It's OK to cry, said the thief...

Jim Munroe is the author of such wonderful books as Angry Young Spaceman and Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask. He's also one of my favourite authors, which is why I was thrilled to be included in his current project.

Jim is writing a series of one-hour stories, and asked if I'd like to attempt a one-hour illustration to go along with one of them. I immediately agreed. As I said, I'm a fan.

Here is the result of that collaboration - first is the story itself, then my illustration. I was perhaps a little over-ambitious, as was certainly attempting to channel the spirit of Will Eisner (ahem). I was delighted to give it a go, and I only wish I were good enough to do the words true justice.

Jim Munroe links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nomediakings
Website: No Media Kings

Story ©2015 Jim Munroe
Illustration ©2015 Jonathan Wyke

Last little tease

These are the last three pages of the preview to the book I'm working on with Dale Mettam.

It's violent, sexy and sweary, so if nothing else it'd probably fall foul of Blogger's censorship if I posted any more of it...

Jael is ©2015 Dale Mettam and Jonathan Wyke

Teasing

Just a couple of teaser pages for a new strip, co-created with the terrific Dale Mettam.

Dale's writing on this is so good it's shaming me rather into trying to pull out all the stops. Obviously this makes me as slow as a very slow thing.

It's something of a departure for me, in that it's set in modern times and uses more than two colours. Just on these two pages there are three colours! Three! It's crazy.

©2015 Dale Mettam & Jonathan Wyke

A Man Without Fear

Every now and again I forget that I don't really get how to do superhero types, and, risking life and limb, have another go. I thought of doing this when, out of nowhere, I had an idea for how to show ol' hornhead's radar sense.

This one's more successful than most I think, and it's supposed to be Marvel's Daredevil. Please bear in mind I'm a long way behind anything that's happening in comics these days, so any inconsistancies are the fault of my bad reading...

All done in MangaStudio, all using a BIG FAT PENCIL!


Drawing done by me, character © Marvel Comics & just used here in a fan-arty way!

IRON, now in colour!

Here's the first page of a new (very) short IRON strip.

As with all of these, it's real purpose is to try and teach me stuff, and for this one, I'm attempting a more conventional looking strip. With inking. And colouring in.

I've attempted a sort of semi-painted look here. I did try to do the airbrush style colouring that seems to be in vogue in comics at the moment, but found it really, really didn't go with the drawing style. Perhaps a better colourist than me would have more luck.

I found this style took me a hell of a lot longer, but I suspect that's for a couple of reasons - I'm not used to working in this way, and I was still producing ultra tight pencils as I didn't trust my rather shoddy inking. I'm hoping practice will speed the process up.

IRON is ©2015 Jonathan Wyke

Porn

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/25/google-and-reddit-ban-non-consensual-naked-images-from-sites

None of my work is pornographic, but it often contains mature themes and language, and also nudity, both male and female.

Now Blogger has announced it's going to ban explicit content. Who is judging what is ban-worthy and what isn't? Nude photos and videos banned. What about drawings and paintings next? Or literature? Would the next 50 Shades of Grey be banned from the site? Which culture's standards are being used to determine what's suitable and what isn't? Are we all now subject to the puritan right wing of American politics?

I am against exploitation in any form. I am against anything that hurts the participants against their will.

I am also against blanket censorship. I am against arbitrary decisions that blow with the political wind.

The following drawing was done by one of the greats of 20th century art, Egon Schiele. It's one of his milder ones. Will that be banned too?

Page Eight, the final page of IRON!

This is the last page so it's now all done. It too way too long for eight pretty simple pages, and literally nothing happens in it, but it's finished.

I've done three of these short little strips, all set around the same time, with fundamentally the same people involved, and in my head they're really all primers. They're all set in the British Dark Ages. Following the fall of Rome and the withdrawal of it's infrastructure, troops and market economy, Britain really collapsed. We don't need to look to science fiction to see a post-apocalyptic society. It's happened. Here.

I'm interested in just following normal people as the go about their lives, and was hoping that the setting would at least provide enough visual interest for people to want to look at it. This past strip is simply a small group of people who've been called to the funeral of their king. Nothing more or less.

Each one of these strips has also served to answer questions I'm having about my own art. For this one, I've really tried to push the boat out with my drawing. I've literally spent days on each page, treating the drawings more as paintings than simply pencils. The average length of time taken to draw each of these pages was 3 1/2 days. I must admit, I'm still not sure if it was worth it.

Having said all that, I've enjoyed doing them.  All comments and crits are gratefully received!

IRON is ©2015 Jonathan Wyke