Wizards Keep - The Tim Perkins Blog

Meet Phoebie

2012-01-21T15:18:00.000Z

A first look at my Granddaughter due to arrive in the world in June.

Hi Everyone,

Well, talk about excited...

I went along with my wife Margaret to our daughter, Joanne and her husband, Toby to the hospital on Wednesday, last week for Joanne’s 20 week scan. There we witnessed for the first time the wonder of seeing our little Granddaughter, Phoebie move. It was really emotional and all I could do to contain myself.

We had seen the scan photo that Joanne had taken at the 12 week scan, but not only did we see the photo I am sharing with you today, but we saw he fidgeting about and boy, was she active!

I wanted to share this moment with you guys and I will post more news up to the great day in June.

Next up will be the long awaited Malta Comic Con 2011 Blogs, which saw me launch Worlds End Volume 1 and teach before four Maltese schools, both of which were the thrills of a lifetime.

Following this little series of Blogs will be a retrospective look back at the last twelve months here at the Keep and another looking forward to what to expect from us.

After that expect updates as with the run up to the launch of Worlds End Volume 1 as I work on the second volume, “A Hard Reign’s Gonna Fall.”

All that remains for today is for me to wish Joanne and Toby – CONGRATULATIONS and add I cannot wait to meet my little cutie pie, Phoebie for the first time.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
January 21st 2012

Worlds End Arrives at Last!!!

2012-01-13T16:04:00.000Z

Ready for dispatch from Monday 16th January

Hi Everyone,

Well the books finally arrived on the pallets yesterday and now Volume 1 is safely tucked up in the Wizards Keep warehousing facility.

Incredibly delayed at the shipping stage, but now available to dispatch at long last, I would just like to say a how much your patience is appreciated by all of us here at Wizards Keep.

The books were finally placed in storage ready for picking earlier today.
The first batch of pre-sale orders will be dispatched from Monday 16th January and I look forward to hearing what you guys think of the books.

Folks are already being very complimentary about both the content and the production values of the printing and binding.

The next stage of the launching schedule will be the drawing of the winning name in the prize draw for the pre-sale orders. The winner, as you may know already, will receive one of just five bronze resin figurines of Gweldar the Elder, the Mathemagician from the Worlds End series. We will announce more about this soon – stay tuned for more updates.

If you have already ordered your graphic novel look for it this coming week – I can’t wait to hear what you think!!!

Oh, well back to the writing of Volume 2 again after a few days break whilst the books were safely placed to bed. I have to see whether our friends are still in peril...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
January 13th 2012

Worlds End Talk and Signing at Blackburn Library

2012-01-07T15:49:00.001Z

Thursday February 2nd

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are at the start of a brand new year and here’s hoping it be a great one for everyone.

2012 will see me undertaking a book signing tour.

At the moment I am speaking to libraries, reading groups, schools, comic shops and book stores, With that in mind if any of you reading this are involved with one of the above, or indeed any kind of venue that would appreciate a talk about the creation of graphic novel from concept to print then please drop me a line at the website address mail(at)wizards-keep(dot)com and I will endeavour to arrange something with you.

The first of my scheduled events takes place on Thursday February 2nd at Blackburn Library. This talk will include information on my career to date, but will emphasise my latest work creating Worlds End Volume 1 with some insights into what to expect in future volumes. A book signing will take place after the talk too.

Tickets for this event are available from:
Blackburn Central Library -Town Hall Street – Blackburn – Lancashire - BB2 1AG – UK

Tickets cost £1.00

Telephone: 01254 587244

twitter.com/librariesbwd

www.facebook.com/blackburnwithdarwenlibraries

www.blackburn.gov.uk/libraries

Once again, please don’t forget to check out the video trailer, which has been very successful for us as we promote the project and please also check out the new “all-ages friendly” WORLDS END Website.

http://www.worlds-end.co.uk/

I look forward to seeing some of you at the talk.

Please feel free to field any questions and please, don’t be shy... I don’t bite, honest.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
January 7th 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS!!!

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000Z

Happy New Year – 2012

2011-12-31T22:04:00.001Z

Seasonal Greetings for the Festive Period

Hi Everyone,

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas that tonight ends a good year and tomorrow brings you a successful New Year.

We have had delays in the shipping of the graphic novels from our printers in Bosnia, hence the lack of promotional material from us this month. Our momentum was suddenly ground to a halt following the wonderfully successful launches in Malta and here in the UK where we saw all the launch books sell out. The UK ones lasted for only an hour and half before we ran out. Something we always hoped would happen, but something, which one cannot ever predict.

We have now been told that at long last and massively overdue that the books are in the UK in customs, so hopefully they should arrive with us here this week. Once the books have been unloaded, opened and checked over they will be shipped out ASAP. Thanks to everyone that placed an advanced pre-order (some from way back in September when the pre-sales were posted on the Wizards Keep website) – we really appreciate your patience.

Provision is being put into place for any subsequent reprints and the printing of the other graphic novels in the series to ensure this kind of delay will not happen again.

The books are wonderfully printed and bound and I will be posting more about this once the books finally arrive. I will also be Blogging about my fantastic third Malta Convention where I first opened and looked at the launch copies of the books, having arrived at the airport for the flight out to Malta just before the advanced launch copies arrived here at the Keep.

This month has been a time to rest and to catch up with family and friends and I have enjoyed every moment of it. I have watched many films over this time, which has been a great change of pace, especially after the madness that was 2011 – the year of Worlds End for me.

Thanks to my long suffering friends and family that have seen little of me for a couple of years now, whilst I worked on this first volume.

Thanks also to the folks that helped me to create the first book in my graphic novel series, Yel Zamor, Albert Deschesne, Paul Finch, James Hill, and Rob Sharp – Bryan Talbot and John Ridgway for their continued support and writing their marvellous Foreword and Introductions in the book, respectively and those fortunate folk that managed to get hold a book at both of the launches and have since written to me and commented on the Internet with their thoughts on it.

Some exciting news about the Worlds End project; as well as the video trailer, which has been very successful for us as we promote the project, please check out the new “all-ages friendly” WORLDS END Website.

http://www.worlds-end.co.uk/

Here you will see the first pages from the story and lots of extras. You will also be able to purchase the books and other Worlds End related products. Over time you will also see some specially written stories from the saga, which you can read online.

On a personal note I am about to begin writing the final draft for volume 2, later than I had first thought, but I had needed to take the break as a much necessary rest. Once this is done I will begin the process of drawing again. Look for some posts soon here and on the Wizards Keep and Worlds End websites where I will share some early pencil artwork.

All that remains before the next batch of Blogs in the New Year is for me to wish one and all an incredibly Happy New Year!!!

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
December 31st 2011

Worlds End – Graphic Novel – Teaser...

2011-11-19T13:33:00.006Z

Check out the NEW video Trailer!!!

Hi Everyone,

Well it’s been a while, again, and even Bentley was too busy this time around to help me out with the Blog, due to his commitments with his new family of puppies.

Now then, at long last we are able to announce lots of new things have been happening during this quiet lull in proceedings, although it has hardly been a lull here inside the Keep.

Coming up below is the Video Trailer for the first volume of Worlds End, for you to view.

November and December of 2011 are the two biggest months in the existence of Wizards Keep as all the interim years of preparation come to their final fruition, starting with...

WORLD LAUNCH EVENT

The world launch of the graphic novel is going to be taking place during the weekend of Saturday November 26th and Sunday27th at the usual spectacular venue of St James Cavalier in the capital city of Valletta on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Malta.

There will be more guests than ever this year and the line up looks like this:

Christopher Malapitan
David Lloyd
Emma Vieceli
Gary Erskine
Jon Haward
Kate Brown
Lucio Parrillo
Marco Santucci
Michael Golden
Renee Witterstaetter
Sean Azzopardi
Sonia Leong
Steve Tanner
Thomas Gosselin
and of course me

There will also be lots of local talent and I am looking forward to seeing their new work.

I am going out for longer this year, as along with David Lloyd I will be delivering a series of workshops in schools and a children’s workshop on Saturday morning. Both David and I are also scheduled to deliver a seminar each, which is going to be fun to do. I am really excited this year because of the launching of the book, but also because I will be around the week before the convention, as everything is set up for it.

This is a very special trip though due to the launching of my first graphic novel and also due to the warmth and support that has been afforded me by the organisers and my new found fan base over there.

As usual I will be blogging about my experience out there when I get chance after the launches.

UK LAUNCH EVENT

The UK launch is taking place on December the 1st, the day after I arrive back from the Malta trip. The venue for the launch is Darwen Aldridge Community Academy and starts at 6:30 p.m.

There will be complimentary drinks and nibbles and of course I will be there along with close family and friends and invited guests, including some stalwarts of the comic industry, which I am really looking forward to – the folks not the drinks... LOL.

I will be signing the books on the night and I will personalise and also remark them if you want me to.

Please feel free to come along for a chat and to check out the graphic novel.
I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can at both events.
Well the moment of truth is almost at hand and I will finish by saying that I hope you like the Trailer. Please feel free to like, favourite, subscribe to the channel and comment on the trailer itself.

Coming along soon will be the release of the brand new Worlds End Website, where you can follow all the current news on the project.

For me December will see me begin the final draft of the script for Worlds End Volume 2 – A Hard Reign is Gonna Fall. January will then see me begin working on the pencils for the book, whilst James edits the script for me once more.

The production of these second and consecutive books should be far easier to manage, as the dream team are now in place. But that is later next month, there is still a lot to sort out this week.

Just before I sign off, however I would just like to say a few words about the Bogtrotters. We’ll be showing some wonderful photos of Bentley with Pixie and their four puppies soon. One pup, a little female called Alexis, has already been taken to her new home. The other two females, awaiting names are due to go the day before I set off for MaltaComicCon 3 and the little male, Bentley, named after his dad will be going, sadly, the day before I arrive back, so I will be saying goodbye to him before I leave for the sunny shores of Malta. It’s been really nice having four extra Bogtrotters around and Bentley’s legacy is now set to grow.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
November 17th 2011

Worlds End – Graphic Novel – Pre-Orders...

2011-08-27T11:11:00.000+01:00

Now available to order from the Wizards Keep Website + Entry into a Grand Prize Draw

Hi Everyone,

As reported yesterday, Worlds End – Volume 1 – The Riders on the Storm is now available on Pre-Order in advance of its launch in November of this year from Wizards Keep Publishing

Each pre-order will also receive an exclusive signed and numbered limited edition print, created especially for this event that will never be made available after the general release of the book. This is in thanks for your support with this project.

And always ones to make it worthwhile to our fans and supporters here at Wizards Keep we thought we do something a little special, so here's a little extra something we neglected to mention yesterday.

The name of everyone that makes an order between yesterday Friday 26th August 2011 and midnight of the day the books arrive here at the Keep will be placed into a draw.

The winner of the draw will receive a very limited edition Gweldar Bronze resin figurine one of only 5 in existence.

The draw will be made by a comic book celebrity during the first week of the books arrival here at the Keep.

Will you be the lucky one?

Good Luck everyone!!!

And Jack, if you are watching and I hope you are...

Happy Birthday for tomorrow to the King of Comics!!!!

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

August 27th 2011

Worlds End – Graphic Novel – Pre-Orders...

2011-08-26T20:27:00.002+01:00

Now available to order from the Wizards Keep Website

Hi Everyone,

Yes, at long last I am able to tell you that Worlds End – Volume 1 – The Riders on the Storm is now available on Pre-Order in advance of its launch in November of this year from Wizards Keep Publishing.

Each pre-order will also receive an exclusive signed and numbered limited edition print, created especially for this event that will never be made available after the general release of the book.

I am billing the Worlds End Saga as a timeless All-Ages storyline that fuses Fantasy and Sci-Fi into a Science Fusion Epic, creating a NEW mythology for a NEW audience, but what is it all about I hear you ask?.

Well, a Mathemagician, called Gweldar, his familiar, Geek, a young boy, Ralf and a mysterious girl called Zephol are all that stand before an invading alien horde intent of aqua-forming the otherwise tranquil planet in the far reaches of space, but are they enough to stop the myriad forces, known as the Aoevill from the depths of outer space and solve the mystery of Worlds End…?

Above, the front artwork for the wraparound hardback cover.

And so it begins with…

“On the third planet from the outer rim of the Squatsretch system lies a world untainted by evil. Its myriad inhabitants going about their daily lives without worry or fear…

That is until today…”

PRE-ORDER your copy TODAY!

European Format

Case Bound Cover

Fully illustrated

88 full colour pages + Cover and illustrated Endpages

Foreword by Bryan Talbot

Introduction by John Ridgway

Afterword by Tim Perkins

Product ID Code: WEGN001

Price £15.99 + Postage & Packing

ISBN: 978-0-9570310-0-5

Well it has been a long while in the making, but I hope you get as much fun out of this first volume, as I have had in creating it.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

August 26th 2011

BLOGTROTTING with Bentley...

2011-07-29T18:04:00.001+01:00

Emerson Lake & ~~Palmer~~ Bentley – the untold story Part 05

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are for the fifth and last for now in my series of fun Photo-Blogs, as promised the other week.

This latest one has me appearing on the Mussorgsky inspired album cover art... "Pictures at an Exhibition!" Please click on the picture below to see the larger version.

I hope you have enjoyed them, as much as I have creating them.

Thanks to everyone that has commented and sent me emails and joined me on Twitter, since I have started this little Bogtrotting Project.

Please don't forget you can check out the "real" Prog Rock band members via their website here at Emerson Lake & Palmer

Next up will be my Dad again.

Until next time, have fun - I'm off to eat a new bone!

Bentley “Bogtrotter”…
July 29th 2011

BLOGTROTTING with Bentley...

2011-07-14T00:01:00.003+01:00

Emerson Lake & ~~Palmer~~ Bentley – the untold story Part 04

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are for the fourth in my series of fun Photo-Blogs, as promised last week.

This latest one has me appearing on the H.R. Giger painted album cover art... Yes, me, as a Giger “Alien”

I hope you are still enjoying them.

Next up is Pictures at an Exhibition... LOL

Until next time, have fun!

Bentley “Bogtrotter”…
July 14th 2011

BLOGTROTTING with Bentley...

2011-07-07T00:01:00.006+01:00

Emerson Lake & ~~Palmer~~ Bentley – the untold story Part 03

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are for the third in my series of fun Photo-Blogs, as promised last week.

This latest one has me joining the other band members on the Trilogy – Quadrilogy painted album cover art.

I hope you are still enjoying them.

Next up is Brain Salad Purgery... LOL

Until next time, have fun!

Bentley “Bogtrotter”…
July 7th 2011

BLOGTROTTING with Bentley...

2011-06-30T00:01:00.002+01:00

Emerson Lake & ~~Palmer~~ Bentley – the untold story Part 02

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are for the second in my series of fun Photo-Blogs, as promised last week.

This one has me in the title role of the character from the album of the same name - Tarkus...

Next on up is ~~Trilogy~~ – Quadrilogy.

I hope you enjoy this one too.

Until next time, have fun!

Bentley “Bogtrotter”…
June 30th 2011

BLOGTROTTING with Bentley...

2011-06-23T00:01:00.004+01:00

Emerson Lake & ~~Palmer~~ Bentley – the untold story Part 01

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are for the first in my series of fun Photo-Blogs, as promised last week.

Mum and Dad bought me a real leather bomber flight jacket with fleeced lining for my birthday back in April of this year and Dad commented on how it looked like the ones that ELP used to wear back in the seventies, so I began to think...

I thought it would be fun to imagine what it would be like if I was part of the original line-up for the band, if I was a puppy back in the ‘70s but they had kept my name out of the limelight. Here I am below with the guys in the snow.

I had a great time messing with the artwork and photos in Photoshop and Dad introduced me to their fantastic progressive rock music too, which is now on my playlist of favourites.

So with that in mind I have decided to look at what the covers to the albums would have looked like if I had been a band member.

Next up will be Tarkus...

You can check out their website here at Emerson Lake & Palmer

I had great fun compiling these and look forward to hearing what you think of my Blogs.

There won’t be too many, but I hope you enjoy them a lot.

Until next time, have fun!

Bentley “Bogtrotter”…
June 23rd 2011

BLOGTROTTING with Bentley...

2011-06-16T10:44:00.000+01:00

Bentley takes over this Blog for a few posts...

Hi Everyone,

I can’t believe my Dad has let me take over his Blog for a short while, but with him being so busy working on his graphic novel, he decided it was better to have something up here rather than nothing, so here I am.

Well I thought that with this first Blog of mine I would let you all in on some very exciting news. I have a new girlfriend, who arrived a few weeks ago. Her name is Pixie and she is beautiful.

She is a little younger than me, as she is only sixteen months old.

She is slowly getting used to the ways things work at home and one of her favourite pastimes is tugging on her knotted rope toys, although I like to have my peace and quiet times, so let her get on with it herself a lot of the times, as I need a rest after all the work I do for Dad here at the Keep.

Everyone is excited at home, but not as much as I am and who knows what the future will hold for us both.

I hope you like her photo, which I have posted here.

Over the next few posts I am going to be having a bit of fun with you all and I hope you enjoy them as much as I am creating them.

I won’t spoil things by telling you what the Blogs will be about, but I’ll leave you with a little teaser clue.

“A trio of bards and an alien artist will be the subject of one of the Blogs”

There will be a prize for the first person to give me the correct answer here before the next Blog is launched...

Until next time, have fun!

Bentley “Bogtrotter”…
June 16th 2011

MaltaComiCon3...

2011-05-06T04:12:00.000+01:00

Yes it’s back for a third year...

Hi Guys,

I know I promised that the next Blog would be handed over to Bentley and indeed the next one will be his, but with his permission I have commandeered my Blog to announce something big here today.

I am ecstatic to tell you all that I have just recently been invited as a guest for the third year running to Malta’s Comic Convention.

This year the show will be on Saturday 26th November and Sunday 27th November 2011. The organisers are hoping to be able to introduce a pre-opening party on Friday 25th as well.

It looks as though for the first time the event will be able to use the whole of St. James Cavalier this year. This means more rooms and as a consequence more international artists and writers will be in attendance, 10 in total, which makes it even more of an honour to be asked along again.

The organizers have a limited number of free tables for foreign creators/comic related companies who wish to take part in the Comic Con. Arrangements will be made for cheap accommodation rates, as well as the cheaper charter flight prices too. So feel free to spread the word. Although by no means exclusive this initiative is mainly aimed at assisting the independent scene.

There will be the usual panels, discussions, workshops, sketching and signings and I will post more on those as they are finalised.

The line up of guests looks impressive for the third year running and the organisers will be announcing the guest list soon. In the meantime I thought a teaser would be in order.

For any further information please check out the official website:

www.maltacomic-con.com/

As any regular readers of this humble little Blog of mine will already know, I cannot say enough good things about the convention. For those of you still to hear what I have to say about the two previous year’s events in Malta feel free to check out my Blogs here:

For me have a book to try to finish before then and I cannot wait to see all my Maltese friends and fans once more.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
May 6th 2011

Return of the Wanderer...

2011-04-26T21:50:00.000+01:00

Or, Bogtrotters, Blogs and Business, as usual...

Hi Guys,

Well, here we are with almost a quarter of the year gone already and nary a Blog in sight from me in recent months, since January. Now for some of you that may be a Godsend, but some of you I know have missed my musings.

With the production of the Worlds End graphic novel in full swing there hasn’t been too much time for anything other than painting the pages and working on the design elements and in a few short days more of the illustrations too, including the cover. I'll post a Blog update on the current state of play with Worlds End soon.

It was with that in mind that I realised something else was amiss. A few weeks ago saw me celebrate my latest birthday with my family, which as those regulars amongst you and fans of his will know already, I share my birthday with my little furry mate, Bentley “Bogtrotter.” Now unfortunately with all the rushing around, and with barely enough time to take some time off to go along with my family for a fantastic meal (as always) to a nearby Italian restaurant, Mangiamos in Darwen, I neglected to Blog about our mutual birthdays.

It was this in mind, however, that a new series of “quick” Blogs, which shall henceforth become known as Blogetts here at the Keep, came to mind.

The first one entitled “BLOGtrotting with Bentley” will have Bentley introducing some exciting news. The ones to follow will also star Bentley in what I hope folks will enjoy as a bit of light-hearted fun before I begin a new series of more serious Blogs, whilst also seeing me start to actively promote the book again.

Thanks for waiting around, your patience and your support.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
April 26th 2011

2011 – Countdown to the launch begins...

2011-01-18T22:01:00.000Z

Exciting year here at the Keep...

Hi Guys,

I thought I would just drop a few quick lines today to bring you all up to speed and apologise for the distinct lack of Blogs from me over the past twelve months, much less definitely than in previous years.

All I seem to be doing at the moment is working on Worlds End, which is now over the halfway mark, as far as having completed pages, which is excellent news for me and my family too – who look to the days when the book is finally in their hands and they can have a bit more of my time again.

I have just spent the last couple of days, going over and sorting out the artwork files, so I can send off the script for Richard to letter the book. I still have to finalise the sizes of the pages, as we have switched to European, or to be more precise the French Album format and size and to a case bound cover with a bound in ribbon bookmark, or at least that is the plan at the moment.

I have some business stuff to sort out tomorrow and then it is back on with the artwork again. The plan is to produce all the backgrounds for the remainder of the book and then go back in and paint the characters and SFX. In the new week, or two I will also produce the pencils for the illustrations needed to complete the inner pages, no clues here, as to what those are for...you’ll need to get hold of a copy...LOL.

I will also be drawing and then digitally painting the cover too, which I have finally designed.

The cover art is usually one of the first things I create, but for some reason I went through lots of ideas before I finally convinced myself that this was the one to use.

This will be the next full art I will display on-line for promotional and marketing purposes – mainly so everyone knows what the book is going to look like when it is on the shelves for real.

The real inspiration at the moment is coming from the multitude of emails, e-comments on the networks and telephone calls from everyone saying such marvellous things about my latest work. The long hours don’t seem quite, so long and arduous when you guys say such positive remarks...so thanks, it does me more good than the endless streams of caffeine laden drinks I have consumed of late.

I have some new Blogs about comics and the industry lined up, but they are only titles at the moment and take time to write, time I can now ill afford right now, as I try to finish the book as soon as possible. So, if you’ll forgive me I’ll sort these as and when I can.

In the meantime, in lieu of the cover art being displayed, you’ll have seen that there is another miscellaneous teaser panel above for you guys, as my way of saying thanks again for all your support. It really does mean the world to me.

Look out for another teaser panel soon.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
January 18th 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR...

2011-01-01T00:01:00.000Z

All the very best to everyone, wherever you may be...

Hi Guys,

I thought I would just drop a few quick lines today to wish you all a very happy & Prosperous New Year in 2011.

I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying it with those you love and are safe and well.

See you in 2011...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
January 1st 2010

Merry Christmas to one and all...

2010-12-25T00:01:00.002Z

Peace and Goodwill to everyone, wherever you may be...

Hi Guys,

Just a quick one today to give you a little e-card.

I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying it with those you love and are safe and well.

All that remains is for me to wish you all the Very Best and say that I hope Santa brought you all you wished for...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
December 25th 2010

‘Twas the Night before Christmas 2010...

2010-12-24T13:35:00.000Z

Not long now guys...

Hi Guys,

I apologise for the lack of Blogs during this festive season, which I have come to use as the Bloggiest time of year of late, but the workload as I work through the enormous amount of work with the digital painting of Worlds End has been taking up most of my waking hours and I hope the finished art will show you the truth of this, when you finally see the graphic novel in print in 2011.

To tell the truth this year has seen fewer Blogs from me, but for the same reason and the fact that the first half of the year saw me working on projects, which in hindsight I should have left well alone.

Anyhow with only a few hours left before we hear Santa’s sleigh bells – If you do my advice is get to sleep ASAP, or else Santa may not pay you a visit – I thought I would share a few festive moments with you all.

Thanks first to all of the customers that have bought things from us this year – your support, as always is invaluable. Thanks also to the many people that have either left comments here on the Blog, or other Social and Professional Networks, or emails either sent privately, or to the main Wizards Keep Website – I appreciate your time spent in doing so.

The entire local landscape is covered in deep snow and looks beautiful – picture postcard/ Christmas card perfect. The plan is to take some photos of the place over the next few days and post them in a later Blog during this season of goodwill.

Yesterday saw me visit the nearby city of Preston with my wife, Margaret and daughter, Joanne as we did some last minute shopping. During our time there I saw one of Santa’s helpers and a very friendly Red Dragon and add my photo took with them, in fact it was at the insistence of my wife and daughter that it was taken...let me know what you think. The place was a nice gentle hustle and bustle with folks to-ing and fro-ing as they too did their last minute Christmas shopping – to me it seemed some were doing all of their LATE Christmas shopping, and we all know how that can be... LOL.

This morning saw me visit my home town of Blackburn and despite the sunshine the temperature is still minus silly and the snow is not moving away, so we are set for a wonderful white Christmas again, just like last year.

Whilst in the centre of town I paid a visit to the newly moved comic shop, Bat-Cave, which is now situated on the first and second floors in a fantastic store with a bicycle shop occupying the ground floor. This new move means the store is now much bigger with much more scope and the plan is to stock some Wizards Keep products in there in the New Year and have a signing for the graphic novel when we launch in 2011. The address is here and I strongly advise you guys to pop along, if you are visiting.

Bat-Cave, 48 Northgate, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB5 1JL UK.
Website: www.bat-cave.co.uk

We’ll be placing a permanent link in the Website links pages ASAP.
I’ll be Blogging between Christmas and New Year, as much as I can and may let you guys see more recent work on Worlds End unseen up to this moment, except for a few colleagues and friends and family...I’ll see...

Well just before I go, Bentley would like to say thanks for all the messages he has received this year too and all the friends he has seen add him to their Twitter pages. Tonight he plans on an early bedtime with his stocking hung up at the side of his basket, although he will probably be beside me in bed...if I know him at all...LOL.

All that remains is for me to wish you all the Very Best and say that I hope Santa brings you all you wish for...
Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
December 24th 2010

Happy Birthday, Mum...

2010-12-06T23:50:00.000Z

And some more snippets...

Hi Guys,

I wanted to share my Mum’s Birthday with everyone today, so, once more, I hope you’ll indulge me.

With Bentley "Bogtrotter" in tow once more and braving the wintery weather we made the short car journey to Mum and Dad’s home today, where we were plied with chicken and stuffing sandwiches, chocolate roll and several cups of tea.

The sun had set by the time we were making our way back home and just as it has for several days now the temperature was well below freezing even before it had done so.

Well more snow is forecast and I have lots to do, so I will leave you with me wishing my Mum a Happy Birthday once more.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
December 6th 2010

Happy Birthday, Dad...

2010-12-04T14:10:00.000Z

And some other snippets...

Hi Guys, I wanted to share my Dad’s Birthday with everyone today, so I hope you’ll indulge me.

Dad & Bentley "Bogtrotter"

I have just got back from visiting my parents amidst the snowy landscape and was attired accordingly, despite going along in the car. Accompanying me was Bentley “Bogtrotter” sporting his new haircut and Christmas coat and scarf. Margaret was out with Joanne, so I set off before any more snow arrived. Bentley, as you know by now, loves going out in the car with me, so with his winter togs on and his little seat belt on he settled down for the trip in the snow.

It was lovely and warm in Mum and Dad’s home and it wasn’t long after Dad had opened his card and present before we were settled down with a brew and some biscuits. We looked at his other cards and presents and chatted and they both played with Bentley, whom they both love and spoil rotten. Mum fed him Brioche whilst we chatted, which he scoffed down enthusiastically. There is always a great smell of cooking at their home and today was no exception. The time just flew and then it was time for Bentley and I to make our way back, so I could return to the studio to work.

We didn’t make it to the Pickwick evening, after all, this year, as I fell asleep in the chair for a while after the long hours I had worked this last week on the computer with more paints being applied digitally to the graphic novel pages. Mum had not been too well anyhow with a chest infection and I had paid a visit to the doctors for some anti-biotics on Monday for the same reason, so with that in mind, my tiredness and the snowy weather and the trip was unfortunately missed this year, but I am sure we will make up for it in other ways during this festive season.

Last evening’s Murder Mystery Buffet at The Olde England Kiosk was brilliant with me managing to get the correct murderer, the correct motive, but getting the method of the murder wrong. It was great fun and, never having been to one before, I would certainly go again. The venue has a Tudor feel to it inside and feels really quaint. It is always great having time out with friends and the weather certainly added to the venue, situated as it was not far from my daughter’s house in the depths of Sunnyhurst woods – certainly a great place to hold a murder mystery...

Well more snow is forecast and I have lots to do, so I will leave you with me wishing my Dad a Happy Birthday once more.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
December 4th 2010

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, again...

2010-12-01T00:01:00.002Z

25 days to go and counting...

Hi Guys,

Well one minute I seemed to be looking at a summer wedding for my daughter Joanne and her husband, Toby from the viewpoint of just coming out of a few months of very wintery weather, with snow lasting arriving pre-Christmas and lasting for three months and here we are once more in Winter with pre-Christmas snow. This is something even here in the north west of England that I certainly haven’t seen since my days as a little kid.

It looks very picturesque here at the moment outside the studio windows of the Keep – just like something from any “olde worlde” traditional winter scene.

What’s on the agenda then for this season of good will I hear you ask?

Well, first off, the website will see a return of the FREE SHIPPING throughout the holiday season until 12:00 midnight on January 1st.

We are also launching FOUR NEW Christmas Cards. These were traditionally illustrated by me during the nineties as line art with colour washes and used to send to my colleagues in the comic industry and I have decided to publish them this year en masse.

Tomorrow on Thursday sees the return of the pilgrimage to the village of Whalley for the annual Pickwick Night event. Weather permitting I’ll be going along with Mum and Dad again.

Friday sees me enjoying an evening with some friends at a Murder Mystery, which sounds like being fun.

The final edits on the Worlds End script are now complete, so I’ll be winging it off to Richard Starkings very soon for him to letter the book.

I am forging ahead with the digital paints on the rest of the book – I am over the half way mark now and the graphic novel is now starting to come together nicely.

Last year saw me produce a Blog a day over the entire month of December. Unfortunately time will not permit me to do so this year, but I will try and publish some nice frivolously festive footnotes to carry on the tradition here on this Blog as many times as I can.

As you guys now realise this is a very important part of the year for me and my family, so I’ll be trying to keep that feeling prevalent here too, as usual.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
December 1st 2010

Thought Bubble 2010...

2010-11-26T07:09:00.002Z

The Leeds Comic Convention Reviewed...

Hi Guys,

A little later than I had planned to publish this Blog, but I am having to fit everything around the production of the graphic novel nowadays, to enable me to finish it.

I have decided that the venue for the comic convention in Leeds is the best one on the UK, for actual ease of access. The site includes the car park, convention halls, and after party reception rooms, with the panels and workshops, just a short walk away.

The only thing that could now be added is hotels on the site, but as the buildings are already in existence then the short taxi journey to them has to be acceptable to everyone. As I haven’t stayed over, as it is a one day event up to this moment (next year’s event is set for two days of convention added to the week-long outer events) I don’t know how much of an inconvenience this is, but I haven’t heard anyone complain about the situation.

From the off for me it took around fifty eight minutes to get from home to the car park. The Sat Nav guided me along the way with complete ease. From the second floor of the car park and as I had no table and was only carrying my small A3 portfolio it took mere moments to descend from the second floor to the outside. From there it was around thirty seconds to a minute’s walk, so you can see what I mean about the convenience of the venue.

The organisation is great too, with one nice orderly queue of fans waiting for entrance and a more civilised bunch of folks in such a long queue you will find hard to beat. As a professional attending, despite not having my own table, my access could not have been smoother. I was allowed past the front doors and given my pass within moments and then I was through the reception foyer and inside the convention itself.

The first person I saw whom I knew was John Anderson of Soaring Penguin fame and we chatted for a while, whilst I perused his wares and he asked how the graphic novel was coming along and how Bentley was. He is a big fan of both, with Bentley easily edging his way to pole position with him.

As I turned to walk away and check out more tables I was instantly greeted by another comics buddy, Nigel Dobbyn, of 2000 AD and Billy the Cat fame. Again we stood for an age simply chatting about our families, the way of the world, the convention and our current work.

This was to be repeated many times though out the day.

As I covered the far left hand side aisle I ran across my longest known mate in comics, Al Davison, who was there with his brand new Hokusai – Demons graphic novel which looks absolutely superb.

I next crossed paths with my good buddy and fellow MaltaComicCon guest, Sean Azzopardi with whom I spent two long sessions during my time there idly chatting away about all sorts of things and who very kindly gave me a copy of his excellent ED Sketch Book, which now as pride of place amongst my other sketch books, from comics folks like, Bernie Wrightson and Alex Niño.

Then during my second chat session with Sean we were joined by firstly Lee Townsend, with whom I spent a good while discussing our mutual favourite prog rock band YES and then we were joined by Paul Gravett who kindly took me over to and introduced me to the guys at Blank Slate publishing. After a chat about printing we swapped cards and then I was off on my travels once more, whereupon I spied my good buddy, Barry Kitson, who as usual was sketching for the fans. It is almost unfair to call them that, in my humble opinion though, as his pictures he produces are nicely inked and sometimes coloured too, depending on the fans’ requests and further more they are still free in a new age whereby we see most comics creators charging for their sketches. Nothing wrong with either approach but nice to see such sterling work being produced at ever convention I have ever seen Barry attend.

It was whilst I was chatting with Barry that another mate of mine from the worlds of comics appraoched me, Mike Conroy, who very kindly showed me the dummy for his brand new project, his magazine, Multiverse, which looks fantastic!!!

Well, hidden behind John Romita Junior’s queue of fans and Barry’s who was to his left, lay the hidden treasure I had made the extra effort to attend Thought Bubble this year and that was in the form of French superstar writer/ artist/storyteller, Didier “CRISSE” Chrispeels, who was sat at his table next to his friend and colleague, Nicolas Kéramidas. I found it incredible that this marvellous talent did not have as huge a queue as his American counterpart. This shows for my money, just how much influence the US comics scene still hold sway over with the comics fans here in the UK.

Now I love John’s work as much as the next guy, but we do not often see any European comics creators here in the UK, much less someone of Crisse’s stellar achievements, but this made my introductions all the more easy and the first thing I did was buy a magnificent hard back book off him, which he very kindly sketched in and signed.

After the introductions, I told him I had first seen his work in the prestige format book, Tellos, Maiden Voyage, by Todd Dezago and Mike Wieringo back in 2001 and had tried to get hold of him ever since to see if he would like to work with me on something, that something has since become, Worlds End, as you guys already know.

I also told him about the Malta Comics Conventions and that the organisers would love for him to go along to the next one and he was certainly up for that.

We spent some time chatting about the work he was doing at present and he was interested in seeing the Worlds End pages, which I had with me. He had gathered a queue again though and as the sketch was still wet I asked if I could leave it with him and I would return a little later and would show him the pages then.

I next came across my mate Bryan Talbot, or Doctor Talbot, as he is now known, since his honorary doctorate was given to him a few months ago now. Bryan as always was signing and sketching in both his Grandville volumes and chatting merrily away to his many fans, who were queued waiting for their books signing too. We chatted and Bryan asked how my graphic novel was coming along and I have to admit to feeling pleased that at least I can now say there is more than half the book completed.

At the end of that aisle I met and chatted to a couple of guys producing their own small press comics under the guise of Under Fire Comics, but sadly I did not manage to go back and get one of their anthologies, but have added them to my list of must sort out next time items.

I also chatted to Jason James, who produces a wonderful comic for Apple’s App Store entitled Ghost Boy, which also took my eye. I also picked up some other advertising literature for some of the other wonderful books on display there, but sadly there wasn’t enough time to chat to many others, so next year’s two day event may enable me to do this, although the plan is to have a table in 2011, to promote and sell the Worlds End graphic novel.

I chatted with Dean Ormston and his wife Fiona Stephenson at their table and arranged to meet up with them after the show. I couldn’t manage to get near to my other buddy from the Marvel UK days, Dougie Braithwaite, but did manage to catch up with fellow MaltaComicCon2 guest, Gary Erskine, who as usual was sketching away for the fans.

The sight which intrigued me most was the Cinebook tables which now have an incredible line up of books, some of which I have bought over the last few years. The plan was to buy some more, but again time ran out and I will either have to wait for another convention, or else place an order on line, which do you reckon will come first...I’ll leave you here with that thought.

I decided to make my way back to Crisse’s table and saw a queue on front of me in the aisle I was walking down and there behind it signing his many books on display with his colleague, Book Cook was none other than my good buddy and future Worlds End letterer, Rich Starkings, whom I had not seen in at least twenty years, or so, who was signing his Elephantmen books.

He caught my eye and made room for me to sit and chat with him at this table, where we discussed our families, comics, life in general and all manner of other subjects, as he continued to sign relentlessly. Once I was captured like this he asked when he was going to receive the script off me to letter the graphic novel and I explained I had only recently received the script back from James and I had to give it the once over and then he could have it.

The next week, or so will see me do this and then I can wing it off over the net to Rich’s studio in the USA for him to begin lettering. One of the fans asked if he was correct in assuming Rich was also a letterer and before he could answer I did so for him, saying this was THE best letterer in the business, which I know meant a lot to him and certainly made the fans smile too around him.

That is after all why I am employing him alone to do the honours with the lettering. I want this book to be the best thing I have ever worked on, so why not use the guy I hold in high esteem to place the literary side of things.

Well, after an absolute age, I parted company and although we were due to meet up at the after party that evening, sadly I never got to see him again, so hectic was the day and evening. I will be in touch soon though with the script.

Just before I reached Crisse again I met up Leah Moore (Alan Moore’s daughter) and her husband, John Reppion and their little son, Edward. This was the first time I had met the little fellow and he is definitely of comic blood, as when Darth Vader, yes the actual one out of Star Wars walked past with his Storm Troopers and Judge Dredd he did not bat an eyelid. I have to add here that there is always a large Cosplay contingent at Thought Bubble and this year was no different.

It was at their table that I met up with another buddy Michael Molcher, whom I first met here in Blackburn when he was still in school. His father was the minister at the time at the church in the centre of town, where I have parked my car now for over twenty odd years. Now somewhat older and much taller we chatted for a while with Leah and John, before I finally said my goodbyes and prised myself away to go back to Crisse’s table.

Eventually I got there and we chatted further and asked each other about our current and future projects and he asked to see the pages from the book. By now the sketch was dry that he had produced and I was now its very happy owner.

We arranged to meet up at the after party at some point and I then spent some time looking through Nicolas’ prints and having bought a couple of them had him produce a sketch for me too, which was part of the deal.

He had only just made a start on it when the stentorian voice of one of the organisers roared out that it was now time to leave the hall, before the first of the tables were folded up, or rather thrown to the ground (an attempt to get rid of the stragglers perhaps?). Regardless the sketch was finished and a fine one it is. I plan on framing it in the next week, or so, so I can display it here in the studio.

I met up with Dean and his wife, Fiona and we set off for the after party along with Dougie. Like I say the situation of the venue is perfect and within a minute we were inside the Casino, where the after party had been booked.

Eventually we found the room where we were meant to be for the after show party and we sat down, me with a coca cola, as I was driving and spent the rest of the evening chatting. We were soon joined by Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo, with whom I spent half the night chatting, Bryan Talbot, Gary Erskine, Paul Gravett, Adi Granov, his wife, Tamsin Isles, Didier Chrispeels and Nicolas Kéramidas, with whom I spent the second half of the evening chatting, and Peter Doherty, who told me that John Smith was also there at the bar, a fellow citizen of Blackburn and a writer for 2000AD amongst others. I hadn’t seen John since the early nineties, so we did a little catching up too.

Then eventually, around two fifteen, I decided to call it a night and head off home back across the Pennines. I arrived back around three thirty, or so and after unpacking, answering a few emails and spending a short time with my little mate, Bentley, who had obviously missed me during the day, I retired to bed with a cup of tea and my hard cover Crisse art book.

Below some photographs of the show:

Bryan Talbot signs Granville Mon Amour

Rich Starkings signs Elephant Men

Darth Vader meets Judge Dredd

Barry Kitson sketches for the fans

Barry Kitson hands his sketch over to fan, Karl

Leah Moore, John Reppion and Edward

Peter Doherty sketches for Nicolas

Nicolas sketches for Peter Doherty

I had an absolutely fantastic time this year and although the plan had first been to attend with a table the freedom not having one afforded me, meant I was able to catch up with a great many of my friends in the comic business, some of whom like Richard and John I had not seen in a long while.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
November 26th 2010

Happy Thanksgiving 2010...

2010-11-25T08:50:00.001Z

Have a wonderful time...

Hi Guys,

Just a few short lines to wish all my American friends and colleagues a wonderful day.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
November 25th 2010

Thought Bubble...

2010-11-19T00:13:00.001Z

The Leeds Comic Convention...

Hi Guys,

It’s just a quick one today to let everyone going along tomorrow to the convention that I will be popping along too. Although I will not have a table this year, I will be taking along prints of the latest pages from Worlds End for folks to check out and a few bits and bobs, so you can still ask for Ashcans and the like.

Please feel free to ask me what I have with me and a sketch if you want one too; don't be shy.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all there.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
November 19th 2010

Remember; remember the 5th of November...

2010-11-05T00:45:00.000Z

Have a Safe Time this evening...

Hi Guys,

It’s just a quick one today to share my now, annual, quick, digital Bonfire Night sketch with you all.

I hope you have a fantastic time this evening whether you are going along to a Bonfire and/or firework display, or staying in to watch the Fireworks from the safety of your own home.

Please remember to let your neighbours know if you are going to be setting them off in your garden, so they can make sure their animals are inside.

All our pets will be safely tucked up with music and the TV on too.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
November 5th 2010

Happy Halloween...

2010-10-31T00:01:00.002+01:00

Have a Safe Time Trick or Treating...

Hi Guys,

It’s just a quick one today to share my now, annual, quick Halloween sketch with you all.

I hope you have a fantastic time this evening whether you are partying, or staying in to watch the latest Fright Fest!!!

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
October 31st 2010

MaltaComicCon2010 – Part 03...

2010-10-30T00:01:00.001+01:00

MaltaComicCon2010 – Part 03...

Hi Guys,

Well as I opened my eyes on the Sunday morning I had to wonder if “The Windett Curse” would again be rearing its ugly head and I guess by now you realise why...

You may want to order your supper and/or make a sandwich and a brew before embarking on this last and very epic episode of my second trip out to Malta...it is a biggie...you have been warned!!!

It was however the best start of the two days, so far and as I peeped outside of the curtains I was met with glorious sunshine...yes, now this was sunny Malta. Hurriedly I showered and got ready for breakfast, where I only came across Dave looking incredibly weary, who went on to explain he had not slept a wink since getting up on Friday morning. We sat and chatted over breakfast, and were soon joined by the organisers, Chris and Joanne Le Galle followed after a while by Fabio and Nadia (sorry I got your name wrong in the first Blog), Mark and Elaine and finally by Sean, Gary and lastly Liam.

The weather certainly had everyone much more invigorated and excited, especially the organisers who realised that in Malta folks stay indoors when it rains, which if that happened here in my part of the world would mean everything would be at a total standstill for most of the year.

It certainly seemed like the curse may be finally lifted, although Dave may have disagreed and credited it with his inability to sleep had I asked.

After breakfast we each returned to our rooms, I got changed ready for the convention and went down to the reception and then out to the front of the hotel to enjoy the sunshine. I was soon joined by the others, as one by one they sought out the sun. We posed for photos outside and were soon being whisked away back to Valletta and the awaiting convention.

Like it had been on the previous day the main convention room was a hive of activity and the weather did indeed seem to be attracting more folks to come along to see what was going on there. It seemed that all the hard work done by the organisers for months since the last event was finally paying off. There was even time for me to sit at my table for a while before that morning’s children’s workshop and do some more work on Martin’s commission, as I chatted with Inez’s father, Peter who was again manning her table whilst she took time out to mingle with the other Maltese artists.

I had no sooner started work on the piece however when it was decided to switch places with the organisers table to my left, which would give me a much better area for my display, which had been cramped on the Saturday and partly behind their table in an L-shaped affair.

This gave me much more room and better coverage of the products I had brought along. Last year the big sellers had been the Ashcans and Sketch Books this year it was the Ashcans, T-shirts and Posters, with everyone wanting to look at the painted pages of the Worlds End graphic novel, which got a lot of enthusiastic praise and bodes well for the future of the book.

Well, once relocated a couple of feet away, I again returned to work on the commission and was soon aware of the presence of Mike once more who was there to tell me that Olivier was ready and that the children were arriving for the workshop. So it was that once more the short walk across to the upper levels was made and like the second session on the Saturday these children were of junior school age and were ready to draw from the off.

It was in this session that I saw young Kimberley, who was a little cutie and her uncle Brian, whom I had met last year. They were the first people there and he told her I would show her how to draw lots of things, throughout which she bashfully smiled.

I looked around and there was no sign of Susan and with Mike and Olivier having gone off already I had to start without her. I later found out that she had had to sort out something else at the same time, so didn’t feel as bad about starting the session without her.

Many of the children’s parents often stay to watch what goes on at these sessions and the wonderful thing is I love to get them involved as well and truth told, that is rarely not an easy thing to pull off, as the parents enjoy it as much as their children do. So I showed this new group how they could create characters using my three trusted techniques, of basic shapes, the movement seep line and scribbling, all of which went down well with those attending.

The sessions although an hour long, I try to pack as much as I can into each, always seem to be short affairs and over before you know it, but the amazing thing is the amount of work the folks there actually get through and take home with them.

Once it was finished Kimberley and her uncle came over again to chat, as I packed things up ready for that afternoon’s adult workshop on storytelling. She asked if I would draw a sketch for her, so I did and told them that I would see them later, if they came around to my table.

Back at my table I borrowed my new artist mate from Malta, Laurence Paul Zrinzo’s acrylic inks to add some painted colour to Martin’s commission. The only problem was that although a very nice book for having sketches in, it was not ideally suited for colour to be added. Luckily I have been in this situation many times and realised I needed to add water to the piece first and then add small amounts of colour, building the art up in washes of colour. It took longer, but meant the colour adhered to the paper better and also didn’t warp the paper.

I soon found myself being whisked off once more to the Inspirations cafe/restaurant for lunch with the other guys and this time Gary joined us. Not, however, before I found myself being sidetracked and taken to see the display of Malta Collectibles by the owner of the company. We chatted for a while about the impact Manga had had on the island’s fans and collectors and toys and the comics industry and my career to date, all in around ten minutes, or so. Then, after having our photos taken, and bidding each other all the best, I found myself taking myself with Mike to meet the others for some much needed food.

The main difference this time with the lunch was the tables were split into places for four people, unlike all the previous times I have been whereby they seated eight at a time. This time I looked at the menu and it was the mozzarella, pimentos, capers and olives salad, which caught my eye and I discovered that it was a huge dish when it arrived a short while after ordering it. I also liked the look of Sean’s salad too, which came topped with one of my favourite toppings, sun-ripened tomatoes, drizzled in olive oil.

This lunch was much more relaxed than the one the day before with more time between the workshops, lunch and my attending to my table. The sun was still out and it was a lovely day.

Before long though we soon found ourselves back inside the venue and amongst the fans and I began to finalise the colour commission for Martin. Copies of The Golden Lizard were being thrust at me in ever increasing numbers and ever faster in their turn-over, which was great for the sales of the book, for me to add my signature to them. Like I say it was Malta’s first ever graphic novel and I was incredibly honoured to have been asked to produce the cover art.

It was soon almost three and time for one last adult workshop, this time about storytelling, which was again well subscribed by the adults there at the venue and we had a full house once again. I was joined by Susan for this one again and we had some great fun with the content of the workshop and also with the Q&A session afterwards once more. After one of my usual talks and demonstrations on storytelling I had the students draw me three equal sized panels, which had to contain the three characters I had asked to see in the same scene, but from different perspectives. I had asked them, how inventive could they be with layout and the dynamics of the panels and then proceeded to draw nine quick examples on the flip chart, whilst I faced it away from them so they couldn’t see until theirs were finished.

By the end of that I then opened the results to a competition, adding that if anyone came close to any of mine they would get a free Ashcan. It is always amazing the difference even a short time like this can influence and give people a better understanding of what is needed to produce work of this kind in a very creative way and this workshop was no different. The guys did great and received their Ashcans later that afternoon. Hopefully they will build on what they learned in the session and be in a position to bring along their artwork at the next Malta Comic Convention.

Susan gave her views on storytelling coming from a Disney/Warner Brothers cartoon aspect, which went down equally well with the attendees. I have to admit that like last year Susan and I gelled perfectly as a team, especially in light that we had never worked together before, in fact we had only spoken briefly on the Saturday morning as we were about to start the first of the children’s workshops, which goes to prove the disciplines are the same for most artists and that up to press the type of creative minds brought across to the convention have been very like-minded and also very accommodating to the other artist in question, which again is lovely to experience.

Then like all the others we had ran, so too this workshop was over almost before we had begun and we returned to our tables in the main hall where I returned to finalise once and for all the colour commission for Martin. Whilst I worked on the colour illustration the guys brought along another dignitary, the Prime Minister’s wife, and like the day previous when we had met the President’s wife I was extremely honoured to meet her and chat for a short while.

By this time I was still working on other sketches and signing and selling my stuff too in between times, but by and by the Worlds End piece was eventually finished and Martin returned to collect it and was really happy with the end result, which is always nice to see.

This was in my honest opinion, a true fan of comics, willing to travel abroad for his passion and also wanting to have many different types of art from many different genres and for me it was a pleasure to be involved in and I will say once more here on this Blog, just in case Martin happens by, that it was a pleasure to produce the piece and to thank him for being patient, as I wandered between workshops lunches and my table.

Well the afternoon was jam packed with excited folks all trying faster and faster to buy stuff, get stuff signed and ask for sketches before the convention was over and even then, as I sat and worked away on yet another piece for a fan, I remember thinking that the con was almost over again for another year...it was incredible to think how quickly the weekend had gone by without almost noticing it.

I looked up and noticed that some folks had begun packing up ready to leave, but I had a queue of folks wanting to buy things and sign things and sketch for them too, so I worked like a little beaver to make sure I accommodated everyone willing to come along to say hi to me.

By the time I heard the guys say it was time to pack up I still had two sketches to produce, which were already promised and some guys waiting to buy Ashcans and Bookmarks and some just wanting for autographs. I acknowledged the guys and continued to work. Last of the sketches were for my little mate, Kimberley and her uncle, Brian. Now her uncle had received a Batman sketch last year and this year he asked for Robin to accompany it, so I obliged and then produced a batman head and shoulders for Kimberley, who had asked me to draw him for her.

Then there was just time for a number of folks to have their photos taken with me and then I heard the shout which went out that the bus was here now and by this time, as I say, I had completed all the sketches, sold folks the books and stuff and signed autographs, until my head spun and then I began to pack my gear.

I took down the banner and posters and packed those and then proceeded to put everything else left into their respective places in the baggage. I was two items away from completion when Fabio came dashing up and shouted not to worry that the bus had gone and they would take me back to the hotel... had "The Windett Curse" struck again...thankfully no, as I spent the next hour, or so taking a few posters down for the guys, signing more of their graphic novels, lots more in fact and producing a Manga-type sketch for one of the recent additions to the organisation team, Tamara Fenech.

Then we left the main hall and waited for Fabio to bring his car around to the front entrance from where he had been parked and eventually looking reminiscent of a tin of sardines with the boxes of stuff, which surrounded us in the car, which would have as much use as the seatbelts in the case of an accident, we set off for the journey back to the hotel. Chris who was sat in the back with his wife Joanne and Nadia complained profusely about the positioning of the boxes on his lap and the precarious predicament he found himself in as a result – I’ll leave it to your imagination. Suffice it to say none of us especially Chris was going anywhere for a while.

On the way back the guys checked the time and asked me if I would like to accompany them for a meal out, as the chances were that the rest of the guests would already be out eating, so I agreed to go along – I certainly wasn’t going anywhere else for a while anyhow, as I have said.

We pulled up not too far away from the hotel, so I am told, it was dark after all by now, so I had no idea where we actually where. We then spent a pleasant time reflecting on this year’s convention over a meal in what the guys tell me is THE best kebab restaurant on Malta, and it was delicious too, so I guess they were telling me the truth. Fabio would not hear of me paying for my meal either, which was very kind of him.

Upon arriving back at the hotel, I took a shower, got changed and sent a text message to Sean to find out where everyone was. He called me back and told me he was in his room, or at least on his balcony having a glass, or two of wine, Renee, Gary and Liam had gone for a meal, Dave was trying to get some sleep and he figured Claudio too was trying to get some rest, as he still wasn’t feeling too well still with his throat infection, which was obviously bothering him.

The original plan had been to have a glass of wine and then go off to the bar downstairs, however it never transpired that way, as we spent a very enjoyable few hours chatting away about our work, comics and life in general on his balcony, as the folks below went about weekend life.

I left for some sleep and arose the morning after to the sound of thunder... “The Windett Curse” was back it appeared and with a vengeance. By the time we had been for breakfast, however the weather was beginning to break up somewhat. I met Dave in the breakfast area and then just as I had sent text messages to the other guys, saw Sean grabbing himself something to eat and Gary about to join us. A few moments later Liam replied he was awake, but not actually up yet and that he would be ready for collecting the bus at 10:00 a.m.

Checking the time I sent another informing him that the bus was due at 9:15 a.m., which I had learnt the evening before from Fabio over the meal. So it was that Liam suddenly had to get himself ready earlier than planned...so it looked like “The Windett Curse” was back for sure.

By the time everyone was ready and set to get on the bus we were late by at almost an hour. The bus driver, Topsy, was none too pleased with this, but aside from me everyone else was under the impression that we were to set off at ten and not nine-fifteen.

The weather as I say was starting to break a little and at least the thunder had passed and the sun poked its head out of the clouds more and more to our relief. This was the day of the trip around Malta, but this time we were visiting different places. We met with the guys in Valletta outside the St James Cavalier, where the convention had been held and once all the organisers arrived (so we actually weren’t late, thank goodness), which was good, we set off for the short walk through the capital to the Armouries to check out all the many pieces of armour from the Great Siege of 1565 and those predating that year.

We were introduced to the convention organiser’s contact at Heritage Malta, Russell Muscat, who then took us inside to meet the head curator.

The head curator and technical consultant of the Palace Armoury, Michael Stroud himself took us on our journey around the weaponry and armour, which began with the earliest chain mail through to the incredibly ornate almost pre-baroque styled armour of the 1400s and 1500s.

For all of us it was an incredible experience, but what made it so special is all the stops were pulled out for us as foreign visitors and Michael’s incredibly in-depth accounts and explanations of a large and very important part of Malta’s varied history up to the accounts of the Great Siege of 1565 were all part of the day. I took lots of photos of the amour and stuff whilst I was there.

As someone whose work is closely associated with fantasy looking at all the weapons, armour, cannons and the insanely massive cannonballs with their huge amounts of ornamentation on what were to cut to the chase, weapons of war and for dealing out death in a massively bloody way I found the close connection of the two opposing words, death and ornamentation fascinating.

Why bother to decorate in such a fashion implements that meted death out to those that faced them? The two things seemed to be in complete opposition. It was this level of decoration which will no doubt be implemented into my work at some point; such was its impact on me during this marvellous visit. I looked at the shape of the pike-type weaponry and saw my own designs for the Storm Serpents of the Aoevill horde in my own Worlds End graphic novel were not so far-fetched and removed from reality as I may have imagined.

The tour was well presented and made all the more enjoyable, because of the way in which the events and pieces were described by Michael and I for one feel incredibly lucky to have been present for the time we spent there.

We made our way back the short distance to St James’ and our driver, “Topsy” and his awaiting bus, which was now going to take us to the second part of our tour and a visit to the ancient prehistoric temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, something I had been waiting to see even before setting off on the flight to Malta some days before when I first found out we were due to visit the place.

By the time we had made it across the island via mini-bus the weather had again picked up and was sunny and hot. We were waiting for the organisers to meet us there and so went inside for something to drink and soon found ourselves sat down eating. I had a slice of cream roll and then when it was decided we would have lunch now, as the next tour would take us closer to our evening meal, Mark Ellul very kindly bought me lunch, which again was nice and just shows what kind of guys these are. Something about this trip made me look at the salads and choose those and this meal was no different, as I chose the Tuna, Capers and Olive salad.

Well, no sooner had we eaten and decided to set off on the tour, which again saw us having it conducted by an excellent tour guide in the form of Archaeologist, Joanne Mallia there was a sudden change to our surroundings. As soon as we decided to do so then the heavens opened up once more in a fleeting, but heavy shower. “The Windett Curse” struck again. It soon abated though and we found ourselves up the hillside from the tour centre in the sunshine once more. I took out my camera and low and behold “The Windett Curse” struck yet again, as the battery ran out after just one shot of the temples, so those below are courtesy of the other guys in the group, so thanks to Renee, Liam, Chris and Joseph for that.

Like the earlier one at the armoury this tour was both interesting and well conducted. It is incredible to think the structures we were being shown were over 4,000 years old. I had to touch them and thankfully “The Windett Curse” did not rear its head and the place is still standing...phew!

I wondered just how many people throughout those thousands of years had stood in exactly the same spot and how many had had the same thoughts; why were they built and by whom?

The structures were impressive, just by their immense size. Even today with all our state-of-the-art lifting equipment and high tech wizardry the stones would prove problematic, but with a lack of tools for even carving them with any great speed (at least using the same tools in the hands of modern man) that they were excavated in the first place and then shaped and erected afterwards is an incredible show of mankind’s ingenuity.

I love the outdoors and feel more kinship with the countryside than the towns and cities, but when you come across these kinds of places and their mystical looking monuments one cannot help but “feel” something different about the place, perhaps an energy, or a spiritual thing, as we get closer to nature and our true selves.

Just like the armoury this tour too, had my imagination going off all over the place and even now I am working on research along with the help of my friends in Malta to create a new graphic novel script.

These kinds of structures and rocks with ancient carvings on them are dotted about in a lot of my past work and especially the Worlds End book, which has ancient carvings on even more ancient stones and temples in the first volume, so you can imagine my interest peaking as I was shown around and listened to the speculated explanations as to what the structures potential uses could have been for and who the actual creators could have been.

The only unfortunate aspect of this particular tour was my camera battery going flat before I could take the photos I would have, but with the kind permission of the others in the group, like I say, I am able to show you guys using their photos what we actually saw.

There were two temples we visited, the first on the top of the hill overlooking the sea and the other much smaller temple residing as it does at the foot of the hill nearer to the sea. These impressive monuments have made a serious lasting impression with me and I would love the chance to return and view them at my leisure, perhaps even sketching and painting them in the summer months, sometime who knows.

Upon first seeing them I turned to John Bamber and mentioned that they looked like something out of a Quatermass film, especially as they were both covered by a state-of-the-art canvas covering that made the stone structures beneath them look like they belonged to a science fiction story.

The temples had rooms that we could see into, but nowadays are kept away from the footfalls of visitors due to the erosion of these timeless artefacts.

Next we paid a quick visit to a little part of the island that is riddled with coves straight out of Treasure Island, which is much like our own Cornwall here in England, a place with the name of, Blue Lagoon. The weather was quite blustery down so close to the sea, which was choppy as the waves crashed against the rocks below us.

On the journey back John Bamber received a call from Mike who asked to speak to me. Mike asked if I was still up for the TV interview, which had been mentioned to me on the Saturday and I told him I was and he asked if I could ask one of the other guys to join me and I told him I would. I elected to ask Liam, as I felt we would bounce off each other well as we usual do at conventions when we get together for any length of time.

Once back at the hotel I packed everything ready for the trip back home the following day and set about signing some of the new posters to give one to each of my fellow guests and the main organisers at the farewell meal. Once that was done it was time for a shower and a change of clothes and then, after a few text messages back home, off back down to the reception to meet up with the others and the bus, which was to take us to the restaurant where Chris “The back” Stellini – see last year’s Blogs, one of the organisers and a superb chef awaited our arrival.

I sat with Liam, Sean, Gary, and Claudio for a short time in the hotel cafe/bar chatting whilst we waited for the TV guys to arrive to make their short interview with Liam and me. Before long Frank Zammitt arrived with his camera man and we were whisked away to the reception area where the camera was set up and we were joined by the rest of guys who began watching us and he proceeded to interview us both, which seemed to go down really well. Frank had mentioned some of the things he wanted to ask us, but when you have been in the game as long as Liam and I have lots of the questions have been asked before anyhow, so it is just a matter of making it interesting to folks that have not heard what your views are before.

We both enjoyed answering the questions and I will be posting links to the interview here, on the Website and on a few other networks too, as soon as the files arrive. The guys left and we waited to go off for our meal.

A short while later we were joined by Renee and the only thing that spoilt the evening was seeing Dave, who gave me Mike’s sketch book (he had drawn Mike a sketch earlier). Now that may sound bad, but the reason I did so was he looked so ashen. He told me he was not going to be accompanying us to the meal, as he was absolutely shattered and he looked it and a bit wobbly on his feet too from lack of sleep. He asked me to apologise to everyone, but it was self-evident that he was in no fit state to come along. Was this the ultimate example of “The Windett Curse” reappearing?

We arrived at the Peperoncino Restaurant to be greeted by an obviously adrenaline filled Chris, who was anxious to start creating his magic for us with his team. Also there and this is also indicative of the attitude of the organisers were Laurence Paul Zrinzo and his girlfriend, as well as Martin the comic fan who had come all the way from Germany, just for the convention and also came along on the tour too.

My menu choices were Soup of the day, which we all got. This was followed by Pasta Peperoncino. Followed by Veal Scallop in Marsala sauce and I finished with Tiramisu and a coffee. It looked incredible and tasted even better. Chris will make someone a wonderful husband!!!

Well there followed lots of chatting, laughter and photos followed by hugs and promises to keep in touch and I have to admit this is the hardest thing about the trips so far, saying good bye to these most wonderful of folks and it does get quite emotional.

Soon it was time for the final group photo, which we ended last year’s convention with too. Then it was time for more hugs and promises to keep in touch and then we were on the bus heading back to the hotel. There was little time spent in the reception area that evening, as both Gary and Sean would be back up and on a flight home in two hours. As it was, for Dave, Liam and I, our flight wasn’t until early evening, the following day, so we had time to spare. That said, Dave and I still met early for breakfast and he looked massively better. The colour had returned to his face and he had managed to get some sleep.

We checked out and put our baggage in the storage area, whilst I bought some little gifts for the folks back home and then we sat outside in the sunshine outside the hotel cafe/bar and had a couple of soft drinks, whist we waited for Fabio to kindly take us to the airport.

The trip to the airport was an uneventful, but enjoyable one, as we chatted about the weekend and all we had experienced. Then it was time to say our farewells to Fabio and again it was quite an emotional time for me.

At the airport we joined Liam who had just arrived moments earlier and we passed through customs without a hitch. The flight home was a pleasant one, for which most of the time, Dave rested and Liam and I chatted about the industry of all things – perhaps the first time ever in our time of knowing each other from the late eighties that we have done so to such a degree.

After touching down, albeit about forty minutes later than scheduled, and collecting our baggage, Dave and I said goodbye to Liam who was catching a different train to ours and we set off back down the travelator to the trains, which hopefully awaited us.

Dave and I said our own goodbyes and he went to Platform 1a, whilst I went to Platform 2b to await our respective trains. It was then we saw the return of our old friend “The Windett Curse” again. Dave’s train had switched platforms and was now on 2a, but I need not have chuckled because within a minute or so an announcement came over the intercom telling all passengers to my destination and beyond that the train had been cancelled due to the late connections with the flights.

But there was light at the end of the tunnel, because I was told to catch the very same train Dave was hopefully now on. Lo and behold he was and we shared a short trip back to Bolton, where I left to catch my connecting train, which was now due in around forty-five minutes. I was by now feeling the freezing cold of the north west of England, which had dropped in temperature even more than when I left a few days earlier and after the heat of Malta was finding it much colder.

At length the train came, which would take me home and I settled down for the half hour trip, finding myself speaking along the way to a fellow passenger going my way who asked if I had been anywhere nice.

It wasn’t too long before I found myself being picked up by my wonderful wife, Margaret and relishing the much appreciated warmth of her car. Once back home I regaled her with the stories of my trip (read bore if you like - LOL) and gave her the little gift I had bought for her and it was back to normal after a much needed rest.

Below are some more photos of the trip I took this year:

After Party with Sean, John

After Party with Claudio, Gary, Mike, & Dave

Fat Spidey

Joanne & Chris Le Galle

Stefan & Hero from the Golden Lizard in the background

Kimberley and Uncle Brian with their sketches

Tamara catches me taking photos

Proud Dad, Peter, mans Inez's table

Stefan, Samantha & Tamara

Laurence

Laurence and girlfriend

Susam Waitt

Liam & Fat Spidey

Ever the Hero, Fat Spidey

Laurence with his signed Ashcan

Working on Martin's Commission - Peter, Inez & Mum

Adding some colour to Martin's Commission

Brian, Kimberley with their sketches

A quick sketch and autograph for Jeanelle

Dave sketching for the fans

The incredible mural being worked on at the front entrance by Chris

Palace Armoury head curator & technical consultant, Michael Stroud

The magnifiscent display of weapons and armour: Palace Armoury

Streets of Valletta

Archaeologist and Tour Guide, Joanne Mallia

A scene from Quatermass? Hagar Qim

Gary watches on as Liam takes some photos

Over 4.000 years old and still looking great

Mnajdra

Winner of the wet T-shirt contest, Chris Le Galle

Are we still on for the TV interview...are they kidding?

Blue Lagoon

Gary, loving it all

Laurence

Joseph

Chris - Yes another one...Muscat

Anthony with his signed poster

Manolo

Mark

Claudio

The farewell meal

The traditional last group shot...lots of emotion

Waiting for Fabio in the sun

Chilling in the sun

Dave "bearer of the curse" Windett chilling in the sun

The Hotel Santana cafe/bar

Thanks again to those folks from whom I have “borrowed” your photos for this Blog.

I hope this little mini-series of Blogs from our trip to this wonderful island has served to whet your appetite to seek it out yourselves and ask your forgiveness for the length of this last little missive. I also hope you have enjoyed your stay with me, as I recounted my memories of my time with my colleagues/friends that accompanied me and my friends that live out there.

By the way the little in-joke about the curse was not only endorsed by Dave himself, it was he that gave it life as a joke.

I for one cannot wait until next year and MaltaComicCon3.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

October 30th 2010

MaltaComicCon2010 – Part 02...

2010-10-29T01:26:00.000+01:00

A review of the second Maltese Comic Convention...

Hi Guys,

As you guys now know I was going to call the subtitle of this little series of Blogs “The Windett Curse” and I guess by now you realise why...

Well, eventually, around a half hour later than scheduled the lights were given new life and the children were allowed to come down the same historic steps trod by mounted knights on their chargers in days long since gone and I wondered if "The Windett Curse" would have stopped even those brave warriors in their days of yore...

The children had been very good as they waited patiently to come down to the session, especially in light of the fact they were little more than toddlers. In fact they were so young that the workshop for this group is certainly much different to the normal types of workshops I deliver either at venues like this, or in schools, or colleges, or universities.

The organiser of the workshops, Olivier, who actually arranges all the students for me need not have been unduly concerned about the children as they seemed to enjoy themselves as much as I did, despite the extended wait, especially one young lad called Joshua, who spent most of his time actually holding his piece of drawing paper on the flip chart beneath my drawings. In fact he even had me draw a jelly fish just like he had shown me to, which was great fun to do. I was joined this year by localised artist and ex-pat American, Susan Waitt and she enjoyed the sessions too. It was great to see her perspective on the sessions, as she has worked as a Disney artist and children’s book illustrator.

When the workshop was over the next session for the slightly older children was ready to take place, albeit a half hour late too, because of the earlier delay, but all now seemed to be running smoothly, so maybe the curse had finally been warded off...or at least that was the hope.

With the older group we were able to help them to understand how to create characters and what was important to do this effectively. The group of children were very enthusiastic and produced some very nice work. I hope some of these students will go on to become the next generation of Maltese comic artists in the making and who knows we may see some of their names in the funnies in the future...I sincerely hope so.

Well, once the second session had finished I found myself for the first time that first day sitting at my table, which I was sharing with Inez Kristina Baldacchino – the winner of my Wizards Keep – Worlds End Manga competition last Christmas. There was a great constant flow of folks looking at the stuff on display and it was nice to chat to the visitors too. I had not been sat down for more than a half hour, or so, before I was being whisked off for lunch at the Inspirations cafe/restaurant. I was ready for something to eat by this time and decided to go for the mozzarella and cranberry wraps, which came with a small side salad and was delicious. Pizzas were the order of the day for most of the guys and everyone seemed to enjoy their food, which looked equally nice.

The gang included, Liam Sharp, Dave Windett (yes I suppose I was a little worried – would the kitchen catch fire, or the waiter trip with our meals before they reached the table – the usual things, but...) Sean Azzopardi, and John Bamber. I am still unsure why Renee and Claudio did not join us, but Gary Erskine I know had decided to carry on sketching without taking a lunch break.

I had not finished my meal when Mike Quinton arrived to take me to the workshops, so I hurriedly ate the last morsels and then it was off to work once more, this time to work with the adults showing them how to create lots of different characters. Susan was already there by the time I arrived with Mike and of course I guessed it was just a case of it being that “The Windett Curse” had struck again...after all last year’s meals did not coincide with the workshops and there seemed much more time to eat and check out the other guests, etc. I certainly never had to don my running shoes between events, so I figured it had to be Dave and his curse.

This workshop went down amazingly well with the guys coming up with all manner of characters, once they realised that they could not make mistakes in the session. I think Susan got more into the swing of things with me too by this third session and certainly took a more active part with it. She even had the guys create a conglomerate-type drawing, which consisted of a few volunteers from the group of students drawing parts of a character in a follow-my-leader kind of way.

Susan even had me tie up all the loose ends that the students had created in their individual parts of the drawings by adding my touches to the drawing. It was a wonderful session and one which certainly went down with the more mature guys there. It was the first time we had tried an adult session in Malta, as last year we just catered for the children at the event. I would like to see this trend continue with workshops for both age groups like this, covering even more aspects of what we do as comics creators.

By the time this session, which had run over due to Susan and I opening the floor to questions, it was around five o’clock in the afternoon and there was only an hour of time at the tables before we found the convention closing for the day. Before it did however I found myself sketching for fans and signing more copies of the new Golden Lizard graphic novel.

One guy, called Martin, had travelled all the way from Germany to attend the convention and in my honest opinion just shows its increasing popularity as an annual event by both comics creators and the fans too. He asked how much I charged for artwork and I told him I didn’t charge for sketches.

He then said he would like me to draw him a picture of Ralf and Lord Gralltharr from my Worlds End graphic novel, but as a commission and not a free sketch, I tried several times to say I would draw the characters for free, as is my normal practise, but he told me he wanted more than just a sketch and would like it in colour, if at all possible.

Undeterred he insisted on having a more finished sketch produced and so I relented and started work on it, fitting in quick sketches and signing books and selling T-Shirts and other stuff I had taken along this year in between times to try and keep as many folks happy as possible.

As I was producing the piece of artwork I was told the President’s wife had arrived and would be coming around to speak to us all shortly. We were each due to give a gift to her and I took out the collection of stuff I had brought along to Malta for the presentation. I was extremely honoured to meet her and wondered what the difference between our countries was that had the President’s wife attend in an official capacity in Malta and yet in all my years of attending conventions in the UK had never seen any such dignitary. Okay the size of the country could have something to do with this, but I think it is something more, perhaps a pride in the people of Malta, which was obvious in this ladies eyes as she went around the convention speaking to all the artists and other exhibitors.

My only regret is not having a personal photo of this part of the event, but with all that was going on with folks wanting sketches and signings and to buy things it all happened so quickly that the chance was sadly missed.

It had been a whirlwind exercise that day and yet had only seen “The Windett Curse” rear its head once at the cafe/restaurant and even then not enough to make one think that the curse was still doing its rounds, although I realised that there was still time as the evening was only early and we were not meeting back up as a group until the after party at around 9 o’clock.

The trip back to the Hotel was uneventful and was already lulling us into a false sense of security, or at least it was with me. The travel between venue and hotel being some half hour to three quarters of a hour in length travel time, always gives the group time to both relax and also get to know each other better and is a great ice breaker, even for the battle hardened amongst the ranks. The only one amongst our little troupe of fellow creative minds that was finding this difficult was Claudio who was suffering from a throat complaint – something I hope has now been cured.

Once back at the hotel it was time to freshen up again and having reclaimed our room keys from reception we went to the lift, or elevator, as the Americans say. Well the lift was only large enough for four folks really and yet six of us entered it. We closed the doors, pressed the relevant numbers for our respective floors and then...nothing.

We repeated our actions and still nothing. We took turns to see if miraculously one of the group could find the mystic combination required to move the lift from its present point of origin to complete our respective journeys, still nothing.

We pressed the emergency alarm and nothing sounded, it was all to no avail – Yes, you guessed it “The Windett Curse” had struck again, but with a serious side to it now, as Dave actually does suffer from claustrophobia. Not more than a few moments had gone by, but it was enough to make the tell-tale signs of the phobia manifest themselves. So without further ado, John Bamber switched places with Dave and began using his shoulder and arms to prise open the doors.

Thankfully no other guests witnessed the mass exodus of five comics creators and a big comic fan/collector hurtling out the lift, or rather being pressed out of it by a now sweating and panicked Dave, which must for all the world have looked like a herd of prancing wildebeest, without any of the majesty and finesse shown by those graceful animals. We decided to take the stairs and continued to laugh about it all the way to our rooms.

Cleverly Renee and Claudio had managed to avoid this little episode by retiring to their rooms slightly earlier, which by now seemed like it had been a great idea – especially poor Dave.

We arranged to meet up at the small bar at the side of the reception area, sometime later which would again gave us time to relax and chat some more.

Well one shower, several text messages sent back home and a change of clothes later and I found myself taking the stairs (hey, I wasn’t risking the curse on my own, guys) down to the reception from my room on the second floor and the small bar/cafe there, where I met up with Dave and Sean and soon Gary and Liam, Renee and Claudio. I bought Renee, Claudio and myself a drink from the bar, everyone else already had one and then we decided to go along and see if the party was ready to start. We tried the bar from last year’s after party, which was on the same floor, but at the rear/side of the hotel, but no one was there – it was in darkness.

Now I know what you are thinking it was “The Windett Curse” again, but you would be wrong if you thought that this time around as it was just in another bar area on the top floor. We met up with the organisers, other local artists and other folks along for the party and by the time we had had a drink from the bar the seven of us decided to go along for something to eat, as by now we were all ready for an evening meal.

We soon found ourselves down the street from the hotel, only a couple of hundred yards at most, at a Kebab house where we chose our Kebabs and sat down to eat. It was still warm and we ate outside and chatted, as we watched the evening world go by in Malta.

Now there had been a rumour that we were to have a Karaoke that evening, so you can imagine my shock when none turned up...Yes, “The Windett Curse” - yet again!!!

So without uttering a single note of a song we continued to chat with all the organisers and fans that were either staying at the hotel, or at least had come along to the after party.

Part way through the evening, as the storm clouds returned and the anticipation of further rain ran amok amongst the ranks, we decided to go outside onto the balcony, where it would be cooler, if only a little. It was still warm, but the clouds had gathered again in a crescent around the entire island. Well the drinks and conversation continued to flow, but in a very civilised manner and then someone told us that there was a pool area above the balcony we were outside on, which was at the very top of the hotel and from which they had been watching the lightning storm but seeing far more than from the balcony upon which we now stood.

So off we all strode, well the seven of us anyhow, up the stairs to the upper roof area, which was mostly in darkness and made us all aware that the swimming pool was very close to the walkway we now traversed.

The lightning show was absolutely amazing with little or no thunder and to my mind was very reminiscent of the scene in Stephen Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the UFOs cannot be seen, but the light displays diffused by the clouds gave the scene an eerie feel to it. We watched for absolute ages whilst the light show flickered and danced all around the island from every side.

Liam decided he wanted another drink and so disappeared for a while which made us think he had decided to stay and chat downstairs with everyone else.

Then he returned and as we were in the shadow of the rooftops he called out to us to see where we actually where. He then told us the reason he had been gone for so long was down to the fact the doors had been locked behind us when we had come to the roof area to watch the lightning and he had spent most of the time away from us trying to attract the attention of the bar staff, or anyone at the party by banging on the door. The trouble was his knocking had obviously sounded like lightning, so for a while he had been ignored... Yes, it was yet further evidence to me of the existence of “The Windett Curse” and its presence amongst our ranks.

Well by this time I was shattered and in need of a sleep, something with which Liam concurred, so soon afterwards we found ourselves going our separate ways to our rooms and certainly for me some much needed sleep.

Once there I turned on the fan/air conditioning unit and after sending another text back home in answer to one I had received soon found my head hitting the pillow and then I was in the land of the Sandman...

Below are more photos of the trip I took this year up to this point:

I’ll post more details of this year’s even bigger convention along with lots of photos, in my third, giant sized and final Blog about MaltaComicCon2 tomorrow...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

October 29th 2010

MaltaComicCon2010 – Part 01...

2010-10-24T14:58:00.000+01:00

A review of the second Maltese Comic Convention...

Hi Guys,

I was going to call the subtitle of this little series of Blogs “The Windett Curse”, but I won’t spoil the fun of things to come...

Well, following a night of working on the Worlds End graphic novel, where I found myself just shy of the half way mark, but with some new products to take along to the event (These will also be available on the Wizards Keep Website too soon), I proceeded to pick up the prints of the posters and portfolios and had some prints made of the new pages to the stage they were now at.

With that done I had only to put more credit on my mobile phone pack the new prints along with the new T-Shirts and then I was off to the train station, which would take me to the airport. I had chosen the train as the method of transport this year due to the time of the flight.

I knew Dave Windett a fellow guest would be catching the same train from Preston and would meet him at Bolton. There was only a five minute gap between trains and things were fine until we stayed in one of the connecting stations for longer than was scheduled for some reason. By the time we arrived at Bolton the other train was just pulling away.

After a short half hour, or so wait another train pulled into the station, but this one was packed to the rafters and it was standing room only. I had to create room for myself, because the folks in the carriage doorway, seemed a little against anyone invading their space, but as I “insisted” I managed to get a place there and lo and behold, who was standing there, or rather trapped at the other side of the passageway, but Dave Windett, who showed me his hand luggage and its snapped handle, which had only happened when he was boarding the train. There's that Windett Curse...

He told me this was following his having to dash back home from Preston train station when he realised he had forgotten his passport. He had had to walk back part way to his home and deciding on the best course of action drove back to the station, whereupon he left the car on the station car park and was expecting a £30 + charge upon his return, so things had not started well for him on this trip.

The short journey was an uneventful one, which found Dave and I chatting about recent events and trips, etc and we soon found ourselves walking along the travelator to the airport departures check-in. The queues were quite large this year and the check-in area was full of people waiting for flights all over the place. As we stood and chatted for a while we found ourselves joined by another of our party, Liam Sharp.

Once we had checked our baggage in and passed through the customs area we regrouped at the other side, or should I say that we eventually did so, as Dave seemed to be eternally stuck inside of the scanning equipment. Just to warn you guys this was when I realised this was the defining moment when we all knew this was to be a portent of things to come and how the trip would work out for poor Dave. There's that Windett Curse again...

At last, however, we all three were making our way towards the departures lounge and some food, which we chose to eat in Burger King, of all places. We ate and chatted about current projects and about the trip to Malta last year and what the guys could expect to see and do once we arrived there.

Our repast taken we looked at the time and wondered where Gary Erskine was, as he was supposed to be joining us for the flight after his connecting flight from Scotland. I sent a text to his mobile and found he was nearby, working on a page of art at a bar. Once together, we stayed a while, Dave tried unsuccessfully to get onto the Internet with his laptop and we all caught up with things again before making our way to the departure gates.

We soon found ourselves boarding the plane, but were split up, as Gary had checked-in separately to the three of us that had checked-in as a party of three. The flight was pretty uneventful and we continued to catch up with things work wise and family wise, but I soon found that the workload of the previous week was catching up with me, especially the all-nighter I had just pulled to get everything ready for the trip.

I found myself with a headache too, but soon fell asleep, only to be told when I re-awoke, by Liam that I had only been sleeping for around five minutes, or so and yet I felt totally refreshed and the headache had gone – talk about a power nap!

It didn't seem long before we found ourselves touching down and passing through customers in Malta’s airport. The first thing I noticed, yes, it was again much hotter than back home, which had become much colder in recent weeks and once we walked through the gates we were met by the convention organisers and their broad smiles.

We were met by three of the organisers, Mike Quinton, Fabio Agius and Chris Muscat and once intorduced we found we still had to wait for the fifth member of the UK contingent, Sean Azzopardi, who, like me last year, was travelling alone. His flight from Heathrow was due in some forty-five minutes after ours and so we went to one of the airport cafes and had a drink and chatted, whilst we waited.

The time passed quickly and soon all five of us were being whisked off to the hotel, or at least we were when the Windett curse struck again and we found Chris Muscat one of the organisers trying desperately hard not to receive a fine for a lost ticket, which he had only bought a moment, or two before. Eventually after a search the ticket was found and I realised that the curse had seemed to be warded off, but there was more to come...

It was as I was about to get into Fabio’s car that he gave me my first copy of The Golden Lizard – the very first ever graphic novel produced in Malta, which I had created the cover for. It was one of those moments, which stay with you. There was tremendous pride in Fabio’s face and I knew he and the others in the creative team that are Tin Can Comics had come a long way since the books inception and I was really pleased to have played a part in that journey. I was to spend a large part of my time at my table signing dozens of the books for the fans.

We soon found ourselves at the Hotel Santana and after unpacking I fell into a relaxing sleep. When I opened my eyes next it was to look for my mobile phone from where I could hear my alarm sounding. I turned on the lights and fan and air-con once more as it was very warm in the hotel room and then heard a loud boom from outside...The Windett Curse again, I wondered and yes it was continuing to pursue an active role in our trip as I saw it was raining heavily outside and the sound was thunder, which was accompanying the early morning lightning.

Undeterred I took a shower and prepared my things to take along to the convention, which was most of the stuff inside the main baggage for the flight. I met the other guys including some of the organisers, Chris Le Galle and his wife, Joanne, Fabio Agius and Natalia, and Mark Ellul and Elaine Muscat. They looked worried because in Malta when the weather is bad the Maltese people stay indoors.

The breakfast was great and much needed and we soon found ourselves about to brave the weather, which had calmed somewhat by this time. It was still raining, but much less than it had been, although once we set off we witnessed a return to the words torrential and The Windett Curse. In the hotel reception area we met with Renee Wittestaeter and Claudio Castinelli for the first time that trip and for me personally, the first time ever.

This year saw us being transported by mini-bus, driven by Antoine, although everyone called him “Topsy” instead of Mike Quinton, who did most of the transportation duties last year. We had not been on the road for more than ten minutes, or so, before the heavens opened and I looked to where Dave sat and I have to admit I wondered...

It was torrential and certainly not what we were expecting, especially in light of the wonderful weather that Sean and I experienced last year.

We hit a large road junction and the roads were flooded in a matter of minutes and everyone was joking about sunny Malta, despite it all. It was incredible to see cars with rushing water up to their wheels in such a short space of time.

The venue of the fort of St James Cavalier was enough to impress the new visiting artists though as it really is a wonderful building and perfect for the convention to held in. This year the main convention was held on the lower floor and this meant that everyone was on the same level, expect for the talks, gaming and workshops and was a definite improvement on last year’s event and I had thought that would be impossible to better. The local artists had made sure it was even more colourful and even better represented by their artwork, as the work on display was even better than last year.

By the time we arrived we were about twenty – twenty-five minutes late and the convention had already opened its doors, so I hurriedly set about displaying everything, before I would be whisked off for the first of the children’s workshops. It didn’t take me long to set up and I found myself for the second year running sat next to Inez Kristina Baldacchino and her father, Peter who, at the time, was manning her table for her.

It wasn’t long before I was being taken to the workshop by Mike and Peter very kindly offered to man my table too, after I gave him a list of what was what. Then it was a quick dash upstairs to the same rooms as last year...only we hit a snag at the top of the stairs, where we found the lighting was out and the children stranded above on the street level at the back of the venue, unable to come down the steps, which once long ago saw knights on horseback riding up and down.

The Windett Curse had struck again...

Below are the few photos of the trip I took this year up to this point – I guess there was more talk this year, for me, as I was not flying on my own, hence to this point there were not as many photos taken..

I’ll post more details of this year’s even bigger convention along with lots of photos, soon when I publish MaltaComicCon2010 – Part 02...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

October 24th 2010

MaltaComicCon2010 – The Final Countdown...

2010-10-15T06:38:00.000+01:00

The second Maltese Comic Convention...

Hi Guys,

Not long now before I set off for the airport, where I’ll be meeting up with Dave Windett, Liam Sharp and Gary Erskine.

Once we land in Malta, we will be joining the others, whilst Sean Azzopardi’s flight arrives.

The T-Shirts arrived yesterday and the Portfolios and New MaltaComicCon2 Posters are ready for me to pick up later this morning, when I take along the pages to be printed and added to the Worlds End work, which I will be displaying at the venue.

I will end up just short of fully finishing the half way mark, but the backgrounds for just over half the book are done and the characters on most of the remainder of this half of the book are finished too.

One really amazing thing is going to happen sometime on Saturday, we are to be joined by the Maltese President’s wife, where we are to present her with an illustration created by all the comics creators at the event, which is going to be something really different and very nice to boot.

I am also going to present her with some other extra goodies, as I am sure the others are too. It’s not often comics folks get to meet the wives of Presidents.

Whilst I have the chance, I’d just like to wish Shane Chebsey and the guys at BICS another successful UK convention this very same weekend, unfortunately for them the lure of the sunny clime of Malta was just too much to resist.

Well it’s still all hands to the deck for another three hours, or so, as I try to complete some more of the paints on the Worlds End graphic novel, before I have to stop and pick up the prints, run a few errands and then set off for the airport on the train, which is another novel thing for me, as I have always travelled by car, or minibus before, so I better sign off for now.

I’ll post details of this year’s even bigger convention along with lots of photos, in the meantime...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

October 15th 2010

SciFi Art Now...

2010-10-08T15:24:00.000+01:00

John Freeman’s latest art directory book from Ilex Press...

Hi Guys,

I have literally just received a delivery from DHL. Yes, the book has finally arrived and what a gorgeous looking book it is. I feel extremely honoured and privileged to be amongst such talented people as those contained within this book. The two complimentary copies are about to adorn my shelves here in the studio, so I can gaze on the vistas within whenever I choose to.

I won’t spoil things by saying, which of my artwork for “Worlds End” is being showcased only to say that I have something in there along with many talented artists in this latest directory-type art book, following on from Fantasy Art Now, Fantasy Art Now 2 and Comic Art Now.

The line up is an impressive one, as is the quality of the work within its pages too and, as I have said I feel extremely privileged to be a part of this book.

The UK cover, above, has been created by the extremely talented World Fantasy Award winner and Hugo Award-nominated artist John Picacio. The artwork was first seen gracing the cover of Pyr Books' SF anthology Fast Forward 2 , but his art has been used on many book covers for many other publishers including Subterranean Press, Golden Gryphon Press, and Star Trek novels for Pocket Books.

The US version has different cover artwork, which has been created specifically for SciFi Art Now by Brighton-based artist Steve Sampson.

Top science fiction artist Chris Foss - whose work influenced many readers in their SF book buying back in the 1970s, myself included - has provided the foreword.

Like the 2008 released Comic Art Now book in which I was included, the design and overall look and feel is superb quality and is a testament to John Freeman and his editing.

Like the book from 2008 its content is broken down into genres, or rather sub genres, such as Aliens and Alien Worlds, Incredible Cities, and Steampunk, amongst others and like its predecessors not only allows artists to showcase their work in the real world, it includes their contact details so they can be found and hired like any art directory.

Published by Ilex Press in both the UK and US the 10.5" square SciFi Art Now coffee table book is now on sale.

Some of the names included in the book are: John Ridgway, Liam Sharp, John Royle, Michael WM Kaluta, Paul Eldridge, Gary Erskine, Tom Kidd, Graeme Neil Reid, and Dylan Teague, to name but a few of the eighty-three creative powerhouses within its pages.

Just as in 2008, I highly recommend this book, not because I have something in it, but because there is some incredible artwork inside it and it is a beautiful looking book.

I would like to thank John, in the first instance for getting in touch with me and asking me to be a part of it, alongside some incredibly talented people and also to Ilex Press for honouring me by including me in this book when so many people responded to be included in its pages.

If you don’t yet own a copy, but love SciFi art, you will not be disappointed with this book…I promise you that.

You can pre-order the book by clicking on the link below:

SciFi Art Now

Until next time, have fun

Tim Perkins…
October 4th 2010

SciFi Art Now...

2010-10-04T23:06:00.000+01:00

My latest interview by Editor, John Freeman...

Hi Guys,

Just a very quick Blog today to say some of you may wish to read my latest interview for the forthcoming book, SciFi Art Now, which is due out in just a few weeks time now.

You can read the interview here:

Tim’s interview

Some of my artwork for “Worlds End” is being showcased along with many talented artists in the latest directory-type art book, following on from Fantasy Art Now, Fantasy Art Now 2 and Comic Art Now. I’m still not exactly sure which artwork, or which of the information I have supplied they have used, or indeed how much of it, but I’m excited to see the outcome.

The line up is an impressive one and I feel extremely privileged to be a part of this book.

You can pre-order the book by clicking on the link below:

SciFi Art Now

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
October 4th 2010

Superman's Ex-Pal, The NEW Jimmy Olsen #133...

2010-09-30T22:12:00.000+01:00

Or, KIRBY is HERE – 40 years old this month...

Hi Guys,

Well as regular readers of this humble Blog of mine will know Jack Kirby was the reason I was determined to become a comic artist, when I first saw his
wonderful work back in the mists of time known as the 60’s.

It is forty years this month that Kirby was here, as it says in the header title of his first 70’s work for DC Comics, when he unleashed his Fourth World Saga upon an unsuspecting world, heralding the way for his new concepts of warring gods. Introducing the world to The Whizz Wagon, The Hairies, The Outsiders, The Zoomway and The Mountain of Judgement to name but a few of the concepts in this comic, but the world would have to wait until the next issue before Jack unleashed his new ultimate villain - Darkseid.

By the time I reached secondary (high) school I was about to be blown away with a new concept and direction for the work of my favourite comics creator. It was actually this second issue, #134, which was my first introductory look at the new series, which was to lay the initial groundwork for this rich tapestry of stories, which were far ahead of their time in scope and execution and would see the launch of New Gods, Forever People and Mister Miracle to the ranks.

From the very moment I saw and marvelled at the art and then read the incredibly imaginative story, as an eleven-year old school boy, I was hooked and eager to see and read more.

That first issue was shown to me by my best friend, Paul and is the butt of many a joke, over the comics by, which I swapped and obtained the new Kirby comic and that day and the succeeding ones, as I sought out and bought consequent issues of all the Fourth World series were to be the inspiration to continue in my aspirations in my career choice.

It would be some years in the future before I finally obtained the preceding issue #133.

It seems incredible that it is now forty years ago this month that the highly imaginative and prolific Jack Kirby first unleashed his concept upon the worlds of comicdom. It was to set a precedent that has not been matched since, although it has been emulated and regurgitated many, many times since.

It predates any of the cross-over events, it was the first series to run continually across several titles, all inter-related and yet at the same time allowing each to exist as stand-alone titles, each with its own identity and yet encompassed by the threads of a tale of epic proportions.

Back in 1970 comics had seen nothing like what Jack was now unravelling each month for DC comics from his new California home. He had left New York and Marvel comics behind him and the story he had wanted to produce back in his Mighty Thor days, when he was plotting the majority of stories for Tales of Asgard, which would follow on from the aftermath of Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, when the end of the world, including the demise of the Norse god pantheon, would herald the birth of a new race of gods from the ashes of the final war of the old.

Despite the series never getting Jack the acclaim, outside of comic circles, which should have been his, the fact the concept and characters continue to be used reprinted and merchandised by DC comics forty years later show just how successful the saga really was and continues to be.

Jack’s epic tale has been an influence to generations of comics creators and although it can be argued the success of the superhero comic as set out by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and continued in his Fourth World saga has helped to put comics into a very small niche genre nowadays, it is surely down to the consecutive generations creators that merely copied and emulated their heroes’ stories, rather than invigorate new life into comics by doing what Jack did by inventing new genres.

This has been done to such a degree that we now have a comic buying public who cannot and will not accept much outside of this genre.

Back in August 1970, however, Jack’s Fourth World series took another look, yet again, at the genre of cosmic powered characters and reinvigorated the genre of superheroes with his own way of looking at such characters in their true sense, as latter day gods, new gods for a new generation of reader and in so doing made it inevitable in my eyes that I followed this same path and became a comic creator.

Perhaps now is the time and I have blogged about this several times during my Blog’s existence here that we see new inventiveness, which will invigorate the industry just like Jack did forty years ago this month.

So, without further ado, let me just say...

Happy Birthday Jimmy, welcome to the Fourth World and most of all...

Thanks Jack.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
October 1st 2010

MaltaComicCon2010...

2010-09-24T09:48:00.000+01:00

The second Maltese Comic Convention...

Hi Guys,

Exciting Comic Book News for me is that the Malta comic convention is now only a matter of a few weeks away.

Confirmed guests going along this year, up to press, are Liam Sharp, Gary Erskine, Claudio Castellini, Renee Witterstaetter and Dave Windett who will be joining up with Sean Azzopardi and I, who appeared with me last year. This year I am pleased to be able to have Margaret accompanying me on the trip.

The dates to remember are October 16th and 17th – a little earlier this year than last.

The venue is the same as last year, the magnificent Saint James Cavalier Centre for Creativity.

Here are some links you may want to check out:

Malta ComicCon2

Wicked Comics – Malta Comic Web Hub

You can find out all about my time out there last year in by reading my Blogs on the event below:

1st Annual Malta Comic Con Part 01
1st Annual Malta Comic Con Part 02
1st Annual Malta Comic Con Part 03

Below is one of the official flyers for the convention:

As usual I will be taking along some Wizards Keep merchandise.

I will also be taking colour prints of the pages from the graphic novel that I have finished to date.

I am excited to say that I will be launching a new Limited Edition Portfolio of Worlds End full colour artwork, which I cannot wait to show you all.

I will also have a limited print run of a brand new exclusive Poster for MaltaComicCon2.

I will be signing and sketching for folks whilst there, so please come along again and have a chat.

Well it’s all hands to the deck now as I try to complete the paints on the Worlds End graphic novel, so I better sign off for now.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 24th 2010

Many Thanks...

2010-09-10T23:45:00.001+01:00

To everyone that took time out to contact Margaret and me...

Hi Guys,

The amount of people that contacted via email, phone and through all the networks we are on was incredible and each and every one of you wonderful people helped Margaret and I through a very difficult time, because of the care you showed and the thoughts that you so very kindly shared with us.

I will start Blogging again soon, as I had planned before losing Cocoa. I have returned full time to painting Worlds End and I may share some new panels with you all soon. Thanks again to everyone for their kind words of support and for sticking around throughout.

As it said on the front cover of a certain DC comic way back in 1970, but with a minor edit...

Tim’s Back!

I would also like to offer up my thoughts on this day for those that lost their loved ones back in 2001.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
September 11th 2010

Good Night Cocoa...

2010-08-29T13:50:00.000+01:00

Our little Princess...

Hi Guys,

I had planned on another post here today, but late yesterday Margaret and I had a mad rush to the vets with our Beautiful English Springer Spaniel, Cocoa.

Everyone loved her that saw her and she was still just a puppy at one year, four months and eight days old.

She had been ill for about a week and had been to the vets twice during the week already and was on lots of medication and seemed to be getting a little better by Thursday, but sadly our little Princess died just before we could get though the traffic to the one in Clayton-Le-Moors on Saturday afternoon. I don’t think she would have lived even if we had however, as she became so poorly.

Margaret and I had alternated sleeping downstairs with Cocoa all week and on Thursday and Friday she seemed to be a little better, but on Saturday morning she looked really poorly again and Margaret contacted the vets once more.

She was a very brave puppy and never once bothered, although she was obviously so ill. We are both so proud of her when even to the end she held herself regally, which is why we called her “Our Little Princess.”

We’ll never get to see her have her one litter of puppies, which we both had thought would be nice for her, as she was such a beautiful puppy, I’ll never get to call out “Cocoa Doggy”, or “Gun Dog” again and Margaret will never again take her to Witton Park and have her jump into her favourite river the Blakewater, which runs through the park. But even though she was only a part of our family for such a short space of time with years ahead of her, so we thought, she gave more love than some human friends can give in a lifetime of knowing. And she knew she was well loved by all of us here including her doggy friends, especially her best friend, Bella, our little border collie and my own Bentley “Bogtrotter”.

When she died she was in the arms of the one who loved her the most, my wife, Margaret, who is devastated by her death.

We said our tearful goodbyes inside the vets, but we have some very lovely memories of our little dog and we will treasure them always.

I’ll never get to honour my promise of taking her for a nice walk in the woods when she got better, but maybe, if there is a heaven, then I can do so when it is my turn to leave this world. For now, I hope Jack looks after her for us as he celebrates his 93rd birthday today amongst the Heavens.

We miss you already, sweetheart and will love you always.

Goodnight little precious.

Love Mum and Dad...
xxx
August 29th 2010

1980 – Daemon...

2010-07-28T00:00:00.001+01:00

Or the Christmas Sketch which decided my career path...

Hi Guys,

I thought today I would share an illustration with you that I produced way back in December 1980, a little over six months after my leaving art college in Blackpool. A small thumbnail example of the piece has adorned this humble Blog for a while now and I thought I would retell its origins with you.

I had been working as a graphic designer for various companies and was looking at getting into a position to do more illustration work than the typographically oriented work I was producing at the time. I had begun to work on various painted pieces and I remember that I went to the drawing board in my bedroom at home at the time – I was still living at home with my Mum and Dad back then not knowing what I was going to do.

As I sat there I decided to look at an old character I had created back in the early seventies, when the major influence on me, was still Jack Kirby. What would I do with the character, if I was to resurrect the character?

The obvious influence was Jack’s character, Darkseid. Back when I had designed him my best friend, Paul and I had been re-drawing the Fourth World comics using our own swiped, or rather mirrored-characters and my own version was a character I called Demon – how ironic that shortly after this Jack would produce a comic using the same name for his new character, Etrigan.

I decided in 1980 to not just redesign the character, but to adjust this name accordingly too, he became Daemon

So it was that during the Christmas break having been working since the summer months that I sat down and decide to recreate the old character from back then.

The illustration accompanying this Blog shows my early use of the brush to ink my comic work and whilst some of the boldness I would use later on with my Marvel work was present, none of the subtle finesse of the fine lines and feathering was.

I had also been using Letratone – the UK version of the US Zipatone, whilst at college and now in my job as a graphic designer, so I decided to use some on this illustration - not too much, as I still wanted the inks to tell the story, but enough to show it was there in the background.

There is also some early evidence of my trademark picture elements, which still have their use today, but hopefully in a much better executed and subtle handling.

Despite the obvious flaws of the drawing itself, I feel the body language and the anatomy where strong enough that they inspired me and realigned my thoughts on my career path – I decided as I looked at the finished drawing that this was what I wanted to do with my working life – I wanted to become a comic artist.

Now all of this took a while from leaving college, as my secondary school’s attitude of me eventually growing up and getting a real job had passed through to the college days too, although they had the attitude I would not make any money in comics and to get established in advertising and marketing, as an illustrator.

This one drawing though threw any doubts and influence of the educators into a cocked hat and I looked at the piece on my drawing board beneath the angle-poise lamps lighting the room and my course was set...

The rest, as they say is history.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
July 28th 2010

Joanne & Toby’s Fairy Tale Wedding...

2010-07-21T00:00:00.319+01:00

The perfect wedding and the perfect day...
Hi Guys,

Well guys, what a wonderful day we had on Friday the 16th of July this year.

Before you read this missive you may want to get yourself a cup of tea, or coffee, as because it was a Big Day, this is a Big Blog, so I ask your indulgence. I didn’t want to spread this over several Blogs, as I usually do with these kinds of things, but then again I have never written of anything as important as this before in my life.

It has taken me longer to prepare this Blog, then usual, but I have been spending some much needed quality time with Joanne and Toby and my entire family, as it should be.

Anyhow the whole thing had been two years in the planning and the happy couple had asked me to create the wedding stationery, which I designed with Joanne at my side in the studio based on the common theme of Butterflies. These designs were then taken away and viewed by Joanne and Toby and fine adjustments made until they were completely happy with the final artwork.

I have to admit to loving every second of creating it all for them and ran the theme straight through the range, which included, save the dates, magnetic cards, day and evening invitations, envelopes with the butterfly motif, labels, menus (which we forgot to use - luckily the country club used their own), invitation present request slips, seating arrangement signage, butterfly shaped name cards, which sat in the glasses on the tables, table name cards, and soon to be used thank you stationery.

The run up week unfortunately saw me having to work insanely long hours on the children’s book, but I did manage to help out with the final wedding arrangements – things like creating the Wedding Breakfast seating arrangement artwork and having it turned into a vinyl image mounted onto a foamex backing, creating the hand-written calligraphy for the place settings onto the Butterfly name cards, and going along with Joanne to the registrars the week before the wedding when Toby was unable to get there because of work commitments, amongst other things.

One evening the week before the Wedding I did manage to attend a professionally shot photo shoot of my family with Margaret, Simon, Joanne, Toby and two of our dogs, Cocoa and Stella. Bentley was out voted this time around, but I am planning to have a personal photo shoot with him sometime in the near future, if all goes well. The evening was great and we had a lot of fun with the photographer. The shoot was Margaret’s idea and followed an earlier shoot two, or three years, or so ago and was the last series of photos for us with Joanne still unmarried. We all thought it was a great idea and I cannot wait to see the results soon.

Luckily I had had the foresight to write up a series of run up Blogs, which I pre-posted, in case the workload became unbearable and the rush of the week proved too time consuming to write them at the time.

As you know I chose to use the launching of the Apollo moon missions as the theme with the Blogs and carried that over into part of my wedding reception speech, where I chose the first successful atomic bomb test, known as the Trinity Blast on July 16th 1945 and the launch of the first successful manned expedition to the moon – Apollo 11 on July 16th 1969, as the two dates with which to show some other significant events on this date throughout recent history and use the wedding date of July 16th 2010 for no smaller a blast, or launch for the start of the young couple’s new married life together.

Due to the recent workload I was unable to attend Toby’s Stag Night party, but that would be made up later the night before the wedding, which was a really nice gesture from them both.

Joanne’s Hen Party was held the Saturday evening before the wedding at a venue in Manchester called the Birdcage, or at least the main part of the evening was. From all accounts everyone had a great time there and included Margaret and Toby’s mum Bernie and the Bridesmaids and a few other friends. From the photographs on Joanne and her friend’s FaceBook pages I would say that was true.

This last week saw Margaret take time off work and take Joanne all over the place for last minute things to sort out and pay for. Everyday saw them both out and about all throughout the days and it proved to be a very busy week for them both indeed – but it also saw them able to spend some quality time together as only a mother and daughter can and it gave them an opportunity to eat out, whenever they could too, which became a running joke with us here.

On Monday Joanne and Margaret had been out fine tuning things for the wedding and Joanne came around to upload some music from her memory stick to a CD for the wedding. Her choice had some great sentimental stuff on there and one in particular is a favourite of mine, but one that even on karaoke evenings can get me all of a fluster especially with the end verse, so it was I was going to attune myself with it, by playing it to death over a couple of days on repeat. Time would tell if I had succeeded in doing so...

Around 4:00 a.m. last Thursday morning I returned to the web/script computer and pieced together all the notes I had amassed into what I hoped would be a cohesive speech for after the main meal. There was only time for me to quickly write a draft, sub-edit the text with no time to practise it for real. So I figured I would do so sometime later that evening, or during the early hours of the wedding morning. The speech completed I returned to the children’s book.

In fact, the event started for me on Thursday, after sending off the remaining artwork for the Spooky Tales children’s book. My son, Simon and I were to meet up with the Groom, Toby and his Best Man Paul at the Barton Grange Hotel in Barton. Preston, Lancashire.

We were meant to set off hours before we actually did, but the job remained unfinished on the computer and had to be sent off ASAP, so it was later than we should have when we eventually set off in the car to meet up with them.

We arrived at the hotel and went to the reception where we were given the room number we were staying in. Upon arriving at the aforementioned door, we found they were not actually in the room, so we set off down the corridor to find them with the help of the receptionist.

We didn’t get that far though, as Simon with his ultra-sensitive, mutant-like hearing, very reminiscent of Matt Murdock, of Daredevil fame’s, heard the lads downstairs and we soon found them playing pool surrounded by thick wood beamed walls and ceilings and being overlooked by old looking paintings, in a very olde worlde atmosphere. We were in the old part of the hotel and it was quite a contrast to the ultra modern frontage.

We took our bags to the room and then got a drink from the bar, retiring to the “very” comfy seated area, where we chatted for some time, reminiscing about things from the past and generally getting to know each other a little more before the grand day of the next morning without the addition of Joanne and Margaret in tow.

We moved to another barred area, where you could order food, however by the time we did so the kitchen had closed for the day, but luckily the bar staff came over with an assortment of nibbles to accompany our drinks.

The night passed quite quickly, especially as we arrived later than originally planned, but we had a last drink in the original bar area and spent some time outside at the main entrance were we watched the rain falling heavily, as it had done, mainly, for over a week.

It seemed incredible that the weeks previous had seen us experience abnormally sunny, dry and hot weeks of great weather - weather that had seen a complete 360 ̊ turn-around.

We returned to our room to watch some TV and continue the chats and I wrote out the final name cards for the table arrangements. By the time I was done everyone else was asleep, and I joined them leaving the ink to dry for a while.

I awoke a few hours later – the best and most sleep I had managed to have in ages – and set about writing the table names on a series of seven envelopes into which I placed the Butterflies with everyone’s names on, in the order they were sat around the table.

That done I decided to go down to somewhere quiet and out of the way to check through the speech and make sure it sounded right and worked as a speech and not as a piece of prose. I made the necessary adjustments and went back upstairs.

Simon awoke and asked if I still wanted to have him listen to the speech, which I did, so we went down once more to the reception area at the front of the hotel and I read it and described the things I would say, as some of the speech was simply bullet pointed, as I was going to tell the stories from memory, just as I have on occasion when speaking of the events in question before.

I knew there were three, or four parts of the speech, which could and did turn me into a blubbering wreck when looking at the words, but I needed to say them, because I wanted Joanne and Toby, more than anyone else there to know exactly how I feel about them both.

True to form, when I came to read the parts out I became emotional about it and began to wonder if I could be strong enough during the speech to get the words out without completely coming to pieces.

With Simon’s kind words of support and his backing I decided to leave everything in the speech, including the opening hooks, which he thought were funny enough to be included and I prayed everyone would think so and “get” the jokes.

I have to take time out here to thank one of my Fantasy Art Unlimited students, Peter, who lent me a book, which I will now return, entitled “The Complete Father of the Bride – A comprehensive guide to your daughter’s wedding” by John Bowden. I highly recommend this book to any other Father of the Brides to be and include the ISBN, which is:

ISBN 978 1 84528 282 0

I occasionally looked at the book all throughout the run up to the wedding, but this last week saw me looking at it again and fine tuning what was expected of me in my head. It really helped me to prepare, if only in respect to reinforcing some of the ideas I had and confirming what was expected of me on the day.

Thanks so much Peter, I would maybe never have looked at a book like this, if you hadn’t brought it along all those very long months ago and I will be returning it to you at the FAU session this evening.

With a confirmation that I was on the verge of becoming a blubbering wreck during the speech Simon and I returned to the room and found that both Toby and Paul were still asleep, after all it was still very early morning, so swimming shorts in hand off we went to the pool and Jacuzzi, which was Simon’s idea.

We had a great time in the Jacuzzi with some real quality chatting away between us. Recent events have made me rethink my life once more and the realisation that a lot of control over what I was doing had again been lost and had taken completely over my life, both work-wise and domestically too, something which has now been addressed. There had been a return to the days of all work and no play and missing out on things with my family, just as it had back in the days I was creating comic books full time.

My time with my son in the Jacuzzi was the first time in ages I had really sat down with him this way (not in water of course) and spent any meaningful time in discussion with him. Simon asked me to join him in the Sauna, but I didn’t stay in there for long at all, as it was too hot, although I do realise that’s the reason for it. So I left Simon for a few minutes to have a shower and left him to sweat it out in there.

On the way back to our room Simon asked about his role as Usher and I realised then that he was nervous about it all. I explained what he was expected to do and told him any of the questions he had would be answered upon his arrival at the venue, where he could ask the staff everything he wanted to know, such as how many rows of seats he would need to leave free for immediate family, etc. It may not have been anything major that he needed to know, but it was his big sister’s wedding and he wanted to get everything right for her.

By the time we got to the room the others were up and we went down to breakfast which being early still, was a most leisurely and refined affair, with lashings of tea, coffee, fruit juice, and toast, accompanying a full English breakfast amidst a mass of potential other breads, yoghurts, cereals and the like, which were on display but which we chose to ignore.

The food was wonderful and then looking at the time and having had text messages and a call from Margaret asking how things had gone and telling me that the girls and her were all getting the professional make-up and hair dressing done we decided it was now time to take our leave of the hotel and get along to the next hotel, at which we were to witness the marriage. It was now that I realised Toby was starting to feel a little nervous about getting his lines wrong, or fainting, or getting anything wrong, or...

I tried to alleviate these worries, helped in force by Simon, with lots of jokey banter, along the way, as we left the hotel and I drove back to first drop Simon off at home, discretely avoiding any contact with Joanne, and then on to Darwen.

Best Man, Paul had an appointment, which meant he left a little before us and would be meeting us at the reception venue following this.

It didn’t take long before we had arrived at the wedding venue, Whitehall Country Club in Darwen and we were shown to the room that Margaret and I would be occupying and was to be the place for Toby and Paul to dress and get ready in.

I was going to be leaving my car at the hotel and went back home to re-write the speech (thank goodness for computers) pick up some of our things needed for the day and the morning after for the girls and I, things like clothes, and toiletries, but most important of all, for me, my speech.

The house seemed to be in some kind of organised chaos as everyone milled around with the photographer’s assistant constantly taking photos and make-up and hairdos being worked on all around in the rooms downstairs, whilst others were getting dressed upstairs, including Maid of Honour, Vicky and Best Man, Paul’s newly born son (the week previous – it was touch and go whether he would arrive in time for his parents to act at the wedding) there in his miniature version of our morning suits. He looked fantastic!!! It was a nice final touch from the couple who are the Bride and Groom’s best friends.

So it was that I set off to return to the hotel to drop off the paraphernalia. About half way there I saw a white stretch limo heading our way and checked the car clock and then my watch, we still had a little over a hour left before Joanne and I were supposed to leave for the Wedding and thought it was too early for it be our limo. Simon, having already driven up to there, drove me back home to get ready before returning to the country club to get himself ready and then perform his duties as Usher.

Once back at home the chaos, which was organised, was almost finally finished and the same massive white limo was waiting at the bottom of the drive. Margaret, her Mum and the bridesmaids were off without nary a cheerio to me at least, although I could hear, as I was upstairs at the time, everyone wishing Joanne good luck and that they would see her up there soon.

When I had tried the morning suit on at the suit hiring place the gentleman we spoke to helped me to fasten the shirt. When I had received the suit earlier that week I had asked Margaret to help me fasten the shirt and also my cufflinks through the double fold cuffs.

Now here I was standing much like Steve Martin with no one to help and I wasn’t 100% sure how to sort the cravat either...

Eventually I was stood at Joanne’s side and saw just how beautiful she looked for the first time - I had to fight back the tears for real for the first time. She was stunning and looked every bit the Princess she played the part of when she was younger. I had always known she would look lovely and she and Margaret had always said that the wedding gown was absolutely gorgeous but nothing had prepared me for the sight of her in all her glory. She really did look to all intents and purposes like a seventeenth century Princess, straight out of a fairy tale.

In true Joanne fashion, despite her big day ahead of her, she managed to straighten me out, making sure the cravat was sorted and that I looked the part too.

The photographer’s assistant, who had been taking photos all morning of the girls and who had, I soon realised, taken shots of me about the place too, took Joanne outside as the first sign of sun on a horrendously wet day shone through the clouds and took shots of her standing at the bottom of the drive and then with me at her side too in the same place then shots of her getting into the white stretch limo and then some of us both inside.

A few of our neighbours came to the door and waved us of and then we set off and the inside of the limo leapt into life with a glittering array of lights, which changed accordingly with the music emanating from the many speakers. Joanne was a Princess and this was her carriage taking her to the castle in which her Knight in Shining Armour, her Prince Charming, Toby, awaited her.

There were again a few specks of rain, as the weather continued to insist on being lousy and the drops of water dribbled down the windows. Joanne said that for the first time she now felt really nervous, so I leant forward kissed her lightly on the cheek and told her she looked beautiful and had nothing to worry about, which got a big smile, even if the nerves were still there.

We arrived to a small gathering of guests and hotel staff outside on the front steps of the hotel and I could feel the excitement coming from Joanne. The photographer was shooting us from outside the car and we could hear the cheers as the limo drew up the hotel drive and to a halt outside the main doors. The Chauffeur opened the door for us and after giving me her bridal bouquet and have me help her with the long train of her dress, she stepped out of the limo onto the drive and the clouds parted.

For a short while the Photographer, Richard Jones took more photos of us both and then we went inside the Hotel where we were greeted by the registrar. The forms were filled and then it was time for Joanne to catch her breath and give last second instructions to the bridesmaids about the order they were going to walk down the aisle. She was breathing heavily now and looking very nervous and I again kissed her lightly on the cheek and told she had nothing to worry about and to wait until everyone saw how beautiful she looked, especially Toby and again she smiled.

The hotel manager asked her if she was ready and she said yes - the chosen music began to play – “A Moment Like This,” by Leona Lewis and the tears welled up in her eyes and she said “Oh no I’m going to cry,” which got the bridesmaids tearful too and I found it hard to hold them back myself and I had a lump in my throat, making it hard to speak, but I remember saying to her that she would be fine.

Curtain-like drapes separated us from the guests and were still drawn across the back of the room, hiding us and the two little bridesmaids, her little cousins, Chloe and Laura were ushered round them and they walked down the aisle, followed by her bridesmaid, Sam and then her Maid of Honour, Vicky. The manager looked at Joanne and asked he if she was ready, as they would draw the curtains back for the first time, so the guests could see her and she could of course see them. She said yes, the curtains drew back and I remember hearing gasps from the guests, as they saw her for the first time.

Toby’s face said it all; he was totally amazed at his bride in her amazing dress.

I continued to fight back the tears, something many guests later told me they did and many didn’t and their sniffs said it all as we walked down between the guests towards the floral arch with its butterflies on it. Joanne was trying hard not to sob a little and trying to stop her make up from running and then just as the registrar had told us I let go of her arm for her to join her groom and stepped back to my seat, where I was joined, thankfully, by my wonderful and much needed wife, Margaret.

The ceremony was brilliantly executed by the bubbly registrar, who ensured, as she had promised the previous week to Joanne and I, that the couple were able to recite their lines okay.

The beauty of having the actual wedding ceremony held inside the hotel, as well as the day and evening receptions meant that the distance between Joanne and Toby and our guests was much less than in a church and meant it was much more intimate. We could all hear them both recite their vows and I was literally a few steps away from them both, so I didn’t miss a thing.

Between times Joanne’s friend and bridesmaid, Sam did the first of the readings and Margaret did the second. Both were beautifully self-written and spoke in moving ways about this new road and relationship that was about to blossom and again, you guessed it, old blubberer here fought back with his tears.

The couple recited their vows and I could hear folks around the room sniffing and I fought back the tears of joy constantly throughout the ceremony. When asked who was giving this Bride away I stood as instructed, said I do and offered her hand to Toby and sat back down, again fighting the tears back. Then, declared as Man and Wife, Toby was told he could kiss his bride and the whole place erupted with cheers of joy and applause.

We followed as the very happy couple lead us out of the room in a mini procession, so it could be prepared for the Wedding Breakfast. Outside in the main hallway Joanne and Toby met their guests and proceeded to receive hugs and kisses aplenty. We moved into one of the side rooms and one of the barrooms where everyone received the complimentary Bucks Fizz drinks. My best friend, Paul admitted to me that he filled up when he saw us both begin to walk down the aisle and wondered why it was, something lots of the guests admitted to even the men, as I would hear at various parts of the day.

Then it was time for us to take our places at the tables for the Wedding Breakfast, which was totally out of this world and had folks commenting on the excellence of the meals. I would like to pay my compliments to the chefs on an absolutely wonderful gourmet feast.

As the meal progressed I could tell that both Toby and Paul, his Best Man were nervously anticipating the end of the meal and the speeches and so, for the first time in my life, was I.

Well the meals finished and a little wandering to greet and introduce myself to guests later and the master of ceremonies told everyone it was now time for the speeches and introduced me as the Father of the Bride, to which folks applauded. I started the speech with a couple of intended funny miss-starts, which I had hoped would break the ice and, which Simon had agreed I should keep in.

They went down well and then I proceeded to run through the speech, which strangely became less of me looking at the words and more of me saying the things I wanted to based on them. Each time I approached a potential blubbering part I had to reach for a glass of champagne and used that as a hook to get me through in a bid to get through the bits.

The main bits where I told everyone about how beautiful Joanne was, how proud I was of her, then of them both and how much I loved them both were hard to get through and I ended the speech with my explanation of the day’s incredibly, inexplicable weather, which defied all the forecasts and a toast to Joanne’s Granddad, Ralph, who passed away three years ago this November, which did just about everyone in.

To explain and put this into context, nearly three years ago now Margaret's Dad, Ralph died. He was a fantastic bloke and had this knack of going on trips with Margaret’s Mum, Mary (he didn't drive) to the seaside, or wherever, when the weather was bad - in fact despite it...and yet the weather was always fantastic when they got to wherever they were going to...it always did this and never failed him once, as long as I knew him and the family have said it was always like it.

On the Friday morning of the wedding it was, as it had been for over a week up here raining, but this time, in the morning, heavily. Now bear in mind Toby had already mentioned the weather to me and now it was Joanne’s turn to mention her concerns. She simply said to me, as we stood in our lounge just prior to me getting ready, “I wish it would come sunny, Dad”. As with Toby, I assured her that she had nothing to worry about and that it would change, although the sky said the complete opposite with clouds all around as far as one could see. By the time I was ready and stood with Joanne outside the house ready for the limo, it started to inexplicably brighten up.

By the time we got to the Country Club it was even better...

By the time we were shooting the first photos it was still bright, but clouds were all around us...

Then inside we started to have the main photo session inside the venue itself...as the clouds were still looming...

I had said all along it would be fine for the photos - despite seeing such torrential rainfall...all morning...

Joanne then said to me once again that she wished the sun would come out for the main photo shoot, so she could have her photos outside and the place became bathed in sunlight, not just a bit, suddenly there wasn't a rain cloud in sight...seriously, anywhere...it was like magic.

The rain didn't return until after the photos and the main meal and the night do was about to start...

I mentioned that in the closing of my speech and there wasn't a dry eye in the place - it was hard at three parts of the speech, not to become a blubbering mess and I am tearful now, as I write this, but I am convinced that it was all down to her Granddad, Ralph...

If this was in a film it would be looked on as far-fetched...you simply had to be there to witness it all.

I am sure he is so proud of his family as he looks on from where ever he is now.

The strange thing about all of this is that I really did know it was going to be fine, that was the strange thing, it never occurred to me that it could be any different...it wasn’t just a hopeful feeling I just “knew” for some reason and felt good about it all

I think Toby was the most amazed, as he couldn't see how the day could get better weather wise and ALL the forecasts were bad.

I thanked a few people, namely my wife, Toby’s parents, the staff of the hotel and the guests telling them that Toby and Paul would be thanking other folks there for their parts in the wedding.

It was then the turn of Toby to deliver his speech and an excellent job if it he made too, despite his obvious nervousness, which he didn’t show at the time. He and Joanne also kindly gave out all the immediate wedding group some really wonderful presents...I will always treasure mine. His speech spoke of how happy he was and how lucky he felt having such a wonderful young woman as his bride. Yes, you guessed it I had to fight back more tears here, but his words made me smile broadly I can tell you. To me his words came from the heart and as I had given him pause to become tearful with my speech, he had returned the favour.

It was with some relief I feel that he then passed over the reins, as I had with him, to his Best Man, Paul. Paul’s speech had some humorous moments and had the entire audience in stitches at times, nothing rude, just things that everyone has done at some point in their lives, but taken out of context proved highly hilarious. There were some more tender words spoken and then more thank you comments to the guests and then it was time to party and relax for everyone.

We returned to the side rooms, where more photos were taken. By now the weather was absolutely glorious and the scenario could not have been better planned if it was in a film.

So with that in mind the photographer asked everyone to accompany him for more photos of the Bride and Groom and all the guests, which were to be taken outside in the gardens of the hotel. The sky was ablaze now with sunshine, despite the forecast for the opposite and the day was then complete for the couple that had worried scant hours previous that they would have to content themselves with indoor photos only. Some fantastic photos were taken and I cannot wait to have the photographer, Richard, contact us with the results.

In fact everyone seemed to be taking photographs of the happy couple and the guests. My brother-in-law, Andy has taken some superb shots and with his permission I will post them up here once I receive them from him. Joanne’s friend, Kelly, creator of the fantastic Butterfly encrusted Wedding Cake also took some great photos and I have included a few here amongst mine. Joanne has lots, which I took using her camera too and will post some of those too at a later date.

The afternoon was spent in the garden and patio areas with brief forays into the hotel itself, whist the staff transformed the main room so it was ready to become the venue for the evening reception and the remaining guests. The mingling seemed to be done by everyone, with both sides of the family having a great time chatting and getting to know each other, having only just met in some cases.

As the evening reception began to take place and the newly arrived guests began to arrive the outside was no longer needed and it looked like Ralph’s need for his granddaughter’s Wedding photos was complete – the weather changed back and has not been cloudless, or indeed dry since, until yesterday morning.

The evening went as successfully as the day had and the guests had a great time. I have to admit that as a proud father I became a little tearful, throughout the day and evening, just for a split second whenever I saw Joanne, looking so lovely, not out of sadness, but happiness, but when I saw her with Toby I knew she was going to be in good hands – it was my time to step back and let my daughter be looked after by her husband and I couldn’t be more happy with her choice, as I know they will be happy together.

The Evening Buffet was as amazing as the Wedding Breakfast and had most guests commenting positively about the menu, which was outstanding. I would have gone for more had it not been for the fact I had had such a huge breakfast and a Wedding Breakfast before it. Again the chef and staff of the hotel should be thanked for their roles in the big day.

Then the photographer prepared to take the last photos of the day with the cutting of the cake and the first dance. The music they chose was “Greatest Day,” by Take That, again a moving choice, or at least it was to me, the blubberer.

I tried, like Steve Martin in his role of the Father of the Bride, to get to dance with Joanne, but there was always something that stopped us. Eventually I managed to get part of a dance with her and it felt so wonderful. I looked into my daughter’s eyes and saw so much happiness in them, it felt fantastic.

The music I chose was from the CD that Joanne and I had made earlier in the week, “Everything I do, I do it for you,” by Bryan Adams, from the film, Robin Hood with Kevin Costner in the lead role. I love this song and often sing it at karaoke nights, but it was a special time this time and once again I fought back the tears, as I know the words off by heart.

I have never danced with a Princess before, discounting my wife at our wedding, but here I was dancing with the only Princess I ever wanted to on her special day. My son, Simon abruptly took her away from me to dance with her himself and they looked good together, the little brother and his big sister, at least in age...another proud protector and as suddenly as she was whisked away, I found myself whisked away with the other love of my life, my wife Margaret, without whose help, none of this would ever have happened.

I guess Simon did me a favour really, because of the lyrics in the last verse of the song, which can move me in the best of circumstances, even at karaoke nights, so thanks son you did me proud on the day, despite your telling me you felt like your knees were going to buckle as you watched your sister saying her vows at her side. It must run in the family, kiddo.

The evening ran its course with lots of fun and frolics with friends and family at the bar, on the dance floor, at the tables in the hallway and everywhere was electric. It also gave me time to reminisce and chat with new people and those I hadn’t seen in a while, as these kinds of events do.

The wedding, as well as recent events here at the Keep, has made me reassess things work wise and also family wise, so expect some changes from me – not major ones, they will be subtle, but they will be there – now is the time for quality time for both, balanced evenly.

The excitement is still here with us all after the wedding and the best thing about it, for Joanne and Toby and their future together, everything lies before them and all of us, their family and friends - we’ll all be there with them for the ride.

And now some Photos of the day and evening:

Breakfast at Barton Grange Hotel - Morning of the Wedding:
Best Man, Paul & Groom, Toby

Usher, Simon & Best Man, Paul

Joanne & Toby and Friends - Whitehall Country Club

The Happy Couple

Joanne - The Happiest Young Woman Alive

Film Star

Joanne & her Bouquet

Joanne on the Wishing Tree

Two Rings to Bind them Both and in the Darkness Protect them

Cutting the Cake - Evening Reception

The Kiss

The First Dance

Striking a Pose - 006 and a half and his Bond Girl

Breakfast - The morning after the Reception - MJ's Restaurant Whitehall Country Club

I'll post some more in a future Blog.

Thanks for sticking with me on this one.

I hope you will understand why the Blog was not split and why it needed to be written.

I am the proudest man on this planet, not in an arrogant way, but in a fatherly way.

I have one more thing to say and I ask you all wherever you may be in this world to raise a virtual glass, one more time to:

The Bride and Groom

To Joanne and Toby

xxx

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

Wednesday 21st 2010

Joanne & Toby – Wedding Bells Ring...

2010-07-16T00:00:00.001+01:00

Congratulations on your Wedding Day...

Hi Guys,

Just a quick line, or two today to say the big day has finally arrived and along with your Mum, Margaret, your (not so) little brother, Simon, Nan, Grandma and Grandpa and all your family and friends I would like to wish you and your Fiancé, Toby all the best wishes in the world as you celebrate your wedding.

May you both enjoy a joyful, happy and prosperous life together.

All our love always...
xxx

Below:
Bride, Groom, Best Man and Chief Bridesmaid on holiday...

Just in case you are thinking...I am actually at the wedding...thank goodness we have the Internet for setting these things up in advance.

Below: My Princess and her little Lucypie...

I’ll have lots of photos of the wonderful event to show you guys soon.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6,

Main Engines running!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Lift Off!

We Have a lift off at 13:00 hours GMT on July 16th 2010.

Perkins and Rothwell are really moving out now...

Control to Blog Readers we have 18 hours before an L.O.S.

She's looking good for an over hill and we'll see you in Darwen...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…

Friday 16th 2010

Final Countdown: T-Minus 24 hours and Counting...

2010-07-15T07:38:00.000+01:00

The wedding of the century is almost upon us...

Hi Guys,

Well my speech is more or less the final draft now, phew and The households Perkins and Rothwell, are beset with all things matrimonial.

Later today will see my son, Simon and I head off to the spa hotel at Barton Grange to meet up with the Groom, Toby and his Best Man, Paul.

Margaret and Joanne are kicking Simon and me out, as I have mentioned in a previous post here and are occupying the old homestead along with two of the Bridesmaids, Vicky and Samantha ( the little bridesmaids, Chloe and Laura are arriving early morning tomorrow) on this the night before the wedding, so it will be early tomorrow that I get the chance to emulate that great scene in Father of the Bride, when Steve Martin and his daughter play one last hoop in their backyard.

As you guys are by no doubt aware now I am so proud of her and I couldn’t be happier with her choice of husband, who is a friend, to us all, as well as the new addition to the family.

NASA Control is predicting fine weather for the launch, OR ELSE...with all systems green for GO, ready for the final countdown.

T-Minus 24 Hours and counting...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
Thursday 15th 2010

Final Countdown: T-Minus 2 and Counting...

2010-07-14T06:11:00.000+01:00

The wedding of the century is fast approaching...

Hi Guys,

Joanne and Toby are positively buzzing with excitement as the big day looms for them. All conversation between family and friends is concerned with all things matrimonial, as it should be, so close to blast off.

The phones, emails and visits are constant and many thanks must go to those not on the guest list, but wishing the happy couple well for the day and indeed their new lives together. There have been a constant flow of folks that know me only through my work and the Internet that have asked me to pass on their good wishes, which is wonderful, so thanks too to these people too.

With only two days to go now, before Friday, time seems to be speeding up in manic fashion.

NASA Control is predicting fine weather for the launch, with all systems green for GO, ready for the final countdown.

T-Minus 2 and counting...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
Wednesday 14th 2010

Final Countdown: T-Minus 5 and Counting...

2010-07-12T06:45:00.000+01:00

Excitement mounts for the wedding of the century...

Hi Guys,

This is NASA Launch Control at T minus 5 days and counting. We are still Go with our countdown for the wedding at this time. We are aiming toward our planned T-zero of 13:00 a.m. GMT Standard Time.

Well, now the week of the wedding is finally upon us and the excitement mounts, as everyone busily makes sure all the final tweaks are in place. Joanne is now showing off some photos of her Hen Party on FaceBook, which will probably never be the same after this...

Folks are jetting in from all over for the big day and the guests are as excited as us.

Only five days to go now and the big day will be here before we know it.

NASA Control are predicting fine weather for the launch, systems are green for go and final checks are being run down.

T-Minus 5 and counting...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
Monday 12th 2010

Final Countdown: T-Minus 6 and Counting...

2010-07-11T14:33:00.000+01:00

Excitement mounts for the wedding of the century...

Hi Guys,

Just a quick line, or two today to say that the atmosphere is electric here and that last evening saw my wonderful daughter, Joanne, her Mum, Margaret and friends, or her "lil hens", as she called them, on her Hen party.

I for one cannot wait to see the photos, as it was in the early wee hours of this morning that they arrived home. She assures me there will be photos aplenty on FaceBook, which will probably never be the same afterwards...

Only six days to go now and the pace is picking up as everyone gets ready for the biggest event of our lives since the birth of our two children – now no longer children, at least in size.

NASA Control are predicting fine weather for the launch, systems are green for go and final checks are now in place.

T-Minus 6 and counting...

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
Sunday 11th 2010

MaltaComicCon2010...

2010-07-06T04:57:00.002+01:00

The second Maltese Comic Convention...

Hi Guys,

Just a quick Blog, as the Spooky Tales artwork continues for me here at the Keep and Joanne’s wedding gets closer by the day, where we are at T- minus 11 Days and counting and looking good for go.

Hopefully the children’s book spreads will be finished this week, which then gives me time next week for the run up to the big day, hence the quick Blog today. There is still a massive amount of work to get through though and I may have to call upon Bentley’s help once more.

Exciting Comic Book News is that the Malta comic convention organisers announced the first guests in this year’s line up, late last week.

Confirmed guests going along this year, up to press, are Liam Sharp, Gary Erskine and I. This year I am pleased to be able to have Margaret accompanying me on the trip.

The dates to remember are October 16th and 17th – a little earlier this year than last.

The venue is the same as last year, the magnificent Saint James Cavalier Centre for Creativity.

Here are some links you may want to check out:

Malta ComicCon2

Wicked Comics – Malta Comic Web Hub

You can find out all about my time out there last year in by reading my Blogs on the event below:

1st Annual Malta Comic Con Part 01
1st Annual Malta Comic Con Part 02
1st Annual Malta Comic Con Part 03

Well it’s all hands to the deck now as I try to complete the paints on the children’s book, so I better sign off.

Just to say, before I do, the next job on the agenda, aside from two pieces of work commissioned for two books for the convention, will be Worlds End once more, as I get back into the swing of things once more, set to complete the book finally this time around.
Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
Tuesday 6th 2010

Countdown to the BIG DAY...T-Minus 14 and Counting...

2010-07-02T00:00:00.001+01:00

My Daughter, Joanne & Toby’s wedding...

Hi Guys,

Well the final countdown from NASA central for the big launch on July 16th as my Daughter and her Fiancé get married began yesterday and to say things are now getting exciting is an understatement. It is my daughter Joanne’s wedding day soon, and it’s getting nearer and something, which we are all excited about.

I have to admit to feeling a little like Steve Martin’s character in Father of the Bride and I keep looking for Frahnk and his flipping swans in our gardens here. Joanne has been very organised and most of the arrangements have been done for ages, so now it is just a case of fine tuning and making sure everything is still on for the big day.

I keep looking at my speech for the wedding breakfast and adding little snippets to it, but with all that has gone on these past few weeks this has not been easy to achieve, so these next few days on the run up to the big day will see me finalising that and really enjoying the feelings of the moment, again a welcome change for me at the moment.

I purposely haven’t seen Joanne in her dress yet, as I want it to be a big surprise on the morning of the wedding. I have been kicked out of my own house to accommodate a bride, bridesmaids, and bride’s mother only household on the evening before – can you see where the appreciation of the Steve Martin character is coming from yet guys?

I am resigned to staying in a rather posh hotel in the rural area of the Ribble Valley here in Lancashire along with my son, Simon, who is an usher, Toby, the bridegroom and Paul, his best man. It promises to be a rather sedate evening the night before with a swimming pool, Jacuzzi and bar area, somewhere to share a few thoughts and laughs before the next morning, when I, at least, will be leaving early to get togged up and ready for the big event.

I am likening it to the feeling we had as comic fans back in the early 70’s when Jack Kirby released his “Big Bang” and “Mountain of Judgment” stories for his Fourth World series.

I have promised myself I won’t be emotional on the day, you know the kind of thing, tears and stuff, but I’m not sure I will be able to honour it, as I am feeling pretty emotional as I write this little Blog for you guys.

There will be photos aplenty here and on FaceBook to show everyone the fun we had on the day, which I promise to upload after the wedding.

So here at NASA control it’s T-minus 14 days and counting.

We’re looking good for go and hopefully the weather will not delay the launch...

We’ll be running down more checks as we get nearer the final launch.

Until next time, have fun!

Tim Perkins…
Friday 2nd 2010