Nigel Dobbyn's Blog (16)

The Macbeth graphic novel from Classical Comics is finally nearing completion. I finished colouring the artwork yesterday. Jon Haward has certainly made me work for my money on these last few pages, which have a huge cast and a suitably epic quality to them. Gary Erskine also pitched in to help with the inking on the last pages and will be fully inking Jon on the next project of his - The Tempest - which I'm also down to colour and letter.

It's been a slog at times getting the 121 page

Had a good time at Birmingham. There was a point on the Saturday afternoon when I thought I'd be twiddling my thumbs all weekend, but things perked up when Nigel Kitching, Richard Elson and got together with a load of Sonic the Comic fans we'd arranged to meet on the Saturday night - there must have been about 25 of them altogether (the wonder of the internet) and I stayed talking to people, sketching etc. for three and a half hours. Some of them are turning into really accomplished artists,

Got my copy of the Beano Annual in Borders yesterday (Yes, I have to buy my own copy! Thankyou, D.C.Thomson). Billy the Cat has printed up nicely. Shame that it had to be split differently than it was written by Kev (so the 'splash' panels are in entirely the wrong place!), but I think it still looks pretty good.

Showed it to a guy promoting Stockton Adult Education Centre who was in the store and got offered a job teaching Photoshop techniques!

Won't b

Classical Comics has had good coverage about their comic strip adaptations, particularly Henry V, in both the Times Educational Supplement and in the Daily Mail this week. Let's hope sales match the press interest.

Strangely, the Laurence Olivier version of Henry V is on re-release in cinemas this week as part of the British Summer of Film. Could this be kismet?

I got my copy of Bulletproof 1 in the post this morning - it's a lovely looking package, only 5 years in the making! It's a squarebound 80 page anthology, selling for £2.50 and well worth the price, I reckon - check out the BULLETPROOF website for a preview.

Contacted by Matt Yeo (editor of Toxic magazine) the other day about a project for which Nigel Kitching and I did a strip many years ago and which we never thought would never see the light of day, namely 'Magpie'. This has been on my website, but is now finally going to see print in Bulletproof Comics No. 1

I'm being sent a copy and will be intrigued to see what it looks like. The artwork is a little dated (I ink everything digitally now), but I think the strip holds up OK still. Will

Just got the 'ashcan' promos for Henry V in the post from Classical Comics - it's looking like a very classy product indeed. Still working on the letters - up to about 250 pages now and starting to get cramp, eyestrain etc.! (Still, better than packing frozen ready meals, eh? one of my jobs during the lean times!)

I also got used as a testimonial in Comicraft's latest mailout. Wasn't expecting that.

This year's Beano annual features a first (?) meeting between Beano 'action heroes' Billy the Cat and General Jumbo. Wriiten by Kev Sutherland and drawn by me, the strip runs to 16 pages.

It was originally intended to appear as four 4-page episodes in the weekly, but I ran out of time on the deadline for the Annual for another Billy strip and this had to be substituted instead. Unfortunately, the breaks in the story have therefore had to be placed slightly differently, but I've tried t