Saturday 31 August 2013

Odds and ends, things that exist independently but play their hands well nevertheless



So this one girl enters the cafe. Folks turn to look at her, then turn away, back to their coffee and cakes. How to make an entrance. Loudly with firecrackers.

Some draws here from the last couple o' days. Abe'll be back home proper from the morrow, so I'll be back on the ol' frequent blog posting (he hopes).

A few ideas above... Like a 'hundred day book. ho hummn. monday, sunday, wednesday thursday etc...

Rambling and rambling. I cycle far most days.

Thanks to the comics Journal I found Elijah J. Brubaker. Cool stuffs.

Heres two pieces I've been listening to quite a bit...

Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack: 01 - Particles of the Universe


and to out, a lil comic I drew last night while watching 'a new hope'. Trailers in the 70's were somthing else, eh?!

Monday 26 August 2013

Friday 23 August 2013

In which a man forgets to remember the appropriate garb for the occasion, and is dismissed for it

 Page 6 from an eleven page story I put up on me tumblr

Reading some o' Chris Ware's answers helps me out of my 'failed drawing' funk...

Chris Ware replies:

Well, I'm doing this interview, and I just spent the last three weeks answering mail that went back to 2007, so I do try to not be a jerk when someone asks me for advice or sends me their work, but having my daughter sort of lessened the time I have for such things. I also try to be as honest as I possibly can with anyone who puts themselves through the rigamarole of trying to do this stuff. I was miserable myself for years and I know it's no fun to learn how to do and there's very little to encourage one for the solitude and doubt it can engender.

It's a real swell live answer session from the Guardian.

Marion Fayolle's  work is just beautiful. Nobrow just released a book by her, and there's loads o' great stuff up on her blog. really special drawings.


Je t'aime...

Robbie Basho - A North American Raga (The Plumstar)


And to out, a draw collage from me sketchbook.

Thursday 22 August 2013

Please continue to ignore me, no matter how loud I shout out

 Sometimes I think you try too hard baby, thats when I'll pull out the taser, shoot you down. 

I want things, so I'll rant. Because this is my blog. and because folks are free to read or not. I'm not in the process of a nervous breakdown (however appealing that might sound) just an anxious dissection of my intent and reasoning.

I love comics. genuinely, love em'. It's a strange thing to have landed on, but here I find myself. a small platform, a small world of folks making and reading little books of sequenced pictures. I love drawing comics, love when it goes right, hate when it goes wrong, but understand it's all part of a learning process. 

I'm trying to teach my hands to move across a page and convey my thoughts directly. No pre-penciling, just pen on paper. I achieve results of varying inclinations, I'll add something like colour, which in my case is most definitely a trick. Black and White is the way. I need to relearn. no... I need to just learn. Shit. a rambling monologue, but if there ever was a place for it... it's the internet, eh.

I have ideas. then none. I am a grown up, but an immature one. Comics. I love em, folks all over the world just making pamphlets or the like; and the feeling when you give them away to someone to then read and enjoy. You can't put a price on it.

But you can put a price on printing a pamphlet and you can put a price on postage. and you can put a price on booking a table at some zine fair. 

Thank fuck for the internet. a bottomless (well..) well of ideas and stuff et al. pah, more rambling... sorry. Throw it out into the digital world, make it free. 

I want things. I want to be better at what I'm trying to do. I figure time'll take care of that. But what if there's a bus with my name on it next week. cycling is a dangerous necessity in the big city. Anyhow, morbid thoughts aside, I'd like to complain for real.

It's not a monetary thing. I don't particularly want to make much money from drawing. thats not a reason, my life'd be just too boring if I didn't draw. A crappy minimum wage job'd do me for now y'know... It's more like, I so want to be where I want to be, but I'm not there, and I'm not always sure I'm heading in the right direction. Sometimes it seems I'm just swaying in the supercharged twilight, with a pen and a paper, ageing.

Holy cow, I believe I've just hit on the whole reason for the rant.

Lately my body is heavy and uncoordinated. Im thin, but no longer lean. Young, but no longer a youth. It's a scary and strange thing, to realise life passes you by regardless. maybe no one really ever grabs ahold of it like we'd care to imagine... 

The 60's were a long time ago mon ami. But they'll come around soon enough, so tune in, turn up, cop out. Or just turn off that record machine.

anyhow, thanks for listening. No comment necessary.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

I'd like to dance with you at some point, after my greatest nemesis is gone forever


Do you love Jason's work?

You should read them, they're pretty special books... above are two pages from me sketchbook, the cover to his new book 'Lost cat', on the left, then its drawn more in me own style on t' right. ho hummn.



If you reside in London town, you REALLY need to go see THIS exhibition at Camden Arts Center. It changed something for me, Swedish artist Jockum Nordström makes just beautiful artworks.

I've been feeling the need t'do life drawing of late, instead I've been drawing from season three of mad men. As you do. heres two of em.

love et al.


Saturday 17 August 2013

Lately I've been considering voluntary enuchification, but I just don't have the balls for it.

The beginning's of a crises o' conscience...

Well the weeks been a funny one, not always 'ha ha', more like "hey, oh. Ho hummn."

or whatever, In conclusion, I think the universe agrees with me that I'm not particularly suitable to work. hmmnn, abe just cant seem to get a job for love nor money, though last week i almost had two of em, heh. ceda la vida.

Anyhow, monetary troubles aside... I'm still looking after cats in a house where the scanner is just not my friend, that'll explain the infrequent posts for a few more weeks. Loads o' great comics coming out now or in the near future.. making me wish I'd picked a different time to go broke... Optic nerve 13, Lost cat, Rage of Poseidon, In Pieces, two new Anouk Ricard books, Ant Colony, Palookaville 21...

I could go on, but It'll make me madsad or something....


Today the guardian had a pretty swell comics issue of its Weekend magazine, a long interview with Anders Nilsen, and Chris Ware talking about sketchbooks, jeffrey Brown, Rutu Modan et al!

gotta love Kevin Huizenga (I'm gonna check the spelling, but I think it be right!) always has interesting stuff on the go.

Just got into Sam Spina's autobio stuff... think he had a comic in the Hic Hoc journal o' humour.

This week, I have mostly been listening to 

Yusef LATEEF "The plum blossom" (1961)


Just grand.

Sunday 11 August 2013

(he) a man named hank, is less tall then I but still more manly

Just carved out this woodblock... because it is a sunday... still a few changes to make, but I shall print it on some t-shirts soon.

Joy division are swell, but I prefer  

         Galaxie 500's - Ceremony


Also HERE'S something t' make any ageing young cartoonist inspired and discouraged at the same time...

Great saturday comic by Yumi Sakagawa as always, over HERE

and lastly...Though my own 5 years at the Everyman went by on a pretty minimal wage, without any hope of change, it's nice to see the guardian CARES ENOUGH TO KICK UP A FUSS. 

Plus, I always get pretty worked up over the zero hour thing + minimun wage and non compulsery living wage (always a lot higher). Im not gonna say anymore now though, as Im still a'hunting for work and have to put such principles behind ... blah de blah.

peace out fo' now yo!


Thursday 1 August 2013

A little something extra, because thursday night can be a lonesome place



just drew this one.

Special Book, Beautiful film, perfect soundtrack, and one heck of an original score... Heres one o' mr Greenwoods pieces for Norwegian Wood...

look ma, then look away quick, like you are a private Investigator





Stick it on, twirl it. thats the way mon amour!

here's todays output then. At some point I'm gonna have to start with the background drawing again.  But not quite yet, eh. The top story happened yesterday. drawn today. The  events in the other story happen pretty much most days.

there is nothing quite so haunting...

pretty swell interview with Dash Shaw over on Inkstuds

THIS painting is on show at the Tate Britain right now. Arthur Melville was a fantastic draughtsman and water colourist....my absolute favorite piece of his is Cockfight, but still, if you're in london town go see this un'  anyhow!