That’ll Learn Ya.

Well that idea really blow up in my face. Instead of laying low for the weekend and starting the week well rested and healthy I just got sicker and sicker as the days wore on until yesterday when I was so ill I had all symptoms on the back of the Beechams tablet packet except the shivers. I keep forgetting that adult flu is very different to the flu you used to get when you were a kid. When you were a kid it was a couple of days at the most off school as you sat on the sofa drinking Lucozade and watching daytime TV and eating chicken nuggets. But when you’re an adult, all bets are off. Colds can stick around for weeks. I look like a love child between a Clown and a wino with my nuclear red nose and pale face. At least I think\hope I’m over the worst of it.

It weird being laid up trying to get my strength back. Luckily I’ve got a pile of books and comics by my bed. I have way too much time to think about stuff to past the time over the last few days like-

· Why have they never remade Westworld and if they did who would play the Yul Brynner role?
· Could I pull off a handlebar moustache and isn’t it about time the straight man took back the handlebar moustache?
· And how can Jaws The Revenge be worse then Jaws 3d? I didn’t think it was possible but with sharks that roar and exploded when boats hit them, they did it. Goddamn em.

Saw this the other day and it made me laugh.

Step On It.

Despite having the flu I’ve still had to be up early the last two days for appointments. One being a job interview for some part time work. Its all been really busy when what I really need is a day or two in bed which I’m planning to get this weekend. But on the bright side I have started to listen to my inner eight year old more and now quite like my new trainers even if they have rub the skin off my little toe on my left foot so now it looks like a prop from hellraiser.

Anyway speaking of footwear here the latest panel from Dirge and pretty much the only shot I can show with out giving the whole page and major plot points away.

Sod’s Law Kicks In.

I’ve been spending the last week or two trying to get all the little boring ‘real life’ things out the way like filling in forms and paper work and so on, so I can put in some serious time at the drawing board. Just as I got it all out the way sod’s law kicks in and now I find I’m coming down with the flu. SHIT. Anyway its rest and telly for me until tonight and then I’ll see about getting some work done.

I went to Brighton yesterday with two goals in mind. (1) Pick up any new copies of Love and rockets and (2) get some new trainers as mine now have holes in the soles and stink when they get wet. Couldn’t find any new issue (or any issue) of Love and rockets but I did managed to pick up the new Tank Girl comic. I also bought some trainers but I can’t help but think it was because I liked the girl serving me more then I actually liked the trainers which are a bit tight and look like trainer an eight year would choose. I’ve got to stop rewarding good-looking sales woman and start thinking more about my poor unhealthy bank account. Now I’m a little bit poorer with tight trainers and the flu. SHIT.

{Note} While trying to post this I found Blogger was down and after a few try’s I gave up and thought I’d leave it for a minute and picked up the TV listening and started flicking through it only to find there showing Jaws the revenge on ITV on Saturday. I’ve been wanting to see that film for ages. I know it meant to be shit but there no way it could be worse then Jaws 3d. Strangely the world seems ok now.

Loose Jaw.

Had an appointment today and as I was waiting the woman that got called up before me had the weirdest last name. Lovegrowth… Mrs Lovegrowth. Which is such a good name. Classic.

Once again couldn’t get any black ink yesterday (yep, still hand gold and white but no black) so I made the trip today to another and way better art shop which is great but in a rough part of town and tucked out of the way. Not only did it actually have black ink it had two kinds of black ink (irony). So I bought both. Ones a “Liquid Indian ink” don’t know what’s different about it apart from its not waterproof. I’ll test it out at some point.

Looking at all the paint and stock in that art shop set my mind back to my early college years when I tried out painting. Which ended when (A) I realized my strength was more in my line work and didn’t translate will into paint and (B) I got a Mac and decided to learn Photoshop. Which was sad, as I had spent loads on Gouache paint, which now just sit in a plastic bag drying out. So I thought I have a quick go at colouring a sketch today. I thought I’d draw a Zombie again as I’d enjoyed doing the Zombie Lake one. I had fun drawing it. The loose jaw and flies buzzing around the brain was my favourite bit.

Before:


After a quick and sloppy paint job. I made him green Zombie lake style. Enjoy.

The Return Of Kevin.

It strange when you come back to drawing a character you haven’t drawn for a while. I don't think it would be giving to much away to say that Kevin (the Goth clown looking room mate from Dirge) isn’t in the first half of the second issue much and so I haven’t had to draw him (apart from one shot of him from behind) since late last year.

Kevin was very loosely based on someone I used to know. In fact so loosely based on him that he’s now nothing at all like him. This guy didn’t look anything like Kevin but he had some of his characteristic. I wanted Kevin to be that guy that just gets in the way. The kind of guy who just worms his way into your life. His a bit of a sub plot to the story really.

Actually I said goth clown but his more of a rocker or punk. In the first issue I used to think of him as Sid Vicious without the charisma. As much as I dislike the Kevin character and everything he stands for his by far the most fun to draw. I tried to give him a real strange look, with his round, fat, split nose and unibrow. And lets not forget his Robert Smith haircut.

Summer Sketch’s.

Working till late last night. I mean much later into the night then I usually do to escape the heat. I guess when your in the mood to draw you don’t want to stop. So I worked into the early hours and then when I finally did get to bed I couldn’t sleep in the heat for another couple of hours. After I’d been asleep for a couple of hours the kid next door started up his latest craze which is repeated bounce a ball off the wall and woke me up. Either that or next doors become a squash court.


Anyway because of this, this is why I make no apologies for these weird sketch’s I did in my sketchbook, which I rested on my tummy while watching Richard and Judy on the telly.


I found the secret to making myself draw when I don’t feel up to it. Just keep a load of paperwork and forms that need filling in around. If it choices between more bloody paper work or forcing myself to draw then drawing is usually the slightly less painful option.

The Old Man And The Wii.

My friends not old (in fact his six months younger then me) but I thought a Hemingway gag would give this blog a bit of much needed class.

Here a video I shot a couple of months ago and forgot to post. It’s a friend playing on an arcade game called Stacker. The basic rule of Stacker is to stack moving lines of blocks on top of each other but the higher you go the less blocks you get and the faster it goes. If you make it to the top you win one of the big prizes. My friends had his heart set on winning a Wii for a few months now and his pretty good at this game. Its probably getting in to double figure’s the amount of times his got to the last line and missed out. I feel bad for the money my friends wasted on this game (probably spent enough to buy a quarter maybe even a third of a Wii if he’d just saved the money.) Saying all this it wouldn’t surprise me if one day he did win one. If nothing else this video proves his the Tim Henman of Stacker.

I called the video Stack Head because I’m hoping that kids all around the world will start getting hooked on this game and then these kids will be called Stack Heads and it will turn into a bit of a pandemic and I’ve always wanted to name a pandemic.