Awesomely my mum picked me up some old 90′s X-Men graphic novels the other day from an Oxfam in town. Among them was a Generation X book. Its proper 90′s fare but its also great. Back when the stories had no qualms about jumping dimension/plane of existence every couple of pages, when characters of cosmic significance were gold and very shiny all over, the astral plane turned up in every book and the villains were very dark (and often very spiky)…

Still, Generation X particularly, has some ace writing and the team is brilliant. Some fantastic characters and a great balance of empowered but also properly MUTATED characters. I think characters like Skin and Husk are mega, believable mutations that would definitely lead to prejudice from regular humans.

Jubilee’s in this book. i know its a contentious issue but i’ve always liked Jubilee. She’s a product of her time but a positive one. She has a hilarious way of talking and her ‘power’ being so barely powerful, made her an interesting person to have on the team. I think people saying ‘What’s the point of Jubilee’ as a negative are actually missing the positive it really has. What is her point?… what’s her role? She’s always trying to prove herself and her worth to the team. She’s the Xander character in a way… but with a bit of sass.

So i drew her. Partly cos i think she suits my style and partly cos i want to put more one off artworks up more regularly to have something to show you guys. I’m so head-down in comix that i cant show you all the time, i never get anything done to show that i am in fact- STILL AN ARTIST. so i’m gonna do a series of X-Men reimaginings. They’ve changed costume more often than Wonder Woman has, so coming up with new uniform staples and variants will be fun.

hope you like… tell me what you think…

2012 is entirely upon us in all its annual glory. Only one year until we start saying year’s names with a ‘teen in them such as ‘twenty thirteen’…  that, i’m reliably informed, is the start of the FUTURE.

this year’s going to be very work heavy for me with lots of 7STRING and work on my upcoming 2 self-published stories; SOL and Annumventurer. This is the first time i’ve really talked about either of those outside of my newsletter which is still the first and best place to pick up nichangell comix news so SIGN UP at my site! www.nichangell.co.uk … big button, you can’t miss it.

So here are some early pictures to show you what these projects are going to look like… a bit…

SOL, my futuristic european sci-fi pulp adventure series which is gonna blow your MINDCARTS. You’ll see more on this soon… AND…

The Annumventurer, an action-packed modern day fantasy story about giants that appear only for one month of the year.

AND OF COURSE MORE 7STRING… we should see the first graphic novel as well as loads more story and exciting developments of my favourite story and the most fun I can have with a pen in my hand… here’s a page you won’t see anywhere else except in the graphic novel:

so, i hope this is a great year for all of us and particularly British indie comics, i feel like 2011 was amazing for UK comix scene and with such a backing of monetum, 2012 is gonna be even more awesome… to get a feel of what I mean check out Nelson and Dinopopulous both from Blank Slate Books. If you can read both of those and NOT think that British comics is somewhere awesome right now then NONSENSE IS ALL I CAN SHOUT TO YOU-

but i know you guys are on my side (you better be)

love to ALL

and then, check out what they had to say about 7STRING in their mini review of Tracks 2 and 3… Mega! thanks guys!

http://comicsanonymous.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/comics-anonymous-talks-to-nich-angell/#more-1725

this month’s been quite a crazy one, not least because of the ultraFEST that was Thoughtbubble in Leeds. Without doubt my favourite con of the year both for kickass comix dudes and sales of my stuff. With regards to my personal successes I sold out of Track 1 and Track 2 of 7STRING so that felt good and I got some ace feedback from some special people.

Speaking of people, i chatted to the ace David O’Connell (of Tozo fame) and the awesome Tom Siddell (of Gunnerkrigg fame) who I was lucky enough to have a table next to. We traded advice and he gave me some ace tips about post published small pressing. Advice I will be applying very soon. It was nice to see Martin Eden again but i forgot to grab a copy of the latest Spandex so Martin? I’ll be back. Owen of the CrazyFoxMachine was an epic pleasure as always, that dude is such a laugh and a brilliant comix storyteller. I love catching up with him and his CrazyVixenMachine Jazz. I chatted to Paul Duffield (he has a new project, google it and support the dude) and his missus Kate (who i gushed at about her beautiful new hardback edition of Fish and Chocolate GORGEOUS). Then my con family, the people I always have to see; Jess Bradley (who’s book ‘Brains Etc’ is coming out under the Zeta Comics umbrella too!), John-Paul Bove, Will Kirkby (TukTuk OMG), Naniiebim, Jen Smith, Couk and Loz and Nikki Stuart (who had prints of her upcoming Honeydew and Magic which looks amazing)

As far as recent acquisitions go, I got my hands on Nelson and Habibi. I can’t wait to start reading both of this epic, beautiful and important books. I can also tell you unequivocably…. DINOPOPULOUS IS FANTASTIC. Buy it from Blank Slate as soon as you can… you won’t regret it.

In other news, 7STRING Track 1 is now available from Amazon, electronically for Kindle!! But don’t worry, if you don’t own a kindle, you can still download it to your computer with a fancy kindle reading piece of software, and THAT way, you still see it in glorious technicolour, although the black and white on the kindle itself works surprisingly well too! If you like 7STRING I’d love it if you’d go to the Amazon page and click the ‘like’ button, even write a review if you’ve got a minute! Thanks! Here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/7STRING-Track-comic-Graphic-ebook/dp/B006896BHI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322586165&sr=8-1

And, here are some pictures I drew:

This is a knight I did as a commission, I think he turned out pretty snazzy. That was drawn entirely on Cintiq and painted in Photoshop. I’m dabbling with a more realistic and gritty approach which I might use in later projects. (don’t worry, I’m still 100% committed to my 7STRING style. Its my true voice for sure)

And this is picture of pretty much all my favourite characters in one place. Id love this as a tshirt. I wouldn’t need another tshirt ever again.

Track 1 reprint is on the way for all those who missed out on a copy at thoughtbubble but this is the final run. So if you want one, get your orders in on the paypal button NOW!! And I will get it sent to you as soon as they’re off the press.

Nothing more to say now except, sign up for my newsletter on my site http://www.nichangell.co.uk AT ONCE for I am about to put a new one out and its got loads of juicy exclusives that you wont be able to see anywhere else on the internet. Including pictures from my next TWO PROJECTS!!! New comix coming for a new year… fasten your CHUTEBELTS!!

I’ve been drawing comics. Loadsa comics. This makes me
happy. I’m still deep in 7STRING but there’s light at the end of the
kickass-awesome tunnel I’m in. There’s about 8 or 9 pages left to go to finish
the graphic novel but those 8 or 9 pages won’t see their way into Track 3, the
third and final self published issue EVER of 7STRING that I am releasing for
the next handful of cons I have coming up.

Basically, I’m self-publishing Track 3 so that those who
have bought Track 1 and Track 2 have a third and final issue that explains some
of the mysterious things that turned up in the previous two instalments and to
give them a bit of closure. The first graphic novel will contain everything
that Tracks 1, 2 and 3 have in them as well as more pages of story and a
cartload of extras such as concepts, character sheets and interviews and such.

So to sum up, buy Track 3 if you have Tracks 1 and 2, and
own some exclusive limited edition self-published issues never to be released
again! Then wait patiently til spring 2012 and enjoy an even more radical trade
paperback containing all that and more!! WOO! And if you haven’t bought
anything of mine yet, get the self-published tracks while they’re hot as there
won’t be many printed- OR……….. wait for the kickass TPB next year!!

Goto http://www.nichangell.co.uk and click on
the 7STRING link to buy…

Enough shameless plugging, here’s an unlettered page from
Track 3:

And a picture I’ve been drawing for the best part of a year
and only just got around to finishing and colouring all up:

This is Mona Warprunner… she’s a teleporter. I’m thinking
about doing a series of pictures with her teleporting all sorts of places amid
hectic action, time allowing. This picture is a good sum up of why I like
comics so much. Gutter tricks. Playing with storytelling semiotics to convey a
complex notion like teleporting. Comics are infinitely equipped with language
and style to communicate this, as long as you know what you’re doing. Mastering
the kung-fu. Fully exploiting the facets of the medium you work within. A
random dude commented on some of the tricks I used in Cat and Meringue along
similar lines. It’s almost like magic, working out a clever way of doing
something in a system that’s existed for years, kinda like coding, or writing a
clever app. The system and language of comics is evolving with every book and I
LOVE being a part of it.

I’ve got a few other projects on the way too. I can’t say
much about them at this stage but it’s safe to say that there are more books on
the way from the nichangell comix towers, one of which is another of my own.
2012 is gonna be busy but mega.

Also for exclusive news you won’t hear on my blog or
anywhere else for that matter (secrets) and WIPs and offers, become part of my
inner circle and sign up to my newsletter. Also on my site, huge button, half
way down, you can’t miss it.

I might actually start calling it my inner circle. We could
meet in robes and masks and sacrifi-

END.

Comix are going good. I’m trying to be on a page a day at the moment. Its difficult normally because of the dayjob and all but i’ve actually been doing quite well. I’m on half-term now though. 2 weeks of comix devotion.  I CAN DO THIS. thing is, i don’t even have to tell myself to do it now… i get this nagging in my brain when i’m not working, telling me sub-consciously to get back to it. It’s cool, don’t worry, i’m not having a breakdown.

Here’s a step by step for what I do on one of my most recent pages:

First up i always thumbnail. This is usually on some scrappy bit of paper i find under my bed or in my pocket when the idea for a page hits me. This is actually the hardest bit. I’m a stickler for good page layouts, eye flow, timing, all that. Comics staples. I can work that out in the thumbnail stage. Then i just gotta draw it. The problem often arises that I get the nature of something JUST PERFECT in the crappy thumbnail and never quite get there again! This could have happened in the last panel with Nette’s teacher. In the thumbnail I really hit on a proper good pose and face. I was worried that i would never quite recreate that in the final page, but in this case, i think i did.

Then i draw it all out. For this i use the coloured, erasable animator’s pencil Col-Erase. These are amazing for the next stage, the inks. I ink my blue pencilled lines with Faber-Castell PITT pens but then i DON’T erase my pencils before scanning. I used to, but erasing would often damage my ink lines meaning lots of touchup in Photoshop, so instead i use P-shop’s colour select, to just select the blue and then BAM! delete, its gone, my lines are clean. proper cool.

Finally i colour it all up in Photoshop using my standard palettes. This whole process tends to take about 4/5 hours. Im pretty quick i gather but that’s still a long time. So one page a day… I CAN DO THIS.

I also followed in the footsteps of the awesome Aaron Diaz who draws Dresden Codak http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/ and decided to do my own reboot of the JLA. In case you dont know, DC Comics have just rebooted all of their major comic characters and reset all of their stories and books to a set of 52 new #1′s!! A lot of things have been changed about classics such as Superman and Batman including costumes and origin stories so i thought i’d go a bit mental with it. Here’s what I’d do:

I wont go into quite so much detail as Aaron did on his blog but here’s a few points:

BATMAN has glowing elements on his suit. This allows him to literally appear and disappear in the eyes of his enemies as they are unable to get used to the dark. He controls the lights from his belt and can find a good shadowy spot and then suddenly activate them to scare the living bejeezus out of goons. ROBIN is a girl Robin like from ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ cos i liked that dynamic. Both SUPERMAN and SUPERGIRL wear Kryptonian Spacesuits which carry the symbol for the House of El  on them. The symbol looks more alien than a human ‘S’ but is interpreted as an ‘S’ earning him the nickname ‘Superman’. Then i chucked a Flash and Wonder Woman and a Green Lantern with a much more UNIFORM-like UNIFORM. Like the military or something. I think Hal would make something like that.

So there we go! BIG POST!! hope you enjoyed and GOODNIGHT!!

Quite often we hear this phrase:

‘It’s a big manga-y isn’t it?’

And the funniest thing about this comment is that it’s a question. The very thing they are driving at they are unsure about. It is manga… isn’t it? What the people who say this are actually often saying is:

‘It’s a bit rubbish and not at all what I wanted but I’ll say its manga-ish because that’s just rubbish comic book art right?’

Most people don’t truly know what Manga is. For most, the only experience of Manga they will have had is what 14 year olds draw in the back of their exercise books. It’s violent and over sexualised and usually badly drawn as these young people are only starting out on their artistic journey and have discovered something they think is very fresh new and exciting. The wide bracket that ‘Manga’ is seen to cover means that all of these themes come under a huge umbrella of legitimacy. Its Manga, it’s a style, so massive boobs and orphanage explosions are ok.

Most people who say this won’t have seen the technically brilliant work of Osamu Tezuka or Katsuhiro Otomo. They would be utterly unaware of the fact that Tezuka’s work bears more than a handsome nod to Disney and Otomo’s work has influenced the west and made ‘Western Comics’ look as good as they do. These two and many other Japanese artists have defined comics worldwide and in turn influenced animation and film.

Now I don’t expect everyone to know about this, I only expect those who make comments like the one at the top, to know about this. They think of Legend of the Overfiend and Pokemon’s drawing style and content and decide that ‘Manga’ is rubbish, low brow and perverse.

The thing is, manga isn’t a style, it means COMICS in Japanese.

You wouldn’t say to comic book artist you employed to draw in a comics style;

‘It’s a bit too comics-y isn’t it?’

You might say I want less ‘Masashi Kishimoto’ and more ‘Frank Quitely’, or you might say ‘I like the spiky line work but I would like a more realistic approach to the faces.’ Just shouting a huge word with many subjective connotations is both useless and insulting.

Not only that, it infers an annoyance with the ‘style’ that they think the word represents. It lumps my work into a pile of crap in their mind and instantly cuts it off from them. A more open mind would see my work for what it is, Japanese influenced. (as well as many other influences too)

And they do it to the big stuff too. Huge epic series are looked over and scoffed at as manga/anime. Just because they have pointy noses does NOT mean they can’t have some of the greatest stories and character writing out there.

It has become a term in the west for a Japanese style and I understand that. When it comes to the fit of work to a brief, the style or the quality of the work though, it is a term that can no longer be used that way.

It is an insult to Manga and to the person saying it (and the artist too as it is a critique-less, baseless way of saying they don’t like your stuff)

So, I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re in the business to know, and to employ or even just to like and comment, on artists like me and Mr Duffield, we need you to have a handle on what you need and want from comics. And that means understanding the words you’re using.

It’s all comics out there. There’s just the good and the bad.

nOS

Welcome to nOS, the ultimate operating system for a new generation of technology.

Operating systems these days are plagued with slowdown problems, multi-tasking issues and the constant battle for what makes a good human/computer interface. Some people love the windows task bar, and others; the Mac dock. Linux users prefer a good old text interface like the golden days of MSDos.

nOS does away with all of these, and replaces them with nothing.

That’s right, nothing at all. nOS steps revolutionarily into a new era of computer efficiency by removing the human element entirely. Replacing interface, with nothing. It cuts you out of the equation.

Operating systems tend to slowdown and become buggy over time due to human interaction. And you can’t blame us. When you have an open platform OS that allows radical customisation and the installation of a wide range of soft and hardware, we are tempted daily by the potential of our exciting computer interface.

But if we stopped for a second, and didn’t obsessively install the latest flash player plug ins or time wasting video games; If we took a breather and didn’t bother with Microsoft office or Norton Anti-Virus; if we chilled out and didn’t slather our desktop in widgets or change the colour of the window borders on a daily basis; our computer would run MUCH faster.

nOS makes this dream a possibility. It is completely closed source; no customisation is possible on any level. This keeps your machine running tightly and efficiently. You can’t install programs or widgets or games. You never have to worry about cluttering up your machine again!

Continuing on this theme, nOS endeavours to clean up your whole ICT world, including your desk! With no human interface AT ALL, nOS does not require a screen, keyboard or mouse. Now all you have to find space for, is your computer!

As a result of all this it will run your computer at maximum efficiency. Keeping your processor speeds up, your CPU cool and power managed expertly. You will never lose data again as you can’t make any!

nOS, like turning your computer off, but more efficient.

Buy NOW!

This is where things are going to be cracking off on a more regular basis. I realised with much panic the other day that i don’t have a place where i can put up WIP, sketches, random artwork and pages from my comics as well as my general musings and ideas! Shock! what sort of comic book artist doesn’t have one of those things? my twitter and facebook are still all going strong but they are more shout outs, networking and marketing. I want somewhere to shoot the shit as it were, to talk and show off… (my livejournal just wasn’t doing it for me anymore!)

So this is it. and i’m going to kick it all off with some of the pencils from my Transformers gig I got and lost in the space of a month this year. I was very excited but it turned out Hasbro got their knickers in a twist about my style. Apparently i was too stylised even though they wanted someone to freshen it all up! Interesting… anyway, here they are, tell me what you think…

i was really chuffed with page 5… that OptiPunch was difficult but way cool… in fact i think this whole battle came out swish… imagine it coloured up! (maybe i should colour it up…)

so there you go… makes me think about doing some sort of mecha battle comic just to say yaboo sux to Hasbro… we’ll see.

So that’s what could have been, here’s what TOTALLY IS! 7STRING!!! coupla spreads from Track 3 and the upcoming graphic novel! EXCITE!!!!!!!

this image is all the previous Soloists and the God’s of music behind them. From left to right they are Rock, Classical, Electro, Vocal, Folk, Hip-Hop and Jazz.

and this be an outline of the world the story’s set in… i love world-building shizz

so there you go, proof that i am indeed working my little face off. i spend all my time at the board and at the cintiq at the moment. good but hard times.

love to all, more soon