COG page 1

Here we are back again with the posting.

COG just got released today (you can find it for free HERE) and I'm very happy with it. Annette kicked yet another serious field goal from halfway down the field. Thank you again Annette!

Huge thanks to Foz - the writer, Ollie - the HEROES editor and Frank the ASPEN editor and Comicraft - the letterer. Special thanks to Bill Hooper who played the actual Jim Martin on the show. He came round and gave a stellar modeling performance.

This was a fun project. It was great to see some of the back story behind the poor "red shirts" in black who try and take down our main cast. Agent Jenkins was such a great narrative call. He had a face on the show (but not really his own), and gave us a touch point to see that these guys are real people with families, friends and partners. When they get killed they leave a hole in the lives of the people around them.

I first saw this technique used by Grant Morrison in his brilliant series, THE INVISIBLES way back in issue 12 in 1995. God damn, I'm feeling old now. There are people who could be reading this that could have been born then. Age-related issues aside, the first issue of The Invisibles had the team cutting a bloody swathe into a facility. Twelve issues later we read the story of John Murray... Just some dude. Grant paints an unattractive man with little to no redeeming qualities. But it's only when he's finally at work and he pulls on his uniform that we sense something is amiss. Then we see the main character from The Invisibles appear and shoot him exactly like we saw twelve months ago. His death is unexpectedly painful. But Grant, like Foz made us realise that these faceless soldiers are people.

There was another SPRINT product tie-in and I thought Foz did a great job of seamlessly integrating the phone into the story. As the main communication device that we use these days, it didn't seem out of place at all. Ollie Grigsby (see the vitamins on this page) saved my butt yet again. Sprint asked if we could feature the video function more promimently than just on page 2 panel 2 after it was all drawn. Ollie figured out that would be a lot of work on my part and came up with an ingenius solution. Originally panel 3 was slightly different as the phone was simply supposed to be flashing its alarm. Ollie figured that we could chuck a picture of Danko in there and show off the video function there. Brilliant. Thank you Ollie!

Some of you might have noticed the Sylar pic that crops up a couple times in the story. Cos I'm always looking for ways to support the SARMY, I ended up drawing that as a huge separate poster. Sheindie, Lee, Noo, Nat... if anyone contacts me I will send you guys the full image to do with what you wish for your online store. I'm not reproducing it in full anywhere. It's for you guys only.

INTERVIEW: I did an interview with Rob Beck for his LOTSOFINTERVIEWS site. I'm currently cutting the thing down. Because it's a transcript of a phone interview it's huge. I'm trying to cut it down to a third of its size. I've got it down almost halfway. When it's sharper and ready for your sensitive, abused eyes, I will let you know when it gets uploaded.

BLOG SCHEDULE: Mon, Wed and Friday. So expect page 2 tomorrow.

FACEBOOK: Feel free to look me up here. Just please mention how you know me or my work.

THE FUTURE: I might be working on another two parter with Ollie Grigsby in May. Fingers crossed!