Projects and other things to look forward to in the current calendar year...

You might noticed I just finished up fine-tuning my "new look blog" with a brand new banner up above. I found the size of the last one didn't fit so I thought I'd create a brand new one with a favorite image of the Detective Inspector from The Spaghetti Strand Murder.

Well, after a fairly slow first week of 2012 which consisted of putting a few finishing touches on a couple commissioned pieces as well as one of my comics appearing in the now yearly End of the Year Comic Issue of Worcester Magazine (pick it up at your local newsstand or read it online), things will start hotting up again next week with my regular classes coming back from break as well as my December Workshops starting up again at the at the Worcester Art Museum.

I also have a few projects that are either coming out or in the works.

One of which I have mentioned before is The Ninnies by Paul Magrs. Which I have been told by Obverse Books should be coming out early in the year.

This is a project I am very proud to have been a part of since Paul is a writer whose work I have greatly admired for some time now. So, to be able to do a story with him in the grand tradition of Roald Dahl and the Phantom Tollbooth is a great privilege for me.

To be honest, I think is probably my best work to date. Or at least work I have been thoroughly happy with it's results.

More new about the project will be announced on Obverse Books website at: http://obversebooks.co.uk/

There will be a formal announcement on this blog when the book is released.

The second is another children's book I am working on with author N.E. Castle who I had done several author signings at Borders in the past couple of years. I can't really say much about this particular project yet. But it's going to be a lot of fun to do.

More to come about that later.

Coming Soon: The Ninnies

The cover art I did for a book I illustrated for Doctor Who/Brenda and Effie author Paul Magrs's book The Ninnies.

Paul is an author whose work I have greatly enjoyed over the years. I first got into his writing with the Doctor Who series of original novels.

It bears mentioning that the strongest point of the Virgin and BBC Books that came out based on the show during those lean years when the series was yet to return was the fact that the writers were really good.

Many books based on television series are usually very weak by comparison to the original series. But not the Doctor Who series. And Paul Magrs's work I enjoyed in particular.

So, it's been great over the last few years to be able to artwork based on both his Doctor Who and non-Doctor Who work.

My wife absolutely loved the book and I had a great time illustrating it. To give you a general feel of the book, it's half Roald Dahl, another half Phantom Tollboth, yet another half John Bellairs and 100% fun!!

The book is getting ready to go to the printers so I will let you all know when it hits the shelves.