So It's December the 1st! Marineman issue one is officially on sale today! Scary and exciting stuff I can tell you!

I've seen and listened to a few reviews and so far they've been favorable so that is really encouraging...

Issue 2 is off to be lettered by the hard working guys at Comicraft, it's all wrapped aside from that.

Issue 3 is being colored by myself and my new coloring companion - Alex Sollazzo. You may have seen his work on the other Image Comics publication; Morning Glories.

I'm still hacking my way through the drawing of issue 5 and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

I want to thank you all for pre-ordering issue 1 of Marineman and for the support everyone has been showing the book - It really means a lot to me.

Here's a link to a podcast review of issue one by 'House to Astonish', the part about Marineman is about three quarters of the way in so you may want to skip ahead as it's a long podcast!
http://housetoastonish.podomatic.com/player/web/2010-11-21T13_18_36-08_00

Enjoy!

I sent one of the advanced copies of Marineman to comic book legend Dave Gibbons earlier this week, as I promised I would, and he sent me an email this morning saying that he really liked it!
So, thanks Dave!

I just had an advance copy of issue one of MARINEMAN sent through and it looks FANTASTIC!
I am so excited! I was a little nervous because there's always the chance that it might print too dark or too light but judging by the copy I have, it looks spot on! I can't wait to see it in the store!
I'm feeling like a little kid all over again! I love comics! There's just something about physically holding one in your hands and losing yourself in the story... Much as I like digital comics, for me they'll never replace that tactile feeling of holding and reading an issue as it was intended.
Roll on December 1st!!!

Marineman has been featured in the free zero copy of Mike Conroy's new comics magazine, 'MULTIVERSE'. Here's a link to the digital copy - take a look! Marineman article aside, it looks like a good read...

http://issuu.com/richjohnston/docs/multiverse__0

I had to stop and do an Ad for the Long Beach Con the other night which isn't needed now so I thought I'd post it anyway....

Issue 1 of Marineman has been solicited! So place your orders now!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I'm looking forward to getting some reaction to it...

The Toronto Fan Expo was a great show as always and I was kept very busy, thanks to everyone who turned up to get their comics signed. Next year they'll be Marineman comics!
It was good to hang out with Gary Frank again and I met industry legend, Bob Layton, who I got on really well with too.

Issue 4 is almost inked so next month I'll be pressing on with issue 5 which is looking like it's going to have more pages than the previous issues!
I think issue 6 is going to end up having more pages than I want to think about...!

Anyway, better get back to work! Here's a links to PREVIEWS...
http://previewsworld.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=6&s=784&ai=100540

Issue 3 is drawn and inked and issue 4 is drawn and ready to be inked and issue 5's cover is drawn, inked and colored - phew!

Issue 1 has gone off to be solicited and is released on December 1st, it was going to be November but there was a scheduling mix up and it ended up being December.

It's really exciting as it's all starting to feel real now!

Robert Kirkman generously agreed to include a Marineman ad in an upcoming issue of Invincible, so thanks to him for that!

I'll be appearing at 'Thought Bubble' in November, promoting and sketching away along with my partner in crime, Richard Starkings, who'll be doing his Elephantmen thing, so if you can make it along, it'd be great to see as many faces as possible...here's the promotional banner for their website...

I'm off to Toronto tomorrow for the TorontoFan Expo so anyone in that neck of the woods please drop by and say hi!

I'm hoping to start roughing out issue 5 on the plane and I'll start inking issue 4 once I get back from the con.

I finally bit the bullet and had to get some help with the coloring on the interiors in the form of Nicolas Chapuis, so thanks Nic!

That's all for now, except I'm having a lot of fun getting this all out of my head and I can't wait to get it out there so you can all read and hopefully enjoy it too!

Catch you all soon!

I know I haven't posted for a while but I've been caught up drawing issue three!

Anyway, I was going through some old back-up discs and came across this version of Marineman from about 5 or 6 years ago and though I'd share it. The wristlets are slightly different as is the belt buckle but apart from that he looks roughly the same.



















He does look a bit grumpy though, doesn't he?!

More soon!

The cover to Issue 2 is now done, the first draft of Issue 3 is written and I'm currently drawing Issue 3 too.

I'm really happy with the way Issue 2's cover turned out and I'd really like to share it here, but I don't want to spoil the surprise prior to solicitation.

Issue 3 is proving more of a challenge than the first two but I'm pleased with how it's going.

The problem was that there was just so much to fit in to get to where I wanted to be by the end of the issue!

I stripped it all down to it's bones but it still ended up being 29 pages long! In fact, each issue has a higher page count than the standard 22 plus cover. Issue 1 is 24 pages and issue 2 is 26 pages, I just hope issue 4 doesn't end up smashing the 30 page plus mark!

While I was at the MCM show in London recently I was interviewed by David Monteith from the Geek Syndicate Podcast, he's a really easy guy to talk to and hang out with.

In case you want to listen here's the link:-
http://traffic.libsyn.com/geeksyndicate/mcmcomic.mp3

Be sure to listen to the whole episode as he also does a huge interview with my 'grate' mate, Richard Starkings, who's never short of interesting things to say!

Anyway, back to the drawing board.

I'll post more soon...

So, I may have forgotten to mention that issue two of Marineman is complete - apart from the coloring. Upward and onward to writing and drawing issue three then!

Here's a Marineman head shot that will be used as a reflection in a diving mask in issue two. Once it's colored and ghosted out it will be quite subtle so I thought I'd post it here in all its black and white glory!


















I also want to mention that I did a Torchwood cover recently and it was solicited yesterday to come out in August. I did it in my more rendered style to suit the tone of the publication. I hope you'll all go check it out and buy one!

Here's a link to the press release.

http://www.firstcomicsnews.com/?p=7816

And here's a picture of two fellow 'Image' comic creators who may look familiar!

After the Bristol show I came down with a bit of a chest infection which knocked the wind out of my sails....The good news was that I was okay by the time the London MCM show rolled around at the weekend and what a great show it was!

First time I've been to the MCM and I really enjoyed it. Lots of people came by the booth and showed a lot of interest in Marineman. I did a lot of sketching including 3 Marineman sketches so that pleased me...

















Me at the booth!


















And again...!


















The Marineman preview!

I was seated between my 'grate' mate Richard Starkings who was doing great business with his Elephantmen booth, and the best selling writer; Tony Lee.













Rich and his Elephantmen!

My new Marineman print proved to be a big hit and I had no promotional badges/pins left by the end of the show!

Emma, the Organizer had the whole show ticking over like a well oiled engine and Richard, the very talented Boo Cook and myself got together and created a 'jam' sketch for her by way of a thank you for treating us so well.

















Emma's 'jam' sketch.















Emma with her sketch...

I'll look forward to the next show...

More posts soon.

This is the print I had done for the MCM show, I think it looks pretty cool!














By the way, I thought it was good to see a healthy amount of kids at the Bristol show this past weekend, it's what the industry needs more than anything in my opinion.

Hey there everyone!

I see another couple of blog followers have joined the list, welcome to the world of Marineman!

So the Bristol Comic Expo has been and gone again - A great show as always.

Thanks to those who turned up at the booth! The Marineman booth was a fledgling booth but everyone has to start somewhere, eh? I had a constant stream of people waiting for sketches to keep me on my toes ( Only one Marineman request though - hope that soon begins to change....!) and two panels to sit in on. One alongside my fellow Image comics creators at the Image panel and the other at the Elephantmen panel both of which were mediated by my 'grate' mate, Richard Starkings.

Speaking of which, Richard took oodles of snaps which I shall be posting at the beginning of next week.

I am also a last minute addition to the guest list at the London MCM show this weekend coming where I'll once again be alongside the Elephantment booth, so if you can make it along then please do. I'll have some new Marineman prints with me too.

For anyone who missed the Bristol show, here's what the Marineman show banner looks like...



















More posts soon...

Hi to the two followers of the Marineman blog! Thanks for the interest!

The Issue of Elephantmen featuring the Marineman five page preview is issue 25, available now from all good comic book retailers. Marineman aside, it's a cool issue made up entirely of splash pages and a jolly good read.

Apologies for the lack of recent posts but I've been busy prepping for the Bristol convention which is this coming weekend, I'll look forward to seeing anyone who drops by the booth!

Issue two is almost drawn now and issue one is still in the coloring stage, it's the flatting that takes so long...

I should have issue two done before the weekend so after Bristol I'll be getting underway on issue three - Hurrah!

I intend to try and be a bit more regular with the blog and if I don't have time to write then I'll start posting Marineman sketches and thumbnails from my archives.

Here's a pin up that's going in the Image San Diego Comic Con special.




















More soon, promise!

Well, since the last post I have been interviewed twice about Marineman!
One interview was for the French comics magazine called 'Comic Box' and the other was for Firstcomicsnews.com.
The link for the Firstcomicsnews.com interview is here; http://www.firstcomicsnews.com/?p=582
As soon as I know which issue of Comic Box has the interview I'll be sure to post it. Speaking of which - Elephantmen 25 is the issue that contains the Marineman special 5 page preview, so no excuses, order it today!
I've finished writing issue two of Marineman and still in the process of drawing it. Long hours, hard work, but very rewarding.
More soon....
Thanks for dropping by!

So today I finally finished the dialogue for Marineman issue one. It took three drafts but that's another box that can finally be ticked off!

My grate mate Richard Starkings has generously agreed to a five page Marineman preview in an upcoming issue of Elephantmen. As soon as I know which issue I'll be sure to post it here.

It should be in time for the Bristol convention in May so if you're going to be there then pop over to the Image Comics booth where you'll be able to find Richard and I and get a signed one.

Well I'm back to coloring Issue one and drawing issue two now. More posts as and when I can....

It turned out after viewing the website on a friend's computer that there were lingering issues with the display of the site. I think I've nailed them with a bit of lateral thinking - Fingers crossed there'll be no more problems.....!

Today I finally managed to get the website up and running!

It didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped but it all worked out okay in the end. I created the site in iweb - the Mac's own website creation package and it was pretty straight forward once I got the hang of the program. I generally use Firefox as a browser and the site looked as it should in that application although Safari tends to shift some of the type around for some reason - go figure!

It wasn't displaying correctly on the ipod touch either but i corrected it and it now works fine.
The gallery only has one picture at the moment but I'll be adding more as and when I can.

So the website if you want to take a look is:- ianchurchillsmarineman.com

Take a look and enjoy it! Now that hurdle is out of the way I'll be heading back to the drawing board.......More posts soon!

The MARINEMAN blog is up and running - Hurrah!
More to follow in the days to come......