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In my earliest jobs I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to create comic strip narratives. This form of storytelling bridges the gap between full text and movies. They are a quick and inexpensive way to tell a story. The visual language is relatively easy to grasp and, if the storytelling — the continutiy between the panels rather than the text — is executed well, words can be kept to the minimum. If it's done very well then no words are needed at all! Below is a selection of some of my work. |
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Genus is a project I've been working on and off since I was a kid. It started as a 'comic book' that I'd written and drawn for my younger brothers, about a bunch of kids who get kidnapped for some nefarious purpose. When I showed it to a friend of mine he immediately described it as X-Men meets Grange Hill. Over the years (lots of them) I continued to doodle, write tiny bits and create a somewaht coherent story. A few years back, I wrote a plot. I understood that I'd never get anything out at the rate I was going and, even though I had illustrated the original comic strips myself, I gave the plot to Antonio Ghura to draw. I had seen some of Antonio's risque comic books when I was a kid in school and by a flook of circumstance we became classmates in art school. I scripted and coloured Antonio's final inked pages. I am currently in talks with a small publisher and retailer to finally get Genus to an oulet that will make it see the light of day. Click on the images below to read the first three pages of the first issue. |
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Every story needs a beginning. Originally, Genus was the tale of three kids thrown together through extraordinary circumstances. It was a science fiction tale with a little super-heroics chucked in for good measure. When I conceived the story I had been heavily into Claremont and Byrne's X-Men and Jim Starlin's Dreadstar. I was also reading the book of Daniel and I heard Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italian for the first time. Those influences made became the foundation of what the story would become when I decided to take it to the next level. As the idea developed I began throwing in more ideas into the mix: belief, religion, reverence and deceipt; power, authority, responsibility and respect. By the time I decided to actually start, the story had become bloated with characters, origin stories, histories and relational conflicts. I had so many ideas I had no idea where to begin. Every piece needed other pieces to make some sort of sense; how to get the characters on stage without weighing it down with exposition? In the end I decided to start in the middle of my story but the beginning of one of the characters, and instead of bringing my heroes on stage straight away I thought I'd start with the bad guys. Hmmm, let see... |
