Have a Daredevil New Year!

Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil!

I'm Looking For the Doctor...

Favourite Doctor? I'm calling it now: JOHN HURT.

DOOMCOCK!

Doctor Doom warm-up sketch. I don't know if this helped me do a better page or whatever, but it WAS fun - and it came out nice! I like how Doom carries a gun when he really, REALLY doesn't need it. He fires power bolts from his hands, is a top-level mystic and has an army of obedient robots at his disposal. But still... got to have the pistol.

Cool guy.

His is the Power Cosmic!

It's... THE SILVER SURFER!

Dundee Comics Day

Last Saturday at the DCA (Dundee Contemporary Arts centre) Dan was a guest at an event which was part of the Dundee Comics weekend, organised by Dr Chris Murray and Phil Vaughn (of Dundee University and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art respectively). 

It was BRILLIANT fun. Loads of kids turned up to have a go at drawing monsters and inventing their own Doctor Who villains. 

Outside the activity room was a little display of some of Dan's Doctor's Who work - for Panini and IDW.

After a few nervous moments, wondering if anyone would turn up, the room started to fill with kids eager to get drawing.

The little girl in this picture drew an amazing bright red Dalek, while the little boy drew several Doctor Who scenarios, including a TARDIS surrounded by dinosaurs AND an erupting volcano! He also invented a terrifying bad guy KILLATRON!This was a blue insect-like monster with a killer stinger! Other fab designs of the day included a Gangster Carrot, Telesaurus... Yes, these are just what you're thinking: an actual carrot dressed as a gangster and a TV complete with arms, legs and killer instincts. I didn't get any pictures of these :( You'll just have to take my word that they were awesome.

Dan drew a few Daleks and Cybermen during the day to give away to the kids. And there was an impromptu signing of Doctor Who graphic novels.

The place started to get really busy, with lots of kids and their parents chatting about Doctor Who and drawing Doctor Who. The place was Doctor Who crazy. Later, a few other Doctor Who creators dropped by, such as Simon Fraser and Steve Parkhouse!

A jolly, creative afternoon was had by all - especially Dan, who can be seen here being interviewed by a camera crew.

Many thanks to Dr Chris and Phil for the invite. We had such a blast and are looking forward to taking part in similar events in the future.

(written by Dan's partner, Debs)

A Knight to Remember!

This was a recent commission piece. I never really thought about these characters before, I liked when they turned up in Batman or Batman Inc but found their own book a wee bit jolly hockey sticks for my taste. In't Britain marvellous? No, it's bloody horrible here, we're going nowhere, the weather's terrible, and the Royal Family has us by the balls for at least another hundred years. We're a nation of perverts and malcontents, and I would very much like to see a comic book that represents that. Stick your London buses up your arse.

What I was talking about?

Oh yes, Knight and Squire. Doing a sort of blood-soaked, black-as-night, Batman meets the Wicker Man type book really appeals to me. Remember how steeped in paganism and magic Alan Moore's Captain Britain was? That's kind of what Knight and Squire says to me. Crows, and palace guards and evil Royals and... that's a licence to print money as far as I'm concerned.

*activates wish machine* DC, please bring this book back and let me write and draw it.

D

Catalyst Comix numero four...

...is out! Yesterday! Buy it!

Here's a page from it - keep it under your hat though, right?

Vandroid - sneak peek!

Yep, that's what this! Hope you like it! Click to enlarge!

Les Trois Docteurs

A recent commission piece. The guy wanted McGann, Smith and Baker T in a tangle with the Conscience of Marinus from "I've never seen this" story The Keys of Marinus. I was happy to oblige, and threw in a tetchy K-9 and a bunch of Voord for good measure. It came out quite well, though I'd like to see the Voord a little more clearly and I think it's a bit busy for something with only a few elements. Nice inks though.

Probably...

...the best thing I've drawn today? Well, my missus thinks so anyway...

Agents of CHAAAAANGE

Here's a page from issue 3 of Catalyst Comix - I hope you like it!

The Question in... THE STAKE-OUT

A Little Something...

...I drew today.

The Question is

Don't worry, I'm not becoming an Objectivist or anything. Or am I?

The Sentinel Awakes!

Are you enjoying Catalyst Comix? I do hope so, I'm having fun drawing it. My favourite issue so far is number 3, from which this little beauty emanates:

Joe's packed a metric tonne of brilliant stuff into these 14 pages, can't bloody wait for you to see it.

Miracle Monday

So I've been listening to that stupid/brilliant Hans Zimmer Man of Steel music a lot, and it was Miracle Monday, and I love Superman, so I drew Superman

Drawn using my finger on my Kindle. Not bad, eh?

D

Game Over!

A Xenomorph, from the film Aliens. Burke says this specimen is worth millions to the bio-weapons division.

Drawn with my finger in Sketchbook Pro.

Previously, on X-Men...

Watching this ridiculous video

got me all jazzed about the X-Men for the first time in ages. As mad, convoluted and stupid as 90s X-Men was, you can't say it wasn't fun. Unless you were writing the comic at the time, in which case I'm assured it was a living hell.

Anyway! All of that led to this happening:

... I drew these with Sketchbook Pro on my Kindle Fire and it was a LOT of fun, highly recommended (and dirt cheap, too). I'm probably going to do more very soon - NINETIES X-MEN GO!

D

POW!

My Sandman vs Spider-Man piece, now with glorious colours from Jordan Boyd.

JUST HOW GORGEOUS IS THIS?? Thanks, Jordan!

D

Art! For Sale!

HEY YOU! I'm selling the following pieces on eBay RIGHT NOW. Bargain prices, great value etc. etc.

Click here for more! http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2051575.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=dan+mcdaid+art&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Ten Tigers!

Some rough Phantom sketches on some VERY dirty paper.

INHUMAN!

A recently finished commission piece. The commissioner in question asked for the Inhumans fighting some central baddie, and offered me Ronan the Accuser or Thanos as two options. Looking back, I have NO IDEA why I chose Ronan over Thanos (considering Thanos is about to break out, profile-wise). Maybe it's just cos Ronan has a hammer and hammers = pretty cool in my book.

Anyway, I think this came out pretty well.

Happy Birthday, Superman!

My interest in/love of comics may wax and wane, but I'm always going to love the Man of Steel.

Happy Birthday, you big, blue sod.


-D

WHATCHA GONNA DO??

A recent commission - the commissioner wanted a Batman piece in the style of the cover to Bad Boys. Specifically:

So I swapped out Martin Lawrence for Bat-family aberration Red Hood, Will Smiff for Nightwing,  and er, Tim Drake for Tia Leone. What?

Way Too Blue

A couple of different takes on the same colour image. I couldn't decide if I wanted this all-Metebelis blue, or to have a nice mix of hues in there. So here's both, and you can decide for yourselves!

Behind the Music - Conan Edition!

A recent commission piece. The commissioner asked for Doctor Who to meet Conan the Barbarian, so I started how thinking... how the arse do you I make that work? The first thing was to figure out a threat that makes sense for both the Doctor and Conan. And my thoughts led to Metebelis Three...

And, inevitably, to Gareth Hunt. So the "story" behind this is that prior to returning to the Planet of the Spiders, the Doctor picks up the second most dangerous man he knows. The first, of course, is Abslom Daak...

But he's dead. So - Conan it is.

This wasn't my first go at this picture. My original take was to present it almost as a sort of B-movie poster. I liked this version a lot, but the rendering on Conan bothered me, so I abandoned it. Pisser.

And that's it. Done and done. Now to get down the post office and send the bloody thing...

Dan

This man is IN YOUR HOUSE...

A panel from my forthcoming issue of Jim McCann's MIND THE GAP. Taking kind of a David Lloyd approach with this one - few holding lines, shapes defined mostly through shadows and light (and a single other tone throughout). It's weirdly very demanding, but the results look really nice. Anyway - this is COMING SOON.

Monkey Business!

A page from my recent Doctor Who strip The Cornucopia Caper. Really enjoyed this one - lots of cool stuff to make up!

Script by Scott Gray, pencils and inks by me, colours by James Offredi.

It's Good to (Time) Share!

I can't even begin to explain what's happening in this panel. Suffice to say - it's mortifying for all concerned.

Full House!

So here's the rest of that pic I was teasing you all with the other day...

It's an EXCLUSIVE(!) variant cover for issue one of Jim McCann and Janet Lee's LOST VEGAS, which promises to be a rip-roaring sci-fi ride. Working with Jim seems to bring out the best in me - this is one of the best things I've drawn in aaaaages.

Doctor Who - Tuesday

In 2011, the fine bergers (burgers? Whatever) at IDW asked me to contribute to that year's Doctor Who Annual. At the time, I was a bit down on the show - I didn't really "get" Amy Pond, and I still wasn't entirely sold on Matt Smith's Doctor Who... I was reminded of what it was like to be a Sylvester McCoy fan in the late eightes; here I was, thinking that Sylv and Sophie (his companion) were the best thing since sliced bread, then I join the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS for short) and it turns out that all the sour-puss grown ups think he's terrible, the show's in decline, and things haven't been the same since Tom left. Well, regrettably, I'm one of those sourpusses now. Bah.

But then Neil Gaiman wrote an absolutely belting episode, and suddenly it was love all over again. Perfect timing, as IDW wanted 16 pages filled by RIGHT NOW.

So here they are... RIGHT NOW (click to enlarge):

In case the plot isn't clear from these pages: Doctor Who is imprisoned by an exiled minor royal who is planning to take back the British throne with the help of some evil cyborg cat-type-things. Doctor Who is *slightly* prepared for this turn of events: Amy Pond is on the cyborg cat mothership preparing to stage a revolution, and Rory Williams has used some psychic paper to put himself on the throne as a decoy. This plot was described by Gary Russell as "utterly mad", and I can't say I disagree. But the show - particularly the modern show - is an endlessly active plot factory, so to stay ahead of whatever the production team is planning requires an act of utter madness. And I should know, cos I'd had two (possibly more) different plots shot down for being too similar to something that was coming up.

And despite its superficial eccentricity, I think "Doctor Who - Tuesday" (so called, because Amy is recounting these events to her mum in some sort of - we can assume - Space Time Telegraph, and these events represent a typical Tuesday) pretty squarely represents what the show's like these days: Amy is super-confident, Rory's a well-meaning drip and Doctor Who is, well, the best thing since sliced bread.

So... my art got panned by Who fans (cos it was too cartoony, I think), but looking back I think it's pretty bloody boss. And I had a good time, which is the main thing.

- Dan