Birthday Do(or don't)

Ahoy-hoy, my 30th birthday looms heavy on the horizon, and I'll be marking the occassion with a get together in Ron Blacks of Dawson Street on sat the 10th of november from eight in the pm. Everybody I know is invited, and if you're an attractive female who feels the need to attend even though we've never met, well feel free.
Yes, I'm that old.

Birmingham

Howdy-hey,
Off to the Birmingham Con tomorrow, looks to be a great line-up involved. Possibly the biggest Irish contingent at any convention I've ever attended, with Myself, Thompson, Lisa, Fran, Deckard, Will-I-Am, Bobert Byrne and PJ Holden heading over. Most've us are on the same flight to, so should have a few yuks. Have a couple of meetings with editors scheduled, mostly British cos the feckin dollarydoo exchange rate is murderin' me. Oh, got another new Angel gig too, I'll be providing alternate covers for the whole new series, yay! Still can't tell folks what other capacity I'll be involved in, but soon I reckon. Anyhoo, here's a few Dredd pages I just did, there should be more but this is all I had the time to finish. Its weird, I had a bundle of 2000AD stuff together for dredd-ref, but nearly every artist draws him quite differently. All the costume elements remain, but proportions and stylistic elements seem to be totally left up to the given artist. Which is cool. I wanted to go for a kinda Blade Runner type vibe with my version. Still can't figure out how the hell he steers that goddamn bike...

Subcon

Had a good larf at Subcon '07 in the Central Hotel on Exchequer St. last Saturday. D-to-the-Shalv arrived over from Scottyland on the Thursday night, and we continued our examination of the life and times of Dr. Henry Jones Jr. with a screening of 'Temple of Doom' in the media room. And lo, it was good. On Friday we did a bit of work, me on my last day of Strangeland(yay!) and Deckard witha big fat Frankenstein deadline. The Thompsons called over for merryment and political intrigue on Friday night, and Dec stood Will up. So Saturday happened, and after a delicious Starbucks(tm) corporate breakfast we got to work signing and sketching for the many(really - I'm surprised too) fans(ie nerds). As usual, Thompson's sketches were way better than anybody elses, cos he actually draws with much more dynamism when he doesn't give a rat's arse about the end result. But the unlucky few that had to make do with a sketch from myself, Dec, Will or Bobbo seemed to walk away happy enough. So the day flew by because of the many people interacting with us, which was great fun. We sat on a panel in the evening about the Irish comics industry, where Dec told people about some award he'd won(the one I didn't manage to...) and we generally gave him a hard time about it. Then off to Wagamamas for a delicious, and yet, nutricious, meal. And then, the Drinking. Met Nick Roche properly for the first time, He's the other Irish kid playing in IDW's sandbox, and he's a great fella. Hope to see more of him in the future, beginning with the big Dublin City Con next month, which we're both guests at(somehow). Also caught up with Simon Furman, who's just the nicest bloke ever. Cheers to Rob Curley at Sub City for putting the whole thing together, it was ambitious and a big success. So all in all a great day, myself and Thompson marvelling at how much Will and Dec are like the new us. We'll let ya figure out who's who. Actually, in reality, they're a bit more like And and Dec, but sure there ye go....

The pic(courtesy of Will) is, from left to right: Jackie's thumb, Dec, Thompson, Lisa, Ev, me and Williard. Thanks to the girls for their company as always, making us look a lot less like the geeks we are. Especially Declan. Especially Declan.