Love et al

Forgive the old draw (a monoprint from a few years back) But I'm almost off...

To where you cry?! to America I reply. How long you ask, tears welling at the corners of your eyes... Three month's I mumble, looking downward, towards your left ankle...but I shall be drawing, and investigating comics I start, only to be cut off by your hand, leaving a red imprint across my right cheek. There is a pause. A parting, and the sense of an ending. I'll call you... Don't... But Marie.. Jet'aime!

This is a play. you can act it out whenever you feel the need, or just over and over again t'ill I get back t' the blogging. ho hummn. I'll be drawing a lot, and if the chance arises, will put up stuff.

I'll let you know.

Read THIS amazing comic by Sam Alden.

and I'll leave ye on the whistful and beautiful notes of... 

Nick Drake- "Rider on the Wheel"

Fiddidy centy returns

Yesterday I doodled another lil' fiddidy centy comic. Nothin' special.. just fun.

A list (oh, such a manly thing t' do!)

Coming o ' age Books I read, and reread:

Sanshiro-Natsume Soseki.

This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald

 Ask The Dust- John Fante

And then...

Je t'aime; In the City of Sylvie -Dans la ville du sylvie (?) off the top o' me head...)

Oh Red Riding, What a trilogy of the finest in all o' british television... ho hummn.

pah... I find myself bored with this futile game, heh. Thats gonna be all for now then. Meantime, dont forget t' get your (not quite weekly) dose of FORMING.

and t' out heres some o' David Torn's fine sounds from  LARS AND THE REAL GIRL.

Nervous in a cape issue 7.5

Thats right... the "rushed" issue before I depart to check out the o'l US of A for a few months... pretty happy with this un' put everything together in just over three weeks... and tho' t'is only a short one (just 24 pages all in all) still allow me a  few mins to bask in the glory.

comics is a field with so much glory. 

Read it all over HERE. 

And t' out.. heres "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto First heard it over HERE in Mad Men season two.

WRONG FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS

Just a petite panel from my sketchbook. funny, but not ha ha.

Anyhow, despite a few distractions this week, I've managed t' get quite a few pages drawn this week... more on the next chapter of the introspective astronaut tales... ho humm.

"Write a short story beginning with the word 'recently"

Recently I dug out and re-read the brilliant Abe; wrong for all the right reasons by Glenn Dakin. 

I first picked it up at Forbidden Planet a few years back, from the bargin shelf purely for the title... I believe it then resided on my kitchen table for a month or so until I finally mustered the mindset to just read the thing... But what a read it turned out to be... Abe... is composed of dozens o' short stories, both witty and profound, examinations of mundanity as told through the words (and drawings) of a poet (and his alter ego, one Abraham Rat). 

The stories within the book represent the best kind of poetry comics (which have been known t' drag more'n a little on occasion) where a gentle humour runs throughout Dakin's examination of the absurdities of life. I'm not gonna say much else, except that I find it both a grand companion (indeed it sat in my bag for months, dug out and flicked through often) and delightful read, one which stands up to multiple rereads. Which I've found to be a rare thing indeed for comics.

Abe... is published by Top Shelf, and is alas currently out o' print... I did only ever saw that one copy in forbidden planet, (and I can't imagine it made top shelf enough money t reprint) but there are a few copies up for sale on amazon, and I most heartily endorse it as a perfect little book. To quote NME...  "godlike reflective genius"

Just go buy it!

I was sent this link yesterday by my amiga Xoana with instructions to get on my bike and listen t it...  oh boy, t'is a nice album by a fella I'd not heard of... CLUCHY HOPKINS

Colour power, experiment!

Just a wee lil' colour test for the next chapter of my astronautical tale.... the first was in nervousinacape  7 .  Im having fun working on this story, it's still very much a playful, almost stream o' consciousness (blah de blah) style of working, just me an' my sketchbook and t' ol pens. Anyhow, im not gonna decide on final colour schemes or anything yet, just gonna get it drawn first, then colour later... it shouldn't be more'n 20 pages anyhow, so t'is perfectly doable and stuff. 

been catching a lot o' filmic goodness this week.... If you get the chance, and you value films with large periods of stillness in them, do yourself a favour and go grab a ticket to 'beyond the hills'.

oh man oh boy oh gosh! Mr Deforge's ANT COMIC (think D&Q are publishing it physically soonish, but for now). He's a prolific fellow, constantly churning out the goods, and this is a swell read.

So... I gave ye a film and a comic... just the old soundscape t'go... to see us on our merry, here's Louis Armstrong, with "BASIN STREET BLUES"

FIGHT or Run?

Just a l'il page I drew yesterday... a petite nothing, or the start of something. who knows.

Anyhow, got a real lovely review of Nervous in a Cape 7 over HERE, the reviewer (one Gareth Brookes) draws and prints darn cool comics himself (I was lucky enough t' grab a copy of his Sherlock Holmes vs Skeletor a few years back)... He has a graphic novel due soon! looking experimental and interesting, dig it over HERE

waiting for a delivery this morning, but it didnt come. sigh. 

who's the most playful experimenting cartoonist? Kevin Huizenga of course... his FIGHT/RUN comics are fun.

Nothing like PINK MOON on  a wednesday night.

Poems et al

Well, this lil book's coming along nicely... way back in november I read one of my friend Finnish Chris's poems, was kinda inspired by his wording, and the sentiment he conveyed... I doodled it into comic form, and now four months or so later... we've put together what looks t' be a 48 page book...

Composed o' three poems, two straight illustrations, and one in which i placed the reading of the poem into a bizzare story (i guess we might call it "re-contextualised"(?!))  , featuring pleanty of bodybuilders...heh.

Anyhow, we're looking to get it printed up in the next week or so... whoop!

Hey for any of y'all who want to read the latest issue of my critically unacclaimed and unnoticed comic... Issue 7 of Nervous in a cape  is all HERE for ya! feedback always welcome!

gotta love monsieur Kerouac's Jazz poetry - "OCTOBER IN THE RAILROAD EARTH"

Beautiful... prepping though the beats fo' my american journey!

Lucky Lucky!

Lucky Lucky! Heres a sneak peak!

A page from the comic I m working on with my amigo Finish Chris, only got a few left t' go! He writes the poems, I scribble the doodles... and we make the book!

This art isn't 100% finished, but almost there!

the ever inspirational John Porcellino 

And we out with some CAN - "MARY MARY, SO CONTRARY" 

Peace out and stuffs

Jungle Pierre, no more

Everything's a' coming together... still not officially launched... but soon, soon.... wh'oop!

Im sure I've linked before, but SIMON HANSELMANN'S comics are just too much fun.

Also dig Wilbert Harrison's "LETS WORK TOGETHER"  (1969)

it's the second version of what was the slightly more marriage orientated "LETS STICK TOGETHER"  (1962)

Both special in their ways!

After Jason

Well, last night my drawings were going nowhere, so I did a few doodles of panels by some of my favorite cartoonists... heres one by Jason... I decided t' try out a few colour schemes that mess with the beautiful flatness o' the original panel's colouring... 

I was re-reading Athos in America, and wondering at the stillness of the book, and of Jasons work in general... It's a special thing, especially as most of his work is quite short... Novellas if you will, and often working with just 4 panels on a page... Michel Rabagliati mentions stillness and playing with time in comics in THIS wonderful interview. I think its about 27 mins in, but dont quote me on that..

ho humm.

here's an instrumental by the Black Keys off their Chulahoma album... Great stuff