Steve Butler

The Art and Stories of

Steve Butler

I am a pen and ink junkie and creator of Cuckoos Wear Black.

Although having spent most of my life addicted to the joy of ink,

my entry into the world of comics was a late one.

ALL IMAGES CLICK LARGER

Before that, most of my work tended to be single page commentaries

 on whatever caught my mind at the time.

Mostly incomprehensible ideas but I know what I meant.

Waiting for an asteroid.

The inequity of global warming.

Soapbox Schadenfreude

That all changed when I read Strangehaven by Gary Millidge.
A soap opera written in comic format. It just sort of clicked and
triggered all the bells that perhaps, just perhaps,
 the ideas floating around in my head would work.
 And from there Cuckoos Wear Black began to evolve.
 The idea was to create a series of individual dramas
 set in a fictitious English town.
Richard and Julie's story
 is the first in the Cuckoos Wear Black series.

The artwork for Cuckoos Wear Black is traditional
with the exception of the dot tones and lettering
which are added later using Manga Studio.
I guess you can still get zip tones
but I wouldn't trust myself with anything sharp.
 The technique changed slightly during the comics development.
The early pages were primarily brush, which I love,
but the latter pages have tended to all be drawn with
 a Deleter G pen; an awesome pen, although it does
lay down a lot of ink so inky forearms and smudges
are always waiting in the sidelines to grab me.

I'm not saying where the change occurred and hopefully

 it's not obvious.

If anyone is interested, I pencil in reverse on the back

of the Bristol board and then ink on the other side

 using a homemade drawing board

with built-in light box; sounds much grander than it is.

Who paid the ferry man?

Although primarily working in black and white for comic work,

I will often work in colour for other illustration work.

Most of my colour work is undertaken using vector colours.

Alongside the comic illustration, I have also undertaken

a number of illustrations for

presentation and promotional literature...

 and of course, new commissions are always welcome.

Contact me at

http://cuckooswearblack.com/blog/?page_id=183

Follow me on twitter
http://twitter.com/henspace
Facebook of course at
http://www.facebook.com/henspace
Cuckoos Wear Black and links to other stuff over at
 http://cuckooswearblack.com/

And then there is this......

So much great work. Thanks Steve.

We can't get enough of the inking style you've crafted.
We want to see more and will follow the strips progress.

About your "Mostly incomprehensible ideas"...

Please keep 'em coming.

Posted in: comic strip,graphic art,soap opera