Oh. Hi. Missed me, did you? I haven’t felt like writing anything for a while. There’s been some worry about mom’s health (there still is, but I’m not going into details), which has kind of sapped my will to write STUFF on here.
Or even Stuff and Nonsense… 😉
I’ve recovered a bit of faith in my drawing abilities, I think. I just completed my third NetworX strip as part of my “Networks” column for Comics International. They’re simple, dumb little things, but there’s satisfaction in creating effective staging within a mere three panels. You can’t say much; the challenge is making it count.
Hmmm. Now I have to do a drawing of Orson Welles for The End is Nigh #3. Mr. Ed is writing a War of the Worlds feature and has given me an ultra-ambitious description of the illo which I am going to stubbornly downgrade to something much more simple! 😉
Paul and I might be catching up with a certain Jonathan Ross sometime this month. He’s over in Tokyo at the moment, but when he gets back, maybe we’ll get a date. I’m very keen to see all this stuff he’s bought recently.
We visited his house once before, back in 1998. He’s moved since then. His old house had an interesting feature: a very narrow, spiral staircase led down to the cellar area, where there was a passage with bookcases on either side. Close inspection: FAKE bookcases! A strategic nudge on the right side, et voila! Hidden door swings open to reveal Jonathan’s den, where resided his huge collection of masks, models, comic books, original artwork and I couldn’t begin to imagine what else! And his computer. It was a Mac with a large, flat-screen monitor. Believe it or not, back in 1998 that was the height of opulence and the Inner Geek within me was quite entranced. (I have one myself now, obviously.)
Anyway, that was fun. Some people get the wrong idea, I think, about Jonathan—that he’s a bit false, maybe. But if you meet him, he’s just the same as on TV, and his enthusiasm for his interests is totally passionate, genuine and infectious.
Oh, for those who care: Tesco are selling the Sin City DVD for £6.99 at the moment. Haven’t watched all it yet, but managed to catch the first 40 minutes or so… not the deepest picture ever made, but as an exercise in style and atmosphere, definitely very impressive and quite unique. Worth a look, I think.
Enough for now.
I can’t take Sin City seriously when it has lines (delivered with an entirely straight face) like these :
“Sometimes to prove yourself to your friends you have to be prepared to die!”
“Sometimes it just means killing a whole lot of people!”
“And sometimes it means paying a visit to Clinton Cards!”
Oh, the dialogue stinks! Most of it, anyway. Hard-boiled or poached?! Still, the style and execution is incredibly cool.
You’re clearly far too easily impressed…
Can I interest you in buying one of my half-arsed chapbooks…?
Thanks for the Sin City tip-off. I’ll look for the white with blue stripes brand, student sayigs wahey!
Any chance you and Paul might give Johnathan the nudging towards producing and presenting a tv series, a multi-part documentary on the history of underground and newsagent stocked comix in Britain over the last century ?
Comments are closed.