Optimism

On Wednesday, I saw something which I can only describe as the most optimistic thing...ever.

I was walking down Northumberland Street in Newcastle and I passed by an older gent and his wife collecting for some Christian good cause. The man handed one of those little 'accept Christ' leaflets to an elderly Muslim gentleman.

You can't make this up.

"Ride A Deadly Grenade!"

As soon as I saw this, I was prepared to declare it one of the best comic covers I've ever seen...

How's that for an insane pop-art masterpiece?

FutureQuake #9 Available Now!

FutureQuake #9 (featuring Mindfields by myself and Bryan Coyle) is now available from the FutureQuake shop! Go! Buy!

"No one would have believed..."

When I watch this clip, is it so wrong of me to want to see Lucy Pinder but hear Ricahrd Burton...?

Ian Cairns on ComicSpace

Ian Cairns was a good friend, and one of the most talented artists I've ever had the good fortune to know.

He had a great passion of the medium of comic books, and his understanding of sequential art was simply incomparable. He took the elements of Alex Toth, Jack Kirby and dozens of others and applied them to his own work, but still managed to keep it unique and distinctly his. I think I learned more about creating comics from just talking to him in a greasy spoon than I ever have from studying the work of professionals.

Unfortunately, Ian passed away suddenly earlier this year.

A group of his friends have put up a page for Ian on ComicSpace as a way to showcase his work, and make people aware of his work. He left lots of sketchbooks and unfinished work, some of which will be put into the galleries on his ComicSpace page.

If you have a ComicSpace page, please take the time out to look at the work on display, and maybe even add Ian as a friend.

http://www.comicspace.com/iandouglascairns/.

Another anthology cover...?

It's looking like the cover of FutureQuake #9 (by Ed Traquino) is based on my strip Mindfields...

This is the second anthology cover based on strips written by me. The first was Something Wicked #2 by the incredibly talented Julia Bax (some of her last small press work before going professional). It was based on the strip Gifts written by myself with art by Dunk Nimmo.

Something Wicked #2 is still available for sale from the FutureQuake website, and FutureQuake #9 goes to press very, very soon...

Waiting...

That's all I seem to be doing at the minute, waiting for things to happen.

Yeah, I know there's the old cliche that someone is bound to spout (if anyone actually ever read this fucking blog) about getting out there and making things happen, but I've done that. I've gone out there and put things in place, talked to the right people, made the right moves, and now all I can do is sit back and wait for those things to come to fruition.

So, my life is in a holding pattern until something happens.

And that's really fucking frustrating.