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In March two of my webcomics will be launched on different sites. It's just how the timing has worked out, I didn't plan it that way.
Ryans Bad Day
This is a short three-parter which I did for Apocalypse Comics - a new online retailer who are very supportive of the small press, go check them out!
Job Search
This is a new strip for Indie Review. It may run for some time as I have a ton of scripts for it.
The Beagle Awards are coming. Spread the word.
So, I’ve busy been doing some new illustrations for a museum, making another new comic strip, designing some branding for a new shop and helping to make a documentary. But I’m not going to talk about any of that stuff. Oh no. Instead I’m going to share some links with you today.
Via the ever wonderful http://www.boingboing.net, a gallery of anti-Japanese war propaganda films.
http://www.ir0ngruve.com/fs_gallery/
Really interesting to me, not just because of the artwork but also because I’m really interested in the history of the Phillipines. That might sound random, but it was brought about through studying Kali, a martial art from the Phillipines.(The art was recently showcased on Discovery Channels abysmal ‘Fight Quest’ show) Here’s a Moro warrior:
You don’t see many pictures of those. It was cool that Ben managed to randomly find a kids book all about them at a car boot sale. (previously blogged here: http://www.lomooreblog.com/2006/11/swords_and_sails.html )
Also, here’s how they represent the Japanese:
I think it’s published under creative commons, so I expect the designs will turn up on t-shirts at some point or will be ripped off by some trendy young artist in the near future. Also on boingboing, how to make an R2D2 beanie, an R2D2 made from a beer barrel (which looks better than it sounds) and Disney drawings by Hitler. I’ll let you find those articles yourself because there’s lots of other neat stuff there too, so you should just go and read it.
Here’s a link to a bizarre little comic strip, sent to me by Miguel(http://tizersoze.wordpress.com/). It was also on boingboing a couple of years ago, because everything good ends up there eventually. http://www.bustedwonder.com/exterminus/
People fish tank. Story over at OhGizmo:
http://www.ohgizmo.com/2008/02/23/fishtank-friday-people-tank/#more-9623
Spleenal sent some good links too about using a Wii remote to create a VR display and an interactive whiteboard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw&NR=1
Also on OhGizmo! Paintball with dolphins, and other crazy new game ideas from the Game Design challenge.
http://www.ohgizmo.com/2008/02/22/gdc08-challenge-the-inter-species-game/#more-9610
I’m currently developing laser tag for sharks, but not as a virtual reality thing, as a real sport. Think about it….people could hunt sharks without killing them and sharks could hunt people without having to use that ‘I thought it was a sea turtle’ excuse that they always hide behind. It’s wearing pretty thin. I mean, I can tell the difference between a sea turtle and a surfer and sharks have way better senses than me. Yeah, laser tag seems like the way forward.
Detail from my latest comic strip. I'm a bit behind on my comics, it's hard to find the time or the motivation right now. I am quite pleased with this strip, it's a two pager for a charity comic.
I did a strip for the Flood charity comic too, but I'm not sure what's happened to that. I'll post up a detail from it at some point as I was quite pleased with how that turned out too.
This is some weird toy from a vending machine. I didn't make it, even though it looks suspiciously like one of my creations. You can get one of these amazing toys for only 20 pence. It is part of a balloon filled with sand, note the realisitic hair (made from wool) and the striking features of the printed face. Definitely a bargain.
Al Davison is working on a new graphic novel which looks awesome, check it out on his blog:
http://astralgypsy.blogspot.com/2008/02/alisas-tale.html
and
http://astralgypsy.blogspot.com/2008/02/alisas-tale_15.html
Nice use of colours and different media.
He's currently looking for a publisher.
Well, I've sold some more t-shirt designs and my Uneetee shirt has been re-issued and is selling well.
So, I thought I'd share with you my t-shirt collection, because I really like t-shirts. I've done it as an extended entry because it's long and some people will find it boring. So click the link to read more.
That's right, I didn't just start designing them because I thought I could make some money, I'm actually really interested in t-shirts. I've just included some of the more interesting prints, but I have a lot of other ones that are nicely designed style-wise or have interesting touches.
Warner / Disney Stores:
Stitch t-shirt (has a neat '626' label, like a Levi's tag), Scooby Doo, Batman logo, Glow in the dark Batman, Dark Knight/Man of Steel.
Yeah, I know, these are meant for kids, but my geekyness knows no bounds. The good thing about buying clothes from the kids department is that they're much cheaper. Unfortunately the necks are usually a bit tight, I don't know why this is as children have really big heads. These stores have all closed down, so no more tees for me.
Places I've never been:
I think people get me these to taunt me. I've had the Singapore ones for about 15 years or so, maybe longer. The blue one has a hole under the sleeve, but I still wear it because I love it.
I got the Mickey Mouse one from a charity store, the slogan is just so odd, I thought it was pretty cool. Unfortunately it's very old and going a bit yellowy.
TV / Cinema:
Jaws, Transformers, Marvin, Log, Good Cat/Bad Cat, Yacht rock, Bakula, Hulkamania, the cube
I love the Jaws tee because I've always really liked this image, and I like how they've distressed it. It's a very underused Jaws image, although it was used quite a bit when the movie came out, I'm sure I've seen it on an early edition of the book and (I might be wrong, I haven't checked it out) I think it might be the one used on the Jaws poster which you can see in the background of 'The hills have eyes'. I might be wrong, I haven't seen that movie in years.
I 'borrowed' Marvin from my brother about ten years ago and it's still one of my faves.
Yacht rock....If you don't get this shirt, look it up. One of the my favourite comedies, ever, with an amazingly smooth soundtrack.
Bakula was a Christmas present from Sheriff and Emma, it's so funny but only works if people actually see the shirt. I've tried explaining the joke to people and it just doesn't work. It's so geeky, yet so good!
Hulkamania....it was a bit pricey but I when we saw it in the wrestling shop I just couldn't resist!
''I may be empty but don't evah call me shallow" The cube is a cinema in Bristol. I bought this at an event they held while they were between premises (the old cube burned down).
Music / computer games / comics:
Red Meat, And you will know us by the trail of dead, Namco
Max Cannon is a genius and I love my Red Meat shirt. It's quite old, but I don't wear it much because it doesn't look very good on me.
I like the imagery on this Trail of Dead t-shirt because it looks like the type of shirt you would see in a high street store but it's actually for something, so it's quite subtle branding.
Namco gets a lot of comments because it's just weird. I got it in a charity shop about seven years ago for a couple of pounds. I've had good use out of it and it's probably ready for the bin, but I just can't bear to part with it.
Gama Go / Threadless:
Ninja Kitty logo, Ninja Kitty UFO, Tigerlily, Kaiju attack
Gama Go used to be my favourite place for t-shirts. I found them because I loved Tim Biskups work, but he doesn't seem to have as much involvement with them now. Also, their stuff isn't as limited edition as it used to be but it's still as expensive, which puts me off getting stuff from them now. Every guitarist seems to have a deathbot sweat band, what's that all about? I've got a track jacket by them, but I think track jackets / hoodies could be a whole new post.
These tees are awesome though, Tigerlily is so cool, they've reissued this tee a few times. I love the colour combination on the Ninja kitty logo.The first time I wore it I dropped deep fried squid on it and I've never been able to get rid of the stain (you can just make it out to the left.)
I lost a Gizmo shirt to a terrible smoothie incident and my Pez top was scarred by olive juice. I should just stop eating or invest in a bib.
Kaiju is also cool colours, originally it was meant to be black but they emailed me to ask if green was okay and I think it worked out much better. They still make some great toys too.
'Surprise' by Aaron Hogg and 'In a comic' by Ross Zeitz
More great presents from Sheriff and Emma!
And that concludes this installment of Leonies T-shirt collection. Maybe next time we'll look at Martial Arts tees and tees I've designed. See you then!
Just to make sure I didn't get too confident from all the lovely comments I've been receiving, evil cosmic forces decided to send me a horrible rejection letter. Actually, they sent it to the wrong address first but, it managed to catch up with me. I guess evil cosmic forces don't keep an up to date address book.
I've had a lot of rejection letters in the past, I've been sending off work left, right and centre since I was in my teens and my painful optimism made me keep on going. However, this latest one has set a new standard of rejection. I've had to send letters like this out myself and having had so many, I know how horrible they can be. At best, they offer you constructive advice (these are the ones from really good editors) and at worst they don't give you any reason (usually from editors who are struggling with their workload).
This one arrived a year after I submitted work and was incredibly patronising. It was scrawled in biro on the bottom of the letter I had sent to them and offered such revelatory advice as 'try drawing everyday'. Wow, I wish they'd told us that during the MA. It's the type of letter you would send to a child who had sent in their doodles, and I'm mainly offended by the fact they thought that I was that kid. I wouldn't have cared if they'd said the usual 'your work is not for us' or 'your style does not suit our publication', you know, the sort of thing you write to be polite. Or they could've even just said 'NO! NO WAY! UH UH!'
Apparently, if I work harder I might be able to work in the business some day....I actually thought I already was in the business, maybe I should tell the tax office I was mistaken and ask for some kind of refund.
Well, I'll be looking forward to their next publication. I hope I don't end up with a review copy.