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Apr20

Artist Questionnaire: Edward Bentley

posted by Simon

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Name:
Edward Bentley

In a sentence, who are you and what do you do?
Independent Comic book artist and writer

What got you started? Was there a specific moment or time when you released “this is what I want to do”?
Matt Hardy of Mad Robot bullied me into it. He started off asking me to do a small couple of page comics and then one day we just decided to keep going. After a while the comics got bigger and then one day we were like shall we publish this?

What was your favourite comic growing up?
Tintin was defiantly the comic of my childhood. It was a proper adventure every time I sat down to read it.

What was the first piece of work or project that you were really proud of?
Madhouse No.1 from Mad Robot. It was the first comic I held in print and it was a real accomplishment. It’s not our finest work but it holds a special place. Every time you hold a fresh printed comic you have been working on in your hands there is an amazing feeling.

What is your preferred material to work with?
Currently digital but I also love a good technical pencil.

What is your least liked material to work with?
I enjoy most mediums although I really dislike photo comics.

What’s your dream project? Forget about money, time, popular demand or any other variable. If that was all covered and you would work on whatever you wanted. What would it be?
Probably Tank girl because it’s an awesome comic and it’s pretty fun.its a comic I have enjoyed a lot over the years and I think I could bring something too it.

If you were hired to create a book cover based on a classic story, what would the story be and how would you tackle creating it?
Maybe a really creepy Pinocchio or Peter Pan. I really enjoy a good twisted fairytale.

If you had a spirit animal, what would it be?
Squirrel?

What are you currently working on and what’s coming up in the future?
I’m working on a few bits at the moment inc… Dan Earey and myself are twisted gay horror Darkboy & Adler, Mad Robots ongoing Cadavers and the sci-fi Morrigan with Doug Ross & Richard Johnston. Currently, the future holds more of the same with these three being ongoing but I do have a couple of secret projects on the go that I can’t disclose at the moment.

Which artist(s) would you like to see interviewed? Why?
Warwick Johnson Cadwell

What questions (apart from these ones!) would you like to ask them?
I’d like to ask him how he makes squiggly uneven lines look amazing and perfect. It’s an art form that I’m insanely jealous of.

Tell us something about yourself that people wouldn’t normally know!
I trained as a stop-motion animator but I wasn’t very good.

Your Links (Facebook/Twitter/Website/Instagram/etc.)
Instagram: www.instagram.com/edward-bentley-comics
Website: www.madrobotcomics.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/darkboyandadler

Apr16

Artist Questionnaire: Aisling

posted by Simon

Name:
Antea a.k.a. “Aisling”

In a sentence, who are you and what do you do?
I am a person who wants to put on paper (by drawings or words) whatever is walking through her mind at that specific moment.

What got you started? Was there a specific moment or time when you released “this is what I want to do”?
I’ve always loved cartoons and illustrated books since I was very little; and I’ve always loved reading and the idea of creating anything thrills me, even just in my mind. So, I believe, I’m always thinking of some new challenges because I really can’t think of my life without creativity in it.

What was your favourite comic growing up?
I really can’t say I have a favourite one. I’ve always loved superheroes but I’m not really enthused about drawing them. I prefer drawing grotesque characters and fantastic creatures from ancient stories. I really love fantasy books and art in general though.

What was the first piece of work or project that you were really proud of?
A CD cover I realized for my cousin’s band where I had to portrait him and his friends in a grotesque but still resembling way. Still really proud of the portrait of my cousin, it makes me laugh so much, it’s just him!

What is your preferred material to work with?
I must say I both love digital and non-digital art. I like the quickness of the first one but I also love the touch of a 2B on the paper and the lines I get from the pencil represent better than when I use a Cintiq what I’m feeling when I’m drawing in that specific moment.

What is your least liked material to work with?
I’m not that good with painting. So I’d say I really prefer black and white stuff.

What’s your dream project? Forget about money, time, popular demand or any other variable. If that was all covered and you would work on whatever you wanted. What would it be?
I would like both to create an illustrated fantasy book and other projects that include just my true love for writing.

If you were hired to create a book cover based on a classic story, what would the story be and how would you tackle creating it?
I would probably use some of my wit (people often say you can see my drawings are witty) and I’d also like to put in the drawing a lot of hidden hints about the story. I surely would start by reading carefully the story, to be sure I have made the characters in it mine and then I would start studying the best identity for them and, just in the end, I’d add what would make them mine and unique in my own opinion. At least, that is what I would like trying to achieve.

If you had a spirit animal, what would it be?
I would like to think of a wolf. I’m a bit of a loner but I also like being in the company of the few ones I love so I would fit in in a pack, I believe, but I also like to have my own spaces. Even though once I’ve done one of those silly tests on “what’s your totemic animal?” – or something like that – and it looks like I’m fit for A DOVE. That was quite disappointing, I must say! Though they’re a symbol of peace and stuff like that, and I must admit that I’m a kind person so, I believe, I should appreciate it anyway… but still! Wolfs are fluffy and kind of mighty and fierce…

What are you currently working on and what’s coming up in the future?
At the moment, even though I admit it with a bit of disappointment, I’m concentrating on other matters and I draw in my free time. Though I try to find the time to write my own stories and create my own characters, even though they’re all still hidden in a drawer.

Which artist(s) would you like to see interviewed? Why?
I love many artists, even though many of them are so different in many ways, I really can’t name one. I surely love Glen Keane, I think his art is perfection and true love for the matter. But I also respect one of my S.I.C.’s (Scuola Internazionale di Comics – International School of Comics) teachers very much. He works for the French BD: his name is Paolo Grella. I believe he is a great artist and teacher on so many levels. I’ll always cherish what he taught me.

What questions (apart from these ones!) would you like to ask them?
I’ve asked him lots of questions about technique, execution etc. in my school years, but I’ve always admired how he encouraged us to exceed our limits and what little we already knew to became so much more. I’ve always asked myself how was he able to believe that much in us to make us really reach new levels and improve so much. How was he able to do that? It still looks amazing to me after six years. The point is that he taught me that you can do whatever you want to do just by trying and wanting it. It’s amazing.

Tell us something about yourself that people wouldn’t normally know!
I’m quite an open book! But probably many people don’t know that I’m a huge nerd and I love PC games: I’m a Blizzard and Riot fan and I painfully admit that I spend way too much time on games.

Your Links (Facebook/Twitter/Website/Instagram/etc.)
Instagram: @ladyofshalott89

Apr09

Artist Questionnaire: Lyndon White

posted by Simon

Name:
Lyndon White

In a sentence, who are you and what do you do?
I’m an illustrator, comic artist, designer and sometimes writer.

What got you started? Was there a specific moment or time when you released “this is what I want to do”?
I’ve always been interested in art and animation. I knew I was going to do something art related, most likely illustration. While I was in college someone handed me a copy of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and that is when it “clicked”. I’d already made a few short comics at that point but I didn’t release what the comics medium was or meant. I read comics but didn’t want to draw superheroes. Despite Arkham being a Batman story, it opened up what comics were to me, both from a writing and art perspective.

What was your favourite comic growing up?
I loved Spider-man. I’m from a small town so I had limited access to them growing up. The only things I could get hold of were what I could find in a WHSmith and that was only if I got there first, before the few copies were sold out. I once managed to buy a collection of someones comics on a car boot sale, that was like a gold mine.

What was the first piece of work or project that you were really proud of?
That would be Pinnacle, my second fully printed 24 page comic. It’s a silent comic and drawn completely with pencil. It follows an old man trying to reach the top of the mountain with a monster chasing him through the blizzard. Since the artwork was really stripped back, everything had to work. The emotions, body language, pacing etc.

I usually dislike a lot of my work. Especially once its a few months old. But Pinnacle is one of the favourite one-shots that I’ve done. Its now out of print but people who bought my early work still bring it up, which is a sign that people liked it and the silent storytelling worked.

What is your preferred material to work with?
I mix a lot of different media but if I had to narrow it down to a single one, that would be a Staedtler Mars pencil. If you can’t tell, I love sketchy line work and I feel my illustrations hold up with just pencils (if they need too). Adding the inks, paint and colour is extra.

What is your least liked material to work with?
Watercolour. I despise using the stuff. How it mixes and even moves across the page is grim. People tend to look at my work and thing I use watercolour a lot, but it is in fact ink.

What’s your dream project. Forget about money, time, popular demand or any other variable. If that was all covered and you would work on whatever you wanted. What would it be?
Generally it would be one of my own stories. If I could sit and write my stuff and then create it into comics, that would be the dream projects. I do enjoy working with other people and writers but getting to every aspect of making a comic is fun but also really rewarding. Working by yourself means you can see it all coming together from the initial stages. Thankfully I do get to write and illustrate my own stories, but not all the time. I’d go into more details about said stories, but I aim to pitch them so your out of luck.

To name something that people might know, I’d love to take a stab at Dorian Grey in graphic novel format or a Shakespeare story. Drawing The Dark Tower would also be amazing to do, but alas, its already been done.

If you were hired to create a book cover based on a classic story. What would the story be and how would you tackle creating it?
I’ve already done this and it was Bram Stroker’s Dracula. Which came from sketch out the idea when I was waiting for a painting to try. The cover showcased Castle Dracula with candles in the foreground and a vampire-esk skull floating above the castle. It had a lot of purples and orange glows. It was one of my favourite single illustrations.

If you had a spirit animal, what would it be?
An otter or a platypus. Depends on the season.

What are you currently working on and what’s coming up in the future?
I’ve just finished working on a new concertina book based on H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu which will be out in May. I’m currently working on a 4 part mini series for Hellbound Media, Mandy the Monster Hunter with each issue being released every few months this year. There also a bunch of stuff from Blue Fox Comics, including a new Hexes story.

Other than that, I’m developing a few different pitches at the moment. We will see what happens in the coming months.

Which artist(s) would you like to see interviewed? Why?
Alexis Deacon. He is fairly new to the world of graphic novels but his work on Geis is utterly amazing. You can tell he has a long history in illustration and children’s books. Hearing him talk about his approach and what else he plans to do after he finished the final Geis book would be interesting.

What questions (apart from these ones!) would you like to ask them?
I think I supplied a number of these questions to Blue Fox (you have now been publicly outed). So a good chuck of the questions above.

Tell us something about yourself that people wouldn’t normally know!
I’m partly colourblind, detest wearing socks and don’t drink milk.

Your Links (Facebook/Twitter/Website/Instagram/etc.)
Twitter: @lyndondraws
Instagram: @lyndondraws
Website: www.lyndonwhite.com

May17

Robyn: A (Positive) Lesson in Gender Swapping Characters

posted by Simon

I’m Simon Birks, co-founder and chief writer of Blue Fox Comics, a small indie comic book publisher based in the UK. I wanted to take a few moments to talk about our latest comic book, Robyn, which is a gender-flipped Robin Hood comic for all ages.

Robyn is the story of an intelligent, skilful and capable girl, who lives on her own as an outlaw in Sherwood Forest, struggling to survive. To make ends meet, she runs errands for a monk named Tuck, a shady character, who knows more than he’s letting on. The comic follows Robyn as she decides to investigate the rumours of a monster in the crags nearby.

The reviews for Robyn have been fantastic. I’ve felt extremely proud, reading about their love of the art, of the characters, of the comic as a whole. It’s a real affirmation of everything we wanted to do with the story.

One of my favourite comments, however, was from Starburst Magazine, who wrote:

“the gender of the lead protagonist isn’t a gimmick. The character isn’t overly sexualised, there’s no cheesy ‘woman doing a man’s job’ approach or any of that nonsense. What we have is a young person who lives in a medieval world trying to be the best by their own conscience.”

We took a risk by taking a well-known male character, and making them female. It’s a pitfall many haven’t survived. We didn’t want Robyn to be a poor imitation of Robin.

How did we avoid it?

My wife and co-founder, Marielle, sums it up well. “We captured the Robyn character at a completely different stage in their life, which has never really been explored, boy or girl. Robyn, because of her age, has the opportunity to grow and develop, and that’s the key; she is going to develop her own character, and through our own unique story, will face completely different characters and challenges. All of this, will shape Robyn into the person she becomes.”

Robyn isn’t simply re-treading old ground, it’s creating a new legend, with a character whose core values and skills we know something about. It’s a chance to see how some of these values came to be, a chance to understand who she is.

As the series progresses, we’ll meet other recognisable characters, too, both from the Robin Hood mythos, and from other legends. Each will be familiar, yet unique; people you know, yet don’t know.

If creators aren’t offering anything new to a gender-flipped character (whether it be boy to girl, or girl to boy), they must ask themselves why they are doing it, at all. Consumers want to be surprised, and entertained. I know I do. Creating Robyn has been one of the most gratifying projects to date, and I look forward to many more adventures with her.

I’ll leave you with another quote from Starburst Magazine:

“[Robyn] takes an old idea and makes it new. It subverts our expectations and demands that we re-think our assumptions.”

Robyn is currently raising funds on Kickstarter for printing. The campaign is fully funded, and is now into stretch goals.

Jan25

Hexes:Waking Nightmare – From Idea to Comic

posted by Simon

So, how did Hexes: Waking Nightmare come to be?

Well, as with many of my comics, it started life as a short film I wrote as part of a competition I enter annually. It’s called NYC Midnight Screenwriters Challenge, and one of the things I like about it is that it gives you two limitations; time and circumstances.

Held over three rounds, the time you must write the short screenplay diminishes until you have just twenty-four hours for the final round. What I really like is that they give you three parameters you must include: Genre, Character and Object.

For Waking Nightmare, I was given the horror, a child and a ferry to contend with. Working within parameters really helps me focus and concentrate on the story. It reminds me of being at school and getting the first line of a story that you have to complete!

Anyway, the Waking Nightmare script got me through the first round, which I was pleased about. That was mid-2012.

Fast forward to mid-2015, and I decided I’d turn it into a full-length movie script. That took a few months to complete it to a standard I was happy with.

Then, in 2016, after Hexes: The Boy Who Came Closer (another comic that started as a short film script) had been drawn, I sent it to Lyndon White for lettering. I’d been trying to find a project to work with Lyndon on for a while, and he mentioned how much he liked ‘The Boy Who Came Closer’, and if there was another one-off I was planning to send it through to him.

Well, I dusted off my Google drive folder, and found the Waking Nightmare short film screenplay. Over a few weeks, I turned that into the comic script, and sent it to Lyndon, who loved it.

After the normal iterations, the finished comic was ready in time for the Hexes Kickstarter campaign in July/August 2016, and the rest is history.

Jan21

New Comic Series – Robyn – Kickstarting in February 2017

posted by Simon

In February, we’re going to be Kickstarting our latest comic book series ‘Robyn’.

Written by Simon Birks, with art by Ege Avci and letters by Lyndon White, Robyn is a gender flipped Robyn Hood action/adventure comic for ages 7 and up.

Robyn’s gender isn’t the only change we’re making! Little John does not fight with a staff, but with the crutches he uses due to disability. Scarlett is also gender flipped, Friar Tuck is slightly shadier, and Robyn and the future Sheriff of Nottingham are friends!

What’s the story about?

In issue 1, whilst Robyn is on a mission for Tuck she hears about a monster within the forest, and decides to investigate herself. What she finds is beyond anything she could ever have imagined!

We’re getting together some very unique rewards for our campaign, so keep an eye out on your email and your social media for more information!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the story.

Jan17

What’s Next for Hexes?

posted by Simon

In the next few months, the first Hexes trade paperback will be launched on the Kickstarter platform. It’ll be made up of four Hexes stories. You already know about the first two stories, The Boy Who Came Closer and Waking Nightmare, but what about the next ones.

Well, we can officially announce the next two stories are:

Hexes: Midnight Oil
Words by Simon Birks, Art by Emiliano Correa, Letters by Lyndon White

Set in Argentina, Midnight Oil tells the story of Connie and her husband, who run a petrol station. After a tragic accident which Connie finds impossible to come to terms with, she receives two visitors, neither of whom are welcome.

Hexes: 101
Words by Simon Birks, Art by Rory Donald, Letters by Lyndon White

On a dark night, Lee, a young man with a secret, arrives at an old peoples home in mid-town America, looking for help. He receives some, in the form of Greta, a 101 year old woman, who has a very dark secret of her own.

Don’t worry about missing the start of the Kickstarter, we’ll make enough noise for everyone to hear! It will most likely be towards the end of March / beginning of April, sort of time.

Would love to know what you think.

Jan13

Download the First 6 Pages of Waking Nightmare Variant Edition for Free

posted by Simon

As part of our Hexes:Waking Nightmare black and white variant edition Kickstarter, you’re now able to download the first 6 pages for free!

Just click the link below

Hexes Waking Nightmare – First Six Pages

Hope you enjoy them!

Don’t forget to check out our Kickstarter!

Dec15

Monster Motivation

posted by Simon

Monsters are everywhere; in our heads, in our hearts, in our lives.

They are the driver for horror stories, and a good monster will be remembered forever.

But what makes a good one? To some, it’s the ugliness, the viciousness, the sheer number of razor sharp teeth which provide the thrills, but I believe a monster needs to be more than that.

In the Hexes comic book series, monsters play a large part, it’s a supernatural/horror title, after all, and to come up with a new monster every issue can be daunting. Fortunately, I learnt early on that the look of the monster is not the most important factor. After all, the ugly creatures can be heroes, the beautiful ones, the villains.

For example, in ‘The Boy Who Came Closer’, the monster appears to be the man who gives Brendan the mysterious pebble. He’s a massive, hulking figure, who intimidates a sick child. He appears to be nasty, but, in reality, he saves Brendan’s life. He has no personal agenda; he is the messenger.

Neither is it the apparition that haunts Brendan. The apparition is merely a warning; a fragment of Brendan who knows the truth and won’t let him forget.

In fact, in ‘The Boy Who Came Closer’, Brendan himself ends up playing the part of the monster. He is the one acting for his own selfish interests, and to me, that’s possibly the most important factor.

Monsters are scary because they act in their own interests. They can be nasty for no reason, but it makes them less interesting; being evil for evil’s sake gives little depth of character.

The key lies in questioning the creature’s incentives. If it hides under the bed, why? If it lurks in the wardrobe; why? What sounds does it make, and why would it make them? What does it live for? What is it afraid of?

It’s only when pondering, and answering, these vital questions that a story really begins to gain depth.

All antagonists need a reason for what they do, and monsters are no different. They are more than just the mechanism to scare people.

If you take the time and give them a purpose for everything they do, you will be rewarded.

It’s time to motivate those monsters!

Dec13

Sinners 3 Kickstarter Campaign Successful

posted by Simon

Around 11.30pm on 6th December, Sinners III Kickstarter campaign ended, after raising a brilliant 112% of its £1200 goal.

Kickstarter campaigns are always interesting (for interesting, read stress inducing) affairs, with a lot of work going on in the background to raise more backers. Each and every backer is vitally important, and as we learned on our very first Kickstarter (for Sinners I, as it happens, back in the mists of Feb 2015) numbers of backers can go down as well as up!

Fortunately, Sinners III was fairly steady. We are lucky enough, now, to have a following on the Kickstarter platform, who regularly back our campaigns.

So, now the money is raised, what next?

Still left to do:

Send out the surveys – we need to know a lot about our backers in order to get everything just right
Letter Sinners III – Lyndon White will be working his magic on the lettering for us once again.
Order the extras, including, A4 print, T-Shirt, Postcard, to name a few – you’re never sure how many you need until the campaign finishes
Wait for the money to come through from Kickstarter – this normally takes a couple of weeks
Get the comics printed!
Send the comics out to the backers.

So, the work continues.

As with all our other campaigns, the comic will be available to buy from this website as soon as it arrives at Blue Fox Comics HQ, so don’t worry if you missed the campaign.

That’s all for now – we are hoping to do posts 2 or 3 times a week from now on. There’s always a lot going on here, so we’re excited to be able to show you new stuff as it comes in!

Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep in touch, and follow our Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc to be kept up to date!

For now, ’nuff said.