Review of 'The Woodsman'

 Here's a new review of 'The Woodsman' from Optical Sloth, thanks Kevin! 

There are still lots of copies available in my online shop here, thanks! 

Review of 'The Woodsman'

Rob Clough has written a review of my last comic 'The Woodsman'. It's up on his patreon site here but I'll paste it in below in case people aren't a patron. (I asked and he said that was ok). Please sign up to Rob Clough's Patreon if you can for lots more exclusive reviews, lots of interesting stuff on there! Thanks Rob!

 The Woodsman

For over fifteen years, the UK's Rob Jackson has been delivering a dizzying array of bizarre and hilarious comics that skirt the line between genres like horror and fantasy with the most mundane of elements. His simple but grotesque art is easy to parse, because he goes to great lengths to make his layouts clear. No matter how silly the premise of his strip, Jackson always follows it to its logical end and beyond.

The Woodsman is particularly demented, as it follows a wunderkind novelist named Bill Greasom who is desperately trying to write his second novel. He travels to a cabin in a remote location, but he still struggles to come up with any ideas. When he meets a bizarre "woodsman," he's offered a chance to write something specifically for him, as it might help his writer's block. After the woodsman offers him a mushroom dish and moonshine, Greasom blacks out and wakes up with the inspiration to write and finish his new novel.

Obviously, this was going to be some kind of deal with the devil, right? Well, it did turn out to be a horror story, only it hinged on the most ridiculous detail possible. The Woodsman claimed that he liked very specific kinds of stories, and it turned out that he made a string of famous novelists write him porn. "The Old Man And The Sex Party" by "E.H.", "Catcher In Her Pants" by "J.S.", etc. Greasom discovered this and was horrified that he had been used in this way, and tried to find ways to get out from under his deal.

The rest of the comic explores a series of horrific scenarios where Bill tries to escape, recruits other writers to work against the Woodsman, and repeatedly finds himself back at the cabin. The caped Woodsman, wearing a stovepipe hat, cuts a ridiculous figure until the moments where Jackson unleashes completely unexpected horror. 

That's the secret to Jackson's success. He has such a firm understanding and appreciation of genre comics that the backbone of his stories is always cleverly ensconced in those worlds. His art has such a gloriously shabby approach that the worlds his characters live in all seem vaguely but permanently soiled. His characters look like ordinary schlubs with bad posture and spotty skin. Whatever absurd element Jackson introduces into his narrative somehow always makes sense within the context of the plot and doesn't take the reader out of it. Indeed, his service to the plot of whatever he's writing is unshakable. However, his eccentricities as an artist and his willingness to tweak genre conventions make each new story a delightfully fresh and strange experience. 

 

'The Woodsman' is on sale at my website shop here, thanks! 

 

'The Woodsman' Now on Sale

My latest comic 'The Woodsman' is now back from the printers and on sale.

It is the story of Bill, a writer struggling with writers block who goes to a remote cabin near a lake and meets a mysterious character called 'The Woodsman'.

88 pages, black and white with colour covers, halfway between A4 and A5 in size. £10 with free postage in the UK, for the rest of the world please go to my shop and add the £3 overseas cost with the button at the top of the page. Thanks!

Here's the first four pages, click on them to see them bigger.

Cleaning Cleaning Cleaning

I've been cleaning all the pages of 'The Woodsman' on the computer. It is a boring task. Here's the page I am up to, number fifty three.

I got an A3 printer scanner for my birthday this year, it seems to work well. It's very big. Now I don't need to photocopy my pages down to A4 before I scan them so they are a lot less messy. I looked at just scanners but they were too expensive for me.

Last Two Little Paintings from 'The Woodsman'

Here's the last two little paintings from 'The Woodsman'. Once I get this comic scanned and printed (next year) I'll give these out as rewards to the buyers. The second picture shows the woodsman sat on a saw horse like I was using on my woodworking course.

Two More Little Paintings From 'The Woodsman'

Here's two more paintings I did of scenes from 'The Woodsman'.

More Little Paintings From 'The Woodsman'

Here's two more little paintings I did of scenes from The Woodsman.

Little Paintings from 'The Woodsman'

I've been doing some little paintings of scenes from 'The Woodsman'. Here's the first two.

Front and Back Covers of 'The Woodsman'

Here's the front and back covers of 'The Woodsman' before I clean them up. I've not started the editing yet. I think this comic will be out next year, early on. I've started drawing a new story as well, but only slowly.

'Whats the Matter, Bill?'

Here's this weeks two rows of panels from 'The Woodsman'. The comic is finished now, its eighty eight pages long. I'm going to leave it a month and then try and edit it. I might do the covers this week...

'Hey, I've Got a Bite'

Here's this weeks two rows of panels from my comic in progress, 'The Woodsman'.

'It Must Be Still in the Woods...'

Here's this weeks two rows of panels from 'The Woodsman'. This story is going to need a lot of editing once I finish it...

'Bah, Nature'

Here's this weeks two rows of panels from my comic in progress, 'The Woodsman'.

'It Can't Be True'

Here's this weeks two rows of panels from my comic in progress, 'The Woodsman'.

'Its Getting Narrower and Smaller'

Here's this weeks two rows of panels from 'The Woodsman', my comic in progress.

'Cree'

Here's this weeks rows of panels from my comic in progress, 'The Woodsman'. I drew several pages set in a tunnel and used a lot of black ink.

'What's Going On?'

Here's todays two rows of panels from my comic in progress, 'The Woodsman'.

'Owww'

Here's todays two rows of panels from my comic in progress, 'The Woodsman'.

'This is Going to Take Hours'

Here's another row of panels from 'The Woodsman', my comic in progress.

'We'll Have To Start Being Careful Here'

Here's todays two rows of panels from my comic in progress, 'The Woodsman'.