How to draw Dennis the Menace and Gnasher

Me pulling some stupid faces & demonstrating some drawing stuff & nonsense

PS...this is my REAL drawing face

Silly Name for a Monster!

I just received a copy of 'Silly Name for a Monster' by the very funny Timothy Knapman which I illustrated earlier in the year.
The fact that I laughed out loud when I first received the text was definitely a good start & I thoroughly enjoyed illustrating this. It's a hilarious book with a big scary monster, some cowardly knights & a little boy called Stinkpot. Can he succeed in defeating a monster with such a silly name?

I'm not going to tell you that. You'll have to wait until August 7th until it's actually released so there!

In the mean time, here's a sneak preview...

The Diary of Dennis the Menace - Beanotown Battle out now!

The second Diary of Dennis the Menace 'Beanotown Battle' written by Stephen Butler, illustrated by me & published by Puffin books is out now. In this one the boring Mayor has entered Beanotown in a flower comptetition, & you know what flowers attract? SOFTIES!

Dennis & Gnasher have to think of a brilliant emergency menacing plan to save Beanotown from the softy invasion! (warning some of these images may contain SPOILERS!)
In this book I got a chance to draw some of Dennis's friends who might look vaguely familiar & as with the previous book I've been thoroughly enjoying getting to reinterpret some iconic Beano characters again. Stephen Butler's writing is nicely funny & anarchic & great fun to illustrate & again a big nod to Mandy Norman the designer because the books look great!

You can order the book online but why not pop over to your nearest PROPER BOOKSHOP & buy it from there because that's a lot more fun than being hunched over a computer any day!

Happy World Book Day!

It's World Book Day!

Werewolves, killer tomatoes & mummies...

A werewolf trying to find a job, a sad tomato & a mummy wrapped in pink toilet paper from 'Making Monsters Happy' by Susan Gates.

Diary of Dennis the Menace - available now!

Some time in early May last year I was contacted by my agent to say that Puffin were looking for someone to give a 'new illustrative approach' to Dennis the Menace for a series of books written by award winning children's author of 'The Wrong Pong' Steven Butler.
I paused from sipping a large gold flecked martini on my yacht, waved away a palm frond bearing serving girl & thought '...hmmm, draw one of my childhood heroes...HELL YEAH!'

*montage of furious scribbling, various life events, getting an invite to the Beano 75th birthday party, uplifting music etc.*

...& so, the first book, The Diary Of Dennis The Menace is published today, it's very funny, keeping the right level of mischief & chaos (you bumfaces you!) nicely designed by Mandy Norman, & the pictures ain't too shabby either.
Has been an extremely enjoyable job, I dearly wish my mum was still around so I could proudly present her with a copy.
Here's a few of the pictures (I got to draw a few other old favourites too! : )

(Puffin Books, TM © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.)

I've just received my copies of Diary Of Dennis the Menace!

Very excited to have just received my copies of The Diary of Dennis The Menace written by the very funny Steven Butler , drawn by me & published by Puffin books. They look superb, congrats to Mandy Norman for a lovely design job - it's published on 6th February so I shouldn't really give you a peek but I'm very excited...this is how I feel... DING! DONG!* : )

*If you're a fan club member you'll KNOW what this means!

Diary of Dennis the Menace...coming very soon!

The Diary of Dennis the Menace is out on the 6th February published by Puffin books - the very clever Steven Butler (@sbutlerbooks) done the writing stuff & I done all the pictures - save up your pocket money kids!

Diary of Dennis the Menace in The Bookseller

Fame at last!* Article in The Bookseller about Diary of Dennis the Menace by Stephen Butler, & illustrated by me - out in February!

(* not strictly true, I won a tenner for a drawing of Judge Dredd in the 1982 Judge Dredd annual too & I've been on the telly!)

The Diary of Dennis the Menace

Very excited to say that I've been let loose & allowed to get messy with one of my favourite comic characters! I've been extremely thrilled to be illustrating the covers & insides of this new series of Dennis the Menace books written by the very charming Steven Butler - here's the first cover.
Very pleased to announce that Dennis is at his menacing softy-baiting best!

You can pre-order a copy here or else go & buy it from a PROPER bookshop which is a far more edifying & enjoyable experience, you might meet somebody nice or find another book that you'd have never seen otherwise!

Astronauts!

This is what space ACTUALLY looks like kids! (yes, & of course the moon's made of cheese dummy!)

Zombies - before & after

It's always nice to get the final copy of a book sent through!
 It suddenly inspired me to look at the stages this cover went through from my (rather maximalist) original rough (top) to my final artwork (less zombies, less superheroes) to the final book where the (decidedly more minimalist) zombies seem to have acquired a rather fetching shade of green!

WHAM-BAM-JELLY-AND-JAM! - Cartoon Kid - ZOMBIES!

I just received my copy of the new Jeremy Strong Cartoon Kid book - Cartoon Kid Zombies!
It's got falling trousers, dancing hippos, talking cakes, police elephants (naturally!) toilet paper mummies & lots of other zombie based shenanigans that Casper & his superhero friends encounter - what more do you need?

It's been a lot of hard work & a lot of fun working on these books & this looks like this will be the last in the series which is a shame (especially as I can draw some of the characters in my sleep by now!) & I've grown quite fond of them.
WHAM-BAM-JELLY-AND-JAM! Anybody can be a superhero! (as long as you stick your pants on the outside, I ALWAYS do!)

You can buy a copy from here but I'd suggest getting one from your local PROPER bookshop - who knows what else you might find?

Compendium of Useful Things #1 Cat Pants™

Cat Pants™for the more prudish pet owner

Vikings!

Have been drawing Vikings today, well aware that horned helmets were almost certainly a historical fabrication (see also 'Raquel Welch & pterodactyls' & 'Margaret Thatcher & compassionate nature' etc.) but they're such fun to draw! To blazes with historical accuracy I say!

sleeping dogs doing what they do best...

Drawing a new book full of dogs, here's one of 'em for your canine delectation.

Cartoon Kid book 4 - Emergency!

Jungle whales

Tiger / kangaroo cake fight

Cow wars!

Disgruntled fairies

Hungry chameleons!

School catering...

The new Cartoon Kid book by Jeremy Strong which I illustrated has just been published by Puffin. You get pictures of vampires, cows, fairies, unlikely whales, arguing tigers & kangaroos & more! How can you resist?
I'd humbly suggest you employ shanks' pony & purchase it from your local independent bookshop or else be a lazy a*** & get it off the interweb

Gold medals for Story Lab!

We got there first with the old gold medal malarkey with the kids (& cat) in Story Lab for the Summer Reading Challenge! Yay!

Olympic facts #1

At the 1900 Paris Olympics they used live pigeons for the shooting event. 300 birds were released and Leon de Lunden won gold when he shot 21 of them. 


(surely London 2012 definitely missed a trick here - certainly give old Nelson a break?)


(from Fitter, Faster, Funnier Olympics: Everything You Wanted to Know About The Olympics But Were Too Afraid to Ask - by Micheal Cox, A & C Black Publishers Ltd)

KAPOW! FREE Superheroes in Newham!

Get your capes on! If you're a Newham resident you get FREE entrance to the Discover Children's Story Centre until Sunday 12 August - including the Superheroes exhibition I illustrated & designed for! How good is that?