading one of the books a while back and it occurred to me that, since most of the stories were supposedly narrated by Bertie, maybe he was just playing up his stupidity for the sake of a good story. And from there i daydreamed a whole scenario where Bertie Wooster was an idle twit by day, and by night a deadly vigilante.

So the Black Sheep's alter ego owes more than a little to Wodehouse's loveable moron.

Another major influence was Herman Cyril McNeile's Bulldog Drummond.

Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is, like Bertie Wooster, a rich gentleman of leisure... but unlike Bertie he is a two-fisted force of nature. After the war Drummond is bored and restless so decides to become a private detective of sorts... altho his brand of detection is often little more than outright vigilantism. It's fantastic pulp fun... and even tho the writing can be a bit dated at times i thoroughly recommend checking the books out as they were a heavy influence on the likes of James Bond and Doc Savage... and now also on the Black Sheep obviously.

All of which brings me back to Rupert Rumney.

Before the war Rupert was an idle waster living on his parents' money. So when the war comes his parents decide to enlist him in the hopes that the experience will make a man of him.

Of course they had no idea how horrific the war would be or what terrible things their son would have to endure in the trenches... his eyes are opened and he gets to experience the very worst of humanity.

In order to survive he has to learn to fight... and he discovers he is rather good at it... something which disturbs him greatly.

By the time the war ends he feels broken and numb and empty.

On returning to Britain he is sent to an asylum to recover from his experiences.

But when he leaves there to go home the thought of settling back into his old vacuous lifestyle horrifies him... he wants to do something real and meaningful with his life.

Such as wearing a mask and kicking the shit out of gangsters... of course.

Rupert establishes a double life... as far as most people are concerned he seems to revert to his old self... an idiot with too much cash and not enough common sense... while in secret he is out on the streets at night prowling.

Righto... i think that's enough for the time being.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

One of the most frustrating things about being a writer is not being able to draw my own ideas... i mean i can draw a little, but not well enough to illustrate an entire comic series.

I don't know how it works for other writers in this sort of situation but i know that i usually have a very clear idea in my mind about how some of my characters look... so when i'm lucky enough to be able to collaborate with an artist it's not so much about working with them to create the look of the character as it is working with them to capture the image i created in my head already.

I try to do as much as i can to help the artist visualise the way a character "should" look... sketches, photomanipulations, collages, really longwinded and pedantic descriptions of every little detail of clothing.

So... here is a sketch i did of the Black Sheep's costume...



I had a number of things i wanted to achieve with this costume.

I wanted it to look iconic and be easily recognisable... i thought it was important that people should be able to take one look at the character and know who he was no matter who was drawing him or which medium he was appearing in. On the other hand i wanted to steer clear of a proper "costume" with tights and a cape and all that sort of thing. I thought it should look like he was wearing an outfit that he had thrown together from old clothing and souvenirs from the war or something.

I also wanted something that would allow him a degree of anonymity. Cloth caps and woollen coats were pretty much the uniform of the working class back in the 1920s... and it was common for motorcyclists and chauffeurs etc to wear breeches and leather boots, so even those would not draw too much attention. Once our hero buttons up his coat and slips the mask in his pocket he can blend into the crowd and pass undisturbed throughout the city.

I was aiming for something similar to the classic pulp character the Shadow. Mike Mignola's Lobster Johnson and Dave Flora's Ghost Zero were also inspirations.

I'm not sure if i succeeded in creating something iconic... but i am sure that there aren't enough comicbook vigilantes out there who wear cloth caps, so at the least he has that going for him y'know?

What Ho, Black Sheep

I have mentioned before that i was working on a few other comicbook ideas besides Ramsden... in fact i just realised i wrote this...

"Probably the one that is closest to becoming a thing is the one with the 1920s vigilante. It's a sort of British hero pulp that i've been describing to friends as Bertie Wooster crossed with Batman. It started out as a throwaway idea and snowballed into something i think might be quite fun and interesting."

...almost exactly a year ago.

So the "something new" i have been teasing is actually something i have been working on in secret for a long time.

Anyway as i mentioned all those months ago i came up with a comic about a 1920s vigilante... and i called him the Black Sheep.

Really.

It's about a man who returns home from the Great War and struggles to fit back into society.

Britain has changed since the war... the war created a generation of monsters and lunatics and lost souls struggling to cope in a world which has moved on without them... a new breed of villainy is appearing... new enemies and threats are emerging from all corners... everywhere there is suffering and injustice and cruelty.

It is clear to our hero that the authorities are out of their depth and ill prepared to cope with this new world of horrors... but the war had taught him all about horror.

So he determines to make a stand and do that which the authorities cannot to stem this tide of anarchy.

But really it's about a man in a funny outfit getting into fisticuffs with cockney gangsters, evil hypnotists, bitter dwarfs, mad scientists and inventors, amoral vamps with remarkable profiles, wannabe fascist dictators, cranky monkeys, secret societies, disreputable spiritualists, psychotic tramps, and a criminal mastermind that no one knows exists.

Or something.

I had some things i wanted to do that i was never going to be able to do with Ramsden because of the setting.

I wanted to create an iconic British comicbook character... or at least try. I love the old American comics and pulps and newspaper strips from the 1930s... classics such as Batman, the Shadow, Dick Tracy. I wanted to create something similar to those... but done in a very British way.

I also wanted to play in the same sandbox as P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie... but to look at their 1920s Britain from the gutter and explore the seedy underbelly.

And finally i wanted to comment on some of the things i saw happening around me... and it struck me that a lot of those things... the coalition government, the recession, the mass unemployment and strikes, the surge of support for racist organisations such as the BNP, the recent war, terrorism, celebrity culture, drug culture, the redefinition of gender roles... were analogous to things that had happened in the 1920s... history repeating.

So... that's the idea.

Over the next few weeks i'll talk a bit more about this character and his world... i have put a lot of thought into this one so there should be lots to talk about... and maybe some of it will even be interesting. I also have some designs and sketches and photomanips i can share.

Anyway it's out there finally so i hope it isn't too silly.

A Tease For Something New - Part Three

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

- George Orwell

A Tease For Something New - Part Two

"A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead."

- George Gurdjieff

"God help us, for we knew the worst too young."

- Rudyard Kipling, Gentleman-Rankers

A Tease For Something New - Part One

"I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow."

- Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet On The Western Front