Memories Fade

If you only buy one book this year, make it this one. It's truly superb, and the amazing thing about it, is that it really hangs together as a narrative, despite the varied display of styles on show. Kudos to Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix for putting it together, to the cartoonists involved for turning out some really exquisite work, and to Kenny Penman for publishing it. I'll do a fuller write-up on the book (including a look at the origins of the book from a chat on twitter) a bit nearer the publication date - it's due out in November - but I've got to say it's a book any cartoonist (or publisher, for that matter) would be really proud to have been involved with. It's *that* good.

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My wife made these cupcakes!

2011-04-23T19:15:00.001+01:00

Taken at Wickbourne Centre

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A sign on a side of an old sea defense.

2011-04-17T14:45:00.001+01:00

Taken at Ferring Village Green

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Untitled

2011-04-08T17:32:00.001+01:00

Taken at Rustington beach

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Untitled

2011-04-08T17:29:00.001+01:00

Taken at Rustington beach

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The view from west beach

2011-04-03T14:45:00.001+01:00

Taken at West Beach

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estebanhernandez.net

2011-04-01T21:46:00.001+01:00

via estebanhernandez.net

Continuing on the Spanish theme, this is the website of a really excellent Spanish cartoonist, Esteban Hernández, and the fanzine he publishes, Usted (You). I say fanzine, but it's really polished and features some of the brightest and best in Spain, like Albert Monteys, Ed and Miguel B. Nuñez. I'm really looking forward to getting hold of a copy of this.

In the meantime, have a look at his work. It's gorgeous.

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PECIOS: CARLOS GIMÉNEZ: Paseo por 1984

2011-04-01T21:35:00.001+01:00

via peciosenunaplayacualquiera.blogspot.com

I love Carlos Giménez, and this is a 'tour' he created for the late magazine 1984. Beautiful stuff. The panel above shows his caricature of the late publisher and comics agent Josep Toutain.

If there were any justice in the world, his 'Los Profesionales' series would have been translated into English years ago.

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BD à Bastia 2011: l’expo « Planches en vrac ou à la découpe » d’Etienne Lécroart | BoDoï, explorateur de bandes dessinées - Infos BD, comics, mangas

2011-04-01T16:32:00.001+01:00

Adepte de l’expérimentation graphique et membre de l’OuBaPo (Ouvroir de Bande Dessinée Potentielle), Etienne Lécroart (Bande de sonnets, Les Caïds de la gaudriole, Le Cycle) présente à Bastia ses « Planches en vrac ou à la découpe ».

via bodoi.info

Everybody who knows me knows of my undying love for experiments with the comics form, and especially the work of the OuBaPo, the workshop for the potential of comics. One of its members is the extraordinary Etienne Lécroart, and this piece from BoDoï features the exhibition of his "Planches en vrac ou à la découpe". Click through, and look in wonder at these wonderful comics painted on wood and cut to create sliding puzzles and more. Truly interactive comics...

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polly and her pals – cliff sterrett « SPACE IN TEXT

2011-03-31T20:20:00.001+01:00

via spaceintext.wordpress.com

Alison Sampson has done it again. Look at these lovely Polly and Her Pals Sunday pages by Cliff Sterrett and drool. Lovely.

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Bande Dessinée - Europeana Search

2011-03-30T23:04:00.001+01:00

Check out this website I found at europeana.eu

There's some really great stuff on this website, especially if you're into watching old videos about comics. The reports from Angoulême are very interesting…

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From Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona

2011-02-22T20:22:00.001Z

via arsetumblr.arseblog.com

Found this on Arseblog's new Tumblr (http://arsetumblr.arseblog.com). Gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.

The rest of the blog is pretty damn fine too...

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The Comics Grid

2011-02-11T14:02:00.001Z

via thecomicsgrid.wordpress.com

One of the most gratifying things about this comics renaissance that we seem to be smack in the middle of is the emergence of a myriad of resources on how comics actually work. The latest of these is a new group blog called The Comics Grid. Only four posts old (at time of writing), it's already gearing up to be a must-read for anyone interested in the mechanics and semantics of comics. Their twitter feed (at http://www.twitter.com/ComicsGrid) is also a good one to follow if you're at all interested in this sort of stuff, containing, as it does, a host of links and signposts to further information.

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Gosh! Comics Blog: 25th Anniversary Sale at Gosh!

2011-02-11T11:20:00.001Z

While the rest of the world is buying tacky lovehearts and watching terrible romantic comedies, we Goshers will be collectively blowing out twenty-five candles. That’s right, the 14th of February 2011 marks twenty-five years of selling comics from this little shop on Great Russell Street, and I’ll bet there are some of you who’ve been coming here to spend your pocket money since Day One. Don your party hat and drape yourself in streamers because we’re having a whacking great sale to celebrate!
You can grab a massive 25% discount on all books in the shop (not counting new comics) on Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th, and from the 12th to Friday the 25th any backissue in the backissue bins downstairs will be a ridiculously low 25p (thematically priced!).
Now’s the time to buy that hardcover you’ve been eyeing, or to fill in the gaps in your backissue collection, or to buy what you’d probably buy anyway and have a chunk of change left over.
It starts this Saturday, and you don’t even have to sing us Happy Birthday while we’re toting up your swag.

via goshlondon.blogspot.com

Wow. Gosh, the *best* comic shop in the UK is twenty-five years old this 14th of February. To celebrate, they're having a special sale, details of which you can see above. Why not pop along, buy lots of cool stuff and sing them happy birthday?

Gosh is really one of the only things I miss about London. They supported Les Cartoonistes in the early days, and I'll always be grateful to Josh and his team for all the help and friendship over the years. It also strikes me that Gosh will be around in another 25 years, digital comics or no, because they've never been afraid to adapt and move with the times. More power to their collective elbows.

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from your desks « SPACE IN TEXT

2011-02-08T08:45:00.001Z

via spaceintext.wordpress.com

Another super post in Alison's blog Space in Text this morning. It's a look at the workspaces of several cartoonists (and one incredibly talented plush maker - Hi Louise!) and it's fascinating. This and photos of people's bookshelves are the new p0rn for creatives. More please!

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f86 sabre jet – harvey kurtzman & alex toth « SPACE IN TEXT

2011-01-12T09:39:00.001Z

via spaceintext.wordpress.com

A wonderful post to start the day from Alison Sampson's blog, Space in Text. Harvey Kurtzman and Alex Toth. Is there anything finer?

Be sure to check out Alison's blog fully while you're there and bookmark it. She posts lots of great stuff regularly.

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Japan - Visions Of China

2011-01-04T22:01:00.001Z

via youtube.com

Just found out that Mick Karn died today.

Japan (the band) were a particular favourite of mine as I was growing up, even though I was never really into the whole New Romantic thing. Karn's bass playing, along with Steve Jansen's percussion were the main reasons for me falling in love with the band, and this song has the two of them working together brilliantly.

Rest in Peace Mick.

(and Gerry Rafferty and Pete Postlewhaite, who also died in the last week. What a crappy start to 2011).

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Peace on Earth good links from all men | The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

2010-12-26T15:12:00.001Z

I hope you are all having a happy indulgent Christmas and at some point I imagine, like me, you’ll nip away from the festivities and catch up with a few of your favourite internet sites – at least those updating over the holidays. I hope that many of you come to our blog regularly – and looking at the stats we know you do – in fact we have never had more readers but strangely our blog is moving down, not up, in internet rankings this past 12 months. Some of that is due to the natural growth of the web, more sites mean more competition and some of those sites have decent ‘traction’ (I hate the word but…) and that has moved them up the rankings. We aren’t competitive as such, we have always sought just to plough a furrow we were comfortable with – not one that is based on gossip, speculation, ‘sell,sell,sell’ or general nastiness. We don’t cover the more populist aspects of comics, superheroes etc, very often, as so many sites are better equipped to do it than us. We focus our interests on the parts of comics most other English speaking sites don’t – we have lots of European and Worldwide coverage – we devote a massive amount of time and space to the small press, we’re generally more interested in the artist than the character they might be working on etc. Our viewing numbers attest to the fact that whilst this may not be the populist site we could be, it is something that a lot of people find valuable, informative and fun.

Running the blog isn’t a cheap endeavour for FPI – all in, costs are well in excess of £20K ($30K) and I’m coming to that point in the year, at our annual review in January, where I have to justify that expenditure to the rest of the FPI board, some of whom are sceptical to the value generated by the money spent. We will go through the same old arguments about “what do we get for our money”, “can’t you do more selling of product from it”, “why not cover it in advertising” etc that we do every year. All of those are good questions – we almost completely shy away from using the blog as a selling tool, or a place to turn into a bordello of flashing adverts selling you insurance and other services – but what are the answers? Until this year the answer was the prominence of the blog amongst its peers and generally (being picked 34th most influential blog in the UK back in 2008 being the unexpected high point). That it was reaching people who may or may not be paying customers, but that just the reaching of them was enough to make it worthwhile. Any reader potentially stores FPI away in their brain as somewhere they might at some point buy a comic.

So I have a request of you – it isn’t too onerous I don’t think – and it would make a difference to us and help us maintain our commitment to the blog and the excellent work that Joe, Richard , Wim and others put into it. What’s been most noticeable this past year is that whilst the number of unique readers has increased the comments and links generated by all readers has diminished quite sharply. It’s been noticeable that many links we give to other sites don’t generate reciprocal links. That stories which have originated on our blog are featured elsewhere and don’t link back to the source. That many people comment directly to myself or Joe or Richard rather than put their comment direct on the site. All of these things are seeing us miss linkages which would improve our standings and make the blog even more prominent. So all I’d ask of you is that if you have a comment you post it and perhaps we get a discussion going. That if we have featured your work you give a link back to us on your site, if you liked it, maybe stick us in your links or favourites list. If you quote material from one of our stories that you mention where it came from. We understand that people have lots to do with their lives and careers and that stuff like this just doesn’t always dawn on them or might slip their mind or get put off until they abandon it – believe me I do all 3 myself – but if you could see your way to doing some of those things in 2011, we will be very grateful.

Running pro’ blogs is something that fewer and fewer people are doing, most blogs aren’t held to the standards we try to hold ourselves too, although I’m sure there are times we fall short of that mark. The Comics Journal just laid off Dirk Deppey who has been Journalista for years now throwing doubt on whether it will continue, Heidi McDonald took her blog ‘The Beat‘ private after it was let go by Publisher Weekly. Others like Tom Spurgeon’s excellent ‘The Comics Reporter‘ continue to provide their best efforts and there is still a coherent little cadre of class reportage sites which I would include us amongst. If you could all find your way clear to give us this small bit of help in the New Year you would have our affection and gratitude. Right now, get back to the Turkey Twizzlers and Iceland party food like we’re doing in my house. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to come.

Kenny

via forbiddenplanet.co.uk

Kenny Penman - who I mentioned in my Best Comics of 2010 post below - has posted a plea to the comics community at large to get involved with the FP blog. A fine idea, and something we should all get behind. So, have a click on the link and go read. And while you're there, have a read to previous posts. There's lots and lots of really good stuff. I particularly recommend the Posts by Wim and Joe. Awesome stuff.

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The Best Comics of 2010

2010-12-23T18:16:00.001Z

See and download the full gallery on posterous

This is the first time I’ve actually done this, so bear with me. Two Thousand and Ten seems to me to have been a very good year for comics. They are now more accepted as a legitimate means of artistic and narrative expression than ever before. Indeed, we used to dream of comics having this kind of high profile in the media and on bookshelves when I were but a lad. We’re not quite at the level of Japan or even France/Belgium yet, but we’re a good way along that road, and from what I’ve seen this year, it’s only going to get better (no, I won’t reference that godawful song¹).

So without further ado, let’s look at some of the stuff that’s tickled my fancy and made me as gleeful as a little girl² about the present and future of comics as an art form this past year. I must stress that besides the book at number one (which was my absolute runaway winner of best book of the year), this list isn’t really in any sort of order, and that my definition includes books and magazines about comics, as well as actual comics themselves. Hey, it’s my list. Get your own, if you don’t like it.

1. The Acme Novelty Library No. 20, Chris Ware, Self-published/Drawn & Quarterly, USA.

I’m an unreserved fanatic when it comes to the work of Chris Ware. I make no bones about it. For me, he’s the most influential cartoonist of the last twenty years (with the possible exception of Lewis Trondheim), and he does things with the comics form that are simply astounding. With the twentieth issue of the Acme Novelty Library, however, he knocked it out of the park and surpassed even the Olympian standards he set before. The sheer level of formal invention in the book, in terms of the cartooning, the typography and the storytelling, is mind-boggling.

The plot is simple, on it’s surface. It’s the look at the life of one man, from birth to death, a part character in a larger narrative, Rusty Brown, that Ware has been working on for a while now. But what a look. I won’t say anymore, for fear of spoiling, but if you only read one comic from 2010 (but please read others) make it this one.

A quick note on the production of this book. It’s sublime. I think that Ware is also one of the best designers working anywhere in the world today, and this proves it. A marvelously designed and produced package that fundamentally substantiates that, although digital comics are great, print is most definitely here to stay.

2. Footnotes in Gaza, Joe Sacco, Jonathan Cape, UK

I suppose that technically this book came out in 2009, but at the tail-end. And besides, I bought it in 2010, so here it is.

Joe Sacco didn’t invent ‘comics journalism’, but he sure as hell redefined it. With Footnotes in Gaza, he continued that ongoing redefinition to the ^Nth degree. In the book, Sacco investigates a little-known ‘incident’ in an area of the world that is full of ‘incident’, the occupied territories in Palestine (or Israel, depending on your viewpoint). In 1956, the town of Rafah on the southernmost tip of the Gaza strip, was the site of a horrific encounter that saw the death of 111 Palestinian refugees, shot by Israeli forces.

After going to Gaza with the journalist Chris Hedges, Sacco finds out about the Rafah incident and decides to look into it, even while Israelis and Palestinians attacked each other in the present day. The resulting book is somewhat of a masterpiece, and commendably evenhanded - Sacco makes a point of examining events from all angles, even if they tell a completely different story. No matter where you stand on the Israeli/Palestine question, Sacco’s book is a must-read and unflinching look at a war that has torn two sets of peoples lives asunder.

Sacco’s cartooning in this book is, like his other books, adroit and accomplished. He can juggle two or more intertwining narratives effortlessly, and he goes between the events of the past and the events of the present seamlessly. I often wonder just how he puts his comics together, as they appear almost contemporaneous to the events, almost like his pages are his actual notes. It’s fascinating stuff, and an intriguing extra layer to an already enthralling book.

3. It Was the War of the Trenches, Jacques Tardi, Fantagraphics Books, USA

This book is even older if you count the source material, but the full English translation finally came out in 2010 (although certain chapters were translated and reprinted some years before both in RAW and Drawn & Quarterly). I could have chosen from any of Fantagraphics systematic reprinting of the work of Jacques Tardi as it’s all fabulous, but It Was the War of The Trenches has a special resonance for me. I’ve long been somewhat obsessed by the events of the First World War, the War To End All Wars that sadly wasn’t, and so when I discovered Tardi’s book some years ago it was a coming together of two obsessions in a single compelling package³.

I actually read the book in the original French some years back, but the translation by Kim Thompson is topnotch, and the typeface created by the Danish cartoonist Allan Haverholm is a near-perfect recreation of Tardi’s hand-lettering, something the book would have sorely missed if the book had been lettered differently. A brutal guts-and-all look at the short life of the average French soldier in the trenches, with gritty artwork that straddles the fence between cartooning and illustration perfectly, It Was The War of the Trenches ranks up there with All Quiet on the Western Front in the ranks of WWI literature.

The package itself is very handsome and exquisitely designed by Adam Grano. It’s even better than the French version I have, and makes the book a joy to hold and read, perfectly complementing the text.

Finally, a quick anecdote. When White Death (by Robbie Morrison and Charlie Adlard), the first ‘album’ published by Les Cartoonistes Dangereux4, came out in France in 19985, parallels were drawn between it and Tardi’s book by the French comics press. Unsurprising really, since they both were set in WWI, but fundamentally flawed. Both books were excellent, unflinching looks at the reality of war, but that’s where the comparison ended. Tardi thought so too. We heard from a third party that he wasn’t very impressed with the correlation. What he thought of the book is anybody’s guess⁶.

4. Psychiatric Tales, Darryl Cunningham, Blank Slate Books, UK

Darryl Cunningham has been working on the fringes of comics to little acclaim for many years now. An idiosyncratic cartoonist, he’s a true one-off in the world of UK comics, and I for one am ecstatic that he both stuck at it and that now, he’s finally gaining some measure of critical (and soon, we can hope, commercial) success.

Cunningham’s book is a frank, yet heartfelt examination of the realities of mental disorders, both from the point of view of a mental health professional and as a sufferer from depression. Never preachy and eminently accessible, Psychiatric Tales is that rare thing - a breakout book that is perfect for introducing someone to comics, and a treasure for those of us already well versed. It’s a frankly stunning achievement that’s full of heart and soul.

A quick note on the publisher; Blank Slate Books are one of a new breed of UK comics publishing houses, along with SelfMadeHero (about whom more later), NoBrow and Tom Humberstone’s Solipsistic Pop (again, see a bit later), who are at the vanguard of a new movement in UK independent comics. Blank Slate, run by the effervescent comics veteran Kenny Penman, have taken a euro-centric eye to publishing comics and each of their books are a delightful mix of exceptional content and stunning design and production, like the best Francophone publishers. I’m really gratified to see Blank Slate and the others emerge, and I can’t help wondering if LCD hadn’t been around ten or so years too early. Long may they continue.

5. Comic Art Propanganda, Frederik Strömberg, Ilex Press, UK

The first of the books that isn’t a comic, but is about comics. I’ve long been an admirer of Bild and Bubbla, the Swedish magazine on comics, and its’ editor Frederik Strömberg. Strömberg is a real expert’s expert with his encyclopaedic knowledge and talent for analysis & writing, the latter in both Swedish and English.

This, his latest book, is an in-depth study in the ways that comics have been used to convey information, often with an eye to indoctrinate. As Strömberg writes in his introduction, “[…]comics have proven their power to fascinate. And this power has often been used with the express purpose of transmitting ideas and convincing the reader of various things i.e. as tools of propaganda”.

Strömberg examines how different political and religious ideologies have used comics for their own ends, as well as social engineering, gender studies and pro- and anti-drug uses. Liberally illustrated, Strömberg manages the difficult feat of documentation without editorialization. Well, most of the time, anyway; When he discusses Jack Chick, and his particular brand of evangelism via comic books, Strömberg can’t help himself from showing the kind of incredulousness that most of us have felt when coming across these weird, and frankly repulsive little tracts.

All in all, Comic Art Propaganda is a well-crafted and informative book that deserves a place on the bookshelf of any self-respecting comics connoisseur. In many ways, it’s the spiritual heir to the long out-of-print Penguin Book of Political Comics by Steef Davidson.

6. Cent Pour Cent Bande Dessinée, Gilles Ciment (Ed.), Cité Internationale de la Bande Dessinée et de L’Image, France

This, basically, is the catalogue that accompanied the Cent Pour Cent Bande Dessinée (100% Comics) exhibition that first opened in Angoulême during the 2010 comics festival, and that has travelled extensively since. The idea for the exhibition, and hence the book, came from Gilles Ciment, a well-respected comics theoretician and historian who was also one of the founder members of the OuBaPo⁷. Basically, the premise is that 100 cartoonists from around the world were approached by the Musée de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême to take a page from the museum’s extensive collection and reinterpret it in some way. Some cartoonists redrew the page, adding or removing elements, others added a coda to the page, still others analysed their feelings towards the page.

The result is a wonderful collision between the old and the new, the classic and the modern, and not always in the way you’d think. The book beautifully presents the original page and the re-imagination opposite each other on each spread, and the end section contains analyses of each page by a celebrated comics historian and brief biographical details of the cartoonists. It must have been quite something to see the exhibition, and all those wonderful originals, but the book presents the work magnificently – each page is lovingly shot so that details like blue pencil and whiteout can be clearly seen, and the package is excellently designed and produced.

All in all, the exhibition was a superb twist on showing original pages in a gallery, and the book more than adequately reflects that. Yet another reason that if you have even a passing interest in comics, Angoulême is a must visit place, even when the Festival isn’t on⁸.

7. Wilson, Dan Clowes, Drawn & Quarterly, USA

There’s not a lot that can be said about Dan Clowes that hasn’t been said before, and by someone far more eloquent that me, but I have to admit that for the longest time, I wasn’t the biggest fan. By the last few issues of Eightball, though, my opinion on Clowes and his work began to change and I started to see why everyone else used to rave about him.

So, Wilson. I think that Clowes has become a master of setting and conveying a particular mood, and this book is no exception. The eponymous main character is pretty much a cast-iron git. He’s mean, self-centred, rude and somewhat of a sociopath. He’s also a very unreliable narrator. As the book progresses, he decides to find his ex-wife after the death of his father. From his ex-wife, who left him when she became pregnant, he finds out that he has a teenage daughter. This is the trigger for Wilson to try to rebuild the family he never really had, but true-to-character, the way he goes about it isn’t exactly normal.

The book is structured as a collection of one- to two-page strips, each drawn in a different style, that combine to tell the story. This could have been quite jarring, but to Clowes’ credit, it actually adds another layer to the storytelling by helping to convey the mood inside Wilson’s head. At it’s heart, the book is an exploration into growing old and the effect on our lives as told by a man who embodies the worst traits of all of us. It’s funny, bittersweet, and in places, downright miserable. It’s the work of someone at the very top of their game.

8. At The Mountains of Madness, INJ Culbard, SelfMadeHero, UK

This is quite the book. Why? Because it made me actively want to read something by H.P. Lovecraft for the first time in my entire life.

The book’s creator, Ian Culbard, seems to have emerged fully formed out of nowhere this year. This isn’t the case, of course, as he’s been working in animation for years. But his first major comics work were the adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes books with Ian Edginton, again published by SelfMadeHero, and it was here that we first saw his la Ligne Claire stylings combined with an exceptional design sense and a rare grasp of telling a story through the comics form.

At The Mountains of Madness sees Culbard take over the writing of the adaptation as well as the art. Now, being a non-fan of Lovecraft’s I have to say that until I read this book, I had never previously read anything by the acclaimed horror author, although I’ve read plenty of things that were influenced by his work. I’m not totally sure why that is, although I have a feeling that the names of the Elder Gods had something to do with it (strings of consonants leave me cold), and it was with some trepidation that I approached Culbard’s book.

Well sir, I read it and I was astounded. I would guess that trying to adapt a very creepy story from prose to comics has to be up there as one of the hardest things to do and get right, but Culbard manages it perfectly and makes it look effortless. In fact, it was so good, I went back to the source material and read that too. And now I’m even more impressed - Culbard has captured the tone and atmosphere almost faultlessly. And the artwork? Oh, the artwork! Part of the appeal of Lovecraft’s work is the grandiosity of it - the architecture, the visceral repulsive nature of the Elder Gods, the awe-inspiring settings - and Culbard is more than up to the job of conveying it all. It’s like Hergé crossed with Mézières, it’s that good.

I’m not a great believer in adaptations from one medium to another, but if they were all like Culbard’s work, then I might just change my mind. Oh, and now I’ve started digging further into Lovecraft’s work. That’s all his fault too.

9. Solipsistic Pop No.3, UK

Something slightly different at number 9: an anthology. Like all anthologies the quality of the contents varies from story to story, but with Solipsistic Pop it’s slightly different. Because each issue is themed and tightly edited by Tom Humberstone, the driving force behind SP, the variation goes from good to utterly magnificent; there’s nothing in here that doesn’t fall somewhere in that range.

The theme/aim of this latest edition of SP was to create a comic for all-ages. And this it does pretty damn well. Every strip manages to be engaging without being patronising, and several can be read on many levels while a few are just sheer fun, a trait that can sometimes be forgotten these days.

As with any anthology, there are a few stand out strips, and for me there are three that fall into this category: First, is Luke Pearson’s The Egg. This is the first strip I’d seen of Pearson’s but it was obvious from first glance that here was a major new talent. His sense of design is quite phenomenal and like my other two standout strips, the limited colour palette (red, black, grey) really intensified the atmosphere and storytelling on show. It’s also a cute little story that doesn’t end quite the way you (or the protagonist) thought it would. I looked up Pearson on the internet after reading The Egg and found out two fascinating things: 1. He’s only 23 (!!!), and 2. He’s getting better and better all the time. Really, look out for him. He’s going to be everywhere soon.

Second, Faz Choudhury’s The Elephant of Surprise. Full disclosure: Faz is an old and very good friend of mine. He was (is?) a member of LCD, and we published his book The Malice Family back in ’99. All that aside, there’s one thing you must know about Faz: he’s an excellent cartoonist, and truly, I’d say that even if I didn’t know him. The Elephant of Surprise is a character that has been knocking about inside Faz’s brain for quite a while now, and I couldn’t be happier that he’s finally on paper. In this story, which I fervently hope is the first of many, The Elephant (a somewhat Holmesean detective) solves a case of a missing son, reflecting on the nature of feeling alienated as he does so. It’s a charming and thoughtful little tale accompanied by wonderful brushwork and the best use of colour in the the whole book - I know that he sweated blood on the colouring, and it really shows. It’s simply marvellous, and any comic that includes Dwat (here masquerading as Dimly Albright, the Elephant’s young assistant) is automatically worth your time and money tracking down.

Last, but certainly not least, is The Torturer’s Garden by Rob Davis. Another one of UK comics unsung heroes, Davis is a cartoonist who, if there were any justice in this world, would be a massive, massive star. And hopefully, 2011 will be his year, but more of that later. His story in SP #3 is the standout work in the whole book, and even if the rest of it was utter cak, it would still make SP #3 one of my books of the year. It’s a reflection on the nature of ‘menace’ and how childhood is one long series of ‘menaces’ that never really end, maybe even into adulthood. It’s a bleak, chilling and somewhat heartbreaking glimpse into the hidden side of being a kid, especially if you have children of your own. I would wager that it also has more than a touch of autobiography about it. The artwork is masterful, the work of someone who really knows both how to draw and how to make comics. Using the limited colour palette to excellent effect, indeed even to draw on a very famous UK comics character of our childhood, the story zips along at a furious pace to end on a note of hope or despair, depending on your disposition. It’s undeniably brilliant.

As I said above, 2011 will hopefully be Davis’ year as the book he’s working on, an adaptation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote will see its’ first volume released then. I’ve seen some images from it, and it’s stunning.

Back to SP #3 then; It’s an anthology that will reawaken your love of the anthology comic. I can think of no higher praise than that. Buy it before it’s gone.

10. Studies in Comics Vol. 1, Julia Round and Chris Murray (eds.), Intellect Journals, UK

Another book on comics, not a comic itself. And not really a book, either, but a proper academic journal. Remember when I said about how we used to dream about comics having this sort of exposure? Well, the fact that comics have entered the academy would have just about exploded my brain when I was eleven.

Studies in Comics is one of a number of new academic journals on comics, but for me is far and away the most interesting. It’s basically about how comics work. As they say in their aims: “[SoC] aims to describe the nature of comics, to identify the medium9 as a distinct art form, and address the medium’s formal properties”.

There have been two issues published so far, and they’ve been quite, quite excellent. Subjects as diverse as the use of subjective time to metafiction to how the visual and verbal elements in comics intertwine have been among the topics discussed, and they have a seriously impressive roster of writers and editors on board. Harry Morgan and Thierry Groensteen have been interviewed, as has Gabrielle Bell, and the whole package is handsomely designed. If I have one quibble, it’s with the printing - it seems to have been digitally printed, and not too well either, especially the cover where the white out of blue text gets a little lost. This aside, though, it’s a very welcome addition to comics scholarship and it’s about time we saw something like this in English.

You can download the entire first issue from the publishers website as a series of PDFs, and if you have any interest in the mechanics of comics, I’d advise you to click on this link right now.

So there you have it. My top ten comics and comic related books for 2010. There were a lot of other books I would have liked to mention, but time is against me, so I’ll try to point out some other good stuff on the blog in weeks to come.

Have a lovely Christmas and a happy, healthy and chock full o’comics 2011!

----

¹ Arse, I just did.

² My li

Ho, ho, h... Bah! Humbug!

2010-12-20T17:10:00.001Z

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

Depression: An experiment with Manga Studio

2010-12-14T12:37:00.001Z

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

Reeder

2010-12-01T21:27:00.001Z

via reederapp.com

If you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and/or a mac (as from today), and you use Google Reader, then do yourself a favour and rush over to http://www.reederapp.com and look into the best RSS aggregator bar none. The beta version for mac that launched today is quite astonishing, given that it's a self-proclaimed 'early preview'. I live in Google Reader, but not in the browser anymore. Reeder is *that* good.

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

The Daily Cross Hatch

2010-12-01T13:06:00.001Z

via thedailycrosshatch.com

Just in case you think I'm some sort of Euro-snob, here's one of the best English-speaking blogs on comics, the Daily Cross Hatch. Brian Heater's interviews are legendary. Now in podcast form too.

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

neuvième art 2.0

2010-12-01T13:02:00.001Z

Bienvenue
sur neuvième art 2.0, revue en ligne de référence dédiée à la bande dessinée. Les plus grands auteurs s’y retrouvent et les meilleurs spécialistes y contribuent. Vous pouvez également soumettre des commentaires sur certains articles, ou même proposer de nouveaux articles.

Au jour le jour, l’essayiste de réputation mondiale livre ses réflexions sur la bande dessinée.

Découvrez les aventures de l’archiviste du musée de la bande dessinée, vues par de talentueux auteurs.

via neuviemeart.citebd.org

9e Art, one of the best magazines about comics in recent years is online. And, just like its' print sibling, it's packed with wonderful and incisive writing about the comics art form. It also includes a blog by Thierry Groensteen, a must for anyone who's a comics theory geek like me. Highly recommended.

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

COLECCIONES TEÓRICAS en Tebeosfera

2010-12-01T09:16:00.001Z

via tebeosfera.com

Now this is quite excellent. This site is cataloguing and, more importantly, scanning and putting up on the web, issues of the great Spanish magazines on comics theory like BANG! and Neuroptica. I have a few issues of BANG! and one photocopied issue of Neu, and I've been looking for other issues for years, so this is like finding a seam of gold for me.

If you have any interest in comics theory at all (and can read Spanish, obviously; I manage with a Spanish-English dictionary and a snail's pace), then check Tebeosfera out. There's *lots* of other goodies too.

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

Woo-hoo!!! Double rainbow!!

2010-11-08T08:04:00.001Z

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

My new office setup

2010-11-06T13:36:00.001Z

A bit messy, but I like it!

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

Me and Blogging

2010-07-09T09:16:00.001+01:00

I'm not very good at this blogging lark. I start off full of enthusiasm, ready to impart my pithy thoughts and reflection on the world*, but before long I lose interest and the blog becomes the webpage equivalent of a ghost town.

I don't think that its a lack of stuff to say; God knows there are several things a day that appear on teh internets that make me want to shoot the entire mass of humanity in the back of the head from point blank range (or at least those that DON'T.AGREE.WITH.ME). No, I think that it's more that I hate writing, which is a funny thing for a published writer to say.

Honestly, it's like pulling my own teeth out with a pair of rusty pliers and no anaesthesia. My prose style is a mishmash of other writers whom I admire (they can actually write for a start), with my own inimitable dash of ratholes, parentheses and tortuous sentence construction thrown in for good measure.**

Nevertheless, I have decided that perhaps I should pay a little more attention to my blogs, and try to write something on them every day, even if it's just a list of things that have gotten right up my nose the day before. Actually, that may be all I write. Still, it's a start.

See you in six months.***

*Actually, this should read "witless rantings about stuff I'm into, peppered with spite and bile".

**This sentence is an excellent example.

***I keed, I keed

Posted via email from ninthart's posterous

The sorry state of written English today.

2010-01-07T14:28:00.001Z

Right, angry old fart hat on. If there's one thing I see as a drawback to all this wonderful technology we have around us today, it's this: No bugger can write a sentence in proper English anymore. Take, for example, this edifying review on the UK iTunes app store:

"Dis is ok but I have got it on my Sony Ericsson and it is better u can do more things on it so only 3 stars"

You know what? If I had my way, you would be banned from using any technology whatsoever if you could not be bothered to spell correctly, use punctuation or refrain from typing 'you' as 'u'. Especially if you take the time and trouble to spell a brand name correctly.

Bloody chavs.

Why the Internet is Great, Part 715.

2010-01-07T14:22:00.001Z

When I was a kid, I lusted after this course like you would not believe. And here we are, umpty-tum years later, with the whole thing online in easy-to-download-and-savour PDF format. Ahhhhhhh. Thank you the Internets.

Famous Artists Cartoon Course «

(Via Comicrazys, a most excellent blog.)

This might just be what I've been looking for…

2009-11-03T10:19:00.001Z

It’s called Glue (http://gluenow.com – not to be confused with http://getglue.com), and it’s a new way of posting to many places like Twitter, Facebook and blogs at once. I’m particularly impressed that it also supports Tumblr and Posterous too. The iPhone app is nice and clean as is the website layout, and the developers seem to be pretty on the ball. It’s certainly one to watch out for…

sigh

2009-09-21T11:02:00.000+01:00

I have never felt so useless as I have done this morning.

-- Post From My iPhone

Time for a morning bun...

2009-09-08T10:21:00.001+01:00

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

Waiting to see Banksy vs Bristol...

2009-06-27T11:16:00.001+01:00

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

Waiting to see Banksy vs Bristol...

2009-06-27T11:14:00.001+01:00

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

So it all comes down to this...

2009-05-05T19:13:00.001+01:00

In a weird parallel to events nearly 20 years ago, Arsenal find themselves facing a match where they are the complete underdog and are needing to win by at least two clear goals. The only differences are that we are playing at home, facing Manure not Liverpoo' and it's to get into the final of the Champions league, not for the league trophy.

We have a lot of players out through injury and a makeshift defense that makes any of my efforts at DIY look positively robust. We're facing a side that are arguably the best in the world right now whilst simultaneously being the biggest collection of tossers to ever make up a football team. Everybody outside of the Emirates thinks we're going to be comprehensively battered, leaving our season in ruins for yet another year; the press in particular can smell Arsenal blood and they love that aroma.

No pressure then, lads.

Come on you rip-roaring, mighty Gunners! We are The Arsenal, and we are the best!

Update: 9:40pm

Well, the match has just finished, and it looks like everybody outside the Emirates was right. We were outclassed in every department, and comprehensively battered. The only consolation was that Darren Fletcher doesn't get to go the final either after being red carded.

As I said on twitter: My poor, poor Arsenal. You were shite tonight but I still love you. Roll on next season.

Standing in a queue for ride at legoland.

2009-04-13T12:46:00.001+01:00

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

Kew Gardens are remarkably packed considering the weather

2009-04-10T15:38:00.001+01:00

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

The DFC lives on (well, sort of)

2009-03-27T17:21:00.001Z

It's lovely to see that the late, lamented DFC comic is rising from the dead and being reborn in a number of places, not least at Super Comics Adventure Squad. The site is a sort of hub where you can catch up with the creators of the DFC, see their latest projects and follow links to their portfolios, online strips and blogs, and it includes lots of concept sketches, pages and commentary that's well worth following.

Also worthy of note is HUZZAH!, a group blog consisting of a 'round robin' strip that's very good indeed. There's some real quality work being done here, by an excellent crop of UK cartoonists including Rob Davis, I. N. J. Culbard, Dan McDaid, Colin Fawcett, and the incomparable Faz Choudhury. What's consistently amazing about HUZZAH! is not just the fact that it's gorgeous to look at, but it's also a cracking yarn too.

For this jaded old has-been never-was, these sites (and the fact that the UK comics community seems to be in rude health) is like a tall, cold glass of water on a very hot summer's day.

2009-03-25T14:43:00.001Z

Ooh, look what Liz got me! *scampers off to kitchen*

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

2009-03-12T19:57:00.001Z

See? It's even asking me to :)

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

Spuds young herberts 1 - Arsenal wonderkids 3

2009-03-05T22:44:00.002Z

Congratulations to Steve Bould's boys for a stirring 3-1 victory over the old enemy on their own turf. A superb performance from the youngsters saw us come back from going one-nil down to the knuckle-draggers from the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road, and through to the FA Youth cup semi-finals. Let's hope the seniors can pick up some hints from the boys, especially about not giving up even after going behind. Marvellous.

BitchBuzz Tech: Why I Love Touching My iTouch

2009-03-05T18:04:00.001Z

BitchBuzz Tech: Why I Love Touching My iTouch: "Nice article by m'pal Kate Laity about the superlative user experience of the iPhone/iPod Touch. Click the link and read it now. And then rush out and buy an iTouch device for yourself. "

(Via Wombat's World.)

Stuff and nonsense

2009-03-05T16:13:00.001Z

So, stuff's been happening;

The thing is, is that Sequential Design is no more. The graphic design agency that Liz and I founded and ran with another partner, Wendy, has run up the curtain and joined the choir invisible. No biggie really, it was just that the company had run its course as it was and things needed to change. There's a bit more to it, but nothing I'm prepared to divulge on a blog. Suffice to say that it all ended very amicably and all parties involved are moving on to pastures new. For Liz and I that means that she's about to re-enter the world of paid employment, hopefully, and I'm going back to freelancing — under the new trading name of Grafica London – and to being a house husband/dad. It's a step that we're taking with a fair amount of trepidation, but hey, we can't be much more broke than what we are now, so what the hell.

To be honest, I always thought that if the day ever came when Sequential Design folded, it would be like killing my child, metaphorically, as the investment of both time and money to make the company work was not insignificant. But, amazingly, it feels like someone has lifted a huge weight from my shoulders. I felt much, much worse when Les Cartoonistes Dangereux folded for instance.

As for what I'm going to be doing from now on, well, it's really no different. I'm already picking up work, which is nice, and making new contacts. I feel much more confident in my abilities as a designer now, as I learnt a lot from Sequential Design, and that's in no small part due to working with Wendy (thanks W). It was nice to be able to work closely with another designer, but it was fraught at times too. We worked in very different ways, and that sometimes led to conflict, but I'd like to think that we're still friends and only on the other end of the phone line if help was needed.

I'm also going to be writing some stuff again, and who knows where that might lead. I'll be writing about comics, Apple, graphic design and being a geek, so if anyone out there needs a freelance who procrastinates, but never misses a deadline, and who knows his stuff, drop me a line. I also hope to update this thing a bit more frequently, although I've said that before. The 'net's just so damn interesting, though...

The house husband and dad bit is a little strange though. It's not that I don't know what I'm doing, or that I don't "enjoy it" (I actually find housework therapeutic in a perverse kind of way), it's the reaction I get from other people. I've noticed that some people tend to arch their eyebrows, as if the very mention of it is enough to emasculate me. I can assure you that running a dyson round a couple of times a week, and picking my daughter up from school hasn't made my balls drop off. Yet.

I need to start blogging more often.

2009-01-14T16:20:00.000Z

Things are afoot. This rollercoaster we call life is about to get 'interesting' again. Watch this space...

I am angry.

2008-11-15T22:25:00.002Z

It is now, as I write this, approximately 6 hours after the Arsenal - Aston Villa match ended, and I'm still almost incandescent with anger.

I'm angry at the Villa players who chopped at Walcott, Nasri and Fabregas all game, yet fell over like they'd been shot everytime we went near them;

I'm angry at the referee and his assistants for being such blind and/or bent tosspots who missed several blatant fouls on our players including the one that led to their second goal. Mike Riley has always been a Man Utd supporting arsehole, but he outdid himself today;

I'm angry at our players for putting in such a weak performance today. We didn't deserve to win or even draw today, quite apart from anything else;

I'm angry at our manager who persists with his plan A even when it's blindingly obvious that it is not working - and the fact that it doesn't appear he's even thought of a plan B.

I'm angry that all the hard work of the last week - beating Man Utd and our kids beating Wigan - has been undone in the space of 90 minutes.

I'm angry that the vultures of the media will be circling around us again, and predicting our doom and reveling in it, as for some reason, we are the club the media love to stick the knife into.

And finally, I'm angry that I'm angry about all this. I know that come the next game I'll be cheering on the Arsenal louder than ever and I will be until I die.

Sigh.

The trouble with iPhone apps...

2008-11-03T20:12:00.000Z

...is that I love 'em too much. I've managed to fill up the entire nine screens given over to storing your apps, and I'm now in the position of having to get rid of old apps in order to install new ones. I hope that Apple institutes a folder system for apps in a future update, or at least takes away the nine screen limit. For now though, it's the old swapping apps game for me... Sigh...

The 3G iPhone and Me: Addendum

2008-10-08T22:02:00.001+01:00

I got an iPhone 3G shortly after my last post. Since then I've been writing a follow-up about how I feel about it. But you know what? John Gruber wrote a piece on his blog, Daring Fireball, today that sums up exactly how I feel about my phone. And it's better written, so go read that instead: The iPhone 3G.

The 3G iPhone and me

2008-07-18T18:30:00.001+01:00

I've been the proud and happy owner of a first generation iPhone for a few months now (I was late to the party), but as befits my strange and materialistic personality, I wanted the new 3G version as soon as Steve announced it at the WWDC keynote earlier this year. I'm also a complete Apple fanboy (you know, one of the really annoying ones who answers every question about computers with "Get. A. Mac"), so it was double trouble.

Anybody who knows me will attest that when I want something, I WANT that thing, be it a book, magazine, new Mac or gadget, with a passion that is white hot. The object of my desire becomes the focus of my waking thoughts almost to the detriment of everything else. I have no idea why I'm this way, and most of the time I fervently wish that I wasn't. Anyway, I was the same with the first generation iPhone, and once I'd saved up enough money, I went and bought it even though I knew that the 3G was probably only a matter of months away.

Liz, my long-suffering (and lovely) wife, Sophie, my sweet five-year old, and I braved the North Circular and crowds to go to the Apple store at Brent Cross where I plunked down my debit card and walked out some five minutes later the ecstatic holder of a 2G iPhone. It was, and still is, one of the best bits of tech I have ever owned. If you had told the ten-year-old me that by the time I was in my early forties I would have something that made the communicators in Star Trek look like something out of a toy shop I would have freaked.

And with the advent of the 2.0 software update and the app store, it's just got even better. Not only is it a superb phone, internet device and iPod (let's not forget the iPod), it's also now a top notch games console, and a true computing platform. Hell, even commentators like Daring Fireball's John Gruber are saying that the iPhone OS could be Apple's main platform in years to come, and they don't sound ridiculous. Further, the beauty of it all is that everything works sweetly on the first gen iPhone. You don't even need to upgrade to the iPhone 3G to get all the good stuff.

Nevertheless, when the iPhone 3G was announced, I wanted it like a dehydrated man wants a cool glass of water. Liz, bless her, thought I was crazy. Which, it has to be said, is not a thought pattern that she's exactly alien to. We discussed it, pros and cons, and decided that, OK, I could get the new one. Well, when I said 'decided' what I mean is that I, for the first time ever, said "I'm going to buy it. No arguments.", and she agreed. Kind of. I ought to try that more often...

So when a few days later, O2 sent out a text message saying "Hey, iPhone user, want to upgrade to the 3G? Come register your interest on our website (and I quote here) and 'we'll reserve a new iPhone for you'", I registered tout de suite (twice, to make sure), and sat back waiting for the 7th of July when I would calmly upgrade online, safe in the knowledge that come the 11th, I would have a brand new shiny 2nd gen iPhone in my hands.

Of course, everyone knows how that all worked out. I spent most of the day on the 7th, beginning at around 7:30am, trying to order one of the bastard things on O2's laughable "upgrade store"* along with every other Apple-addled sod in the country. No iPhone and very high blood pressure later, I gave it up as a bad job, and decided to wait until I could just walk into any O2 store and just pick up a 16gb model.

And a week later I'm still waiting. By best estimates, I'll still be waiting this time next month. This is not that much of a problem as I do have a 1st gen iPhone, but damn it, I want one NOW.

With all that's going on in the world, even down to the fact that Liz lost her father earlier this week to a horrible form of cancer that literally eat the poor man alive (and who will be the subject of a future post), I feel really guilty for wanting something that is clearly a luxury - a luxury that 99% of the planet cannot afford.

I am surely going to hell. But hopefully with a 3G iPhone.

*O2 really, really, REALLY dropped the ball with the launch of the iPhone 3G. For a start, they implied that upgrading iPhone owners would get priority for the stock at launch, when in fact, they opened it out to everyone creating a massive free-for-all they could not cope with. Sort of like, fuck the existing customers who already paid out for their phones, let's fill our boots with new customers! Then, they either woefully underestimated demand (hah!), or they just couldn't be arsed to scale their online facilities for the rush they created. Oh, they say they upgraded their online store massively, but I don't believe it. Either they're lying or they're incompetent to previously unknown and elephantine levels. And they have the gall to blame Apple.

It's a shame, because in other ways, they're the best carrier I've ever used. I shudder to think what all this would have been like if the iPhone was on the trainwreck that is Orange.

My Technorati profile

2008-06-30T20:02:00.000+01:00

Technorati Profile

twitter's down. Again.

2008-06-27T16:44:00.001+01:00

Blimey. I hope they stick that money they've just got into infrastructure, because they're down more than a whore's knickers lately...

Friends with blogs part 1

2008-06-18T22:24:00.002+01:00

I see Timmy the P. has a new blog here. Hmmm. He really is turning into an old perv lately. Bless.

And it would be awfully remiss of me to not mention Kate Laity's blog Wombat's world while I'm compiling this first part of my list of mates with blogs. Kate's blog is entertaining while not being up it's own arse. A rare feat that.

blogging on the iPhone

2008-06-18T19:08:00.001+01:00

So, I thought I'd give it a try. And it seems that it works. I'm pretty fast on the soft keyboard now, and the interface via BlogIt is quite nifty. Now if only I had something to say...

First Post!

2008-05-22T21:38:00.001+01:00

I have no idea why I'm doing this again, aside from the fact that I'm intrigued to see if I can post stuff to this from my iPhone. The last time I attempted to do anything like this was nearly two years ago, and the last time I blogged on anything like a regular basis was 2003. Not a lot's changed since then, to be honest, except that my just born swee'pea is now a fully-fledged five year old girly girl. I'm still a graphic designer, I still support Arsenal, and I still obsess over Apple products.

One thing that has changed is my involvement with comics. I still like comics, I still think that they're an artform, and I still read them (well, stuff by selected cartoonists). What I don't do is aspire to create them professionally or even be peripherally involved in the comics industry anymore. What changed? Well, nothing I can really put my finger on, more a series of events that combined to sort of turn me off the whole idea of having anything more than a passing interest:

I co-wrote a couple of books on comics. I'm not linking to them - if you want to know more then just search for my name on Amazon. While I'm proud of them, a few things happened during the writing of the last one that kind of left a bad taste in the mouth. I also treated someone who worked on the second book pretty badly - if you ever read this, Steve, I'm sorry.
The reviews of the second book were pretty damn good (except one that appeared in SFX magazine, that while praising the content of the book, took a pretty good swing at the design. Which I also did. And was bloody proud of). Unfortunately this sense of bonhomie from the reviewers did not equate to sales which were, as they say, pisspoor. This was pretty much due to the 'publisher' not giving a flying toss (or any money) about promoting the book. This was made pointedly clear when we did a signing at a comic shop in Brighton. If I signed two books for actual paying customers, I signed a hundred. I must admit that while I didn't really care if the book sold badly or not, I was hoping that it would get me a way into book design. Which it spectacularly did not. I guess the guy from SFX was right after all.
We did some panels at UK comics events about the subject matter of the second book, and while these were fun, they weren't exactly well attended. We had more mates in the audience than people who were genuinely interested. Which was nice, but it had the net effect of making it seem like we were talking to ourselves.
At these said events, you get to meet people who work in comics, many of whom I'm proud to call my friends. There's a few, though, and they shall remain nameless, who conspire to suck all the fun out of the room the minute they walk into it. They're mean, shallow, brazen backbiters who smile and ask you how you are while they simultaneously search the room for someone more interesting (read: more able to further their career) and stab you in the back. I got sick of these people. Worse still, I think I was turning into one.
I came up with a plan to start a UK arm of a collective 'comics experimentation group'. This went so pear-shaped so fast it literally made my head spin, as well as nearly souring a friendship permanently. It was pretty much my own fault that this went so wrong, but it didn't help that it also involved two of the most influential people in the UK and Franco-Belgian comics communities.
I came to the crashing realisation that I didn't have the talent or the wherewithall to really make it as a professional cartoonist (or even a decent amateur), and while I have some level of artistic ability, my main attribute was hitching onto other, more talented individuals' coat-tails and hoping they'd take me with them to comics 'glory' (whatever that is). And that's pretty sad.

There were some other things in there, but that's pretty much the meat of it. All of these things lead to my decision to take a step back from comics and become simply an amateur again. I stopped going to comics events, I visit comics shops very rarely and I pretty much have nothing to do with anyone in comics (aside from a select few who I still correspond with via an email list, and see on rare occasions). Now and then I miss it all, I still get the urge to publish again, and I certainly miss my friends who I don't see nearly as often as I'd like, but I don't really want to go back to how it was. Comics were an enormous part of my life for more years than I care to recount, and they always will be a part of me. They just don't own me anymore.

I'll tell you one thing though, I draw more now than I ever did when I was a 'cartoonist'...

Memories Fade

Just installed the Amazon Wishlist extension (chrome) to be greeted by this wonderful usage of English…

Wow. #angoulême2012

Mario's gotta be around here somewhere!

Yay! MetaMaus in the haus!

Uh-oh.

Looks like the iCloud migration has begun…

Sophie in the stocks (kinda)

@injculbard like so:

Arsenal on the iMac

Watching the Arsenal game and testing instagram 2.0

An embarrassment of riches in the post this morning!

Nice timing from the Arsenal :)

The beautiful new issue of Eye has arrived!

What a wonderful way to start the day!

Blank Slate Books | Nelson

My wife made these cupcakes!

A sign on a side of an old sea defense.

Untitled

Untitled

The view from west beach

estebanhernandez.net

PECIOS: CARLOS GIMÉNEZ: Paseo por 1984

BD à Bastia 2011: l’expo « Planches en vrac ou à la découpe » d’Etienne Lécroart | BoDoï, explorateur de bandes dessinées - Infos BD, comics, mangas

polly and her pals – cliff sterrett « SPACE IN TEXT

Bande Dessinée - Europeana Search

From Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona

The Comics Grid

Gosh! Comics Blog: 25th Anniversary Sale at Gosh!

from your desks « SPACE IN TEXT

f86 sabre jet – harvey kurtzman & alex toth « SPACE IN TEXT

Japan - Visions Of China

Peace on Earth good links from all men | The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The Best Comics of 2010

Ho, ho, h... Bah! Humbug!

Depression: An experiment with Manga Studio

Reeder

The Daily Cross Hatch

neuvième art 2.0

COLECCIONES TEÓRICAS en Tebeosfera

Woo-hoo!!! Double rainbow!!

My new office setup

Me and Blogging

The sorry state of written English today.

Why the Internet is Great, Part 715.

This might just be what I've been looking for…

*sigh*

Time for a morning bun...

Waiting to see Banksy vs Bristol...

Waiting to see Banksy vs Bristol...

So it all comes down to this...

Standing in a queue for ride at legoland.

Kew Gardens are remarkably packed considering the weather

The DFC lives on (well, sort of)

Spuds young herberts 1 - Arsenal wonderkids 3

BitchBuzz Tech: Why I Love Touching My iTouch

Stuff and nonsense

I need to start blogging more often.

I am angry.

The trouble with iPhone apps...

The 3G iPhone and Me: Addendum

The 3G iPhone and me

My Technorati profile

twitter's down. Again.

Friends with blogs part 1

blogging on the iPhone

First Post!

sigh