Fresh from the garden.....

Spring has sprung here in Madrid, and after a couple of weeks of sunny weather, we celebrate the first day of the season with... snow?
Cambio climatico aside, the creative garden is teeming with new life... my book proposal for an adaptation of John Polidori's The Vampyre, for example.
As always, click images to enlarge...






Wish me luck! I'm already shopping it around, more news as it develops.

For two March weekends in Madrid, el Museo ABC is housing a series of talks and workshops with UK Comics notables. At talented illustrator William Goldsmith's workshop... after having drawn a cartoon from someone else's character description, (without knowing whose) I gave the drawing ...to a little girl who appeared to really admire it... only to find out later when her dad posted this story on his blog, that she'd written the original description. Serendipity? (Click HERE for the story!) I hope she grows up to be the greatest cartoonist in the universe!

I've been commissioned to create a couple of comics stories for a collection called "The Bohemians,"(errr...Why me?) One story deals with dancers like Katherine Dunham, the other with Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay.
Here are a few examples of images from this work in progress.




Finally, Over the last few weekends I've been acting in a short movie for director Jose Skaf. A few of my drawings are likely to appear in the film as well, (subject to change of course... I recommended to him that if the images don't fit perfectly, he should obviously feel free to lose them for the good of the film) the finished project promises to be a lot of fun! We shot over a weekend in Ronda, Spain, an incredibly beautiful town with the most amazing forests you'll ever see. We stayed at La Cazalla de Ronda, a luxurious bed and breakfast, where we were treated like kings. Then we filmed for a day in San Rafael, near Segovia, in the same forests where Guillermo Del Toro shot much of Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth). I'll be recording voiceover narration soon, a relief to me, as it's a lot easier emoting in a dark studio with a cheat sheet than staring into an unforgiving camera, trying to speak my lines like a real actor! I suppose I've been acting through my drawings for far too long! Speaking of which, the images below are of the protagonist's ex-wife, ex-place of employment and exile to the forests of Ronda with his guitar, ready to come face to face with his personal monsters. Watch this space for more info!




And there we have it. And on top of it all, I'm still making progress with Thug Midwife, my original Graphic Novel which is shaping up to be quite a yarn.
So, off to work I go! Thanks as always for visiting!
Lance Tooks
(Happy Birthday, Seanie!)

Bonus links...

La Cazalla de Ronda Bed and Breakfast (Ask for Maria!) Honestly, look at this place!

William Goldsmith's joyous illustrations

UK Comics Spain info