Sign of the Hammer!

Saturday 29 October 2011

The Lord of Beginnings Opens a Door...


Splatterhouse Blues: Artist Davey Candlish unleashes Janus.

Hold on... what the hell’s going on in this panel from ‘Spencer Nero and the Island of the Naztecs’, due soon in Paragon #9? Who is this creepy, blank-masked psycho? What’s he got to do with jolly 30s adventurer, Spencer Nero? And why is he punching a hole through some poor creature’s skull?
Be warned.
Janus is at the gates.
And, as Caligula used to say, oderint dum metuant.

Monday 24 October 2011

Zero Hour



Zero (not) the Hero - art by Davey Candlish
 
A little preview for 'Spencer Nero and the Island of the Naztecs', coming soon to Paragon #9. Who, you ask, is this angry, hawkish-looking gentleman with the monocle and the cigarette holder, drawn with such consumate skill by Mr. Davey Candlish? Why, this is Doctor Zigmund Von Zero, Spencer's sparring partner for his first outing. An aristocratic member of the notorious Thule Society... what could this fellow's political allegiance possibly be? Answers on a postcard to 'Nazi Competition, Department of Contigency, Whitehall'.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Covered In Glory


Over at Paragon's site, Davey Candlish unveils the cover for issue #9, and it's a cracker, as Spencer Nero takes on a malformed band of naughty Naztecs. I've seen this cover at various stages in its development, but Steven Denton's colours really evoke the lurid pulp sensibility that Dave and I were trying for. Loving all those eerie unearthly purples.

The triplicate tag-lines are my own attempt to harness some of that mad, daft pulp energy - as Dave points out, these things always seemed to come in threes. It appears I have a faint obsession with the word 'ungodly', though. Probably all that Lovecraft-reading as a teenager.

Anyway, enjoy.

Vale!

Monday 10 October 2011

And I was thinking how the world should have cried on the day Jack Kirby died...

A bit of cross-blog fun – over on his corner of the web, the inimitable Louis Carter, my new partner in time-crime for 2012’s Dr WTF?!, has previewed some of his preliminary designs for the ‘good’ Doctor and his sidekick. Louis’s work on ‘Halo and the Gryphon’ in Dirk Van Dom’s excellent Vanguard #1 was recently described on Comics Bulletin as “stunning” – well-earned praise indeed. Anyway, Louis has some kind words for my script, which are much appreciated, as is the chance to see his take on some of my loopy concepts. Got to say, even at this stage, the attention to detail is just lovely – check out the intricate jacket braiding. In fact, in regards to the sidekick, Louis has taken my initial idea and absolutely run with it, adding in a few visual flourishes of his own. Just as with 2011’s Dr WTF?!, I know that no matter how my script goes down, it’s going to look bloody gorgeous. Owen Watts says he paired up Louis and I on the basis of mutual lunacy. From where I’m standing, it’s looking like a marriage made in glorious madness.

Spanish Carter Magic?

And the Kirby reference? Well, it’s an object lesson in how a writer can casually bung a line into a script without thinking about how it might screw with the poor artist’s brain. My script mentions a guitar and sound-system looking like the sort of thing Jack Kirby might have built – but nowhere did I bother to say what that actually meant. Hell, I’m a huge Kirby fan, but if you asked me “What defines Kirby Tech?” I might have struggled once I’d got past “shiny, lots of buttons”. Thankfully, Louis went above and beyond the call of duty and got hold of some rather natty guidelines, the results of which are beautifully evident in this pic I’ve shamelessly ripped off from his site.
May the madness continue!