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

Eyes Down!

A little snippet from a little somethin' somethin'.

THUMP!

A recent panel from Time Share, coming soon - honest - from Oni Press.

KNEEL!

I was very excited about the new Man of Steel trailer. I've got some small reservations from what I've seen so far - it feels like the film is going to move VERY SLOWLY through the whole "will Clark Kent live up to his destiny" business, then cram a metric ton of collateral damage and fisticuffs into the last half hour. OR (more likely), it'll be very, very long indeed - essentially two films bolted together - which seems to be a given with these summer b-busters at the moment. The Hobbit's just shy of three hours apparently. Three hours! Christ.

And then there's the whole bit with the world being too big, and Ma Kent (for it is she) advising him to "make it small". Weird, creepy advice, though not a patch on Pa Kent's "kill 'em all and let God sort it out" admonishment. I bet when these bits turn up in the movie they'll be incredibly potent and effective, but they're maybe a bit too ambiguous for the purposes of a trailer (particularly with all that soaring, inspirational warbling going on in the background - I'm not supposed to find Pa Kent's "maybe" stirring, am I?)

But balls to all that, because as soon as Superman takes off into the sky the whole thing suddenly makes thrilling sense. And then this guy turns up:

Michael Shannon as Zod. He's going to be the best thing in the film, you wait and see.

Sketchy stuff

A page of sketchy stuff, featuring some oblique spoilers for a couple of projects I've got coming up. Hmm!

YOU'RE Thor??

Thor warm-up sketch on a cold November evening.

Time Share - just the colours

HOT off the presses, here's the colours for a page of Time Share I just finished. No inks, cos I don't want to spoil the plot (and I think the colours look pretty nifty by themselves...!)

FRANKENSTEIN: RIP?

Finally finished this Frankenstein commish. Loads of fun, though I think I enjoyed drawing his 'orrible teeth the most.

Monster Monster!

Quick sketch of Alec and Abbey from Swamp Thing, one of the best couples in comics history. There might be inks (and colours?) in this thing's future.

EDIT: And here it is! I over did the background texture, and messed up a nice detail I had planned, but it's otherwise not bad. Sigh. I knew I'd lose something with the inks, I always bloody do. Still a nice drawing though.

FRANKENSTEIN LIVE!

Sorry, that's supposed to read "Frankenstein Lives!" I'll fix it.

Ink study for a commission I'm working on. Trying to figure who my Creature will be, and I've kind of settled on a cross between Mary Shelley and Hammer Horror. I love drawing this guy! "I want to drink your blood!" - classic!

The Fuzz - IN COLOUR

A gritty-ass panel from Alex de Campi's forthcoming ASHES. 

Hulk... pensive

Digital sketch. Trying to use my power of Photoshop FOR GOOD.

Here comes the fuzz!

A snippet of a page from Alex di Campi's Ashes. I love drawing SWAT guys!

DOOOOOOM!!!

Latveria's favourite son in some borderline upskirt action. Why, you can almost see his Cosmic Cube!

Sorry.

D

She Ain't Buyin' It

A panel from Time Share - coming soon.

MONSTER!

I completely botched today's page, so I made it up to myself by drawing Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy. 

Really wanted to work the monolith from 2001 in there as well, but couldn't figure it out. Ah well - next time.

Goddamn, I loved doing this. Jack Kirby, you were the best.

She's on the Phone...

A panel from Alex de Campi's forthcoming ASHES. I've seen some of the other art in this book and I must say it looks BLOODY LOVELY so far.