Tom Bonin

Fishman Finished

2012-01-18T03:08:00.000-08:00

Are they ever finished?

Fishman Partial Inks

2012-01-15T23:28:00.000-08:00

Billy Final Inks?

2011-12-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

Not sure if this is quite finished. Gonna leave it a few days to mull over it.

Billy partial inks

2011-12-29T15:53:00.000-08:00

Billy pencils

2011-12-20T03:11:00.000-08:00

My Studio

2011-12-14T01:33:00.000-08:00

I've not really had a proper studio space since I finished art school 11 years ago. In share houses I, of course, worked out of my room but since then I've worked in what ever space I managed to scrounge. I did one year have a whole room to myself but it was a very bad year for production - I hadn't yet got serious. My most productive year was 2008 when I did 170 pages of comics and illustrations which I did in a room I shared with my son - it was his toy room (it was only a 2 bedroom house and he slept in our room). I hope I'll be able to achieve this again with my studio even though I now have 2 children.

I have finally pulled my finger out and have started work on a purpose built studio for myself and my partner. We will each have a room of about 30m squared. I have jumped through all the hoops, got my owner builder licence and have finally laid the foundations so that I may pour the concrete for the slab on Friday.

This is a very exciting time not to mention scary. I've never built anything of this scale by myself and though I've been a builder's labourer for my working life and grew up helping my dad build the family home it's quite something else to have all the responsibily all of a sudden. The carpentry doesn't bother me really but the slab is pretty damn daunting.

Anyway, here's my studio as I work from it at this very moment.

That's a light box under the mac, reference books underneath the desk, various papers (including the inked List pages) next to the printer, a pair of antlers keep my drawing boards from slipping, a Balinese mask grins at me and various bits of this and that litter the general area.

Here's the studio site with the footings and slab all set up ready to pour.

Many things are going to changein the landscaping and seeing as I'll be devoting most of my time to building this thing and doing minimal comic work I'll be posting up the progress here,

Two more pages

2011-10-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Kensuke has begun.

2011-10-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

The first page.

This ink and black and white gouache on canson water colour pad 270gsm. I'm not sure if this is the way to go but I reckon I'm getting some alright effects. Stay tuned there be more to come.

Umber Hulk

2011-10-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

An Umber Hulk for your viewing pleasure.

The Biz is Back

2011-09-13T03:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been almost 20 years but Simon Bisley is back in top form.

When I first encountered Bisleys work in Slaine the Horned God in 2000AD I was blown away. I couldn't get enough of him I bought up as much of his stuff I found and tried to copy his painting style. Nothing popped off the page like Bisley did. Judgement on Gotham was another fantastic work: I don't think anyone had seen Batman like this:

After this though Biz got caught up with Kevin Eastman of Ninja Turtle fame and went down the gurgler. Kevin Eastman is the worst thing that ever happened to Simon Bisley. Melting Pot, Body Count, FAKK2, Fistfull of Blood, Simon Coldwater and countless poorly proportioned pinups have, in my opinion, been a stain on what started off a fabulous career. Images like these blow me away.

I still have kept up with what Biz has been doing for the past 2 decades and it took me a long time to stop buying his work. I have since sold or given away everything from this time but I have now come across his recent work on Hell Blazer and am about to open up my wallet again.

As far I can tell the reason that things are looking up again is that he's been given a script with some substance and characters that aren't all tits and muscle. His new style may have something to do with his return to form, I'm not sure but I'm looking forward (almost drooling) to getting my hot little mits on the collected trade of Biz's run on Hell Blazer.

Crystaline

2011-09-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know that I've been doing illustrations for a D&D rpg for the past few years. The descriptive art (images that help you locate your possition) are finished and now I'm onto incidental art. With the incidental I've been given a lot more freedom and can choose the perspective, angle and size of the work. Consequently I'm having a lot of fun with these. Here are the first 5 out 15.

A dead elf.

A gibbering mouther.

A mushroom man

A rat vender.

A tree man (or ent, though I could get sued for saying such stuff).

Dicks gets another Review

2011-08-28T03:25:00.000-07:00

Click here to read it.

Kensuke

2011-08-16T04:08:00.000-07:00

Kensuke is back!

When I did the 12 pages issue 0 for Small Press Idol way back in 07 I knew there was a bigger story there but if it hadn't been for Jason Franks Kensuke may well have become one of those projects that sits on a shelf gathering dust. We've actually been talking about it since 07 but it wasn't until a new anthology, published by Black House Comics, started to rear its head that Kensuke got the reboot. Kensuke is looking to be a long story so while many of the stories in this anthology are only go over 3 or so issues Ken will be there for long haul.

The anthology is called Terra and should be appearing in the late year or early next year. Terra has been in the pipeline for quite a while but I've been so busy with other projects that I've not yet been able to get onto Kensuke. That is, until today. Well, I've been naughty and instead of working on what I should be I thought I'd give Kensuke a little go with a couple of quick sketches.

I intend to do Kensuke intirely with a brush and washes which, while not really reflecting the woodcuts of Japan should help give it a bit more of an oriental feeling. We will see.

Zorro

2011-08-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

Zorro is back! I hadn't noticed that he'd left but local boy Sorab del Rio has kickstarted The Fox again with a whole new flavour. The swash buckling is still there but a whole bunch of new stuff has been thrown into the pot. Zombies, samurais, drug dealers, ... zombie samurai drug dealers.

The second issue of this new Zorro is about to hit the shelves so get down to your local comic shop or newsagent and pick your self up a copy. I might also add that I have a pinup in this comic. This one in fact.

For more info and all that jazz check out Silver Fox Comics.

Sydnova 2011

2011-06-26T03:26:00.000-07:00

Man, and I thought the MCA zine fair wasn't for the likes of me!I made more money at the MCA in 6 hours than I did over the whole weekend. I was friendly, I chatted, I complimented peoples costumes, I did the hard sell but nothing doing. I sold 7 copies of the Dicks anthology, did 4 commissions, sold a decent amount of comics for $3 and some old stuff I had lying around and still came home short. What an arse.
As per usual I shared a table with Trev Wood - he was so peeved off by the whole thing that he pretty much swore he'd never darken their doors again. Understandable as he has to make his way up from Melbourne.

Personally I blame our lack of success on the layout. Stars are grouped together away from us plebs and us plebs have to fight for our right amungst Pokemon T-shirts, cute toys, spray on tatoos and all sorts of merch the retailers probably didn't have licences for. Artists Alley is a bloody joke. And even with Tim McEwan being an organiser they still can't get it right. At least I was in a corridor away from the wrestling, though it was still loud enough.

I reckon all the comic related stuff ie artists, writers and publishers should be all grouped together all mixed up. None of this 'this is the pro corner and this is the slops corner' all together in one happy family out to help each other. It's not like the pros are going to lose money from being next to us.

A pretty uninspiring weekend all in all.

MCA zine fair II

2011-06-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

It's been too long for me to write an indepth post so I'll just say though I made as much money as I usually make on a day I didn't have the right things for sale. The girls I was sharing a table with was selling envelopes and making a fucking killing!

I should have had some badges or posters. I thought that seeing as Brendan Hallyday wasn't there I'd pinch his gig and zombify people but Karma instantly hit and not one person was interested. I asked my mate Marcello Baez if I could use him as a promo but it still didn't work.

For $7.50 and the cost of the petrol this was a worth while gig. While the crowd is mostly ziners and strole ins there was enough custom to come out on top. A gimmick or other paraphernalia to sell is needed though - one comic will not suffice.

Thor

2011-06-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

I am now vindicated, knowing that Thor was never a comic worth reading!

MCA zine fair

2011-05-11T03:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 22 will see the MCA's annual zine fair where I will be hawking my wares and drawing pictures for those that want them. The fair starts at 11am and finishes at 5pm, admissionis free so there's plenty of time and no reason to get yourself down to Circular Quay, sydney for all the zines you can eat!

Lost and Found

2011-05-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

I was rummaging through my pile of art the other day and found some stuff I did back in 2008 while I was in England. I hadn't scanned them onto the computer so I thought I'd chuck them up on the old blog.

These first 2 are some sketches I did for The List part 2. When I did the first on I thought I was going to do the cover. I did this sketch to show Paul, though he liked it he had decided to get Wayne Nichols to do the covers.

This one is of the son in the rain (der) I thought it might go in the pinup section but I wasn't really that happy with it.

These 2 pages are from a short comic Daren White wrote which was to appear in the next DeeVee. I'd just got these 2 pages of 4 done when Diamond changed there presales quoter which promted Daren to stop publishing DeeVee. A shame this comic never got to see the light of print, I was really happy with the figure drawing and normality of it all. It's title was 'Just'.

Drunk Drawings

2011-04-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

I came home from an opening last night rather tipsy and kept on drinnking while I did these.

Listy things

2011-04-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

Well the launch was quite a success and along with Supanova many copies were sold. A good start to a great book. But things are even better scary minds has already reviewed the book which can be read here. And if it isn't at your local comic shop already then you can buy it here.
The launch was at the Loop bar in Melbourne cbd and went swimmingly starting off with a trailer made by Trevor Wood and then went on to speeches. Paul and Henry gave very clear and great speeches where as I got tongue tied and mumbled a lot. I hate public speaking and was hoping to get away with just a grunt but was cajoled into speaking further. Bobby N, as reliable as ever, posted up photos on his blog here.

FINISHED!

2011-04-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

After 4 years The List is finally finished! Well, 4 years for me. Many more for penciller Hpop and many, many more for creator Paul bedford.
This 3rd and last installment sees the honouring of the 2 final commandments tatooed on the son's chest. There is blood, sweat, nudity and tears and an end so shocking you'll wish you stayed at home.
So come one and all to the Loop Bar, 23 Meyers pl, Melbourne, tomorrow night at 7pm for booze and a signed copy of THE LIST.

The tantalisingly juicy cover by Wayne Nichols.

Nate Van Dyke

2011-03-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

I came across this cool video on youtube the other day by Nate Van Dyke a free lance illustrator. I can't say I'm a huge fan of his work but this clip gives a great insight into the way a professional works. I especially like how he makes it up as he goes along. The pencils are really just a guideline.

If anyone know what pens he's using I'd love to know. I need me some of those!

Old Cowboy 3

2011-03-14T01:09:00.000-07:00

Through some other project I came into contact with luke Pickett and got him to do a little colouring work on the ol' timer.

Stage 2
2 different eye colours, 2 different coats and a couple other things changed.

I had a go at colouring myself with water colours. Still some more work to be done. Stay tuned for more.

James Andre on 3CR

2011-03-10T01:57:00.000-08:00

Over the years I've done a bit of work for James Andre (a fellow Canberran) and heard him just recently on The Comic Spot on 3CR. He, Bernard and John gave me a nice little plug about my ability to draw monsters.
James Andre is proving to be a bit of a power house in Aussie comics. He is a writer and as such needs artists to illustrate his work. This isn't always the case with people who ask you to work for them but James publishes every line you do for his and he does it beautifully. This isn't sneaking the code to the library photocopier and stapling it on the floor amungst a pile of pages (which I've done). The is really nice stuff. Check out his stuff here.

Old Cowboy 2

2011-03-10T01:45:00.000-08:00

As I said: on to the brush.

I was given a Pentel cartidge brush pen 12 years ago and ever since it has been one of my favourite tools. Almost. It has several major draw backs. You have to work slowly otherwise the line starts to break up, this can be useful for dry brush effects but i find it a bit of a bummer. You can't rub out pencils underneath, you rob out the ink too. Other than that you get a nice point, it feels nice and you can take it anywhere. So I gave the old timer a go with it seeing as I wasn't going to do rubbing out.

Stage 6

Stage 7

The Pentel cartridge brush pen didn't cut it so I moved onto another Pentel brush pen. A refillable one. These are great you can put any ink you want in them and like the other one you can take anywhere. The main problem with these is that the ink tends to rush out so the fine lines end up being just the opposite.

Stage 8

I've managed to get a bit a dry brush thing going on with the brush pen but the black is too black for my purposes so I've whipped out the white out pen. Good for stubble and hair. I also figured his hair was a bit lifeless so I put a bit of a wave into it.

Stage 9

I've ditched the other pentel and picked up an old sable, a bit too beaten up for really fine steady work but great for getting lines down fast.

Stage 10

Quite a bit more white out. It's nice o use white out as a drawing tool rather than a correction pen. You can get some very nice effects. I've taken away part of the top of the head and hair on his right.

I'm pretty happy so now onto the colour!

Old Cowboy

2011-03-07T02:47:00.000-08:00

Inspired by True Grit and feeling the need to do a bit of personal work I thought I'd do me an old cowboy. I also thought I'd show the process I went through and the various stages. So let's begin.

The sketch.
I wanted to just use my pen straight up so no pencils. It kinda frees you up if you dive right in. It's a bit like taking that first step over the cliff while abseiling: a moment of terror but then everything is beautiful. Your lines are free and interesting, there's movement.

Stage 2
Still mucking around, just putting lines down, making up a light source.

Stage 3

I've fixed up the wierd right eye (sort of).

Stage 4

He's got a coat!

Stage 5

I'm pretty happy with the image now. The right eye still stands out but not so much in the original work. Infact scanning this picture and cropping, straightening etc has given me time to look at the image objectively and I've managed to see a lot of things that have bugged me and get onto them before I decided the picture was finished and not wanted to work on it anymore.

Now it's time to bring out the Brush!

Gerhard is Amazing!

2011-02-24T15:43:00.000-08:00

Do any of you out there follow The Comic Journal? I go there from time to time but the link I'm about to post I found on comic tools (no this isn't the link I mean). Comic tools is a great blog written by Matt Bernier who, while not the greatest comis artist ever, writes a fantastic blog about the technical aspects of comic creation. He has techniques, trails, advice and sometimes posts up links to cool things he's found: like this one (this is the link). The interview with Gerhard, of Cerebus fame, follows his time on Cerebus: the way he worked with Dave Sim, his techniques and lastly what he's doing now.

The guy is amazing: the effort, the technique... amazing. This has rekindled my love of Cerebus and will be in the shops buying some very soon. If Cerebus is not you're thing read it anyway: you will learn something.

The List

2011-01-26T02:31:00.000-08:00

It was way back at the first Doujicon that I met Paul Bedford and Hpop and introduced to The List. At that time Paul had a little photocopied book of about 10 pages which he was using to get everyone into the groove. I was most impressed. Paul, Henry and I started going to the Melbourne comic meets around about the same time and soon became friends. The workload didn't fit into Henry's schedule and Paul asked me if was interested in helping bring The List to the comic stands. After a shakey start, which involved me doing backgrounds (which didn't suit because of mine and Henry's different styles), we decided that I should ink the comic.
I illustrated the cover for part one and inking started on part two. I inked part two whilst in England getting thrashings from respectable comic creators and publishers. I learned a lot in a very short amount of time and while part two was my first full inking job I had had a bit of practice on a few other small things.
I am now halfway through inking part three and while I'm no Tim Townsend I have improved. Henry's work far tighter than my own work but the control I've learnt and experience I've gained has been invaluable.
Seeing as I've been involved in this project now for five years or so, it's about time I posted up some work. I won't show much and I hope I don't give anything away.

Another Review

2011-01-13T02:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a review from Broken Frontier.

A Review!

2011-01-09T04:15:00.000-08:00

I did ask for this but just because you ask some one to look at your work work and review it doesn't mean they have to be nice about it. Check out what Scary Minds wrote.

String Books

2010-12-05T23:36:00.000-08:00

For those of you passing through Braidwood over the next couple of weekends.

Like a Machine

2010-11-16T01:09:00.000-08:00

A little while ago I did some illustrations for a video clip for my mate Karuna. The opening sequence with the tunnel and space ship are mine.

Space Invaders Zine Fair

2010-11-03T02:55:00.000-07:00

October 29th, Friday night saw the opening to the Space Invaders exhibition opening at the National Gallery of Australia Canberra, the following day saw the zine fair in the new NGA wing: the Gandel Hall. Space Invaders is an exhibition on contemporary street art with some attention being paid to zines. I'm not sure how the story went but Sticky organised the zine fair whilst outside a mural was street arted on a fake wall.

Never having been to a zine fair I was not sure what to expect. I knew James Andre was going but I think it was his first time too so there was no one whose brains I could pick. I arrived on time (10am for 11 start) and set up next to James and his partner Matilde. As I looked around the room I noticed a couple of familiar faces one being Bernie Slater who was a couple of years under me at art school, the other being Marcelo Baez, who I met at Sydnova.

Not all the tables were filled but a lot of people shared tables, there was no table allocation. Some tables were frothing over the brim but these were zine shops not individuals hawking their personal wares.

The day started off rather slow without a sale for the first half hour but from then on there was a steady trickle past my table and I ended making a decent amount of money. That was pretty much the sum up of the day really: a steady trickle with money being made. The tables were free so everything anyone made was lovely, lovely profit. Well at least for me it was as I live near Canberra.

Here's the cover to Monster Addict.

This and James' other books can be bought here or here.

Melbourne Armageddon

2010-10-21T03:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend saw the Melbourne leg of the Armageddon "culture expo" which I attended sharing again a table with the illustrious Trevor Wood. Armageddon has been gaining in popularity and while I don't know if this has anything to do with Melbourne or if it's the expo, it didn't have the crowds Sydney Supanova enjoyed. There were some pretty big names there such as Michael Biehn and John Dimaggio but having guests from Survivor seemed a bit weak.

All in all it was a pretty good weekend with roughly the same amount of money earnt on my part but it was made differently. It was a very slow start and after an hour with no sales I was ready to throw in the towel and give up in despair. Slowly but surely the punters started to take an interest and I started to move comics. By the end of the Saturday I'd sold 8 copies of The Dicks Anthology (which wasn't so good compared to Supanova where I sold 13) and shifted another 4 on the Sunday (comparable to the 5 I sold on Sunday at Supanova). These numbers though pale in comparisson to Paul Bedord selling 50 copies of The List and Jan Scherpenhuizen selling 80 copies of The Twilight Age. I am not a salesman. I might argue that it's not the right crowd but wonders the staggering amounts Paul and Jan would sell if it was the right crowd.

I made up for the loss of comic sales in Melbourne with a few more commissions. Batman, The Phantom, Red Sonja, TV Sherlock and a few of my own designs. Sadly I didn't have a camera and so didn't get any photos of the pictures I'd done. Bobby.N though (who wasn't holding a table) did manage to get a couple of snaps so I've pinched them from his blog.

I didn't do much purchasing this time. Brendan Halyday had promised me a swap but was so caught up doing zombified pictures of paying customers that I missed out. I did grab a little comic by Andrew Fulton and picked up The Time Being part 2 from Trev. Trev is definitely onto a winner here with his new story arc. He and Jen breach are producing a 200 plus page comic and as it's a web comic, updated weekly, Trev virtually has a new part to sell at every convention.

To sum up, if I want to make money at these things I'm going to have to try a different tactic. In the end though as this sort of thing isn't where I want to be making my money, it's just nice to hang with friends, look and laugh at half naked cosplayers and meet people who are genuinely into your comic.

Black Boox Has Dicks

2010-10-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

Black Boox has just uploaded the Dicks Anthology for sale! So for those of you who can't get to Comic Kingdom, Minotaur or Impact click the link above to get yourselves some Dicks heaven.

The Left Hand Book

2010-10-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

I'll Explain the title of this post later.

9 years ago I had an exhibition, which was part of the residency I was offered after leaving art school, of prints I had done through the year. There were large multy state woodcuts, some crappy self portrait etchings and these (plus 2 others which I dont have a photo).

I was very plaesed with them and wished I'd done more. Ever since I've been thinking back to these etchings and wondering if I might do something like them again. Now the tittle is explained: I was recently asked if I would like to be in an exhibition by a Julian Davies (author and co owner of Finlay Press who published Roof Tops by Mandy Ord) at his new exhibiton space called The Left Hand. Julian had actually bought one of the above print at my exhibition. So after accepting his offer it got me thinking: Maybe I could continue on with the ideas I'd left all those years ago.

The brief was to make a book (of sorts) so I decided to do some more bone drawings (not etchings this time as I don't have the time nor the access to a workshop) but this time mix them up with various arthropods. Not having much time I've kept them simple. Also I've used watered down ink to give them a softer feel and the possiblity of building up various tones. The Moebius influence was not intensional but he being in my thoughts this past while I suppose it was unaviodable.

Here is the drawing process too. I have a whole bunch of bones and arthropods to look at, I make a rough sketch and then go for it.

Monster Addict

2010-09-16T05:07:00.000-07:00

James Andre asked me to do some covers for a novel he had written called Monster Addict. He wanted a group shot of "vampires, rapists, etc". Vampires, no problem. But how do you draw a rapist? Anyway it wasn't really an issue, I just drew a bunch of monsterish creatures and chucked in a couple people.

For the back cover image I mixed a monkey with a lion and gave it some protruding fangs coz protruding fangs are cool.

Monster Addict should be out soon. Check out James' blog for updates.

Supanova Sydney

2010-06-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend saw the Sydney stint of Supanova, the huge 'pop culture' expo. I and other comic creators from all over Australia came to sell their wares to the not so interested public. Already you may note a hint of cynicism in my voice which I must apologise for. I knew I wasn't going to be getting an expo like those I attended in England but the punters here were not coming to buy comics. Everything else to do with comics outside the creation and collection of comics is the focus of this expo. TV stars of shows like Buffy, computer games, Manga (I apologise once again as Manga are comics but the comic side aren't the focus here), cosplay (a new word for me: a word to describe those who dress up as their favourite comic, TV, movie, anime, etc character) and wrestling??? All that aside Artist's Alley was a decent size and saw a decent amount of traffic and sales were close to what I expected.

I was sharing a table with Trevor Wood, illustrator of Sawbones, up near the edge of the expo opposite the 501st Legion. Jason Franks and J. Marc Schmidt were at a table to the left, Paul Abstruse and burlesque dance to the right and Burger Force and Brendan Halyday opposite. All together we made a nice little corner and boldly sold our comics, posters and drawings. Paul is a master salesman. There's no way I could do what he does, way too over the top for me, yet it works. All in all we had a successful weekend with Saturday serving some better while others faired better on Sunday. I covered my costs in terms of table rent, insurance and petrol (luckily I had a place to stay free of charge).

What it really comes down to in the end is critical mass. Australia just doesn't have the industry nor buying public to have a large expo designed specifically for comic creators. Or maybe that is what we all assume. An expo centred around comics and their creators may be able to garner enough public interest so as to make a reasonable platform for creators to make some real money, who knows. Avi Bernshaw is attempting this with Doujicon but there are conflicts of purpose in this convention and has thus far remained small. Other not comic specific festivals have been successful (checkout Bobby's Blog).

I have sounded very pessimistic in this post but I did have a really good time. Not only hanging out and catching up with my friends but the getting the satisfaction that people liked my work enough pay for it. I picked up a few local titles from some hot new talent including The Grave Shakers and a poster and sketch of wolverine from Gee Hale. Although I missed out on picking up a copy of Sgt Rock: Between Hell and a hard Place and getting it signed by the one and only Joe Kubert, I did manage, however, to give him a copy of the Dicks Anthology about which he said 'I want to spend time with this comic'. I was over the moon. A thoroughly worth while expo to attend and maybe in time we'll get a stronger position and punters will be there for us.

For Bobby's weekend click here and for J. Marc's click here.

Almost there

2010-05-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it's taken almost 2 years of hard work (not 2 years of steady work coz when I was working on it i went pretty quickly) but Dicks the Anthology will soon be hitting a comic shelf near you. If everything goes according to plan (and so far everything is) I will be launching the anthology at Sydney Supanova on the weekend of June the 18th, 19th, 20th. I will be sharing a table with the illustrious Trevor Wood and selling Back issues of Dicks. All puchases of the anthology will receive a free sketch done on the spot!

The writers who contributed to this anthology are

James Andre - creator of Yuck!
Tom Taylor - writer of Star Wars Invasion
Jason Franks - writer of The Sixsmiths
Jen Breach - writer of Saw Bones and comic reviewer for The Age

Pinups contributed by

Trevor Wood - illustrator of Saw Bones
Daniel Reed - creator of The Crumpleton Experiments
Hayden Fryer - creator of Billy the Demon Slayer
Bobby. N- creator of Digested and Withheld
BMB - creator of Stark Reality
HPop - illustrator of The List

And here's the cover

Other Peoples Pinups

2010-04-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did any work but luckily other people have been. In the Dicks anthology I'm working on I've got a pinup section which will (I hope) feature the talents of Hpop, Bobby.N, Trevor Wood and others. The others being Daniel Reed and Hayden Fryer who have just sent me their marvellous drawings.
Dan's.

Hayden's

All I have to do now is finish the last 4 pages of Jason Franks' story then I'm 3/5 of the way through. I was aiming to release at Supanova Melbourne but there was no way and Doujicon doesn't look good either so I hope I can get my act together for Supanova Sydney.

Canberra Meetups

2010-01-05T01:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a slow year for the old Canberra Meetup. We started off strong but seem to have dwindled down to 4 eager but seldom present participants. So a little bit of publicity may be in order. Here's the flier and poster that I'll put up in Impact comics tomorrow.

To go to the Canberra Comic Meetups on facebook click here.

Tango

2009-12-18T13:07:00.000-08:00

Tango 9: Love and War was launched on the 10th with all the pomp and ceremony it deserves. My 12 page story adaption of All Quiet on the Western Front made it in along with Bobby.N, Bruce Mutard, Mandy Ord, Owen Heitman, Kirrily Schell and a host of other people too long put here. Sadly I missed the launch but accounts can be read here and here.

The Tango Collection was also launched which has been published by Allen & Unwin. The Tango Collection is a collection of Tango's greatest moments over its 8 previous publications. Sadly this is my first submission to Tango so I've not made it into the collection (and possibly I wouldn't have anyway).

Singapore

2009-11-10T01:16:00.000-08:00

Working fairly slowly at moment. Lots of different stuff on.
Here though is a page from my upcoming Dicks anthology. The story is an adaption of Tom Waits' Singapore written by Jason Franks.

Love and War

2009-09-17T02:37:00.000-07:00

Finally I am submitting something to Tango. I have had a few attempts over past few years but never got myself into gear. To be honest I must admit that I could never get into the themes of the previous Tango comics. Love and War (Tango’s theme this year) was perfectly timed for me. I have been thinking about doing a war story for quite some time now and the coinciding of having just read ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and Tango Love and War seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.
So here are a few samples.

Other Peoples Dicks

2009-09-17T02:34:00.000-07:00

Well, some poor time management and lack of research has meant that my new comic ‘The Dicks Anthology’ (working title) will not be ready for release at Armageddon Melbourne in October. I had thought Armageddon was in late November and had planned accordingly. I had forecast 50 pages or so but instead, with an early 2010 release the comic will be closer to 70 pages.
There’ll be pinups from Trevor?, Bobby N. and others whom I haven’t told. Stories by James Andre, Tom Taylor, Jason Franks, Jen Breach and myself and others…perhaps. Getting people to work other than their own in this indie industry is a big ask and extremely generous on their behalf as it takes them away from their own projects. So thanks guys!
Here are some samples from James Andre’s story ‘That Bastard Benway.’

…and Tom Taylor’s ‘Snakes on a Head.’

Nectar of the Gods

2009-05-27T19:58:00.001-07:00

Over the past couple of years I've been doing some illustrations for a role playing game that a friend of mine has been creating. I don't know much about it but apparently Dungeons and Dragons went public several years ago and now anyone can release a game under the D&D logo - so this is what my friend has decided to do.
I don't know much about the story either but I do know that it involves dark elves, squidmen, beholders, giant ants and vast caverns. When completed it should be a pretty spiffy little production with some nice pictures too.
Here are a couple.

A review of The List

2009-04-13T04:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a great little review of The List here.

Angouleme

2009-02-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

The 36th annual 'Festival de la BD' was graced by my presence on the last weekend of January.
Not that it cared very much.
It was MASSIVE! I've not been to many conventions but compared to when I went 10 years ago it has at least tripled in size. Imagine an exhibition hall packed to the brim and then apply that to a small town. You could hardly move down the main street.
Of course when it started it was small and personal. You could easily go up to an artist and get your book signed but now you have to get in line with a ticket you got earlier. Of the locals I met none of them were BD fans though they enjoyed them and enjoyed the festival in its younger days. But you get that attitude where ever you go. If you're a fan Angouleme is the place to go. In fact there are heaps of conventions all over Europe and as far as I can gather they're all the place to go. Angouleme just happens to be the biggest.
The major publishers all had stalls with the artists set up doing signings. It's a real shame I didn't like any of the artists that were there. Except of course for Jean Giraud. But as I said before you needed to have a ticket which you'd picked up before some where else. The website is a mess, my French not so good and the place so poorly sign posted that I didn't understand any of this. I'll know next time.
The independent publishers where all there too and much more approachable. You could wait for only a couple of minutes and get a great little drawing/painting. I found some cool little anthologies - one even had a Dean Rankine comic in it! But once again, in my flustered state, I didn't profit from this and came away with only a few drawings.
They had a great tent full of second hand BD, original art and BD merchandise. You could grab a great bargain here. And I did. I found almost all the comics I've been looking for and not wanting to buy new (mainly because of new printing techniques and paper quality). I looked through lots of portfolios of work for sale and scrutinised how the greats do it. I learnt a few things.
Over all though my experience was very much like my experience at Bristol. I got very flustered and frustrated and felt very small and untalented. I had met up with my mate Roger Mason (who went to the festival 5 years in a row, made good contacts and got a job) the day before in London to chat comics and get some tips and contacts. Of his contacts I only managed to meet up with 2 and only one liked (some of) my work. I did manage to interest a couple of others who gave me their cards and asked me to email them some more stuff. I'm not holding my breath though. Going there really made me realise I've still got a way to go.

Sorry to not go more in depth. I'm an artist not a writer. But not a very dedicated one otherwise I would have done a comic about it.

The List

2008-12-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

I've just finished one of the longest projects I've ever worked on. At least, the most amount of work to do in the least amount of time. The List, written by Paul Bedford, is an urban tale of horror, violence and religion. Hpop illustrated part I and pencilled part II which I inked.
More can be learnt at www.the-list.com and some other sample pages can be found at my comicspace website www.comicspace.com/tombonin
Part II of The List will be launched on the 17th of Jan 2009.

Leeds Though Bubble comic expo

2008-11-24T05:13:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I went to the Leeds international one day comic convention called Thought Bubble. It was actually part of a much bigger festival that involved lots of other art forms but Saturday was entirely dedicated to comics (and those things that seem to follow comics around, like Freddy Krugers with bouncy heads).
Leeds was quite a bit smaller than Birmingham in terms of publishers and retailers but there were just as many artists and indie stalls. There were even a couple of stormtroopers.
My mates from Newcastle had a stall (which I had hoped to put the second part of Don’t go into that Barn but it had not arrived in the post before I had to set off) so I checked their stuff first. What strikes me over here is that production values are quite high. There are very few photocopied slapped together sort of things. And even if they are photocopied people tend to find the best they can. Some people told me they had searched for months to find the right public photocopier. Also the indie guys tend to get a stall as a group. So you’ll find a table with the Manchester people, the London people, the Newcastle people etc.
Anyway after a quick little look around I noticed the pro’s corner and went over. There were huge lines around such names as Jock, Alex Maleev, Doug Braithwait and various others. I continued down the line to where I came across a fellow who’s work I had loved and hated as an adolescent reading 2000AD. There was no one in front of his desk so I went up and had a chat to Peter Doherty. You may recall from my Birmingham post that I said Duncan Fregredo was one of the nicest guys in comics, well, so is Peter Doherty. We chatted for a long time and eventually I showed him my portfolio. He pointed out lots of stuff that needed fixing but then said that they were things he needed to work on too. He explained to me a rule of continuity about sticking to one side of a group of people and the importance of good colour. Peter is a great colourist. I then bought a comic from him he did for the Grendel series several years ago. Great artist and an alright story which got better when I did a bit of research on Grendel the other day.
I then went to a seminar about the (artistic) success of comics to movies in Hollywood with Mark Millar, Andy Diggle, Jock and some other guys whose names I forget. The basic conclusion that was drawn was that comic movies are only successful if there is some one in the production team who actually gives a shit. For most people it’s just a job and if they make back their millions that’s all that matters.
Before plucking up my courage to go and talk to Andy Diggle I showed my folio to Fraser Irving, a young artist, mad as a cut snake, hired by Diggle to 2000AD when he, Diggle, was editor. He was great fun and told me that basically your success or non-success really hinges on which editors you present your work to. Fraser insisted that he would not be hired today if he was starting out. I told him about my ideas of approaching the French to which he put on a snooty French accent and said “backgrounds, where are your backgrounds? Stone? That is not stone. I want to feel the stone!” And like Fregredo he said that the money is no good unless you’ve proved yourself.
After some lunch I made my way over to Andy Diggle. He insisted that as a writer he didn’t think he’d be much help but I was asking him as an ex editor. As an ex editor he said 'go for it'. He reckoned that editors look for good story telling and said I had good story telling.
Wow hoo!!!
But wait, there’s more. Here’s the thing they all asked me. “Are you staying in the UK?” “No” “Bummer. ‘Cause doing the convention circuit is the only way. Building friendships and showing people your dedication and your year to year improvement.” That’s how Jock got hired by Andy Diggle.
Bummer indeed.
Maybe I need to stay here, brave the grey skies, interminable wet and mold and put that theory to the test. A job in comics or happy sunny life?

The beginning of a new era

2008-11-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

As many of you may already know Local Act Comics is closing its doors as of Jan 1 2009. Have no fear though, Dicks is still going to continue. I have figured out or thought about exactly how yet but I'm thinking about web comic with a yearly trade.
I was already thinking that about moving into complete story format so really nothing will have changed.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to than LAC for all that they've done over past 2 years and say that you will be missed.
Don't go into that Barn part 2 is out too though it's not up on the website. To find it go to your local comic shop or go to localactcomics.com.au and email Dave to send you a copy.
Cheers.

Birmingham comic expo

2008-10-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

On the 4th of Oct I went down to Birmingham for its comic expo experience. I got up at 5am to catch a train in Newcastle which would get me there at 11. Not an excellent start to the day which didn’t help seeing as I was recalling my experience at Bristol. Bristol wasn’t a bad experience but I had been overwhelmed and hadn’t taken the criticism I’d received very well.
I spent the train trip doing sumdokus and talking to a male prostitute who hated working out. Apon arrival the usual British weather welcomed me and I cursed myself for having forgotten to bring a hat and coat. Once at the venue (which was held at a place called ‘Think Tank’ and was a sort of science museum/ cinema/events complex) though I was happy that I didn’t have to cart a coat around as well as all the comics I picked up.
Immediately the difference between the Bristol expo and the Birmingham expo were apparent. Most notablely the lack of stormtroopers, the more intermate space and far less people. Birmingham’s expo is only a couple of years old but it has had really good write ups and has been getting bigger each year. It’d be a shame if it got too popular and became like Bristol but that’s the price of success, I guess.
As I walked around I saw many of the same small press stalls that were in Bristol. There’s a lot of talent here but as always the production values varied wildly. If only people could count on sales and put more money into their production. In the end though it’s the quality of the art and story not how flashy it looks.
I started to wonder what I was going to do with my self for 6 hours when over the loud speaker came an announcement for all those who wanted to get their work critted in front of an audience. Get slammed in front of a bunch of people I don’t know? Why the hell not? Sadly I was second last in the queue and missed out but I managed to corner Gary Leach afterwards. He gave me a good old thrashing but I was prepared this time.
Colin Wilson had told me last year that when presenting work to editors and pros to only show your most recent work and to not make excuses. I put this into practice at Bristol but wasn’t really ready then.
Gary was very thorough and basically said I shouldn’t be making the mistakes I’m making so I felt pretty good about that.
During the crit session a familiar face from way back when in the late 90s appeared. When Impact Record was still the best shop in the world. James Pearson, one of the guys from the comic desk, got up to have his work critted. I found him afterwards and found out that he mainly wants to be a writer and is actually doing quite well. He’s living in Brighton now and laments the loss of one of Canberra’s finest institutions.
After all that I was feeling much invigorated and went and showed my stuff to Duncan Fregredo. There is not a nicer man than Mr Fregredo. He basically said all the same things as Gary Leach but chatted on in such a pleasant way about anything and everything. He was sitting next to Sean Philips who has some nice things to say too.
Duncan was then nice enough to give me a little scribble of Hellboy. Great guy.
After lunch and a bag full of comics I went to see a debate about which was the greatest comic ever made. Watchmen, The dark knight returns, Liaka, From Hell, Cerebus: High society, Akira, Alice in Sunderland, Batman year 1, Maus and many others were pitted against each other by various comic creators. The comics were paired up, two creators discussed their pros and then the audience voted (with little thingies we had attached to our seats) and one comic was knocked out. Despite Frank Miller being called “batshit crazy and Akira being the first comic to truly bring anime to the west Watchmen still won. I believe mainly because it is in the public eye at the moment. It is a fantastic comic but it has dated a bit and the art isn’t as good as it could be. (If Dave Gibbons had done it when he was doing Rogue Trooper it would have been fantastic.)
Finally I went and got my portfolio reviewed by Mark Chiarello, art director for DC. He immediately asked who my influences were, told me that they came through in my work and that it was a relief to not hear the names Jim Lee, Todd Mcfarlane or names to that effect (I can’t remember who he said). He was suitably impressed and said if I sent him my website address he’d pass it onto the guys at Vertigo. He told me not to expect anything and I don’t but never the less it was great to have the compliment.
A great experience all in all and a crying shame that Australia can’t keep it’s local talent to make such great shows at home. Mark said that he had been invited to go to Armageddon (or Supernova. He couldn’t remember which) but said that the distance was too far to travel. And that’s the problem. How can we expect to invite pros over for a weekend and have them not dizzy from jet lag. We’ve got to build ourselves up and let the public know that Australia has a fine body of creators. Keep going Arvi and everyone else keep Doujicon alive.

The end of the drought?

2008-10-01T02:45:00.000-07:00

I find it so hard to get into posting without the internet close at hand. I have written some posts in word but have forgotten to post them up and now they seem a bit out of date. I'm going to try and get back into it now though. I've got some things worth posting. At least, I think so.
First up is the final part of 'Don't go into that Barn' will be out soon. A few things to tweek and then it's off to Dave at Local Act Comics.

The next issue of 'Dicks' is going to be a compilation of guest written stories (with some of my own). The talents of James Andre, Tom Taylor, Jason Franks and Paul Bedford will be featured. It was in fact James Andre who gave me the idea. He came up to me at the Melbourne creator comic meet and said that he'd written me a couple of scripts off the cuff. Doing this will be lots of fun and will give me time to get more ideas for the next full length story for our two heroes.

BRISTOL COMIC EXPO

2008-05-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

Fanging down the highway at 80mph, narrowly escaping getting sandwiched between trucks, almost run of the road by blind dickheads and then my son goes and breaks his leg in a shoe shop. He was on my shoulders and deciding he didn't want to be, jumped off. I meanwhile had a solid hold of his right leg. His weight and my grip on his poor little leg didn't give it much of a chance. You know, you hear cracking sounds all the time and you know everything's fine? Well, this wasn't one of those times. It was a sickening crack and I knew instantly his leg was broken. It ended up not being too bad. (A poor 13 year old at the hospital had a horrible compound fracture with his bone pieced through his leg. He'd only fallen down while running down a grassy hill!) Eti will have a cast on for 6 weeks but he's in good spirits, the only thing I fear is his boredom.
Now, onto the comic expo.
Everyone was there (or not there. Their name tags left by the door): Bisley, D'Isreali, Gibbons, Burns, Talbot, Chris Staros and many others whose work I recognised and whose I didn't but knew the name. Pretty much most of the big names who've worked for 2000AD. There were huge queues for Gibbons, Bisley and the other big shots. I managed to show my portfolio to a couple of people but didn't get the most positive of responses. There were so many talented people walking around showing off what they could do. I didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.
Firstly I approached a company called Classical Comics. They're doing adaptions of classical texts such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, Shelly and Stoker. 3 versions in 1. Direct text, modern text and then something for the kiddies. A fellow I'd met in the queue, a penciller from Cardiff, told me I should show them my stuff. Which I did and was told that my style was too caricatured and then went on to say the stuff I'd inked (see 2 posts ago) was more lifelike! I was rather offended by this and finally got the guy to admit that he didn't like my stuff beause it couldn't be coloured easily. With that I moved on.
The next person I showed my work was John M. Burns. I asked for some harsh criticism and got some. (He was much more constructive than the fellow from Classical Comics). He told me to brush up on my figure drawing and to get some more clarity in my work. It was pretty hard to take but I took it and have come away more determined. I went away and mulled over his words for a while and finally rested on what he'd said at the end. Something about how he was sorry to be so critical but that if I wasn't stealing jobs from him in a year he'd know I'd killed myself. The way he'd slammed me I'd totally missed that compliment at the end. I'd better knuckle down get back to life drawing again otherwise he'll think I've 'run in front of a bus'.
I then showed my work to Matt Smith who was impressed with the inking I'd done but wasn't very keen on my own stuff. It seemed that he said if when I submitted to 2000AD I had more work like those inked pages he might have work for me. I heard him say to the fellow in front me, though, that there were alot of other regular 2000AD contributers not getting work so I took the compliment but definitely not going to get my hopes up.
Everywhere I went people liked my tracing abilities but not my original work. Oh well.
I actually talked to a lot of indie and small press guys and they were the only comics I bought actually. There's alot of fun stuff coming out in the small press and if any of you have some futuristic sort of stuff get it over to Future Quake. They were really nice guys and eager to publish budding young artists.
All in all a great show. I still came out of it feeling pretty depressed (stupidly). Getting told to sod off (not in as many words) by Dave Gibbons, when I approached him outside the expo, didn't help none but I guess I was looking for it. I just missed out on a sketch by D'Isreali (he was the only guy doing free ones. Tight bugger ain't I) too. A bit overwhelming the whole thing. I reckon I would've done better if I'd got a table. Oh well.
So I went off feeling a bit fragile (not looking at the positives of the day) and then Eti broke his leg.

2 NEW GNs

2008-05-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

I went to the Hexham writer's festival yesterday to see Bryan Talbot and Simone Lia talk about their recent comics: Alice in Sunderland and Fluffy.

The talk overall was quite good but this was mainly due to Bryan being an interesting person. The moderator was some idiot who had probably until now never read a comic in his life. He had done his research very well but his questions were superficial and boring. The crowd was mostly middle aged people, a couple of young guys and a few kids. I think most of them were there because it was part of the writer's festival rather than because it was about comics.
An argument that I'm quite interested in came up (but was not dealt with as much as I would've liked). The old argument of whether you create comics or graphic novels. Apparently the term was coined by Will Eisner when trying to sell a comic he'd done to a prospective publisher. After having been turned down several times because he was trying to get a comic published, he told the next publisher that he'd created a graphic novel and the publisher was intrigued. Bryan said he didn't like the term and used it only so people would understand what he was talking about. Many comic artists don't seem to like the term and it only the buying public that want it. It seems as a marketing ploy it works and maybe to get comics back into the mainstream it may be worth accepting. I do like these quotes that I came across the other day: As Marjane Satrapi say that the term enables ‘the bourgeois to read comics without feeling bad’; and Alan Moore says, they allow publishers to ‘stick six issues of whatever worthless piece of crap they happened to be publishing lately under a glossy cover and call it The She-Hulk Graphic Novel’.
Simone didn't have much of an opinion on the GN topic. She belongs to a different breed of comic artist to me who is more accepting of the term.
Anyway, I approached them after the talk and had a bit of a chat. Simone was, after being a bit weary, very nice a easy to talk to where as Bryan, though a nice guy, was a bit standoffish and I felt like a bit of a fanboy. I showed them both my work and both were very nice about it. I would have liked some criticism but I don't think they understood that. I also gave them both a copy of my latest comic. I don't know what thought of it. I would've liked to talk a bit more to them about the industry etc but they had other things to do so I went away feeling a bit deflated.
Simone's work can be found at www.simonelia.com and Byran's at www.bryan-talbot.com (this is a bit of a strange site. Hard to navigate and clunky).

TRACING

2008-04-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've just been to a couple of art supply stores and the outlook isn't good. The store in Newcastle was the best but was still lacking in a few areas. It wasn't too bad though. I wanted a really good sable brush so I looked through the £60 ones but couldn't find one which could form a good point so I looked through the cheapies and got a really nice one for £5 instead. Money doesn't get you everything.
Using that nice new brush of mine I got to work on inking those pencils from 2000AD. I tried with a dip pen but it didn't quite do it for me. Andrew Currie sure likes to feather his work. God, he puts so much effort into the penciling there's really no point in inking. Put it in photoshop and up the contrast or just ink it straight up I say.
Here are the inks for the pencils I posted previously.

And here is the brush I did it with and a really nice nib I picked up too. If you like working with a dip pen I recommend this one.

LONDON

2008-04-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

Just came back from London. Lots of pints were consumed. Strangely London didn't have the effect it had on me last time I was there 5 years ago. I really enjoyed myself and didn't walk around looking like I might bite anyone who looked at me sideways.
I made it to Gosh! Comics opposite The London Museum (which I didn't go into). It's a fantastic comic shop! It's not very big but has everything except a big wall of the majors. That's right folks a comic shop that focuses more on creator owned material than all that American trash. I didn't have any of my work to drop off but they have a very nice 70/30 split going on for small press titles so when I get my stuff sent over I'll get myself back there.
Whilst down in London I met up with a friend I made while I was on exchange in Orléans 9 years ago. Roger Mason was the first comic creator I had ever met. He hadn't done much at that point but had great things going on already. He introduced me to Hellboy and Bone and because of him I turned to the stark B&W style we all know and love today. It must be said the "Dicks" story "Operation Centipede" was a homage to him.
Roger has since worked for 2000AD, had 3 Bande Dessinée published in France. At the moment he's concerntrating on his own small press title "The Mice" for which he's found a small indie publisher. Here are a couple of examples of his work.
This is from "Off the Hook" which he finished in 1999

This is a page from a short story of "The Mice" The final work will be a 13 or so part GN.

More example of Roger's work can be seen at www.looksgoodonpaper.co.uk and at www.comicspace.com/rogermason

On another note but still to do with comics- I've finally got my first articulated desk! It's a real beauty. About 90 years old, cast iron with counter weights and cogs. I'm fully equipped now- watch out comic world!
Here are a coupe of picks.

GETTING STARTED

2008-04-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

Alright.
After a sickening 48 hours from my grandmother's house in Sydney to my mother inlaw's house in England I wasn't quite sure which way was up. Things have calmed now, the weather's better and it might not be too long before we move into our own house.
I've already asked 2000AD to send some pencils for me to ink over for my application to join their fold. I was pleasantly supprised by the the speed of their reply. I got the pencils yesterday and aim to start working on them as soon as I get a suitable work space.
I'm working on a 5 pager written by Tom Taylor for the application and I'm going to send in my inking over Henry Pop's pencils for The List part 2, too.
The pencils are by Andrew Currie and some other unspecified artist. Currie's pencils are for some Lobo comic and the others are for Conan. Here's a page from each.

There are a few things that trouble me about some of the drawing but I'll get over it.
I'll post up the inks when I get them done.

2007-07-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Stupid computers! Here they are.

Small Press Idol

2007-07-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it into round 3 of Small Pres Idol but not into round 4. At least I still get published. I'm getting teamed up with 2 other entrants. One, a 'noir fu' story about a kung fu private detective and the aother about a girl who is forced to fight in an alien arena for the evil queen.
The anthology is called Mysterious Visions and will be coming out in March next year.
I've started work on my strip which is 12 pages long. These pages are not finished. There're just waiting to get cleaned up and ink washed. I'll post the up when I'm done.

Small Press Idol submission round 2

2007-04-26T02:08:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of the characters from my SPI submission. Responses have been mixed but mostly positive. My story is set in medieval Japan inspired by 60s samurai flics with some demons chucked in for good measure. The art is inspired by prints from the Edo period.
My submission can be viewed at
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,137/topic,2788.0/