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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Doctor WTF?!

Owen Watts, who posts on the 2000ad forum as Crazy Fox Machine, is putting together a Dr. Who fanzine, which will present a variety of stories featuring completely original "alternate" versions of the good Doctor. There's been a lot of interest and a lot of great artists and writers have signed up for the project. I was a bit late to the party but once I found out about it I was keen to get involved and contribute so I put the old thinking cap on and came up with an idea. The following is the result of a few hours messing around on Paint (my illustrative tool of choice!!) and will serve as my inspiration as I put the script together.

Weimaraner's eh?

Coolest. Dogs. Ever!

Thank You Carlos.

This is the piece myself (writings),Ghostpockets (drawings) and Jim Campbell (letterings) put together for "Super Squirrel Undefeated", a"Secret Project" Mark Howard masterminded in order to produce a unique, one-of-a-kind "Get Well Comic" for the artist Carlos Ezquerra, to wish him well in his recovery following a major operation. Carlos has been drawing for 2000ad since the beginning and it was his work on Judge Dredd that first attracted me to comics in general and 2000ad in particular, making me the lifelong fan I am today. It was an honour to be part of this along with so many of Carlos' friends and fans(amateur and professional creators alike) and I still can't quite believe Mr. Ezquerra now has in his possession a one of a kind comic book that contains some work of mine! Strange and awesome. Here's to Carlos!!

Would you date this man?

Well, not unless you're a lady, and even then, probably not.

This is "Tucker" (Tuckah!!!) Liam Byrne's rendition of the main character from "Speed Date" (ever so slightly based on the actor who will take the role in the short film...EVER so slightly...I don't really know somebody who looks like this! Honest!!) :)
Nice work Liam, looking forward to seeing more!

Different interpretation of Atomic Call's "Angie"

This is a pretty cool version of my character Angelyna Cale, from my Atomic CALL series. Art by Johnny Boy Baptista, bringing to a close the set of 4 character studies he did for me. Always nice to see different artists' takes on your own characters!

Update August 2010

So it's been a pretty productive year so far! I've now got quite a few projects on the go, and if you'd told me any of them would be happening back in January before I started all this, I would have laughed at you.

I've got a good few comic scripts currently being done up by various wonderful artists for inclusion in a variety of superb publications, both print and digital. As well as a few one-off horror tales and a strip based on some popular 2000ad characters being done up for a new 2000ad fanzine, I have a few strips in the pipeline for Paragon, some tales featuring that magazine's flagship character "Jikan" and also my own series "Icarus Dangerous", which will be drawn by Jikan creator Davey Candlish and will be very fun and awesome!

I also have my Atomic CALL short story lined up to be serialised in the new Starscape storycomic, of which the first issue will be launching imminently and for which the accompanying illustrations are developing nicely. My story won't be debuting until issue 2 or 3, depending on a couple of factors, but that's cool...good things are worth waiting for, after all! :) (I will post info about issue 1 of this magazine when it is officially launched). To coincide with the running of this prose Atomic CALL adventure, I have written a 7 page Atomic CALL comic strip, which serves as an introduction to the main character, Call Malone. Art on this will be by an amazingly talent artist called Richard Jordan, and the strip will appear as a webcomic on Starscape Online. Really looking forward to that one!

Along with this, things are progressing nicely with the short film adaptation of my comic script "Speed Date". A quick update on that first - unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, the original artist on the strip, Kyle Smart, has had to - reluctantly - leave the project. It's a shame, as I was looking forward to working with Kyle on this, but these things happen and can't be helped. I'm sure we will work together on something else some time in the future. But never fear, ably stepping into Kyle's shoes is Liam Byrne, another artist I have recently collaborated with on a separate project (which I can't talk about yet, as it's still "secret" :). Liam's work is as awesome as Kyle's and I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for the strip. As for the movie - well, filming went ahead on Saturday the 28th of August with Producer/Director/Location Scouter/Prop Builder/Casting Agent/Make Up Artist and Set Dresser extraordinaire Alan Rogers at the helm (did I mention he also plays the lead role??!?) It was a one day shoot and was a great success with a couple of the - usual - hiccups along the way. So that project is one step closer to completion...next stop...editing Hell!!!

That's the end of August update for now! But I have a feeling I'll be posting a lot of tantalising tidbits over the coming months as all of these projects begin to take shape!

Cheers!

DVD

Speed...Date?

So one of my little comic scripts "Speed Date" has been chosen by a small local production company (Big 10-4 Productions) to be adapted into a short horror movie. As there is already an Irish movie out there with the same name, the name for the film version has had to be changed and will be titled "Speed Kills" instead. Things are progressing nicely with this. Location has been scouted, auditions have been held, casting is imminent. The comic strip will feature art by Kyle Smart, who has agreed to let us use some of the finished panels in the end credits. Mike Marshall (a very nice guy who goes by the name LARF on the 2000ad Forum) and his company eatsleepthink design have kindly put together the title logo which appears above. We held a table quiz last night as a fundraising exercise (although most people involved are offering their services for free, there is still the minor issue of props and set dressing to be addressed) and it was an excellent night with a good turn out and a decent sum raised. Filming is due to occur on August 28th. Should be fun!

I will make further reports on the progress of this little venture as it becomes available! :)

The Ice-Cream Man Cometh...

CHING-CHINGA-LING-LING-LING...
What's that sound?
That's the sound of Issue 7 of Temple APA, which is now online.
Lots of cool strips and artwork within, including the new comic strip myself and Conor Boyle put together.
Click on the link below and have a read - hope you enjoy! :)

Temple APA Issue 7

Call Malone

And here she is, Call Malone, head of Atomic-CALL and my favourite creation. She's been living in my head for over 10 years and all I could ever visualise her as was a Winona Ryder clone... Now I finally have a real image of her, courtesy of Johnnyboy Baptista...and she's perfect. Nice one Johnny! :)