Barney Bulldog

Posting these for 2 reasons - firstly, everything that Bill Ritchie (1 August 1931 – 25 January 2010) did was gorgeous; best known for Baby Crockett, Smiffy (remind me and I'll did some of these out), and this, my favorite of his - Barney Bulldog from the 1973 Sparky annual.
My second reason is that Ritchie was discussed by a few of up at the Hi-Ex comics weekend in Inverness recently, and I wanted to share these with those nice folks.

Playing Out

Ice cube fight

OK, feedback so far has been that the rough is good, but there's just not enough of it to consider a book. I think I probably agree, and so need to start thinking about making something happen to Connor, Kieran and Jamal that's a bit meatier than getting kicked out of Footlocker. This may take some time, but that's fine - I'm still positive about the task. All I need is a well paid commission or two to buy myself some drawing board time.

Race though Debenhams

Finding amusement in the way the Northern Quarter trendies look

Anyroad, Playing Out is on the backburner for a while as I tackle the Greek gods, monsters and mortals for display this summer. I have controversially decided NOT to depict them all as cats - radical huh!

Ooh - in other news, it's been announced by David Fickling at the London Book Fair that the DFC comic shall return in 2012, so that's pretty good to know. Especially as when the tories get in us comics teachers will be first against the wall.

Update

I'm having a trial period with Twitter, and not sure what I make of it yet. I abandoned Facebook as a depressing waste of time so we'll see how we do. Anyway, I'm there known as catdrawerjim if you've time on your hands. And if I have.

Today I was asked for my autograph, twice. I was photocopying children's mushroom pictures at the gallery and a couple realised from my badge that I'm the one that did them cats.

Found a lovely set of 2nd hand A3 steel shelves for a nice price. So nice in fact that I'll probably post a photo of them as soon as I get someone to help me carry them up into my loft. Not got desk or anything sorted yet, so that's why I've not been particularly productive with drawing or this blogging.

Forthcoming - I'm doing some murals on the walls and associated illustrations for Manchester Art Galleries Superhero Summer show and events. It's all based around the classical/Greek myths and heros in a handful of their Victorian collection, and will be lots of fun for kids and parents alike. And quite a bit of work for me, which I'm not complaining about.

I've had an idea for a new Jim Medway book - a silent woodcut (well linocut) novel, working title The Olden Days. I shall do absolutely no research into historical accuracy, just to see if it matters or not. Place your pre-orders now!