Occasionally, Tharg permits some of his script & art droids to leave 2000 AD headquarters. In the Weekly Droid Watch, I’m going to be keeping an eye on what present and former droids have been up to this week. 2000 AD droids tend to go on to produce some of the most phenomenal U.S. comics, so I’ll also be listing what comics released each week have that extra special shot of thrill-power.

Webcomics

• Art Droid Simon Fraser posted a new page of his web comic Lilly MacKenzie & the Mines of Charybdis

- Lilly Mackenzie & the Mines of Charybdis is a graphic novel being serialised, for free, on the well known Webcomics Collective ACT-I-VATE. The latest pages are Chapter 4, Page 31.

• Art/Script droid Bob Byrne added a new page to his weekly web comic, Spazzmoid.

- This week we get an inside look at how Hollywood media moguls come up with all those fine movie ideas, like The Hello Kitty live action movie, starring Wynonna Rider! It’s an hilarious, cynical look at the types of idiots who decide what lowest common denominator movie to shove down the public’s throats next.

- Bob also emailed me to draw my attention to a 2000 AD specific Spazzmoid strip he did a couple of months ago. The strip features a character called Bwed first featured in this strip (the joke hinges on this):



- The strip is called Judge Bwed, and is hilarious:

Blogs

• Art droid PJ Holden updated Eclectic Micks a couple of Doodles of 2000 AD characters Sláine and Finnigan “Finny” Sinister

• Over on his personal blog art droid PJ Holdenposted a ton of stuff:

- First an hilarious page from Dark Judges parody strip he did with Gordie Rennie called Judge Wedgie:

- He then posted a really cool studio tour, which you should definitely check out!

- Finally, he has made available to purchase in .cbr a collection called Previously, which brings together various small press things he’s done over the previous 10 years. PJ was kind enough to send me a review copy of the collection, but with everything going on with my mum I haven’t yet had a chance to get a review up. I plan to do so ASAP!

• Art & script droid Bob Byrne also updated Eclectic Micks with a piece called ‘OOHHHH YEAHHH!!!’

- Those of you old enough (in your 30s like me) will recognise this as the legendary “Macho Man” Randy Savage! Whatever happened to that freak?

• Art Droid David Baillie posted a blog update with some cool sketches

• Art Droid Rufus Dayglo updated his blog with the B&W and final coloured art for the first issue of the upcoming Tank Girl: Skidmarks miniseries
  

- Apparently Tank Girl: Skidmarks #1 appears in the recently released issue of Previews magazine, and is set for a November 2009 release through Titan Books in North America. Expect me to mention this lots as the time comes nearer!

- He also did an interview over at downthetubes.net which is really interesting.

- Also, it was announced at SDCC the Tank Girl is going to be moving to Image Comics, so watch out for that!

• Former Art Droid Gary Erskine has a new piece of art up on Scotch Corner, which is an art blog that features regular artwork from a collection of Scottish professional artists. I would highly recommend checking out all the other fantastic art on the blog, there are some really talented artist involved!

Gary had this to say of the image:

Samurai Jane is a mixed media picture. My friend Claire modelled for me for a variety of poses and the final chosen photograph was comped together with a background image sourced from a book. Getting the right picture to work with and not against the main foreground character proved more difficult than expected and there was a lot of necessary processing and desaturating of the image before it was flattened. The layers were then filtered and digitally painted and decorative details were added to enhance the dress and sword. Really love putting all the elements together and hope to display the rest of the pictures from this set at a later date.

The character herself has a back story and there are tentative layouts for pace and story purposes. Finding the time to work on these personal projects is always frustrating as scheduled books have to take priority. Such is the freelancers life. I would hope to have Samurai Jane in a near completed form by the end of the year and will no doubt feature more images in later posts.

Oh, and she kills zombies.

• Script Droid Rob Williams has posted a ton cool news over on his blog:

- He talks about his Cla$$wars comic being available to download on ComiXology‘s iPhone Comics app. Something I have been meaning to talk about, because I downloaded the app the other day and Cl$$war was the first freebie I downloaded! Expect me to talk this app up soon, as soon as I have time!

- He also Mentions that he has a story in Dark X-Men: The Beginning issue #2, on sale July 29

- Also, his new story Meet Darren Dead starts in Judge Dredd Megazine #287

- Finally, SFX Magazine has a six page interview he recently did with Grant Morrison!

• Script Droid Tony Lee has posted a bunch of news over on his blog:

- He is apparently going to be writing the comic adaptation of the surprise hit novel Pride & Prejudice & Zombies.

- He also fully documents his adventures and misadventures at this years SDCC.

Misc

• The poster for the movie based on The Losers comic by former script droid Andy Diggle and former script droid Jock was unveiled

- … and it’s by none other than jock himself! Check out my post from last week to find out more about the upcoming movie!

• Former script droid Jock uploaded some pictures to his Twitpic account

- The following a panels from a Dark X-Men story that he is working on with writer Jason Aaron and colourist Dave Stewart:

• Script Droid Simon Spurrier has posted a new issue of his Short n’ Curlies Column over at Bleeding Cool

- Posted this morning, in Short n’ Curlies #4 Si talks about his “next comicbook masterpiece”, TV shows that he hates… and a bunch of other crap. Oh Si, so full of hate!

Non-2000 AD comics out this week:

• Wednesday Comics #4 features work from both Neil Gaiman (very briefly a script droid) and former art droid Dave Gibbons:

• Former script droid Garth Ennis and art droid Carlos Ezquerra have a new release this week:

• Script droid Dan Abnett has a new comic out this week:

• Former script droid/editor Andy Diggle has a new comic out this week:

Script droid Rob Williams has a new comic out this week:

Former art droid Kev Walker has a new comic out this week:

If I have missed any cool Droid news this week, feel free to let me know, and I’ll update the page

Check back later today for more Thrill-Power Thursday!

Related posts:

1. The 2000 AD Weekly Droid Watch: Keeping an Eye on What Tharg’s Minions Are up to Whilst They Should Be Hard at Work! – October 24th 2009 Occasionally, Tharg permits some of his script & art droids...
2. The Weekly Droid Watch – September 12^th 2009 Occasionally, Tharg permits some of his script & art droids...

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