Artist Monty Nero offers online digital art class

Monty Nero's cover for CLiNT
Volume 2 Issue 3

Ace artist Jim Montynero, whose credits include Death Sentence for CLiNT Magazine, is teaching two weeks of live online digital painting classes from 6th August 2012.

These courses, organised by the Computer Training Academy, who have been running a variety of teaching since March, use video conference and desktop sharing software to link up your computer to a professional artist working in the industry today. In this way you can see the screen and talk live to the artist as they demonstrate techniques and take you through each step of their job. You spend every minute learning and being encouraged by a real pro. 

Getting set up takes minutes and is as simple as clicking on the link the Computer Training Academy send you.

All the tutors on these courses have over 10 year's experience as professional concept artists for computer games. Monty Nero tells us technical streaming quality is excellent, with the same one-to-one student attention and tutor interaction as a face-to-face class.

• Contact: info@computertrainingacademy.co.uk for more details.

• The Computer Training Academy homepage:
http://computertrainingacademy.co.uk/#/splash/

• A summary of the Concept Art class:
http://computertrainingacademy.co.uk/#/concepts/

• What you will need for remote courses through the CTA:
http://computertrainingacademy.co.uk/#/remote-courses/

• Pricing and class dates:
http://computertrainingacademy.co.uk/#/pricing/

Comics Creators At Hi-Ex 2012: Part 2

Having taken a lot of photos of the various creators at the Hi-Ex comics convention, which took place at the Eden Court complex in Inverness last weekend, there was never going to be enough room in the main downthetubes review of the con to include all the images. Instead we present a selection of those images of the creators along with links to their websites, blogs and/or Facebook pages. They are in no particular order and the first part of this photo feature is here.

Artist Nigel Dobbyn has an eclectic selection of titles to his credit from The Beano's Billy The Cat to 2000AD via Thunderbirds and Transformers. The image he is showing here is entitled Primeval Priest and is available to buy from his website.

There are more details of Nigel Dobbyn's work on his website.

Glasgow's small press Team Girl Comic have four issues to their name as well as a selection of individual contributors' own titles and did a good trade, particularly on the Saturday. Shown here are editor Gillian Hatcher (left) with contributors Coleen Campbell (centre) and Clare Yvette (right).

There are more details of Team Girl Comic on their website and Facebook page.

French artist Michel Rodrigue is currently resident in Scotland and having been at the previous Hi-Ex was back this year on the Cinebook stand. His Cinebook titles are the two modern Clifton titles Jade and Black Moon which he was signing and sketching over the weekend. He is also the writer of the French series Sybil La Fee Cartable which is on its third book in France and the first book of which has just be translated into English by Papercutz as Sybil The Backpack Fairy and he was more than happy to sketch and sign copies of it as well.

There are more details of Michel Rodrigue on Lambiek.

There are more details of Sybil The Backpack Fairy on the Papercutz website and of Clifton the the Cinebook website.

From pink fairies to something rather darker and artist John Higgin's RazerJack, the death-bitch from the Twist Dimension. To promote RazerJack, John produces illustrations at each of the conventions that he attends and here is the image that he was working on on the Sunday at Hi-Ex.

There are more details of John Higgin's work on his website and of RazerJack on its Facebook page.

Write and artist Ian Sharman is also editor of Orang Utan Comics and AAM/Markosia as well as writer of Alpha Gods and Hero: 9-5. He took part in the Hi-Ex Pitching and Portfolio session on the Sunday. His latest title, as seen above, is Hypergirl.

There are more details of Ian Sharman's work on his blog and on the Orang Utan Comics website.

Perhaps the most unusual graphic novel available over the weekend was writer and animator Leslie MacKenzie's Gaelic title Cuir Stad Ak An Stoirm Shneashda which translates as Stop The Snow Storm. With art by Shona Shirley MacDonald, it uses the idea that the first peoples of Scotland were not from the south and Europe but from the north and the Arctic regions. As part of the publishing deal with the Gaelic Books Council the title will not be published in English for several years.

There are more details of Leslie MacKenzie's work on her website while Cuir Stad Ak An Stoirm Shneashda will be available from the Gaelic Books Council website.

A comic strip with killer STDs in it just sound like the sort of thing that should be in CLiNT magazine and the editorial team of CLiNT obviously thought so too. As can be seen above, artist and writer Monty Nero's Death Sentence started life as a small press comic but will get a new lease of life, and a lot more exposure, when it begins in CLiNT Vol 2 No 1 very soon.

There are more details of Monty Nero's work on his website and blog.

Artist Will Pickering worked on the Burke and Hare graphic novel published several years ago as well as contributing to a number of Glasgow based small press titles. He was also displaying Black Hearted Press' Gabriel title written by Jim Alexander.

There are more details of Will Pickering's work on his blog.

Londonderry's Uproar Comics came together through the city's 2D Comics Festival and its 2D Collective offshoot. They publish the Zombies Hi title which is an anthology of the main ongoing Zombies Hi story backed up with short zombie text stories and comic strip and has reached its fourth issue. Set after a zombie apocalypse within the defensive walls of the City of Derry, the comic is widely distributed within Northern Ireland. Artist Kevin Logue (left) drew attendees as zombies while writer Danny McLaughlin (centre) drummed up support and artist John Campbell (right) worked on pages for forthcoming issues.

There are more details of Zombies Hi on the Uproar Comics website.

Last and by no means least, especially since one of her titles is Eagle Award nominated this year as Best European Comic, is Irish writer Maura McHugh. Her two titles for Dublin's Atomic Diner Comics are the Eagle Award nominated 1920s mystery Jennifer Wilde and the supernatural Roisin Dubh as seen above.

There are more details of Maura McHugh's work on her website.

There are more details of Jennifer Wilde and Roisin Dubh on the Atomic Diner website.


The first part of Comics Creators At Hi-Ex is here.

The Hi-Ex website is here.

The downthetubes review of Hi-Ex 2012 is here.

Good Cop, Bad Cop checks into High-Ex

If you're planning a trip to the Highlands for the Hi-Ex Comic Expo next weekend, then be sure to track down the latest comics from Black Hearted Press, run by Jim Alexander, David Brayher, John Farman and Sha Nazir.

Black Hearted Press is a new Scottish comic book publisher promoting new, exciting and diverse creator owned, collaborative comic books whose first release was Black Maria issue 616. Building on that success, they've added several new titles including the much-praised School of the Damned, Gabriel and Scout One.

Their latest title is Good Cop, Bad Cop by ace writer Jim Alexander, whose credits include stories for 2000AD, DC and Marvel Comics and Metal Hurlant.

In a modern and suitably macabre take on Jekyll and Hyde, the Good Cop and Bad Cop just happen to be the same person and the first issue features three all-new stories written by Jim, with art by Garry McLaughlin (Junkie Dad, Year of Fear, Taking Flight).

With suitably black humour and some nice touches on the characterisation, it's a project with immense potential - I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops. For example, given the Bad Cop's predilection for killing, rather than arresting villains, how will Good Cop cover the tracks of his alter ego? Do they have entirely different DNA, for example?

I'm sure this is the kind of thing Jim will be having fun with in later issues.

Also out is Scout One, what Jim previously described as "a super-hero strip with a difference." Sha Nazir's art lends the story a gritty DC Thomson look, and the first issue again features three stories from the mythology of Scout One.

"The story has a Doctor Who sensibility to it," says Jim. "There's a real sense of adventure and fun to be had. Something parents and kids can both enjoy."

Hi-Ex takes place at Eden Court, Inverness 31st March - 1st April. Other guests include Jim Montynero, one of the creators on CLiNT, Rok Comics editor John Freeman, artist Graeme Neil Reid, Inko and many more. More info at www.hi-ex.co.uk.

• Black Hearted Press: www.blackheartedpress.co.uk

• Jim Alexander's blog: http://jimalwriter.blogspot.com

CLiNT set for re-boot in May

CLiNT - the comic magazine published by Mark Millar and Titan Magazines - is about to get a major re-boot.

Re-launching in May with a near all-new line up that includes Mark Millar's Supercrooks (with art by Leinil Yu) and The Secret Service (with Dave Gibbons), the new #1 cover sports a comic cover reflecting the bulk of its impressive 100-page content. On its original launch almost two years ago, the title favoured photographic covers that seemed to target the 'lads mags' market.

Titan is no stranger to re-boots - and it's a marketing tactic employed by several publishers, on both sides of the Atlantic. (Titan's Star Wars Comic, for example, has bee re-branded and re-launched pretty much every time Lucasfilm has tweaked the Star Wars franchise). While CLiNT's UK comic shop sales and US direct sales are strong, the re-boot won't hurt to remind non comic-savvy high street retailers the title is still available, and a logical complement to other comic offerings like 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine.

But it's the content, not the marketing, downthetubes readers are interested in - so what's on offer?

"The idea behind [Supercrooks] is that a bunch of supervillains get together and say, 'You know what, we keep getting beat by the superheroes. We always end up in prison,'" Mark Millar told Comic Book Resources last yerar. "This is terrible no matter what we try to do. Let's go to a country where they don't have any superheroes, and then we can kick ass.' So they leave America and head over to Europe where there are no superheroes, and it's like Ocean's Eleven meets the X-Men where seven supervillains head to Europe to pull the biggest job of their career where there are no supervillains to stop them. So it's a fun heist story."

Sure to get attention from fans is The Secret Service, which is also being published as a six-issue mini series under Marvel Comics' Icon imprint in the US from April. Mark collaborated with writer-artist Dave Gibbons on this, with X-Men: First Class helmer Matthew Vaughn is on board to turn the series into a movie in the future.

Talking about the project in CLiNT recently, Mark explained he had been working on this idea for some years and revealed the story was “Something to do with the government and something to do with the military intelligence wing of the government. It’s not a spy story as such,. That would be way too straight for a couple of guys who made their names in superhero comics… It’s a hero book, and there’s a sidekick and there’s vast headquarters and a secret origin and all the stuff you’d expect to see in a superhero book. But we really, really play around with a lot of conventions here.

“No two scenes seem to be set in the same country and we’re working on a scale unlike something as up-close-and-personal as a crimefigheter with no super-powers," he added. "But I can see the link, because we’re balancing that sense of the real and the outrageous and there’s super-villains and so on. But what’s exciting about it is that it‘s something new.

“The Ultimates was about heroes responding to the new America and the new world after the attacks on September the 11th. The Secret Service is the ramifications of that, as America is struggling on the world stage, funding is being seriously undercut to balance the books and some people are trying their best to take advantage of the fragile global situation.

“The Secret Service started as two different projects," he revealed. "I had an idea that was mainly set in the US and [Matthew Vauughn] had an idea for a similar thing that was mainly set in the UK. I can’t give too much anyway without blowing the story, but we essentially fused both characters together and so the Batman and Robin or whatever you want to call these guys really are a genuine co-creation between me, Dave and Matthew. He had some sequences in mind and I had these crazy plot ideas I’d been mulling over for a year or two and we just hammered it out in the pub, really. It evolved naturally. So I’ve gone off and written the comic and he’ll write the screenplay for the movie, which might feed back into the comic too. l don’t know.

"It’s impossible for one of us to untangle one from the other and now Dave is the third man in this whole creation, bringing in a third dimension to the story. We’re going to see all his drawings and designs and emblems and so on working their way back into the movie too.”

The magazine's line-up also includes the highly-anticipated Death Sentence from Jim Montynero and Mike Dowling, which was trailed last December.

Created by writer Montynero and Mike Dowling (artist on CLiNT’s Rex Royd), Mark Millar feels the story is a perfect fit for the 100-page magazine's brand of big-budget action with a cynical twist.

The story of three Londoners granted superpowers and six months to live by the devastating, sexually-transmitted G-Plus virus, Death Sentence is by turns dramatic, thought-provoking and hilarious; a take-down of modern celebrity culture that also takes a stand against oppressive and invasive government.

With a world exclusive new chapter of Rex Royd – plus the terror of Graveyard of Empires -- the new CLiNT looks set to be a major talking point in the next couple of months and the revamped title is nound to be a major part of the second Kapow convention in May.

Let's hope Mark Millar and Titan's determination to make CLiNT even more of a success pays off - not just in comic shops, but WH Smiths, too.

- CLiNT is published simultaneously in the UK and US. For more information in the title, interviews and previews visit: http://titanmagazines.com/t/clint/