Archive for August, 2010

I has a light

It’s drawing things like this that makes me realise how much one needs to know about the human figure in order to parody it effectively. (In my case, I don’t know it well enough X’DD)

Made for the CPCBF! I had a lot of fun at the Festival last year. I’m unable to get to it this year, though I’m so pleased it’s going ahead, and I hope it becomes a regular annual event! (Especially since both last year and this year I was able to draw some really fun monsters! :D)

If you’re able to get along, you should check it out! ^_^/

Quivering Quasars!

I’m catching up on Ulysses 31 after not having seen it since I was, like, three years old. It’s actually really good. Seriously awesome stuff happens in it. Like, Ulysses has a fucking laser-gun-sword. I mean. That’s awesome. It’s nicely structured and only occasionally borders on silly. It’s pretty sophisticated. It’s got actual long-shots, and lingering shots on characters’ faces to show emotion. I may sound like I’m being sarcastic, but you don’t get that stuff in cartoons these days.

I don’t think it’s as good as Mysterious Cities of Gold; it doesn’t have the charm, and the characters aren’t anywhere near as strongly realised. But, it is more focussed than Mysterious Cities, and suits the episodic format a little better. (But MGoG will always rule my heart…)

I’m one of those people who bang on about how shite cartoons are these days. But I don’t think kids can HANDLE THE AWESOME of stuff we had back when I was growing up. Also parents/the government would go batshit over something as cool as a laser-gun-sword. (You know it).

F&C – Pipered!

(So… obviously missing a lot of production notes due to the database deletion. I’m just going to continue).

Finished the pages for The Piper Man, the first story in Fish & Chocolate (though it was the second story I drew)…

Meh. I had a hard time with this one. Had one of those “yeah that’ll look awesome!”-times in drafting it, and then getting round to actually drawing some of those “awesome!” things was… like, not so awesome. More like headache-inducing. I test-coloured a couple of pages at the beginning, though I’m not really sure if I like how they came out. They’ll prbably look a bit better with text on. I’m really not sure I like that first page much at all, anyway. Oh jeezuz, here I go with the happy XD

A little bit about The Piper Man! So, I think this is technically the newest story to add to the bunch. It’s about 3 years old now? It’s been through a few drafts. Not too many. I had one of those “complete visions” of the idea for it one night, and had to write the whole thing down in case I forgot. At one point it was going to go in an anthology, although that fell through. Kinda good in a way, as I get to mash it together with the other two F&C stories, and it sits quite nicely alongside them.

I’m going to be interested to see what other people think about it. I have a firm idea of what it’s about, although when I showed the draft to Paul, he found rather different things to say about it. I think that’s cool. I will be fascinated to see if people see it from his point of view, or my point of view, or a totally different thing.

Anyway! Currently, I’m about 10 pages into doing roughs for Matryoshka. So, 30-odd pages to go, then I’m done with the pencils! Woo!

TSM launch!

I think the party went really well! \^_^/ Many, many thanks to those who helped put on such a cool show! I was really happy that it was in Oxford, as so many people who wrote/drew/made/produced The DFC are Oxford-based. So I felt like it was a real proper DFC celebration!

We raffled off a large print of one of the original DFC covers of The Spider Moon, and also of course we had the auction… I was VERY happy with the result! We raised a lot of cash for Mind and also, in a rather cool twist, the winning bidders turned out to be the lovely folk at The Story Museum, which is about 10mins walk from our flat! If you live nearby you should keep an eye on this place. It certainly looks awesome. Oh, I love Oxford so much :D

Lots of my most favourite people were able to come along, so it was just such a cheery event! In a total surprise, some friends from Devon drove all the way up for the evening. It was super-awesome as I’ve not seen those guys for such a long time. My editor for The Spider Moon (a.k.a. Lovely Ben) was able to come as well, which was super-awesome too!

Here’s some pics that Paul took under the cut…

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TSM Charity Auction

I couldn’t sleep last night and cut my hair instead. I’ve wanted long layers for a while, but my hair is too short. So I have short layers X’D I am far too impatient for my own good! I also get bored with my hair too quickly to let it grow to anywhere near the length I’d like to have it at, really. So anyway, my hair looks a bit like I dragged a razor through it. Which is pretty much what I did. Luckily I’m not too fussed about my hair, so.

Here’s the pieces we’ll be auctioning off at the (very, very late…) launch party for The Spider Moon:

I felt like making a new outfit for Kal (but doesn’t it make him look older! O_O;) Actually, that particular illustration is an adapted version of the third cover I was hoping to do for The DFC, for when Part Three of TSM started its run. All in all I’m glad I finally got to do that picture one way or another, as I was kinda fond of it.

They’ll go as a pair: linework on A4 Bristol board and a coloured print of each, starting at £5. So the winning bidder will get 4 items total. The proceeds will go to Mind, which is a charity I support anyway, but I want to give it an extra boost. That is… if anyone wants the pieces ;3; Of course I’m terrified that nobody will bid and we’ll all just stand there and then go home…

…someone will buy these for £5, won’t they? Right? (Right…?)