I'm pleased to report that website The Comic Fanatic has awarded Kickback a Fanny - it's annual New Year's plaudits for excellence - as one of the best original graphic novels of 2006. Check out details at http://www.thecomicfanatic.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=939&mode=thread&order=0&thold=-1. And visit the site regularly. These guys obviously know what they're doing...
For those who like to see the nuts and bolts that make something hang together, here are a few of the working drawings from V. I'll be adding more later - chosen on a random basis from what I have in store.
Below are reduced copies of the pencilled sketches of two covers in the series. They were drawn at A4 size, photocopied up ( pre-scanning days ) to roughly 15" x 10", then traced down to become the base for the finished covers. I always find it important never to have more than one preliminary stage between the idea and the finish. So much energy can be lost in taking such steps that it's better to hit the final stage as soon as you can. In contradiction to it's essential character, dynamism can often become as fragile as a flower when it's applied with too much forethought.
These next two are research pieces. People often ask me about the research I did on V in expectation, for some reason, that I did a lot. I took some photographs of essential locations and did some sketches of things, but it wasn't a lot. Myself and Alan created a world that was a future London - not ours - so I had leeway. One of the reasons I wanted freedom in the setting of the world for V was because I was fed-up with getting cars and clothes and suchlike correct in the period strip I'd done beforehand which had kind of fathered V - Night Raven. If I hadn't been, Vendetta might have been completely different.
On the left is the model for the spiral staircase in V. They're complex things to construct from scratch, so I took a photo of a real one. This a rough photocopy of it. For those of you living in London, or visiting the city, who want to see the real thing, it's in the Kentish Town area. Can't tell you any more than that...
On the right are tube train scrawls. Not much more to say about those.
Lastly, for now, here's the sketch for the shot from Evey's house...
Remember. The ART OF V FOR VENDETTA exhibition is available to hire ( scroll down if you've just got here ). If you want this great display on show in your area, please tell your local arts venue about it and refer them to this site.
Til later...