Never Mind the B-Locks

Yesterday the Oberver announced the winner and runner-up of this years Graphic Short Story prize. I entered and curiously wasn't mentioned, so I presume I came in third.

Congratulations to Corban Wilkin for his winner and to Steve Tillotson for his perfectly-paced runner-up I, Yeti which captures, among other things, a melancholy foot-to-the-groin beautifully.

Here's mine. I wrote, inked, scanned and coloured the whole thing in one night after work ... and it shows, so I'm not too bitter about losing (read: still deeply bitter).

Appy Memories

Here's a strip that's been buried in my sketchbook since a time when Instagram was relevant.

Drive

Pop strips

I made some comics about pop stars of the day.

Actually by all accounts they are nice young boys done good.

Azaelia Banks (who is rude) went to the same NY fame academy as Nicki Minaj. Everyone likes to play up their rivalry, or at least call Banks "the new Nicki" as there can only be one young sass-factory in hip hop at any given moment.

The Weeknd was one of the most buzz-worthy pop people of 2011 because in that one year he released a trio of highly acclaimed and much downloaded albums ... all for free. He also apparently hates the idea of touring so how he will monetize his mega-kudos without completely selling out has become one of the great mysteries of the modern age.
That said, it is a bit nuts how you sometimes hear of him spoken about as a lone wolf creator type when actually there is obviously a team behind him working on (and paying for) his websites and videos etc. so there's probably a business plan back there too, no doubt with a Nike megamix and a Mastercard ad in there along the way.

True Grit

Here is a cartoon about watching the moving picture True Grit (click it to embiggen).


I give the movie six cowboy stars out of ten.

Daal saag for dinner, caramel apple crumble for afters.

Haircutting

Stuffed crust oven pizza for dinner, Soreen for pud.

Bloody boring

I might start putting some more strips and stuff up here, like I used to.

This one marks a new beginning, and a reason why.

Film Strips

Little White Lies (you know, the film magazine) ran a competition looking for comic-strip re-imaginations of movies, all to be done within 6 set frames. I went for The Wrestler.

(Click it to make it bigger.)

I didn't win though, this guy did.


I did another one as well but it's not very good.

EDIT (much later)
The one I thought was not very good, about Man On Wire wasn't so bad after all. It features in the "digital magazine" of runners-up they made.

You can sit here, if you like

I haven't drawn a comic strip for a long time.

No one asks "why not?"

Don't pick your teeth

Snuff

I wouldn't bother, unless you're trying to impress bigger boys as I was, for which it works a treat (he gave me his business card).

A moving story

Last week I stumbled across a "Flash-powered" webcomic, The Right Number by Scott McCloud, which was apparently hailed as the future of comics on the internet back in 2003. Ever eager to jump on a long departed bandwagon, I've tried to make my own. Boringly though I was forced to experiment with an old strip as I haven't had any original ideas for months.



Look at all that head turning effort that can be saved...

Keep it indie family

Here's a new strip, about an ageing trendy indie dad bringing up his son in his own mould. A music based strip might be easier to get in to magazines, I'm figuring. Any feedback for these would be greatly appreciated. Should I keep going?

Bath time

Edit:
This comment from Greg echoes the sentiments of the other feed back I've had about this one:

I didn't get it to start with. But then I'm special. Reckon you should make the blur more obvious though?

So here I've tried to make it clearer what's going on:

Panic on the streets of London

A bit insensitive, perhaps, but nevermind.

Strip Show Special

Some strips. I don't know why I stopped doing these for such a long time. I guess they're fun to write, that takes all of ten seconds, but then to draw them isn't all that exciting and takes about ten hours. I don't know though. I like them. When I get a good arsenal I'm going to try sending them off to people. Maybe newspapers, maybe magazines, maybe though just to members of the public, just to see what happens.

This one I did a long time ago, and I think I drew it in a relevant state, hence it's shitness. I've done alternative versions, repacing "comedown" with "hangover". Clever, eh?
Home Coming Down


Posies


Skinny latte

I'm a Billy Two-Blogs, no more.

I do really have two blogs. Before I set-up this sketch blog I had my Comic Strip Show, which was all well and good but I only let myself put comic strips up on it, so it was a bit boring to maintain. It really all fell apart when I drew two new strips- equally intricate and hilarious- and then lost them somewhere. I couldn't bring myself to do any more for a while.
Instead now if I do a new strip, I'm going to put it up on here. It's a kind of one-stop-shop. A one-attack-shack-of-Jack. A no-slog-hog-o'-blog. A... oh, Jesus. Sorry.

Here are the four strips I managed to get onto the Strip Show:

Grandma Chagrin


Giving Back



Victims



I'm a blogger