Convention sketches

(Reposted from my Tumblr) Hi! I’m getting queries about pre-ordering convention sketches, so I can do them before-hand and take them along to the event for people to pick up. This is a *REALLY* good idea and I cannot emphasize this enough — at events, I am always tired and caffeined up to the teats, so, pre-ordering will *DEFINITELY* mean you’ll get a much nicer product, as I’ll be able to do them on my own terms at home. This isn’t to say I won’t be doing them on the day, but I’m just…. uh, giving a warning(?) XD

My con sketches are on 8.3 x 5.8 bristol board, pencil with a coloured ink wash. (Sorry, don’t have any examples to hand right now!) I charge £10 for these, so you can just chuck that over via Paypal if you like, and I’ll have the sketch for you in a sturdy envelope on the day.

I list all events I’ll be doing at the base of my website’s front page, but just for reference, this year, I’m at Melksham Comic Con and Thought Bubble. (I’m not doing any events next year — taking the time out to finish my book).

Email me (extra.minty@gmail.com) if you wanna get in on thiiiiis! :D

Young Avengers

Eeek! I’ve been sitting on my hands about this!!! I was super honoured to join as a guest artist for issue #6 of the super duper new Young Avengers series that Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie and Team Young Avengers have been making waves with! It’s an awesome series and I really wanted to do a great job by Kieron’s script. I had a HELL of a lot of fun doing this issue, I really enjoyed it! :D I really hope that existing fans will enjoy it too.

If you’re not buying this series already then you should completely just go ahead and dive in! I have a few non-superhero-reading-friends and they have easily jumped in and are totally enjoying it. If you have a comic shop nearby, they will absolutely get it in for you, and if not, then you can buy through an online site such as Comixology or Marvel!

None of the interiors for #6 are out and about yet, but in the meantime, check out this awesome cover Jamie did!!!

Here’s the solicit info:

KIERON GILLEN (W) • KATE BROWN (A) Cover by JAMIE MCKELVIE Wolverine Costume Variant By Mike Del Mundo • Ever wonder what the super hero equivalent of a terrible soul-sucking talent-wasting temp job is? You haven’t? Oh go on. Actually, don’t. We’ve done it for you and written a story about it. This one. • Wonder what Tommy (aka Speed) has been up to? Discover herein. • Wonder why mutant David Alleyne (aka Prodigy) hasn’t been even in the background in any one of the eight thousand X-books? Discover that herein too. • Existential horror turns cosmic horror as something emerges from the shadows of the past. It seems the Young Avengers have yet one more thing to worry about. 32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

(Twenty pages was just enough to get really attached to drawing Tommy & David! I miss drawing them already!!)

Here be board-games.

Wow! I can’t believe we’re at issue #62 of the Phoenix already! Time flies! It’s doing so well as a comic, and I’m so happy for the team behind it, they have worked so, so hard to get the Phoenix going and spreading the word about it, and getting it into shops across the country (and internationally!)

Issue #62 features the start of a new boardgame series I’m doing: MEDIEVAL GAMES! I had, er, quite a LOT of fun making these. First up, we have “Who Can Steal a Scale from the Dragon?” in which you play as knights in a test of valour (and silliness) pit against one another to fetch the Key from the dungeons, and unlock the Door to the Dragon’s lair in order to steal the scale and prove you are the bravest! Will you make it past the traps? Will you avoid being turned into a troll? Can you reach the Door first…?

These games are designed so you can just open the centre spread, and play. All you need is a couple of dice (or dice-substitutes) and something to use as tokens… pennies, jelly-beans, or the downloadable-and-printable tokens I made, available on the Phoenix website. If you play it, let me know how you got on! There are more Medieval Games to come!

Dude in the Post Office etc.

Quick colour sketches! L-to-R: a dude I saw in the Post Office today (he was the coolest person in the Post Office), Marley November, and Hekristos, her family’s butler.

Comics, comics, art.

Let’s talk about comics! :D

First up is Nenetl of the Forgotten Spirits, with writing by Vera Greentea and interiors/cover by Laura Müller. Check it out here! Laura’s art is so vibrant & lovely, and there is one delightful panel in which Nena’s hair swirls into rather creepy black sound effects :D Vera & Laura have constructed a charming piece of work, so if you enjoy the first issue, you’re in luck as it’s a 1 of 4! ^_^

Secondly, I read Porcelain! This is the much-anticipated book from Improper Books, written by Ben Read and with art by Chris Wildgoose with Andre May and Alexa Rosa, with letters by Jim Campbell. Check it out here! I believe it is on limited release to certain comics shops, so have a scour! And seems the digital version is up for release later this year. Anyway! I’ve been pretty excited about this book — the sample edition I got at Thought Bubble read so well, and the story was totally up my street with its seemingly Bluebeard-esque overtones & adorbs characters. So, I was super stoked to find the entire book is one solid mass of really good comics. If you can pick this up, I recommend you do so!

Lastly, I got a lucky chance to recieve a commission from one of my long-time favourite artists, Natalia Pierandrei! I have been such a fan of hers for many years, and I’m totally in love with this piece I got!

I’m sure most people reading this will be familiar with her work anyway, but just in case you’ve not seen her beautiful ink/marker/watercolour work, you must check it out here. I believe Nati has a comic in the works as well, Mademoiselle Rose, so, obviously I’m excited for this! Squeak!! :D

Commissions 3

Here’s the last bunch!

1) Private commission of a ghost-girl character named Monday! Me and the client worked out the composition and elements together. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn any type of background (The Lost Boy was set *ENTIRELY* in a forest) so this was great to do. I’ve drawn Monday before, and this was to be a matching “light” piece. I love little Monday! SHE’S SO EVIL. I wonder what happened to her and how she died…?

2) Woah, this was ten-bags-full-of-ferrets awesome to do. Becky Cloonan let me loose on her characters from The Mire! I GOT A BIT EXCITED. I wanted to get Aiden, Ellen and Owain in there. It was also really nice to be able to spend more than 30 seconds drawing a tree (for once), as I really enjoy drawing them when I can relax and make them a feature rather than just background furniture! Also, to be frank, I was desperate to draw Ellen’s hair. Get The Mire, if you’re crazy and haven’t already done so!

3) I was very honoured that En let me draw Khern, Demeter and Jenna (OMG JENNA)! Khern you may already know from En’s comic Those of No Class, but Demeter and Jenna are the stars of the yet-to-come comic, Silentium Universi! We worked out the elements and composition together for this one. I am a massive Jenna fangirl. En! It was so fun talking about Jenna with you!! I find its design very appealling. Hurry up with the comiccccc! En is a very accomplished artist.

That’s all! I hope to be able to open again one day for commissions, as this was really very fun! More news soon… *^_^*

Commissions 2


I got to draw author Lily Fox’s lovely characters from her GUARDIANS series! Pestilence (green), Lady (red), and Kath (blue)! Descriptions of the characters were quite specific, so I tried my best to capture them. Lily was happy, so that’s all that matters! I had a lot of fun with this one. I ended up making one large print of the characters together, and three mini-prints of the characters separately. I think Pes is my faaaaavouriiiiiite ;3; You can check out a collection of Lily’s short stories here!

Commissions 1

I’ve closed up with commissions now, since I’ll be busy for the next few months! I’ll start posting up what I did, starting with sketches! I’ve never actually opened for commissions before now, so it was really fun getting to work with a bunch of different people in a short space of time! I hope I can do it again one day! ^_^

1) A sketch of a really cute character. Her name’s Annalisa, and she’s a cyborg with high-performance ears and scales all over her body. The request was to make her look sombre, elegant and yet lively, in a dress! I think she’s chanelling Lady Diana, haha ^.^

2) Soooooooo happy I got to do this! This is Janie and Ruthie, from The Summer of Blake Sinclair by Sarah Burgess! Sarah let me pick whatever characters I wanted, which was fun! Sarah is an incredible cartoonist, and while I knew I could never match her skill in gesture and expression, I tried my best! You must read this comic. Spot-on cartooning and honestly, it’s a sheer joy to read as Sarah has such a grasp on portraying character through the sequential medium! ^_^

3) Haha, this was ace! This character’s called Captain Carling (note the cans at his waistbelt!) and the request was to pose him as the Tarot card Temperance, pouring lager from one can to another. An unusual one, haha, but I had fun with this!

Thanks guys! I’ll post up the rest soon! x

Dead Roots & La Belle Dame sans Merci

Wanted to write a bit about these two comics! First up is Dead Roots, a zombie anthology. I do rather like zombie stories, so this was up my street! I liked how each story focussed on how different people coped during a zombie outbreak. There’ll be more issues, so check it out here and show your support!

La Belle Dame sans Merci (part 1 of 4), by Philip Buchan and Karen Lusted, will be out at Thought Bubble. Based around the poem of the same name, we have part one of the story, some lovely pin-ups as extra material in the back, and a feminist essay at the back. Romantics and feminism in one? Hello, what more could you ask for! :D Check it out here, along with Bucky’s other work. I got to colour Karen’s lovely linework for the cover of issue one as well, which was real nice *^_^*

Okay! I’ll see people at Thought Bubble NEXT WEEK! Me and Paul are at Table 43! See you! \^_^/

The Enchanted Pool illustrations

Hi! I wanna start posting stuff I’ve been up to recently, starting with these. Phoenix Issue #45 (the Hallowe’en issue) sported an amazing Tale Feather prose story by John Dickinson, which I got to illustrate. I read the story many times over! I really loved it. I was working off notes and direction from the writer, and I wanted to use a different method and style to my usual, so I experimented… here’s the results!


Hope you like them! ^_^