I haven't blogged in a little while, but I have to say that I was thrilled to receive a copy of Wasted #2 in the mail in June. Its available now from selected stores throughout the land, or on the web from www.wastedcomic.com. It can be found in Forbidden Planet, where it seems to be stocked in the vicinity of the sci fi anthology 2000ad, presumably because of Wasted editor Alan Grant's associations with both mags.
Issue two is in full colour, and features some fantastically funny strips filled with plenty of bawdy humour, such as Alan Kerr's Lusi Sulfura, Curt Sibling's Total Fear, Jamie Grant's Spaced Cabby, and the top notch Tales of the Buddha (written by editor Alan and drawn by Classical Comics illustrator Jon Haward). There's a load of other stuff too, including a couple of short strips featuring my own character Amber Nectar, who even gets a brief mention in this review:
http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-review-wasted-2-back-with-bite.html
So, if you're over 18, rush out now and get your dose of bawdy adult humour! You won't regret it!
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Monday, 11 May 2009
Ramble: The Battle Within
The Battle Within is the first part of a projected trilogy I have been developing with my friend Richard Harris. I am planning to share more samples with you as the series takes shape.Its an unconventional war comic, placing its emphasis not so much on a physical conflict as a more inward, psychological, and even mystical one. It centers around a soldier, his struggles with a profoundly intense form of post-traumatic stress, and the unique way in which he overcomes his problems in order to find true love, acheive self respect, honour and justice and all that good stuff that deep down everybody wants.
Monday, 20 April 2009
RIP J.G. BALLARD
I was saddened to read of the death of the writer J.G. Ballard, one of the most visionary authors of the 20th and early 21st century.
For those not familiar with his work, Ballard began his career writing science fiction short stories for anthologies like New Worlds. However, to call him a science fiction author would be misleading. He usually described himself as a writer of "speculative fiction", or as an author of books which pictured "the psychology of the future".
What so inflamed my imagination reading him in my teens and early twenties is that, unlike the galactic adventures of many conventional sci-fi authors, Ballard's stories are often concerned with inner space and the often surrealistic experiences of characters with often very uniquely disturbed psyches.
In works like The Atrocity Exhibition Ballard drew even further away from conventional science fiction themes into the literary avant garde.
A number of his novels were adapted into very successful and often controversial Hollywood films. Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical account of his experiences as a child in Shanghai during World War 2, was filmed by Steven Spielberg, and his novel Crash, about the lives of characters who all share the same bizarre automotive fetish, was made into a controversial 1996 movie by David Cronenberg.
If you haven't read Ballard his short stories are definately the place to begin, partly for the simple, lucid and often beautiful descriptive quality he brought to the most intensely subjective material, and partly for their genuinely mind expanding quality.
Better than drugs.
J.G. Ballard 1930 - 2009
For those not familiar with his work, Ballard began his career writing science fiction short stories for anthologies like New Worlds. However, to call him a science fiction author would be misleading. He usually described himself as a writer of "speculative fiction", or as an author of books which pictured "the psychology of the future".
What so inflamed my imagination reading him in my teens and early twenties is that, unlike the galactic adventures of many conventional sci-fi authors, Ballard's stories are often concerned with inner space and the often surrealistic experiences of characters with often very uniquely disturbed psyches.
In works like The Atrocity Exhibition Ballard drew even further away from conventional science fiction themes into the literary avant garde.
A number of his novels were adapted into very successful and often controversial Hollywood films. Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical account of his experiences as a child in Shanghai during World War 2, was filmed by Steven Spielberg, and his novel Crash, about the lives of characters who all share the same bizarre automotive fetish, was made into a controversial 1996 movie by David Cronenberg.
If you haven't read Ballard his short stories are definately the place to begin, partly for the simple, lucid and often beautiful descriptive quality he brought to the most intensely subjective material, and partly for their genuinely mind expanding quality.
Better than drugs.
J.G. Ballard 1930 - 2009
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Scott McCloud on TED.com
No pictures to share with you just yet, so instead I'm posting a link to this fascinating talk given by Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Automatisms
Here's an automatic drawing from my sketchbook archive. I think this style of drawing is sometimes known as "taking the pen for a walk", because you're not making any conscious decisions about what you're trying to say with a given piece. You kinda give your unconscious free reign. For this reason it was quite a popular past-time with the Surrealists back in the 1920s, as well as the English artist and magician Austin Osman Spare, who likened it to a kind of trance.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
My favourite subject
A new approach I've been playing with. Note the position of the signature, which probably signifies something or other...
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