Fred Fortune #0 review on thegeekgeneration.com!

STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS!

News just in... There's a review of Fred Fortune #0, Poverty's debut publication on The Geek Generation, a great genre site for all things about comics, TV, movies etc. You can check it out here:

... and you can still get your copy for the paltry sum of $4.50 on Indyplanet here:

It's been a busy month or so here at Poverty HQ, since Chrimbo chaos at the day job- you don't wanna know... Poverty's minions have been hard at work to bring you Fred's new series of misadventures and some more titles besides. As I write this I'm working on adding gray-scale to #1, which will be on sale as soon as it's ready. In fact the artwork up to #7 is all underway at various stages of production and the Word-bot is working overtime scripting #9, with story-lines and plots projected way past the #15 mark! I hope you'll come along for the ride as we're having a blast producing it.

Here's a picture:

It's a blown up version of a panel from a one-pager circa 1992. This version will be a splash page in- well, that would be telling...

Here's  a flying car...

Nah... here's a better one...

That's the stuff!!

See ya next time.

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!

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...

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

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...

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...

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.