Redd Rockz and Submission News

So, here it is, our very first paid piece as the Water Closet press. It's a promotional piece that will be appearing in Manic Mosh magazine. We met the editor at MCM in London who was won over by Jordan's cover work. The brief was pretty simple: "A one page comic that promotes alternative model Redd Rockz." I think originally there was talk of some kind of superhero origin story, but I decided that was lame and opted for the more noir type tale. One page really isn't enough to play around with story. It would work fine for a gag or a last panel twist but since we we're being paid to promote I didn't feel comfortable doing that. Similarly I made Redd herself the McGuffin of the tale rather than the protagonist. That free'd us to play with her range in modelling styles and didn't force a character we'd created into her real life repertoire. Originally I wanted Jordan to have a frog in a top hat playing the trombone sat atop panel one as a little nod to our first ever creation The Land of All Sorts , but he claims it didn't fit...

...and instead left an easter-egg to another one of our creations. See if you can spot it. Now without further gilding of the lilly. REDD ROCKZ. 

Click to Enlarge

Don't forget guys we are still looking for artist and prose stories for our anthology book coming out in October. Check out the full details for submissions here. We have so many fantastic teams already on board and the book is really shaping up to be diverse, fun, silly and action-packed so why not get involved. 

This is the Voice of Richard, England Prevails.

BLAM Blacksad... Blamsad?

It's been a while since I drew anything productive at a BLAM! meeting, but this week the theme was "absent cat".  I wasn't entirely sure to go with that direction, so I just drew my favorite feline private eye (not quite as inventive as Razarhawk Dani Abrams' brilliant cat-silhouette-in-smashed-plate-glass-window).  The sun was glorious so we were outside all evening, the lovely folk music more clear than ever.  BLAM! is Bristol's comic creators collective and it meets once a month at the Golden Guinea pub.

  

He must have a pretty heavy tie, considering the wind.

Signing off,
Jordan

MCM London 2013

Good day to you all!

Just a quick update to let you all know what's going on in the Water Closet. We attended MCM London last month and it was our most successful convention to date. In fact at the moment we don't own any issues of Ladies and Gentlemen issue 1. WE SOLD OUT!!! Whilst this is obviously fantastic news for us it does mean that issue one is only available to read on the blog. But dry those tears, we will be getting our fourth run of the book done in time for our next convention.

Happy as clams. Photo courtesy of Paulus Van of Manic Mosh Magazine.

Which reminds me, at our next convention we will also be launching our anthology book. We've had a bunch of great submissions already and there is still time to enter with prose stories and art work. We also have a bunch of scripts waiting to be picked up so if you like making comics, whether it will be your first or your millionth book, get in touch with us. The final deadline for artwork is OCTOBER 1ST so there is still plenty of time to join the Water Closet Press.

Also whilst I've got you, why not check out this interview we did for the 20 Minute Longbox Podcast. We talk about Ladies & Gentlemen and our adaptation of (part of) Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" which can be found under the Weird Planet tab at the top of this page.  It's a great show and Stephen is a friend of ours so why not check it out.

That's all for now. At least all I can remember. See you in the funny pages.

Rik

Rough Planet

I had a bunch of Weird Planet rough work and concept sketches floating around the flat that I didn't quite know what to do with, so I thought I'd scan them in and give you a chance to see the comic without it's clothes on before dropping them in the ol' recycle bin. 

Imagining the visual world and the characters who populate it is my favorite stage in the development process, where it's all about just getting the ideas down on paper. Many of those ideas don't end up translating into the final piece and serve as more of a creative background radiation for me; it's nice for me to give them some daylight here.

There are lots of little permutations that occur as I try to get things just right, much to both Rich and my wife's annoyance ("Does this look better? What about this? Or this? Okay: this?). Why not compare these to the final comic and see if you can spot the differences? Weee, a game!

The first time I've done the thumbnail sketching stage sans Rich.

Playing with some avian and Mesoamerican influences for the Malakhim, and an early Thomas character study

 

Trying a new (and unsuccessful) over-sized thumbnailing technique

 

Divine evolution. I briefly toyed with the idea of having scraggly clipped feathers poking out from under his manacles.

 

    

And then there's colour, my mortal enemy. Sometimes I wish I was colour blind so I didn't have to worry about it. Oh wait.... hello black and white comics.  

It also helps settle petty disputes between Rich and I, like whether or not our protagonist could possibly be a ginger (the answer is no).

Getting psychedelic...

Let's try some normal colours (incomplete).

Enough of this madness!

Signing off,
JC

Water Closet Press Interviewed by the Swansea Comics Collective

www.sccassemble.co.uk

Rich and I feature in a Mr & Mrs-style round of "Who's Your Comic Crush?" Q&A hosted by the fine folks over at the Swansea Comics Collective.  Go check out their blog (here) to learn our inner-most comic secrets! Then get yourself a copy of their Copperopolis anthology.  If you read that aloud it's almost poetic.

This was alot of fun to.  If you're an indie/small press creator, get in touch with the SCC and have a go yourself! 

Don't forget: We will be at the MCM London Expo this weekend so if you're in the neighbourhood, stop by our table in Comic Village.  See you there!

-JC