Oh, no, really?!
Worse than that, I am slowly reviving all the old archives going back to December 2000. It will take a while, updating & adding categories & tags, checking old links, adding or upgrading images where possible, etc. But yeah. I wanted the history back in place.
Read More »The Blog Is Back
For Steve’s birthday…
Of course, Hulk and Darkseid are my timeworn go-tos when doing sketches, so I get 0/10 for imagination…
Read More »Birthday Hulk Sketch
A very good day, today, as I caught up with old comics pal Paul Gravett for the first time in aeons.
After meeting up at New Street (sorry, Grand Central, the station’s been a New York Wannabe since 2015 now!!), we went to the new-ish Wetherspoons there for a long lunch. We had fish & chips, and I had two or three of those refillable coffees (Paul stuck with tea! Very English!).
This was a great opportunity to pose for an awkward selfie with me squinting at the camera screen…
Note my Darkseid badge! I brought Paul one too. After eating, I had a “commission” to do…
Read More »Paul Gravett’s Brum Visit
So, as almost all horror fans know, today is the birthday of both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee… and just yesterday was Peter Cushing’s date of birth, by odd coincidence.
Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing—publicity shot from 1982, during the shoot for HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS.
Also, for me, a significant day for losses. On this day back in 2006, we not only lost the legendary cartoonist Alex Toth—my mother also passed away. Has it really been 18 years? Not to me. Time makes no sense these days.
A few pics of mom…
Read More »Births & Deaths
As hinted at in this post, March 14 would have been Fred (Jr)’s 20th birthday, if he was still here. He died in 2018.
Well, further to that, today would have been a big birthday for the “original” Fred, who was born on April 26 1994. Yup, the Big Three-Oh! Of course, no Westie in the long history of Westiedom ever lived to be 30, but it’s a bittersweet landmark that I wanted to note. I also plan to make a few more postings about both of the Freds in due course, 2024 being a big year for them. Below are a couple of pics of OG Fred in the meantime (I’m working on scanning many more)…
OG Fred as a pup, early July 1994.
Read More »Remembering the Two Freds
Yesterday (Feb 28) was the sixth anniversary of Fred Jr’s passing. Six years?! That clock is whizzing round these days. I can’t think of an upside to this, sadly. This year would also be a big birthday for him, and I’ll post about that in a couple of weeks.
The pic is of Fred from September 3, 2006.
For a while, we’d been letting Tikki go on ‘dates’ with other Westies. Finally, early in May this year she met a lad named Ollie and there was a successful pairing. We just wanted Tikki to have the experience of motherhood the one time, and intended to keep at least two of the litter so she’d have a couple of companions.
Tikki & Ollie, May 2022.
Read More »What Happened Since June…
Perhaps this was more appropriately posted back in June (the month of his passing), but as September marks his 95th birthday, that’s fine.
It’s hard to believe the great Gene Colan has been gone for ten years. And what a different (but not in the least bit better) world it is today compared to even back then.
Late ’70s Colan cover to DAREDEVIL #154, nicely inked by Steve Leialoha.
Read More »Gene Colan: Ten Years On
So I take one of me usual hiatuses, and what happens? The world goes to hell! Oh well. Hence the question—back to what? Not smoking ruins. Not just yet, anyway.
Read More »Back To What?!
It’s true… I struggle to update this blog regularly and have for the last decade, really. (I have a large archive of “legacy blog” postings, not currently online, which was a mixture of personal and work—going back to the year 2000!) Partly it’s because social media put a real dent in blogs—regrettably, for me, as I have always disliked so-called social media… and only real popular blogs have weathered the storm somewhat unscathed. So it’s a major disincentive to bother with a blog when you know no one bothers looking at it unless you personally prod them into doing so!
And life itself—the complications, the distractions, the tragedies, the endless quest for income and stability… it’s heavy. Who needs to blog about that or prioritise blogging to a silent or non-existent audience instead of focusing on important stuff?!
Read More »I’m Back (Again)
