I've probably written this on my blog before,but I find drawing strips based in the real world a lot harder work than doing one set in the future, or in a fantasy world.With SF and fantasy, you can use your imagination and make up buildings, landscapes, clothing, machinery, vehicles, weaponry etc. But Septic Isle is very much set in the present day, and it had to be realistic and gritty. So, you have to be fairly accurate, especially as most of it is set in London, a city I've only passed through and don't know very well (although I shall be visiting The Smoke very soon.)so I had to do research on such banal things as bus stops and lampposts and even the corporate logo of Lambeth council. This meant using Google images quite a lot (and I'm worried that the real MI5 are watching me because of the search terms I used, such as 'suicide bomber vests' and 'MI5 building', and so on. The excuse 'I was researching a book' worked for Pete Townshend. Might work for me, especially as I wasn't looking at the same things he was. I'm worried about the clicking noise I can hear every time I use my phone!) and whilst very useful indeed, it isn't infallible. It showed me the MI6 building and told me it was the MI5 building, for example.
Anyway, here are some of the buildings that appear in Septic Isle:
This is the very first panel of the book, and it's the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel.
This was the original panel from page 3 that was of the MI6 building, but MI5's Thames House was required, so the next panel was the replacement:
Next up is Blackfriars Bridge, scene of an important mission briefing:
Here's the same bridge from the Bond-esque prologue that was dropped. (but it still turns up in a shrunken form at the back of the book):
Here's a fairly nondescript-looking disused barn, in which a lot of important stuff happens:
And, last but not least, a London council estate. Note the scaffolding on that tower block. that might come in handy later on...
That's your lot for now. Hope you like them.
6 comments:
That's some excellent work there. You must have gone cross-eyed and potty with all that detail.
Thanks for the compliment. I was potty already. My eyes are probably the only bit of me that isn't cross!
hi mick,
looking forward to reading septic isle in it's entirity,after seeing this amazing art.
which fingers crossed should be this coming wednesday.
I hope you like the book, because there's some weird folk out there who don't!
Whoa Mick, that stuff's frickin' awesome. I am jealous of your building-drawing skillz.
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