Barsoom Swag

I thought i would share this gorgeous Ben Caldwell commission i got ages ago...


John Carter and Dejah Thoris with some Tharks, from Edgar Rice Burrough's A Princess Of Mars.

I have had this for a while but with all the horrible shit that happened in the last few months i never got around to posting the thing. I figured with the John Carter movie coming out this week tho it was about time.

Ben is super talented and did a phenomenal job with this, so i cannot thank him enough.

Check out more from him by clicking the Dare Detectives banner on the right or by visiting his Purge Theory blog.

Happy bunny.

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...

Beetlemania at Dark Horse

I have been a fan of artist Francesco Francavilla for a while now... he is incredibly talented and versatile so i knew it was only a matter of time before the big boys took notice of the guy. In 2011 his career took off like a rocket and he landed plum gigs on Detective Comics, Black Panther, and Captain America... he also did covers for a whole bunch of high profile Dynamite and Dark Horse comics. It's nice to see him enjoying the success and recognition he deserves finally.

I must admit tho... with all this other stuff going on i have missed his creator-owned series, and i was hoping he would be able to get back to those eventually.

So... i was all excited to discover that Francesco's neo-pulp crimefighter the Black Beetle has found a new home over at Dark Horse...

"I’m working on a 24-page story, titled ‘Night Shift’ that will be spread over three issues of Dark Horse Presents. I am hugely influenced by pulp stories of the ‘30s and ‘40s, and wanted to develop a series that used that influence as a jumping-off point to explore some modern storytelling with fun twists. I think this will be a great introduction to readers who are new to this character and universe, but will also be an exciting new adventure for those who’ve been reading the online stories over the years."

"As a huge fan of pulp and noir, working on my own characters and stories really gives me free reign to explore this world and create lots of fun scenarios and thrilling situations. The stories are definitely full of mystery and intrigue, plus I get to give The Black Beetle lots of cool and funky gadgets. ‘Night Shift’ promises to be full of action, excitement, danger, and double-crosses, so I am overjoyed to see this new tale in print, and hope this is the first of many more to come in Dark Horse Presents."

Black Beetle previously appeared in an adventure serial strip called "Kara Bocek" which was posted sporadically on Francesco's Pulp Sunday blog here, and is on hiatus for the time being. He also appeared in a limited edition ashcan comic that Francesco put out at his own expense, which featured the opening chapter of a much larger Black Beetle story called "No Way Out" that Francesco has said he intends to finish as a graphic novel some day.

But this april the Black Beetle will make his first mainstream comic appearance in the pages of Dark Horse Presents #11, bringing the character to a much wider audience potentially.

I honestly cannot recommend this enough... Black Beetle stories are never less than fun and entertaining and gorgeous to look at... and i think it is important to support creators who are willing to step outside the safe zone and do their own thing. If enough folks show the character some love we might even get a full series out of it... hopefully.

Preorder a copy from your LCS now using code FEB12 0052, and show Dark Horse there is an audience out there eager for this sort of thing.

Also check out Francesco's newish Black Beetle blog here, and of course his Pulp Sunday blog here is required reading.

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.

I'm an Uncle... Again

I suppose i should mention that the reason i didn't update the blog sooner was that a baby boy happened to my sister last thursday.


Charly weighs in at "some" pounds, does not bounce, likes to wear his hats at a jaunty angle, and is to all intents and purposes a complete person.

I haven't been able to find any satanic markings.

Congratulations to mummy and daddy.

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.