Thursday 20 December 2012

Festive Cheer With The Fred Preview Comic

Season's greetings everyone, hope you all have a great Christmas and happy new year. If you're turkeyed out and feeling exhausted after the big day why not treat yourself to an extra present just for you?
Yes folks, the special preview issue of Fred Fortune is on sale now! A mix of black & white and color, it's 28 pages of futuristic laughs that'll be just right for the Xmas aftermath. It features two stories, character profiles and a couple of one-pagers all wrapped up behind color covers. You can get hold of your copy from  Indy Planet (will also be available from Comixpress very soon) for $4.50 here:

Fred Fortune #0
The first issue of the new Fred Fortune series will follow shortly, in the meantime, if you buy it please let me know what you think, either here, on my site here, on my Deviant Art page, or via email sillyarts@hotmail.co.uk

See you in 2013!

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Tea Break Artworks

Here's some pencil artwork for a one of the upcoming stories in Fred's new comic. The entire strip was penciled over the course of a few months during half hour tea breaks at my day job and I'm very happy with the results. What do you think?

Just the inks (my favorite part of the process), tone and letters to get on with. The strip as a whole- scripted a while back and forming part of a larger story arc- works well, but I won't spoil it and run through the plot, in case you decide to buy the book when it's done. The arc starts in #1 and continues over several issues. 

This panel shows the city's distinctive architecture and dense sprawl quite well. This far down in the city life is tough and there's little or no sunlight, most of the population live on or below the breadline, crime and violence are rife, the state controls almost every aspect of everyone's lives, but there's also people striving to get on despite the odds, finding those small rays of light that enable them to get through another day... there's hope. That's Fred's world, he wouldn't have it any other way.

And here's the obligatory action shot from the same story...
It's was loads of fun to write and draw and I can't wait to get it finished and out there for everyone to read.
See you next time...


Sunday 2 December 2012

Then And Now

When I first embarked on bringing Fred Fortune's extraordinary misadventures to life in the form of one page gag strips some twenty something years ago, the UK was in a massive recession and we were under the icy grip of the Conservative Party... Life was tough, the day job was a dead end and poorly paid, there was little or no prospect of much of a future. So, I guess the strips were a good excuse to let off steam and poke fun at the establishment... with lots of chases with flying cars added on for good measure.

Here's some art... This was the first proper Fred strip from 1990. The character had been slowly evolving in my head and in lots of unfinished mega-epics (usually scribbled down in the back of school notebooks) since the mid eighties, until I finally realized that I could get it done if the story was only one page!


Now I'm about to unleash Fred upon the world again... we're in a massive recession and under the icy grip... hmmm... Everything really does just go round and round in circles...

All Fred's one pagers and old stuff will be published in a new title, 'Fred Fortune: Gold' which will run for six issues and includes previously unpublished stuff and lots more.

And just for the fun of it... Here's the cover of 'Mondo' #13, Fred's first appearance on it's cover, drawn by me back in 1993.


'Mondo's old site is still online for those who're interested:
Mondo

Saturday 24 November 2012

Fred Fortune and his pal Lance.

Here's Fred Fortune and his pal Lance slobbing out, but bored, on the sofa... Fred's comic is set around one thousand years in the future, so some things never change...

It was done in pencil on paper with digital color and took far too long to do.

This picture will feature in the special preview issue of his new misadventures  which is on it's way very soon... watch this space for details... Also featured in #0 are two stories, character profiles and more...



Friday 26 October 2012

Fred Fortune Preview Issue Cover Art

Here's a sneak peak at the cover art for the forthcoming Preview issue of my Fred Fortune comic book. It'll be available ASAP in print and digital formats. Stay tuned for details as and when... 
The background is made up of various pages from the book itself, and the two images were traditionally drawn with dip pen and brush on bristol board, then all put together and colored digitally. Being relatively new to digital coloring some of my efforts can be hit or miss. I think this one works quite well and conveys the right mood for the comic. Hope ya like it...

Monday 22 October 2012

Fred Fortune Comic Cover

Here's the cover for the first issue of  the collected Fred Fortune comic from way back in the summer of 1994. Back then color printing was way beyond the means of most self-publishers, so the next best thing was to photocopy your 'zine in B+W with covers on color paper. These days everything's much better of course, the only limits being the imagination of the creator, but I still have a fondness for the raw, punky, cut and paste feel of the old stuff. Lots of my favorite titles and creators are rough around the edges. This outing was A5 size and 20 pages. The 'stories' included the first few Fred one pager gag strips and the first part of a  dystopian sci-fi strip entitled 'The Garbage Man' about dumping rubbish in the future and the end of the world (cheery story, that)! Two more issues and a one-shot followed cataloging most of Fred's early misadventures- there's still a few that have yet to see the light of day- and sold mostly through the classified ads in the back of 'Comics International'. 

Poverty Press... coming back after all these years.

Saturday 6 October 2012

The Future Of Digital Comics!

There's a new digital comic format in town! It's in landscape format and is very reader friendly... I've never been massively keen on digital comics, mostly because of all the zooming and scrolling you have to do to read them. I tried it on my I-Pod and just didn't like it at all. Then I tried reading CBR files on my desktop... all reads okay, but you can't slob out with a giant mug of tea, a packet of biscuits and your favorite Alan Moore graphic novel at a computer desk in quite the same way as you can on the sofa. The limitations spoil the enjoyment for me. I've also had a go at those motion comic things... they work reasonably well I guess, but my problem with them is they're neither one thing or the other. Adding sound and animation looks good on the surface, but underneath is it really a comic? I've got a copy of the 'Watchmen' motion comic and I like the animation, especially as it faithfully retains Dave Gibbons' awesome art, but I didn't read any of the balloons as the voice over did all that for me... so what is it, a comic or a cartoon? The new format smashes through all these obstacles digital comics throw in the way of reader enjoyment by  being beautifully simple... and still comics... no animation, no sound, but using the technology to deliver a great read. The page/screen is in a landscape format to fit your tablet, phone, laptop, pc, screen and each panel, word balloon is revealed    when you click on the next page, sounds dull, but the implications and storytelling possibilities are endless, and it makes for a very good read... as long as the story and art are good...

There's a few sites offering their comics in this format, notably Mark Waid at Thrillbent.com where all content is free to view online or download. Mojo Pop Comics, a very new site, who I'm involved with and are offering lots of all ages comics for a small price, as of this writing the first issue MojoPop's debut title is on sale now, with more to follow as soon as they're ready.

I've started a new one in this format too that I'm calling my Comic Blog Thingy. You can download the first episode for free here. When the page comes up click on 'Index of...' to open the PDF. It may take a while as it's 25 MB. Then either read it online or save the file and read it at your leisure in your preferred PDF reader. Use the arrow keys to jump to the next image as opposed to scrolling down the side of the document or you won't get the desired effect. I've tried it online in several browsers, Mozilla Firefox and Avant Browser worked perfectly, while Google Chrome doesn't have arrow keys so you'll have to save it from there, and Internet Explorer crashed completely and refuses to open it at all... never liked Explorer much anyway... haven't tested it on Safari yet though.

If you enjoy the Blog Thingy and the new format, feel free to tell your friends and pass on the links to whoever you think might like them...

If you contact Mojo Pop or Thrillbent, please tell them I sent you.

Please post any comments, ideas, similar links, sites using this format that I haven't mentioned etc. below, thanks.

The future of digital comics is here!
Spread The Word!



Sunday 30 September 2012

Back In Business... almost!


Poverty Press is a very small press comics publisher. It all started in 1994 to produce collected editions of my Fred Fortune character, a comic strip that had been appearing in North London Comics anthology 'Mondo' since 1993. A three issue series was produced, now long out of print. It was followed in 1995 with the one-shot 'Daze', also out of print... here though are the covers-

 

 They were reasonably well received at the time and had a few
good write ups in various UK trade press at the time . The Strip itself is a futuristic adventure comedy featuring Fred, his flying car, his friends and the giant city in which he lives.
In late '95 I put Fred's regular strip on hold and headed off to art college, so Poverty Press was put on hold for a bit... 

At college Fred switched mediums and was transformed into a short (1 and a half minutes) animation. The city was reworked and given it's own distinctive design. The animation, a first attempt, was  all hand drawn and painted on acetate then shot on video... it all took about three months working long into the night, fueled by lots of really strong tea, cheese on toast and the occasional cream cake!

Upon leaving college, Fred's strip returned to 'Mondo's hallowed pages, until it ended with the Xmas 2004 issue. So it was decided that Fred would return in his own brand new Poverty Press title.

Watch out for the Preview issue coming soon...