Redbats, episode 3

The Story So Far...

In the Kingdom of Baht, there is only one who is Red. An outcast from society, this quick-tempered Baht with a homicidal mean streak and a propensity for ultra-violence lives in isolation, plying his trade as a Merc for Hire, the so-called "Red Bat-talion (of One)". Hired by the Blue Realm to retrieve Princess Flo Batina from the invaders who stole her from her Palace, Redbats now attempts to lead her to safety...




It's not going too well...


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Icarus...living dangerously!

Wow.

That's all I can say about this.

I have a story coming up in PARAGON called "Icarus Dangerous", which starts where the classic Greek legend ends...and takes off from there. In big style. The series is due to debut in issue 7 of the comic, which should be out by Christmas, all going well.

I've been EXTREMELY lucky in that my story has bagged the cover slot for the issue. And I've been even luckier in that the artist signed up to realise it was "pencilmonkey" extraordinaire and all around great guy MATT SOFFE. Just look at this! How could you possibly improve on it? It captures the character better than I could have imagined and sets the tone of the piece - ie, DANGER, because this strapping young Greek chap (he's not gay) is going to be getting himself into a LOT of it in my tale - perfectly.

Feast your eyes on this little beauty!

Halloween is for Pussies.

Who says Halloween has to be all horror and spookiness. Pfffft!!! That's for WUSSES. What you really want is some heartwarming, uplifting ROMANCE at this frosty time of year. ROMANCE, I tell you, to enliven the soul and sweep back those approaching tendrils of Winter. And ROMANCE is exactly what myself and LIAM "GHOSTPOCKETS" BYRNE plan to deliver in this year's edition of HALLOWSCREAM from BACK FROM THE DEPTHS, coming very, very soon to a computer near you.

ROMANCE, damnit!!!

It will make you feel all warm and mushy inside!

GUARANTEED!!!

Redbats, episode 2

So far so good with sticking to the weekly schedule...but it's only the 2nd week so early days! Enjoy and feel free to leave your comments. I'm particulary proud of panel 2 here and will endeavour to include one such panel in every installment. (Told you it would get nasty!)

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The boys are back in town...

...but which town, exactly?

"Tales from the Emerald Isle" is a new 2000ad fanzine being put together by David McDonald, which turns the spotlight on those characters from the comic with Irish blood running through their veins. There are more of them than you would think! Being Irish myself I was eager to get on board with this project and offered my scribing services. The result - a short and snappy Sinister Dexter tale which revisits some places and faces from Finnigan Sinister's past.

It's ironic I've written a Sinister Dexter tale really. When the story first started in the pages of 2000ad I absolutely detested it. Abhored it. Couldn't stand the sight of it! I gave up on reading 2000ad around about then, and every time I considered returning to the comic over the course of the next 10 or so years, I would pick up a copy in the shop, have a quick flick through, find Sinister Dexter was still there...and walk away. Not for me, I thought. Stupid, pointless story.

Fast forward to 2006 and I did come back to the fold, for prog 1500, from which Sinister Dexter were relievingly absent. Or so I thought. In truth, a story called "Malone" which I really, really enjoyed, turned out to be a Sinister Dexter story in disguise, catching me completely off-guard...and making me interested in Sinister Dexter for the very first time. Fast forward again to 2010 and now I own all the Sin Dex trades and the series is one of my favourites ever to appear in the prog!!!! Go figure!!!

Anyway, while you all patiently wait for the release of "Tales from the Emerald Isle", here's a teaser panel from my story, with funting great art by David Blankley. Enjoy...and be sure to pick up "Tales from the Emerald Isle" when it comes out!

Hello Beautiful...!

Here's a little teaser for the upcoming strip I wrote for "Dr. WTF?!", the Dr. Who-homage fanzine being put together by OWEN WATTS.

Art on this is by NICOLAS BANNWARTH and it's looking glorious! Looking forward to this one coming together!

Introducing...The Red Bat-talion (of One!)

In an effort to make this blog a little more interesting for the casual viewer, I have decided to try a little experiment, namely, posting my very own newspaper-style cartoon strip as a regular feature.

Unfortunately I am really quite poor at drawing, and as I can't afford any fancy drawing software I'm going to have to rely on my old pal Microsoft Paint to produce it. On the plus side, this means the strip will be very colourful. On the down side, it means I am limited in what I can draw, so I'm dusting off this old cartoon character I created in my distant teenage past and putting him to work for me. It's all about recycling these days anyway, isn't it?

A handful of you (friends and family members) will remember ol' Redbats from a series of comic strips I did when I was 17 or so (2 of which appear in the very first post on this blog). This is going to be a much different take on the character though, as I put him into a proper story and turn him into a serious comic character. I have the story roughly mapped out and the first 6 - 7 installments fully plotted so...let's see how it goes. Don't let the colourful cartoony appearance fool you, things are going to get pretty nasty!

My INTENTION (hope) would be to post a new installment every week. How practical or feasible this is remains to be seen, and depends on a number of factors (mainly, how much free time I get during the week to work on it!) This first installment took 4 days to complete - with a max of 2 hrs per day being spent on it, I hasten to add - so it may end up being fortnightly...but, again, let's just see how it goes.

Anyway, enough blathering, here's the first brightly coloured episode of "Redbats", in which not very much happens but the scene is set for lots of fun things to happen in the very near future!

Dirk.




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