Forbidden Planet’s Richard Bruton reviews The Whale House, part two, saying:

“…this, ladies and gents, is a superb read. In fact it may be one of the best things Cheverton’s ever written…  And it’s absolutely Doherty’s best work thus far.

“Throughout the issue the tension builds and builds, and even though there’s little out and out menacing here, it’s again all down to storytelling, perfectly done. I don’t think I’ve ever been this breathless at the end of a comic where essentially the protagonist has dinner and meets a strange family before.”

The full Forbidden Planet review is here.

Also, the MOMBcast comic podcast features reviews of both The Whale House, part two and West: Autumn Dusk in their most recent show. 

Listen to the MOMBcast show here.

Our thank to both reviewers for their time and kind words.

The Whale House and West are available in print editions here.

The Whale House and West are available in print and digital editions here.

This weekend (the 11th and 12th of May) the Bristol Comic Expo takes place in Brunel’s Old Station (right next to Bristol Temple Meads), and the Doubletree Hilton hotel in Radcliffe Way.

In attendance will be Andrew Cheverton and Tim Keable, selling the latest issues of West and The Whale House, the brand new West T-shirt, as well and sketching and signing and offering several shades of bonhomie.

Autumn Dusk is the latest issue of West:

New York, 1901. Jerusalem West and Wilton Frohickie have fought side by side, in war and without. They’ve faced bandits and killers, spirits and demons; they’ve defended the living and they’ve killed the dead - just about everything the weird and wild west has to throw at them.

Now, both settled with homes and families, they enjoy the quiet life.

But old habits die hard…

The Whale House continues with issue two - Madrigal:

Diggory Wallis has left behind his job, his girlfriend, his best friend… and the graves of the two people he had always thought were his parents.

Seeking refuge when his car breaks down deep in the countryside, Diggory is taken in at Southlands, home of the Whale family, who all seem mistakenly convinced that he is their long-lost son Doran.

Stranded, Diggory finds little option but to politely bluff his way through the evening. Surely rationality - and reality - will prevail?

And, available first exclusively at the BCExpo, we have the West T-shirt, featuring all-new Tim Keable artwork on a 100% cotton, white Gildan shirt, specifically designed to make you feel warm while looking cool.

We hope to see you there. If you can’t make it, all comics (in print and digital formats) are already on sale online in both our Big Cartel and Comicsy storefronts, and the West T-shirt will be available from next week.

Simon Moreton has posted an interesting entry on his smoo Tumblr, comparing his earliest comics work with his latest:

“Our comics could be your life, too. Not because they’re something anymore special than those made by anyone else – hardly - but because all you have to do is pick up a pencil and make a start, from the heart.

“I started comics crummy. I’m probably still crummy. But I got better…

I’m glad it didn’t give up. I’m finding a voice and a style. And the best thing I ever did? Start.”

Douglas Noble has picked up the baton on his website.

In that spirit (because what Simon is saying is nothing less than inspirational, and Douglas is one of the British comic creators who inspired me to pick up a pencil in the first place) I’ve dug through the files and found this painful first step, which (if my computer filing system is accurate) I made in September of 2005.

This is the first page of a strip called Universal Monsters for Will Vigar’s Miserable. It was (poorly, if I’m honest) designed to be read sideways, and was drawn at A4 for an A5 comic, a method which I’ve recently readopted after a poor experiment in drawing on A3 (it’s not necessary for better reproduction and, frankly, all that white space terrifies me - also, my current art is so simple, it really suffers from being drawn too large).

Because I’ve also adopted different working materials over the years, it might be interesting to see how differently each piece was drawn.

This was pencilled using whatever HB or equivalent pencil I had to hand, and I remember having to re-ink many parts of this after rubbing out the pencils destroyed much of the inks. This was also drawn on something like printer paper - whatever, again, I had to hand. The inking was done with a pack of Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens, which many people swear by, but which I never really got to grips with, and then I overworked it with Tippex, some white gauche paint, and ink spatters.

This is an angle I doubt I’d have the confidence to attempt now (today, my perspective is all flattened planes and harsh shading), so there’s something to be said for inexperience, but the relentless scribbles and marks seem like someone trying a bit too hard.

My latest page is a (here unlettered) comic strip review of the film Maniac for Electric Sheep magazine.

The first and most obvious difference is the addition of colour, though this page has examples of the flattened planes mentioned above (the bedroom furniture and - particularly - the camera, all drawn on a lateral plane - I’ve even used the method on the picture frames).

This page was pencilled at A4 using a Pilot Color Eno .07 mechanical pencil loaded with blue lead (which doesn’t show up in the scanning - live and learn!) and inked with .01 and .02 UniPin drawing pens. Thicker lines and panel borders are drawn with a Pilot V Signpen, which is also used for small or tight areas of black, though I’ll break out the Prockey Inkview marker (sadly discontinued) for large areas of shadow. The line weight is uniform, only rarely tapering at the ends, and I only draw a curve if I cannot help it.

The colouring is done with an initial greytone to establish colour values (this is the same method used when I simply greytone a strip) and then three layers of colour are added on top - in this instance shades of red, blue and yellow. Adjustments made to the layer style and opacity let the greys come through and (fingers crossed) tie the whole thing together. Then a texture (here a blood splatter) is laid over the page, and again adjusted for best effect.

It’s taken me a few years and a lot of drawing (much of it bad) to get to a point where I feel like it’s working. And even when it doesn’t work, it’s an act of creation and worthy in itself. “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

I can’t sum this up much better than repeating what Simon says above: “I’m glad I didn’t give up. I’m finding a voice and a style. And the best thing I ever did? Start.”

Start.

AccentUK now have copies of their newest graphic novel Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist for sale in their online store.

“Acclaimed picture book publishers of Her Majesties Empire Accent UK present a visionary gothic novel! A burial in eight bold parts! At the funeral of her mysterious and eccentric husband, widow Zelda mourns for the man she never knew: Thaddeus Mist kept a lifetime of secrets. She confronts each guest in search of the truth but flawed memory and imagination moulds the tales told: grave robbing, cannibalism, murder in the jungle. Seven stories, seven different men. These confessions disgust, inspire, and scare her, but it falls to Zelda to decide, Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist?”

The book is a ‘collaborative graphic novel’, one story told in chapters, each one by a different creative team. My chapter is Where On Earth?, beautifully illustrated by Jack Tempest.