Christmas Greetings!

So the season to be Jolly is here and things are winding down... at least that's what they tell me!

I'm manically inking the final pages of Cy Dethan's wonderfully written "The Indifference Engine 2" as well as dipping in and out of Unstoppable comics' "Interceptor" series.

I've had my days filled with all kinds of interesting projects this year and below are a few images from three of them.

I can't show or tell of the work I have been doing with the brilliant Kevin Gill (2000AD) or the projects to be embarked upon in the new year with the magnificent Tim Quinn (Marvel UK) but when the ball and dice get rolling I'll be sure to put up some samples.

I have been able to work on the brilliant Aces Weekly with David Lloyd (V fo Vendetta) with the talented Ant Jones and fingers crossed that I'll be able to return to the publication again sometime soon.

So back to it - or I won't get a mince pie

Merry Christmas (or whatever it is you do this time of year) to all :)

By The Sword - from Aces Weekly Vol 13

An inked page from Interceptor : Genesis - issue 2 - written by Brandon easton and published by Unstoppable Comics

An inked page from Cy Dethan's Indifference Engine 2 - to be published by Markosia in 2015 and released at the LSCC 2015

A day in the life!!

Weird week really.

A job I was hoping would come off this month has been delayed by a few months - hoping it will pick up again in the new year - fingers crossed!

On the plus side I got a great response from the editor involved and have always enjoyed my work with him... you know who you are J!

And then straight after I get some agency work and a continuation of the online game work I have been doing recently - so ended up a great week overall!

I've also been invited to Essex's first ever ComicCon and will be in attendance next August.

I was also pleased this week to get 500 likes on my facebook art page for which Jason Thacker was randomly chosen as the recipient of a copy of Terminus At Fenton's Green!

The next target is 1000 likes which will provide a randomly chosen liker with a 30x30 cm canvas of Captain America!

links and art below!!

The-Art-of-Russ-Leach
https://www.facebook.com/comiconessex
http://comiconessex.co.uk/

more soon!!

Terminus makes the British Comic Awards long list!!!

I know that it's in a LONG LIST

I know that it's surrounded by HUGE names and talent

I know the odds are LONG

But you have to be in it to win it.... RIGHT?


Imagine my surprise when I clicked randomly on a link to the British Comic Awards in FB and found Terminus At Fenton's Green in a list populated by huge British talents.

http://britishcomicawards.com/previous-years/longlists-201314/

I know there is probably zero chance of even making a nominee spot but seeing it there in that list made my day :)

And so for this post - pages from the book I think...

fingers crossed :)

Indifference Engine 2

Well... this week has been a blur!

Got some great projects going on and one that just might make me smile for a long time to come!!

More of that should it come off.

In the meantime, some sample pages from Part 1 and 2 of the Indifference Engine 2 by Cy Dethan and to be published by Markosia in 2015!

Mike Summers has provided the colours and we are hitting the back end of production in readiness for print!

so here goes...

more soon!!

Some Fantastic Four goodness...

Bearing in mind the recent events surrounding renumbering and cinematic FF casting tom foolery, I thought I'd pop up some FF related images...

here goes

followed by their old mate Silver Surfer...

and some Galactus Surfer combo

all finished off with some Ben Grimm!!

and... relax

More pinups!!!

Some more pinup art in this entry....

First off I have some roaring Hulk and additionally some retro Captain Britain.

more soon....

And now a short break!

I'll continue posting some pinup art next week.

I thought that for this post I'd show a production process from a page of Interceptor : Genesis -  from Unstoppable Comics.

I work with JayDee the publisher at Unstoppable on several books and we have tight budgets! So in order to keep things flowing and get pages out as quickly as we can I ink digitally on to pencil roughs.

I do sometimes produce full finished pencils for these pages but time is a luxury and so getting the page done as expressly as possible is the focus. Because I am pencilling and inking, I don't have to convey all the visual aspects of the page to another person (the inker). After that the colorist (Mike Summers) adds his creativity to the page. Mike and I work well together and have collaborated regularly for a couple of years now!

So here is the pencil rough for page 11

So, not much in the way of shade and lighting! That comes with the inks and Mikes colours.
Time wise I can produce between 3 and 5 of these types of page a day.

Next the ink stage...

Both of these pencils and inks were done digitally. This speeds the process up a lot for us. Of course if we are giving away a page in say a kickstarter, I will produce 'real world ' A3 pencils. These digital ink pages I can produce at between 2-3 a day.

and now the colour...

The lettering is applied after this stage - often as seen above I will drop in sound effects at an early stage to work around the visuals.

As promised...

As promised... another regular entry - short and sweet - a bit of Captain America!!

In Ink and colour - pencils by me as well
More soon....

OOOPS... been away too long!

Well it's been all of cough... 3 months since my last post and I think it's high time I updated... and updated more often!!

Work load has kept me away but I really must reach out to the interwebs more than I do.

So here's the first post of the rest of my life!!


I think what I will be doing is making posts single subjects and smaller and making more of em....

So up first will be some commissions and prints I've done recently and then some art from projects that are recent and indeed current.

I'll go with the good doctor first and follow up with some other spandex heroic based frivolity :)

In Ink and colour - pencils by me as well
More soon....

Like a Phoenix from the ashes...

Well unfortunately, Unstoppables' Kickstarter for Interceptor failed to reach it's goal!

However it has garnered much interest and the Kickstarter has translated into a great pre-order campaign. You can pre-order from the link below and the orders include the Kickstarter awards!!!

http://unstoppablecomics.com/blog1/2014/04/24/we-failed-at-the-kickstarter-but-we-are-unstoppable-and-will-continue-as-the-pre-order/

So in typical UNSTOPPABLE fashion the project is still on and I get to work on Eisner award nominee Brandon Eastons brilliant script! Below is the pinup for the mini-series most wonderfully coloured by the most able Mike Summers!























I've also been busy with some other strips and some commssions. One such commission is below for Eric S. Browns latest book - Eric S. Browns Zombie Omnibus! You can pick up the great book at the amazon link below!

http://unstoppablecomics.com/blog1/2014/04/24/we-failed-at-the-kickstarter-but-we-are-unstoppable-and-will-continue-as-the-pre-order/

and here is the cover...

more soon with a daily strip, some coloured Origin of Dr Zero and some interceptor art!!

Dilated Pupils!

Soooo

LSCC has been and gone and was a fantastic event!

I managed to network with some great people, pick up some superb books and have a brilliant weekend.

The work load has doubled since then and I am currently asking offers to wait until September before starting new productions... wow!

One of the projects I am scheduled to be working on is INTERCEPTOR for Unstoppable Comics!
This character is from the UK with his origins based firmly in British folk lore. But of course it has a contempory feel as well as being great fun.

It's written by Brandon Easton (Transformers) and coloured by the ever present talent of Mike Summers.

The Kickstarter campaign for the project can be found at the link below.




https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1123206134/interceptor-genesis-a-comic-book-project

Please share or even back us - It will be a great book and Unstoppable is a publisher you should have in your collection!!

I will be posting again soon about several other projects currently in production. Till then a page from another book by Untoppable soon to be released...

Wohoo! It's convention time!

So the London Super Comics Convention is on at the end of the week (15th/16th) and I'm going to be there launching "Terminus At Fenton's Green" from Markosia along with the uber talent and all round good egg Adam Cheal.

We'll be signing books on Saturday and Sunday.

The schedule for the signings is here...
http://www.londonsupercomicconvention.com/schedule.html

I will also be drawing sketches at the Markosia booth on the day and delivering commissions to those that have pre-ordered

A4 sketches in pencil or pen are £20 - if you buy a copy of the book they are only £15 - what a deal :)
A3 Pencils on Bristol board are £50

If you want to pre-order a sketch before Thursday 13th just shoot me an email and after that or ordered at the show I'll have to add P&P

Hopefully I'll get to meet loads of new people... I'm hoping to meet Charlie Adlard as we are both due to be interviewed by the same video production crew. And of course looking forward to seeing all those faces from the Markosia crew.

Here are two commissions already done!

see you there :)

Too many drawings not enough time!!

Just a quicky ...

So the year has begun with an educational video, a trip to Southport, some great stories to work on and some fun pages put together for the brilliant Unstoppable comics!

Thats just the beginning!

Adam Cheal and I have also wound up the Terminus At Fenton's Green production cycle and it's off to print for our baby which will launch at this years LSCC.

The big news on that is we have been able to get the brilliant Sean Phillips (Marvel Zombies, Batman, Hellboy) to write the foreward - so we are super excited.
His closing comment...  
"This comic has it all, murder, monsters, mayhem and mammaries! What more could you want?"

Also the talented  Ari Carr of comic and cookies has given our first review and it's a good one - read it here ...
http://comicsandcookies.com/2014/01/20/review-of-terminus-at-fentons-green-by-adam-cheal-and-russ-leach/

I will be there with Adam Cheal at LSCC and the afore mentioned video crew and hopefully get a chance to meet the brilliant Charlie Adlard who they will also be interviewing!

I have 1,2,3 secret projects which I can't tell of - but if just one of them comes off I could well break a bone cartwheeling down the street - more on that when it occurs!

Thats to say nothing of the brilliant stories from Cy Dethan and Steve Tanner that I'm pencilling at present.

In the meantime here's a couple of sketches to provide something to look at :)

more soon...