Music on Monday: A Bit Special

I was only ten when I first heard this, so the layered critique of Thatcherite Britain passed me by a bit. All I knew was that it sounded slithery and sinister, and it wormed its way right inside my head. I still think it's one of the best singles ever, one of those three minute masterpieces like I Can't Explain or White Lines (Don't Do It.)

Anyway, I can listen to this again and again, and it still sounds like every fearful white-tiled windy underpass and pissed-up McDonalds-littered town centre in Britain today.

Rallying Round

Tried something a bit different today, photographing objects that were moving at something more than geological speed.

The Jim Clark Rally was going on just up the road so we took a wander up there yesterday evening, I forgot my memory card, and we went back this afternoon for another go. It was fun.





This was nearly the best one, being a Mini, but I just clipped the wheel off.


And there were lots of photos like this;

Numbers and Letters

Work in progress; I've got four fishing boat numbers on the go, in various stages of completion.


I decided a while ago (somewhat grandly, you might think) that as it was becoming a series it deserved a title, so I've called it 'The Price of Fish.' Partly because of the nature of the paintings, partly just because it sets someone up to look at one and say "what's that got to do with the price of fish?"

One Step Back

I was getting geared up to draw a new collaboration with Matthew Craig, but it's fallen through as the anthology people decided not to take the story. Damn. It was going to be really good; a dark fairy tale, all twisted oak forests and strange cottages. Bugger it.

I might still draw it anyway, because I wanted to.

Still, to make up for that, here's a panel from a strip I've entered into a competition.

Music on Monday: Weather Report

Baboonery is - like I have to tell you - a white hot place to keep running. Being this far out at the forefront of Web 2.0 is like being the heat shield on the front of a blogcraft burning through the geistosphere. Cutting edge. Twenty-four oblique seven. Just last week there was a bee got in and I had to get up and open the window to let it out.

Here's an old blind bloke playing a nice tune.

Up Around the Bend.

I think this is my favourite thing at the moment. It's a 1944 map of the 'Mississippi River Meander Belt.'

This is why maps are lovely things; fact and beauty together.




Came across it via In Focus, the Atlantic magazine's fantastic online photojournalism blog, which has some impressive photographs of the current flooding.

My Darjeeling Senses Are Tingling: Did Someone Call for a Sconeslinger??

Quite a nice, and fair, review from the Forbidden Planet blog.

"Much of my enjoyment comes from the writing of Matthew Craig, because he writes these superheroes with a kitchen sink perspective. It’s more about the conversations, the characters and less about big blokes and badly proportioned women in spandex beating up supervillains. And this is good.

...

There’s a bunch of giant mutant moggies that need more than litter training and it’s up to the Bostin’ Heroes do do the cleanup. It’s a fine, fun tale, and with artist Rich Johnson, there’s a really nice look to a lot of the pages – although Johnson is far better with people and crowds than he is with superhero battles – a weakness he’ll need to work if he’s carrying on here. But his sedate, crowd and conversation panels, just like that opener above are really quite attractive."

He's right on both counts. I like doing Matthew's stories because they've got a big heart, and they are about things like, just what would you do if your wife found out you were a superhero?

Right about 'sedate' scenes, too. I think in my heart of hearts I'd rather draw people having a nice cup of tea and a cake than mutant troopers razing Mars Colony to the ground. Because, in its way, the same passions may rage beneath the surface while barely ruffling the tea meniscus.