BOO COOK ARCHIVE

BAD SANTA!

2011-12-24T14:13:00.003Z

my entry for Pete Well's 2000AD message board advent calendar - have a zarjaz xmas!

TOUGH DIVER

2011-12-23T17:37:00.001Z

my father-in-law retired recently so i did this card for him - in his career as a diver, he fought off enemy frogmen, de-activated sea mines, recaptured an island, got squashed by a killer whale, fended off a group of wolf fish with a hammer, and dived in to capture a sea-snake that had bitten his pal, among a zillion other things… a well earned and happy retirement Cap’n!

XMAS CARD 2011

2011-12-16T01:01:00.002Z

ELEPHANTMEN #41

2011-11-29T00:56:00.002Z

'The Long and Ghastly Kitchen' by David Hine and Richard Starkings. sick, twisted, and hitting the shelves in a few months...

PLANET PSI

2011-10-17T12:06:00.002+01:00

PLANET REPLICAS ltd will be raffling this A3 inked Anderson at their Leeds Thought Bubble comic convention stall on the weekend of 19th/20th of November... sign up early for a ticket!

http://www.planetreplicas.com/ making the finest quality Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson and 2000AD related costume replicas and merchandise on the planet - check 'em out one time...

DARK HOPE

2011-10-10T08:43:00.002+01:00

the finished version with added Richard Starkings - BOOM!!!

DARKSEID!

2011-10-09T13:43:00.003+01:00

i'll be attending Lille Comic Festival in November with Rich Starkings. the organisers asked me if i could supply an image for their selection of limited edition 'villain themed' art prints for the show.

i've been itching to do a big acrylic painting of Kirby's incredible villain 'DARKSEID' for ages , so i leapt at the chance. above are various stages of the piece from the much more Kirby influenced pencil stage, thru the underpainting stage to the final painting.

big thanks and mucho kudos to ol' Jack...

AN EYE 4 AN EYE!

2011-10-03T23:08:00.003+01:00

here's a poster i did for my pal Midge's new grand guignol style play, 'An Eye for an Eye' -

'An eminent anthropologist returns home to Victorian England after stealing a stone of great cultural significance to an African tribe. The cataclysmic consequences are truly horrifying…'

anyone in the Exeter area be sure to get down and witness the twisted events unfurl!

i had good fun on this piece - the brief was solid and simple and i really wanted to capture a kind of brutal/primitive feeling with the inking style.

BRANDY ALEXANDER

2011-10-01T15:51:00.002+01:00

the brandy alexander was John Lennon's favourite drink - henceforth, it is also my comic collector and rare funk archivist friend Chris Vinson's favourite drink. it was Chris' birthday yesterday, so i sketched this up for his card... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!

SNOW BIZNIZ

2011-09-13T11:17:00.003+01:00

Elephantmen head honcho Rich Starkings requested a 'quick pin-up' of Agent Blackthorne discovering Yvette's near dead body in the snow, to appear in the forthcoming Elephantmen vol#0 collection 'Armed Forces' (see previous posts for cover).

i banged out the digital speed sketch above and was asked to make Blackthorne more stealthy looking for the final piece. i cranked this one out in 2 days, which may seem kinda turgid, but for me that's pretty fast...

RAZORBACK ATTACK!

2011-09-01T11:47:00.003+01:00

Richard showed me loads of old 'fighty' comic covers in preparation for this (daredevil, master of kung fu etc.) and something about the printing and general 80's-ness of them struck a chord in me. i wanted to do a cover that didn't really look like my usual stuff, so i went with old skool (non digi) inking, and colours wise , i really wanted to do something along the lines of when Frank Miller used to pick out the line work in one colour (see spiderman/doc strange: night of the bend sinister). and what i really wanted on top of all that, was for the Comicraft team to kick it with some tasty yellow and black lettering - they didn't disappoint!

this cover also looks kinda snazzy with 3D spex on...

ENEMY SPECIES!

2011-08-25T22:32:00.003+01:00

ELEPHANTMEN: WAR TOYS vol#2 'ENEMY SPECIES' is out this month. written by Richard Starkings, pencilled by meself, and coloured by Greg Wright, and Axel Medellin.

France's favourite femme fatale Yvette is back - doing what she does best, kicking Elephantmen arse and being quite moody. this episode, the mood is 'KILL!' as she discovers a new kind of ENEMY...

above is a quick taster - Cap'n Starkings certainly took my brain to many of my favourite realms while drawing this, i hope it will do the same for you... the story is a 2 parter, so stay tuned next month!

COLOURING IN #2 : FLAT CAP

2011-08-23T17:55:00.002+01:00

here's another Marvel colour gig i had, working again with the expert linesman-ship of the mighty Ed McGuiness.

NUNB - T

2011-08-20T12:56:00.002+01:00

here are some new t-shirt designs i knocked up for design label THE ILLUSTRATED MIND, an offshoot of the Worlds finest gentleman's t-shirt and garment emporium: BOY PARKER in Brighton's North Laines - Kensington Gardens to be precise.

t-shirt 1: features Starwars 'fan favourite' Nien Nunb reclining naked with Salacious Crumb and a hookah. of course.

t-shirt 2: 'Prophecy' uses Mayan line work to 'subtley' suggest how exactly the world as we know it may end.

to purchase these wee beauties or check out their full range, head on over to the website:

http://boyparker.com/

http://www.facebook.com/theillustratedmind

where entrepreneur and ideas master Andrew Garnett will take your hand and guide you through the streets of cotton...

QUICKIES

2011-08-12T00:19:00.002+01:00

sometimes ya get an itch and ya just have to scratch it ya know? CROM!!!

BIZNIZ TIME

2011-08-12T00:13:00.003+01:00

i knocked up a run of 4 different business cards in preparation for SDCC and had some fun in the process so here they are... note: i only have about 10 fonts to choose from.

PSI FRY!

2011-07-16T12:09:00.002+01:00

the final part of Anderson Psi story 'The Trip' hits the shelves next week - here's the Judge Dredd Megazine cover, which was partially based on the poster for the old film of the same name. this was real good fun - there's one or two wee cameos in there...

ZED BIAS - BIRTH OF THE NANOCLOUD!

2011-07-08T17:56:00.003+01:00

Paul Jonas of record label TruThoughts approached me to do this album cover for dubstep/garage/grimewarp legend ZED BIAS. the title 'Biasonic Hotsauce - Birth of the Nanocloud' turned my mind towards the old Mad Professor covers and also the classic Brian Bolland 'Appointment with F.E.A.R.' fighting fantasy book cover. between us, we cooked up this concept of the 'Nanocloud' which will continue throughout the Biasphere of albums as they get created. the inner CD leaflet opens up into a poster of the larger image seen above. it's a cracking dance album with some superb sci-fi skits between the songs featuring the professor himself...

i'm currently working on a new album cover for TruThoughts featuring ZED BIAS and some legendary collaborators - more on that later...

for info, check out:

www.tru-thoughts.co.uk

CARDZ

2011-07-08T17:46:00.002+01:00

here's a random assortment of various cards i've done for ma kinfolk of late... the father's day card at the bottom was ironic and featured a pic of my Dad inside, holding a smoking bazooka. just so ya know...

C'EST LA GUERRE!

2011-06-28T11:35:00.004+01:00

French resistance fighter 'Yvette' from the back cover of the forthcoming Elephantmen vol#0: 'ARMED FORCES.'

OLIVER'S ARMY

2011-06-24T17:16:00.004+01:00

here's the front cover for the forthcoming ELEPHANTMEN vol#0 : ARMED FORCES. naturally Rich wanted to do some kind of homage to the Elvis Costello and the Attractions album of the same name...

vol#0: ARMED FORCES will contain all the war based prequel elements from the ongoing monthly comic, including all of the first WAR TOYS 3 part series, my 'soon to appear' in the monthly 'WAR TOYS 2: ENEMY SPECIES', as well as some extra strip pages purely for the collected edition which i'm due to begin any day now. also, expect the usual back matter/sketches, plus the 'NIGHTINGALE' Yvette one-shot. (i think?)

RAZORBACK!

2011-06-19T16:12:00.004+01:00

Elephantmen #37 sees the introduction of a sick and twisted new character... but who IS underneath that skull?

COME GET SOME!

2011-06-17T12:38:00.002+01:00

Judge Dredd Megazine 312 on sale next week, featuring Ma Anderson's little girl...

DREDD LINES

2011-06-13T22:52:00.002+01:00

a sketch for a pal.

PSI PANELAGE PENCILS

2011-06-06T15:19:00.002+01:00

as requested, here's the pencil version of the Anderson image below - from this stage, i basically duplicate this onto a 'multiply' layer in photoshop - put a grad fil on the layer beneath - a solid black area where the figure is, taken down to 28% opacity on the next layer up - another layer on top of that at 46% for any ultra dark areas like the black uniform - then, above all these layers, i paint using various brushes at different opacities - adding new layers to paint separate areas for ease of tweaking.

when i'm happy-ish with it, i flatten it down, give the brightness or contrast a tweak if it needs it, and Dredd's yer uncle...

PSI PANELAGE

2011-06-05T13:00:00.004+01:00

now that my art duties are wrapped up for Anderson, Psi strip 'The Trip', the pressure is off and i've found a mo' to select some spoiler free panels from it.

this is by far my favourite Anderson script that i've worked on and i just love trying to realise the world of Mega-city One. considering she is meant to be 50 years old, concerns have been raised about Cassandra's youthful looks during the run, about which i have 2 things to add: firstly, this is the future. health care, vitamins, skin care, free radical retardants etc. have developed greatly from our era and there is a fair chance that people would look younger for longer. but secondly, (and perhaps more honestly) i've been dreaming of getting the chance to draw Judge Anderson since i was 12 years old, and frankly i couldn't bring myself to draw her as a wrinkled up prune faced, non-curvy, menopausal mature lady - so, sorry about that, but tough ; )

i like to chop and change my 'style' quite regularly, so things don't become stayed and remain experimental, but the method used here of pencilling first then scanning in and colouring in photoshop seems to be working for me at the moment. i find i can kill the energy of my art by inking it sometimes, and this way of working retains that initial line vibrancy, while the computer colouring means i can get the results i need relatively quickly. it's crazy tho, how a panel with a heavily populated street scene can take 2-3 days to colour, and yet a whole page of just city scape can take a few hours...pesky humans...

i'm really hoping they get the new Dredd film right. the casting Olivia Thirlby as Anderson, is pretty much perfect in my opinion. part of Anderdson's youthful look in the strip, is because i decided to partially base her on Thirlby for this run, to tie-in a little closer with the new movie. i wasn't asked to do it - just thought i'd give it a pop. but massive thanks to my wife Gemma for volunteering to pose for all the figure reference - couldn't have done it without her!

waffle over... more Elephantmen art on the cards next, and we'll see if we can't get this 'BLUNT' character up and running...

SAVAGE SWORD!

2011-05-08T13:16:00.003+01:00

here's 2 new Elephantmen covers, due out in the coming months - actually, they can be found already, in 'ELEPHANTMEN - COVER STORIES #1' which is on sale now. it's a flip book with half of it featuring the gob smacking covers of Ladronn and the other half featuring my covers...

anyone who's interested can find the affable Mr. Starkings and myself, signing and sketching for YOU at Bristol comic convention next weekend, and also the MCM Expo in London 2 weeks later.

expect further sightings of us both as the Elephantmen roadshow continues at San Diego Comicon, Thought Bubble in Leeds, and also the Lilles Comic Festival later in the year.

SLUGFEST!

2011-05-05T10:36:00.003+01:00

a quick logo and image i knocked up for all Grrrl Scottish punkers 'bLuDsLuGs'.

FREAK OUT!

2011-04-30T15:25:00.003+01:00

here's a couple of pages from Psi Judge Anderson story: 'THE TRIP' part #2. it's on sale now in this month's Judge Dredd Megazine...

easily the 'funnest' 2 pages of Anderson i've drawn so far - i love paintin' nebulas, me...

COLOURING IN #1: GET SMASHED!

2011-04-26T17:38:00.003+01:00

over the past 6 months i've had the pleasure of colouring some kick-ass Marvel covers, by some top notch artists. i'll be drip feeding them out as and when i'm allowed... this mental cover for Planet Red Hulk was drawn by Carlo Pagulyan and inked by Danny Miki - i sure had me some fun with my crayons. more coming soon, featuring the mighty Ed Mc.Guinness!

TERRA-FORMA

2011-04-16T20:59:00.001+01:00

SANDY SCI-FI

2011-03-30T12:08:00.002+01:00

sandy sci-fi is perhaps my favourite genre of sci-fi, and one i hope to fully explore in creator owned project: BLUNT, written by Tom Eglington (2000AD, Spellbound Hotel).

above is a concept/promo piece for the comic strip - i wanted to create an image that was poignant and a little off kilter design wise, with some moody night lighting that thus far i don't have much experience with. also i wanted to try out a new dip pen, so i pencilled and inked this up in about an hour as a kind of experiment, then painted it up in p.shop in my minuscule moments of spare time...

creator owned projects are tricky as they take a lot of time to produce and a lot of the money is 'back end' if you're lucky, but Tom and myself are determined to get this off the ground this year. i've already read his script for part 1 and it is verrrrrry good sandy sci-fi... watch this SPACE.

PSI FLASH! *

2011-03-28T14:51:00.002+01:00

my new Anderson, Psi strip: 'THE TRIP' written by Alan Grant, starts in this weeks Judge Dredd Megazine - get ready for a BIG bang...

*yeah, i've used this heading before, but this time it was really appropriate...

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO TOSHI STATION...

2011-03-20T20:38:00.004Z

every year i do some art for an Edinburgh based charity group called The Rock Trust - they help out young homeless people and give them a break at a time in their lives which can get them sorted and happy for life. the trust hold an annual art auction featuring hundreds of different artists, all of whom are asked to supply artwork of any kind on a 6x4 postcard. they are all exhibited in the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from the end of March until May when the auction is held. above is my entry, done in acrylics and titled as above...

3 colourful things...

2011-03-19T23:51:00.002Z

firstly, apologies to anyone who gives a slight hoot about seeing new art drip feed at tortoise speed onto this blog - it's been a while since i posted... however i have been far from idle! i've done a few more crazy Elephantmen covers, some Marvel cover colouring for the mighty Ed McGuiness and Carlo Pagulyan, but frustratingly i can't post any of it yet for spoily reasons. War Toys 2 - ENEMY SPECIES (2 episodes of Elephantmen prequel craziness) is in the bag and being coloured and due for release in a few months - of course, i can't post any of that either i'm afraid, but i'll get some images out as it's release becomes nigh! aside from that, i'm working like a thundering freight train to get my current Anderson, PSI story 'The Trip' finished - it starts in next month's Judge Dredd Megazine if you fancy a butchers at something considerably more gritty, real, and psychedlic than her recent outings...

anyway, to keep things ticking along until i can post something a little more substantial than excuses for not posting, here are 3 colourful things to keep you bemused for about 7 seconds... the top image being from said Anderson strip...trippy.

the middle pic is from an unearthed case file - a character design for a Dark Horse comics pitch called 'Evolvers' written by Ian Edgington, from about 5 years ago - we had fun cooking it up, but alas it wasn't to be. can ya tell i like Jack Kirby?

finally, what the heck... it's a Tattoo design i knocked up for my wife Gemma to her exact specifications. the actual Tattoo itself was recently administered with blinding skill by skin art whizz machine James 'woody' Woodford - he tha man!

http://woodfordtattoo.com/

til next time - LALOO! NUB NYUB! etc etc...

TRIPPED OUT

2011-01-19T14:32:00.002Z

this panel from my forthcoming Judge Anderson PSI strip has appeared in this weeks prog, so i'm thinking it's safe to blog... of all the Anderson strips i've worked on, Alan Grant's script for this 5 parter entitled 'The Trip' is by far his best yet. it's grim, gritty and takes a much more realistic approach to the character than her recent tales have allowed. a LOT happens in this strip to move Cass on from her more light hearted romps, and besides containing a few big shocks, it's gonna be verrrrrry psychedelic. should be hittin the shelves this summer!

JUDGE FLASK

2011-01-14T08:56:00.003Z

as usual, i've got lots of art waiting in the boom tube that i can't show yet as it's too spoilerific, but i felt i had to move on from the whole christmas vibe... here's a sketch that Rich Starkings asked me to do at MCM Expo in London - Hip Flask , meet Judge Dredd...

more soon - happy new year - Elephantmen War Toys #2 imminent! more Anderson Psi - imminent!

HAPPY HIPMAS!

2010-12-20T09:26:00.002Z

from everyone at ALL TOMORROWS PARTICLES (i.e. - me.) and the rest of the mighty ELEPHANTMEN crew - happy christmas and a corking new year!

expect more in the way of skirmishes from Hip Flask and Yvette in the new year, (although considerably more bloody and smashtastic) in the form of WARTOYS#2 'ENEMY SPECIES - a stand alone 60 page graphic novel by Rich Starkings and myself - the war between man and elephantman gets a new dimension in 2011!

ELEPHANTMEN VOL#4 front cover

2010-12-14T15:15:00.002Z

hitting the shelves early next year, here's the vol#4 front cover from rough to the finished product, deftly lettered and 'graphicalised' by JG Roshell. it features one of them pesky crocodile Elephantmen and the kick ass new character L.A.P.D. L.A.D.Y. - 'Blackthorne'. a massive thank you to Rosana for being a kick ass model for the pic, Rich Starkings modeled the croc...

ELEPHANTMEN VOL#4 back cover

2010-12-14T15:01:00.002Z

continuing the back cover theme of stand alone ladies from the comic, this volume features Panya - Sahara's belly dancing double and personal assistant. many thanks to the delectable Monifa for the reference and inspiration!

VARIATIONS

2010-12-10T11:22:00.003Z

this variant cover for MAN AND ELEPHANTMEN (see previous post) was drawn and inked by the Marvelicious Ed McGuiness, and coloured by myself. more to come on the Ed collaboration front soon! also for this issue there'll be a J Scott Campbell variant cover - there's a small price hike from this issue onwards, but the page count will be boosted to 44 Elephantastic pages featuring all new back up stories and features... good time to hop on!

MAN AND ELEPHANTMAN!

2010-12-09T17:11:00.003Z

this is the cover to the forthcoming 'jumping on point' issue of Elephantmen that will come between issues 30 and 31 early next year. the main cover with the white silhouette of the mystery fella is pretty high concept, but the inside front cover will show the full colour piece without the overlaid chap. also shown here is the art i provided for the silhouette, plus the inks for the cover too. note how there's an extra inch around the figures from the ink stage to the colour stage? that was me not leaving enough room... see below for the many rough stages of this cover.

MAN AND ELEPHANTMAN! the roughs...

2010-12-09T16:58:00.002Z

here you can see the origins of the piece from where it began as an homage to the Fantastic Four 'this man - this monster!' cover, through various incarnations, up to the finished pencil stage. if i know i'm gonna be digitally inking a piece, the pencils are usually pretty sketchy... the blend between the 2 sides of Hip Flasks character ended up being much more subtle than the 'straight line down the middle' versions.

304 PSI!

2010-11-06T13:22:00.002Z

here's the cover i did for judge dredd megazine #304 , painted in acrylics in 3-4 days... i took a photo of the pencil stage but i'll be buggered if i can find it...

ELEPHANTMEN BACK IN BRITAIN!

2010-11-02T00:34:00.003Z

Rich, Ian, and myself will be joining those lovely folk down at Dave's Comics in Brighton for a day of sketching, signing, raconteuring , and coffee drinking - come and say hi why don't ya?! Rich will also be appearing at Travelling Man shops in Newcastle on the 16th, York on the 17th before the 3 of us reconvene at Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds on the 20th - why not become a Starkings groupie for the whole week?

HB!

2010-10-23T03:13:00.002+01:00

a quick Hellboy doodle i did for my tattoo go-to guy Woody...

now for something completely different...

2010-09-22T01:17:00.002+01:00

here's a curious thing i was asked to paint for a pal... will it help him woo back the love of his life successfully? only time will tell... in the meantime i had fun painting clouds and get 2 free roast dinners and free drinks in the Shakespeare's Head on sunday.................. yum ; )

FULL HIP FLASK

2010-09-10T08:46:00.002+01:00

a few weeks back i posted a small part of this acrylic painting of Hip Flask which i did for the Image Comics yearbook - i've finally been given the go-ahead to post the whole thing, so here ya go! must do some more 'real' painting soon...

STARSHIPSOFA!

2010-09-07T11:20:00.003+01:00

StarShipSofa - the 2010 Hugo Award winning sci-fi audio magazine is releasing a second anthology volume of stories from it's world renowned podcast series in October. it will feature the literary and artistic talents of:

Ted Kosmatka - Bitterseed
Illustrated by Leigh Gallagher

John Kessel - Buddha Nostril Bird
Illustrated by Rory Kurtz

Neil Gaiman - Conjunctions
Illustrated by Cliff Chiang

Cory Doctorow - I, Robot
Illustrated by Tom Kyzivat

Jason Sanford - Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas
Illustrated by Jef Murray

Jeff VanderMeer - Island Tales
Illustrated by Len Peralta

Adam Roberts - The Mary Anna
Illustrated by Jim Murray

Pat Cadigan - Jimmy
Illustrated by Anton Emdin

Lawrence Santoro - Then, Just a Dream
Illustrated by Daniele Serra

Paul Di Filippo - Personal Jesus
Illustrated by Boo Cook

Nancy Kress - Art of War
Illustrated by Andreas Rocha

Jeff Carlson - The Frozen Sky
Illustrated by Paul Rivoche

Lucius Shepard - Stars Seen Through Stone
Illustrated by Brian Thomas Woods

Mary Rosenblum - Skin Deep
Illustrated by Danijel Zezelj

Gwyneth Jones - The End of Oil; in three acts
Illustrated by Jouni Koponen

Sean Williams - The Soap Bubble
Illustrated by Bob Eggleton

Tobias S. Buckell - Tides
Illustrated by Evan M. Jensen

Stephen R. Donaldson - Unworthy of The Angel
Illustrated by Chris Butler

China Miéville - Watching God

With Pin-Ups by:

Neil D. Volkes
Ben Wootten
Ian Miller
Staz Johnson
Michael Cho
Nate Wragg
Chris Bachalo
Jason Paulos

shown above is my illustration for Paul Di Filippo's 'Personal Jesus'. to catch up on the latest tales head to:

http://www.starshipsofa.com/

details of how to obtain the book will be published there soon - stay tuned!

SOMETHING WICKED...

2010-09-01T11:20:00.003+01:00

meet 'Porkeyes'... would YOU trust him to look after your heart for 28 days while you scraped some cash together? NO?! read the hideous tale of what happened when one man did, only in issue #6 of horror anthology comic SOMETHING WICKED from Futurequake Press. copies will be on sale at BICS in October, and after that, from the Futurequake webshop :

Link: http://www.futurequake.co.uk/shop.php

don't forget to check out the blog too -

http://futurequakepress.blogspot.com/

cheers Dave - i owed ya one ; )

HIT THE DECK!

2010-08-21T12:58:00.002+01:00

out this week - my latest cover for 2000AD, featuring Cap'n Jack Dancer and the cast of strip 'the Red Seas'. i've never tackled pirates before, so i really enjoyed gettin' stuck into this one!

for the full skinny on how i went about this cover, plus some extra prelim images, head on over to pete wells' incredible blog '2000AD covers uncovered' (see link on the list), it features some 'shameful' content... i could've repeated all i said there over here, but ya can't waste space on the internet right?

BOO X 2

2010-08-16T17:00:00.003+01:00

for anyone who gives a hoot, i'm in both 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine this week. the strip in AD is a one-off dredd penned by the mighty Rob Williams who has surpassed himself as usual, and in the megazine i'm on art duties for the continuing mis-adventures of the lovely Cassandra Anderson, psi. got a feeling i might have an AD cover out next week too, so keep watching the skies!

HIP IMAGE

2010-07-21T09:00:00.002+01:00

Image Comics are releasing an exclusive showcase annual this week at San Diego comicon, where the Elephantmen will going in mob handed. i was asked to produce this acrylic painting of Hip Flask for the book, but i've been instructed not to show the whole finished piece yet. so if you want the book, just nip down to the West Coast of America and pick one up with your groceries later in the week. i dare say any remaining books, which will feature a host of Images' top characters will be available direct from Image after the con - but don't quote me on that...

WATCH THIS...

2010-07-21T00:31:00.002+01:00

http://www.arabber.com/videos/Murderland_method_FINAL_640X360.mov

it's a rather groovy promo vid for the comic mentioned in my previous post.

promo vid art by David Hahn - feast yer peepers...

HARDCORE!

2010-07-14T09:14:00.002+01:00

just had great fun revisiting some memories of the 80's American hardcore punk scene - not that i was there, but i sure had the albums. this new flip cover for the forthcoming Image comic 'Murderland' concerns the main character 'Arabber' as he recollects memories of his own youth being a frontman in the f***ed up hardcore scene back in the day. this one's taken me on a whole new thematic direction (look ma - no sci-fi!), but that's part of the fun of comix - you never know what you're gonna be drawing next... i've also included my flip cover for issue #1 so ya know what to look for on Aug 4th! below is the -

Official Press Release

Artist DAVID HAHN joins newcomer STEPHEN SCOTT tell a story of doomed romance, bloodshed and the outer limits of human potential in MURDERLAND, published by Image Comics

Scott states, "In MURDERLAND, I wanted to do several things: (1) Teach people what an Arabber is before they are all gone, (2) show why Baltimore is more like a difficult lover than a crack head relative, and (3) stir funny feelings about a bearded woman. All I'm sure we did was mix some comedy with solid action and strangely authentic characters."

"Method is the money character," says Hahn. "Not just another pretty face, but one with the most unusual body issues I've ever seen. She is at one moment beautiful, then unexpectedly repulsive. I have a certain squeamishness regarding Method's 'hair powers,' but I have to say, I have never seen a writer so unafraid to 'ugly-up' his female lead without just beating her up. This is like nothing else I've drawn or even seen in mainstream comics."

BOO COOK, who provides the flip cover for the first issue, adds, "It just so happened that I was fired up about Baltimore from watching THE WIRE, and the MURDERLAND pitch just hooked me in."

"I've been a fan of David's artwork since his PRIVATE BEACH days, so I was thrilled when he and Stephen approached Image with MURDERLAND," says Image Publisher Eric Stephenson. "Together, they've come up with one of the more unique takes on the vigilante concept, and I think fans of crime comics are going to eat this up."

MURDERLAND unfolds on the "complicated" streets of Baltimore, Maryland. The Arabber is a reformed killer bent on bringing peace to his hometown. Method is his lover and partner in crime, but she may not be long for The Arabber's crusade.

MURDERLAND #1, a 32-page full-color comic book for $2.99, will be in stores August 4, 2010.

ONE FOR THA KIDZ

2010-07-10T00:51:00.002+01:00

it's my niece NIAMH's birthday today - happy birthday nooni! this was her card....

LUCY FERRIN

2010-07-03T16:14:00.003+01:00

here's some character concept sketches for the forthcoming sci-fi epic 'BLUNT'.

copyright Tom Eglington, Boo Cook 2010.

A STATE OF INDEFFERENCE

2010-07-03T15:37:00.003+01:00

okay metalhedz - here's one for you! south coast post apocalyptic rockmongers THE LONGEST DAY have released their long awaited, heartfelt and immaculately produced album 'a state of indifference' to an unsuspecting world of hitherto unprepared aural receptors! it's heckuva wikkid, and i strongly urge you to pick up a copy for your gran at the earliest possible juncture. all the details you need are on the cover art that i was honoured to produce for these stirling gents! rock hard, then rock again!

CHINNY RECK-ON!

2010-06-07T23:22:00.002+01:00

(...it was a playground taunt from the 80's - ya had to be there...) anyway, clearly i seem to have been enjoying myself muchly, drawing the big chin himself again, after a long time away. always warms the heart to be sculpting that hefty chin-slab. it's for a one-off Dredd strip entitled 'the Slow Walk', superbly written by the uber stylish Mr. Rob Williams - it's based on America's slowest bank heist doncha know? go seek it out on youtube - f'real...

PARKER T's

2010-06-07T23:08:00.002+01:00

fantabulous friends of mine and purveyors of the tastiest t-shaped shirt wear in the land BOY PARKER of brighton, don't just sell the best, they're going into production! above are 2 of my meagre offerings for designs - i believe the Kirby-'esque' one with the monolith 'style' (not actually a monolith) design could be a goer...

infoburst!

2010-05-29T02:02:00.002+01:00

i finally figured out how to link to other blogs/sites! they all come highly recommended, so go have a good snorkel about!

above is the latest cover for elephantmen that i did when i was 7. will be posting some new dredd and hip flask artwork soon!

TUSK!

2010-05-08T16:46:00.003+01:00

'don't say that you love me!' - here's one for all you fleetwood mac fans out there... it's TUSK! this image was for a splash page in issue #25 of Elelphantmen - 'the big picture'; a whole issue of splash pages by some of the biggest names in the biz - Dave Gibbons, Ian Churchill, Tim Sale, Dougie Braithwaite, David Hine, Shaky Kane, Tom Scioli, to name but a few, alongside the usual e'men regulars - Moritat, Ladronn, Churchland, Szymanovic, Burnham, Bautista, and Steen! this landmark issue is on sale now 'phant phans!

when i heard Rich was gonna be doing a splash page issue, i sent him a rough sketch of zebra based e'man Trench, as i'd just purchased a plastic zebra. it didn't fit in with Rich's story plan tho, so i ended up doing a panel of poor old Mr. Tusk, rest his slavering, snorting soul... here's the pencils and inks - the final version in the comic was lovingly and spectacularly coloured by the exceptional hand of Greg Wright, with whom i'm currently working on a secret e'men project...

CRO-MAGNON BULLETIN

2010-05-01T01:23:00.004+01:00

i've got some art awaiting approval for blogging and general consumption, so to keep the home fires burning i thought i'd dredge something up from development hell - 'Cro-Magnon Bulletin'.

this was a project that sadly never got off the ground. i needed a project that had zero pressure to churn out in my downtime and started to form an idea for a weekly update-able blog by the name of 'cro-magnon bulletin' with a writer pal of mine providing his snappy anecdotes to my randomly thrown together images.

the theme was loosely to do with humanoid evolution, and the fact that we are all to a certain extent, still pretty close on the evolutionary scale to our cro-mag kin: we maybe haven't developed quite as far as we think we have. most of the petty stuff we are involved in on a daily basis can be directly related to tasks we've been performing for hundreds of thousands of years without a vast amount of underlying change. it was a very loose and all encompassing premise, and seemed like a good idea until someone mentioned the FLINTSTONES. d'oh!

while wordflow was rightfully turgid, i couldn't help but knock up a slew of almost throwaway images on theme that it has since been decided, are not likely to see the light of day unless i sling them on my blog to pass some time until i can put up some 'real' art...

there's more below, but rest assured 'normal' service will be resumed shortly...UG!

CRO MAGNON BULLETIN #2

2010-05-01T01:04:00.003+01:00

another selection of unused images from the 'cromag' bank...

COCO (not the Chanel one)

2010-04-16T11:02:00.003+01:00

guzzling fine Bordeaux, sketching in a bijou loft apartment in Paris... life doesn't get much finer. that's just one of the great things i got up to on my honeymoon with lovely wife Gemma last week. the apartment which we stayed in for the last 4 days of our trip was so nice and the proprietor Anne-Sophie so welcoming that i decided to do a drawing for her from one of the many Parisien photography books in the place. the pic is from a Robert Doisneau photo of an old duffer called Coco from 1952. apparently he was in the foreign legion, had a parrot, and was funny. i suspect he smelled different to Coco Chanel.

MOODY BLUE

2010-03-29T14:10:00.003+01:00

it's been 10 years since i did any 'real' painting as opposed to pixel pushing, so i got myself some acrylics and hogs-hair and decided to see what came out. it ended up being this painting, which i finished for a couple of groovy pals of mine... i've always really liked blue ladies - i blame Venus Bluegenes from Rogue Trooper/2000AD - needless to say, the film Avatar was a treat... i digress...

i've always quite liked those crazy Malaysian looking portraits of the blue Madonna, so i wanted to do a kinda spaced up version of that, but i also wanted to work in a bit of an enigmatic Mona-Lisa style smile for good measure...

i had immense fun squiggling paint around and not having to work to a deadline, but one thing i will say is that photoshop is definitely faster... i started this in august.

NOWHERE MAN

2010-03-17T18:04:00.002Z

i've been working on lots of stuff that i can't blog up yet, so to keep things ticking along, here's a quick run of panels from the forthcoming 2000AD strip: Damnation Station, penned by unstoppable Al Ewing. here you can see how i've been chopping between line and painted work - it features the character Joe Nowhere going 'huh?' seeing a thing, then shooting it. hopefully that's not too spoilerific...

PORTRAIT OF JACK JOHNSON

2010-02-20T18:42:00.002Z

my double-bass wielding pal in Chicago Dr. Karl E.H. Seigfried asked me to produce the image for his forthcoming album 'Portrait of Jack Johnson' on Imaginary Chicago Records. Johnson was a massively successful gold toothed boxer from around 1908, and like Karl , he also played upright bass. in fact, bassing and boxing seemed to go hand in hand back then as there were several other guys famed for the same thing - all of whom are respectfully acknowledged in Karl's 'Boxer Suite' from the album.

although the subject matter is ancient, the music has an old meets new feel, which Karl wanted reflected in the album sleeve artwork - hence the vivid blues and and modernistic inking/colouring approach.

i sketched the portrait initially with some heavy graphite, then once that was approved i knocked up a quick colour experiment by painting over the pencils. Karl was happy with the colours , but i wasn't entirely happy with some aspects of the face, so i reworked that at the inking stage. to get the colours correct for the gold teeth and skin tones, i colour picked directly from a jpeg of Flava Flav!

once the artwork was done and dusted, the cake got well and truly iced by those kind fontsmiths JG Roshell and Rich Starkings over at Comicraft - cheers chaps! they managed to add some real heavyweight clout to the cover, whilst adhering perfectly to the old meets new theme.

for more info on Karl's top class musical output, and the album itself, head on over to:

http://www.myspace.com/karlehseigfried

BANNER +

2010-02-20T18:31:00.003Z

here's the final version of the 2010 con banner - after getting the ultra snazz-tastic Comicraft makeover!

BANNER!

2010-02-10T23:01:00.003Z

here's a multi-stage run down of my latest piece, the Elephantmen 2010 convention banner. it'll be printed out massive to act as a backdrop for the traveling e'men merch machine (alias Rich Starkings).

the piece changed a lot from it's initial conception, with extra tweaks at each stage. no samurai swords this year - but a 4 foot army knife made the final cut, sadly the Rambo bandanna had to go... the knife itself had to have it's sawtooth edge re-jigged after an ex-navy seal spotted it's teeth were on the wrong side. (no, really.) the figures of Hip Flask and Yvette were fully rendered separately so that they can be used for various other bits and bobs, such as the San Diego pedicab art etc. the amalgamated version seen here with extra blood and more cleavage (as requested) should be winging it's way 'round the States throughout the year and even Bristol Comicon, so keep 'em peeled and stay frosty...

STATION +

2010-02-01T15:43:00.002Z

just finished the art for Damnation Station#6 and thought i'd bung a few cheeky teasers up here... this episode is full on 'sandy sci-fi' which has been one of my favourite space genres since i started frequenting the Mos Eisley cantina at the tender age of 5...

CREEPING WITH ARMSTRONG

2010-01-23T02:07:00.002Z

once in a while i like to indulge in some Chateaux Neuf but i don't want to waste a night of potential creativity, so i go 'experimental'...

so, to commemorate the 4012th light year of podcasting from my pal Mr. James Randall and his lifelong buddy Ross i've knocked up this 'image' with a view to directing you, the reader, to their mighty fine podcast: 'CREEPING WITH ARMSTRONG'. i never endorse products i don't strongly believe in (except pot noodle) and i wholeheartedly stand by this! it covers all things 'geek' from comix, films, and tv, plus some spellbinding world news, all wrapped up in a warm bromancely backdrop of hilarity that would warm the cockles of any hardcore sci-fi head.

for 20+ episodes of sci-glee run a search on 'creeping with armstrong' in i-tunes or check their website at:

http://www.rizingdamp.com/cwa/

you know it mocks sense......

45 SIGNING

2010-01-16T13:54:00.002Z

the reviews coming in for this book are through the roof! so why not hustle down to forbidden planet London and get your mits on a signed copy and a sketch or 10 from the plethora of creators and the com.x crew!

for more info this groundbreaking tome go here: http://thefortyfivecomic.blogspot.com/

PIC OF DESTINY

2010-01-13T18:03:00.004Z

had to rustle up a quick pic of sassy space dame Destiny of elephantmen#16 fame, for the back cover of the new hardback collection #3 'dangerous liaisons' - heading to your local comix emporium soon! see www.hipflask.com for details...

DAMNATION STATION

2010-01-13T09:02:00.003Z

here's a couple of sneaky teaser pics from the project i'm currently hard at work on - Damnation Station for 2000AD, written by the mighty Mr. Al Ewing. it's high sci-fi of the highest calibre, but i can't say much more than that right now. Al suggested a new artistic approach which i was happy to try out - inked figures in the foreground, painted backgrounds = euromanga!

SIMM PICKINGS

2009-12-10T13:54:00.003Z

this is the frankly hideous cover for Elephantmen #25 featuring the recently introduced character Simm - or is it? the final version for this (see: www.hipflask.com) shows him with a peroxide rinse, for reasons contained both within the issue, and writer Rich Starkings' addled mind...

as there was so much detail and tonal craziness going on at the pencil stage, i decided to paint this one instead of inking it then colouring it. by the time i finished it, i kinda felt like he looks, but hopefully it was worth the effort to try and capture that Ash from Alien/Terminator nastiness...

apologies if you are eating.

PSI BLAST!

2009-12-03T16:47:00.006Z

aside from Elephantmen, i've spent the best part of this year drawing 45 pages of Anderson PSI for the Judge Dredd Megazine, which will be published next year. here's a selection of spoiler free panels from the intensely spooky and satanic strip 'The House Of Vyle' which features a new character, veteran Judge Shnap from the town of Salem. as it's set in the sticks, i went for the original classic lawmaster bikes, due to their lack of funding out in the wilds...

'THORNE BIRD

2009-12-02T22:39:00.002Z

here's a sneaky peek at new Elephantmen character 'Blackthorne' , from the cover of issue #26 where she makes her debut. she's a nasty piece of work, wrapped up in l.a.p.d. s.w.a.t. g.e.a.r. (girl enhancing action robes). above is the full process from my very rough initial concept sketch through to the finished article.

Boo's head revisited

2009-11-01T22:44:00.002Z

i recently discovered an old disc lurking in a dead i-mac with a few old paintings on it that haven't been aired for a while, so i thought i'd stick em on here for a bit of variation. i've been painting with real paints again recently in my 14 seconds of 'spare' time each week - i forgot just how much fun real painting truly is - results soon...

ELEPHAS MAXIMUS!

2009-10-29T17:40:00.002Z

issue#22 is on stands now - here are the covers for #23 and #24 - etch them into your brains!

BLUNT CONCEPT

2009-10-22T01:12:00.003+01:00

this quick sketch is a colour test for BLUNT's outfit. the boots are based on real boots my tree surgeon chums used to wear. the sonic pick-axe is based on my own...

"whaddya mean 'wearin' animal fur?' - that's my Pa's scalp."

HORUS HIP

2009-10-21T10:57:00.003+01:00

here's a stage by stage of my latest Elephantmen cover for the vol.3 collection featuring Marian Churchland's exquisite 'Damaged Goods' story arc and the action packed 'Dangerous Liaisons' run.

i love all things Egyptian, so i'd been salivating over the prospect of doing this cover for a while - plus, Hip's blue! thing's are always better blue... also, for this cover we tried to get Miki looking steamy and sultry without being too gratuitous... hmmmmm......

as you can see from my initial thumbnail, i had Horus/Hip looking far too scary, but with some top-notch motivational direction from Rich (grand moff) Starkings, Hip's look was channeled into a more solid, dependable, 'don't even think about it' kinda look...well, i wouldn't mess...

BLUNT PENCIL

2009-10-13T18:09:00.002+01:00

here's some cover pencils for forthcoming comic pitch/project: 'BLUNT', written by Tom Eglington. here we see our terraforming anti-hero dealing with the consequences of one of his 'outback' tours gone wrong...

will post the finished version asap!

GODSTOPPERS!

2009-10-09T16:01:00.002+01:00

here's a cover i've just completed for Raul Chamanski's forthcoming book: 'Don't Let God Out Of The Box'.

if you frequently wonder what the hell is going on in this c-c-crazy universe of ours, or why it happens, or if any of it even happens at all, then this book will put your mind at ease with some highly entertaining conjecture and soulfully subjective semantics from a man on a mission...not, i hasten to add, a mission from GOD.

more news on a release date as it happens...

TOTAL PANTS!

2009-09-17T23:06:00.002+01:00

here's a selection of images i recently provided for the continuing 'top trumps' themed advert cards for Brighton based t-shirt and underwear emporium for boys: 'BOY PARKER'. not much to add apart from a tip of the hat to Mr. Garnett of said emporium for coming up with such a good roster of candidates for this print run. while i'm here, i should also add that anyone living within a 1000k radius of this shop with a penchant for sci-fi with style NEEDS to check this place out - OR DIE IN AN ENDLESS HARD RAIN OF FROZEN URANIUM SHARDZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!

well, i like it anyway.....here:

http://www.myspace.com/boyparkerbrighton

ORANGE CRUSH

2009-09-09T23:30:00.004+01:00

this image of Elephantmen's Hiromi 'miki' Kiyoko is for the back of the forthcoming' wounded animals' dust cover (see front, previous post). decided to use the orange background to show the digital inking stage - bit funkier than black and white... it's a pleasure working on such simple pieces where i can get really stuck into some of the details - the face seen here was about the 5th reworking, but when there's no time required for setting a background scene you can really spend the time honing things. enjoyment factor 1000!

ELEPHANTMEN#21 KILL!KILL!KILL! OUT THIS WEEK!!!

WORLD OF HURT

2009-09-05T18:02:00.003+01:00

here's the inks and colours for my latest e'men art - the new dayglo dust jacket to the 'Wounded Animals' hardback. with all the new trade covers the idea is to create some conceptual continuity by having an elephantman and a human figure on all of them. also, i really like orange...

MOCK THE CASBAH

2009-09-05T17:43:00.003+01:00

i was wandering the streets of brighton last night and who should i bump into? only Casbah Joe, the proprietor of Elephantmen comic's floating restraunt 'the eye of the needle'. having been displaced from his timeline, he claimed to be on his way to the trailer trash comics night at the Komedia to hook up with some pals, and a sponsorship deal from Corona beer...

TERRA FORMA

2009-09-04T11:11:00.002+01:00

i like to keep things nice and colourful round here, so here's the finished version of a piece that i blogged the pencils for not so long ago. it features BLUNT, the main protagonist of a sandy sci-fi saga i'm working on with writer Tom Egglington.

anyone know any good font wielders?

...GLORIOUS BLOOD!

2009-08-25T18:00:00.003+01:00

another stage by stage rundown - this time for Elephantmen issue#24: 'questionable things'...

who has Information Agent Hip Flask molificated? why are his eyes glowing red? why aren't they glowing red in the final version?! who can say? my lips are sealed!

keep yer peepers peeled for E'men#21 'kill!kill!kill!' in september and stay on board to find all the 'senses shattering' answers in #24!

RAGING HORN ...step-by-step

2009-08-10T20:43:00.003+01:00

for the soft cover edition of 'fatal diseases', the second elephantmen collection, a bad-ass over protective Obadiah Horn in full 'don't touch my missus' mode was required...

here's the various stages of the image from initial thumbnail rough, through finished pencils, inks, and flat colours to the finished piece - several changes and tweaks occurred as the image unfolded; notably giving him 4 toes instead of 3, the swapping of the medicinal green background for a more in yer face heavy gray, and a final tweak of Sahara; how could i refuse?

LYNCH MOB

2009-07-26T19:29:00.002+01:00

while the rest of the planet have been schmoozing around San Diego comicon, we've been getting pleasantly freaked out at a david lynch event at the komedia in brighton, courtesy of the amazing soundcirque art group. the place was decked out like the black lodge and the superb band played perfect renditions of all the top hits from twin peaks/firewalk with me etc - the lead dude even personally serenaded gemma and me with a jaw-dropping version of 'in dreams' on his guitar, then we threw some lynchy shapes on the dance floor... damn those 'one eyed jack' cocktails.

the owls are not what they seem.

45 GO!

2009-07-18T12:51:00.003+01:00

its the c-c-crazy project everyone's talking about! its a superhero comic with no speech balloons and 45 different artists! its now been officially solicited and will feature in october's diamond previews!

this is no ordinary comic - written by andi ewington and published by com.x , it reads like a who's who of the comic art world - top names include: jock, frazer irving, trev hairsine, si coleby, ben oliver, charlie adlard, liam sharp, john higgins, matt timson, dom reardon - to name a mere few! verily it will be the shizz...

for more info check out the 45 blog:

http://thefortyfivecomic.blogspot.com

it's behind you!

2009-07-18T00:26:00.002+01:00

'grand moff' starkings test drives the new con banner, while signing copies of 'do androids dream of electric sheep' !

arabber mk2

2009-07-16T15:15:00.004+01:00

here's the finished colour version of something i posted a while ago - a sheena meets coppertone sunscreen advert spoof/alternative cover for the comic pitch originally entitled 'the arabber' ......it's been repackaged and and now goes by the moniker of 'murderland'....snazzy logo eh? fingers crossed the stephen scott penned , david hahn drawn crime/powers masterwork will be on the shelves soon...look for it with your eyes.

BLUNT.

2009-07-13T01:04:00.004+01:00

'i ain't yer friend - i'm Blunt.'

allow me to introduce you to Robert Lunt - star of forthcoming sandy sci-fi saga 'BLUNT' - a post-human tragi-comedy about the dangers of falling in love and interplanetary terraforming... he's a lonely terraformer with neanderthal genes and a f**king great sonic pick axe... and a tractor with one wheel.

above is a teaser page which i'll paint and letter up asap -- the project itself is only in its early gestational period, but will most likely kick off with a 3 part mini-series written by acclaimed novelist/mentalist Tom Egglington of 'Spellbound Hotel' infamy, and drawn/painted by myself.

kinda plato meets bluto on pluto.......

PROGRESS IS THE DOMINANT ORGANISM!!!

BLUNT.copyright tom egglington/boocook 2009

it's coming...

2009-07-09T01:14:00.001+01:00

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

...IT'S COMING!!!

2009-07-09T01:07:00.003+01:00

honest it is! i swear i've finished...look out for Elephantmen#21 storming its way to your comix brain in a coupla months! its made of terror!

next stop : more judge anderson plus some sandy sci-fi terraforming mayhem...

there will be blood!

2009-06-24T10:52:00.002+01:00

there will, i'm tellin' ya! if you don't believe me, simply purchase the forthcoming Elephantmen issue#21 - kill!kill!kill! ....maybe i mentioned it before.....

the longest day

2009-05-31T20:49:00.003+01:00

here's something a little different i did for zesty young rock beasts 'the longest day' - this is the front of their album sampler - the full album, to be released later this year will have a fully painted apocalyptic version of the cover. go check 'em out at :

www.thelongestday.biz

www.myspace.com/longestdayuk