KIMIKO PAGE 5 & 6

Let's get this baby out of the way. And when I say, "baby" I mean the last two pages of Kimiko. It's time to move on. It was a long time ago. Build a bridge.

In fact, I've been dying to move on from Kimiko for ages. I've got so much more stuff to show you, and this, some of the weakest, most rushed work I've done in ages is not my proudest moment. It's probably contributed to why I haven't been blogging (as well as being sick). I just don't really want to talk about work that doesn't excite me.

First up, some more news. I've been plugging away and I'm on book 4, (the last issue) of ZERO G. I will be happy when I don't have to draw another space suit again. To keep me sane, I have another HEROES gig coming up. The deadline is the 10th of April, so keep yourself frosty for that one. All I'm going to say is that while it doesn't feature any of our lead cast, it's a great story set in the mysterious year 1967.

I'm grateful that Annette is available to colour it. I think we're going to create the best looking HEROES comic we've done to date. I can't wait to show you what Annette and my stuff looks like these days. We've created a style together for ZERO G that I think is unique and arresting. I can't wait to hear what you think.

It was actually page five of Kimiko (left) that really motivated me to get Annette back on board. While I'm reasonably happy with the way I colour figures, the way I colour backgrounds irritates the hell out of me. When I put heaps of effort in, it looks cheated and I don't like that. Working with Annette will give me the time to draw it properly and avoid the horrendous cheat that I used on page 5 panel 2. It was just supposed to be a placeholder, to remind me I need to draw a proper background, but computer issues got together with my deadline and gang-bashed me in a dark alley. Whimpering and bleeding I was forced to leave the photo in.

If there was such a thing as a "walk of shame" for comic book pages, this might be one for me. As an effort of minimalism, one might describe it as more Spartan than Gerard Butler.

Two out of four backgrounds ain't so good. It's not my finest hour, but it definitely was my most desperate. Even panel 1 on page 5 annoys me. The texturing looks too realistic if you ask me. I should have gone for something more stylised. I actually get annoyed when my stuff looks too photo-like.

When it started at the layout stage it was all birds singing, rainbows and sunny meadows. By the drawing stage of these last two pages it was rolling thunderheads of deadline storm clouds and torrential rains of panic so dense they were sweeping away entire villages of resolve.

I ended up leaving page 5 and moving onto page 6. I wanted it to at least finish with some strength. I thought I would have time to come back and clean up page 5. Such was not the case.

I had more fun with page 6 as I actually got to draw some stuff. I like the lighting of the top panel. I was also trying to mirror Taiko's body language from page 3 panel 2 here on panel 2 with Kimiko. I feel that she has already become her father's daughter in this panel. I used a cinematic trick that they do on the show on panel 4. For some reason I notice that they use a framing blur on certain images, usually trying to highlight someone's eyes. I thought I would do the same here.

TOURISTY STUFF: Well, my parents joined my sister and I in London. They arrived just as I climbed off the back end of the flu. It just seems that London is tougher than I am. I figure it's had a lot more time than Australia to get it's bacteria together.

I finally made it out the door to visit Madame Tussauds. My sister was smart enough to hussle us out the door to get there when it opened. This meant we only waited for 10 minutes (as I left the queue was literally around the block!). I didn't mind so much as I was enjoying the first snow I'd ever seen in my life. My mum thought it looked like a cloud of insects, but I thought it either looked like an ash storm or blossoms, depending on my mood.

As soon as I walked in the door, I saw my favourite movie star: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I wish he wasn't slouching so much as you can't really get an idea of his size, but he's a good 6'4 (I'm 6'1). His co-star in Walking Tall, Ashley Scott (whom I reckon is one of the hottest women on the planet - so yes, I enjoyed that film) thinks he has one of the biggest heads on a human being. We're talking physical size, not ego. I was dismayed to see my head was about as big if not bigger. I didn't feel so bad, as those of you who watch Entourage will know Turtle's big head theory: that to be a movie star you have to have a "big head". At least I have one requirement to get on the screen.

I realised that the trick to taking good photos at Madame Tussauds is having a sister with hands so steady she should be performing neuro-surgery (so you don't have to use a flash. They look fake under flash, but great under the lighting they provide), and to just go for it. We proceeded to take a bunch of amusing photos while I hammed it up around my wax co-stars. I'm going to show you these over the next few posts in the order they were shot. My favourites are at the end.

Cameron and I had a moment. She was really sweet, although she seemed a little stiff and nervous around me. But hey, who can blame her?

FACEBOOK: If you're on and you wanna say "Hi" to me, just look me up and write a short note that you know me from my blog, 9th Wonders or my HEROES work and I will add you to my friends list. Be great to hear from you. Don't be shy!