The coal face

Today, a selection of recent sketches. I've found myself sketching on paper while I think about upcoming stories. All these drawings relate to various tales currently in protean form. Mildred has a nice return to centre stage this year so I am practicing drawing her to get her right.

The only bad thing about doing a lot of pencil work in my sketchbook is that I start thinking it would be great to make a whole comic traditionally. Then I remember how complicated the pages I make every day are, with their many digital layers and architectural backgrounds etc and I remember that every few years I try this and I give myself a stress headache on day one. I think the only way I'll ever make another comic with pens and paper is if I am catapulted back in time to 1998. This is not a common occurrence, though I did make a comic about something similar which I restored to its place in the archive today. No I am not making any more chapters of it!!

I'd like to do a Shelley and Lottie story, but I don't know when I would do it. I've been looking at Murder She Writes and Author Unknown, both seemed to come at a pivotal point creatively, so I guess I will just have to wait for the right mood music. We'll find out what's in that suitcase.

Hold Em Or Fold Em is the third Great British Bump Off story. I don't think we're getting a third bite of that apple from the American Comics Industry, alas, but it's on the board and I have a lot of notes for it. It'll emerge in some form one day, it's a good, mad yarn. There's some hotsy totsy business on this page, I can't remember what it relates to so just take it at face value.

As a final treat, here's a comic cover I drew for my dear friend Marc Ellerby, it's his new vehicle, "Fight Pit Kicks". I think we'll all be adding this one to our pull lists at the old comic shop! I should add for clarity that Marc has neither endorsed my ideas for this comic or indeed attached himself to the project in any way.