Photo Reference

Here's a couple of the photos I used for important references for 'Great Deeds Against the Dead'. The top one is the evil amusement toy thing from the cover which I spotted near the beach in Dubrovnik, and the second is 'Colonial Amusements' in Lancaster.

I am busy drawing Great Deeds 2 still, I have made the last two pages very difficult for myself by filling them with rectangular tables. Aaargh the angles...

Great Deeds Against The Dead

Rob Clough says nice things about 'Great Deeds Against the Dead' when Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources asks him 'What Are you Reading?' (it's down near the bottom of the page). Other people who have read it say things here, here and here.

PS- Here's a new review of 'Great Deeds' from Rob Clough's High-Low blog.

Rejected Cover for 'Covered Blog'

I had a go at drawing a copy of a cover for that Covered blog. Sadly they didn't want it but i had a good time drawing it anyhow. It was good to do as an exercise as I was feeling a bit stuck on my 'Great Deeds Against The Dead' Part Two. Now I've got going on that again too. It's Dr Slump number 1 by Akira Toriyama. Maybe it's a bit too similar to the real cover and I should have changed it more.

Naoki Urasawa - 20th Century Boys Volumes 1 - 4

I really enjoyed the first four books of this manga series. I could tell they were good as I rushed through them in excitement to try and find out what was going to happen next. I’ll have another read of them soon and try and look at the art this time too! They are very gripping and dynamic.

The hero is Kenji, who owns a failing convenience store. He gradually finds out that a cult is trying to destroy the world and he is the only one who can stop it. The cult’s plans are based on stuff he and his friends made up when they were little kids. Is one of his childhood friends now the sinister leader of the cult, who is known only as ‘Friend’?

The best thing in the drawing is that the kids are easily recognisable as their adult selves, which must be very difficult to pull off. They all have very different faces so they are easy to tell apart and this helps the story run very fast adding to the excitement of reading it. There are lots of flashbacks and flash forwards showing glimpses of what is to come…

Cartoon in 'The Fix' Magazine

My short cartoon story 'Our Coroner is A Owl' (from Random Journeys 3) has been printed in the latest issue of 'The Fix' comedy magazine. It's their special Edinburgh Comedy Festival issue. Have a look at the magazine here. They've done a fancy job of re-formatting it so it runs as a strip across the bottom of two pages. It's always been one of my favourite stories so it's nice to see it in a magazine.

Great Deeds Against the Dead - PART TWO

I am busily working on 'Great Deeds Against The Dead' Part Two. Here's half of the unfinished page 10. Part One for sale in my shop...

Here's a review of Part One from Optical Sloth.

Schmurgen Jonerhaffs - Schmurgens's Uncompromising Comic #1

Schmurgen Jonerhaffs is a Norwegian cartoonist now living in London. Check his blog for buying information and for lots of comic strips. This is the very funny collection of his strips with an added competition, advice page from a man called Geoff from the pub, and a three page fan art story (by me) that ends in a song of which I am most proud. I think it might be the high point of my musical career. He is very uncompromising so read the comics on his blog first to check if you like them.

Peter Bagge - Everyone is Stupid Except for Me

It turns out that Peter Bagge is one of those Libertarians, so he’s all about the US Constitution in this book. They are into having a very small government aren’t they, that doesn’t get involved in people’s affairs, I’m not an expert as I don’t think we have them here. I don’t agree with some of his politics (the right to bear arms and that) but the drawing is very nice. Very clean, very cartoony. I like the characters rubbery long arms. And a lot of the stories are very funny too. I’ve never read much Peter Bagge as I never got into ‘Hate’, I wonder if I should read some. I’ve only ever read his stuff in Weirdo.

Pasty Anthology Review

There's an excellent review of the Pasty Anthology by Rob Clough on his High-Low blog today.

Special August Free Postage Madness Offer

Hello! Until the end of August I am pleased to announce that it is free postage on everything in my online shop (with paypal) to anywhere in the world. Why not take advantage of my madness to order some stuff? It's always free for anything in the UK. Ends 30th August when I go to sleep.

Ed Choy Moorman - Dark Cloud Comin'

This is a kind of fable like a very old fairy tale, one of the ones that's old and dark and scary. A young girl lives in a little village and the priest comes and takes her baby brother away in order to give him to the giant that lives in the mountains and protects the village in return for infants. She goes off into the mountain to try and rescue her brother. I really like the drawing, all skinny people with big heads, they remind me a bit of Chester Brown's people in 'I Never Liked You'. The mountain giant is particularly well drawn, that's him on the cover above. He also uses big patches of black ink really well. You can buy it here.

Francesca Cassavetti - Sole Searching

This is an excellent new comic from Francesca. It's got some short pieces and two long stories, 'Evil Shoes from Hell' about a really bad fall caused by evil shoes lying in wait on the floor to trip people up and 'Body and Sole' her daughter Lucy's life in shoes. Also - a colour story on the centre pages 'Lucky Shoe'! Lots of lovely looking cartooning with brilliant drawing of people and great expressions on the faces. Go and buy it here

Comics for Sale....

New comics on sale in my shop for only £2.50 with free postage in the UK. 'The Pasty Anthology' is also now on sale at Travelling Man in Manchester and at the MCC Comics Shop at the Sandbar pub in Manchester.

Garen Ewing - The Rainbow Orchid Part One

Hurrah, this has been coming out for ages and ages but I've finally got it. This is another comic where I've read it online before. It's much better in print, I was distracted reading it online by my various bosses at work wandering through hassling me to do things. I much prefer to read things in print. It's a lovely looking book, set up to look like a Tintin book. Drawings great, and the story is fast and exciting. My only problem with it is that it's only 48 pages (like a Tintin book) and now I'll have to wait till next year to get the next part...

Darwyn Cooke - Richard Stark's 'Parker - The Hunter'

I bought this book as I'd seen a lot of recommendations on The Comics Reporter and it sounded very cool. The dust jacket covers not the best picture from the book, I much prefer the hard back cover underneath, thats a cool image.
The story's quite familiar (I've seen it in that film 'Point Blank') but the drawing is amazing with all it's blue shading and very cool 50's look which is perfectly done. I'd never read any Darwyn Cooke before but I'll get the sequels to this when they come out too.

Paul Rainey - Book of Lists

I really enjoyed Paul Rainey's new collected book version of his 'Book of Lists'. Buy it here.
I'd read most of them online at his website but they are much funnier as a printed book, the jokes kind of build and get better as you read the different lists. It's a lovely looking book with top quality printing and almost pocket sized so you could carry it around and read it as you wander about and cheer yourself up.