Pictish Trail Edinburgh Gig Poster

Pictish Trail is playing at the Caves in Edinburgh in April. I designed the poster.

If you didn't grow up in the UK, you might miss that there's a Beano parody thing going on. The Beano is a children's comic that launched in the 1930s. I subscribed to it when I was younger and the art style of the period (late 80s - early 90s) forever has a place in my heart, despite it being kinda ugly.

I've been looking through a few issues from my childhood recently. Hunting down No. 2540 from 1991 specifically, which featured a modern re-style of Dennis the Menace (which, luckily, was a publicity stunt - I was furious about it at the time). When Johnny asked me to put together a poster, I guess cool-dude Dennis was fresh enough in my mind that I figured I'd try to make a Beano cover of my own.

Time was pretty tight so I had to sacrifice authenticity to get a serviceable poster together. Given another day or two, I would've tried to get all the line weights, colouring, lettering etc. bang-on. Ach well, it's nice and bold at least.

I drew the illustration of Johnny using Procreate on my iPad. I mixed my Beano time periods a little and gave him the paper-white skin of the early-80s. My inner 8-year-old isn't impressed but it makes for a stronger poster.

You can buy tickets for the gig over on the Lost Map web shop and you can find out more information / register your interest over on the Facebook event page.

Garfield

We all know Garfield is the worst thing ever. I hate it too. I used to have quite a few of the books when I was wee that I'd read quite often. I'd never enjoy them so god knows why I bothered.

This comic was doodled really quickly on the little squares of paper I've got on my desk for keeping notes. I used my monitor as a lightbox. It's not the best thing I've ever done but I though I should post something. More coming soon (Mr Crutchfield, that means stuff for you).

A comic about a tree

Well a comic of sorts - it's not exactly George & Lynne. While I was doodling that one tree I thought this up then I decided I might as well draw it.

Small Boy & Monkey

I've been reading Small Boy & Monkey for ages now and I think it deserves some props.

Small Boy & Monkey is one of only about three webcomics I like, what with webcomics being terrible and all. The comic gradually changes from neat little stories at the beginning to fairly complex affairs in the more recent stuff. The layouts and ideas are all really nice. I don't know much about the dude who writes it, but his name is Anthony Frattaroli and he posts on a forum I read. CLICK HERE for Small Boy & Monkey!

The most Radio 4 comic in the world

I've been reading Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds in the Review section of the Guardian every Saturday since it started. It's a gentle wee comic that's got a countryside drama / book club kinda feel.

The story is set around a writers retreat on an old farm and follows the intertwining stories of the temptress Tamara Drewe and the surrounding local characters. It's a great example of a comic made for a non comic-reading audience. A fair chunk is available HERE. It's got a whole Archers vibe is right up my street. The online version is a bit of a catch up but hopefully the full story will surface somewhere soon.

Owls & Mice

Hello again. How are you? I'm quite tired.

I'm trying to post something every day on this here place. I guess when I've nothing brand new, I'll post something old that maybe hasn't been seen by too many people. Here we go:

This is a kinda test idea thing I did for a comic I was thinking about. I never got much further than this, but it's still something I'd like to follow up. I reckon seeing the owls and mice duke it out would make a good silent comic. Kinda like in Monkey vs Robot by James Kochalka. I'd probably focus a lot on their wee cultures though, because it's really damn hard to work out how the mice would kill the owls. Maybe other animals could get involved.