A Bit of a Review of the Year 2012

I know it's late, but I don't want to get into the habit of just missing out the even numbered years. Nevertheless, let's look back at 2012, the Year I promised would be the Year of the Trilogy. Which it wasn't. But it was too.

I started off with the foolhardy notion that I could draw something everyday and blog about on a weekly basis. I did a total of nineteen Draw Everyday posts. Which is pitiful. I reckon I might give it another go. The pressure of having to blog something was a good motivator, but also a hinderance, in that I got hung up with having something ready for public consumption. Bottom line is, people are glad to see anything, and with Twitter and Instagram, those are probably the best places for such updates.

While I was waiting for the Sugar Glider 3 script from Daniel, I went to see The Artist at the cinema. There's a scene within a scene where one of the characters reminded me of Don Quixote from Sugar Glider 2, and after looking at the film's poster, an idea was set in motion that resulted in the most popular post of 2012 on the blog, and also the idea of promoting the free web serialisation of Sugar Glider with DVD box-esque posters. We quickly decided to do posters for the main title based on some of our favourite independent films, some of which related to the content and themes of the books. Then we thought it would be hilarious to parody more schmaltzy, sentimental romantic comedies for the two Sugar Glider Stories books to reflect their ensemble cast.

In February, there was still no sign of the SG3 script, but this little lady made an appearance, courtesy of Laura Swaddle.

March was spent mostly building up for the fourth Leeds Alt Comics Fair which took place in April. It's consistently one of the best comics events I've attended. I had time to work on a small mini comic called Column, about my thoughts on public art. I was going to do a larger and longer version if there was any interest, but I think it served more as an incentive or reward for people buying more than one comic. Here's my poster again, I was dead chuffed with it.

The merry merry month of May is home to my birthday, so not a lot of comics work going on there. However, I did find time to work on Nightbus 3, which at this point was pretty much simply called Nightbus. The lack of numeration was a conscious decision to not put off people who may think they were missing out on one and two, but simultaneously, could have been confused as an issue one. Comics, eh? Interestingly, a few people have said that it works as a starting point as well as an ending. I'm pleased to have created something that ends, not on a bang, but a full stop and an ellipsis.

In August, I went to the City of Lights to be proper romantic on mine and my wife's second anniversary (naturally), track down some BDs (success), capture a giant Totoro (he escaped), visit the Robert Crumb Retrospective (extensive) and cross the canal Saint-Martin and la Seine a few times (#riverfans). I adore Paris and love that they take comics seriously there, without question, clarification or defensiveness. I got the new Lewis Trondheim book for Christmas. It is an absolute joy. I'm going to write a comic in French. It'll be mint.

About a week later, I was at the Carlisle Megacon, another small to medium event that was lots of fun to attend. Sales weren't great, but I think this is the first of its kind in the area, so hopefully word of mouth will ensure a greater footfall next year.

Nightbus launched online in October, in time for Thought Bubble and the Canny Comic Con. It's been met with positive reviews and good sales so far. I'm really pleased with the book and the series as a whole. You can see a great leap forward from the first 'snapshot' to this one. I feel that my writing, really came into its own here, both in terms of visual storytelling, dialogue and story. It's something I've been looking forward to getting back to for so long. Leaving a trilogy unfinished is poor form, so I was glad to get back to those characters even if it was just to give them the send off they deserved.

What's new for 2013? Well SG3 is on its way, I can't guarantee a specific launch date, but you'll find out soon enough. And after I finish the second of my two trilogies? I plan to take a little break from comics. I'll concentrate on learning a few new tricks in Photoshop and Illustrator and maybe just drawing. I have plans to work with Daniel on something soon though, so don't get too upset.

I'll take this opportunity to say a massive cheers me dears to everyone who's helped to make 2012 a superawesome year, and will hopefully be there to make 2013 even better.

Coming in 2013

So, some of you will have seen this image today, especially if you've read Daniel's round up of the year on the Forbidden Planet International Blog. So I thought I'd show you too.

In the gap between SG2 and 3, I started doing a few film poster mash ups, starting with this one for SG2 and then this one for SG1. Daniel and I talked about SG3 and what we'd use as a starting point. Like all the best ideas, this one fell into place rather smoothly. Anyway, feel free to start guessing how the Sugar Glider Saga will end.

Keep checking back here for updates. I may post a few preview pages if you're lucky.

Canny Comic Con 2012

That's right folks, I'll be at the Canny Comic Con this Saturday at the City Library.

Last year's event was great fun and it's always a pleasure selling Sugar Glider in her home town. You can pick up the tales of the Tyne Titan and have a chat with me and Daniel about SG3. Sadly, you'll have to wait until 2013 to get your mitts on that one.

In other Sugar Glider news, we sold the final copies of SG1 at Thought Bubble, so the only places you can read it now are on the black market or in digital form. You can buy a PDF version of Susie Sullivan's first vigilante stint at my Comicsy site and Daniel's Big Cartel. The digital comics are £1.50 each.

I'll also be doing a talk/lecture/rant/Q&A about comics and location, but you'll have to keep checking the CCC blog for more info.

See you on Saturday.

Draw Everyday Part XVII

More Lego this week, and seeing as Sugar Glider 3 will feature, among other things, more of the Vigilance team, here's a look at two of them in Lego form. Some of you may already know Red Kite and Barn Owl from their appearances in Sugar Glider Stories 1 & 2, but if not, you can pick up those two books at the shop.

Draw Everyday Part XVI

This week's Draw Everyday has another Lego theme. I just got one of the Lego video games for my birthday last month and have been thinking about Sugar Glider spin offs again. The Lego Sugar Glider game would be sooooo good. We probably have enough characters to make it work too. anyway, in the meantime, here's a minifigure version of Don Quixote from SG 2.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you really need to read Sugar Glider 2 which is available here. Don't forget that issue 1 is being serialised for free online at sugarglidercomics.com but you can still buy one of the last few physical copies at the shop too.

More next week...

Read Sugar Glider 1 For Free

From today, Wednesday 6th June, you can read Sugar Glider 1 for free. We're uploading the cover and a few pages, followed by one page every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until we get to the end.

Here's what some people have said about the first issue of Sugar Glider:

“Truly the best Small Press comic I have ever read.” 4.5/5  - geeksyndicate.co.uk

“One of my favourite moments in comics of the past 12 months…quintessentially British and highly recommended” 9/10 - ComicBuzz.com

“A fantastic debut issue of a new all-ages superhero” - HyperGeek.ca

“I really recommend you buy it!” - Small Press Big Mouth

“Reminded me of those old classics Billy the Cat and The Leopard of Lime Street…a strong debut.” - HiExComics.blogspot.com

“I’d recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of the superhero genre - and, indeed, to those who aren’t.” - ComixTribe.com

“It’s nice to see someone doing a superhero comic based in the North East…well worth getting.” - ComicBitsOnline.com

If you want one of the last few print copies of Sugar Glider 1, head over to my shop or Daniel's shop.

Craft Fair on Saturday

I know, I know it's short notice, but come on, we all know you've got nothing planned really.

This Saturday, Daniel and I will be at the Queen's Jubilee Craft Fair in Gateshead. The event runs from 1-5pm and is a fine place to pick up retro, vintage and handmade wares. And any Sugar Glider comics you may be missing. We're always looking for new audiences, outside of the the regular comics crowd, so hopefully this will be a good opportunity to spread the SG word, win over some hearts and minds and to put the comic in the hands of people who wouldn't normally get to read it.

There's also a competition for the best costume, you have to dress either in red, white and blue or in a 1950s theme. I dare you to dress as Sugar Glider, if she were from the 50s.

More info can be found at the Facebook page here.

Draw Everyday Part XIV

Last week I was doing some warm up sketches and came up with this, using my blue pencil, my trusty 0.8 unpin and some of my 0.4 stabilo colour fineliners. I took a photo with Instagram and added a little blur and I can't remember the name of the filter but any of them that add a vignette is good news in my book. Here it is for you now.

I liked the classic Lego feel that the quick drawing and the 70s filter gave it, but wanted to try something a little different too, so here's the promo photograph of the Sugar Glider Lego Minifigure for when we eventually sell out.

Yes there are more, but I haven't inked or photoshopped them yet. Just be patient, OK?

New Stuff for LACF

I'll have a new book out at the 4th Leeds Alternative Comics Fair on Saturday! It's called Column and within its few pages are a few sketches and thoughts on public sculpture. It's only a teeny tiny A6 mini, but it's a new book!

I didn't think I'd have anything new for the fair and when I saw what my fellow exhibitors have got on offer, I thought I'd make this happen. I originally wanted to do this on a much bigger scale, A5 size, and with a larger page count, but time would not allow. This way, I can have something new on the table and also judge the response. If people like it, I'll do a follow up and needless to say, not all of the material in Column will be reproduced in its hypothetical sister publication, so it's still worth getting. Plus the print run is really short. And I might only have it available at conventions...

Speaking of time running short, I'll have a handful of tote bags bearing the Grainger Street sign and I might, maybe, possibly, if the planets align, have some Sugar Glider bags too. Maybe.

You can also pick up the Sugar Glider back catalogue, SG badges and stickers, Grainger Street, Show & Tell and Nightbus.

Do pop along if you're around. Saturday 28th April, 12-5pm at a Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds.

Draw Everyday Part XII

I did this drawing of Sugar Glider a while ago now and set it to one side for Photoshopping. I wanted to learn a few new things about colouring and using textures and found this tutorial massively helpful. Especially using cmd+alt+2 to select the white areas of a drawing to easily separate the line art. It's those little things that save you a load of clicks and keystrokes. Secondly, filling in the areas you want to colour with separate blocks of colour so you can easily switch them if necessary was rather useful.

I took my textures from Lost and Taken, just for speed, but they have a good selection of freebies if you check out their gallery. Finally, I added a vignette and adapted the last few stages of the tutorial to get it to fit in with the colour scheme and mask the fact that I hadn't drawn all of SG's arms. I'm really pleased with the results, but still think I've got a long way to go with colour. Anyway, here's the before and after.

Draw Everyday Part VIII

I suppose you may consider this cheating, as you probably saw it last week on the Facebook page. I've given the page a spruce up, with a new URL, so tell your friends to head over to facebook.com/sugarglidercomics rather than all of that cumbersome searching. I also did a new profile picture and cover photo as they're called. It's like a banner to go across the top of your page. The profile pic is a bit more of a gritty version of the badges and old logos, but with more fine details. I'm not really sure if it works, I think there's too much going on on the whole. But then again, I'm enjoying experimenting with textures, so get off my back, man.

The second one, I'm slightly more pleased with. I think I'm getting to grips with Sugar Glider's uniform. It's about time. I don't draw her gliding anywhere near as much as I probably should. In many ways, It's like how I never once managed to show the exterior of the bus in Nightbus. Some things are better left undrawn. 

Draw Everyday Part VI

This week's draw everyday update was completed at yesterday's event at Sunderland Library. Daniel and Lee were doing another of their superb comics workshops while I was promoting Sugar Glider to the young people of Sunderland. (follow that link, by the way, Daniel and Lee have been doing some awesome stuff lately.)We met comics fans new and old and everyone seemed really impressed with what we were doing. I really love doing these small events because it gives you the chance to really talk to people about the book, and they too seemed really interested in what we were doing. Also, we were pleased to see the vast range of genres within comics represented both by what people were reading and what was on the shelves in Sunderland's library. Finally, a place that doesn't put Maus on the same shelf as Mickey Mouse.

Anyway, here's the sketchbook page. Remember, no edits here, just rearranged on to an A4 portrait page. This is Susie Sullivan, but you may know her better as Sugar Glider.

Sugar Glider Pixel Portrait

Here's a very unique Sugar Glider from Laura Swaddle...

Sugar Glider fans will remember Laura's work from the drawings and overall design of the contents page for Sugar Glider Stories 2. Recently, Laura's been producing cross-stitched Pixel Portraits for friends and family (I got one for Christmas - it's mint!). And what better way to say thanks for defending Newcastle's perilous streets than by immortalising the Tyne Titan in thread?

If you'd like a Pixel Portrait for you or yours, then head over to Laura's shop and ask for one. It's a unique gift idea. Tell her I sent ya!

The Artist

We went to see The Artist at the cinema last weekend. If you haven't seen it, I urge you to do so. It is a wonderful piece of work. It's full of comedy, wit and recreates the stylised world of silent films and talkies masterfully. There is a scene in the film where our hero George Valentin, played by Jean Dujardin, plays a swordsman-type role in a silent film. The idea just seemed to fall into place after that...

A Bit of a Review of the Year 2011

I was going to call this post The Year of the Sugar Glider, but that seemed a bit conceited. Other things happened in 2011 aside from the runaway successes of SG, I just can't remember them.

I won't labour the points too much, but the year kicked off with a deluge of positive reviews of Sugar Glider issue one, which had been released in the November of 2010. In 2011, SG1 was joined by three more Sugar Glider titles, Sugar Glider Stories 1 was launched at the 2nd Leeds Alternative Comics Fair and finally, we got round to doing a Newcastle based launch for SG2. A thousand thank-yous to Mike and the crew at Travelling Man Newcastle. Finally, Sugar Glider Stories 2 was released at Thought Bubble. All of the titles have received positive reviews and any of the niggles about yet another superhero comic have been ironed out by issue two. This isn't a superhero comic, it's a comic about a girl who happens to have an absurd extra-curricular pursuit. Oh, and there's superheroes.

Speaking of conventions, the last of the year was an absolute delight. More is written elsewhere about how awesome and essential the Canny Comic Con was, but from my perspective, it was great to be able to meet Sugar Glider fans who had followed the series from the start, and new fans who were intrigued by this new Geordie heroine. The day itself was so much fun and I can't wait for next year's event.

One of the most wonderful and humbling and joyous things about doing Sugar Glider has been the fan art. We received a boatload at the start of the year, and it's kept coming with each release. A lot of people have taken to Susie so much as to spend some time drawing her. I think that's the greatest compliment. If you've got any fan art, of Susie in or out of costume, or indeed any of the Sugar Glider cast, email it, post it on Twitter, or the Facebook fan page or send a carrier pigeon.

New Year's Resolutions? Well, the obvious one is to get Sugar Glider 3 out, thus completing the trilogy. This is a big one for me really as I haven't completed a series since I first got into comics. Having said that, issues one and two have been so special, it would be a crime to rush the conclusion. Expect SG 3 before the end of 2012.

Secondly, I'd like to get super organised for comics fairs, preparing an emergency comic con kit esssentially. The reason being, I make that promise every time we do an event and always forget something. Never again. Plus, I don't do a massive number of events, so it would be good to get through them sans stress.

And finally, sort out the website. Andy Waugh has been badgering me about this for aaaaages, and his new site is amazing. I'm jealous. I want one too. So there.

Right, I think that's all for now. See you all on the 2012 side.

A Very Sugar Glider Christmas

It looks like Sugar Glider isn't the only one in the skies this winter...

Just a quick festive sketch of SG to say thanks to anyone and everyone who's helped us out with Sugar Glider. From the reviewers to the SGS contributors, from the fans (and you lovely fan artists!) to the friends and families, thanks and Merry Christmas!

Let me know if you get a copy of SG in your stocking this year...

Sugar Glider 2 Cover

The wait is almost over. At the back of Sugar Glider #1, you may remember being teased with these questions...

Those questions are about to be answered, some in full, some in part, with Sugar Glider #2. We finished it yesterday and Daniel and I started tweeting about it, drumming up some interest. Before we knew it, we'd passed another milestone of fans of the Sugar Glider Facebook page, demanding we reveal the front cover. Here it is, if you missed it:

Slightly tweaked from the preview you saw in Sugar Glider Stories #1, with the addition of some watercolour in the background. What I thought would have been a fairly simple paint scan, cut and paste in Photoshop, turned out to be quite the arduous task. I won't go into the details, but I really feel that I learnt a lot from colouring this front cover, and indeed, the as yet unrevealed back cover.


I was really blown away by the responses, comments, retweets, and so forth across the social media we exist upon. Thanks a lot guys! Here's hoping you enjoy the innards as much as this humble cover.


Sugar Glider #1 and Sugar Glider Stories #1 are available at Daniel's shop. We're down to the last few copies, so get them while you can.


Sugar Glider #2 will be available in a couple of weeks.

Sugar Glider 2 Previews

Well this Photoshop business is taking longer than I'd expected, but this comic is going to knock your socks off, so trust me, it'll be worth the wait.


Daniel kicked off by posting this on our Sugar Glider Facebook page.

Just who is this snappy dresser? All will be revealed in SG 2! Although, if you've got a copy of SG 1, you might know his name...

Anyway, here's our protagonist, Susie Sullivan, in her headquarters. Or bedroom of you prefer.

If anyone cares, and you shouldn't, Metro Radio is a shoddy local radio station that is largely remembered for the shouty commercials rather than the music.


Here's Tyneside's favourite copper, Terry Tiernan, under a pile of paperwork. But what's going down in the town? I'm not telling.

More censorship now, as Susie has a costume change into some threads I'm sure you'll all recognise. But what's caused her to pull the uniform out of the cupboard after the events of issue one? Well that would be telling.

Keep checking back here and the Facebook page for more reveals and so forth. At the time of writing, we have 178 fans, and we have a habit of revealing important things and giving stuff away when we get to landmark numbers, so if you haven't joined, head over there now and click 'like'. Dead easy. If you do like us, tell your mates. Or we'll break you legs*.


*There will be no breaking of legs.

It's a Process, Part II

Welcome back, and sorry for the delay. At the time of writing, I'm just over halfway through inking Sugar Glider #2. Progress is slow, but there are a lot of real world references and technical drawing in this one, and I want to make this book amazing. Not good, not ok, but amazing.

Here's part two of the process, the scanning. Let's start with all the kit. I scan with an old HP All-in-One I got during my uni days. Obviously, I use a Mac, equipped with Photoshop CS4 and a rather pleasant Wacom Bamboo tablet.

First up, here's what the scanned image looks like. I scan at 300dpi RGB, if you were wondering. You can see that the blue pencil lines are really light and dead easy to clean up. At this point, I'd desaturate the image (shift+cmd+U).

So it looks like this...

From here, all that needs to be done to get rid of the pencils lines is some simple adjustments, I've done loads of combinations of adjustments over the years, even running the whole thing through Illustrator, but the method I've settled on is a simple balancing act between Curves (cmd+M) and a Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur).

I use Curves to eliminate the mid greys of the desaturated pencil lines and to accentuate the black of the ink. This is achieved with what's called an 'S' curve, shown here.

With this kind of image, you can afford to go even more extreme than this, but if you do, you run the risk of losing some subtleties of the line work, or accentuating some dust on the scanner or accidental inking. So it's always a good idea to keep checking the whole image, but you can add a really slight Gaussian Blur (I usually go between 0.6 and 1.2 pixels). This won't really affect your linework, but it will be enough to get rid of any dust or errors that are too numerous or small to remove with the Brush Tool (B). After that, I bring back the cleanness of the lines with another 'S' curve in Curves. If there are any errors after that, this is the only time I'd manually remove them with the Brush Tool. This demonstrates the use of the Wacom tablet, it really is a million times more accurate than a trackpad or mouse.

This is what the linework should look like now.

Then it's panel borders. I create a New Layer (shift+cmd+N), rename it “panel borders” and begin drawing some rectangles with the Shape Tool (U). I usually give these a colour so they can be distinguished from the white background. Then, in Layer Effects, I give the layer a Stroke. I can't remember exactly how many pixels, but it's less than ten and is consistent throughout the comic.

Then it's grey tones. I select with the Polyganal Lasso Tool (L). Sometimes I buddy it up with the Magic Wand Tool (W), but Lasso works best alone. He's a maverick. I have my grey tones set to an Action in Photoshop, but it's done in Levels (cmd+L), and I drag the output levels to 192, again, to keep the greys consistent. I reselect and repeat the action for darker greys.

So there you have it. That's how I draw, ink and edit Sugar Glider. Any questions? Oh, right, the finished panel? Here it is...

Hmmm... Susie looks somewhat peeved. Curious. Stick around for more SG2 progress reports!

EDIT

Since this post went live yesterday, I've had some input from other artists sharing their techniques and processes. That's one of the things I found really frustrating about Photoshop when I first learnt its ways: that there would be a million different ways to do one thing. Now I find it fascinating, because it's not a case of "here's the long way and here's the secret, correct way to do things"; far from it, it's simply what works for each artist. Both Terry Wiley and Jack Couvela suggested the following:

First start by "saturating" the image instead of desaturating, so that the pencil lines are even more blue. I guess you could do this any way you want again, Colour Balance, Hue/Saturation, etc. Then go into Channels and click on the Blue Channel. This makes the other Channels invisible and shows you the Blue Channel on its own. The black lines remain, and the blue pencil lines are now very nearly all Channel at the top of the Channels Palette, then Paste (cmd+V). This will give you your desaturated image, but this time, the pencil lines are removed for you.

Of course, you'll need to boost the contrast etc. from here, but it leaves all of the subtleties of the line that you run the risk of losing with blurs.

Thanks guys! If anybody else has suggestions, let's hear them in the comments, or however else you want to get in contact. Also, if any of you have used these techniques on my, or indeed our, recommendations.