The Absence

Issue #4 update

2011-12-03T09:46:00.000-08:00

God, December?! It's been bloody ages since I posted on here. I started a graphic design business back in February (check us out at amazing15.com) and life has been INSANE since then (which is great, obviously, but it's left precious little time to work on the comic).

That said, work does continue – I'm about 30 pages into #4 and it'll be about 45 pages in total so should be done early in the new year I reckon. Which'll make it over a year since #3. To those that give a crap I'm really sorry. Must do better.

Still, I'm pleased with how #4 is shaping up. It's a big issue with lots of 'answers' (and a few new questions, naturally...), lots of talking (I've just done a two page sequence that sees two people passing each other the time of day in a country lane), lots of flashbacks and lots of stuff which required some hefty military research. Military research? Wait and see.

Here's the cover.

I finished a first pass on this ages ago but wasn't 100% happy with it so I've been tinkering for a while. Done now though. \

Until, you know, I fiddle with it again.

Workspace

2011-07-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy with life stuff recently hence the lack of updates, but have still managed to find time to do some work on The Absence #4. Nothing I really want to post up here yet – the pages I'm doing at the moment are quite spoilerific. In the meantime, I thought I might post this. Purely for my own indulgence really, so bear with me.

This, for those that might actually be interested, is my workspace:

KEY:
1. This is a (now out of date) character list. It has descriptions of what each character looks like as well as their relationship to other people. I keep a similar (and more current) version as a Word file too.
2. These are the thumbnails for the five page sequence I'm drawing at the moment.
3. The current page I'm drawing. This one happens to be at the roughing out stage.
4. A page from issue one. The five page sequence is a flashback with Marwood talking to Father Jonathan (he who fell to his death in the prologue). I printed the page with the church interior so I could try and keep some kind of consistency.
5. This is the script for the sequence. It's covered in doodles. I write it like a film script, with little to no thought to how it'll flow as pages but then scribble all over it and make notes and rewrite as I do the thumbnails.
6. Hard to make out here, but this is a bulging A2 portfolio. It contains all the art so far done for The Absence. The zip broke a long time ago...
7. My tatty putty rubber. Not to self: must get a new one.
8. Pencils (2xHB, 2x2H for sketching), sharpeners, rulers. Without fail, I'll knock all this shit onto the floor with the arm of my chair everytime I get up or sit down.
9. The drawing board. Home-made by my dad who used to be a draughtsman. He built it himself so he could work from home and I've sort of inherited it. The strut on the back is made from plumbing. I love that! I ink differently - I loose the drawing board and just work on the table. I find that easier for some reason. I used to draw the same way but I started to get a bad back and dad kindly offered me use of his drawing board.

The lighting in my office is terrible so I have a lamp behind the drawing board for night time working. There's also a radio behind there too. And that's it. Check back soon when I might post something more interesting. But don't bet on it.

Young Marwood

2011-06-14T04:37:00.001-07:00

Been somewhat busy recently with the arrival of a new baby, but work on issue #4 of The Absence continues. Lots of flashbacks this issue (and with it lots of answers too...) Here's the young, unscarred Marwood from page 2. Well, page 2 and page 7. You'll see what I mean when the issue comes out...

The collection has arrived!

2011-05-13T09:34:00.001-07:00

Very excited to receive this parcel today:

So, if you look over to the right of the screen there, or follow this link, you'll find the first collection of issues 1-3 The Absence for sale on lulu.com. 112 pages with a new cover, including the art for all three issue covers plus a pin up section by some great artists and all for £8. Not bad is it?

Aintitcool Review!

2011-05-11T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well then. This is rather brilliant. The Absence has had a review on cult website Aintitcool!

THE ABSENCE #1

Writer: Martin Stiff
Illustrator: Martin Stiff
Publisher: Self Published via LuLu
Reviewer: Mr. Pasty

THE ABSENCE is a six-part miniseries starting with issue number one, HERO, starring Marwood Clay as a soldier returning to a small village on the coastal edge of Southern England. The only problem is Clay was presumed dead, killed in World War II. Further complicating matters is the fact that the townsfolk were kinda glad he was offed and are less than enthused to see him return home. Unfortunately not all of him has made it, as ol’ Marwood lost the lower part of his mouth below the nose. He sort of resembles that anatomy mannequin in the high school nurses office but his disfigurement runs much, much deeper.

I have to give props to Martin Stiff for serving as both writer and illustrator, as just one of those duties is a daunting task on any book but to do both, and to do them well, is truly the mark of a great talent. I was a little disappointed the comic was in black and white, as I feel like I’m reading a newspaper, but that’s just me nitpicking because THE ABSENCE leaves very little to be critical of. The narrative is sharp, the pacing is just right and Stiff has a loose hand when it comes to the illustrations. I like the way he’s able to capture fear and anxiety right out of the gate which is a considerable feat considering that you really don’t know who any of the characters are and have no established reason for giving a shit about what happens to them. Stiff makes the most of his atmosphere and shadows to draw the reader into a brilliant opening sequence that involves the collapse of one man’s world. Good stuff.

Some of the dialog is hokey but that has more to do with the geography of Stiff’s setting than his execution. In fact, I think it lends credibility to the story because if it’s taking place in Southern England than dammit it should look, sound and feel like Southern England. One thing that drives me batty is when comics have aliens, monsters and mutants all duking it out on the streets of San Francisco yet they all talk like socialites from the upper west side of Manhattan. As far as THE ABSENCE is concerned, we don’t yet understand the significance of Marwood’s return or what scars he shares with the townspeople, but Stiff has done an excellent job of giving me a reason to stick around and find out. And if you’re just in it for the cheap thrills you’ll be happy to know there are abandoned churches, Germans with hypodermic needles and gratuitous beer shots. Dark, creepy and utterly satisfying, THE ABSENCE is a self-published comic that not only meets, but in many cases exceeds what you’d expect to find from any of the big name printers. Pasty likes.

Small Press Big Mouth review

2011-05-11T01:55:00.001-07:00

A great review of issues #1-#3 over on the Small Press Big Mouth podcast. Although I've had a few written reviews it's kinda weird hearing people actually 'talking' about The Absence.

I'll post the review as an audio file in a month or so but in the meantime I heartily recommend you all head over to the Small Press Big Mouth blog and download the podcast right now! You can also find it on iTunes under the Geek Syndicate podcast umbrella.

The review of The Absence starts about 30 minutes in but do please listen to the rest – it's a brilliant podcast about the small press comics scene.

Collection cover - final version!

2011-05-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

I banged on to a nauseating degree about the process involved in putting this cover together, here, here and good Christ, even here. For some reason this cover was a fight from start to finish. I think it's pretty complex (maybe too complex - it's been wanked to death I fear) and I've been so insanely busy with a bunch of other stuff I've just not had the time to dedicate to getting it right.

Anyway, I think, now, finally, at last, it's done. And if even if it isn't, I fucking well am.

I'm raring to get my teeth into issue #4. The last 5 pages of that issue is a sequence I've had in my head since the inception of The Absence so after 2 years and 140 odd pages I can't bloody wait to get it out!

Another detail

2011-05-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Yet another detail for the front cover of the collection. Think I'm might be beginning to over-work this bloody cover a bit now... Still, quite like the line work on this:

New Review for issue #3

2011-04-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a pretty amazing review for issue #3 from Forbidden Planet International!

Highlights include: "As wonderful as the first two and absolutely making it onto the best of 2011 list" and "it’s absolutely magnificent work".

Wow, thanks guys!

My working process

2011-04-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is something I've been planning to do for ages, but the stars have only just aligned to make it possible (ie: I now have access to my own scanner). I've seen this done on a few artists blogs elsewhere and I always find it interesting, so who knows - someone reading this might. Maybe. No? Well whatever, I'm doing it anyway.

(NB: Rather than an actual page of narrative art, the piece below is actually a small part of the final cover for the collection of #1 - #3 I'm putting together but the process for anything I do is the same.)

For any thing I'm gonna draw, first up is a thumbnail sketch. Sometimes I might do several concepts, sometimes only one. However many I do, the actual time I spend just 'mulling it over' is almost as important. Although I've not been drawing either comics or The Absence for long, I have a background in art eduction and and I'm a graphic designer by trade so I'm used to thinking visually (usually while staring at the bedroom ceiling unable to sleep...) and I can usually sort out most composition problems in my head before committing them to paper. The thumbnails are usually just to clarify things.

Here's the scrappy bastard I did for this piece:

Pretty rough, eh? That's the whole cover - the bit we're looking at here is the bottom half. I actually did another rough on my mac using a Wacom tablet (man, I HATE drawing on that damn thing) and I totally failed to save it. But it didn't matter - the act of simply sketching it out helped to concrete the image in my head.

Anyway, after that is the first pass on art paper. I use a very thick water colour stock because I love the rough surface. It catches ink really nicely and I adore the occasional splashes and scratches you get when your brush or pen nib catches in it. Here's the first pencil rough:

As you can see, it's pretty loose. This stage is basically to establish the composition so I keep it light and loose, usually with a 2H pencil (I've cranked up the levels on this scan so you can see it). If I happen to get too detailed that's all fine but my next stage is basically to rub the entire thing out with a putty rubber until it's all barely visible to the naked eye. Then the real work begins: I draw it all again, spending more time getting the details in. I use the light lines as a guide.

It's this stage which, one day, I hope to be able to skip. One of my favourite artists, Sean Philips, goes straight from the early roughs to inking and I totally admire his confidence (although, to be fair, he has several years experience on me). If I'm not careful tend to over-labour this stage. I like my art loose and casual (like my wome-- wait, what?) and by over-labouring my pencils I can sometimes find that tightness creeping into the final work.

Anyway, once I'm happy with the pencils, I grab my trusty dip pen and do some inking up of the lines:

I do this bit fast. Really fast. I'm not looking for tight, careful lines – I want the lines which jump and flick and wander across the page. During this stage I'll also be making lots of decisions about how the final art will look. Sometimes I'll even re-edit the composition (notice the big eyes in the background haven't been inked - that's because I decided to do those as a separate piece and composite altogether in Photoshop. It's also here that I usually have my first fuck up. Check out the policeman's left eye. WTF? It's totally screwed - it's wandering up way too high and it looks like he's deformed or something. Shit.

Now I grab my brush and basically fill in the blacks. Here's a 'work in progress' pic of that.

I use a normal (and somewhat knackered) brush with black W&N indian ink. This christmas just gone I got a Pental brush pen which I've totally fallen in love with so I've been using that lots too, but I find it holds too much ink and I struggle to get the nice dry brush marks I can achieve with a regular brush. Here's a detail of the above pic which hopefully illustrates this.

I just continue painting away till I'm happy I've done as much as I can. If I have large areas of black to cover I'll leave 'em empty and do them on the mac. No point in using up all my ink, eh? Once all the areas are filled, a bit of splatter to liven it up, a bit of some white ink to pick out highlights etc and then I rub out the pencil work as best I can and then I'm left with the 'final' art to scan in.

Once the pic is on the mac I go Photoshop happy. I fix stuff I'm not happy with (like the police man's wonky eye – I even moved his hat down a bit), fiddle with the levels to get rid of the pencil (but preserve the dry brush - bit tricky this bit. I often have to use several different layers of levels with different settings on each). I'll fill in any blacks I left empty at the painting stage and add any effects I need. If it this was an actual strip page I'd also clean up the edges and panel borders in Photoshop too.

As I mentioned previously this is part of the cover, so it's also going to need some colouring. I've already revealed part of the fully painted cover in an earlier post (although this too has since been Photoshopped to hell and back). I fiddled for ages with the colouring on this group shot – even going as far as to try a fairly 'traditional' comic book approach but it always looked crappy and half-hearted. I just don't have the patience to colour stuff properly I guess.

So, as usual, I used my tried and tested method of chucking various textures and colours around until I got something I could at least live with. Hence this:

The weird thing about working on a Mac - which is a pretty sterile working environment with all manner of 'undo's' – is that you can still be prone to my favourite part of the hand-crafting process: 'the happy accident' (nb: this entirely unrelated to 'the happy ending'). The fact they all look like they're kind of standing in front of a fire? Happy accident. But, sshh. No spoilers.

And that's yer lot. There's still a way to go on this image – since it's only part of the cover it'll need putting in with the rest of the images and logo and other odds and sods, but this, in essence, is my general working process. You might notice I've taken the policeman down in size a bit on the final version here. That's because I had trouble fitting it in with the other elements on the cover.

Still not happy with that fucking eye, though...

Homesick

2011-04-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

Still chugging away on various bits and pieces for The Absence (I've heard exciting rumours of another upcoming review but I'll post details of that when I hear more...)

In the meantime, and entirely unconnected to The Absence, here's a three page strip I illustrated last year. It's interesting for several reasons...

Firstly, I didn't write it - it's by JP Rutter, a writer friend of mine who's written for Star Wars: Clone Wars comic (amongst other things) as well as being in the band Amy Blue, whose EP I recently did the cover for.

Secondly, it's in colour. Now, apart from the cover, The Absence is in black and white, and colour is something which scares the bejeesus out of me (mainly because of the extra time involved in doing it!) but it was fun doing a short strip and I'm quite please with the result.

Thirdly I understand comics legend Mark Millar actually read (and quite liked) it. Blimey.

Review of #3

2011-04-10T09:19:00.001-07:00

Here's an amazingly good review from Comics Bulletin for issue #3!

Particularly choice quotes include: "the most effective horror comic I've read in ages" and "exceptional visual design and storytelling". Crikey, I'm almost blushing!

Marwood and wife

2011-04-04T10:43:00.001-07:00

This is a little pencil sketch which forms the 'Coming Soon' ad at the back of the collection I'm preparing and will also form part of the cover collage to #4. It's a bit out of the ordinary for me – thought I'd try something a little more controlled. The fact I spent fricking hours fiddling with it goes some way to explain why my usual style is so much more loose...

It's basically an expanded and more detailed version of the pic below which appears in #3. It's a family photo of Marwood and his wife...

Amy Blue - album cover

2011-04-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Not related at all to The Absence but I've just done a few paintings for a friend's band - Amy Blue. One is going to be the cover to their latest EP (below), and the others will appear in a limited edition booklet.

In other news, work continues on the trade collection of issues #1-3 and I've started to script #4. Hooray.

Issue #3 available now!

2011-03-15T03:46:00.000-07:00

I've had proof copies back and it all looks good, so if you'd like to buy a copy HERE'S THE LINK TO ISSUE #3 OF THE ABSENCE! Huzzah. There's also a permanent link over there on the right hand side >>

Once you've read it, please drop me a line and let me know what you think! Thanks!

Collection cover

2011-03-11T05:02:00.001-08:00

Below are the first couple of bits I've done for the cover of the collected edition of issues #1-3. As is usual it'll be a collage of elements. This first collection will feature Marwood and the various people in his story, and the next collected edition (which will collect #4-6) will be based around Temple and his acquaintances – most of whom won't be introduced until issue #5.

Issue #3

2011-02-23T10:56:00.001-08:00

Well then. About two months later than I'd planned I'm finally putting the finishing touches to the mammoth 44 page issue #3! Hooray! It should be done and at the printers within the week. I'm also considering putting together a 112 page 'Volume One' trade paperback which would collect #1 - #3. We'll see about that...

In the meantime, here's the cover for #3!

Pin ups!

2011-02-09T09:51:00.001-08:00

I recently left my full time job as a books art director to go freelance, and as a leaving pressie a couple of my friends at work drew some awesome Absence inspired pin-ups. I'll find a place to fit them in a future issue, but I wanted to get them up here as well.

By dino-artist and comic-editor extraordinaire Steve White.

By small-press comics guru Martin 'Spandex' Eden.

Thanks guys!

Eagle Awards

2011-02-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Eagle Awards nominations have opened, and my comic The Absence is eligible for the Favourite British Black and White Comic award. So if you have a moment please pop along to http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/ and vote for it! At least one person has already voted (not me, I hasten to add!) and it now appears in the drop down menu which makes voting for it even easier!

While you’re passing, maybe you could also vote for ‘Jim Lee: ICON’ in the Favourite Comic-Related Book since I designed that in my secret identity as book designer at Titan Books!

The way it works, is that people nominate until the 7 March and the top five of each section which secure the most nominations will then be voted upon and the winner announced at the awards ceremony on the 27 May.

New Scanner!

2011-02-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

I have a whole host of changes coming up in my life. New job as a self-employed designer, new baby on the horizon, plus I've got to finish this comic, too. Holy crap.

One of the advantages of going freelance however is that I've bought a whole bunch of cool expensive Mac kit - including an A3 scanner. So now I can post stuff more regularly, rather than having to wait and scan stuff in batches at work. Huz-and indeed-zah.

I'm into the final few pages of #3. It's turned in at 44 pages (42 of comic strip, a 1 page featurette thing and an ad. I don't really like adverts as a rule, but the page count has gotta be a multiple of 4 to work so I had a page to fill.) This is one of the final pages. Marwood has drawn a crowd...

End of 2010 Lists!

2011-01-09T12:08:00.001-08:00

I'm immensely proud to say that The Absence has found itself on a couple of Best of 2010 lists!

Here and here!

Crikey. When you're working in a vacuum on something, it's so encouraging to discover that people are actually enjoying it!

Really must try and finish #3. Between work, a kid, setting up the new company, decorating the house and the simple fact that the issue is 42 pages long (the longest issue yet!) my deadline of xmas has long whistled past! Still, only about 7 pages away from the end now. Must admit though - since the first two have been so favorably reviewed over the last couple of months, it's a little disconcerting to find myself thinking 'Christ, I hope people like it...'

Snow and secrets

2010-12-17T05:36:00.000-08:00

In tribute to the horrific fucking weather conditions at the moment, here's a DPS from #3 which is set, aptly, at christmas time during a particularly bad snow storm. I wonder who all those people are searching for...?

In other news, I got THIS remarkable gift as my office Secret Santa (excuse the crappy iPhone snap - was taken late at night whilst slightly drunk...):

How cool is that! Someone (not sure who, but I have my suspicions!) has gone through the trouble of branding a t-shirt and sketchbook with the logo from The Absence! Very nice indeed. Makes me wonder if I should produce some Absence-related merchandise (although just producing the damn comic is proving a challenge).

Thanks Secret Santa!

Who would live in a house like this...?

2010-12-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

Yeehaa! We got ourselves an old timey lynchin'!

Santa's Little Helper

2010-12-03T06:04:00.001-08:00

To speed up production on issue #3 of The Absence, I've recruited an assistant...

Temple: Issue 3, Page 20, Panel 6

2010-11-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

Taken on my iphone, hence the crap quality, but there was just... something about this tiny, throw-away pic of Temple which I really liked. Not too laboured, but captures, I think, the quintessential qualities of the character, caught in the moment. What moment? You'll have to wait until I finish #3...

Origins

2010-11-10T04:59:00.001-08:00

I'm not lucky enough to be the sort of person where an idea for a story drops fully formed into my lap, and sitting down cold to write about a particular subject or theme has always been a struggle. Whenever I've most successfully written anything in the past (short stories, unfinished, unpublishable novels, whatever) they've always heaved themselves out of a soup of ideas which I've collected together over a period of time.

The ingredients for this primordial soup can come from many sources. Something in the news, a conversation, an old memory which randomly surfaces, even just a single sentence in a book. They stew together in the dark until something - usually a new 'ingredient' - causes them to spark and suddenly a narrative begins to form. This foetal narrative is fed and nurtured and slowly it grows, gnawing away at me until, finally, I write the fucker down in a notebook.

The genesis for The Absence was no different. To avoid spoiling the story I shan't reveal the initial 'spark' which caused the entire story to splutter into life, but I had a lovely revelation recently which made me discover a 'hidden' idea behind my comic which even I hadn't realised.

A couple of months ago, shortly before starting issue #3, I was at my parent's house. I was preparing to leave, putting on my coat in their hall and I suddenly noticed a small picture on the wall.

I'd seen this picture, many, many times before. It's a drawing done decades ago by my grandfather and now in the possession my dad. My grandfather drew for a hobby - and from what I gather he was very good. He died when I was a kid and my memory of him is hazy but I'm often told I inherit my artistic nature from him. My dad is a draughtsman and has my grandfather's technical excellence and eye for detail whereas I tend to come at drawing with a faster, more slapdash approach (mainly due to my complete lack of patience and short attention span).

No one in the family seems to know exactly when this was drawn, nor even where exactly the village is. My grandfather used to go for long cycle rides, so the general consensus is it's simply somewhere he stumbled upon while out. I used to study the picture when I lived at home. I have always drawn - and having another member of my family with the same interest has always made me feel close to him even though we barely knew each other. So everytime I passed this picture in the hall I would look at it, and imagine the scene as it unfolded for my grandfather, the man delivering as the woman watches on while the horse sweats in the sun. And I would imagine the village we can't see.

I moved out of my parent's house about fifteen years ago and haven't really given the picture much conscious thought since. But that day, putting on my coat and preparing to leave, I noticed it again. And I realised where the village in The Absence had begun to grow.

I've put a little homage to the picture in #3. Of course it's not as good, not as technically proficient or as detailed as my grandfather's (and yes, it's also been snowing in mine...) but I liked the idea that the village my grandfather found that day on his bike, might just be the one in my comic.

Review #3

2010-11-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

Another one with samples and everything!

Review #2

2010-10-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

Another lovely review here.

Might be another one in a few days, too...

Reviews!

2010-10-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

After sitting on The Absence and doing no marketing of it at all, I've finally got my arse into gear and started putting it out there a bit which means I have some upcoming reviews I can post.

Like this one.

Nice! I'm happy with that. More soon, hopefully...

Detail of #3 cover

2010-08-17T08:00:00.001-07:00

Slight change of style for the cover of issue #3. The eleven year old Thomas Birdwood plays a larger part so I wanted a children's book style illustration. It'll still go through an intensive Photoshop process, but this is the painting for for the central image.

It's much more controlled than my usual slap-dash approach, and so it came as a surprise when I realised I could actually still paint 'properly'...

Survival Stories

2010-08-12T01:03:00.001-07:00

As I've previously mentioned, Insomnia Publications (who I'd signed a contract with to publish The Absence) has filed to cease trading. This is unfortunate for two reasons: 1) it means they won't be publishing my damn book, and 2) it seems that because the owner hasn't specifically applied for bankruptcy and has apparently disappeared into thin air (owing many people money - although not me, thankfully) I, and 60 or so other creators, have our contracts currently stuck in 'limbo'.

Good times.

There's currently all manner of legal proceedings currently rumbling away to help us get the rights to our work back, however some of the creators had an anthology work in progress which, luckily, was outside of their contract from Insomnia. They've decided that the graphic novel, 'Survival Stories' will be used to raise funds for the CBA - the Comic Book Alliance - which is an organisation which fights for the rights of comic book creators and are helping with us the ongoing Insomnia problem.

They need to raise $3,600 to get the book printed. All the creators are working for free. You can read about the book, and pledge money (pledge over $15 and you get a copy of the book once it's printed), here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/910305588/the-sleepless-phoenix-comics-anthology

Thanks!

Photos

2010-07-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

As I've previously mentioned, the fact that Insomnia is now defunct is almost a blessing because I can now put each 'chapter' (Insomnia wanted it as book) as individual issues as I'd always intended. I had a grand scheme for the covers but only got to do one, however now I get to follow the idea through! Each cover is a half-and-half - illustration at the top, and a photo montage at the bottom.

This is the first one:

And this is the new one for issue 2:

None of these photos exist as real places – in the second one for example, the hill, the trees, the sky, the fence, and each crane all come from different images which I've composited together. It's Winter's Hill, where Temple is building his house...

Flashback

2010-07-25T06:45:00.001-07:00

So, Insomnia Publications is dead, as is my contract with them which is a shame but hey ho: at least it means I get to do The Absence as single issues, as was the original plan. If I can muster the enthusiasm/energy/time maybe I'll start going to some cons and doing this small press thing properly. Or maybe I'll shop The Absence round to other publishers. People seem to like it...

Anyway.

6 pages of issue #3 (as it will be known now - none of this 'chapter' bullshit anymore) is flashback. I've already established a style for the flashbacks, having had a couple of panels in issues #1 and #2. They look like this:

It's black and white art as with the rest of the comic (albeit with a slightly looser line), with a wash of grey over the top. Looks simple but it's a pain in the ass (although weirdly satisfying) to do. Here's the creation of a page I've been working on from #3. First, the line art:

Then I place a piece of tracing paper over the top and paint with black ink the areas I will eventually want grey. Again, I do it roughly and quickly. The flashback sequences are supposed to be fluid and loose (like a memory) - and I have to do it quickly because the tracing paper has a tendency to ruck up when it gets wet. It'll look like this (sorry about the photo - shitty iphone camera):

This is the overlay when separated from the art:

Once the two pieces are scanned in, I place the overlay on top of the art in photoshop and set the opacity to 30%. Can't post that till I get the art scanned but this, at least, is process. And it's a process I need to get used to: almost all of #4 will be a flashback...
And what's Marwood so terrified of? Well you'll have to wait and see...

Spandex

2010-07-13T09:37:00.001-07:00

The Absence chapter 3 is rumbling along (took a minor detour to work on a friend's comic story which hopefully I'll post later, along with some #3 pages). In the meantime, here's a pin up I did for Martin Eden's Japandex project which spun out of his hugely successful Spandex comic. Read about it here: http://spandexcomic.wordpress.com/

After the (relatively) real world of The Absence it was nice to paint a traditional superhero with a mask for a change!
Full disclosure and all that – it was based on the cover of Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami.

When Temple met Clay

2010-06-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

The first meeting of the two lead protagonists is a significant moment in The Absence, but I played it low key. I wanted Temple to feel he had all the power in the scene, almost patronising the disfigured Clay with his compassion and concern. But Marwood Clay is a dark horse (to say the least) and Temple will soon see his new 'friend' from a different perspective...

With chapter two now finished I'm deep into chapter three. Should have some stuff on here soon but typically it's turning out to be a difficult chapter with a lot of insanely fiddly special FX (flashbacks! snow!) I have to grapple with.

Replacements

2010-03-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

I've almost finished chapter 2. It's all drawn - just gotta tidy up the scans and then letter the bastard and then I'll have 60 pages finished. 60!

One of the reasons it's taking me so long is my determination to not allow time to force me to produce substandard work. I'm learning all the time and I'm constantly going back to old pages and worrying them a little on the computer to try and tidy/rework them. Sometimes it even means a complete redraw. The final page of #2 is such an example. In this instance however, it wasn't the drawing that annoyed me, but the story telling. This is something else I'm learning and exploring - ways of telling the story and making it flow cleanly between the panels.

Anyhoo - the upshot of all this is that I end up with a lot of extraneous material. This is a panel with Temple from the afore mentioned last page of chapter 2. I was always quite pleased with this drawing - it captures the energy and looseness I like in my work. So I thought I'd post it here.

Rocks and Rolls

2010-01-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

A pic! It's been a while. Been busy actually drawing the damn comic - uploading work-in-progress always seems like a luxury I don't have time for. But I've scanned and am currently piecing together about twenty new pages (chapter two is gonna be about 32 pages in total I think, so it's longer than chapter one!) Here's a pic from it. Can't explain too much without plot spoilers, but the car belongs to a chap called Taylor who is Robert Temple's 'employer'. Can't tell here, but this panel is a biggy which spreads across two pages.

Trucking Hell

2009-11-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

One of the advantages of setting The Absence in the 1940s is that the vehicles are pretty blocky in shape, and thus easy to draw in perspective. This is especially handy when there's a whole queue of 'em... This was another of those pictures which I approached with a 'gulp - this ain't gonna go well' attitude but which actually worked out ok in the end. Gonna need to fiddle with the load on the back of the truck though. Looks a touch unbalanced.

Oh, and I need to fix Marwood's left eye which is wandering across his face.

And I'm going to add some clouds, cos there's a storm approaching.

And I might add a bit more grass.

Other than that: finished.

Research

2009-11-01T04:53:00.000-08:00

Trying to write a 1940s-based comic can be a pain in the arse. Although I'm not slavishly researching the time period I'm doing what I can to at least avoid any basic errors. Currently I'm trying to find out what a medium-scale building project might've looked like (What type of cranes would've been used? What type of perimeter fencing? What type of building materials? What type of trucks? Did the builders wear helmets...?). You'd have thought that, post-blitz, there'd have been a plethora of images online of London being rebuilt. But no. Maybe I need to try (gulp) a library. I think I still have a membership card somewhere...

Occasionally with this research lark you get lucky. Issue #2 briefly has the eight-year old Thomas playing with toy soldiers. Obviously, when I was a kid the things were made of plastic, but in the 1940s...? Well I found this lovely pic:

And here's the pencils for 2.8.1 (issue.page.panel)

How things can go awry

2009-10-14T12:02:00.001-07:00

Last post I introduced Mr. Pitman. He only plays a very minor role in the Absence (although oddly his one major 'scene' was one of the first ideas I had). He's Robert Temple's site manager and his frustrations at the demands of building Temple's strange house is meant to reflect the readers feelings.
So, this is Mr Pitman:
Now, in my head I imagined him looking something like TV presenter Dick Strawbridge (or at least having a mustache like Strawbridge's):
I added a flat cap. Because he's a builder. And because it's the 1940s. Duh.
And finally I put him period style over-alls:
Brilliant, I thought. Mr Pitman! Until a friend pointed out Mr Pitman's similarity to this guy:

Bugger. Still as I say, he's barely in the fucking comic so frankly I don't care that he looks like an Italian plumber.
Humph.

Issue 2, Page 6, Panel 1

2009-10-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

I'm 7 pages of pencils into issue 2 and, with a couple of days off work, I hoped to have them inked soon. Here's one of the panels featuring Robert Temple (right) and his erstwhile building site foreman Mr Pitman (left). That crater? Ah, well, you'll have to wait to find out about the crater...

"They say he didn't sleep during the entire war..."

2009-09-13T02:33:00.000-07:00

With issue one finally finished I've allowed myself a month off before launching into issue two. Feedback from the folk who read #1 was very encouraging and has really rekindled my enthusiasm for the project. But it a weird way it's made me more nervous too. I need to make sure that issue #2 is better than (or at least as good as) #1 and I didn't have that pressure before. I think I have 'difficult second album' syndrome.

I've not been idle for the last month. I don't have a lot to show - I've mostly been plotting #2. Annoyingly, I have a very clear idea of what will happen in issue #3 but #2 is a little more... nebulous. I need to introduce the other main character, a chap called Robert Temple, who's a new comer to the town. I have the first few pages roughed out and I know where the issue needs to end to lead into #3, but what happens in the middle is proving a challenge. I think if The Absence was, as originally conceived, a novel it wouldn't be as difficult because it'd be based around interior monologue - but as a comic I'm trying to find a way to navigate the story in a more visual way.

Anyway, while I struggle with this here's a thumbnail sketch of a promo poster I might, at some point, work up, and also some (very rough) sketches from my development of Robert Temple. They say he didn't sleep during the entire war...

(Obligatory sales and marketing comment: Uh, there's more copies of issue #1 available if anyone wants one. See info on the right for details. Obligatory sales and marketing comment ends.)

Issue #1 available now!

2009-08-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

So. Back from the printers: a bunch of lovely copies of The Absence #1. A handful have already been sold, but there's still plenty available if you'd like one. Feedback from early readers has been good. Lots of people commenting on the lovely paper stock that lulu have used (a clear case of damning with faint praise...)

Being utterly useless at... well, at many things, but especially at sales and marketing crap, I haven't quite figured the best way to sell these. So currently there's two options:

UM, ACTUALLY THERE'S NO OPTIONS ANYMORE... SINCE I'VE SIGNED THE ABSENCE TO A PUBLISHER I CAN'T REALLY GO SELLING #1 ANYMORE... SORRY!

Here's some pics as proof the thing exists:

Now, buy one.
Or don't.
Whatever.
(See, told you I'm rubbish at sales and marketing...)

Cover

2009-07-23T09:42:00.001-07:00

Cover below. As always, it's a composite of a whole bunch of images - not least the photo which is compiled from different photos. The cliff edge, the little village in the distance, the outcrop of rock, the church, the hill in the far distance... all different pics. The illustration is also layered to hell and back.

In other news, I've also uploaded the entire first issue to the printer's, and ordered a couple of issues to proof! If it's all ok, I'll post details here...

Creation of a single frame

2009-07-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

So, although this is essentially a sparse frame, what there is is quite technical.

This is the basic artwork:

The pub sign is in perspective, but is important and will appear again. So I decided to draw it as a separate piece:

And created the name of the pub in Illustrator (adding a slightly rough edge to give it a little more of a 'hand-drawn' quality. Yes, ok, I cheated.

The shadow that Marwood casts needed to also be a separate piece due to a cross-fade thing which happens on the previous page.

Bolt it all together in Photoshop and you get, if you're lucky, this:

The fun of working this way is that the final art is a surprise to even me. I do what I can to minimise any errors in the artwork (and anyway, any problems can be ironed out in Photoshop) but until it's put together I can't say for sure how well it'll work. I'm really pleased with the pub sign, for example and I wasn't sure I was gonna pull that off.

The Back

2009-06-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

Well, the front's unfinished, but here's the back of issue one...

Making a page

2009-06-25T01:14:00.001-07:00

Given my style is somewhat splattery I sometimes have to take the long way around the block to get a finished, tidy page of artwork. Take page nine, for example. It's the penultimate page of the prologue, and sees a poor chap falling to his doom down the side of a cliff.

First I thumbnailed the page in rough to establish the pace of the action. Then I painted the background 'cliff' with my usual messy approach of spray and random lines.

Then, with a little more detail and on a separate piece of card, I drew the various panels which will need to go on top. The images below also contain a few redrawn boulders for one of the panels.

And then, on a piece of layout paper, I drew the rain effect using a variety of media.

A bit of photoshopping the whole lot together and I get the final page:

I've done a few pages in this fashion and it goes some way to explaining why it's taking SO FUCKING LONG, I think. It also means there's very few drawn pages which are 'complete' as a single piece of art. I think all of them have required some replacement panels in photoshop to some extent,

Logo

2009-06-19T05:59:00.001-07:00

The Absence now has a logo. Look, there it is as the top of the page. That's the version for the cover. There's also this version:

for interior pages.
The seagull is kind of a reoccurring motif for reasons which will become clear.

First proper pic!

2009-05-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Having dug out my (faulty) scanner from under a mountain of paperwork, I've managed to scan an actual pencilled picture from issue one. This is Marwood returning to his home town following a nasty run-in with the local beat bobby. Like the church interior pic (which hopefully I'll be able to post in a week or so), this is another one which I was dreading attempting but again actually turned out okay. I used a fair amount of photo research on it – the town is a mixture of three or so photos while the cliff edge in the distance is something I added at the last minute to both give a bit of depth and also suggest the town's geography.

I'm quite pleased with it - I think I've captured the 'steep hill into town' look I was going for.

Another crappy flatplan

2009-05-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

These are the first 8 or so pages in grotesquely-rough-but-not-as-rough-as-the-last-flatplan form. The pages have changed a little since I did this sketch, mostly in terms of the pacing.

Original notes

2009-05-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

These are the original notes for The Absence... Good luck reading it - my handwriting is awful, but it's interesting to note the first 'drawings' - a little doodle of the cliff-top church from the prologue and even a basic map of the town, too.

Yes, I'm well aware, considering this is supposed to be a comic, that I've uploaded bugger all in the way of actual art. I don't own a scanner at home so I'm gonna have to wait until I can scan everything at once at work. Hopefully in a couple of weeks.

Sketch book

2009-05-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Absence originally started life as an idea for a novel, but once I'd decided to run with it as a comic I need to revisit the visual element of the story - including character design. The images below represent some idle commuting-based doodling but they were enough to make me radically rethink one of the lead characters and actually added an entirely different spin onto the whole idea of the story.

The images are actually a little 'spoilery' but a) you'll be hard pressed to work out any detail in my scrawls and b) you find out the gag in issue one anyway.

Flatplan

2009-05-11T09:29:00.001-07:00

This represents the extent of my detailed flatplanning for #1...

Yes, it's as rough as houses and was for a while, it turns out, utterly wrong (I'd miscounted the pages!) but it's enough for me to figure out where I am and what needs still to be done. Because I'm writing the script as I draw the pages it's all fairly fluid anyway. No, really.

Logo

2009-04-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

The logo needs to echo the themes of the comic. It needs to be fractured and it needs to be missing something intangible whilst remaining readable and strikingly immediate. I'm keen to try a version where the logo is almost a negative image - so the shapes around the characters make the words. None of these first attempts are doing it for me. I think it needs a more 'hand-drawn' feel and less obviously a 'font'. Frankly even tinkering with a logo at this stage seems woefully premature since I still have so far to go with issue one...

The sixth one down is the closet thing to what's in my head, but fuck knows if it's even readable. 'Absence' is a weird word, looks like it's been spelt wrong even when it hasn't, so it's tough making it cryptic yet legible. What I really want to do is something like Rian Hughes' logo for The Invisibles. The sooner I can get it right the sooner I can loose that ugly font at the top of this page...