Yo.

So I (Rik) watched this series of Dr Who and was left a little wanting. I love Capaldi and think he's got some potential to bring some gravity to the character but I really didn't care for Clara. More and more I find that I am watching a children's show, not that there's anything wrong with that but it means my expectations of Who isn't meeting up with the reality.  Having said that. {SPOILERS} when Clara got Raven'd, not only was I thinking "at last" but also we got see a little bit of the Doctor's dark side and that's something I always find richer that silly hats and talking to babies. Anyway The Doctor gets all pissy and goes a bit season 3 Malcolm Tucker.  Immediately I wrote the following piece. Consider this an extra scene after the Raven episode and the last 2 episodes of the season being very different.

 I did think as the season came to a close that they might have gone this way but they didn't for obvious reasons. Anyway enjoy.

Click to embiggen.

There you are.

There was a bunch of fun thing that happened whilst making this comic.
1) It's a miracle it got made with it being xmas, both of us being super busy with work and in JC's case becoming a master of science.

2) JC has never watched Who so had no idea what was happening, but after he read the script he said that he felt the gravity (semi pun intended) of the piece. That's rewarding to hear as a writer.

3) It's all upside and crazy. Those of you who follow our work, both of you, know that we like to play with panel layout. I had this idea that if you could traverse a small astral body you can physically take a character from looking up at something, in this case a planet, to looking down at something. Hey presto, a visual metaphor. Comics don't use these enough despite the visual nature of comics. Anywho that got us talking about the layout and we decided that it would be fun to make the comic rotate. I was worried how that would translate to digital viewing but the results speak for themselves. There's something sinister about an upside down character, facing away from the reader and threatening a planet. It's not a traditional panel but it's a fun little experiment.

We're getting together in the new year to discuss what we want to do going forward. We're both pretty busy, JC in particular as he is creating comics to teach people science, and these one page comics are fun and quick to do so you might be seeing a whole lot more of them.

Merry Christmas and to all a Good Night.

Rik and JC

I want to be a Machen man!

 Hello again,

     We'd like to share something we did last year for the To Arms! comic anthology commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War.  It's a great collection if you can get your hands on it (available from Limehouse Comics and from Gosh! comic shop in London).

Our particular comic centres on the true story of esteemed Welsh fantasy author Arthur Machen, and how one of his short stories, "The Angels of Mons" was adopted as a piece of rallying wartime misinformation.  You can read more about Machen here (Guardian article) and here (The Quietus feature).  He's a pretty fascinating guy, largely lost to history.

We're not entirely sure why it's taken us until now to upload it, but here it is...

Hello one and all,

Well, that's a wrap on another great year at Thought Bubble.  Besides the river flooding over into the streets, the weekend in Leeds went off without a hitch (except for the fact that Jordan's pens were perpetually drying up).  Thank you to everyone who stopped by the table to look at our stuff.  It's always a pleasure talking to readers and fellow comics creators.  Here is some photographic evidence of what went on at our table...

It's us!

Daredevil vs Punisher

Batman: good thing he remembered his cagoule

Bojack: the man who is also a horse

Another satisfied customer of Jeff Goldblum

The mighty (and obscure) Klamos. I ran out of space in his speech bubble...

The mid-con party was a blast too.  Hip-hop legend DMC made a guest appearance, for example.  A big shout out to all the organisers and volunteers who made the weekend possible.  Hooray for Britain's best large-scale convention.

That's all for now.  Until next year!

Keep on truckin'
WCP

Hi everyone,

We are pleased to present a mini-comic about the unlikely friendship and rivalry between Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  This is a kind of proof-of-concept piece for a much larger project we have in the works called Escape! which will elaborate on the same story, themes, and ideas found here.  Although this also stands on its own.  It has been featured on Bleeding Cool, and you can have a gander below (click on each image to enlarge)...












If you'd like to see more pages like this (like... several dozen more) then please consider supporting Water Closet Press on our brand new Patreon page and help us make this comic a reality!

Thanks for reading,
Jordan & Rik

Fun fact: This comic is itself symmetrical....

It's been a while since I drew anything productive at a BLAM! meeting, but this week the theme was "absent cat".  I wasn't entirely sure to go with that direction, so I just drew my favorite feline private eye (not quite as inventive as Razarhawk Dani Abrams' brilliant cat-silhouette-in-smashed-plate-glass-window).  The sun was glorious so we were outside all evening, the lovely folk music more clear than ever.  BLAM! is Bristol's comic creators collective and it meets once a month at the Golden Guinea pub.



He must have a pretty heavy tie, considering the wind.

Signing off,
Jordan

The first time I've done the thumbnail sketching stage sans Rich.

Playing with some avian and Mesoamerican influences for the Malakhim, and an early Thomas character study

Trying a new (and unsuccessful) over-sized thumbnailing technique

 

Divine evolution. I briefly toyed with the idea of having scraggly clipped feathers poking out from under his manacles.

Getting psychedelic...

Let's try some normal colours (incomplete).

Enough of this madness!

Signing off,
JC

www.sccassemble.co.uk

Hello folks!  We've got a new science fiction comic for you.  We've added it to the tabs on the top of the page.  Stay tuned for some of the black and white line art and a description of both the writing and art process we'll be posting in the near future. But in the mean time check it out, and enjoy...

Thanks for watching, reader!

Signing off,
Jordan

For all those who stopped by our table and picked up a card or a comic: Thank you, thank you, and welcome to our blog!

Be sure to click on the "Ladies & Gentlemen" tab at the top of the page to read the entire Curse of the Were-Hyena Part 1 for free. Want to find out what happens next?  Go to our "Emporium" page and we'll send you a copy of Part 2.  Already have Part 2 but want a paper copy of Part 1 to complete the set?  Go to the Emporium!

If you enjoyed the comic we'd love to know what you think. Pop on over to our facebook page and give us your thoughts (and your thumbs).

We'll try to get up some pictures (I think we only took about 2) and a report of how the convention went shortly, but until then, thanks for making our first MCM a big success!  See you at Thought Bubble.

Signing off,
Jordan