This time, I’m definitely going to be there. I booked my coach ticket but not my ticket into the con. (note: to self - get onto it!).

As you may know, I have [...]]]> I’m going to heading up to Hi-Ex this year. Like most people, I missed out the first two conventions as we were snowed in.

This time, I’m definitely going to be there. I booked my coach ticket but not my ticket into the con. (note: to self - get onto it!).

As you may know, I have won a competition at Scotch Blog. The prize was a set of illustrations of The Punisher (aka Frank Castle). One was pencilled and the other inked.

I decided to donate the pencilled illustration of The Punisher to Hi-Ex to help raise funds for their chosen charity; Children 1st. I ran this past the Scotch Corner guys and they were happy for me to go ahead.

You can now make a bid for The Punisher pencilled illustration here drawn by Thomas Crielly.

I was stuck in the airport and I was carrying a backpack on my shoulders. The terminal wasn’t teeming with life. Just a [...]]]> I had a weird dream and the bizarre thing is I can remember most of it. So I wrote it down before it completely disappears. Warning, it contains some horror elements!

I was stuck in the airport and I was carrying a backpack on my shoulders. The terminal wasn’t teeming with life. Just a handful of people walking around, minding their own business.

The weather was atrocious; heavy rain lashing out at the windows. Beyond the window, I could make vague outlines of planes standing alone. Some lights were pulsing in the distance. We weren’t going anywhere.

I walked to the ticket desk and there was a blonde woman working. She didn’t look up. I don’t know her from anywhere. I started flirting with her and making eye contact. That was until a fellow traveller, beside me, remarked I was only interested in getting a visa from her. Although that wasn’t true, I still became defensive and stopped talking.

Feeling a bit deflated, I sat down on a cushioned bench. I leaned back and closed my eyes.

I then opened them again. I was somewhere else. I was in a city shrouded by fog. I was seated on a light motorcycle. It wasn’t switched on. An archway towered above me. I hopped off the motorcycle and walked down a few feet down the street, getting my bearings. I can see a few two storey apartment blocks ahead of me. There was chaos in the street as several Chinese people were pushing past each other. The fog was closing towards my direction. For some reason, this name popped in my head twice; Racoon City. I recognised it from the zombie videogame and movie, Resident Evil.

I felt a sense of uneasiness, so I jogged away from the fog. As I raced ahead, several people around me were sweating profusely. From their expressions, they knew something was happening to them but didn’t know what it was. Their eyeballs rolled behind. It would have shown a white colour except that a second iris appeared. The irises were a sickly yellow colour and a black line was drawn vertically across. Almost like cat eyes.

I kept on running and looking back. The infected was growing by the numbers and its momentum was being sped up. I ran into a bunker and slammed the door behind me. I knew it would not be enough to hold back the infected people.

I ran down this corridor and a man ran past me towards another doorway. A second man was hanging upside down from the ceiling. For some reason, I knew he was hung upside down as a prank. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong day for it. The first man was ready to shut the door on me as the crowd was descending towards me.

I kicked the doors wide before he was able to shut it. Once I was in, I helped him to secure the doors. I jammed a metal bar through the handles as the infected pounded their hands on the door. The man hung upside down was attacked and eventually pulled down. Not wanting to wait, I ran ahead.

That was when I woke up.

OK, boys and girls. I hope you enjoy reading that. I honestly have no idea what the dream means. I ought to check out some dream dictionaries to figure out the meaning of it all.

In this dream, I was aware that Racoon City was a ficitional place from a videogame. I never played it but I did see the movies. It is not the first time I have been chased by the Infected or Zombies

I had some time to reflect upon the past year to make a new set of New Year resolutions. I know, I know. “New Year resolutions don’t work”. That is only because some people lack the will power to stick to it, especially when something is a habit like drinking less, smoking [...]]]> Happy New Year, everyone!

I had some time to reflect upon the past year to make a new set of New Year resolutions. I know, I know. “New Year resolutions don’t work”. That is only because some people lack the will power to stick to it, especially when something is a habit like drinking less, smoking less, exercising more. BTW, none of those items applies to me. However, I did lack the will power to stick to my guns with my last year’s resolutions.

I got something to admit; I haven’t been feeling creative lately and I am letting my creative side stagnate which is not good. I haven’t wrote anything and I haven’t drawn anything. I did start up a ficitionious blog ala Adrian Mole-style but I felt that wasn’t working for me.

I had a bit of a wake up call a few weeks ago; Brittany Murphy suddenly died at the age of 32. I will be 31 years old this year. Her death got me thinking. I don’t want to die at an early age, not meeting my achievements. I have done nothing much to show for it.

So I realised I need to change my ways to turn it around. Here’s my set of New Year Resolutions.

• Get my design mojo back i.e. graphics design, logo design etc
• Meet more people and get out more!
• Do more creative writing. I have couple of stories/scripts swarming in my head.
• Do something new at least once a month
• Travel around Scotland. Maybe next year, Ireland or the rest of Europe
• Read more
• Less video gaming
• Be more positive
• Say Yes more often (I’m reading Danny Wallace’s book. Yes, I have seen the movie!).

The “Design mojo” is something I am working on just now. Lately, I have started developing 3D images with the aid of Blender. I took it like a duck to water.

There is one story idea which I had for like 10 years. It is epic so I need to break it down into novellas. It is a fantasy story and I would hate it it if my time was up and it is not written on paper. There are a few other short stories I would like to see published.

So I am getting my arse in gear. Are YOU? ;P

I probably need to find some material to flesh this character before I go ahead. I have a few stories where I can work this character into it.

Malcolm Kirk collated all of the artwork and put them together. It was then uploaded to eBook, ClickWheel and to the Ning group as a PDF file.

Barely a few days went past, we are already talking about producing issue 2! Hopefully, in [...]]]> Finally, we did it. We managed to produce a tribute comic dedicated to Scream!.

Malcolm Kirk collated all of the artwork and put them together. It was then uploaded to eBook, ClickWheel and to the Ning group as a PDF file.

Barely a few days went past, we are already talking about producing issue 2! Hopefully, in 6 months time (around May-June). So I’m going to be writing a few scripts to cover a few issues.

Malcolm did a great job of managing the whole comic project and the whole team worked well together. Unbeknown to me, Malcolm wrote and drew a strip, Field of Screams! which involved members of the Scream! forum. I was part of the story which made me laugh. I enjoyed reading it.

Check out the BackFromTheDepths blog for links to the tribute comic.

The murder/mystery one will be a five paged script. I have a rough idea how it will play out. It will set in the present day.

The futuristic law enforcement will be a lot longer. [...]]]> I’m going to be researching for 2 science fiction scripts; one for a murder/mystery and the other for my futuristic law enforcement.

The murder/mystery one will be a five paged script. I have a rough idea how it will play out. It will set in the present day.

The futuristic law enforcement will be a lot longer. Of course, being an newbie to Small Press Comics makes it a lot less likely that they will consider my script. Still, I will write it up and put into my portfolio.

My research will include watching a lot of sci-fi films and reading sci-fi books. Top of my research list is watching Blade Runner and reading the Forever War trilogy by Joe Haldeman. I never read it before but I saw some good reviews.

I will re-read some of Philip K. Dick books. Last time I read Philip’s book , it was “A Scanner Darkly” and that was a good few years ago.

Actually, I thought of [...]]]> I have a couple of stories on the back burner. There is one which I am inspired by “Sleeper”, a mini series written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Sean Phillips. My script will be based in the far future, it might involve some law enforcement combined with a science fiction element.

Actually, I thought of a few stories which can be contained in the same universe so that my characters can crossover to each other’s world.

Sometime this month, I will start writing my serial killer script. Yes, the one I have been talking about a lot to my friends. It has a theme which I feel very strongly about. The problem I can’t tell you what that theme is as it is a spoiler in itself. If that makes sense.

Nonetheless, I will complete it by the end of this year.

I am self conscious about photographing the general public [...]]]> I have brushed off the dust on my camera (not literally). It has been a while since I went photographing. The problem with my photography was that they lacked people. Most of the photos only had buildings and woodlands. Frankly, they were boring. That was my assessment.

I am self conscious about photographing the general public because I was wary of getting a negative reaction. I think too much, really.

I wanted to get over this fear. So last week, I took pictures of people at random (not in a stalkerish way!). I was in Glasgow and I managed to take some good pictures. None of them are perfect but it’s a start, nonetheless.

My favourite is the one in George Square where a woman in her 50s is playing on a portable games console. I played with it in Photoshop CS3; making it black/white and adding filters. This is my result.

Lady plays portable game console

I’m going to keep this up.

John Cahill also makes a second contribution to the same issue; Bad Static (written by Martin Hayes).

Unfortunately, there are some problems with FutureQuake Press website and you cannot purchase any of the issues [...]]]> I wrote a script called Knock Knock and John Cahill drew it. It is published in Something Wicked #5.  Hope you enjoy it.

John Cahill also makes a second contribution to the same issue; Bad Static (written by Martin Hayes).

Unfortunately, there are some problems with FutureQuake Press website and you cannot purchase any of the issues from the website. However, you can via FutureQuake Press blog.

http://futurequakepress.blogspot.com/

If you are going to BICS this weekend (3rd-4th October, ThinkTank, Birmingham), you can also purchase those comics. The FutureQuake Press team will be setting up shop.