Just lately I've found myself getting more and more into the works of H P Lovecraft. Upon the recommendations of several twitter friends have purchased a couple of really good books too. 

The first of these being 'The Lovecraft Anthology' volume 1. This book is a collection of Lovecrafts short stories brought to life in sequential form by Self made hero using a collection of fantastic artists and writers including D'israeli, John Reppion, and Ian Culbard. The way the stories are presented captures the creepinesss and ethos of Lovecraft perfectly, with each story told in its own style yet they marry together fantastically. The second book is the Gorgeous looking 'At The Mountains Of Madness' which I haven't actually read yet but it is next on the pile. I can't wait to read this as not only is it brilliant piece of Lovecraft storytelling, but I love Ian Culbards artwork as well. His style reminds me in some ways of the late great Herge which is definitely not a bad thing as Herge was a childhood staple of mine. I hope to take this with me to Thought Bubble in November to see if I can sneakily get Mr Culbard to scrawl in it for me. 

I've been off work all this week with exacerbated asthma, and though this is a royal pain in the posterior, as it means pills, puffers and wheezing like an old man. It also means I've been able to finally sit down and start painting up some minis. In particular I started on  my 15mm goodies. 15mm is a relatively new thing to me and as such is a breath of fresh air from the institutionalised wargaming I've been used to in the past. The freedom 15mm presents is incredible. Originally I was going to try and conjure up my own rules etc, however I have now realised there really isn't any point when some of the rule systems out there are so open that they can fit exactly with what I'm after. My main case in point for this is Gruntz. Written by Robin Fitton this game offers almost endless possibilities in unit design and more. This coupled with the numerous miniature manufacturers out there producing fantastically detailed models just makes things even better, and this is before I've even thought about converting and scratch building.  
Now for those who don't know my 15mm dabbling was always intended to represent the Earth / Mars civil war which pre-dates the events in my graphic novel 'Potemkin 2205'. With this in mind below is a picture of my first painted 15mm Mars colonist. Now I just need to find some money to buy others. Hmmm..........

As you may have noticed, just lately I have been tweeting left right and centre about zombots, models, greenstuff etc etc. Well the reason for this is all linked to 

For those of you not in the know 'Zombots' are one of the key bad guys in the Cornelius comic I am currently working on. Now as I have two prongs to my geekdom. 
1. Comics
2. Miniatures
I thought why the hell not combine them together. To those of you who know me this is nothing new, the idea has been germinating for months. However I always work better when I have a deadline to work to and now I do!! September 1st is the first of the conventions I have been waffling on about over the last few weeks and as such is the point at which I need to have Cornelius as a tangible thing. That includes 'Comics' and... wait for it.... 'Miniatures'. Granted the miniatures will be purely for display purposes to start with but if I get enough interest in them I may be tempted to look into small scale production. 
So watch this space guys and as usual feel free to email or tweet me if you have any questions, suggestions etc.

TTFN

Mike (Elblondino)

Good Evening All

Recently I have been doing a few illustration pieces for some independent magazines and publications. Not as paid work I add but more for the exposure it will give my work as well as the experience that having work published in any format gives. 
Well the piece I did for Sidlezine by Emma Ridgway was released on the internet today and a copy will be going off to the Salford Zine Library

'Sidlezine is is an open submission zine dedicated to improving awareness of contemporary issues through the medium of illustration'.

The brief was to produce an A4 piece showing a contemporary issue that meant something to me. I decided to do an illustration reflecting the current UK debt crisis which irks me every time it comes up on the news.
Anyway enough of my waffling please go and check out Sidlezine to see the work of some fantastic illustrators along with my offering.

As this is the year I promised to carve a little niche for myself within the comics industry. I thought I'd start a series of blogs showing the journey I've taken up to this point. As is usually the way I have decided to start at the beginning. In this case my influences. Now this is not necessarily just artistic influences. It is anything or anybody that has influenced me to start making comics and to illustrate. 
My first real memory of sequential art was a book given to me by my grandparents at a young age. Looking back on it 'Very Posy' was perhaps not the most age appropriate present for an under 6 year old. However It did get me interested in the medium and still inspires me.

Next up is one of the most important books in my collection. The fantastic Dracula's Omnibus by one of my all time favourite artists. Victor Ambrus. This book was read so many times as a kid and still is today. I've always found myself drawn to his unique artistic style and yes that includes when he was on Time Team. I used to spend hours sitting trying to draw the pages of this book and I'm sure some of that influence must appear somewhere in my work.

My other two big loves as a kid where Asterix and Tin Tin. Goscinny and Uderzo are one of the most classic pairings in my opinion there work is timeless and will stand for generations to come. For some bizarre reason this is the only Asterix book I own. I always thought I had more. I certainly remember reading them all anyway.

'Herge's adventures of Tin Tin' (said in appropriate voice) used to be on the TV when I was a kid which in itself was awesome. It also got me going down the library to read every single one of them religiously. (This probably explains the other Asterix books too) I also remember going to Belgium when I was 11 or 12 and to my amazement in Antwerp was the Herge museum!!!  If I could go back now it would make so much more sense to me, but I do still have one of the coolest pencil cases ever from there. 

So there we have the start of many inspirations. I will do more posts showing other aspects of what's influenced me but I'll leave you with that for now.

Mike (Elblondino)

Evening All

After seeing some pretty impressive scratchbuild pieces going around just lately its made me want to drag out my unfinished projects. 
After I entered Golden Daemon in 2008 I vowed to build something more impressive and get the daemon I narrowly missed out on. This heavy chopper was the result of that. As is always the case however real life got in the way and this little baby has been languishing in the cupboard ever since. 
I designed this with the intention of being an early pattern of a Vulture/Valkyrie type thing hence the similarity in looks. It is however completely scratchbuilt. I've got the cockpits and the base somewhere and will drag them out later on.
I guess the next thing is try and actually finish the beast. Oh and remember its name!!!

Would love to know what anyone things.

Mike (Elblondino)