The Infinite Return of Crabcake

I seem to be welcoming back Crabcake every half a year for it to linger for a page or two and then it's buried again - by other commitments and whatnot that I've agreed to do for this and that. It's terribly hard to justify the time spent on projects that rely PURELY on your own effort. There's no co-writer looking over your shoulder, no editor perched awkwardly on your desk, no one but your own shoddy self and your own awful brain. Gnawing away. 

This is one very final and very solid CRABCAKE IS BACK FOR GOOD style blogpost. The latest episode of should be up as we speak on Crazy Fox Machine on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/crazyfoxmachine Or just go to the bottom of the page and have a gander!

Unfortunately I don't have the original sketchbook with doodles (it's not lost, I just don't know where it is) but above is the first teaser I produced back in 2010. I was at uni then and had more spare time than you currently have kittens strapped to your face. At that point I found myself in a bit of a comics drought and basically had nothing to draw apart from posters and the like. Looking for something to practice drawing comics with and idly watching a particularly melodramatic episode of Star Trek I mused over an alternate reality where Brian Blessed was a starship captain. And how good that'd fucking be. Because it would be. 

Crabcake came from a few different sources, the ship itself is a bastardized version of a spaceship Rob Phillips designed for a sci-fi sitcom we wrote together when we were nine. It was literally just Red Dwarf. The ship was called "Bugz II". Which speaks volumes. Waned comes from the drawing you can see above which is from 2003 (!!). It's here that I think I fell out of my tree a little - and Crabcake ceased being a knockabout space thing. Instead, I decided that it would be an enormous piece of continuity cake (which is my favourite thing).

When you type "continuity cake" into Google Image search you literally get this drawing I did first. 

 The Oniverse doesn't exist. But it encapsulates every single thing I've ever drawn or written. It's a contradictory place with much MUCH time travel. For example - the Volian Supercones that capture the crew of the Crabcake and made dear old Gary their president appeared first in this:

A story called "Hunt" that I drew as a test for Dave Evans of Futurequake back in ... 2005 or thereabouts. There are also a few nods within stories like - 

The appearance of popular band Dan Shandy and The Shambling Dandies as Volian Supercones. 

There are also a fair few FORESHADOWS hidden about the place. Some have already come to pass, many haven't. So - catch up first here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150460319160628.421373.150183980627&type=3 and with that in mind - it's Page 4 of Part 4 - - 

AH. So future Phallushammr regrets not killing Waned. But why? and exactly WHY was future Phallushammr dallying about in Gastleas' past? 

ALL

WILL



BE

REVEALED. I imagine. Also - the truth about it all lies hidden deep within the continuity cake. 

Late August

Hello!

Right. Few tiny things - still wading in a swampy gloop of muddy colouring so my art output has been extremely limited - but my crikey things are still going on in a sort of wonderful way

BLAM - August

The Bristol Comic Creators group had our sixth (!) meeting - and it were glorious. The above sketches were done by the incredibly talented Andrew Scaife (http://andrewscaife.tumblr.com/) betwixt G&Ts and we had a great night of comic creation -- >

- the next event is on September 11th and rest assured it is pretty much always at least forty percent brilliant. http://www.facebook.com/events/394619523924866/

2000ad's National Signing Event

Not sure why but I got the absurdly talented Dylan Teague and Patrick Goddard to both draw Karl Urban as Dredd at the signing event in Bristol. The fan screening of the film occurred in London this week and I've found myself inundated with positivity about the new Dredd film with wossisname Karl Urban. Recently Alex Garland, writer of the film, had answered questions on the 2000ad forum and it literally melted every single drab of negativity I'd ever had (NOT JUST ABOUT THE FILM BUT ABOUT LIFE IN GENERAL) - I think, with Dredd 3D, a fan barrier has been crossed. A fan wrote it, the fans love it, the fans accept it. I feel incredibly privileged to be a "FRIEND OF THARG" (not slang for anything) in 2012 - and I can't wait to see that bastard film.
It was glorious meeting the two of them - Mr Teague even had a look over my colouring portfolio and  was terribly lovely - I still have a ballbag full of stuff to learn but I bloody love it. Mr Goddard had with him the entire next part of Savage which has some killer double-pagers in it and a couple of pages of Pat Mills script which was enlightening. As in (AND TAKE NOTE SMALL-PRESSERS) he was incredibly minimalistic just "character shoots at this" "Panel 5: John looks peturbed Panel 6: There is an explosion". No huge descriptions - just story. He be Pat Mills.

Neil Innes

Quite lovely.

Baroness

One of the odder things to happen this fortnight was that I went to see Baroness at the Fleece in Bristol. I enjoyed their set and captured a photo of their singer/guitarist/AMAZING COVER ARTIST Mr John Baizley with the intent to draw it up. You know, for unnecessary fan art purposes.

Then the next day their tour bus crashed in Bath. The band, three crew and the driver were all injured and taken to nearby hospitals. All are doing groovy - but Baroness' tour has been taken off-the-rails for obvious reasons. Weird anyway - so I sped up the fan art and it looks awful. I just hope the band (who be brilliant) aren't turned off the South-West by their experiences and come back to us again soon!

Transmissions from the Colour Swamp

More teasers from the enormo colour job - shared by the letterer Nikki Foxrobot (no relation) - this will be on sale at Thought Bubble, I've been told. If you're going, give me a shout and I'll give you a turkey. 

Bristol Doodles

Some drunken Bristol drawings done with BLAM members - all ties in with http://drinkingcreative.tumblr.com/ - if you're a local artist IT'S WORTH DOING.

The Psychedelic Journal of Time Travel

The first two images from next year's Psychedelic Journal have been UNLEASHED. Oscar Maltby &  David Broughton's Time Templars and Chris Mole & Neil McClements' Whiskey & Wormholes. Bloody smashing!

O