TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

Birology: The ZombiPied Piper of Hamlin (a work in progress)

2012-01-08T01:19:00.003Z

Like Life and runaway golf carts, conversations can take odd turns. This happened to me on Facebook the other day, as a conversation with a friend about how truly awful Celebrity Big Brother is quickly took a left turn into zombie rats (yes, it is one of the weirder conversations I've had this week). And then from zombie rats we moved on to how you'd get rid of them. With a Zombified Pied Piper ('ZombiPied Piper' for short) of course! Before too long I'd blundered into creating a story...

Think about it: our fear of vermin, coupled with our morbid fascination with zombies, and Black Death parallels aplenty. Zombie rats take over Hamlin, biting folk and spreading their necrosis, until a mysterious undead figure shambles into town and promises to get rid of them...for a price.

I'm sure you can imagine what might happen next. If you can then stop! Don't ruin the ending for yourself - I haven't even thought it up yet.

So on the back of this great idea is an idea-sketch in Biro, and it's actually done on the front of a blank envelope (hey, sometimes you gotta work with what you've got. My time in the Combined Cadet Force taught me that. Or maybe it was MacGyver...)

The Piper bears close resemblance to the Ghost of Writing Future (featured last month - and last year if you're really being pedantic, seeing as it was 2011), not because all I can draw is hooded skeletons, but rather because this is just a sketch; a placeholder. I had the idea that the Piper should be Grim Reaper-like in appearance, and this was just the first (admittedly cliche) image that sprang to mind. He'll likely change as I give it more thought. What I want to keep though is the idea of he and the rats being inseparable: of them melding and spawning from his black cloak and of the uncertainty where the Piper ends and the vermin begin. I think it's a pretty cool idea for an image.

I also like the way Biro sketching looks: it makes pictures look like rough wood carvings - just the sort of period feel I'm going for.

No doubt I'll be plaguing you with more of this kind of stuff as I think more about it. Don't worry if you're not a fan of rats or undead flautists though. There'll be all sorts of other stuff coming. No idea what sort of stuff yet. It all depends on the kind of conversations I have.

Birology: Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent

2011-12-07T16:42:00.001Z

Birology: Silents Night, Holy Night...

2011-12-04T21:48:00.002Z

Birology: The Silence

2011-12-03T18:51:00.002Z

Done on the train just now, snapped and edited and uploaded with my iPhone (First time I've ever done that - ain't technology marvellous?), a picture of a Silent (Doctor Who's terrifying foes from Season 6). Another picture done in Biro. As I said in my previous ghost post, it's my favourite medium, which is why anything I now do in Biro gets its own special title: Birology.

Ghost Writer (Pt.2) - The Ghost of the Failed Writer

2011-11-30T17:56:00.007Z

Yesterday (or eight inches below this sentence), I showed you the 3 Writer's Ghosts that are going to appear in an upcoming article on Fuel Your Writing. I also did a 'Marley's Ghost' style phantom - a spirit to warn of the impending ghosts - but decided not to use it in the end as it was a) too many pictures for an article that's only 1000 words long, and b) because it's a little despairing for the vibe I was going for in the article. You can see what I mean...

The Ghost of the Failed Writer:
Just as Jacob Marley was chained and held down by money boxes, so the Ghost of the Despairing Writer is tethered to his career and bound by the chains he forged in life: the works he abandoned and never finished, all the books he hoped to publish but never did, all the ideas he left incomplete. He's an unfinished story, wandering through the space between words, haunted by writer's block. Spooky, no?

Facially he's heavily based on our fearful fellow from Munch's 'The Scream', but also has a teensy bit of Doctor Who's Silence thrown in (fun fact: as you may know, the look of The Silence was actually modelled on 'The Scream'). And I wanted him to look like he's wasting away like a struggling and starving 18th century writer. He's meant to be a terrifying, despairing creature because he represents everything a writer fears: Failure

But don't fear him. There's only one way to dispel the Ghost of the Failed Writer, and that's to pick up a pen, start writing, and never, ever stop.

Ghost Writer

2011-11-29T16:48:00.008Z

It's always nice when two things you love doing reach a confluence: in this case drawing pictures to accompany an article I've written for Fuel Your Writing. As we're standing on the glittery precipice of December I had an idea for a Christmas-themed piece. It's called 'A Writer's Christmas Carol', and discusses the 3 issues, or 'ghosts' that will haunt a writer the most as they go about their hobby/career, and they're presented in the same manner of Charles Dickens' famous Yuletide tale; Past, Present and Future. I'm not going to tell you what the issues are that they represent as that'd spoil the article, but you can see the accompanying ghosts I drew to represent them.

All 3 are done in black biro. I love working in biro. It was one of the first drawing techniques I was taught, and it really lends to the Dickensian 'Phiz' sketches I was trying to caricature. Biro's excellent for shading and representing the shadows of candlelight.

The Ghost of Writing Past:

With hair of ink and a dress made of manuscript pages, the Ghost of Writing Past is meant to be a spritely and playful nymph, tearing out pages from manuscripts and books and throwing them at the writer, either trying to inspire him or to remind him of his failures.

The Ghost of Writing Present:
Based heavily on the image of the spirit of Christmas Present (especially the one in Muppets' Christmas Carol), the Ghost of Writing Present has a crown made of fountain pen nibs, and holds chains, either to help guide the writer in his work, or hinder him by chaining him up. I'm quite pleased with how bright the candle looks in this one.

The Ghost of Writing Future:
Heavily inspired by Mike Mignola's bold use of black and shadow, The Ghost of Writing Future also has a Mignola-esque skull. Writing Future's spirit is meant to be almost one with the shadows beyond the candlelight, blending into the shadows so that it's hard to see where the dark ends and he begins. Like the future itself he's there but obscure and hard to make out.

UPDATE: I'm also doing a Jacob Marley style Ghost, that won't appear on the FYW article, but will be on here tomorrow. I can't leave old Marley out.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. You'll be able to see them with their full (and may I say very readable) article over at Fuel Your Writing in the next week or two.

TV by me

2011-07-19T15:30:00.002+01:00

I've just started writing for Cultbox, the excellent TV review and feature site. You can catch my first article here, a look at what made last year's Sherlock on BBC One such a big hit.

A Multicoloured Post

2011-07-09T18:27:00.005+01:00

"On your feet, Lantern."

Well, I liked the Green Lantern movie, but then I'm a Mogo-sized Green Lantern fan. Even if I wasn't then I think I'd have thought it an entertaining, if rather safe, summer movie. It was fun, predictable, and looked great in 3D. Of course I wanted more from it, but as a summer movie it did its job with flying (mostly green colours). It had a lot of nice nods to the comics for the fanboys (the dead planet Ryut - once home of angry Red Lantern Atrocitus and future planet for the forging of the Black Lantern battery, a whole host of Lanterns from the comics, a nod to Carol Ferris's future career as a Star Sapphire, and a nice after-credits sequence that I won't spoil but isn't at all a surprise to those who watch the movie or know the comics). Sadly there was no mention, hint or citrus-tinted trace of one of the best characters in comics, Agent Orange.

In the aftermath of watching the movie I scribbled this out in felt tip (I'm not keen on felt tip as I'm a bit rubbish with it, but it was all I had to hand). Although the yellow in this picture looks like fire it's meant to be the yellow light of Fear, wielded by the Sinestro Corps, subliming and disintegrating as our nameless (but Abin-Sur lookalike) Green Lantern recovers from its assault and summons his last shards of willpower for one final push...

Silence Will Eat

2011-04-30T20:57:00.006+01:00

I apologise for the scruffiness of this cartoon. I thought of/drew/coloured this in literally five minutes as I'm about to go out and I wanted to get the idea down before I forgot it. I've just watched the jaw-droppingly fantastic Doctor Who episode 'Day of the Moon' (likely now my favourite Doctor Who episode, and that includes the classic series), featuring the terrifying Silence. They're a species with a clever trick: the minute you look away from them you forget everything about them, even that you saw them in the first place. They've been on our planet since "The wheel and the fire" apparently - so quite a while then - but how on earth did they find stuff to eat? Maybe this cartoon will help explain...

Wine Not?

2011-04-27T00:28:00.004+01:00

Really, sorry for the pun.

Anyway, nothing to do with cartoons as the tag says, but I've started a wine blog. It's something I've wanted to do for years but just never got round to doing. It's a place where there's wine reviews and just a general exploration and de-mystification of the often confusing and (sadly, snobbish) world of wine. If you're interested, head on over to The Corkscrew Review. If not, then just stick around here, where all the cartoons hang out. There'll be some new ones very soon.

-Rob

A Doctor a Day 8: "Timing malfunction..."

2011-04-19T13:52:00.008+01:00

The 8th Doctor & The 4th Master

Ah the 8th Doctor...he never got a fair shake really. Or did he? 'Doctor Who: The Movie", his first and only televised appearance, was placed in the US schedules against the final ever episode of 'Roseanne' and so never stood a chance ratings-wise. It's a shame. The movie certainly isn't a brilliant Doctor Who story, but it's nowhere near the worst. It just wasn't the right way to kick off a reboot (for the right way, see 'Rose' or 'The Eleventh Hour'). But that TV failure didn't mean the death of Paul McGann's time traveller. The 8th Doctor has thankfully lived on and on in a very successful line of audiobooks and graphic novels. So while we never really got to know the 8th Doctor on TV, he's undergone the same sort of emotional development seen in every other Doctor, just in audio form. He's even gone through a change of costume, ditching the frock coat in favour of a leather jacket and moving towards what he's destined to be; the man who'll one day commit genocide to save the Universe.

Dressed in a stolen wild west costume, Paul McGann initially played the Doctor as a wide-eyed romantic, amused by everything and prone to letting slip what was to happen in the future. His frock coat and waistcoat remind you of the 1st Doctor, but personality-wise he couldn't be much further from him. Until the 10th Doctor came along his was the most human and vulnerable portrayal of the Time Lord, and McGann's portrayal marks the start of the 'romantic hero Doctor' motif that has been kept up through the revived series. In his audio adventures his lightness has been tempered by more than a few setbacks, allowing McGann to explore the darker side of the Time Lord, something that flows into Ecclestone's 9th Doctor.

(Fans of continuity may notice the 8th Doctor's holding his chameleon arch pocket watch, introduced in the 10th Doctor (or 7th if you read the book) story 'Human Nature'. Don't worry, the 8th Doctor also mentions using one in 'The Forgotten', which s actually quite a good multi-Doctor graphic novel)

Awkward

2011-04-15T23:11:00.004+01:00

I'm a huge Dilbert fan, but even I had a big ol' cringe at this article, which reveals that the creator of the curvy-tied office drone, Scott Adams, had been pretending to be a fan on his own and other message boards. It's like something The Pointy-Haired Boss would do. Really, I have to wonder why a cartoonist as successful as Adams, whose work is syndicated to and loved by hordes across the world, would need to do something like this. Unless he's being forced to do it by evil Head of H.R, Catbert... I hope so. How desperate and insecure would you have to be to comment secretly on your own posts?

Update

2011-04-14T18:24:00.003+01:00

Blimey! Sorry, I was in the middle of 'A Doctor A Day' and then all hell broke loose and everything sort of happened at once. Life got in the way, as someone might have once said in a movie (if they did then let me know which one). Anyway, everything is back to normal, and Doctors (and other cartoons) will start appearing before this week is out.

A Doctor a Day 9: Fantastic!

2011-03-15T14:00:00.001Z

The Doctor & Dalek

"Run!" In TV's greatest (re)introduction, The Doctor returned with a bang, and though his 9th incarnation lasted only one series he managed to leave his fantastic mark on an old and a new generation of fans. He came from nowhere, dressed in a battered leather jacket and carrying the scars of a war beyond human comprehension. A Time War, waged against the merciless Daleks. This Doctor was a man who had seen unimaginable horrors; a man who had watched/caused the destruction of his species and his planet. He was alone, he was angry, he had a Northern accent ("lots of planets have a North!") and he strode through the Universe like an unstoppable force. Because he was one, and he knew it.

Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor is one of the best portrayals there is, partly because he had the hard task of bringing the character to a new and sceptical generation, and partly because he had to play a whole new Doctor; a man who loved Humanity but who had been so irreparably damaged by war that he saw the universe through jaundiced eyes. It's a complex, brilliant performance and one underrated by many. He revels in the little cliches of Humanity but is easily aggravated by them. Ultimately though, you know he is the Doctor, because he's willing to give up everything, even his own life, whether for the entire Earth and just one girl.

A Doctor a Day 10: Well...Allons-y!

2011-03-14T14:00:00.000Z

The Doctor & Cyberman

"Hello! Ooh, new teeth, that's weird..." And so Doctor 10 was born, with one of the most memorable lines in the show's history. It wouldn't be the 10th Doctor's most memorable line though; he was full of catchphrases, from 'Allons-y' to 'I'm so sorry' to 'Well...' (the link is well worth checking out for that last one by the way) and his final, heartbreaking line 'I don't want to go!'. Over 4 years on our screens he picked up quite a few verbal mannerisms, and quite a few enemies too: parallel world Cybermen, Ood, a newly-regenerated Master, Sontarans, and Vashta Nerada.

In his slim-fit suit, a swishy coat, and Converse All Stars, he was a Doctor far more in touch with humanity than any before or since. Perhaps its why David Tennant's excellent portrayal was so well received by fans and the public. His Doctor was one that could easily be related to, and his style much-admired by fans and fashionistas everywhere, but it does lead to the least alien portrayal of the Time Lord to date. But that fits in with the Doctor's story arc: he was a man who was used to humanity again, after his predecessor had been so detached from it.

A Doctor A Day 11: Don't blink; fezzes are still cool.

2011-03-13T14:42:00.010Z

The Doctor (with cool fez) & Weeping Angel

"I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool," proclaimed The Doctor last year, and instantly the fez became the headwear of choice for millions of kids across the country. So here's our hat-loving Doc, checking out his fez in a mirror. If you know how a weeping angel works then this cartoon becomes funny. If not, then you really need to watch an episode with them in: they're one of the greatest and scariest monsters ever devised.

I love Matt Smith's Doctor. His take on the character is old and new, classic but full of surprises; human but packed alien traits. Above all though, you really do believe he's playing an ancient man in a young body. With every look, every hand gesture, you just feel like you're watching a man who's seen the great horrors and beauties across the expanse of Time. His is the most alien Doctor we've had since the 70s - even his clothing speaks of a creature who's seen plenty of humanity but never quite got the hang of it, hence the love of bizarre headgear.

Don't get too attached to the fez though. Doctor Who returns on the 23rd of April...with a brand new item of millinery that no doubt every child will harangue their parents for: a Stetson. All together now: "Stetsons are cool..."

2011-02-18T15:06:00.002Z

Nothing to do with cartoons, as the label says, but I've a new article up at Fuel Your Writing, as part of the new series The Writing Spaces. It's all about Mary Shelley, a beautiful Swiss villa, and how a big Indonesian volcano helped create 'Frankenstein'. Go on, give it a read.

Admiral Ackbar has some advice for you...

2011-02-13T19:01:00.002Z

Do you know, I've never met anyone who actually likes Valentine's Day. Not one. Everyone I know or meet or talk to dislikes Valentine's Day and its unnecessary pageantry for a) an emotion that you can feel on any other day and b) for a saint who wasn't all that great. For the single its a torturous 24 hours and for those in a relationship it's a redundant day. I love my girlfriend, I tell her that every time I'm with her, and I don't need a grim day in February as an excuse to tell her, or to buy her flowers or take her out for dinner. We already do all that stuff, without the overwhelming glitter and hearts. That's why I always heed Admiral Ackbar's warning. It's a day for greeting card companies, mediocre Italian restaurants and rose sellers to mine profit from raw emotion, and while that's a despicably clever strategy, I think it's something to best steer clear of.

And if you need further good reasons why Valentine's Day is the worst day in the whole year, this old instructional video will undoubtedly help.

Packet In (or, The Excitement of the Empty Space)

2011-02-10T17:46:00.005Z

Permit me to put on my rosy spectacles and enjoy some nostalgia.

I was clearing through an old box in my room today and found this:

Yep, it's the front of a Kellogg's Corn Flake box. A box from about 1992, a time when, as you can see, people were concerned about getting their money's worth of carbohydrate in a breakfast cereal. Finding this was quite the blast from the past. Now, when you look at this or any other packet of corn flakes you probably see just that; a packet of corn flakes. But to this day I see potential drawing space. I see excitement.

Sundays were when my little brother and I were shipped off to Granny and Granddad's house for the whole day. We used to have a great time; playing boardgames, running around in the tiny garden and building obstacle courses or looking at all the new inventions in my granddad's shed, watching Catchphrase and Bullseye and that one show that had Hulk Hogan in a boat (I forget what it's called...but I think The Simpsons based 'Knightboat' on it), and getting up to all the mischief kids who are 6 and 4 get up to. But the best part of the day was when my brother and my granddad and me would sit at the kitchen table and draw. I loved to draw, and boy would we draw.

The thing is, it was always on the back of cornflake packets.

Now, I don't know if my granddad was cheap (likely) or didn't want us wasting good paper with our scribbles (even more likely), but all we ever drew on were the backs of cut up old cornflake (or, sometimes, bran flake) boxes. It gave even our best work a colour-sapping browny-greyness to it, but I didn't care. To me, a six year old kid, a fresh piece of cut up cornflake packet was as exciting as a six foot canvas. The sort of thing I could do this on...

Yep, this is the reverse side of that corn flake packet: a drawing I did (age 6, I think) of a wooden monkey my gran owned (and still does), which I loved (and still do), and which I had evidently nicknamed Charlie. I must have thought he looked quite lonely on his own, as my gran has never owned a crocodile, snake, bird or bug ('Bertie bug' has been cut off by the scan, but he looked like a ladybird), but there he is with them all, calling them his friends.

It's an unremarkable picture by any standard, but I've decided to frame it and put it above my desk, partly as an artefact of my life, but mostly to keep reminding me of how much I loved - and still love - to draw, and so that I never forget the excitement and potential of an empty space, even if that empty space has a cereal-loving cockerel on the other side of it.

Anyway, nostalgia trip over. I'm off with my crayons and a pair of scissors. I think I spotted a nearly-empty box of Weetabix in the kitchen earlier...

Real Ale! Real Adventure!

2011-02-05T19:47:00.004Z

Pintman catches the villainous Doctor Keghead in the act! This is a mock-vintage comic cover I drew for a friend of mine who likes his real ale. CAMRA (the campaign for real ale) do not publish comics about real ale, but should. I think it would help their cause. They could sell them next to the pork scratchings.

Fancy a Holiday?

2011-01-16T20:46:00.004Z

Winter blues got you down? I hear Saturn's moon of Titan is lovely this time of year.

Above my desk there's an old art deco postcard advertising holidays to the Basque Coast. I got it while I was on holiday there in Biarritz a couple of years ago. I love its simple, art deco style, and the romance and elegance of travel that the image engenders, so I decided to borrow it and its layout for a more retro-futuristic holiday poster: the kind that would appear in a Venusian travel agent's office in the 1920s... if the 1920s had ever happened on Venus.

And let's face it, it's not every day you see a squid-faced woman dressed as a flapper.

2011-01-01T00:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...wishes you a very Happy New Year!

In Memoriam

2010-12-27T13:20:00.005Z

My uncle passed away over Christmas after a mercifully short fight with cancer. He was a good man, a genuinely lovely old bloke, and one I'm ashamed to say I didn't know him better. A family death isn't something I'd normally talk about on the public space of a blog, but it was Uncle Bob that I modelled the look of Grandpa T-Rex on, and even took the inspiration for a couple of his cartoons from, especially his fondness for betting on horse racing (and being very very good at it).

I always thought of him when I drew a Grandpa T-Rex cartoon. I still will.

A Christmas Post

2010-12-23T09:00:00.004Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...wishes you a very Merry Christmas!

Grandpa T-Rex will return to wish you a Happy New Year. Until then, I wish you the very merriest of Christmases!

2010-12-22T12:00:00.003Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...gets exactly what he wants for Christmas.

And I hope that you do too!

For fellow Dilbert fans...

2010-12-21T12:00:00.001Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...is reunited with an old work colleague.

2010-12-20T12:00:00.001Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...finds a new reading light.

2010-12-19T15:34:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...rarely gets a peaceful night's sleep at Christmas.

2010-12-18T12:00:00.004Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...shares your frustration.

2010-12-17T12:00:00.003Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...has to watch out for herbivores at Christmas.

2010-12-16T15:47:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...planned on bringing Myrrh, but was beaten to it.

2010-12-15T12:00:00.003Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...loves his special advent calendar.

2010-12-14T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...goes shopping for a new hip.

2010-12-13T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...enjoys certain aspects of evolution.

2010-12-12T12:00:00.003Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...helps out in Santa's Grotto.

2010-12-11T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...doesn't need a side-kick.

If you watched 'The Flintstones' you're probably familiar with The Great Gazoo, the Martian who caused a never-ending supply of trouble for Fred and Barney. I have to say, I never really got him or liked him, and he had no business being there. Clearly his introduction was to inject new life into stories, but The Flintstones was always at its best when it was more a traditional sitcom dealing with more 'normal' things in a prehistoric setting, like Barney and Betty adopting a baby or Wilma maxing out Fred's credit card. Gazoo was incongruous and annoying and having him in the show was the equivalent of Friends featuring a wise-cracking ghost, or Frasier being friends with a cognac-sipping otter. So it was nice to just tell that smug green alien to 'Shaddap!'. I've been wanting to do it since I was five.

2010-12-10T12:58:00.003Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...makes his Christmas list.

2010-12-09T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...has talented grandchildren.

2010-12-08T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...has a go at preserving himself in Carbonite.

(With a little help from the Landosaur)

2010-12-07T12:00:00.004Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...should not be allowed to use a debit card.

This actually happened to me not so long back, when I took my Grandma out for Sunday lunch and she insisted on paying. However, she said she wanted me to put her PIN number in for her as she had trouble pushing the buttons on the little card machine restaurants use. No matter how much I protested and said I would pay instead she wouldn't listen and ended up telling me her PIN. However, when the waiter came and I put the PIN in for her, it was wrong. "Why don't you just put it in Gran?" I said, handing her the card reader. "Oh no," she said VERY loudly, "you must have put it in wrong, it's 3466." (Just a side-note to any thieves, that's obviously not her PIN. I chose the number 3466 for this cartoon because on a phone keypad it spells out 'DINO'. Clever, no?). She then repeated the number, so loudly that the waiter and all the surrounding tables heard. Everyone was extremely embarrassed - except for Granny - and as I held my head in my hands I wished I'd had more wine with lunch.

2010-12-06T15:07:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...explains where babies come from.

2010-12-05T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...is feeling peckish.

2010-12-04T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...wins a fish at the fairground.

2010-12-03T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...is still the master of disguise.

2010-12-02T12:00:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...really should wear his glasses.

The Return of Grandpa T-Rex!

2010-12-01T12:00:00.003Z

Back after suffering a slight case of death in his sleep...

Grandpa T-Rex...

...has some explaining to do.

2010-11-21T14:18:00.002Z

Grandpa T-Rex...

...Returns on December 1st.

Just over a week now until Grandpa T-Rex outwits the Grim Raptor and returns from the dead for a run of cartoons that'll take us up to and into 2011. A couple of people have asked me how it's going to happen. Will it be with Jurassic Park style cloning technology? No, nothing as predictable as that! Will it be by burial in the Pet Sematary? (as my mate Matt has been campaigning for) Err...no. Wait, he was never dead? No, he was definitely dead. It'll all be explained on the 1st. Actually, I think I may have accidentally stolen the solution from Futurama or The Simpsons without realising it. I'm not sure. If I haven't then it's something you could definitely imagine happening to Professor Farnsworth or Mr. Burns.

Hope you're looking forward to the return of Grandpa T-Rex. See you all on Wednesday December 1st!

Writing for Graphic Novels

2010-11-12T13:49:00.005Z

If you're interested in writing for graphic novels but have no clue where to start you might want to take a gander at a post I wrote for Fuel Your Writing, which takes you through the basics of getting your ideas down on the page. Here's the link, and I hope it helps!

Should've invited Superman...

2010-11-09T23:56:00.003Z

Batman, at the Gotham Police department Christmas party...

With December (and Christmas) nary a reindeer's leap away, the office party season is slowly beginning. I can't imagine the Gotham City Police dept. has a great knees-up, especially if Batman drops by for a quick drink. They're having to deal with all the low-level crimes and he swans in after being dropped off in his Batmobile/Batsub/Batplane/Batcopter/Bathysphere/Batcycle/Batrocket/Batwhale (all those vehicles have appeared in the comics by the way - I especially like the Batwhale). For a Gotham police officer, having a chat with Batman about crime-prevention must be like talking to an old school friend who's become ridiculously successful - every story you tell will pale in comparison to his. "I arrested a man for assault today." "Oh really? Yeah that's cool. I stopped Mr. Freeze from turning all of Gotham into an icy wasteland. And then I had dinner with Wonder Woman."

And don't even think about asking him if he's ever met Bruce Wayne...

2010-11-02T20:03:00.001Z

I apologise if posts get a bit erratic over the next week or two, and that 'Drew' isn't on time as it should be, but it's down to some familial matters that far and away take precedence over anything I do. I hope to get part 3 of 'Drew' done before the week is out, but if not then it'll appear as part of a bumper parts 3 & 4 near the end of November. Thanks for following the blog, and I look forward to getting back to cartooning soon!

Rob

Bad Robot

2010-11-02T19:27:00.008Z

Naughty robot in felt-tip. Drawn on some very old yellowy paper I found in the attic (I'd run out of the normal stuff and I'll draw on anything), which is why it looks like it's from another decade.

The product of hot soup...

2010-11-01T18:33:00.004Z

This picture is of no consequence. It's just something I drew while I was waiting for my soup to cool. But it's based on those 30s and 40s comics where people would get super-powers from strange space rocks or unlikely chemical spills and then announce their surprise at the results in a cheesy piece of exposition. You just don't see enough of that in comics these days. If I ever get super-powers I'm going to announce it like that.

Grandpa T-Rex...alive?

2010-10-31T09:00:00.000Z

One dark Halloween night...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2010-10-26T18:05:00.009+01:00

2010-10-25T02:33:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note to say that on Wednesday 1st December (36 days time!) Grandpa T-Rex will return for a run of cartoons that'll take you up to and into 2011. In the mean time, there'll be 'Drew' every week, and lots of one-off cartoons to keep your eyes busy.

Wait, will it really be December in just over a month?!?!?

'Drew' Week 2

2010-10-23T09:00:00.002+01:00

Week 1 of 'Drew' can be seen here.

TO BE CONTINUED...

'Drew' Week 1

2010-10-22T15:11:00.017+01:00

A recap of the first week of 'Drew', all in one handy digestible post. Week 2 and it's 8 brand new pages, will be up tomorrow.

'Drew': Page Changes

2010-10-10T18:27:00.005+01:00

So, week one of 'Drew' happened. Did you like it? I hope so. Did you like the way it was presented? Because that's about to change this week.

The one problem about producing a daily webcomic is that it can feel a bit disjointed and a bit disconnected. When you're only getting two pages a day it can be hard to keep track of the story and keep the momentum of interest in it. Just as you're getting into it, it finishes and you have to wait a day to get the next piece. It's a bit like trying to see the entire jigsaw picture by looking at one piece at a time and building up the image in your mind. So rather than have two pages every day, there's going to be one post on just one day with a week's worth of pages (probably about ten, and probably this Thursday). That way you get a good chunk of story that won't feel all choppy. Why did I pick Thursday? I like Thursdays. Thursdays are good.

I said at the start that 'Drew' would be a bit of an experiment in the early stages and this is just part of it. If it works this week, it'll stick. If not, I'll find another way and in the mean time go back to 2 pages daily. If you have an opinion, then voice it. After all, you are the reader.

'Drew' pt.5

2010-10-08T12:00:00.004+01:00

'Drew' returns on Monday.

'Drew' pt.4

2010-10-07T12:00:00.004+01:00

(This is where I decided that colour is a language in Drew's world, and as a result another level of segregation. Mr. Klam is speaking Blue. You can't understand it because Drew can't understand it.)

'Drew' pt.3

2010-10-06T12:00:00.000+01:00

'Drew' pt.2

2010-10-05T12:00:00.002+01:00

Drew

2010-10-04T12:00:00.004+01:00

Help for the Haunti-capped...

2010-10-03T09:00:00.006+01:00

'Scare-Lift'

'Drew' Preview

2010-10-02T09:00:00.002+01:00

So the great experiment begins. I say that because I think 'Drew' is a great idea that I worry could be let down in its execution. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to undersell it, but I'd just like to say here and now that it's a project still very much in the experimental stages, and that, at 2 pages a day, it's something that will take a few weeks to really get going. Will that work in daily blog format? I don't know. I hope so. But we'll see, and your feedback is, as always, more than welcome. One page, page 1, is all you're getting today as a little preview to the story and to set up the whole premise. Usually there'll be two pages daily (one just seemed stingy), but as it's the start on Monday there'll be three. Click on the page to make it nice and big, and above all, enjoy!

Like what you see? 'Drew' starts proper on Monday, and I hope to God I can keep churning out the pages fast enough...

2010-10-01T12:00:00.009+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...dies peacefully in his sleep.

...well, reasonably peacefully.

Grandpa T-Rex will return at Christmas...

2010-09-30T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...gets his 'Meals on Wheels' delivery.

2010-09-29T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...gets into an argument at the pub quiz.

2010-09-28T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...takes his daily pills.

A New Daily Cartoon: 'Drew'.

2010-09-27T15:43:00.012+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex is on hiatus until Christmas (oho, don't worry, he'll be back and in spectacular style!), just to give him a rest, give me some time to think up plenty of jokes for him, and overall make sure the quality of his cartoons doesn't dip. I'm not going to leave you without a daily cartoon though. Oh no. There's something new. You see, the other day I was thinking about different cartoon styles and people's differing levels of ability at drawing, and how, if all cartoons existed in one cartoon world (ala 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit') then the stick man would be the underclass of the cartoon hierarchy. You never see them in comic books or cartoons, yet we all know they exist. So what do all the stick men (and stick women and stick children) do all day? How do they feel about being poorly drawn in a world of well-defined characters? And that's how I came up with 'Drew':

In the Drawn World, the stick man is the lowest of the low. Downtrodden, discriminated against, and looked down upon by the better drawn characters, they're left to do all the menial jobs that keep them out of the spotlight and the eyes of the readers and watchers. They're not even allowed colour (when have you ever seen a stick man that wasn't black and white?). A lucky few have managed to get good work, but most make a living in the drawing rooms of InkCapable Plc., creating the scenery and items you'll find in the backgrounds of frames and panels. And that's where Drew (centre) works, designing the mundane objects that cartoon characters take for granted. Everything from bolts to bedside tables to batarangs. He's joined by pencil-drawn Casey, and his full colour boss Mr. Jaw, as well as a vast cavalcade of cartoons. And that's what it's all about: essentially a cartoon all about cartoons. It'll play with colours and drawing styles and the whole thing will have a much different feel to Grandpa T-Rex. It'll be a bit more bittersweet, a lot more satirical and allegorical, and there'll be the occasional cartoon cameo.

'Drew' begins on Monday 4th October and will go on for as long as I can think of good ideas for it. It's something I'm excited about and I hope you enjoy it.

2010-09-27T12:00:00.001+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...gives blood.

2010-09-26T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...and Old Mister Spinosaur make a verbal contract.

2010-09-25T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...has a near miss.

2010-09-24T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...wants his full Jurassic Park pension.

2010-09-23T12:00:00.005+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...makes mischief at the museum.

2010-09-22T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...sells the first mode of transport he ever owned.

2010-09-21T12:00:00.001+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...spends a quiet afternoon with the grandkids.

2010-09-20T14:20:00.001+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...is a master of disguise.

2010-09-19T13:22:00.005+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...has a bone to pick with The Pope.

Grandpa T-Rex: One Year Old Today

2010-09-18T12:00:00.003+01:00

One year ago today I created Grandpa T-Rex and his first ever cartoon. This is it...

Grandpa T-Rex...

...hates going to the Optician.

Basically this one year anniversary is an excuse to bring GT-R #1 out of the cupboard. After nearly 150 it's still my favourite, although a few have run awfully close. As you can see, he looks a bit different and a bit rougher round the edges to what he does now, but I don't mind that; it shows I've got better at drawing him. The fact is all cartoons undergo an evolution over a period; just look at early Dilbert or The Simpsons (not that I'm comparing to them in any way apart from to say that the more often a person draws something, the more they'll improve). The style of Grandpa T-Rex cartoons has always been deliberately crude - the idea I first had when drawing them was that they should look a bit like a caveman had drawn them - but over the hundred and odd cartoons he has become more refined, more expressive, and more 'T-Rexy'. He may be a year older, but Grandpa T-Rex is definitely looking better with age.

Skeleton Bob

2010-09-17T23:26:00.004+01:00

The Skeleton that had 'no body to go with' finds a solution to his problems...

A cartoon by my brother...

2010-09-17T18:00:00.000+01:00

The short-lived songwriting duo of Rodgers & Hammer...

I promise this will be my second and last Rodgers & Hammerstein joke (there's a dynamite cartoon involving a skeleton for you tomorrow), but my brother saw the 'Rodgers & Hammerhead' joke as I was drawing it the other day and said, 'You should do a Rodgers & Hammer Time' cartoon. I liked that joke, so I did it. Think how different 'The Sound of Music' would've been if MC Hammer had written the music... In fact, dear Mr. Hammer, please write your own version of 'The Sound of Music'. I'd watch it.

And on the theme of Hammer, did anyone see his cartoon in the 9os, Hammerman? I remember watching it as a kid. Makes 'Ben 10' look like Shakespeare...

2010-09-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...meets his new grandson.

Green Giant

2010-09-16T18:00:00.000+01:00

I could have filled this one in with digital colour, but I didn't because sometimes it's just nice to sit down with a box of pencils and do some colouring in. It's a lot more satisfying than shading using a mouse or graphics tablet, and while the result isn't as polished, it still has a certain charm, as though it's something you could have scribbled in the back of your notebook during a boring maths lesson at school. Well, that's the kind of thing I used to do, and probably explains why I'm so bad at maths.

2010-09-16T15:39:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...finds he's been the victim of a practical joke while napping.

Hammerheads live in the South Pacific, maybe that's where they got the title from...

2010-09-15T16:14:00.008+01:00

The famous songwriting duo Rodgers & Hammerhead, at work...

It was March when I last did a 'Too Close For Comfort' cartoon, the reason being I've been hard at work on Grandpa T-Rex. But as well as daily Grandpa T-Rex cartoons there'll be more 'Too Close For Comfort' cartoons from now on too. It is the name of the blog after all, and more cartoons can't be a bad thing.

As for this one, it came from the BBC Proms 'Rodgers & Hammerstein' concert to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Oscar Hammerstein. Though I'm not much of a Rodgers & Hammerstein fan, it was a pretty good show. I don't usually work in pencils, but I was away from my computer and I needed the practice with my Crayolas.

2010-09-15T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...is always careful in the Sun.

2010-09-14T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...meets his new daughter-in-law.

2010-09-13T12:00:00.004+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...loves to give fashion advice.

2010-09-12T12:00:00.003+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...hates those giant Pterosaurs.

2010-09-11T12:00:00.000+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...would've got away with it too if it wasn't for those pesky kids.

2010-09-10T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...isn't great at speed dating.

Earlier this year, before I got snapped up, I went speed-dating with a friend. It was horrific. And one day would make for an excellent stand-up routine.

2010-09-09T12:00:00.005+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...isn't great at birthday party surprises.

2010-09-08T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...buys his 'old man sweets' in bulk.

2010-09-07T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...finally realises the Dentist has made a mistake.

2010-09-06T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...has no imagination.

2010-09-05T12:00:00.001+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...likes to have a bet on the Gallimimus.

2010-09-04T12:00:00.005+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...does us all a favour.

If you don't live in the UK and are fortunate enough not to know who the 'Go Compare' Man is, then you can see him in action in one of his many adverts here. And may God have mercy on your neo-cortex...

2010-09-03T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...is sick of everyone wanting to visit the Dinosaurs.

Extra geek points to you if you can recognise all the Time Machines in this pic (badly drawn as some of them are). And a million points if you know the round one at the back.

2010-09-02T12:00:00.002+01:00

Grandpa T-Rex...

...performs the famous 'Dead Archaeopteryx' sketch.