Scott, McCaffrey re-tell "The Last Days of Man"

Released in time for last year's Thought Bubble, Paul Scott of Omnivistascope fame put together a US comic-sized collection of the strips he's done with artist Paul McCaffrey, under the title The Last Days Of Man.

Since the release, Paul tells us the collection has garnered plenty of praise - no surprize give Paul's past awards for projects such as the humour title Solar Wind and his other works such as Midlam Miniatures.

Reconstructed through genetic and data records, just over three million years in the future, the two Pauls have worked on recreating some of Professor Brabblepap’s most important work for the University of Flobobobapple on that most enigmatic and pervasive extinct species, the human race.

Join us them a journey through the great hives of Earth, where the curious descendants of the human race still live. Visit the distant asteroid base of Professor Milius, where the last great human experiment is about to reach its conclusion. Tune in to the exclusive Thoughcast™ from Kesney Towers as the inventor of Bodyclock™ runs out of time. And in deep space, the transmitted shadow of a long dead race threatens the entire galaxy.

Included in the comic is all of their work from across five issues of the critically acclaimed science fiction comic, Omnivistascope, with four stories, re-mastered and presented in a new 36 page US format comic book.

• The Last Days of Man is on sale online for just £3 at: www.midlamminiatures.co.uk/books/LDoM.html

 

SciFi Art Postcard book on sale now

The long-awaited SciFi Art Postcard title from ILEX, compiled by myself with wonderful support from Tim Pilcher and all the artists involved - including many British comic artists - is now officially on sale in all good bookshops and online.

With a cover by Patrick J. Jones, the title comprises a selection of ace science fiction art also featured in my 2010 book, Sci-Fi Art Now and some other art specially selected for this project, too - 30 gorgeous SF-inspired postcards in total.

British artists featured are: Rian Hughes, Stuart Jennett, Paul McCaffrey, Steve Sampson, Smuzz (who I'm working with on the Crucible comic) and Dave Taylor. 

Other artists work in the book are: Larry Blamire, Matt Gaser,  Aaron Jasinski, Patrick J. Jones, Michael Kaluta & Lee Moyer, Tom Kelly, Yigit Koroglu, John Malcolm, Sergey Musin, Nemons, 2012 Hugo and Chelsey Award-winning John Picacio, Neil Roberts,  Jon Sullivan, and Oliver Wetter.

The book looks great and joins a number of similar titles from ILEX, more information here in an earlier post.

Thanks to all involved - the creators and the ILEX production team, headed up by Tim Pilcher.

Artist Paul McCaffrey takes on TMNT's 'Fugitoid'

British comics comic creator Paul McCaffrey is the artist on the latest issue of IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Microseries: Fugitoid.

Also available digitally as well as in comic shops, the story centres on Fugitoid, a Mirage Studios character co-created by the founding fathers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

This comic Is a one-shot, released as the eighth issue of IDW's TMNT "Micro-Series" line written by Paul Allor and introduces Fugitoid to a new era of readers, the strong familial themes in his story and his personal connections to the TMNT. The adventure leads the new 'Fugitoid' to Earth, and stands to affect the Turtles’ future in an unexpected and crucial way.

The story serves to set up an upcoming TMNT ongoing story arc, and writer Paul Allor has nothing but praise for Paul McCaffrey's art.

"Paul does a really amazing job with action sequences," Allor told Comic Book Resources news. "He's able to make sure you know where everyone is, what's happening and what the stakes are for each character. He's a masterful storyteller in that regard.

"He's also fantastic at the character-acting part of the job," he added. "He's able to pick just the right body language, the right expression to tell you everything going on inside a character's mind. That's why one of my favorite moments was the scene... between Honeycutt and his wife, as they have an important conversation. It's a quiet, domestic scene, and Paul nailed the emotions behind it, the interaction of these two characters.

"The Fugitoid is an early creation of Mr. Eastman and Mr. Laird, pre-dating even the Turtles," he says of the character. "In the original continuity, he was a scientist named Professor Honeycutt who becomes trapped in a robot body and finds himself on the run from intergalactic factions. Eventually he hooks up with the Turtles and hijinks ensue!

"In the IDW continuity, Dr. Honeycutt is working for Krang before deciding to defect. The new IDW continuity is focused so strongly on family and moral questions of right and wrong, the proper use of violence and peace and how to do the right thing in such an imperfect world. Our new iteration of Dr. Honeycutt fits into these themes quite well."

"!We seem to have been getting generally positive reactions," says Paul of the book, which marks only his latest foray into US comics, having also worked on the Men of War mini-series for DC Comics.

Paul McCaffrey graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic (as was) with a BA in graphic design. Since then, he's mainly worked in the area of children's educational illustration, so he's done a lot of work you'll never see for books you've never heard of. Some of this can be seen on his web site or or his agent's web site.

Over the past few years, his comic strip work has appeared in UK indie titles such as Omnivistascope, Violent! and Zombies Vs Robots: Adventure. When he's not scribbling away, he makes music with The Phase 4). (Also atwww.last.fm/music/The+Phase+4).

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles digital comics are now available to fans outside of the US, including the UK, Australia, the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey), Ireland and New Zealand.

The comics will be available in the TMNT Comics app, the IDW Comics app, Comics by comiXology apps for iOS and Android, or online at read.idwpublishing.com

- Paul McCaffrey's web site: www.coroflot.com/paul_mccaffrey

- Read a 2010 interview with the artist on the SciFi Art Now blog

- Read Paul Allor's interview about the Fugitoid comic on Comic Book Resources