Roger Mason strips

Storyboards for app development

2012-02-14T13:35:00.000Z

Due to having fallen off the face of a monolith of software, which got taller and taller the older and older my mac got, I have not posted for a while. Now I am back. I want to thank Woody Lidstone of Splicetraining.ca for being a mac wizard. He claims merely that "Hey – it's what I do" in an endearing Canadian drawl but I believe that while I was making the coffee (strong and black – the choice of mac warriors the world over I presume) he whipped out his wand and a few "Expelliarmus!"-s later my mac mini was like new machine.

Here are some storyboards which I produced for 2CV a little while back, about app development. More soon, more frequently.

Royal wedding illustration

2012-01-09T16:33:00.000Z

Whoops, left it a bit too long since my last post, what with the Christmas period and taking time off. I also wanted to leave the advert for The Mice book at the top of the pile as well.

Moving on into 2012, appropriately enough here's an image I produced last summer. From time to time I work for Big Smoke Media, who are a London-based promotional company who create and stock the postcards that you find in a rack in restaurants, bars and cinemas in the South East, often while on the way to the loo.

It's been great to know them and they have been kind enough to pay me with my own distributed postcard when I do an illustration for them. This is one for them, a take on the royal wedding. The postcard I had made subsequently featured the grinning soldier you will have seen at the top of this blog and I hope that if you have been in the city you may have seen either of them and taken one.

Graphic novel now available to buy

2011-12-06T15:57:00.002Z

The Mice: The Factory Menace is now available to buy from Scar Comics online shop, here . £7.99, 80 pages, black and white, it is a complete story and also the first book in a proposed series of four, with the second book almost completed.

It tells the story of the giant alien factory Order Nine, and the humans who live there, who are treated like vermin and trying to fight off the aliens who, it must be said, don't much care and hate their jobs. Humorous, action-packed, romantic and deadly, here are some reviews:

“Small press comics at its absolute best… 9 out of 10.”
Comics International

“This is a gem and worth seeking out.”
bugpowder.com

"Roger Mason's fully-formed future scenario pits tiny terrorists in the Land of the Giants against occupying alien forces. A rollicking SF epic brought to life with splendidly fluid chiaroscuro brushwork by one of the UK's most exciting young talents."
Gary Spencer Millidge, creator of Strangehaven

A Preview can be read on my website , click on The Mice link, and here's a couple of pages...

Leeds Thought Balloon comic con

2011-11-21T11:33:00.000Z

Monday morning and just taken my brother's crazy fun dog Barney for a walk in the hills around Sheffield. I went to Thought Bubble(Balloon?) in Leeds yesterday and sat on the Scar Comics table, selling copies of The Mice. A good day, if a bit quiet on the punters with cash front.

Treating myself to a spend at the Top Shelf table, I enjoyed catching up with Chris Staros and buying the big Alec collection by Eddie Campbell as well as Superfuckers by Kochalka. I caught up with Sean Azzopardi and read his diary comics, beginning with 100 Days of Winter which I enjoyed very much.

BBC Three idents

2011-11-02T11:57:00.000Z

From 2007, when I was working with Red Bee Media at White City on the branding work for the TV channel BBC Three. The idea was to create a planet that the idents would feature different parts of and I was asked to help visualise this world.

Here are colour visuals of various parts of this imaginary world, including a rough layout, useful to let the team know I was on the same wavelength as them before investing more time in the image.

Batman Live commission

2011-10-07T12:38:00.000+01:00

Recently I drew this commission for the boyfriend of a dancer who had won a part in the Batman Live Arena Tour, a significant career step and something to be marked. I came up with the concept, which was to feature Harley Quinn — I added Catwoman — and placed Michelle, the dancer, in between the two hellcats. After that, it seemed to create itself with these strong characters demanding me to go their way. Indian ink on A2 bristol board and a lot of fun to do.

Schrodinger's Cat cartoon

2011-10-03T17:56:00.000+01:00

If this is not one of the most alluring subjects in physics for cartoonists, other than Einstein's hair and equations, I will be surprised. Sent this to Viz and Private Eye, alas, no luck.

Miss Oatlash from the pages of Preacher

2011-09-07T15:58:00.000+01:00

I'll be taking some time off from tomorrow, to re-charge my batteries after a particularly hectic bout of storyboarding, so I thought I would go out with a bang. To anyone who this image comes to as a complete shock I recommend you look at the DC Vertigo comic Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

A chap called Ryan Ballard is putting together a compendium of sketches based on the afore-mentioned comic, and I jumped at the chance to produce my take on Miss Oatlash and her sexual preferences. Ryan's blog: http://thepreacherproject.blogspot.com/

Preacher is, in my opinion, one of the best entry points into modern comics and a highly entertaining, stomach-churning thrill ride with humour and a body count to match. Great story-telling from Dillon and a pin-sharp script from Irish writer Ennis, both of whom used to work for 2000AD. Apparently Ennis thinks his run on Judge Dredd wasn't much cop (no pun intended), I thought it was great.

BICS went very well, sold 12 copies of The Mice and put one in the hands of Dave Gibbons.

BICS and an apology to the 'kids'

2011-08-26T12:48:00.000+01:00

This weekend I will be on the Scar Comics table at the Birmingham International Comic Show (BICS) at the Holiday Inn, city centre. Should be a good time, looking forward to selling some copies of The Mice, doing some sketches and catching up with my publisher to find out about the broader distribution plans for the book.

I would like to say about the previous post, that I regret the caption 'Fucking kids'. The kids are alright in my opinion, much maligned and only formed, apparently, a low proportion of the rioters and looters who recently blighted London. A knee-jerk response cartoon like this one does no good whatsoever, so I am saying sorry, to the kids.

Cartooning in Hackney

2011-08-10T12:37:00.002+01:00

A response to events in London, drawn on the back of an envelope.

Set the Destroyer storyboards

2011-07-26T14:34:00.000+01:00

Recently I produced seven key frame illustrations for film-maker Craig Murray who is making a music video for the band Set the Destroyer. I had fun with this, depicting a wasted young girl staggering up Kingsland Road, being sucked into a floor in a bunker and then being re-born up on a rooftop as a blond.

I think I need to see the video to work out what's going on here and if you want to find out more about Craig's work then go to www.youcameinhereastranger.com. Craig sits next to me in my studio in Dalston, in the Bootstrap Building, home also to the Dalston Roof Park. He doesn't drink tea but isn't averse to instant coffee in a plastic beaker, trivia fans.

News of The World phone hacking

2011-07-15T12:41:00.000+01:00

Thoughtful officer of the law

2011-06-29T13:32:00.001+01:00

Fountain pen on top of pencils, sometime in April, I think.

Judge Dredd 3 - 'Outgunned' pencils

2011-06-17T14:28:00.002+01:00

This piece of paper has been flapping around in the drawing board vicinity for a few weeks. The judge's face was originally facing forwards so we would be unable to see her face. It took me some time before I figured out that for me to be interested in taking it further, I would want to see her face, so I turned her head.

Many minutes have been spent on her bum and right leg. This is not a commission, I am just enjoying drawing female judges and am wondering if this is somehow not done to use an existing property on one's blog – because in a way the Dredd tags may bring people to me, so will I get a snotty letter? – plus I'm musing on the fact that once upon a time I would have started inking this by now, rather than writing about it here.

Life drawing class in Bow

2011-06-08T11:37:00.003+01:00

Talking of kapows, another one has come along. Quick plug to say please have a look at this flyer, I will be hosting a life drawing class in Bromley by Bow this Sunday afternoon, mixing observational drawing with cartooning techniques that will help approach the figure and get better results. All are welcome.

Scar Comics at Kapow!

2011-06-08T11:23:00.003+01:00

It is with great pleasure I post this pic up on the blog. I found this online just now and as I do not tend to carry a camera I can miss moments like this, of which I am very proud so maybe it's time to get a camera... Anyway, from left to right, myself looking knackered holding a copy of The Mice: The Factory Menace, Shane Chebsey holding Madame Samurai and Ben Dickson holding Slumdroid.

Shane is one half of Scar Comics, who are, in my opinion, England's hottest independent publisher of graphic novels and Ben is the writer of Slumdroid as well as the acclaimed Falling Sky. My book is available only at conventions at the moment but will soon be more widely available and when that happens I'll be blogging it.

This picture was taken at the amazing Kapow! convention in Islington, London, April 2011, which was the best UK con I have ever been to and well worth going to next year if you get the chance. The Mice sold really well and we at Scar had interest from a big figure in the UK comics publishing scene, which was tantalizing to say the least.

For a preview of The Mice go to my website, www.looksgoodonpaper.co.uk and click on the link.

Judge Dredd 2 - 'Two surfboards' chase

2011-05-31T16:30:00.003+01:00

I have been reading Kirby's Fantastic Four and this influenced the giant hand on the doomed perp. Am extremely pleased with the nimble and relentless judge who reminds me of the British character Billy the Cat.

diary comic strip 2

2011-05-17T12:08:00.002+01:00

Another extract from the Kochalka-style 'page-a-day' diary from the end of last year, detailing a trip up north when I guest-lectured at the University of Teesside and fell foul of bureaucracy. Or did I...?

Judge Dredd 1

2011-05-16T13:43:00.002+01:00

I have been drawing some Dredd-related imagery recently and will be posting it up here over the next few weeks. This week, Dredd sits on his bike gurning. Stay tuned for some deadly-but-slinky female judges.

BNI 'Givers Gain' cartoon 2

2011-05-03T14:13:00.004+01:00

BNI 'Givers Gain' cartoon

2011-04-22T15:25:00.004+01:00

I am a member of London's BNI Sherlock chapter, who meet every Thursdays at the Ishtar restaurant at 12 pm. It's 10-12 Crawford Street, London W1U 6AZ and if you are interested in checking out this amazing organization let me know.

Coke Dragon Super Bowl Commercial XLV Coca Cola 2011

2011-03-11T16:21:00.006Z

Over ten days in October 2010 I was working at Nexus Productions in Shoreditch, east London, with the french film directors Fx & Mat on a Coca-Cola television commercial which was intended to be aired in the United States during half-time at the Superbowl, February 7th 2011.

Working closely with the pair I drew more than 80 storyboards detailing their vision of an epic fantasy animation that would be one minute in length and about an invading army of orc ‘fire warriors’ and their dragon. The orcs meet a settlement of Coke-drinking ‘ice dwellers’ and things start to go awry.

The boards began life as rough layouts to establish composition and camera angle which were then, after directors’ approval, worked up in pencil and inked onto tracing paper. There were several meetings in-house to decide content, as well as meetings with the advertising agency (Wieden & Kennedy) and Coca-Cola, the upshot of these being many re-draws and discarded scenes.

The storyboards shown here represent the frames corresponding to the final edit. The characters were created by other artists whose designs I followed. At one point, due to time constraints, I enlisted the help of comic artist Mike Collins to tighten up my pencil layouts, which he would email back to me and I would then ink over to maintain consistency. The quality drops off after the dragon drinks the coke because I was asked to supply about 25 frames in one-and-a-half hours for a crucial meeting.

Hellish - on cooking

2011-01-16T17:55:00.004Z

I drew about 15 strips in this vein and have recently been thinking about dusting it off. It seems a lot of things I find funny can be put into this, some of them maybe quite obscure. If I get one up here per week maybe that would create a buzz and Hellish (also known as Fork Off) would take off, there would be plastic forks for sale and I'd be the next Schultz.

Hellish - santa cartoon

2010-11-13T17:53:00.000Z

Always was unsure if this was funny or too specific in its reference.

Diary comic - Triggered Off

2010-11-13T17:51:00.000Z

diary comic strip

2010-10-26T15:43:00.002+01:00

Been drawing a lot of storyboards lately and some really nice, taxing things I have been asked to draw. It would not be a good idea to put them up here though due to confidentiality issues. Here's another page from my diary comic strip, where, Kochalka-style, I produced a page per day for about a month and a half.

Recent storyboard frames

2010-07-14T13:38:00.003+01:00

It's a been a busy few weeks and recently I drew a 36-frame storyboard in about seven to ten days. The exact timing is a bit blurry but I put these up here because I like the pencil work in these frames. I think and I hope the client is pleased with them, and as is often the case no news seems to be good news.

Comic strip for video game intro sequence

2010-06-23T18:06:00.003+01:00

Torchwood comic cover image

2010-06-23T18:04:00.001+01:00

Torchwood comic cover image

2010-06-23T18:01:00.000+01:00

Tryout for the Torchwood comic, finding its way hopefully into publication soon

Harajuku Girl & Salaryman

2010-06-23T17:58:00.002+01:00

Characters created by Martin Eden, creator of the small press comics The O Men and Spandex. These two are from a japanese super-team called the J-Team for for an online Spandex exhibition, called JAPANDEX.

Torchwood page tryout

2010-06-23T17:56:00.002+01:00

Illustrations on spec for Titan Books, script by Oli Smith

diary test

2009-10-25T18:13:00.003Z

art work test

2009-10-19T18:37:00.003+01:00