Comics Comics is a medium, not a genre: the French call it the ninth art. It happens that in the English- speaking world, the medium's been dominated by the superhero genre, but the medium's been with us since before the written word, and will be with us for as long as it works. Physiologically, comics acess the creative areas of our brains in ways that prose and film don't. I'm not precious about it, though: I love superheroes. It probably shows.

Superheroes We've had superheroes for much longer than we think about. The gods and heroes of myth are superheroes. They represent both simple fantasies of potency - which appeal to us in primal, unsophisticated ways - and our aspirations. Whatever might be happening temporarily in the ghetto of English-speaking mainstream comics publishing, superheroes are our role models.

An experiment in digital inking and colouring, over John Byrne's pencils (used by permission).

Real pencils and real inks by a much younger me.

THIS WAS A NEWSPAPER STRIP. I LIKE THE BLACK/WHITE BALANCE.

Real paints!

A God By Descent: a student play, then a painted graphic novel, and one day, a 3D graphic novel. Probably.

Sketches for a couple of children's book ideas. For my kids' books, see my Writing page.

Another one-day project is my WWII story, which was called Theatre Of War until that title was used.

THE MOST POPULAR PICTURE ON MY SITE! NOT SURE WHY...

Samples for Zuda, which closed after I only made one submission.

Among my first finished digital images, for a competition, using Poser and, er, Paint!

Superman, using costume and facial elements from his very first appearances...

...and again, this time making reference to a classic Flash cover from 1961.

I'D MAKE THE SMOKE TRANSLUCENT NOW. PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW HOW, THEN!

THIS WAS A SWEET LITTLE STORY, WHICH I'LL RE-DO ONE DAY.