It's a bit late for a Caption 2006 piece from my own hand, so I'm just going to point you to Dave West's report instead (sans frame). Did I really say I'd have some kind of product for the Birmingham Comics Show? I can't believe I'd do something so foolish.

This week saw the official launch of both Wor Al from Tonto Press (16 Aug) and The Scarifyers from Cosmic Hobo (14 Aug).

The cover for the Wor Al book (a fans' tribute to Alan Shearer) was illustrated by the fantastic British comics artist Tony O' Donnell, my connection being that I coloured the work and did the lettering. The photo on the left shows model Monica Harris holding the book and wearing a signed Newcastle Utd. shirt (one of the many prizes on the evening). More here.

The photo on the right shows Terry Molloy (better known as Davros from Dr. Who, and playing Professor Dunning in The Scarifyers), promoting The Scarifyers at Bad Wolf in July. I highly recommend this excellent audio drama!

First up, there's a very nice piece about Rainbow Orchid in the latest 'Judge Dredd Megazine' (issue 248), written by Matthew Badham, with a nice spread of colour art too. Secondly, I'll be at Caption in Oxford this weekend, so say hello if you're going to be there too. And thirdly, check the readers' art section for a new contribution from Stephen Prestwood.

That is all, thank you.

Apologies are in order for the lack of new strips in the past couple of weeks. It's still due to work, I'm afraid, with a small pile of illustration jobs occupying the in-tray right now.

The nature of my work means I am not always able to keep to a regular schedule with Orchid, but I am hoping to have a 'catch-up' period as soon as possible, which could mean a sudden flurry of new strips. Thanks, again, for being patient.

These sketches were for a job to help promote digital archiving within an organisation. Initially it was to feature the two characters in posters, stickers and even comic strips, but several meetings (I expect) got the concept down to just a logo instead, so the character ideas were abandoned. I hereby release them upon the world.

Here's the cover illustration I did for a new audio play coming out in August called 'The Scarifyers', written and directed by Simon Barnard, and starring Nicholas Courtney and Terry Molloy of Dr. Who fame. I received an advance copy last week and it is a tremendously good adventure with a very classic feel. The music is particularly good. You can see the rest of the package design here, and more about The Scarifyers at the Cosmic Hobo website.

I'm quite a fan of Michael Owen and it was heart-breaking to see him buckle as his knee went in last night's England v Sweden first round match (which ended 2-2), and in the first minute too. He must be devastated. Still, England top the group.

It's all a long way from the vision in the illustration I did for The Observer Sport Monthly a couple of weeks ago (subtle link!), which showed a fantasy final between Brazil and England, with Owen scoring the winning goal in Berlin. I wanted to publish the drawing here, but hoped to do so under better circumstances!

I was sent a brief which asked for a 'Roy of the Rovers' comic strip-style picture, as described above, and also a mock-up picture of the kind of thing they wanted - with Theo Walcott in the background, and Roberto Carlos failing to defend against Owen's winning strike. I thought the scissor-kick was quite unOwen-like, yet I had to show his face clearly and the goal was to be in front of him, so sketched out a few ideas.

I picked out the sketches that I liked best and amalgamated them on the computer to produce a layout guide at the correct size. My quick and free-flowing sketches are nearly always more lively than the finished product!

Next I worked up the pencil stage and sent it to the editor, who approved it.

The editor liked the inked and coloured version overall, but wanted me to work more on Owen's face (likenesses are not my strong point, but I can do it if I slow down a bit) and to make it look more 'Roy of the Rovers', so there were a couple of versions at this stage (including thickening up some lines and brightening the colours). A good editor can always get better work out of you. You'll also see I have drawn it further out round the edges. This was in case more lettering or other elements were to be added, so I had room to make the drawing bigger or smaller within the frame if need be.

It was thought that a classic 'Roy of the Rovers' look was not coming across. My view is that it wouldn't because I still had to draw the players in modern kit, whereas part of the old football comics look is the 1970's hair-do's and short shorts! I had the idea of utilising Photoshop to make it look like an ageing comic, scanning in some grubby comic page edges, halftoning it and fading the colours (especially the yellow). This did the trick.

This drawing was to be the cover, but towards the end of the deadline they got an exclusive Ronaldhino photo (the main feature being an interview with him), so my drawing was moved to the inside. I had an hour to re-lay it out, so felt it was rather rushed, but overall, I was happy with the job, despite the fact that the newsprint effect was lost somewhat by now actually being printed on newsprint rather than the glossy cover paper.

Note: I haven't included the inset drawing I also had to do of the present England team hoisting the World Cup trophy, based on the famous 1966 Wembley photo.

For a bit of World Cup fun - if you remember the 1998 tournament - see Len Twaddle's True World Cup Diary.

I want to introduce you to two of my oldest and closest friends...

I recently re-bought these two books ('Asterix and the Roman Agent' (1970) and 'Tintin - The Black Island' (1938/1966)) as I have decided to slowly convert my wilting paperback collection of Asterix and Tintin books to hardback albums. The Roman Agent is one of the earliest comic books I owned. It was a Christmas present from my mum in about 1974 or 75. Every year she'd buy me either an Asterix or a Tintin book. The Black Island was my first Tintin adventure, and I think I received that the following year, maybe a couple of years later.

I still have my original copy of The Roman Agent - the figure of Tortuous Convolvulus has been cut out and lost, and there are various numbers in circles and triangles written on in biro - some kind of long-forgotten 'favourites' marking system. The rest is just about hanging together. I re-read a few Asterix books recently and this one really stands out as one of the best in terms of artwork and script.

Throughout most of my childhood, Asterix retained top position in my favourites, and although I also loved Tintin, it wasn't until my early twenties that Hergé's creation took the lead in my affections and I had the money to complete my collection of his adventures. The detail in the modern version of the Black Island is fantastic, and its Britishness may be part of the reason that particular volume attached itself to me so closely. It has an interesting publishing history, the subject of an article I wrote here.

Because I read these comics at such an impressionable age, and I re-read them again and again throughout my childhood and adolescence, they have stamped themselves indelibly on my mind - a particular feature comics have anyway, being so graphically strong. Unlike a film image, a comic panel can be stared and wondered at for many minutes, and returned to at any time. It has coloured my taste in comics ever since, and I am always immediately drawn to European album format comics, with their simple page layouts, clean colours and larger size. That's why when I discovered the work of Edgar P. Jacobs and Yves Chaland much later on, they already had a channel directly into my heart. It extends to my recent enjoyment of Trondheim's 'Dungeon' series too, and not to mention the direction my own comic creations have taken in the past few years (these books may even be the reason I work as an illustrator today). I know I'm not alone in having my strongest attachments to comics that etched their mark on me in my formative years, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if that's what keeps the comic industry going to some degree.

What was strip number 191 is now strip number 193, so while the latest strip looks the same (193), there are two new ones before it (191 and 192). Apologies for the confusing update, it needed an establishing shot.

Just a quick entry to summarise what I've been up to recently... I've had a busy couple of work weeks (still happening), the biggest job being a comic strip-style football illustration for The Observer Sport Monthly, which will be out this Sunday (4 June). It was going to be the cover, but is now an internal illo for an article on England's World Cup chances. It had me doing one all night-stint to 4am and another to 6am last week. Also on the football front I've coloured a lovely piece of work by Tony O' Donnell which will be the cover to a book about Alan Shearer from Tonto Press. The other main job I've been working on is the cover and CD inlay design for an audio play, starring Nicholas Courtney and Terry Molloy (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Davros from Dr. Who). It's called The Scarifyers and it sounds really good stuff. I will post images when things are more finalised.

And onto slightly older work... on more than one ocassion I've had some of my theatre poster artwork splashed on a banner and strung across the London Road in East Grinstead. Ellie took this photo at the weekend of Stage-Struck's 'Spend Spend Spend' banner outside the Chequer Mead Theatre, which features the logo and silhouette figures I designed. You can see the actual poster here.

The title to this entry is from a fabulous song by the Blue Oyster Cult, by the way.