Hello again, after setting up my site with a completely new, pretty theme, (hope you like it), I noticed I had only written one post about the Slasherton book series that I illustrate for Creep Creepersin. I’m very proud of the work I’ve done for these little books and as I mentioned in a previous post, I’m actually half way through illustrating the sixth in the series so far so it’s high time I updated you all on the rest of the books I think.
If you don’t know about Slasherton, they are a comedy/horror type series of books about the misadventures of the various gruesome, rude, nasty little inhabitants of the town Slasherton. They are based on the bright, colourful art style of the Mr Men and have a quirky rhyming style similar to Dr Seuss.
The first three books in the series cover the three main thugs Sack, Stitch and Stealth separately. Sack is their kind of ring leader and the other two are the classic henchmen who bumble around trying to carry out orders but essentially are a bit rubbish and have their own agenda 🙂
They’re all such great fun and awesome to draw, I have huge pleasure creating each of the stories as there is inevitably loads of gore and gross, disgusting stuff to get my teeth stuck into, if you know what I mean?!
STITCH
Stitch is Sack’s best friend and is big, hulking idiot that mashes first and tries to think after. He’s essentially a bean bag made of human skin stitched together and is ALWAYS hungry.
Creep was originally inspired by Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface when he created Stitch. He had original sketches by a professional artist but wanted a different look for a lot of the characters so we worked together to add and change features until the final Stitch appeared. I love the fact that Creep encourages me to add little touches of my own when I draw these fellas. It gives me a fantastic opportunity to let my creative juices flow but more importantly have a laugh with them. Each character is so different and unique, you have to give huge credit to Creep’s endless imagination.
These pics show the development from the first sketch, (before we decided on his weapon of choice, a club stuck with needles), to the full coloured version that I did using my Wacom Bamboo tablet on Paint. I’m sure many people will laugh or cringe when I say that all the books’ pages are all first drawn in Paint, (before I edit them and add text in Adobe Elements), because it’s so basic and limited but I kinda stumbled into using it at first having no idea what I was doing and now I like having the same, familiar palette and brushes.
As with Sack, Stitch still underwent further, more subtle changes before he reached his final and current design. We basically just made him squatter and his feet bigger so he gives the impression of being more cute.
Excerpt Pg 4
Excerpt Pg22
Stitch Excerpt
STEALTH
Stealth is another favourite of mine that we had great fun playing around with until he became the creepy little stalker he is today.
He was originally based on Jason Voorhees, as you can probably guess, but he is renowned in Slasherton for creeping around and rarely being seen or heard so we adapted him by adding big cute, fluffy teddybear slippers so he could silently tip toe around. The book follows Stealth just lurking in every page which again was great fun to do.
There wasn’t much difference between the original sketch and the final version except for the slippers, so I’ve just put the cover and some excerpt pages …
Excerpt Pg4
Excerpt Pg11
Excerpt Pg13
SLASHERTON ORIGINS
The fourth book in the series goes right back to the start and introduces the reader to all the characters and why the town is in the state it’s in. It fills the reader in on the town’s history so has lots of land and cityscapes, as well as all the characters, which was a great challenge as before illustrating Slasherton I had very limited skills in drawing from imagination at all. The illustrations needed to be more detailed and there were also way more pages so it took me a lot longer than the others to complete but was more fun in a way because of the extra details required.
I needed to create certain explosions and such which didn’t look quite right with the plain lines I’d been using so I had to get to grips with Adobe to get the look I needed. By the time I illustrated Sack In Drag I was much more comfortable with the programme but I was very happy with how they came out in Origins.
Below is the cover for Slasherton Origins along with some pages and a selection of characters you will find among it’s pages …
Excerpt Pg1
Excerpt Pg6
Some of my favourite characters, although it’s hard to choose really.
Claw
Hunch
Mary
Mayor Burgermeister
Monsterstein
Mums
Wherewolf?
SACK IN DRAG
The last book available in the series so far is easily the rudest of the lot! Sack in Drag is the first of a two part tale where Sack has to disguise himself as a ‘sexy’ lady to infiltrate the local town hall meeting to discover what all the folks are up in arms about. Unfortunately though, (for everyone else mainly), his new appearance gets him more attention than he bargained for and he deals with it in the only way he knows how …Violently!
Again this book allowed me to play around with some effects for his make up to soften lines and for lighting effects etc (with Adobe Elements), that really improves some of the scenes though it’s always important that I remember to keep it simple so it’s in keeping with the overall style.
Excerpt Pg12
Excerpt Pg15
Sack In Drag Excerpt
CREEP CREEK CREATURE
This latest book is the second and concluding part to the story that starts with Sack In Drag and has a very special place in my heart as it’s story is a largely a loving homage to my favourite film of all time. I’ve had massive fun recreating certain epic characters who you will instantly recognise (hopefully!). I won’t say any more for now other than it will probably be the longest book yet as I’ve already done a lot and I’m not even half way through yet. We can’t wait to get it out to you all though and I’ll keep you informed about any updates.
For now, here is the cover and a sneak preview some of the pages …
Creep Creek Creature Cover
Sneak Preview Pg5
Sneak Preview Pg9
EEEEEEEEKKK!! SO EXCITED 😀
SLASH PACK
There’s also a collected ebook edition of the first 5 books called The Slasherton Slash Pack which is very reasonably priced. I’m putting the Amazon.com links but all the books are available on iTunes, Barnes&Noble and Kobo also. Really hope you enjoy them because a lot of love goes into them despite, (or more likely because of), the questionable subject matter … Nasty little creeps!!! 😀
Zoe Humphries 