Rich Pickings over at Zarjaz

Judge Dredd, keeping Mega City locksmiths in business as he makes his entrance in in his own inimitable style. These are a few panels from "Rich Pickings'', a strip written by Derek Hamill in the current issue of ZARJAZ, (issue no. 14 for those of you keeping count).

In a tale set aagainst the backdrop of competitive nose picking, Dredd encounters a  mean and murky world of scoundrels, gangsters, hitmen and idiots, other "things"...

          ...and "nasal violation".  Be warned kids, Use a hankie!                                       

Duel 2

This is my first post of 2012 and as I started this drawing I thought that it would be a good idea to make "Duel" an occasional, continuing series. So here we have number two, an alternative Eastern Front air battle. In this one a Soviet pilot bales out, still fighting after coming off second best in a fight with a Luftwaffe Saucer ...and the plane for those of you interested in that sort of thing is my attempt at a Lavochkin La-7. Below I've posted some images from a sketchbook which led to "Duel 2"


 This sketch of a Shturmovik vs Nazi saucer, which I did a few months back developed into this little sequence...

... the pilot struggles to control his shot up machine (by the way this is a great reference site for Soviet uniforms!)....

... and the original image which gave me the idea for"Duel 2".

Vape! Vape! Vape!

I didn't get the chance to get much drawing done this month so here's one I made earlier, again a 2000ad inspired piece, a rough and ready study of a VC.  I always liked the ungainly, clunky feel of the tech and weaponry that the VCs used....especially the helmets!

...and here's one that I abandoned earlier, or rather, put on the back burner for the time being. Under the working title "VC Drop", I just couldn't get the dynamic, the proportions, the "feel" of this one right so I decided that I would  revisit it at a later date. But there you go. Let no one ever tell you that this drawing malarkey is easy!

Here comes the Judge

  

A pencil study of a British pop cultural icon and byword for heavy handed policing who really needs no introduction ....

  

 

....and this is a rough twenty minute study done on Ingres paper with Conte crayon...room for improvement maybe but I was quite pleased with the composition.

A Tale of the Trenches

This is a page from a strip which I drew for Zarjaz 13. " Rogue Trooper: A Tale of the Trenches" finds the last of the GIs in jeopardy in a cracking, taut litle tale written by Richmond Clements   

This is an image of Morrison, a Souther Grunt and one of the main characters in the story.

Above are a couple of studies of how I imagined the Nort Skimmer craft to look. I  wanted to give it  engines that looked almost too big for it, floating control surfaces and a Messerschmidt type cockpit.

First we take Manhattan!

Red Skies! The initial idea behind this drawing was for a short story about a Soviet fighter squadron which becomes unstuck in time and flies, panic struck and fighting, through a series of alternative / parallel dimensions. In this alternative WW2 / Cold War scene the squadron of Shturmoviks attack skyscraper America. I wanted to put airships in because I  just liked the idea of airships coming under attack and going down in a Hindenburg like inferno!

Major Weir'd

These are a few studies for  Major Weir'd, a character for a horror strip idea which I am currently working on with Tom "Proudhuff" Proudfoot, based upon a real character who lived and died in Edinburgh in the 17th Century. Thomas Weir was a staunch presbyterian, Major in the Covenanter army and pious pillar of Edinburgh society. Weir shocked his peers when he admitted to witchcraft, satanism and incest with his sister. Both were tried and executed, the Major's remains being burnt. However, long after the executions ghostly tales of the Major persisted. His spectral figure with his trademark blackthorn staff, itself reputed to be possessed of demonic power, would be seen carousing in his old dwellings with Satan and his demons....and now the Major, wreathed in hellish sulphurous reek, is getting ready to walk among us again!