New Year’s Columutions

So, with a perfect opportunity to start fresh – and turn a new page on my life in comics, I just wanted to share some plans for the future – and open the floor to suggestions for the forthcoming columns from ‘Across the Pond’. Is there anything you’d really like to read… or find out about from this side of the Atlantic? Is there a British property or character you’d like to know more about? Or a particular topic you’d like a Londoner to cover?

In 2012 I plan to arrange interviews with some of the top creators in the industry whom live and work in the UK, This should be easier than it sounds since (in the UK at least) these people are ‘gods’ to you and I… but ‘nobodies’ to everyone else. I’ll knock on some doors and see where it gets me.

I think it’s important to continue the quest for the best local comic book shop in the UK and potentially in Europe. I’ll be visiting as many stores as possible and (obviously) I’ll be recording and documenting the experience throughout.

I’d like to cover the build-up/release of the Judge Dredd Movie in the summer with a real, honest depth and substance. I’ll attempt to arrange some interviews with cast or crew members AND worm my way into the premier somehow… I’m all over this.

I’d like to arrange a visit to 2000AD’s HQ in Oxford and also to Panini Comics HQ in Kent – recording the visit, snatching some interviews and hopefully scooping some future projects.
 The most exciting new project (in my mind – as a creator) is… I plan to prepare some solid pencil submissions for the big publishers – and document the process entirely. Much like a fly-on-the-wall documentary, I’ll share the initial contact correspondence, the assignment/requirements, the planning and sketch phase, the finished pencils, the completed work and the reaction from the publisher. This could be real insight into the process of becoming a professional – and while being quite therapeutic for me, it may answer a few questions for you aspiring artists out there too.

So, armed with a handful of intriguing ideas that, I am  happy to share here and a bunch that are best kept secret for now, I’m left rubbing my hands together expectantly, while simultaneously feeling rather smug and excited at the prospect of a new year in comics.

Here’s to 2012… happy New Year comic lovers, let’s hope the world doesn’t end.