It's nearly here.

Hey guys.

For years now I've been promising a sequel to Dwayne Hickenbottom and the War Boots of Doxxville. For years my fans (both of them) have craved to know what happened to Dwayne at the end of the first book.

Now I can announce that the release of the sequel is almost upon us, and to prove it, here's some rather sexy cover art.



Colours are by Jamie Roberts and the text is by Jim Keplinger. Thanks guys.

So, what do we all think?

G.

Audrey Hepburn, Priest Tony Lee and The Dillion Wedding.

I mentioned in my last entry that I'd been painting all day, which is somewhat strange for me. Not because I'm lazy and don't paint much, but because I normally pride myself on being able to paint fairly quickly. I've always felt that the hard work is all done before you even touch the paint. Thursdays painting took a little longer.

Most of Thursday, plus Friday evening plus Sunday evening - Saturday was a quick trip to the Vue to take in the newest Harry Potter. Which, as a friend of mine described, was "like Grange Hill, but with magic".

So here is "Thursday's" painting. Oil on canvas, using a palette knife.



Today (or yesterday, depending on where you are) is the day that fellow Digital Webbers and all round talented guys, Renae De Liz and Ray Dillion got hitched. In true geek style the ceremony took place at the SDCC (where they first met face to face 5 years ago) and was preformed by the Legend that is Tony Lee. Now if that wasn't geeky enough, the whole thing was broadcast over the web live so us poorer geeks who couldn't afford the air fare could watch from home.

So Eva and I were huddled around the laptop at 1am while an unshaven gent with a silly hat spoke inaudibly into a web camera for a few minutes while facebook blew up with geeks worldwide trying to figure out who he was. When he did speak so we could hear he mentioned that they were stealing Internet from a nearby boat and wondered how long they'd be able to do so.

Then we were treated to to a quick appearance by the Legend (who hat guy referred to as the "Priest" Tony Lee) as he shot across the screen mock tap dancing to the self sung ditty "Yatta yatta yatta". Finally, something more interesting to watch than hat guy.

Then it all went a bit tits up and the feed pulled a Lucan.

Nothing.

Darkness.

We clicked around, checked the forums and facebook. The problem was global. Damn you hat guy, what had you done?!

Then just as we were about to give up on it all, the feed kicked back in, just as the happy couple (and the Legend) were doing the important bit with the rings and the kissing (no, not THAT important bit - Sicko).

So next time you find yourself with a drink in hand, raise it to the Posh and Becks of comics.

Mr. and Mrs. Ray Dillion.

Congrats guys.

G.

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I've been painting all day...

And boy are my feet tired.

It's been a while since I spent so long on one canvas, but it's been a while since I've painted on a canvas this big.

Don't get worried though, my feet just hurt as I've been standing all day, something I've not done since my BK days. They don't hurt because I've been using them to paint with or anything equally as bizzare.

Right now I'm sat with my sexytastic wife and littlest man watching Eastenders while half of our peers from Digital Webbing are getting set to hang out and drink at the SDCC. I can't say that I'm not jelous, but between the two events, I'm much happier with my guys here and the BBC's best.

G.

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Grandad.

Morning Fans-o-me.

Yesterday did not go well for me, in terms of painting that is. I set off with what I thought would be an extremely easy portrait, but struggled with it all day. Eventually it got the better of me and has been discarded in that back of the garage where I don't have to look at it. Who knows, I might find it in a year or three and think it's the best thing ever. But until then, it's out with the meeces.

You guys don't want to come over here and read about me telling you how much I sucked at painting yesterday though do you? You want to see more ever-loving finished pieces. Well here's one from a few years back that hangs in my Mother's house. It's of my old Grandad, Geoffrey Gordon Rowlinson.



Any and all feedback welcomed.

G.

P.S. Don't forget those little buttons down there. I need all you facebook heads to click that little F box for me.

Pretty please.

.

Harry Potter.

Well with the release of the Half Cut Prince, Potter season is once again upon us. So being the media whore that I am, I've decided to cash in again on Pottermania and mention words like Harry Potter, Half Blood Prince and Hermione Granger naked, in a thinly veiled attempt to get more traffic to my blog.

That said, despite my whoring of JK's favourite creations, I do have another painting to show. It's one I did a little while ago, but is still available for purchase should you know of any young Potter fan wanting some unique merchandise.




Oil on card.

Any and all feedback welcome, and don't forget to hit those sexy buttons below.

G.

Do you Digg me?

Hey guys.

For those you are familiar with such social bookmarking tools as Stumbleupon and Digg, I've edited my html (which isn't nearly as painful as it sounds) to display all those pretty little boxes down there at the end of this blog.

See them? Pretty aren't they!

So if you Digg or Stumble or any of the other options down there, feel free to click a button or three and help me get my name that much further out there.

And don't forget you Facebookheads out there, there's a special little button for you. Go on, give it a press and see what it does.

G.

More Oil.

When I uploaded the Joker painting last week I wasn't expecting such a strong feedback from you guys. I don't think I've had such a popular blog entry, it seems you guys dig my oil work.

So just to keep you guys happy, here's three more pieces I did earlier on in the year.

The first is of my niece. She was one of the bridesmaids at our wedding and looked simply beautiful.

They other two I hope you know, if not - I guess I'm not that good an artist after all ;)







All three are oil on canvas and all three are available to buy. E-mail me at webs2099@yahoo.com for details.

G.

The South has Risen.

Stop Motion is not dead and I can prove it. While surfing through YouTube this afternoon to find some cartoons for my son to watch (he's into Transformers at the moment) I came across this great little stop motion video by Patrick Boivin.

Check it out, How cool is that?

Don't forget to check out Patrick's YouTube channel too. The guy is a genius.

G.

Joker.

After a quick trip to Margate this morning to try and get some local galleries (and comic book shop) to hang a couple of my paintings in their windows (which they did) I caught the oil bug again.

Did this this afternoon. Naturally I worked from reference as Heath himself just plain refused to sit for me. Oil on canvas using an impasto spatula.



Any and all feedback welcome.

G.

114.

114 and counting. No I don't mean the average IQ of a Harry Potter fan (I kid I kid, I'm looking forward to the movie too - although MY book is far better than anything JK ever wrote...) It's the amount of hits that this page has had today. Apparently someone has listed me on Stumbleupon and that's suddenly made me more popular than that girl you used to go to school with who hit puberty two years before everybody else.

Speaking of school, I was in attendance of one this morning to check out the art dept to try and figure out if I have the right stuff to make it as an Art teacher. I all ready have the coffee breath and questionable taste in fashion, so it seems that I'm a shoe in. All I need to do is head on out to University and get me a pgce or gtp or wtf and then it's clear sailing.

There was a slight bump in the ocean this afternoon though when I was told by the official word of Hartsdown Technology College that my old maths teacher couldn't provide me with a reference because it had been more than six years since I left and she "didn't know me anymore".

This I found quite odd as I'd only spoken to her weeks before. I had originally planned on asking my old art teacher, but the enigmatic Nick Neenan was as aloof as ever (if you ever read this Nick, drop me an email, I'd love to catch up). So anyway, my secret squirrel working undercover for me at Hartsdown was able to meet my old math teacher later in the day and ask if she remembered me.

"Of course I do." Came the reply.

So all is well that ends well there, my math teacher was more than willing to give me a reference, despite the word of the Great and Powerful HTC. Thanks again secret squirrel.

In other news, I'm now six pages in to my current project which puts me well ahead of schedule. I was planning on getting at least one more page done today, but all the above got in the way. Still, baby will be ready for bed soon so I might get some work done then.

So whichever of you added me on Stumbleupon, thank you - now I suggest the rest of you do the same.

Or it's detentions all round.

G.

Book updates, Die Hard and my Wonderful Wife.

Thanks for all the comments on yesterdays image. You guys are a funny lot, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Things are still moving along swimmingly with the books. Kep should be coming up with the goods on the cover any day now, so after that we'll be all set to hit the printers.

We'll be looking at running through lulu.com again unless anyone else can point us in the direction of someone better.

All going well, by the time October rolls around we'll have four books available; Dwayne Hickenbottom and the War Boots of Doxxville, the sequel, both books packaged as one and a little surprise something that Eva is colouring the cover of right now.

Well not right now, right now shes watching a Die Hard movie and surfing the internet. Hopefully shes busy pimping and promoting our art work and telling the world how wonderful we are.

Which reminds me world - We're wonderful!

G.

Caption this.

Go on, bet you can't.

WWE, MySpace, Torchwood and My Cheesy Balls.

Almost done "at the office" for another day. Managed to achieve a few things.

One more page of the Tapeworm story in the bag.

MySpace killed and resurrected (see blog below).

Torchwood blog blogged (see blog below) - And yes I did get at least one hit from someone googling "Torchwood".

Now all there is to look forward to is my wonderfultastic wife and son to coming pick me up and take me home for a belly full of yum yums. Followed by a quick weight room sweat down then a snuggle on the couch to watch WWE Smackdown with a mouth full of cheesy balls.

It's a hard life.

Torchwood.

After this week's Torchwood special I feel compelled to write something. Mostly because I know putting Torchwood in the heading will attract readers.

Well it worked didn't it, you ARE here ;)

Warning, thar be spoilers below.










I'm a big Who fan right now, I've recently watched all the shows for the last two Doctors and some classic Hartnell via the wonder of YouTube. Torchwood is fairly new to me, I'm trying to play catch up but aren't having a lot of luck finding the shows online.

But anyway, five hours of Torchwood this week. Five hours and the best baddie they could come up with was (for the most part) a bloke in a steam filled room throwing runny peas at the window?

True, we got the occasional latex claw or severed baby head, but for five hours of TV I'm sure the BBC could have done better than that.

That said, we got a good story and an entertaining show, but the baddie quota was way under. Were the BBC props department on holiday when they made this?

The ending was a bit Empire though. Dark and uninspiring with half the cast dead. Worst of all though, No Doctor. Although I guess with the Doctor not being there it adds something for when he does return. I'm sure the "Where were you when we needed you?" card will be played.

And with Doctor 10 still holding a few shows in the can, the BBC will be holding off Doctor 11 as long as they can. I hear he's meant to put in an apperarce in a special featuring EVERY doctor (dead and alive) so far.

That will be one to watch.

G.

Myspace was a mess.

So I've had a mass spring clean. In fact I've deleted the whole damn mess. It's been sat stagnant for months gathering spam and friend requests from bots so I have had the whole thing taken out behind the wood shed and fed both barrels between the teeth.

Then I signed on up again.

Why? Why delete my account only to sign up again? Because if used correctly it can be a great networking tool. True, in gutting my account I lost a few thousand spam bots, but I also lost another route of communication with the outside world and potential clients.

So if YOU used to be a MySpace contact of mine and AREN'T a spam bot, or if you want to become a MySpace friend of mine, you can now find me here

http://www.myspace.com/thegrantperkins

I can't promise long entertaining chats on IM or a links to my holiday photos in Florida (ha!), but I can promise many a pimping bulletins, self promotion and a whole bunch of links back here to my blog.

So go on, sign up to The Grant Perkins on MySpace.

Just another way to stalk me.

G.

Overlord Vincent and his melon-headed brother.

This using my phone to blog lark is getting to be a bit of a habit. Still, it gives me something to do while waiting for Overlord Vincent to complete his journey to the land of nod.

I've just started work on another book, don't get too excited, not a novel, a comic. I've mentioned a book about a tapeworm before and that's the one I'm working on now.

Eva and I were thinking of hitting the London comic and movie con on Saturday to smoose with Danny John-Jules and co', but money being tighter than a frogs butt, we'll probably give it a miss.

Things are all still go for Birmingham this Oct' though. Just gotta make a few banners and make sure we've enough books to sell. Hopefully Dwayne Two will be ready and there will be some more news on Hero Happy Hour by then.

Right, sounds like the munchkin man is past dozey corner and well into sleepsville. I'm off to get half hour with the weights before the desire for food takes over.

G.

Oh, btw. My other boy just got moved up to the smart party at school. I'm proud.

He didn't come here looking for trouble, he came to do the Red Dwarf shuffle. He's smart. He's smart.

The phone is dead, long live the phone.

For those of you who were concerned about my nokia nunchuck, fear not, she has gone to silicon heaven with the calculators.

In it's place i have this sexy little nokia iphone style thing that i have to poke with a small plastic stick. What fun.

All the technolgy in the world at my finger tips and here's me poking it with a stick.

Ah well, such is human nature.

G.

There's a Witch in my Wookey.

While checking facebook this morning a friend of mine suggested this key career move that he saw advertised on the bbc website.

Witch wanted.

A job centre is advertising a "witch" vacancy with tourist site Wookey Hole, in Somerset, for £50,000 a year.

The witch, who has to live in the site's caves, is expected to teach witchcraft and magic.

Wookey Hole staff say the role is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch and do the things witches do.

The advert for the post, placed in the local press as well as job centres, says applicants must be able to cackle and cannot be allergic to cats.



Thanks for the head's up Peter. In return, here's a quick pimp of your website.

NakedinThanet.com

G.

*Cackle cackle cackle*

The new nokia nunchuck.

I need me a new phone. My trusty E650, of which I've only had 9 or 10 different handsets has given up the ghost again. The slidie mechanism now serves as nothing more than a piece of cable holding the two parts together forming some form of nokia nunchuck.

Ok, so the E650 isn't a nokia, but it sounds good.

So now I'm looking at a new phone. I'm loving the idea of the iPhone, but being on Orange that could be a problem. My other option is the N97, but that doesn't seem to be available to be right now either.

So what I'm really looking for is a faithful blog reader (either one of you) to send me your sexy new iPhone which you've magically unlocked to work on Orange as an early birthday gift. A bundle of cash would be a nice extra too.

Thanks in advance.

G.

Logans run...er Done.

Hey guys.

Remember that last wolverine pic I posted? Sure you d.... oh wait, you done? Ah c'mon guys, I though you were paying attention. Ah well, for those of you who weren't taking notes, just scroll down a few posts and I'm sure you'll find it.

Got it?

Good.

Anyway, so after posting that up on the forums at Digital Webbing (THE place to be for all stuff comics *pimp pimp*) a gent by the name of Chris McJunkin offered to ink and colour the image. Chris and I go way back and we collaborated on a pin up for the book Shadowflame about the same time as Noah played fullback for Nazareth.

So anyway, a few days later here we are. Wolverine in colour.



C'mon, tell me what you think.

G.

Glenn Norris.

As I mentioned earlier today, I've just found out that my cousin Glenn Norris is a bit of an artist. After hitting the google machine I've been able to uncover just how much of an artist he is.

Check out these photos and then surf on over to his website.







Website link 1.

Website link 2.

Great work Glenn, keep it up.

G.

Of Tapeworms and Sequels.

After being promised it about the same time as Vanilla Ice was popular (yeah, THAT week) I've finally received a rather entertaining script about a tapeworm and a young boy who be befriends. I can't say too much more about it yet, as the writer will kill me.

He'd do it too, these writers can get nasty.

Which reminds me, it won't be long now until my second book is out. As we speak the cover is in the good hands of Jim Keplinger who is magicing up some fancy lettering for me. Once "Kep!" has done the deed all systems will be go for the launch. So be sure to keep an eye on this blog for more news on that as and when it happens.

Also, through the wonder of Facebook, today I hear that my cousin is now working as a professional artist.

Great. More competition.

G.

Wonky Wolverine.

Hey guys.

Just a quick one to show you this Wolverine piece I did last week.

I didn't even notice that I'd drawn the panel wonky until after I'd scanned it!



What do you think? Go on, leave a comment. I know you're watching, I've code that tell me you are.

G.

Eva told me a great joke the other day...

Three women: one engaged, one married, and one a mistress, are chatting about their relationships and decided to amaze their men by surprising them wearing black leather bras, stiletto heels and a mask. After a few days they meet up for lunch and compare notes...

The engaged woman: The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black leather bodice, stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, 'You are the woman of my life. I love you.' Then we made love all night long.

The mistress: Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather bodice, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn't say a word, but we had wild sex all night.

The married woman: When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came in the door and saw me he said, 'What's for dinner, Batman?'

Saturday morning in Sunny Margate.

Looks like it's going to be another sunny one over here in Sunny Margate. Not even 9AM and I can feel the hot sea breeze wafting (wafting? Good word.) in through the door.

"Door you say? But Grant, shouldn't you be at the beach with your sexy wife getting your brown on?"

"Why yes, yes I should, but it seems that once again I'm being forced to do a hard days work - or at least pretend to."

Still, it's not all that bad here. I've the net to dabble with and a sketchbook at my feet that I really should use more often than I do. Then there's a single dumbell and a makeshift barbell to help pass the time. I say makeshift barbell, what I really mean is a sawn off peice of old scaffold pipe that weighs about as much as a bowling ball. Still, a few dozen sets and I feel it.

As of yet, no business. I don't mind that so much though, these customer things only ever seem to get in the way and distract me from whatever it is that I'm doing at the time - which should they appear this morning would be typing this blog and submitting it to a bunch of blog listings sites to try and bump up up traffic a bit. I understand that I'm not the most exciting person in the world to cyberstalk, but I'm just letting people know I'm here incase they get the urge. It's not that I'm hard to find anyway, between forum whoring, blogging and tweeting my twits over there, I'm practially running through the internet naked screaming lookitme!!

Oh yes, and I have a rather niftie website too ;)

Anywhooie, time to away my blogreaderist(s?) Spar has opened and I've got a hungie in my belly.

Stay Slinky.

G.

C Dicks.

C Dicks?

What could that possibly mean?

It's been marked on the calender for about 8 weeks now with no explanation given as to what it might mean. C Dicks? See dicks? Could it be that the old man has booked a day to go all brokeback or perhaps he just has an innocent meeting with a fellow named Richard?

C Dicks?

As it happens, the arrival of young Bobby Man (who despite his name isn't a police themed super hero) from local school Charles Dickens puts pay to any notions of the old man's playingfortheotherteamness (well for today at least).

Bobby, it seems is here for work experience. Oh goodie. Someone to make the coffee and generally abuse. Thank you Charles Dickens.


"Bobby? Bobby? get the hacksaw. My toenails need cutting!"

2 blogs in one day?

Well ain't that something!

Here's a cover submission I've been working on today for FTL#3. It still needs inks and colours so if there's anyone who fancies taking a shot at it, please let me know.

Just remember that this is only a submission so may not even get used.



Any and all feedback welcomed.

G.

Another day...

...another Dollar.

Well at least it would be if I was getting paid dollars, or indeed paid at all. But such is life.

Yesterday's mass email out to everyone whose email address I had on file reminding them that this blog existed seemed to help out my traffic. I'll have to try that one again sometime. Either that or start posting things here that people want to see.

Perhaps if I use phrases like "Big Boobs, Sex, Naked, Jiggy Jiggy and Rick Astley is Dead" people might find me by mistake through Google.

Back on to things people want to see, how's about a little four way action with Wolverine, Toad, Psylocke and The Blob?

Here's to ya.



Stay slinky.

G.