It’s A Kind Of Recycling.

I’m ashamed to admit I’m probably the last man on earth not to have a mobile with a camera built in. Every once in a while something happens to makes me regret not getting off my arse and updating my phone (like a few weeks ago, when I was lost in an unknown part of Brighton at night and would have happily killed for a GPS app or whatever they’re called.) It also happened early this morning on the way in to work. I was walking past a block of flats, when I see someone had stuck a note above what I took to be just bags of rubbish (even if the bags themselves were a bit more fancy then a normal plastic bag, and looked like they were made out of cotton or something.) The note was just a normal sheet of A4, with three words written on it in big letters. They were simply “Free… Clean… Hardcore…” It was maybe a bit too early in the morning to be hit with a shock like that. Had someone really gathered up all their old dirty mags and dumped them outside for anyone passing by to have? Did the person who did this even live in these flats (these were fairly middle-class flats.) Did “Hardcore” even mean dirty mags? Maybe these posh bags were full of second-hand sex toys looking for a new crevasse to call home? Maybe there was nothing sexy in the bags at all in the first place, and it really was just rubbish, and this was a cheap (but genius) trick to try and get rid of it?

I like the fact that who ever did this, thought writing “porn” was a bit much, so put down “hardcore” to be slightly less sleazy (probably was someone from those middle class flats, with their fancy, cotton bags.) Also the second word “clean” is a bit cringe-worthy. The fact that they made a point of writing down it was, makes me think maybe they weren‘t. With the schools breaking up this week, this guy’s (or girl‘s… but I’d say probably a guy) timing is good. Some lucky kids are going to have the best start to their Summer Holiday ever.

Much like the phantom man that leaves fancy bags of seedy mags (to be fair, anything could have been in those bags. Hardcore might not mean porn. Maybe they were really, really, hard Maths books or something.) I’m just gonna dump this latest panel here and see if it finds any love from passing strangers.

I wonder if that guy dumped his dirty stash because he’s gone digital? These days with the grotty internet, there’s something almost classy about a porn mag. Where once they were shoved in hedges, now you could probably get away with having them in your sitting room on a bookshelf.

Angry Birds Go Home.

I remember hearing everyone talking about Angry Birds a few months back. There had been so much hype that when I finally got to play it myself, I felt a little let down. It’s not a bad game or anything, it was just maybe a bit average for something that the whole world seemed to be talking about. It’s a playable game, but not something I could see people going back to in years to come. I guess I’m saying I don’t get the hype it managed to generate. For example, here a Flash game I’ve been playing loads lately that I think is wayyyyyy better. It’s in the same aim-n-click style, but is a much better game. Also the music sound like something off a cheap chill-out album, but kind of works.

I reached a depressing age where I had to give proper gaming the boot a few years back. Partly cost, partly because I couldn’t free up enough spare time that gaming needs. I’d say most of my friends are gamers and hearing them talk just makes me feel so out-of-the-loop. I can go months and months with out playing a video game these days, so it’s not worth me coughing up all that money for a 360 or PS3. Now-a-days, a quick go on a Flash game is the closes I get.

Any online Flash game recommendations or good websites are welcomed. I saw World Of Tanks reviewed on a TV program recently and I won’t lie, I’m tempted. I know it’s pretty popular right now. Also I just like to think there’ll be some glitch in it so you can invade World Of Warcraft with World Of Tanks (right now, I’m just picturing a bunch of orks and wizards standing around in shock as a giant line of Tanks come rolling over a digital hill.)

Home, Sweet Home.

I think this panel would be one of my favourites from the later-half of Issue #2. If nothing else, I always like white rain drops on a black background. It makes a decent effect and breaks up black areas nicely. It’s a good, little design trick. Looking at it now, I wish I’d done it more in this issue. Oh well…

Issue #3 is well underway now. This crappy English weather has been a good excuse to just stay in and work. Hopefully, all this hard work means if the Sun ever does decide to show it’s face again this Summer, I’ve free up enough time to actually go out and enjoy it. I hope it’s one of those Summers where you get a burst of decent weather towards the tail-end in August. I’d hate to think Britain’s had all the Sun we’re gonna get this year, already.

Also, I’ve been working up some ideas and doodles in my sketchbook, some of which I may post soon. I’ve just got to work out the settings on my new scanner first. I didn’t set out to buy a new scanner, but for some reason, when I bought a new printer a few months back it had one built in on top. I should really see if it actually works at some point.

That’s For Guy Gardner.

EMBED-Batman Beatdown On Vegas Strip - Watch more free videos I know this isn’t really Batman, partly because Batman doesn’t grab his balls before a fight (although I haven’t read every Frank Miller Batman comic, so I don’t know how true that is…) but seeing someone dressed as Batman take a beating like that is truly upsetting to my inner child. My outer adult however, was just enjoying the terrible Kung-Fu on display. Those moves look dangerously close to girly slaps. If Commissioner Gordon ever came across Batman fighting like that in Gotham City, he’d just storm straight up onto that roof and dismantle that Bat-Signal. There’s no coming back from fighting like that. If you don’t know martial arts, don’t try and wing it in a fight. That guy needed a smoke-bomb or something. A Bat-a-rang, maybe?

Seeing this video has kind of killed my buzz over the new Batman trailer and all things Batman.

It’s Party Time.

I don’t often post whole pages, so here’s a bit of a treat. This was the first page of a recent short story I was working on. I tried to cram in as many Monsters as possible, and page one was Zombies. It was a bit lighter in tone then most of my recent work. I put a few gags in this strip. It was more of a flying visit to the Zombie genre, and hopefully a half-decent attempt. I’d like to do more one day, you know, just as drawing Zombies becomes really, really uncool and everybody’s tired of them.

Posted a copy up on Deviant art a few days ago for anyone who wants to check it out there.

Finally got around to getting an mp3 player today (or rather, today was the day it turned up in the post.) Been spending all day converting mp4’s to mp3’s and checking out the prices for a few audio books I’ve got my eye on. Turns out audio books are pretty pricey. Also, it never said it when I bought it, but it turns out it comes with the complete work’s of Shakespeare on it. What a strange time, when something can just turn out to contain an artist complete back-catalogue just on a whim. Slightly depressing in some ways. That said, I also found out it has a copy of Tetris on it, which cheered me up again. Plus the first song I downloaded off iTunes was this one. You can’t listen to this song and feel bad. Especially if you follow it up with this one.

I am really looking forward to The Thing prequel now. The new trailer has raised my hopes. It doesn’t really show any of the FX shots, and in many ways looks just as much a remake, as a prequel. But I live in hope after watching this new trailer. Just because every horror prequel I’ve seen of late has been a let down, doesn’t mean this one will be, right…? Yeah, ok, it’s probably going to be bad, I know. I can’t even think of a decent horror prequel off the top of my head.

…Uuummmm.

Decided I really need to take advantage of my sketchbook more, recently. I made sure to pick up a new one last week, while I was up the Art Shop getting Ink and Bristol Board. I spend very long periods doing the sequential side of things, and by the time I find a bit of free time to do a pin-up or two, my mind goes blank and I can‘t come up with a decent concept. It would probably be a good idea to work up ideas ahead of time. I want to push the Monster making side of things more. Come up with some nasty beasties to show off in my work. I see all those great sketchbook pages Guy Davis does, that they put in the back of B.P.R.D. graphic novels, and I realize that it’s something I should be doing more, myself. If I had some Monsters drawn in rough before hand, it would give me something to work with when it’s Pin-up time.

So I was up late buying Markers online to help me do this last night, when I came across this book. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and such a book did actually exist. I guess it was only a matter of time before some publisher did it, and it shows how mainstream it is that someone’s bringing out a “How To” book on it. I have to confess (and don’t judge me harshly…) my finger did hover over the buy button for a few seconds. My morbid sense-of-humour wanted to know how far it went and what the tone of the book was like. Dead serious? Tongue-in-cheek? Could there really be a book out there with a step-by-step guide to drawing good Tentacle Rape? This book couldn’t really be like that, right? It had to be a cop out and just be a how to draw pin-up girls in a manga style, was my bet. But at £9.69, this joke had suddenly got a bit too pricey for me. Plus the book’s in German and I’d kick myself for not being able to read the text and see how they tackled this thorny subject in the end. Also the fact that one day I’d like to visit Canada, and if Canada found out they’d break my Knee-caps and throw me in a vat of Maple Syrup for a hundred years, which is how Canada deals with perverts. What happened to you Canada? You used to be cool. I’d feel weird about being penalized by a country that made Llsa: She-Wolf Of The S.S.

Returning Home.

I’m all over the place this week. Why do things seem to take twice as long in hot weather? Am I being paranoid or do computers go a bit crappy in hot weather? I thought I’d give the art side of things a rest this week and do the computer side of things, which I’m now regretting as both my Mac and Laptop are acting up and doing weird stuff. Is it the hot weather to blame? At least I’m getting some work done this week. It’s not often I find myself envying the lifestyle’s of Eskimos, but this week… I tell ya… Most people dream of moving to a warmer clement when they retire. I might go the other way and find myself a nice log cabin in the Arctic or somewhere.

Another Issue #2 panel above.

All Stocked Up.

Made my annual trip to the local Art Shop today. Every few months, I have to make this trip to stock up on Ink, Bristol Board, Brushes and so on. Our local (and as far as I know only) Art Shop is in one of the roughest parts of town. It’s like a little quest I have to do three or four times a year. I hate that this shop is so far away and to get there, I have to walk through parts of town I’d rather avoid (or better yet… firebomb!) But when I return triumphant and all restocked, I still get a little giddy and a bit of a buzz off it. Doesn’t last long, but there’s something about knowing I’m all stocked up and ready to go that I like.

I’m starting to develop a real mean pet-hate about something I see more and more when I’m online. It’s when people post their photos up on the net and they’ve put on really bad Photoshop filters, so their photo is now all weird shapes and colours, and you can’t really make out what the original image is meant to be, unless this was the aim of the person posting the photo (which nine times out of ten, it wasn’t.) It’s a trap most people fall in to when they first get their hands on a copy of Photoshop and discover the filters. In the late 90’s when I was studying Graphic Design, I’ve got to confess it was maybe a trap I fell into myself a few times in the early days. You think these filters are the coolest thing in the world when you first start using Photoshop, and you can’t help yourself. I know nowadays it’s a bit of an inside joke in Design. People with their home copy of Photoshop and the need to use those horrible filters they think look so arty and edgy. Photoshop (and other Art Programs) are awesome for cleaning up, sharpening and adjusting your photos, but the photo itself is the piece of art. Putting on tacky, unneeded filters just looks garish. If you’re super skilled at Photoshop and know how to use filters without ruining your original shot, then fair enough. But otherwise, tread carefully, or better yet, step away from those shitty filters. When it comes to filter, less is more. Or better yet, none at all.

Peek-A-Boo!

Most Horror comics have a creepy looking Monster lurking behind the door. Mine’s got a hot (but hopefully slightly creepy) chick behind mine.

Wow… Just remembered why I like to keep my June and July workload light. The heat’s a killer when you’re trying to work. It got so bad I spent most of Tuesday just eating Cookie Dough Ice Cream and watching the end of Season 4 of Dexter. It was by far the best day of the week, but then I felt bad for slacking and had to work extra hard to make up for the lost time.

I’m debating in my head if I wanna try and make it to FrightFest this year. I kind of really do… but… it’s just finding the time to organize it all. I wanna have a really good stab at trying to make it up there for some of it, at least. If only for the odd movie or panel or something. Just to see what it’s like.

You know that feeling when you find a really good deal on a boxset of all the Exorcist movies online. Only when it turns up, one of the corners is damaged. At first you think one of the post office workers just drop it (the wankers!!!), but as the day wears on and the more you look at it, you swear it looks more like something’s been gnawing on it. Something hairy with tiny, sharp teeth.