THE BLEED AND TRIM: #1
“There is calm in the air…
But there is greater calm than I can bear.”
(And Also the Trees - Slow Pulse Boy)
Hullo all, and thanks for joining me on my inaugural foray into newslettering. I haven’t indulged in this sort of thing since the days of deviantART Diaries and LiveJournals (a millennium ago in internet years), so bear with me as this thing takes shape!
A QUICK CATCH-UP
So it’s been a while since I was in comics, and you might be wondering where I disappeared to and why. As anyone who was following the book will know, my creator-owned series with Zac Thompson THE BROTHER OF ALL MEN was put on hold indefinetely after its publisher AfterShock filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As we co-owned the book with them, the rights were essentially tied up and we couldn’t proceed with the remaining two issues of four planned - I’ll dive into that more another day.
In any case, it was a blow that majorly winded me and left me scrambling to find work in the weeks before Christmas 2023. I found myself a retail job in FOPP (a specialist off-shoot of HMV) and ended up working a year and a half there in the home video department (my other true passion after comics - don’t ask how many discs I own). It was mostly a fun time surrounded by other similarly passionate music and film nerds, but I wanted more and last April moved adjacently into Curzon Cinemas, where I quickly leapt up the ladder to management. I learned a lot on the managerial and technical level in a very short amount of time but again grew unsatisifed and quickly burnt out. I quit a couple of months ago with no real plan in mind, hoping something creative might entice me back to the world of comics (or similar) having spent enough time away from it to miss it again.
Which leads me to…
As you’ll likely have already seen, I’m drawing #2 of the upcoming anthology series THE TERMINATOR: METAL. It’s published by Dynamite Ent., who I previously had worked for on CENTIPEDE: GAME OVER, ARMY OF DARKNESS: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL, JAMES BOND: THE BODY and REFLECTIONS OF DEATH (as well as a ton of covers), but more importantly written by my two fellow Irishmen Declan Shalvey and Rory McConville with colours by Colin Craker (also Irish!).
I left my manager job around the same time that Dec and editor Nate Cosby were crewing up artists for the series and it so happens that #2’s script was just about ready to be drawn. I’ve long admired both Dec and Rory’s writing chops, and despite having apprenticed with the former nearly a decade ago and becoming good mates since, me and Dec had never fully collaborated on anything (though there certainly were attempts). So the chance to finally right that wrong coupled with a universe as influential as the Terminator series made this a no-brainer when it was offered to me.
Here’s an unlettered preview of the first page with Colin’s moody colours setting the tone right off the bat;
Some eagle-eyed readers might cop that the Terminator above isn’t the T-800 model from the first film, but an earlier-gen T-600 type that appears heavily in some of Dec’s previous Terminator run. There wasn’t any slots left for me to do a cover and draw the iconic T-800, so I decided to do my own piece over the last few days (and can confirm that I got off easy drawing the simpler T-600s!);
Expect to see this piece a few more times as I use it to promote the Final Order Cutoff date for my issue, which is October 27th!. Make sure you order it with your LCS before then to guarantee a copy when it drops on November 19th, and while yer waiting why not pick up #1 (superbly drawn by Lorenzo Re) on October 5th, and the TPB of the first series out now!
~NOW STREAMING~
Last week I started streaming over on Twitch (maybe YouTube as well later). I inked the above Terminator piece live over two streams and forgot to opt-in to archiving VODs, but I’ll be back again soon when I’ve more commissions and non-NDA work I can show online. In the meantime I’d super appreciate any follows over on my channel, and will try to announce future livestreams with some heads-up here and on my usual socials;
Twitch
bleedandtrim streams live on Twitch! Check out their videos, sign up to chat, and join their community.
CONS N’ COMMISSIONS
I’m not exhibiting at any cons this year (what with having only recently returned to comics and by virtue of that missing application deadlines by a massive fucking mile), but I’m planning to attend the following;
MCM COMIC CON LONDON, Oct 24-26th
THOUGHT BUBBLE COMIC ART FESTIVAL, Nov 15-16th
If you see me (and my partner KT) please say hullo, it’s been too long since I’ve seen most comics folks!
I’m also taking on a limited number of A4 SINGLE FIGURE + BG commissions to be collected on the show floor at Thought Bubble. Will also do mail-outs but priority will be given to TB attendees! Email me at ‘eoinmarronart@gmail.com’ if you’re interested!
It’s been years since I opened my list so I’m doing a special re-introductory price of £175ea (with 10% off for newsletter subscribers!), and it’ll be B&W with inkwash and look something like the Terminator piece above and these below;
If you’ve read this far, then you’ve earned yourself -
A PUPDATE
Our five year old corgi Badger says hi and will be joining you at the (tail) end of each newsletter via a recent and randomly chosen photo. So get used to his silly little mug.
Til next time -