Hello again!

Ashamed to say it’s been another few weeks of silence from me, but I have some cool things to share!

CAPTAIN MARVEL OMNIBUS

I was blown away last week to receive a comp copy of this Captain Marvel omnibus in the post; maybe the first time my work has been collected in an omnibus! I’m sure I’ve said it here before but my time on Captain Marvel is very dear to me: it was the project that really let me get my feet under the table at Marvel, and it was also a blast to work on with Alyssa Wong. I’m still holding out hope that we can re-team on a new series for Carol Danvers some day!🤞

STREAMING

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at streaming on Whatnot for a while now - doing sketch commissions live and selling some of the prints and merch I usually only have at conventions - and I’ve roped my art dealer Geoff into helping me out on that end! We’re going to try our first stream today (late notice, I know, but that’s par for the course with me these days 😅), and I’ll have a few sketch commission slots up for auction as well as some prints, my colouring/art book, and a few small (A4) pieces of original art as well. We’re aiming to stream between the following hours:

9 pm - 11 pm BST
4 pm - 6 pm EDT
1 pm - 3 pm PDT

I’ll post the streaming link to Substack when I have it but, in the meantime, you can follow my Whatnot account to see when I go live!

ORIGINAL ART AUCTION

Speaking of auctions, Geoff has also listed a few of my original comic art pages for auction over on Comiclink: there are two sequential pages from last year’s Iron & Frost miniseries, as well as two splash pages from the MMRPG: X-Men Expansion, including the X-Force piece that was used as a variant cover on X-Force (2024) #2! There are no reserves on the auction and the current bids are stupidly low right now — go grab yourself a bargain!

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SPIDER-MAN - MIDTOWN MAYHEM

Thanks to friend of the newsletter Ciarán Laverty giving me the heads up over on his substack, I’ve been credited as the artist on the upcoming SPIDER-MAN: MIDTOWN MAYHEM one-shot campaign for the Marvel Multiverse RPG!

Long time readers of the newsletter will know that I’ve been illustrating the rule books for the MMRPG for a couple of years, but this is the first one-shot adventure I’ve gotten to draw and, what makes it even more fun, is that I get to draw the short comic that serves as the prologue to the campaign! I’m not sure what details I can share just yet but, as of the time of writing, I’ve just broken inks on the comic pages and I’m super happy with how they’re turning out. This might be the biggest roster of Marvel heroes I’ve drawn yet, and most of them I’m drawing for the first time in this comic. What a trip! Cody Ziglar managed to squeeze a lot of action and story into a short number of pages but all these icons get a moment to shine.

The one-shot drops in September but it’s up for pre-order now!

DUBLIN COMIC CON (CONVENTION CENTRE DUBLIN, AUG 8th/9th)

MMRPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION (AUG 18th)

MMRPG: SPIDER-MAN - MIDTOWN MAYHEM (SEPT 22nd)

Back to inking these MMRPG pages and giggling headily at how many “dream gig” characters I’m getting to work on. Can’t wait to show you more!

Slán.

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

It lives!

Hey everybody, and welcome to the new subscribers that have joined in the time since my last post; thanks for hanging in there while I wrapped up PREDATOR: BLOODSHED! It’s been a rough five months and change while I’ve worked on this series, both personally and professionally.
The schedule on Predator was brutal! Definitely the most intense I’ve experienced in my decade-plus as a professional comic artist. And during the time I was slogging away at it, my ability to even take an evening out to write a newsletter was greatly diminished; I also had to seriously truncate Christmas celebrations with my wife and kids, as well my daughter’s birthday a couple of months back, not to mention I’ve buried four people - three family members and a best friend who was taken much, much too soon - all during the time I was drawing this book. Yeah, it’s been a rough spell for sure!
That said, to look on the bright side, I’m really happy with the work I was able to do (all things considered) and I feel like my work rate and storytelling have improved based purely on having to make the best choices with the most limited time possible. Let me know what you think of it. I believe issue 3 just came out and that’s pretty much all fight. Possibly the hardest issue to work on (you’ll see I got the amazing Roberto Poggi in to help me out on inks, to make up for the time it took to pencil some of those crowded fight scenes) but I could draw the Predator kicking ass all day. I also have my next gig at Marvel lined up, and it’s a character I love, so I’m excited to try and knock it out of the park. On the personal side, I’m more invested than ever to make the most of the people I have around me and I want to take this opportunity to say again how much I appreciate you for showing up for these silly little missives!

COMMISSIONS!

While I wait for the script for that next project at Marvel (as well as word on some cover gigs at different publishers), I’m back to chipping away at my commissions: I have four on my list right now and I’d love to clear them over the next week. If you’re interested in a commission yourself, you can order via my art dealer, Geoff M. Art Sales! Geoff also has a collection of my original comic art on hand (I’ll be shipping Predator pages to him soon), and you can find that stock here.

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #4 (MAY 20th)

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #5 (JUNE 17th)

DUBLIN COMIC CON (CONVENTION CENTRE DUBLIN, AUG 8th/9th)

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION (SUMMER 2026)

Alright, these commissions are calling out to be drawn so I’ll talk to you in the next newsletter - hopefully in two weeks and not two months this time!

Slán.

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Hello again!

PREDATOR:BLOODSHED #1 hit shelves last week and a few folks reached out to tell me how much they enjoyed it — if you picked it up, I hope you had a good time too! I’m currently grinding through the pencils on issue 3 and the series has been pretty much non-stop action since the climax of issue 1.

As hard as I’m hitting the drawing board on Predator, I’m also prepping for Dublin Comic Con this weekend, which is what I’ll be dedicating this newsletter too. I’ve put together a few new pieces of merch to sell at the show, that I’ll likely have at any other shows I attend this year, so here’s a little peek at those.

Alas, I can’t post any more images or Substack will cut the email short, but I also have stickers of the GAMBIT and SCARLET SPIDER art from the prints above (but in the same style as the PREDATOR and DONATELLO stickers, without BGs), and the RAPHAEL artwork from the cover image to this edition also. I still have some of my stickers from last year as well; on top of that I’ll be bringing along my remaining stock of older prints, my colouring/art book, comps comics and original art pages from PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #1 — and, as always, I’ll be sketching at the show.

I’ll also be taking part in a Panel at the con called BREAKING IN, AND STAYING IN, COMICS where we’ll discuss our experiences of breaking into the industry and advice for remaining there. That’ll be taking place at 1pm on the Saturday.

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #3

As mentioned, I’m currently pencilling the issue and hoping to have that done before I leave for the con thus weekend, after which I’ll be inking like a madman for the March 16th deadline (otherwise I won’t get to enjoy a well-earned drink on St Patrick’s Day)!

DUBLIN COMIC CON (MARCH 6th-7th, CONVENTION CENTRE, DUBLIN)

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #2 (MARCH 25th)

NEWRY COMIC CON (MARCH 29th, CANAL COURT HOTEL, NEWRY)

Thanks as always for your time. If you’re local (enough) to it, I hope I see you at DCC and, if not, you can always pick up some original art pages and/or order a commission from my art dealer, Geoff!

Until the next one…

Slán.

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Welcome back!

We’re just under two weeks away from Predator: Bloodshed #1’s release so I wanted to take an opportunity to showcase some of my work on the book.

ComicBook.com has an unlettered preview of the issue that features my least favourite drawing of Predator…

Someone online said it looks like Predator is pooping out that corpse, which is a fair call 🤣, but all I can see is the apex hunter doing jazz hands 😅

Yeah, not my best work!! It goes that way some times - a page/panel doesn’t turn out like you’d wanted - but I’ve had plenty of opportunities since to draw the big guy and I feel I did a much better job on those — but I’ll let you judge for yourself…

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #3

I handed in the last of the pages for issue two in the early hours of Tuesday morning and, at the time of writing, am waiting for the issue 3 script to get going.

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION

In the meantime I’ll be finishing up the final page for the Secret Wars expansion of the MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE-PLAYING GAME. It’s a nice, action-packed scene homaging Hickman’s Secret Wars, so I’m having a blast.

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #1 (FEB 25th)

DUBLIN COMIC CON (MARCH 6th-7th, CONVENTION CENTRE, DUBLIN)

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #2 (MARCH 25th)

NEWRY COMIC CON (MARCH 29th, CANAL COURT HOTEL, NEWRY)

I keep forgetting to find a place in the newsletter to plug my original art and commissions but, while I figure that out, I’ll let you know here that you can head over to my art dealer’s page to buy my original art pages and/or order a commission — and, speaking of commissions, if you’re planning on going to Dublin Comic Con on March 6-7th and want a commission from me at the show, let me know ahead of time as I might open up a pre-show list if there’s enough demand.

And with that business taken care of, I’ll bid you adieu and wish you all the best!

Slán.

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Happy New Year!

Being that we’re into the final week(?!) of January, it’s probably too late to be sharing that greeting, but saying as I didn’t get to wish you a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays in December, I wanted to send some kind of sentiment your way. Regardless, I hope this missive finds you well.

Last newsletter I was facing something of a tidal wave of work and feeling a little overwhelmed. Well over a month later and, with a little help, I got a handle on everything - and I can now tell you about that new project I started!

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED

The previously unannounced project, it turns out, was actually announced when I was writing my last Newsletter — it was just announced with a different artist attached! I wasn’t aware of that fact back then, but as my name wasn’t on the book at the time, I probably couldn’t have said anything anyway.

With my name now on the solicits, I can confirm that my new project at Marvel is PREDATOR: BLOODSHED!

In the near future, Earth's fiercest fighters have gathered for an underground martial arts tournament organized by a shadowy organization. But all hell breaks loose when an unexpected combatant enters the ring: an alien PREDATOR! Now the champions are battling not just for the grand prize, but for their very lives! Can a disparate group of competitors band together in time to survive the extraterrestrial hunter?! Choose your fighter, place your bets and brace yourselves for a bloody tournament unlike any other! RATED PARENTAL ADVISORY.

You’ll see my credit as Penciller shared with artist Roland Boschi but I’m the main artist on the series*; Roland is handling some flashback scenes every issue but the vast majority of pages will be mine and I have to tell you, drawing the Predator is a tonne of craic! I’m pretty happy with how that mountain of design work I was facing last newsletter turned out as well; we have a roster of fun fighters for Predator to run through and the location in particular I’m pretty proud of!

Writer Jordan Morris has set up a fun adventure for fans of Predator and bloody, bloody mayhem and bringing it to life is a really cool experience for me, after the last few years of drawing superheroes. I managed to get Issue 1 in for deadline (although it meant having next to no Christmas break 😭) and Issue 2 is already underway. Fellow Irishman Dee Cunniffe is colouring - our first time working together - and it’s always nice to share a book with one of my own. So, yup, all in all, I’m having a great time on Predator: Blooshed — check out Issue 1 on Feb 25th!

*At least issue 2 of the series is still solicited with Roland as the sole artist on the book, but this hasn’t been updated since I was brought on board and I want to confirm that I am on the issue and the vast majority of it is drawn by me. I imagine issue 3 onward will be properly credited.

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION

As suspected last time around, I did end up needing an inker to come on board and shoulder some of the load on this project while I wrestled with PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #1 and it was Adriano DiBenedetto that once again stepped into the fray! Adriano inked the bulk of the splash pages, although I have 3 that I inked myself and we only have one more to do before that’s another RPG Expansion added to the library.

And, because I know you read these, I wanted to give you a shoutout Brian; thank you for continuing to commission me for these Expansion books — they’re so much fun and I really appreciate all your understanding and support when I have to juggle them with other Marvel projects. Long may our collaboration continue!

THE REVENANTS VARIANT COVER

This is technically off the drawing board but since I made such a fuss about the projects on my workload last time, I figure I should put a bow on things to say that I got the cover finished and, by the time you read this, it will have been coloured by my A HAUNTING ON MARS collaborator Steve Canon (currently colouring up a storm for Todd McFarlane on copious SPAWN covers)!

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #1 (FEB 25th)

DUBLIN COMIC CON (MARCH 6th-7th, CONVENTION CENTRE, DUBLIN)

PREDATOR: BLOODSHED #2 (MARCH 25th)

NEWRY COMIC CON (MARCH 29th, CANAL COURT HOTEL, NEWRY)

Alright, that’s enough from me. Glad to be back in contact with you and thanks for your continued support with the Newsletter and my career in general. Whether you’re buying my books or just checking out these blurbs, I really appreciate you. See you in the next one!

Slán!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Hey there!

It’s going to be a short one this time around, as my situation has changed greatly since last newsletter. Back in those halcyon days I was lowkey concerned about getting work lined up for December and January, with the Marvel RPG pages and that Comic Book Guys cover being all the projects I had on my plate; I was imagining a Christmas with no work on… and actually starting to like the idea of spending that time working on some creator-owned things. Then out of the blue last Thursday I got offered a new 5 issue miniseries, which is great, but it involves a TON of design work up front and - biggest catch - the timeline on issue one is really tight. So that prospect of a chill December has entirely flipped to a pretty intense one. Thankfully there’s no need to panic: I’ve worked my way out from under workloads like this before, and I’m confident I can chip away at this one if I stay focused, but it does mean I’m going to have to keep this newsletter brief!

UNANNOUNCED FIVE ISSUE MINISERIES

Being that the issue one turnaround is so tight (and that the cover for it is already finished), I imagine this will be popping up in solicits pretty soon - after which I can talk about it. But all I will say for now is that it’s a bit of a departure from my usual fare! I’ll have begun pencilling by the time you’re reading this and, hopefully, I’m flying through itq!

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION

I had to step away from inking for a few days to take care of all that design work for the miniseries, but I have two RPG pages finished and a bunch more to do. I’m hoping I can get through this without requiring an inker, but I’ll keep that option open in case the workload becomes too great.

THE REVENANTS VARIANT COVER

Still on the “To be inked pile,” but I want to get this to the lads ASAP!

IRON & FROST #3 (DEC 10th)

Super truncated newsletter this time around, but I’d rather have this for you than nothing! Hopefully by the next edition there’ll be some news on the miniseries and I can talk a little more about it. While much of the focus of this newsletter was on the pressure of juggling all this work, I don’t want that to takeaway from the fact that I’m super grateful to have it, and I’m blessed to have my dream career. I’m likewise grateful to you for supporting the newsletter. See you next time!

Slán!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Happy Iron & Frost #2 Day!

If you’re keeping up with the series, today’s release will explain a lot about that cliffhanger from issue 1, what Tony and Rhodey have been up in the years since Avengers Mansion fell, and just who The Iron King is — plus there’s an even more shocking cliffhanger to this one!

Without further adieu, enjoy these inks from the first few pages of the issue!

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION

The majority of the pages have been pencilled now, and half of those have been approved for inks - all being well I can wrap this next week.

THE REVENANTS VARIANT COVER

If you’re a comic fan from Northern Ireland, or you’ve read recent editions of this newsletter, you might at least be familiar with the family-run Comic Book Guys shop in Belfast. Fronted by brothers Aaron and Austin Flanagan, Comic Book Guys has been a vibrant feature of the comic book community in Ireland for years now. As well as selling comics (and hosting signings by famous actors and lowly Neighbourhood Lead-Swingers alike), Comic Book Da™ Danny has also been writing THE REVENANTS, a comedy-horror comic book featuring the aforementioned brothers in a series of grisly settings. Well, I’m working on a variant for the latest issue of the comic, whose interiors are being drawn by Patrick Mulholland, and the setting for it is particularly apt considering the recent news that THE REVENANTS has been optioned for a TV series. Very exciting achievement for the lads and I couldn’t be happier for their success. I’ll share the finished cover when I’m able.

IRON & FROST #3 (DEC 10th)

Thanks for lending me your eyes for a few minutes — I hope you found it rewarding! The newsletter is close to hitting 100 subscribers, so I think I ought to do something to mark the occasion; let me know if you have any suggestions!

Chat soon!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Hello, and thanks for checking out another edition of SWINGIN’ LEAD — I hope this missive finds you well!

I’m a couple of weeks into the latest MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG expansion (based on SECRET WARS); most of my rough sketches have now been approved, and I’m a quarter of the way through pencilling the entire series of splashes. As I said before, I wanted to really push myself on this book, focusing on striking compositions, interesting character dynamics and credible lighting/anatomy, so that I might be able to score some cover work off the back of them. Well, there might be some cover work coming down the pike already, but that’s not the purpose of this intro.

Inevitably, when I’m working on splashes and covers, I’ll turn to one of my artistic heroes for inspiration: Movie poster artist DREW STRUZAN, who we sadly lost recently. Gen X and Elder Millennials will have grown up seeing Drew's amazing work in their local cinemas, and Star Wars fans of all ages will be familiar with his posters for Episodes 1-6. Drew’s compositions have always been something to aspire to, but his skill has always seemed unobtainable to me. Particularly, I’ve always been intimidated by Drew’s beautiful pencil work.

There’s a verisimilitude to Drew’s portraits that’s at odds with the very apparent pencil strokes and rough shading that comprises them; one should cancel out the other, but they only make his work more striking to me. It’s a quality I’m finally compelled to figure out through exploration, so I’ve bought some toned paper and begun my own fumbled attempts at portraiture; I don’t expect to ever achieve the skill of the late master, but if I can adopt the techniques and deepen my understanding of lighting and form I’d love to ultimately start experimenting with incorporating it into my comic book style and seeing what comes up.

We’re a while off that lofty goal - but here’s my second attempt at a portrait of Hugh Jackman (as Logan, naturally).

I’m still exploring the techniques but it’s already a lot of fun. I’m focusing on enjoying the process and following my instincts, rather than making this a strictly academic effort, so I’ll see where it ends up. I’ll keep you posted on my progress here ocassionally!

Writer Cavan Scott recently sat down with AIPT to talk about IRON & FROST in an interview that also presents an exclusive look at the opening pages of issue 2, which will give a little more detail on that reveal from the end of issue one. You can check the interview and preview pages here.

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION

I really made it my mission to put composition at the centre of all my creative decisions on these splashes; no matter how cool I thought a pose or idea was, if I couldn’t realise it in a way that was pleasing to the eye overall, I had to ditch it. The result, so far, has been pretty satisfying! While I might share crops and progress shots, I’m really eager to get the final pages in front of you guys!

IRON & FROST #1 ORIGINAL ART

Okay, this is more “Off the drawing board” than on it, but my art dealer Geoff has listed all of my original art pages from IRON & FROST #1 on his site; 4 pages from this issue were inked by Roberto Poggi, and I did two digitally before I opted to go back to traditional inking, so there are 14 original pages of mine up there right now for purchase!

IRON & FROST #2 (NOV 12th)

Alright, back to work! It feels good to not be under so much pressure that I can get these newsletters out consistently again. I continue to be grateful for your time and support, and if there’s anything you’d ever like for me to discuss here - any question you want answered - just let me know. Until next time…

All the best!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Hey folks, I hope this newsletter finds you well!

It’s a new week after wrapping IRON & FROST and things are looking bright! I’ve already started my next project (more on that shortly) and I spent Monday working on a new portfolio to email around all my comics contacts from Marvel, DC and Dark Horse to see what I might do next. Things had been a little quiet at Marvel while I was wrapping up I&F, and I was starting to worry that my opportunities there are drying up so I figured it was time to starting branching out. Thankfully, my portfolio has started some positive conversations already - here’s hoping those chats translate into something cool very soon 🤞

A huge thank you to everybody that picked up IRON & FROST #1, and those of you that shared kind words of support (shout out to Reese, Michael and Klikke): it means a lot that you’d pick up a book drawn by me - and it really helps my career prospects with publishers - so I hope you felt the investment was worthwhile, and that the art brought you joy.

What’s going on with Tony Stark? Find out in IRON & FROST #2 on November 12th!

MARVEL MULTIVERSE RPG: SECRET WARS EXPANSION

At New York Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, the team behind the MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE PLAYING GAME (MMRPG) held a panel to talk about the recently released Avengers Expansion and, at the end, they announced that the next Expansion will be SECRET WARS! I’m incredibly grateful to the guys for having me back to do original illustrations for what will be my fifth RPG Expansion book. I’m so humbled that they keep hiring me to illustrate this series.

I started rough-sketching the SECRET WARS illustrations yesterday and I’m about a quarter of the way through planning the full set; I’m really trying to step my game up on this book, in hopes that I might parlay my work on these splash pages into some cover work down the line. As for the content of said splashes, I’m unable to comment but I’ll share what I can when I can!

And whether you’re a fan of the MMRPG already or have no idea what I’m talking about, I’d like to recommend the Fantastic Success Substack; a MMPRG focused resource written by Ciarán Laverty:

Fantastic Success

IRON & FROST #2 (NOV 12th)

IRON & FROST # 3 (DEC 10th)

By the time I’m in touch again (fingers crossed it’s no longer than two weeks this time), I’ll likely be deep into pencilling these SECRET WARS splashes, and hopefully I’ll also know what project I’ll be going on to next. In the meantime, take care of yourself and, as always, thanks so much for your time and support.

All the best!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Welcome back to Swingin’ Lead and happy Iron & Frost #1 release day! I’ve been really under the cosh on the third and final instalment of the series, which I was hoping to have wrapped by now but am instead aiming for Friday. It sucks because I’ve not only fallen off with the newsletter schedule but I’ve been unable to do any promo posts for the book for the last few weeks (I’m pretty frustrated about that)! As such, this is going to be a short and snappy read 😅

Thankfully my excitement levels remain high for the issue and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts when you get reading it. If you don’t have a copy in your hands yet, or are still on the fence about joining us on the series, whet your appetite with the new, lettered preview pages linked below!

AIPT.com is hosting an exclusive, lettered preview of Iron & Frost #1, that might have an extra page or two that we didn’t see in the unlettered preview I shared in the last newsletter. Head over there and check it out!

IRON & FROST #3

As to be expected from the final issue in any series, this one has been jam-packed with characters and action and, from day one, I’ve been busting my hump trying to turn pages in regularly and stay on a good schedule. I just pencilled the last five pages on Monday and Tuesday this week, and started inking them this morning; it’ll be a grind to turn those five pages of inks in for Friday, but I am very much looking forward to hitting send on that last email and having a much needed rest over the weekend. Wish me luck!

N.B. How freaking good is that cover?!

IRON & FROST #1 SIGNING - COMIC BOOK GUYS STORE, BELFAST (OCT 16th)

So I’d hoped to get back to you before now with news on this but I can confirm that the signing is happening tomorrow (Thursday, Oct 16th) from 6-8pm in Belfast and while I’m sure the grind will be showing on me, I’m looking forward to taking a break to hang out with Ryan Brown and the Comic Book Guys for a few hours, signing comics and chatting to good people!

IRON & FROST #2 (NOV 12th)

Pretty confident I can share some teaser art from issue 2 pretty soon, once everybody has had time to digest issue one!

Alright folks, I need to get back to inking a pretty emotionally intense series finale (and I’m not just talking about my sleep-deprived state), but I’m hoping to be back with a proper newsletter soon. Hit me up with your questions and feedback from Iron & Frost #1 and I’ll respond in the next edition of Swingin’ Lead!

All the best!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

We’re doing something different this issue and spotlighting October 15th’s Iron & Frost #1, part of Marvel’s AGE OF REVELATION event. I’m answering questions you guys submitted here on Substack and across my socials, as well as sharing some art!

So let’s get to it!

Comicbook.com has an exclusive preview of Iron & Frost #1, featuring coloured (by Yen Nitro), unlettered pages from the issue. Head over to their website to check them out.

You’ve likely noticed that Emma’s wearing a white variation of the design previously seen on comic covers, and also not in diamond form.

If you’ve followed me on Twitter for a while, you might remember this design from five years ago(?!) when I did a series of redesigns on X-Men characters suggested by writer Joe Glass. I’m still proud of a lot of those, so when Marvel asked me to design a look for Emma in Iron & Frost, I didn’t hesitate to pull this from the back catalogue. I never imagined back then that I’d get to make this design canon one day and now that I have I’m chuffed to bits. For more background on it, read on!

Michael Simpson had a few questions (via Substack):

1. …for Emma what was the inspiration behind her costume? I noticed that her top is seemingly shaped like a heart, was this intentional considering the story or simply just coincidental?

Being designed 5 years ago, the heart shape is one of a few happy coincidences that made this design work well for Iron & Frost. But here’s the inspiration and design journey…

When I was designing this look in 2020, I wanted to homage Emma’s Generation X design (by Chris Bachalo); that was my intro to Emma and remains my definitive iteration. I boiled that design down to ‘corset and leggings,’ and went about looking for my own take on… practical lingerie? Contextual research didn’t go anywhere, so I got to thinking about how I could express Emma’s personality through her clothing, which led me to Drag Queen Violet Chachki (winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7) who I’d say has a lot of “Emma Energy.” I recalled a look Violet showcased on Drag Race that became the inspiration. I adapted the shape of the brassiere into a top (the coincidental heart shape) and tweaked the belt (which was my favourite part of the outfit) to double as a garter, connecting to boots/chaps.

Practical lingerie, right? 😅

It was a stroke of luck, for Iron & Frost, that the top leaves Emma’s chest and back exposed to showcase the hole that’s crucial to the brief. To further accommodate the wound, I changed Emma’s hair to something with more volume, that’s swept over her shoulder; I think it’s more sophisticated, adds more to her silhouette and keeps the hole unobstructed at the back for maximum visual impact.

Finally I knew I needed a coat to finish off the look and it had to be something sophisticated/luxurious to speak to Emma’s background, and something either structured or oversized that would give a blockier shape to contrast nicely with the curves of Emma’s body. I landed on the long coat with the 2020 design and gave that a little update for her White Queen appearance in Iron & Frost, but I wanted to go for something really different for her diamond form, to take advantage of the new status quo we’re stepping into with Age of Revelation and the huge fur coat felt very apt and suitably iconic for Emma.

2. I know you mentioned that this series will be introducing a new character, what can you tease about their appearance and possibly what they bring to the story?

I can’t say too much now, especially because I’d be mostly stepping on Cavan Scott’s toes by discussing story - but I’ll say that, during their design phase, I started to feel a connection to this character and I even suggested some ideas to Cav about them, which he incorporated into the story. So now I’m really attached to them!

3. What can you tell us about the tone of the story so far … there seems to be a somewhat darker and dystopian vibe, do you think thats that’s true for the inside of the book as well?

Yes, definitely, “Dystopian” would be the key word. That’s one reason that the clothing Emma wears in her diamond form is black; it expresses a darker time for The White Queen. Actually, the black colour scheme was directed by Cavan Scott for a specific reason (but that’s a minor spoiler that I’ll avoid for now).

Stiles (also Substack) wanted to know:

You said you created a new character for the book, right? Without spoilers, can we expect a female or male character? And regarding the existing characters that may appear, are they more famous or obscure?

Um… I feel like we’re losing more and more secrets about the book with every cover and preview page Marvel release, so I’ll hold off talking about the original character I designed and direct you to the preview pages for the existing characters involved: we have Firestar teaming with Emma, Tony and Rhodey; and Phaser, Marrow and Carmella Unuscione who have sided with Revelation and donned white/gold versions of their classic looks to show their allegiance!

James on Twitter asked:

Fingers crossed: are we gonna get emma frost turning her clothes diamond as well 🙈😂 ilove that she can do this and I feel she should use this more often when under attack. I never could figure out why emma could survive with her clothes intact and I feel this makes more sense

The short answer is ‘no.’ It never occurred to me to change her clothes to diamond as, to me, turning to ‘organic diamond’ - as I’ve heard her power described - would exclude her clothes from changing with her. But having heard about it, I respect that other creators have gone that route and I understand the utility of it, I’m not even against her doing it - it just wasn’t a consideration for the team 😃

SocalitySinghto (Twitter) asked:

…i don’t know if it counts as a spoiler but will we see her with telepathy action with that hole in her chest? 🥺

A few fans have been critical of the hole in Emma’s chest, stating that the damage is just so catastrophic, and I believe SocalitySinghto has rightly pointed out the inherent dilemma: Emma can’t use her telepathy in diamond form, and if she turns flesh to use telepathy, she won’t survive. I won’t discuss any plot threads, but I’m sure any Emma Frost fan would agree that The White Queen wouldn’t tolerate being separated from her telepathy for any length of time: She’s won’t take this sitting down.

IfCyrus on Instagram had an interesting one:

Will she get an arch reactor implanted?

IfCyrus is thinking outside the box, and I can see why they reached that idea: the shape and location of Emma’s wound is very specific, right? I mean, sure, there’s more than a heart missing there - some other crucial anatomy would need replaced - but just like Emma wouldn’t give up on herself, Tony Stark isn’t the type to let the loss of a little vital human infrastructure stop him from saving a life. Really makes you think… 🤔

IRON & FROST #1: OCTOBER 15th

I got to read the print proof and it’s turned out really well: I’m counting down the days until October 15th, and I hope you’re planning on joining us for these three issues!

IRON & FROST #1 SIGNING - COMIC BOOK GUYS STORE, BELFAST (Date TBC)

Pretty sure this is happening on release day, but will confirm!

This Q&A ended up being pretty Emma Frost specific, but I want to give Tony his props too! I’ll do an Iron Man-centric spoylight soon, including the design process for him (and maybe even War Machine) - send any questions you have about Tony to me here or on my socials and I’ll answer them as well in two weeks!

All the best!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Long time, no see!

I’m sure that’s not the first time I’ve started a newsletter like that, and I’ve come to accept that it won’t be the last. I’ve been radio silent for weeks because, for most of August, my focus was almost exclusively on keeping up my with art duties on Iron & Frost and trying to make up for all the sleep I lost from that wild working schedule I was keeping while the kids were off school! Notifications would build up on my phone and I couldn’t face replying to them most days, the newsletter felt like too much work to maintain, and I was always tired; basically, if it didn’t involve Tony Stark or my family, it wasn’t something I felt fit to deal with. I eventually realised I was completely burned out and accepted I had to let everything that wasn’t vitally important fall to the wayside and focus on getting back to normal.

Thankfully I’m coming out the other side of it and I’ve been eager to get back to the newsletter and updating you guys on everything, so let’s get to it!

SECRET COMIC BOOK PITCH

I can’t really talk much about this (mostly because I don’t want to jinx it haha) but I’m asking you to send all your good vibes and well wishes this way so that a pitch I’me submitting to Marvel might get accepted: it’s a story I’ve been mulling over for a while and when I ran it past a writer friend recently, they gave me some great pointers that really helped knock the thing into shape; we’ve since worked together on a formal pitch to Marvel and, if successful, I’d be co-writing it with said friend, and drawing. Everything about it is a dream situation, so keep your fingers crossed for me and hopefully I’ll be able to tell you all about it when I’m writing to say the book has been greenlit 🤞

IRON & FROST #2

By the time you read this I should be inking the last page of this beast of an issue and if I can wrap it up early today I’ll have turned the issue in ahead of deadline, which would be very helpful for…

COMMISSIONS

A new commission dropped in my list this past weekend (based on my Iron & Frost character designs, which I’ll share with you in another post next week) but there’s been a Blade of the Immortal piece on my list for a while, so once I turn in Iron & Frost #2, I’ll be working on that and shipping everything (including all my Iron & Frost inked pages) to my good buddy Geoff next week. The latest commission I got will be done after I wrap Iron & Frost #3 and will ship to Geoff along with those pages.

IRON & FROST #1: OCTOBER 15th

I’ve seen the colours for this issue and they look amazing: Yen Nitro joined us on this project and he’s so talkented - how he’s rendered Emma in her diamond form in particular is just beautiful. I can’t wait for you to see it!

IRON & FROST #1 SIGNING - COMIC BOOK GUYS STORE, BELFAST (Date TBC)

The lads at Comic Book Guys in Belfast are arranging an in-store signing for Iron & Frost #1 featuring both myself and cover artist Ryan Brown. I can’t wait because, not only do I love doing signings at Comic Book Guys, but this will be my first joint signing and I’m really looking forward to hanging out Ryan Brown for the evening. I’ll confirm the date when I have the details from the aforementioned comic boom guys.

IRON & FROST # 2 - NOVEMBER 12th

Check out this glimpse of some of my character designs for the series: I’ve shared the design sheets on my socials but I’ll do a dedicated Iron & Frost issue of the newsletter soon!

Well, I’ve plenty to be getting back to so I must dash! Thanks for sticking it out with me, and keep your fingers crossed for that pitch!

All the best!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Look at me, posting in the properly scheduled week for a change!

I mentioned in the last newsletter that my attendance at Dublin Comic Con this summer looked uncertain but we’ve come to a solution: I will be at the show in August, but I’ll only be appearing on the Saturday, August 9th. Being as I’m only there for a day, I’ve had to postpone my plan to produce some new merch for the show and I’m going to open a pre-show commission list so I can still make some art for you guys attending but I won’t have to spend my only day at the show with my nose stuck in some bristol board.

With that in mind, here are the pre-show commission details for Dublin Comic Con:

I’ll be sharing this graphic on my socials also, but to thank you for your continued support with the newsletter I am giving Swingin’ Lead readers priority spaces on my list; so if you are hoping to pick up a commission at Dublin Comic Con, follow the ordering instructions above and include our Newsletter-exclusive password in the body of the email and I’ll bump you to the top of the list to avoid disappointment. The password will be “Ben Reilly is the best Spider-Man.”

If you aren’t going to Dublin Comic Con but are curious about commissions, my regular commission list - managed by my art dealer, the perpetually wonderful Geoff M Art Sales - is also open right now. Head over to Geoff’s website to get your orders in, and I’ll be starting work on new commissions shortly after Dublin Comic Con (read more on that below)!

IRON & FROST #2

Pencilling is under way on this one: lot’s of action and drama to fit in 20 pages - wish me luck!

COMMISSIONS

Two of the three commissions I have are officially complete, and you can check them out here:

I’ll be starting on the final one on my list after Dublin Comic Con, and then I’ll be wide open for fresh orders - so get them in now!

DUBLIN COMIC CON: AUGUST 9th (CONVENTION CENTRE DUBLIN)

‘Nuff Said by this stage!

INFINITY WATCH: UNIVERSAL DESTRUCTION: AUGUST 27th

IRON & FROST #1: OCTOBER 15th

MY PATREON!

I set this up earlier this year and then - aside from mentioning it here once - completely forgot about it until Patreon emailed to say they’d shut it down if I didn’t start posting. So I’ve uploaded some new content over there, but I’m going to carve out some time to pre-load a bunch of stuff that’ll update monthly so I’m never falling behind again. Once I have a reasonable amount of stuff pre-loaded, I’ll start chatting about Patreon again!

Emma and Tony are calling so I best hit the drawing board! Thanks as always for your time and support, and I hope to get some cool commission orders from any of you guys heading to Dublin Comic Con!

Chat soon!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Greetings from the Upside Down!

It’s July: the kids are off school, running around the house like maniacs and sadly your friendly neighbourhood lead-swinger was not gifted with the ability to draw comics and parent at the same time! In response, I’ve had to turn my entire schedule on its head for a while: I’m now exclusively in Dad-Mode while my wife is at work during the day and it’s only in the evening when she’s home and we’ve had dinner that I get to hit the drawing board; working until the wee hours of the morning, when I crash into bed and hope my wonderful, considerate children will let Daddy sleep until at least 9am 🤨

So these are the conditions under which I wrapped up issue one of that formerly “To Be Announced” Marvel project, which - if you’ve been following on socials - has now been revealed as IRON AND FROST, a miniseries tie-in to Marvel’s upcoming AGE OF REVELATION event!

So I think this might be, so far, the biggest thing I’ve worked on at Marvel — maybe even my entire career: I’m taking part in a MARVEL EVENT, you guys! I’m so excited for it and writer Cavan Scott has cooked up a really gripping scenario for Tony and Emma that has given me a lot to work with both in terms of character design and visual storytelling! We’re a ways off from release (October 15th) so I’m really limited about what I can share right now, but I’ll eek out whatever I can here in the newsletter from time to time — such as…

IRON & FROST #2

At the time of writing, I’ve submitted my thumbnails for issue 2 and have even read a draft of issue 3 and, guys, it’s really, really good. Cav is another super talented writer that I hope can do more main Marvel stuff (I know he’s been toiling away in the Star Wars offices, but he writes great Super Heroes also).
If you remember last time, I was in a real crunch to get issue one turned in: I ended up needing a deadline extension (and I kinda blew that too 😬) but I think the issue looks great, and I inked most of it on paper (14 pages to be exact) which I’ve decided I’m going back to from now on. I don’t think I’m any faster working digitally when it comes to inks: I noodle around on the tablet too much and, without the full page in front of me for scale, I can’t get a good idea of how the page is looking as a whole reading experience — which is never an problem when you’re inking on paper. So, yeah, expect my art dealer Geoff to have a lot more original comic book pages of mine to sell later this year!

COMMISSIONS

With the submission of those aforementioned thumbnails, I’m spending this work day/evening/unending nightmare knocking two of my three commissions off the list! Black Widow has been pencilled for a while and last week at Dundalk Comic Con I was able to sketch up the Absolute Batman one, so as soon as I tidy that up, I’m breaking out the inks!

DUBLIN COMIC CON: AUGUST 9th & 10th… maybe (CONVENTION CENTRE DUBLIN)

This one is up in the air: The organisers have let me down in a big way, leaving me without accommodation for the weekend. It’s an honest mistake on their part, and while I’m hugely disappointed, I can’t hold it against them. DCC remains my favourite show of the year and I’d still like to make the trip, but I’m not paying Dublin hotel prices for the privilege. Still I might try to get down for one of the days but I’ll let you know next newsletter if I’m going or not.

INFINITY WATCH: UNIVERSAL DESTRUCTION: AUGUST 27th

IRON & FROST #1: OCTOBER 15th

It’s so far away but it’s all I want to talk about!!!

Alright folks, time to get back at it. I hope this edition has found you well and I plan to be back with you in just a few days for Swingin’ Lead #15 on the usual release week 🤞

Slán!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Is fearr go mall, go deireanach, ná go (Better late than never)!

As usual, you find me frantically fitting a newsletter in (late) while sprinting towards the deadline of my latest project. Speaking of, I’ve been keeping an eye on solicitations and there’s been no sign of this series being announced yet, so I’m unable to reveal anything about it just now. However I will say that I’ve seen the cover for issue one and it looks great! I’ve also managed to ink a couple of physical pages on this one, which I want to get back to doing more of!

So while I can’t talk about what I’m working on right now, I did see in Marvel’s August solicitations that we’ll be getting a trade paperback of our Infinity Watch series, and that reminded me that I never shared the rest of my character designs for that series…

Zavala here was shared previously, along with three other members of the Apeiron, in issue 4 of the newsletter. What follows is the rest of the Apeiron’s design sheets.

UNANNOUNCED THREE-ISSUE MINISERIES AT MARVEL

It’s 9 days until deadline and I have 13 pages to ink - with a funeral, a convention and my birthday to fit in between now and then - so it’s going to be tight! I’m trying to get Roberto Poggi on board as an inker to take some pressure off me, and make sure we get this in on time!

COMMISSIONS

Black Widow remains on my inking pile, sadly. But I have that convention this coming Saturday, so I’m eyeing that as a window to check one commission off my list 🤞

NEW CHAMPIONS #7: JULY 16th

Fun times in Manchester, England for the New Champs!

DUNDALK COMIC CON: JULY 5th (FAIRWAYS HOTEL, DUNDALK)

This is one-day event in Dundalk where I’ll be selling my comics, art books, stickers and prints. Signatures, as always, are free!

INFINITY WATCH: UNIVERSAL DESTRUCTION: AUGUST 27th

Hopefully the character designs this newsletter will encourage you to pick this up if you didn’t follow the series when it initially came out; it’ll be available in book stores as well as comic shops!

Okay, time for me to dive back into the rapids. Send me some good vibes because I’m gonna need them! 🤿

Slán!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Fáilte ar ais (Welcome back)!

Last weekend I was a guest at Enniskillen Comic Fest, a fun little show here in Northern Ireland that features a great representation of exciting and established comic creators from Ireland and the UK. I had a blast catching up with my fellow artists like Reese Hannigan (STAR WARS: BAD BATCH), Kieran McKeown (CYBERPUNK 2077: PSYCHO SQUAD), Patrick Mulholland (KNIFE) and PJ Holden (2000AD); I also got chatting to many fans and did some fun commissions!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Mario, owner of We Sell Heroes in Newtonards, who traded me some amazing 90s X-Men comics for a discount on this Spawn cover commission.

Mario is a really interesting and friendly guy who loves comics. I’ve promised to go to his neck of the woods some time soon to visit We Sell Heroes; a trip I’m really looking forward to, and I’ll let you know if we plan to make it a signing or anything significant like that!

New Champions #6 is out today! I know a certain amount of hyperbole is expected when promoting any new project but there’s two things I should point out:

1. I love my job very much and I’m extremely excited about most of the dream gigs I’ve been getting from Marvel.

2. I cannot express enough what an amazing script Steve Foxe turned in for this issue: it has big action, intimate character moments, and a sense of scale that not every writer is capable of nailing.

So with those in mind, I have to say I am genuinely insanely proud of this issue, and I want so badly for you to see it for yourself! Here are the first two pages of inks to get you excited too; the issue gets better from here, but I don’t want to spoil anything. I hope you already have it on order from your Local Comic Shop, but if you’re stuck, you can buy the issue digitally and read it on kindle via Amazon.

*UNANNOUNCED THREE-ISSUE MINISERIES AT MARVEL

I’ll be finishing up thumbnails on issue one today (yes, I still plan to cover thumbnailing in an edition of the newsletter!) and hitting the drawing board properly tomorrow to get this issue officially underway. I’m planning on using some of those Marvel artboards I told you about last time to ink some traditional pages this time around, deadlines (as always) permitting.
I have to shout out upfront that my experience on this project so far has been really special. I’m working with a very talented and collaborative writer who is open to my suggestions and we seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to story etc, so we’re deepening the reading experience of this series together through that mystical alchemy that happens when words become imagery. It helps that our editor is also very accommodating and encouraging of the creative relationship. I’ll be able to go into it more when the series is announced, then I can give these guys their flowers properly.

COMMISSIONS

I’ve taken the momentum of doing those commissions at Enniskillen and put it into my commissions list: The Black Widow commission is now pencilled and waiting to be inked. I’m out of space to share images in this newsletter, but I’ll share the art in issue 13 of Swingin’ Lead!

NEW CHAMPIONS #7: JULY 16th

This issue is off to the printers this week: You can guess from the cliffhanger of issue 6 where this one is going narratively but you have no idea what complications arise when Nightdrifter teams up with the New Champions!

DUNDALK COMIC CON: JULY 5th (FAIRWAYS HOTEL, DUNDALK)

I’ll be at this one-day event in Dundalk selling my comics, art books, stickers and prints. I don’t plan to do commissions at the show, but might be able to fit a couple in ahead of time, to be collected in-person at the con, so hit me up if that’s something you’re interested in!

Alright, thumbnails await and excitement levels are high. Have a great day, enjoy New Champions #6, and thank you for your time; I’m really enjoying working on the newsletter and I appreciate your continued support!

Slán!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but (no pressure!) if you want to support me financially you can always send me a voluntary tip via Ko-fi:

Fáilte romhat!

Life continues to be interesting: I had it in mind to wrap New Champions #7 last Friday (May 23rd), as I was due to be on vacation for most of this week. However, at the start of last week I was contacted by my editors for the previously-mentioned 3 issue mini-series at Marvel, requesting character designs for the heroes appearing in the book. I was ecstatic! Getting to design my own versions of iconic Marvel heroes for a series I’m drawing?! Sign me up! The catch: they needed to be handed in last Friday (May 23rd) 😱

So, bearing in mind the topic of my last Newsletter (“Deadline-Minded”), I had to re-arrange my plans to make sure everything got in on time. My actual deadline for New Champions was today (May 30th), so I’d have to plan out my workload in a way that would allow me to steadily progress towards the New Champs deadline, while turning in those character designs by their requested date. That meant working on New Champions by day, and those character designs in the evening. As of May 23rd I had the designs in, and 3 pages of New Champs to submit by the 30th, with a 4 day vacation in between.

Needless to say, by the time the family and I hit the road for our break in the lovely county of Kilkenny, I was ready for a rest and it was great! Sleeping in every morning, swimming every day (and discovering the joys of a cold plunge), and vegging out in the evenings* was so good that, when I got home and had to leap into work mode to turn those last pages in, I struggled to get motivated!

Thankfully, I was able to get into a flow state yesterday and knock out two pages of pencils, with the last page of the issue being completed this morning; so my work on New Champions is a wrap and I can’t wait for you to see it. But in the meantime…

More shenanigans from New Champions #7!

*UNANNOUNCED THREE-ISSUE MINISERIES AT MARVEL

The requested character designs were submitted on time, but there are more needed for the book, so while I was away on vacation I was spending those “vegging out” evenings designing another character for the book! What even is downtime?!

COMMISSIONS

As of writing, I know the script for the first issue of the series has been submitted for approvals but I don’t know when it’ll be approved, which means I’ll be finally starting those commissions on Sunday! Expect some WIP shots in the next issue!

The final issue of Infinity Watch came out this week! If you picked it up (which I hope you did), you’ll have seen the medium bending stuff we did as the series villain (Zavala) used the powers of the Reality Stone to manipulate the actual comic book page against our heroes. Writer Derek Landy came up with a lot of interesting conventions for me to play with, and I think we developed something pretty unique for the climax of our adventure! Here are the inks for the first three pages of the issue:

NEW CHAMPIONS #6: JUNE 11th

ENNISKILLEN COMIC FEST: JUNE 7th & 8th

I’ll be back at this cool little comic convention next weekend and I’m very excited to return. You can find out more information about it on their Facebook page!

And with that I’ll wrap this up and get back to character designing for the afternoon. I hope you’re all keeping well, and thank you as always for sticking with me!

Slán!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me you can always send me a tip via Ko-fi:

Welcome to the tenth edition of Swingin’ Lead. Hitting ten issues is a humble little landmark, and while I’ve not always achieved my publishing target of every Tuesday fortnight (yes, including this very edition), I’ve managed to maintain some consistency, which was a big goal of this endeavour. But more importantly than that, thanks for joining me on the newsletter! My social media presence continues to suffer from work demands and family life, so I appreciate you going the extra mile and subscribing here!

Something wicked stalks the New Champions from the shadows.

NEW CHAMPIONS #7

The schedule for this issue has been a little crazy and, like I think I said last time, the team are all together on the page much more often in this issue than the previous one, which means I have a lot of work to do on New Champions #7 and not an ideal amount of time to do it in!

As such, I had to make some decisions to ensure that the book will make deadline: namely giving away my inking duties on some pages to another inker. It’s not something I do lightly, as I like to ink my own work and I think I’m improving with every issue, but also - more importantly - sacrificing my inking duties means taking a pay cut, which sucks.

Still, of the options available, it’s the best from where I’m sitting:

• Family commitments (such as school runs, and afternoons spent doing homework with my kids, making dinner etc) mean I can’t just disappear into my studio and white-knuckle it for 14-18 hours a day. Plus the tightness in my drawing arm is telling me I need to ease up, not go harder (more on that another time)!

• Giving up whole pages to another artist is not an option: for a start, that’s sacrificing even more work/pay than I would working with an inker, but the result would also be a visually disjointed comic and that’s something that always pulls me out of my reading experience. Plus, I’m guessing that if you’re subscribed to the newsletter, you’d probably like to see a full issue of my work, even if it’s inked by somebody else, right?

So I offered to pencil just under half the issue for an inker to take care of and editorial were very cool and accommodating. It helps that I’ve had experience working with inkers before on Captain Marvel and the Marvel Multiverse RPG Books. And there are some upsides to it:

1. For a start I won’t have to rush through pencils as fast, so I can dedicate a little more time to correcting anatomy, figuring out lighting and generally trying to bring in a better looking comic.

2. Marvel are going to send me some Marvel branded bristol board (that’s the type of paper we use when drawing comics), which I can’t wait to work on. I’ll be feeling like the comic artists that inspired me as a kid!

3. Any time I save by not inking, I can spend finally getting those commissions done and offset the cost of dropping New Champs pages to an inker!

4. The title of my newsletter will be factually relevant! “Swingin’ Lead” was the name of my first portfolio blog some 15 years ago, when my career goal was to pencil comics. That had to change with the realities of modern comics production (and archaic page rates), meaning learning to ink has become a pretty essential skill if you want to get hired and pay rent. I always loved the name “Swingin’ Lead” though, so it felt a natural fit for the newsletter, even if I’m not really grinding out the graphite any more. I’ll always be a penciller at heart though, and you never know what the future holds… the newsletter title might end up being prophetic 👀

So, all in all, I think it’s the best of a not-great situation. It’s my philosophy, based on my experience in the industry, that you want to be as proactive as you can in your limited role within the creative team; make whatever decisions you can to make life easier for your collaborators and, most important of all, make sure that you’re doing your part to get your book to the printers on time! It’s not all about drawing pretty pictures!

What about you: would you have made a different decision in the same situation? What do you think the most important aspect of making comics is? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

UPCOMING THREE-ISSUE MINISERIES AT MARVEL

Obviously we haven’t broken ground on this yet, but the writer and I have touched bases and we’re very excited to work together. They’re working on the issue one script right now, and I should start this project next month - I’m looking forward to it immensely!

INFINITY WATCH #5: MAY 28th

It’s time to wrap this series up with one great big, mind-bending fight! I can’t find any previews of the issue out there, to show you what Derek and I ended up doing for the series finale, but it’s a little crazy. Hopefully I can share more in the next newsletter.

NEW CHAMPIONS #6: JUNE 11th

I didn’t realise how soon this would be coming out! Just a few weeks after Infinity Watch #5?! Wow. I hope you’ve pre-ordered it, because it’s a doozy!

Okay, I need to just back to the drawing board before I make a hypocrite of myself and blow this deadline! Thanks for stopping by, and don’t forget you can ask me anything in the comments and I’ll answer your queries in a future newsletter.

Slán!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me you can always send me a tip via Ko-fi:

Hey, welcome back!

After a hastily thrown-together issue 8, I’m back on schedule! I have a few things to get through, but I want to start with an order of business…

Going forward, I’ll be returning to putting a watermark on my “Sneak Peek” images, and also including a caption stating they shouldn’t be posted online without prior permission; this is after seeing some images from the last newsletter being posted to social media without my consent. I’d never stated it explicitly before, and I got out of the habit of watermarking images, so this is entirely on me but just so we’re clear: these images are supposed to be a newsletter-exclusive bonus, just for your viewing pleasure. If they’re going to be shared elsewhere, I should be in control of when and where; after all, it’s my neck on the line, sharing unreleased art ahead of the on-sale date.

In case you didn’t know: any work I show in “Sneak Peek” that’s completed for a publisher like Marvel might be drawn by me, but it ultimately belongs to them and I’m technically not authorised to be sharing it with you. For promotional purposes we can usually get away with sharing some things on socials, to garner attention for the upcoming book, but there’s always a chance that a publisher can reach out and ask us to remove it. Some editors might even take it as a bad look, seeing me splashing around art they didn’t approve for sharing, and that’d hurt my future work opportunities. For these reasons, I’ll be putting some tighter restrictions on the art shared in the newsletter.

I hope you understand.

New Champions #7

While working on INFINITY WATCH earlier this year, I talked about the grind of doing a team book, so it’s no surprise that NEW CHAMPIONS #6 was such a slog (13 heroes and 3 villains in the mix)! I’ve previously touted how great Steve Foxe is as a writer that he managed to script an issue where the groups were broken up in interesting ways, meaning I wasn’t drawing 16 characters on a page, every page; but still, the characters must inevitably unite/collide and those sequences were tough! Still, I’m really proud of the issue and, aside from having to abandon the newsletter release schedule (and sacrificing a lot evenings I’d normally share with my wife), I got in it a day early!
I turned my final page of that issue in last Thursday and I’ve already completed my thumbnails* for issue 7, so right after I complete this newsletter I’m hopping on the artboard to start drawing pages!

Solicitations for NEW CHAMPIONS #7 are a little confusing: Some have cover art and text promoting the involvement of Spider-Girl and Hulkette; some have the cover above and talk about that featured character, Nightdrifter; and some even have the Nightdrifter cover, but the text talks about Spider-Girl and Hulkette! It’s a little crazy, but I can confirm that the above cover is correct, and the following solicitation text is accurate:

So this issue is a globetrotter and it goes some unexpected places (none of which are London, by the way, but you didn’t hear that from me 🤫) and it’s giving me a whole new variety of locations and situations to draw our heroes in. I’ve really excited to get drawing!

*I got some positive responses about doing a newsletter explaining the process of thumbnailing, so I’ll do that in a future edition of Swingin’ Lead!

A New MARVEL Project!

While wrapping up NEW CHAMPIONS #6, I got an email with an offer for my next project at Marvel: a three-issue miniseries featuring a character I’ve worked on before but who I’ve never had a chance to really sink my teeth into. It’s also a book featuring a smaller cast (actually, it’s a single character book with a couple of heroes as their supporting cast), which would be ideal for me after quite a few months of doing team books. I’ll also be working on it over the summer, when my kids are off school and I’ll be having to juggle taking care of them and drawing comics, so having less characters to draw will be make deadlines more achievable!

As always, when I can share more, I’ll let you know right here in Swingin’ Lead!

Commissions

I still have those previously mentioned commissions to get through so, don’t worry, I’ll begin sketching them up soon - and I’m really sorry about the delay!

Another victim of the NEW CHAMPIONS #6 grind was my appearance at Eastercon earlier this month. Sadly, I had to drop that in order to keep working. However, I’ve added another show for July, this one in Dundalk.

So here’s my convention schedule as it stands for 2025:

• Enniskillen ComicFest: June 7th/8th (Enniskillen, NI)

• Dundalk Comic Con: July 5th (Dundalk, ROI)

• Dublin Comic Con, Summer Edition: August 9th/10th (Convention Centre Dublin)

INFINITY WATCH #5

MAY 28th: MARVEL COMICS

I’m back on full art duties to bring the series to close and it’s an al- out war between the Infinity Watch and bad-guy Zavala - don’t miss it!

Thanks, as always, for your time and support! I’m off to draw more NEW CHAMPIONS and I’ll hopefully have a teaser of that to share next week. All the best!

Swingin’ Lead is a free newsletter, but if you want to support me you can always send me a tip via Ko-fi:

Welcome to a very late edition of Swingin’ Lead! This should have been with you on April 15th but the demands of New Champions #6 for Marvel were just too great for me to anything but draw for the past few weeks. That said, I don’t want to make a habit of missing posts, so instead of resuming the regular schedule this Tuesday, I’m putting issue 8 out today - but I’m going to load it with spoiler-free teaser art from New Champions #6 as an apology for dropping the ball. I’ll fill you in on the latest news with me next week, when we return to the regular format in issue 9!

New Champions #6 (MARVEL COMICS) releases on June 11th.

Thanks, as always, for sticking with me! I’ll talk more about New Champions, and everything else I have going on, in a few days time. Feel free to send me any questions or talking topics in the comments. See you in a few!