Range Riders Western

Hurrah for Scriveners - found this Pembertons of Manchester story paper for £1. Seems to be 1950, though that might be the date for the original and earlier US edition. I must find out who else (if anyone) was reprinting this kind of American stuff at the time. Did it have the same kind of escapist exotic appeal that manga has now? - a glimpse into an alien and exciting other world, far from the stifling dreariness of 1950's Britain. Saying that, the stories are rubbish.

I'm getting quite excited about this research stuff now, as new information is emerging and various artists and publishers are starting to be approached. Need to make sure I don't spend too much time and effort on it at the expense of cat drawing at the moment, though once a clearer picture of what we've got has taken shape, I'll be able to start thinking about approaching exhibition venues and costing the project up. Also I've got Mr Mike Noon on board as a fellow enthusiast, and he's cleverer than me so it will all turn out better.

Another animal -

-this time by Daniel -

Guess the animal, job and emotion

Brilliant drawing by Katharine as part of the 3 card characters game at a workshop in Stockport over the weekend.
Whoever guesses right first is super, and the rest of you are rotten eggs.

The Leaflets of Vermont

Made this a few years back, during my stay in White River Junction while attending CCS. Before going out there I'd searched for a Vermont guidebook, but it seemed to be the only state without one, which was worrying. Upon arrival I realised that instead they communicate all tourist attractions, culture, leisure and retail through huge expansive racks of leaflets everywhere you turn. It might have something to do with the statewide ban on advertising hoardings - one of the best things a place can do I reckon.
Anyroad there was very little to do of an evening in WRJ - which is why it's such a good place to intensly labour over making comics (especially during the 6 month winter when you're housebound) - so I lay upon my hotel bed on my tummy and produced this.

(click to enlarge)

Skateboard designs

These might be of interest to someone beginning with E, and ending in D Syder - a handful of rough ideas for Supreme skateboards which I never heard nothing back on. There might be thousands of kids out there riding on these for all I know. The top one came about from noticing all skateboard designs are like someone playing a trumpet at you really close. The others are just drawings of what skaters seem to do most of the time, other than talk about stickers and stuff.

Playing Out

work has earnestly begun on Playing Out - the short story I've been meaning to start for a couple of years but never quite made myself start. I'm not calling it a graphic novel as it's not going to be novel-sized: at the moment the rough plan has it at around 48 pages. I can't imagine it being any longer than this - lots of the Asterix books were this long and were very satisfactory. In fact I'm modelling the format on this European album style - A4ish, paperback, but black and white inkwash.

The story itself is all mapped out, so now I'm going through structuring and planning out each page and scripting as I go. Nothing happens really - it's just Jamal (12), Kieran (12) and his brother Connor (10) knocking around Manchester City Centre, getting kicked out of places and looking at stuff. All pretty gentle - edgier and far more realistic than Crab Lane Crew, but still no swearing or filth as I want to end up with something that can be enjoyed by adults and children (10 years upwards I guess). In the rough page above, the lads are bewildered by how anyone would think it's OK to be one of those living statues - something I think many of us will relate to.

So far I'm really enjoying it - nearly 2 thirds are roughed out and I'm about to have a go a creating a sample finished page. The whole thing will take me ages - it always does with me, but I want to do a good job of it so won't be rushing if I can help it. Once it's at a presentable stage I'll begin showing it around various publishers, but so far there's not nearly enough down on paper to do it justice.

Garden Funnies 2 review

Been enjoying the rain too much to post recently, so hope no-one has been sat staring, waiting for me to post.

Nice review of Garden Funnies 2 by Richard and Molly Bruton over there on the Forbidden Planet blog - many thanks Brutons!

Proper post soon - too much to do now.