Garden Funnies number 2

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Please circulate.

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Martin the Kingfisher

Too nice to stay in drawing stupid cats yesterday, so took the 64 bus to Macclesfield, a glorious 35 minute journey winding up and down and all over. Could have got off at Kettleshulme and gone to The Swan, which is owned by the residents and does the greatest food I've ever had in a pub, but I stayed on the bus.
The silk museum, which I'd never been to, was closed, but had a good explore around the town. Down side - no comics shops (but then they are all pretty disappointing with no real discoveries). Up side - cracking little indoor market, proper cheese, meat, veg. Mexican restaurant, which I'll try next time. A few interesting looking pubs, and The Cheshire Gap, Macclesfield's highly impressive delicatessen (could have spent £40 easy). Nice cluttered art shop, interesting looking secondhand shop next to it (closed), and a nice little secondhand bookshop, where they offered me wine and I found this -

The back describes the series as possessing "that delicate gaiety which shows they come from the French", "gently ablaze with ROJAN'S lithographs".
Lithography is something I've always fancied trying my hand at, and this beautiful book had renewed my interest. Probably be good for me to draw some other animals too.
I've never seen this Pere Castor's Wild Animal Books series before, so please on your travels look out for MISCHIEF the Squirrel, QUIPIC the Hedgehog, PLOOF the Wild Duck, FROU the Hare, BOURRU the Brown Bear, SCAF the Seal and CUCKOO.


Is it the muted colours, the dusty textures, or just the deceptive simplicity of these illustrations that just makes me sigh? Or am I a softy?



The images and format remind me a lot of the old Picture Puffins which are just achingly perfect. My mum has entrusted me with her collection of maybe 20 different books in the series. Maybe I'll scan one or two for you all in internet land to see.

Our Cat

I promised myself I wouldn't fill this blog with just any old stuff, trying to keep it focussed on art and comics and teaching comics, BUT - check out these professional portraits of Ruby! It's amazing what difference a bit of sunshine makes.
Been having a lovely week (including last weekend) as I'm working from home, which means wondering off down the towpath to get some bread, and making a new sliding hatch for the canal boat (which means taking great pleasure in sanding, priming and undercoating a piece of marine ply, a little each day). I have been drawing too, but nothing shareable yet - these things take time you know.

A Revelation

Do you remember being a kid and going on holiday to France and marvelling at all the thousands of comics they had? Over the past few years I've been telling myself I must re-learn the French that I started at school; partly because it's always so embarrassing being British and arrogantly monolingual, but also because the French always seemed to have a whole other world of great comics just out of reach.
I seem to keep telling schoolteachers and anyone else who asks me about comics, that they are a great way to learn a new language, particularly as the pictures help you undersand the words, and the text is on the whole very basic and in manageable chunks. Deciding to practice what I preach, I got myself a French edition of Tintin in the Land of Black Gold (untouched), some Roman soldier historical comic (untouched), and a Smurfs (or 'Schtroumfs') adventure (which I got through in a few sittings).
All this I can now abandon as Cinebook are taking a good handful of titles each year and translating them into English. As I have made it part of my mission to find good kids comics and graphic novels (then get them to read them), I shall be working my way through the lot.


I've started with Lucky Luke (no.7 of 12 Lucky Luke volumes), by Morris and Goscinny (Asterix fame), originally published in 1971. Real enjoyable stuff with excellent animated artwork and plenty of jokes, I can't see any reason why other 8 to 12 year olds wouldn't be into this.

At a comics event sometime last year, Paul Gravett made the point that we have got it all so wrong -Why is it that in Britain we haven't worked out that it's a good idea to keep a book in print? Instead, every annual, whether it be Rupert, Beano, Smash! or whatever, has 2 months on the shelves at Christmas then gets relegated to oblivion with the rest of them? If I wanted to read or study David Law's wonderful early Dennis the Menace, I'd have to pay 30 or 40 quid on ebay for it (and that's if I could find it). In Europe they keep it all in print, and it's all there to buy new and enjoy.
And why can't I go into a regular comics shop and pick up Tintin and Asterix? There's certainly never anything else for kids in these awful places (Gosh! being the exception to the rule). I had to get my Lucky Luke off Amazon, and so god knows how anyone would ever stumble upon these books on the offchance.
Is it too much to ask for shops to accommodate for the next generation of readers? Believe me if I had the time, I'd run an amazing little shop with ALL of this material - and I'd have a little bakery in the back with a little hatch, and a narrow-gauge railway that would bring my customers through the woods, past the lake and ampitheatre (where The Sadies will be playing once a month), and through under the barn containing my printshop publishing set-up.....
Volunteer here! Come on, sign up!

Carlisle State Pubs

I also picked this up in Carlisle, and felt it warranted a post of it's own. No-one I spoke to while I was up there seemed to know anything about it, but Carlisle and the surrounding area had been subject to a 50 year experimental nationalisation of all their pubs and breweries.
In 1916 the measure was taken - compulsory purchase then 'disinterested management' of public houses created a sudden radical change from intensive and widespread bingedrinking squalor, to a non-profit scheme which encouraged restraint, eating before drinking, and playing a little pool to make your pint last longer. It wasn't quite rationing, but you couldn't buy a round in case you were hoarding beer for yourself.
The scheme initially aimed to tackle the problem of drunken itinerant Irish workers who laboured in the nearby munitions factory, but even when they moved on after the war and the problem disappeared, the decision was made to continue the experiment. By 1971, when the scheme finally ended, Carlisle was actually very proud of it's modernised pubs, excellent whisky and high quality beer. Local nationalised breweries pioneered pasteurising their bottled beer, resulting in the first clear and sparkling brew, as opposed to the bottle-fermented beer with deposits in the bottom.
In the 40's plans were drawn up to extend the scheme to various new towns, which could have led to an eventual full nationalisation of drinking! I find it incredible that we had this essentially communist or Soviet idea running so successfully for so long.
I struggled finding a nice pub in the city centre though.

Carlisle Treasure

Just completed 4 days in Carlisle (Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery), running 2x 2 day workshops for 6th-form groups around the Cult Fiction touring comics exhibition. All went well, very nice groups, but I am very tired. Especially as I had to carry a heavier bag back with me, having found Bookcase secondhand books. Had to ration myself and not visit all 4 floors, but did come away with these great finds. Above - beautiful French kids months of the year book.

Beano 1970 has been evading me for a while, but I now have a straight run from 63 to 88 (after which they are rubbish).
Beezer 1962, which I've already got but not in such nice condition.

1971 history of comics - only flicked through so far but looks fairly good.


Similar sort of thing, but interestingly a few mentions of Manchester and a publisher named James Henderson (1906 onwards- Comic Life, Sparks, Scraps, Funny Folk... )- might do a bit of research on him at some point.


Quite ugly but interesting Romanian kids comics, and -

1955 publication - "In this book Mr Pumphrey not only discusses comics in general but lists and classifies for the first time most of the children's periodicals on sale in this country. These lists will be available to parents and teachers, who in the past have had no means of obtaining this information."
I'll report more on this once I've got stuck into it.

Creative Consultants

Did some work recently with Manchester Art Gallery's Creative Consultants. They commissioned me to help them document the project they have been involved in. They gave me the script and basic storyboard and left me to it.
Copies available in the gallery where their exhibit/project is on display.