...although ironically the toughest town I know IS Street. And it's a village.
Happy 2011 everyone - !! I'll be doing a YEAR REVIEW of 2010 in a bit and will be tap-dancing throughout using MY SPECIAL SKILLS.
New years was beautiful and I spent it with good humans staring at Glastonbury going nuts whilst chuckling into scrumpy. Christmas was a little subdued but as cosy as you could wish for without actually hugging a large rabbit in a warm cottage. All-in-all it makes return to the lonely cold of this empty house a little jarring - but I'll get by. I've still got some scrumpy after all!
Enough of this noise, on with the art!
..and this is the first page of the third part of Crabcake. It'll be a fictional nostalgia-filled part this month with lots of flashbacks to SHIT YOU NEVER DONE SEEN BEFORE. Also tons of continuity with things that NOBODY EVEN KNOWS ABOUT. I find that kind of stuff intensely orgasmic. Watch this space. Also go here - the bigger page is there.
A bit of an experiment this - I wanted to draw something a reminiscent of an eighteenth century painting where there's a gorgeous landscape and always some little bugger in there pointing or duelling or some shit. I've been assured this is because landowners wanted to show off their land although I always thought it was simply antiquarian-style hobby painters who felt sheepish about doing pure landscape. Anyway - far from gorgeous is my landscape - and pretty far off the original brief which was to portray these characters:
- The Blueshift Bombadier - Doctor Damastes
in any way that I fancied. This is how I fancied. Also it attracted some constructive criticism on Deviant Art which is pretty much the highest compliment you can get because it means people are paying attention. So I'm chuffed about that. Right all up in my face. Go here to see the big thing (oo err).
Now here's an odd one - this was for the superlative Mr Dirk Van Dom; a wordsmith of no small renown who put together a MASSIVE choose-your-own-adventure blog featuring this image and a ton of others for (and by) the forever-gorgeous folk over at 2000ad online. See the bigger thing here. Do give the game a go and give some love to those artists you find within!
A placemat done for a FAKEMAS (there was a hashtag on Twitter for it) meal at my place. Then I scanned it in and coloured it over the festive period whilst my sparkly girlfriend sat on my shoulder like a dove dropping bits of cheesy straw into my mouth. See the bigger thing here.
This duo of images are drawn for my main man Mr Roberto 'La Barba Hermosa' Phillips who turned ANCIENT the day before yesterday. Lawdy lawdy. The first was drawn by my good friend Sir Richard 'Subarashii' Denham and coloured by me - the second was done ENTIRELY by me and my soft doghands.
Right. Time for a little summary of my good bits and my new bits. I had two very proud moments this year -
The first is that I graduated in spectacular purple after a RELATIVELY inexpensive three years studying archaeology at Sheffield. I had a wonderful experience there and met some truly brilliant humans - and it was immensely sad and tremendously rewarding to finish it all.
The second is the image I drew and the subsequent goings on related to the Get Well Carlos Project. In which the colossally excellent Mark Howard put together AN ENORMOUS anthology of artists and writers to pay tribute to the one of the most influential artists in British comics - Mr Carlos Ezquerra - co-creator of Judge Dredd and easily the hardest-working comic creative in existence. Carlos had been diagnosed with lung cancer and motivated by his plight the comic was put together to remind him just how much we all respected him. Bizarrely we are now Facebook friends and I'm supremely glad to report that he's recovering - you can download the comic for free here or simply gaze apon his joyful Spanish face reading the comic.
I'm just one of several hundred creators in it, but to see how happy it made him made more satisfied than a dog in a big cake. NOM NOM NOM CAKEY DOGGY CAKE.
Where was I?
Oh yes. SO THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2011.
- Dr WTF?! (An anthology that'll sound a bit like this "BLAM WOOOO YEAAHHHH" in your head)
Also I now have a glorious script to draw courtesy of Mr Christov Cronin and the whole thing is sealed and buckled down and ready for a Spring appearance. VERY EXCITING.
- Flaubert St Cloud (A comic by me and milady about a GOAT THAT FUCKING TRAVELS THROUGH HELL SAY WHAAAAT)
- THE ARM OF ENGON FALGRAX which will surface soon like a kraken from the depths. A story about two fellows and their quest to ... follow a disembodied arm. Glory be.
- THE PUBLISHING OF CRABCAKE. Oh yes. It will be published. By me.
- THE ACTUAL MANIFESTATION OF CRAZYFOXMACHINE.CO.UK because a splash page saying 'coming soon' can only be exciting for so long.
- VARIOUS OTHER DEALIES AND THINGS THAT ARE FAINTLY UNOFFICIAL AT THE MOMENT. Ooooh vague and mysterious.
Right - That's quite enough. I'll be back to talk Dr WTF with extensive previews - as well as the first part of Flaubert St Cloud in the best part of a couple of weeks. Until then - have beautiful moments and positive thoughts and harsh harsh scrumpy.
TUMBLR BE HERE (oh yeah that happened as well)
O - x
