The Presidents of the United States

All 43 ( well, technically 42, but Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms ) plus, technically, I think the 44th as well will be in time for printing.

A portrait each, plus some facts. Especially about some of the lesser known ones. Damn some were sick/quirky/weird bastards.

Ordering info etc to come.

Back soon...

With a slew of work. Working all weekend too. ( Although I will be watching the US Presidential debate and expect to be fully intellectually stunted by the experience. )

Oh what fun. For now, I leave you with this.

Welcome to Paris

Back in the studio now, after a great trip in Paris ( after starting in Vegas for the Diamond retailer summit, which was also great! ) Now back to trying to get up to speed with all the work...and more art to post here...

Paris was a blast. A special thanks to Thierry Mornet for organizing me being there for Delcourt, as well as Francois, Jeanne and big Dave, all of which it was great to catch up with and hang out with.

Most of the photos I took were of the alcohol I drank. If you're that interested, they're all on my flickr anyway, but here are some of the highlights of the trip.

Welcome to Paris. A crisp tuesday morning.



Francois at Delcourt



Thierry at Delcourt



My France schedule. And this was only the first draft of three. And still had another interview added on the monday afterwards. Must've done 15 or more all up. ( There was even a radio ad for Wormwood while I was there. )



MTV France. Actually wanted to interview me outside a launch party for a Manga Delcourt were doing.



The release form. I'd probably told them I enjoy golden showers from small children while eating baby seals or something, but I signed anyway.



The lovely Jeanne. And that's her being friendly.



Steeeve. Top bloke.



The Delcourt green room.



Another TV interview thing. This one was for their version of Scifi channel I think.



One of the Delcourt artist signing areas. The festival was very much in the public street in a nice pedestrian type area. Very much designed to give ordinary folks a taste of the comics ( Albums ) from the publisher. This is a brilliant thing I support. ( of course there were plenty of normal fans there too, and thanks so much for coming out to see me! Apologies for my shitty french. )



And some fantastic French comics. Not a super hero in genital hugging tights in sight.



The second street in the same area. I would do a signing here the second day. One of the prettiest places I'll ever do a signing at too.



Some sort of audio interview where I'm explain what Koala tastes like and how you have to stew it properly or something.



I also did a signing at a Virgin Megastore in Paris while there. They had these bloody big Wormwood displays throughout the store, not just at the signing table. Impressive. many thanks to Marie for organizing it all.



This is a weird mash potato/cheese mixed thing that has the consistency of chewing gum. Tastes good though.



Yes, I will let French girls draw on me. ( Actually I'll let most girls draw on me regardless of nationality )





Warren Ellis in two minutes. For some reason, someone at the signing asked for a portrait of my lord and master, Mr Ellis. Based purely on vague memory and my pure mystical bullshit, this is the quick end result. Sorry Warren.



One of my signings. One girl insisted on hiding for the photo. Another I think gave me my best advertising photo ever for the book, holding it like that.



Someone ( Marie ) showing off their Dave McKean sketch from a previous festival. It made me cry.



No, I'm not going to tell you what it says, but suffice to say they wanted me to learn it so that I would get many a slap in the face from complete strangers.



On the last day, I got my first tattoo. A cross of the Knights Templar for me. ( Since it's a bit of my history apparently ) Yes, my family has potentially been killing Saracens since way back.

Anyone in Paris?

( Et Ben sera aussi en dédicace au Virgin Megastore Grands Boulevards le samedi 13 septembre de 16h à 18h! )

I'll be there, sampling the booze and the food! ( And signing and sketching too of course. )

More info here:

www.editions-delcourt.fr/special/bercy2008/index.php

And

www.album.fr/librairies/librairie-album-comics/librairie-...

The Verdicts are in.

And so far people seem to like Welcome to Hoxford. Cheers to all who were kind enough to review it or write a few words, good or bad. I don't live my life by reviews ( if you want to believe the good ones, you have to also embrace the bad ones ) but thought I'd show the diverse range of opinion out there.



"This is the first time I’ve read anything written by Templesmith and I was not disappointed. The book seems like a demented version of Oz."

Neorama Entertainment

"Ben Templesmith has a frighteningly direct connection to the mind of bad men, something he uses to good effect in the twisted, darkly funny and definitely creepy Welcome to Hoxford."

Comicpants.com

"This is not a book for everyone. It is a book for me, though. Ben Templesmith may be a genius. Or maybe a savant. I'm not sure, after following him on Twitter for a while. Either way, I loved this book. I loved the use of color, the use of shadow, and the multimedia approach that provides the finishing touches to some of the most liberated and explosive pen and ink work in comics today."

ComicsBulletin.com

"This has the makings of being up there with the best high concept mash-ups in comic form. Templesmith keeps the language gritty, the story repulsive and the art is a brilliant blend of photo-realism and celebratory gore."

comicbookreview.co.uk

"The book is definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of Fell. I feel like it’s a bizarre and twisted version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I love it."

James Ferguson, whatjamesknows.com

"Templesmith's characters are almost universally grotesque inside and out. All of the prisoners are monsters, and the guards are even worse"

www.evilavatar.com

"As expected, the series is gory and bloody, and certainly will not disappoint those Templesmith fans who are looking for such things from his artwork. I count myself among them, but Welcome to Hoxford is much more. The back-story and mystery set up a much more compelling atmosphere than the action oriented 30 Days of Night."

brokenfrontier.com

"There are very few comics that manage to get me to do a gag reflex but…Welcome to Hoxford does just that

That sounds really bad…..but really it’s a compliment."

comicoverload.com

"This was an excellent opening issue of a new series from Ben. As a fan of his art style the book was also great to look at and his art continues to be refined and improved"

http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2008/08/best-to-worst-of-last-week_19.html

Comics And...Other Imaginary Tales



The Stack

"You might be familiar with Ben Templesmith as an artist on Fell, 30 Days of Night, and Criminal Macabre.... Or even as an writer/artist of Wormwood The Gentleman Corpse. I also like to think of him as one fo the ones responsible for bringing back horror to comics. And he's done it again with this title."

seattlepi.com

"All told, this is a fantastic first issue of what I hope is one messed up series. The mystery and apprehension is killing me! I can't wait until next month."

Diary of a Grognerd

"But Templesmith has never failed to entertain me with his art, from books like 30 DAYS OF NIGHT to his own property that he writes and draws in WORMWOOD: GEMTLEMAN CORPSE. This seems to have a much more serious tone than WORMWOOD and Templesmith gives promise of something truly horrific looming in the darkness"

aintitcool.com

"While getting past the confines of the now completely mislabeled format or approaching the more apt “graphic novel", to call Welcome to Hoxford a comic book is like calling Eli Roth’s Hostel a travel video."

acedmagazine.com

"The set up is in place. Now let’s get to the story, and let’s get nuts. (No pun intended.)"

www.comixtreme.com

"Steve Niles has developed a strong reputation as the top dog in horror comics in the industry today, but helping him develop that rep all along was his 30 Days of Night collaborator, artist Ben Templesmith. The artist has demonstrated that he’s no slouch when it comes to horror writing as well with such projects as Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse and 30 Days of Night: Red Snow. As if the strength of those projects weren’t enough evidence of his skill as a writer/artist, along comes Welcome to Hoxford. "

eyeoncomics.com

"Templesmith does an amazing job in introducing us to the characters without sacrificing the story. In only a few panels, I was able to get an accurate feel for each of the major characters, and that is really the basis for effective storytelling in comic books. The fact that the rest of the story was as intriguing as it was shot this issue through the stratosphere."

www.bloodofthemuse.com

WELCOME TO HOXFORD #4 COVERS

Have I posted the covers+info for Hoxford #4 yet? If not, well it's all below. Hope you dig.

So far, Welcome to Hoxford has been fantastic, thanks in large part to support of IDW and the retailers, ( who I'll be in Vegas next week to thank in person! ). So many, many thanks to you all, and of course the readers themselves. Everyone seems to have been digging the first issue, which is a relief, since I was a bit of a tease with it...The numbers are definitely up on the last "me" project- Wormwood: Calamari Rising. So I guess that's a good thing!

If you've missed #1 there's scant copies left at the distributor level now, despite a significant overprinting, so you'll have "wait for the trade" perhaps if you want the full story soon. Never fear though, there will *be* a trade. It won't be too long in coming.






Comic Summary: Ben Templesmith (w & a & c) The politics of the Pack are becoming a problem as the Werewolves continue to pick off what's left of the surviving inmates. Ray and Doctor Ainley are giving as good as they get in a desperate bid to retrieve the master keys to Hoxford. Meanwhile, the Warden makes his move and sides must be taken. Ultimately, the question remains: whose side is Ray on?

And once again, you quite possibly won't find this book in your local comic book store unless you ask for it. You can even give them the ordering code they'd need to get it in for you. Which is: SEP084111 or SEP084112 for the special cover version.

WELCOME TO HOXFORD #1 PAGE #2 Original Art

Yep, I'm putting one of my Hoxford pages on ebay. I probably won't let go of too many but people have been asking me when I/where I'll put them up. I'll have to organize a page with the other pages shortly but for now just this one up on ebay here.



Ink, Acrylic paint, watercolour, pencil and tonal marker on 140gsm tonal gray paper measuring approx 8 x 12 inches. ( A4 size international size )


For now though I'm enjoying the first real R and R I've had in ages. 3 whole days where I don't have to think about work! I'll shortly be off to France, where I'll be a guest of the very awesome people over at Delcourt for the release of Wormwood: Gentleman Zombie over there but more on that later.