Storm Chandra has hit, and yesterday I got to phone my 17 year old son at 8:30pm to let him know his school was going to be closed tomorrow due to the weather and, since he was with his mates, it sounded like I’d just announced the end of WWII over the phone to someone in a bar in New York
It’s wet out.
But it’s beginning to feel like it’s always wet out.
Tuesday Recap
So, yesterday I had plans. And here’s what happened:
Mon – pencil a page, pencil and ink and letter a terran omega page. Go for a run.
Pencilled the page. Pencilled Terran Omega. Went for a run. Drove son to dentist which, somehow, wiped out two hours from my day.
Didn’t get anything inked. Today is the day for that.
Amount earned yesterday: $0. But I did upload a finished DC page to their servers so that will pay for a few days of living.
I paid my taxes yesterday, lowest my tax bill has been for years – which sadly is not great news. (I tell you, readers, not to elicit sympathy but rather so you understand how perilous freelancing can be)
When I started this career I promised myself I’d always maintain three months worth of salary in the bank (this, I reasoned was the sensible amount – if work dried up, I’d have salary to cover one month of looking for work, one month for doing work and one month for waiting on the invoice being paid) and when it dipped below that I’d have to really think about what the hell I’m doing. Well, right now I have no months of salary (though some invoices are due). So that’s a scary position. Luckily I can draw my way out of it, but it requires me to draw.
Yesterday In Social Media
The world continuous to burn, and in full view of everyone so Social Media, understandably has been screaming about awful stuff going on everywhere but right now especially, the states.
So please enjoy this one insight I had:
Nigella Lawson replacing Prue Leith (who previously replaced Mary Berry) on the great British bake off is the Uk equivalent of Marisa Tomai playing Aunt May
Or go back to bed for a nap. I know which I’d rather do.
This week the plan is:
Mon – pencil a page, pencil and ink and letter a terran omega page. Go for a run. Tues – ink 2 pages Wed – ink 2 pages Thur – ink 2 pages Fri – Ink 2 pages Sat – ink 1 page, colour 1 page of terran omega Sun – ink 1 page, pencil ink and letter terran omega page 23
I gotta be honest, I don’t fancy my chances.
Oh, I started work on the Terran Omega Cover… This will be a journey, I’ve already about six versions of this damn thing.
This is what I currently thing looks best (thanks to some input from Pye Parr, one of the greatest designers of books/comics oft he 21st century and very much under looked)
Tron vs Mitchells vs The Machines
I tried with Tron: Legacy. I really did. I think I remember watching it at the time and not being terribly impressed, deaging cgi just sucks very very hard. But with the distance of 16 years I thought, maybe it’ll be better. Readers, it was not better. In fact there’s a point where Flynn’s son is stood on some sort of metal beam on top of a building where a puffy overweight security guard (who by rights would’ve taken one look at that beam and gone “sod this for a game of soldiers” ) got up on the beam only for Flynn’s son to reveal “hey I’m the major shareholder” and then he sort of jumps off the beam with his parachute ready to open and I just thought “this film has watched too much the matrix and Batman Begins”.
So I turned it off, and switched on The Mitchells vs The Machines, which is a much much better film. Would recommend it. Funny, great animation, and real heart.
Yesterday in Social Media
Not much to report in the world of social media aside from oh-my-god-America-is-slipping-into-a-civil-war but, fellow Belfastian Phil Boyce has been maintaining a blog on the British comic Oink for longer than the comic was in print, and yesterday he posted:
On this day in 1994 in no.8 of Jurassic Park it was the back up strip that caught my eye! Originally published in b&w, Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales was coloured for the UK by Steve White. What an incredible job he did! You can check out more in the full review from 2022 on the OiNK Blog. 🚗🦖🖌️🐽 link: https://oink.blog/2022/01/25/jurassic-park-8-pure-escapism/
Yesterday my wife and I went out to witness our local murmuration of Starlings. It’s pretty spectacular, happens on the Albert Bridge and you can see them slowly congregate and then swoop in vast clouds of black splatter up and around over head. Finally they tear off into the bottom of the bridge where they’ve mostly made their homes. I mean it was amazing. Several years ago, I got caught in a murmuration of starlings on a beach in Rathmullan. We’d gone walking and found at some point close between the sandy beach and the forest where tufts of harsh green grass had made its home the starlings where swooping up and down and around, and getting very close the ground. I stood and watched as they swooped around me. It was an incredible experience.
Prior to the vast murmuration small clumps of starlings appeared, smaller murmurations, which, by rights, I think, should actually be called a murmer of starlings.
Oh, also got interview by the One show just before the murmuration began, unsure if I’ll be on, but if you see a doofus in a Gorillaz hat, that might be me.
Terran Omega Cover
I very quickly drew up a cover for the first Terran Omega. You’ll see it soon. It’s funny but sometimes the most promising visual is the quickest. I think pencils and inks took 30 minutes.
Newsletter Blast off
I’ve just sent out my first newsletter. It’s still in the untested rocket being shot in to space and may face an unscheduled demolition at any point.
Yesterday In Social Media
In some sort of attempt to look at anything else but the world at large I went scouring for stuff to laugh at. And found this great story:
"Bob had gotten to the point where he never drew anything. Never drew anything on the Batman comics, anyway. [Sheldon] Moldoff was ghosting them all and when he didn't, someone else did. The only thing I think Bob ever drew was when we'd be out somewhere, in a restaurant or someplace, and a pretty girl would come over to him and say, 'Are you really the man who draws Batman?' Then he could whip out a little sketch for her, a big sketch if she was wearing something low-cut and would bend over to watch him draw. One day I'm over at his house to discuss this newspaper strip idea we had and he's talking about who we might get to draw it. I was going to write it and we were going to get someone else to draw it. I'm not sure what Bob was going to do on it except sign his name. I said to him, 'Bob, isn't it disappointing to you that you don't draw any more? You were once such a great artist.' He wasn't but you had to talk to Bob that way. He said, 'Oh, no. Let me show you something.' He took me into a little room in his house. It was his studio. I didn't even know he still had a studio. It was all set up with easels and things and there were paintings, paintings of clowns. You know the kind. Like the ones Red Skelton used to do. Just these insipid portraits of clowns, all signed very large, 'Bob Kane.' He was so proud of them. He said, 'These are the paintings that are going to make me in the world of art. Batman was a big deal in one world and these paintings will soon be in every gallery in the world.' He thought the Louvre was going to take down the Mona Lisa to put up his clown paintings. I didn't have the heart to tell him. So a few months later, I'm up at DC and I ran into Eddie Herron. Eddie was another writer up there and we got to talking and Bob's name came up. Eddie said, 'Did you hear? Bob's getting sued by one of his ghost artists. I said, 'How is that possible? Shelly Moldoff's suing Bob? But they had a clear deal. Shelly knew he wasn't going to get credit or anything..? Eddie said, 'No, not Shelly.' Bob was being sued by the person who'd painted the clowns for him..." Arnold Drake (via arecomicsevengood)
Bob, you scally.
I think it’s hard for me to really understand how much money people could make in comics once upon a time (I mean I know people doing phenomenally well right now – but the money in those days would’ve been insane, but honestly most artists and writers I know are struggling to make a sort of average sized income – certainly I am) the days of wild excesses are probably long gone.
I’m a sucker for any joke that plays on classic artwork. This by Jaseomcn on blusky made me laugh.
And finally, leaving you with a free comedy special by Gianmarco Soresi – one of my fav new comedians, who, please god, doesn’t seem like he’ll wander off in to very dodgy territory (LOUIS CK I’M LOOKING AT YOU … no wait, stop doing that Louis — I’m no longer looking at you, jesus christ man. Still I’ve got my classic Woody All… oh god.)
We’re in a super accelerated world now. Time just seems to whizz past. December felt like three days. Pre-Christmas, Christmas Day and post Christmas.
Maybe this is an age thing, maybe this is just the stage of life now where instead of summers that last for decades when I was 12 they last for two BBQs and lots and lots of rain. Maybe it’s because covid felt like the world paused – at my age that felt like a breathing space – and then whoosh things moved faster. But for my son, especially my youngest – it happened it the most critical moment of his growing up. That period when you spend your days living in the pockets of your friends and doing sleepovers. He missed that. As did every one in that generation at his age.
It’s weird I can barely remember covid now, but it was a major formative event for him and his friends. What will it have done for them for the rest of their lives? I don’t know.
Time’s relentless march and my facing another 12 years of work before retirement (official work age retirement, I will still be doing everything that I do now, there will be no change!) is one of the reasons I bit the bullet on finally doing my own creator owned project. There’s never an ideal time to start doing something like that, a thing if I’d done when I Was 18 or 25 or 30 or 45 would’ve allowed me to build up a library of creator owned books. But I’ve started now. You should probably do the same!
Colouring
I was asked if I wanted to colour the DC strip, YES PLEASE! It took seven hours. SEVEN HOURS. Counter to what I’ve just said, some things seem to take forever.
I generally try to avoid colouring, I’m not fast at it but I do enjoy it. This page isn’t complex, though I will admit, I think it’s quite pretty.
Traitors
There’s not many things my wife and I will sit and watch together. Partly because so much of my time is spent drawing. But we’ve watched the last few series of Traitors together. It’s a fascinating watch, both for what the show is like (it’s delightfully silly for a thing that really is so low stakes, though I suppose you could win up to £100k so it’s not low stakes to the contestants)
This years show ended in such a way that you were routing for the traitors, no matter where you started it’s hard sit and think “why are these two traitors who have lied their entire way to this pot of money … why am I on their side now?”
Anyway, was great.
Yesterday in Social Media
Over on the Guardian there was an article… look just read the headline:
Victoria Beckham tops UK singles sales chart as fans show support over Brooklyn feud
How does this work? What if I want to support my friend through a separation but they don’t have a single out? AM I A BAD FRIEND IF I CAN’T MAKE THEM CHART?
For future reference if I end up in a terrible feud in the future I’ll be putting out an all new dance mix of Lukas diner. That’s if it’s a family feud. If it’s just like a social media flame war? I’ll just re-release something from the back catalogue. Not bothering recording anything new for that.
Here’s on of those little bon mot thoughts that pop in to the old noggin:
“About 15 minutes in the air fryer” is our generations “about 3 minutes in the microwave”
My mum when asked about the microwave would always say “about 3 minutes” one day it occurred to me that this was her answer to pretty much everything I asked her about cooking in the micro. Soup, meat, bread. Three minutes (“and if it’s not hot enough try it for another minute”). I said “You always say three minutes, no matter what it is” and she burst out laughing like she’d been caught in a tiny lie by a child (I was maybe in my early 20s)
Our airfryer defaults to 15 minutes and there are very few things we don’t just press start and do in 15 minutes, despite the highly complex programmable timer for sundry food stuffs that are all available on the super complex touch controls. Nope. None of that bollocks. 15 minutes in the air timer.
Our kids never ask us how long things take because they don’t need to. 15 minutes it is.
Oh man, do you know how long I’ve been drawing for? Do you know how long I’ve fetished drawing tools for? DO YOU KNOW the weird tools I have? (10 point divider? CHECK! Rapidoraph drawing pens? CHECK? Ames Ruler? CHECK!)
BUT I’VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS…!
Via Meghan Hetrick on instagram “My absolute favorite art gadget”
It’s called an ACU-ARC and is for drawing ARCS ! ARCS!
I’ve never even heard of this, like a full I’ve been using French Curves (terrible) and freehand (slightly worse) BUT this looks amazing.
Invented in the 50s too, so I can’t claim ignorance cus it’s new!
Dave Cook posted this over on Bluesky (it’s time limited, so don’t dawdle!)
Digital copies of the first Killtopia anthology are now just £2 on our store.100+ pages of cyberpunk action, made by 50+ contributors – including @skyepatridge.bsky.social @gustaffovargas.bsky.social @roboticsteve.bsky.social + more!Limited time only: davecookcomics.bigcartel.com/product/kill…
Tomorrow I’ll send out the first of my new Monthly newsletters (COLLECT THEM ALL!) signup at pjholden.kit.com
If you’re following the blog, that’s great. The newsletter is a “In case you Missed it” blog post for the whole month. (With maybe a little paragraph of two talking about the month gone) last sunday of the month!
Gonna go before this turns in to a proper irish goodbye (one in which the leaving party spends several hours saying goodbye to friends)
I have a note with a suggestion for today’s blog, it simply says “haircut”. Why it says that, I’ve no idea. I know that I got a haircut yesterday and I know I had something I’d intended to say about it – what that was I don’t know?
I’ve already talked about haircuts before, I even wrote a comic strip, but do I have anything new to say on the topic? Probably not. I’ve been getting a haircut once per month every year since I was 14. With the exception of the covid lockdowns – which means I’ve spent in the region of £5k in that time on hair.
I complain endlessly about my hair, it’s a thick matt of animal rug, slightly receded at the front, but not so you’d notice. There’s a little bit of grey, again not a lot, and what is there is usually less visible when I’ve recently had a hair cut. It comes to a widow’s peak. When I was younger, I’d get a flat top hair cut and two odd little side tufts would look like the little bits of an owl that look like ears. Twit twoo.
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 21456: There are two kinds of writer: the ones who write for love, and the ones who do it to get results. In a world in which writers are paid less and less, results are often uncertain. But if you really love what you do, you'll keep going.
I mean, the horrible reality is doing it for what you love is also going to pay less. But at least you’ll starve doing the thing you love.
Yesterday was trailertastic day on youtube
Here’s the New He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Trailer.
Honestly, I missed He-Man, it came out just as I’d aged out of playing with toys (I mean I was 11, what did I think I was gonna do?) I think I’d gotten in to comics and He-Man just seemed a bit silly. Even his name, for gawd’s sake.
My youngest brother at the time (another brother would come along much much later) was well in to it though. I think when I was his age we were quite a poor family, but in the meantime my dad was doing much better and now he had everything – He Man, Castlegreyskull and I’m sure all of the figures. He’d also gotten every single star wars thing you could get, death star, millenium falcon, everything.
Though to be fair I’d never felt like I didn’t get the kind of toys I wanted as a kid – largely anything Action Man related.
Anyway, longtime friend Ross pointed me towards a trailer for another movie, Death Stalker.
Every bit as silly, and much lower budget and yet this looks more fun.
My mate Rob has a new creator owned comic out from Dark Horse, I’ve read the first issue, it’s enormous fun (and gorgeous)
It’s up to a van full of washed-up retirees to save a baby kaiju before its powers are used to destroy the world in @robwilliams71.bsky.social and @nilvendrell.bsky.social new comic series Hidden Springs, kicking off on May 13! @comicbook.com shared the details: https://bit.ly/4pRr5V0
I dunno if it’s obvious but I’m trying to ignore the state of the world, and the news in the blog. There’s enough of that out there. This is a place for imagination and happiness and joy, and oh sod it, ok, one little thing (and I’ll explain why in a second)
Musk, at Davos:
“My prediction is there’ll be more robots than people… everyone on Earth is going to have one and going to want one… who wouldn’t want a robot to… watch over your kids, take care of your pets… we are in the most interesting time in history.”
Isn't this a telling aspiration? To want robots to look after your kids, so you can do stuff, rather than robots to do stuff, so you can spend time with your kids? The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.
To me, this is the bleakest possible 2000ad Futureshock, a clever four pager by Alan Moore with dark broody artwork by Jesus Redondo – a kind of inversion of the One Christmas in Eternity (where humanity has invented immortality, and so never die, but conseuqentially, no one is ever born and there are no children, except the little artifical boy you get to have at christmas to open presents with)
So, this lead me to thinking that actually the future shock format is a wonderful short story format that I don’t think enough people play with. It can be quite formulaic, but once you crack it you can pretty much write it indefinitely – Alan Moore certainly did. If you want to write (and I say to this to myself) you could do worse than scour the news (and focus magazine, and new scientist, and any journals you spot – all available in the libby app or your local library) for a a couple of articles that you can tweak in to a future shock style story. Biting irony, twist in the tale. Doesn’t have to be good, just do it for a while and see where it leaves you.
Ther rhythm of a four page future shock to me is setup, escalate, ironic twist. There’s not room to do much more than that.
Set up :
A world where robots can do every job.
Escalate:
But there’s one job they can’t do, we see the world the robots have made.
We see children running around and robots doing everything to help them they love the kids. No adults anywhere.
Escalate: We see the adults, they are in lock step, walking towards some giant factory. Wearing Robes. Maybe a younger male is talking to an older man “First time, huh. Just turned 18? It’s not so bad. They feed you”
Escalate/twist: the robots talk, they love children, it is entirely the purpose of their existence to look after them, they love them.
Which is why it’s so important that they maintain a good breeding stock of humans to keep the children coming.
That’s it. (Is it good? maybe, certainly you’d want to polish it more and more, and maybe throw in some wilder twist? maybe an adult escaping from the breeding farms and seeing life, which he remembers.= – maybe the children on reaching adolescence get their minds wiped, and one man remembers it as a dream?)
Ireland, as I like to tell people, is called the Emerald Isle because it’s always bloody wet and everything is covered in moss.
Went to go for a run this morning, and it’s bucketing down and has been all week so I turned back. Now, I actually like the rain, I think though the constant dark is getting to me now. The sunset is getting later, but when the hours during sunlight it’s overcast and grey, hooboy.
I mean, as befits a Norn Iron native, I will always complain about the heat and too much sun, but I promise this summer I will not. I welcome it. I welcome light. I welcome warmth. I welcome ice cream.
But, again, a joke I’ve told a billion times, sure if you wanted nice weather you wouldn’t live in Northern Ireland.
Patreon Hits 350!
That’s it, the headline is the news. We’ve hit 350 followers on Patreon. Now, I would love, before I launch a kickstarter or take Terran Omega further to keep pushing that number til it hits 500. I think it’s possible. (And oh lordy,
DC GOES MAD
I don’t have a lot to add to this, but yesterday it was announced a 64 page Mad about DC. Mad Magazine, which I’ve loved for a very long time, though getting it in Belfast was largely a question of luck, when you did stumble across on, hooo boy!, is gonna be filled with DC Characters. I can’t tell you what I’m doing, or who I’m doing it with or … well… can’t tell you much (but I will say; my bit is very very short)
DC is proud (and slightly concerned) to announce MAD About DC, a 64-page one-shot arriving April 1, 2026. Yes, April 1. And no, this isn’t a prank—unless you count letting Chip Zdarsky run this thing as its Guest Editor a prank on the DC Universe itself. You’d have to ask Chip.
“They say at DC there’s nowhere to go but down after writing Batman, and, yeah, it’s true,” said Zdarsky. “It’s very true.”
Yesterday In Social Media
On Writing
Turns out writing every little disconnected notion for all sorts of stories means that when you've got a story and you want it to be two parts but can't quite figure out what would make it interesting enough sometimes that little notion becomes a crucial part.
Ah! Yes! Nearly forgot. So, I have a notes app on my phone and I’ll just add little notions as they occur to me, thinks like “Terran Omega faces off against a space Gorilla” – largely they’re simply visual ideas that I think will be fun (I mean that was a silly example, but Terran Omega faces off against an army of space gorillas, that’s got something.
Anyway, been thinking about the next Terran Omega story and I have a delicate little 11 page story that is more poem than story, and I had mulling it over and thought about how to extend that out and I did, I got to something like a 22 page strip (by also using it as a way to explore her backstory) but it still felt a little conflict free, like it needed something (the back storyu filled with conflict, the present just a nice little journey). So I was rereading some ideas and ahaha! there it was. A foil. A thing that was visually striking that would have present day implications that turned it into a two parter. And it was an idea as simple as “Terran Omega meets …”.
So ideas are not wasted, they just need to find their moment.
Tron
Was gonna watch tron Ares. And thought maybe I should rewatch tron. 5 minutes in and I’m thinking oh wow. This film is terrible. I loved tron when it came out. LOVED IT. Visually still knocks the socks off all the sequels. (For me).
I persevered! And actually, despite a very rocky start (and very silly metaphors that I suspect worked because people didn’t know a LOT about computers in those days – imagine a world where people didn’t know what a network was!) I really enjoyed it. I’m still 20 minutes from the end (watched it in bed and was just knackered) will finish it at lunch time.
I am going to watch Tron: Legacy (which I remember being sort of meh about) and then the animated series (which IS great) and then Tron: Ares (ugh). I think the thing Tron has going for it are the arresting visuals (though in the original sometimes scenes just seemed so weirdly empty). I think the later stuff sort of loses a lot of the charm of the first one. (And Jeff Bridges1, who I love, in CGI is weird and uncanny)
Some upsetting statements on #creation from management -The larger the creative team the less likely the work will be notable -Great #art is almost always created independent of corporate requirements -Art that changes the world is usually what no one knew they wanted at the time
Continued: -if you create something great for a corporation it’s far more likely you’ll never get the credit or the money for it as opposed to making it on your own -corporate creative jobs are neither stable or a method of “making it” as an artist -owning your work is key to success as an artist
Dennis can be very forthright in his worldview, but actually I don’t think you’d go too far wrong paying heed.
That said, with the “You should own all your work!” statements I always think of Survivor Bias. We’re not all Kirkmans, or Detwillers… but I DO think the smart money is keeping something back for yourself. If not for the money (which will likely be small) but for your soul.
BBC Bits
And as a final out, a couple of delightful things for you – BBC’s Winterwatch is taking place in Northern Ireland, in Mountstewart on the banks of Strangford Lough. I’ve been up there quite a few times on the hunt for a red squirrel sighting, Like Marshall Law though, “I hunt heroes. I’ve never met one yet”.
Anyway Winterwatch has some live cameras you can keep an eye out for them, but the website is here.
And I leave you with another BBC offering (look, it has it’s problems and I know lots of people deeply resent the bbc licence fee arrangements, but actually I think it does a lot of great things and I don’t mind paying it…. I certainly resent paying it less than I do paying for amazon prime… )
It’s the Traitors Soundtrack! Good dramatic, over the top! Perfect for writing/drawing to!
I had gotten quite used to, for some time, drawing digitally. You set up a new file and proceed and that’s it. Time is marked by projects. Having returned to drawing on paper, I’m finding a odd little marker of time that I had become so inured to that I hadn’t really noticed, at least until I’d gone back and suddenly it was very present.
I just finished another pad of paper, I buy 20 sheets of Canson Bristol Board 1 (because as a kid all artists talked about Bristol board as the best for drawing on – though it is the best surface for brushes I think) and every time I get to the end of 20 pages (in a good month I’ll finish one and make a start on the next) it feels like I should mark it.
Instead I take the hardback board and put it aside with every intention of doing something with it.
I never do.
The art pads are a consumable, and so you consume them. It’s just surprising how quick you can go through one.
Terran Omega Next
Terran Omega The Ghosts of War is nearing half through. My original plan was to get to the halfway mark and start considering my next thing, ideally so once it’s all finished I have a new script and can just start putting pen to pad, and begin.
But some events this weekend (which may amount to nothing) have pushed me to start thinking about what’s next sooner rather than later. And while I was originally mulling over a bunch of non-terran omega stories (I mean, I think I’ve already scripted a sort of James Bond action adventure that I could easily just start with) this weekend has made me realsie (again even if they amount to nothing) that I need to think about what’s next for Terran Omega.
I did have a short, 11 page in mind, but I’m thinking of making it more consequential, and ramping it up to another two parter. We’re heading up to my Mother in Laws, and that’s always a good chance to start forming a story on the hour long drive. So will mull it over.
Oh, and a reminder, Terran Omega page 22 is out for free for everyone today, over on patreon. Hop on over for a good time!
Yesterday in Social Media
I was working, and set up my phone as a clock and it displayed a photo of my youngest kid when he was about 8…
It cannot be normal, surely. To glance at a photo of your youngest (now 17) when he was like 8 and nearly burst in to tears because you miss that kid? That’s not normal. And not a thing that nearly happened to me. Nope. Not now I’ve stopped my phone showing me photos.
Well consensus is, it’s normal. Not only that, According to James Brophy
Not only is it normal, it's apparantly quite healthy. It means you are not treating them like they are the person they were.
And finally, great news for people who like plucky independent webcomic creators getting their work turned in to tv shows (look, I can dream)
Quick blog post, back from a run and not enough time in the day, so I thought I’d have my final say on the Dredd movies.
1995 Stallone Dredd, the best depiction of Dredd’s world on screen (maybe the best we’ll ever have, though it is somewhat emeshed in 80s design). Also first 15 minutes or so, everything up until Stallone opens his mouth? Magic. I even like the uniform. I’d heard (but can’t verify) that after Demolition Man (a great film, packed to the gills with 2000adesque humour) Stallone wanted a straight action film, which is why the Danny Cannon Dredd movie was so humourless (aside from turning the character of Fergie into a comedy sidekick (a dreadful, dreadful comedy sidekick)).
2012 Karl Urban Dredd, the best depiction of the character of Dredd. The best relationship between Dredd and another Judge. The best cast, top to bottom. The best sort of day-in-the-life type story we’ll ever get. Great movie. Mega City 1 didn’t feel like Mega City 1 though. It was fine when they got into the block, but outside of it, it made mega city 1 feel like a precursor to the proper big meg.
Saw both in the cinema. Stallone’s Dredd saw it in Milton Keynes, while on a placement year at uni. The placement year last a couple of months (I hated Milton Keyns and bletchly, and not being able to drive in a place that needed a car) and I was so lonely, I saw it in the cinema twice, despite thinking it was terrible.
I also did some sample art and sent it to Judge Dredd Lawman of the Future, the kids comic spin off doomed to failure because the movie got an 18 rating and not a more kiddie friendly rating. My samples faired just as well as the movie did.
I can’t remember where I was when I saw the Urban Dredd movie, I do remember it was an empty theatre and I think I saw it twice and found it mesmerising (3d, slow motion, colours suddenly popping, just great looking), so much better and just loved it. Favourite line “It’s all deep end”. Just some great stuff in it.
But it hit and was promoted on the basis of 3d (I remember the poster was a big old DREDD 3D written across it) and I suspect they’d’ve loved a summer blockbuster and it just didn’t do that kind of business. Thought Karl Urban was great but lacked a strong enough chin, that’s my biggest complaint. Insufficient chin.
I bring this up, because when someone finds out you draw Judge Dredd this topic invariably comes up, so here’s possibly my final word on it.
Stallone Judge Dredd? A great 15 minutes. Karl Urban Dredd? fab film, great Dredd but lacking the madness of mega city 1.
Yesterday in Social media
Oh god, everything yesterday I posted was about the current madness – Trump’s Greenland demands. So I have nothing interesting to put here. (This is in fact a fascinating way to tell you’ve bought entirely into the doomosphere and I should endeavour to post more nonsense)
But, I can’t let this section go without something…
To which, I replied:
I like popadom preach because I too believe in the healing power of popadoms.
And something very cool to end on.
Stylised and far-fetched animation of an orbital ring around the Earth. Such structures, if we ever build them, will in reality be invisible from such a distance.#SciArt #blender #spaceart
(Oh, a little postscript, where I can I will not embed a post from bluesky, I’ll just grab a screen shot and stick it there with a link, hopefully that should prevent any much later link rot, but Mark Garlick’s post has a video, and it’s impossible to screen grab that, so instead you get an embedded post.)
I’ve mentioned this a few times in the past but will very much make a point of spelling it out here.
I hit, prior to covid, on a strategy I called “Two Things” (A terrible none-name but describes it perfectly) basically making sure every day had two objectives in it, and then when I do those things, that’s it. Thats your day done. Relax.
Now, the reason for this, for me, was that I’d very often do quite a bit more than two things, spend all day in the studio and fret and worry that I haven’t done enough. Two things was about setting a boundary around the work that I do to ensure that a) I get enough done, and b) I don’t beat myself up for getting too much done.
Two things can be any two substantial things, for me, just emailing my accountant is a thing – the cognative load of which can knock me out for a few hours. Drawing a page in pencil is one whole thing. About 12 pages of layouts is one thing.
So one productive day could look like emailing accountant and 12 pages of layouts.
Now, this stood me well, given my day was often broken up into fractured moments because… well… two young kids and wife working from home.
BUT – I’m now operating in a new normal. Wife and kids all out all day, either working (in case of wife and eldest) or school.
(In fact eldest making plans for a trip to Japan in the summer, youngest making plans for trip to London in summer means for the first time my wife and I can plan a weekend break at some point without worrying about babysitters. )
So my day now looks like:
9-12 work. One THING.
1-5 work. Another THING.
And then every one is home.
If I can do that on a schedule, that will solidly help you draw 30 pages per month.
Now, this means I might successfully hit the dream goal of a 9-5 and then relax in the evening. But I won’t because the free time will become extra time, time to play with for things like creator owned work. But the nice thing is, since I’ll have done my TWO required things, anything extra is EXTRA. No matter how much or how little I do.
That’s the plan this week. Let’s see if it works!
When Harry Met Sally
I watched this a couple of days ago, I can’t remember when exactly I saw it first, but I will say I was 18 when it came out and it wouldn’t have been much long after that. I suspect it left a deeper lasting impression on me than I’ve ever realised. I’ve seen it a few times since over the decades, but not for a long long time. This and Sleepless in Seattle – two of Nora Ephrom’s finest romcoms, I think both heavily imprinted on me. I suspect I fancied myself as something like Harry, acerbic and funny (but really slightly lonely and bitter) but was surprised in the recent viewing to see how New Years Eve is such an important fulcrum in the film – and I love New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve is a new leaf, fresh start. A reboot. It’s unboxing a brand new computer, taking the cellophane off a new drawing book, that first stroke with a brand new brush pen. Love it. My wife, conversely hates it.
When my wife and I met, I think I was banging on about watching An Affair to Remember (which was the movie referenced through out Sleepless in Seattle).
I should watch both again.
Kobo in Kolour
My wife bought a Kobo ebook and it arrived yesterday. I will say, it’s actually a love little device. She got it because it integrates with Libby and she can borrow books on it. (More on borrowing books in a second!)
The box it was packaged in though, what in the name of chinese-puzzle-boxes was up with that. It looked unopenable. I eventually figured out it opens from the bottom (!)
I hadn’t really noticed on the cover (though it’s there for those with eyes to look) that it was colour! Blimey. I bought my kindle white in about 2016 and I think the cheapest colour ereaders where in the five to six hundred quid area then. This thing was £150. (My kindle paper white at the time was £100 which in 2016 was a lot of money, but in the present, a thousand years later, that’s just the price of a nice lunch for two)
I haven’t tried comics on it, but I WILL! I WILL!
Public Lending Rights
When the library lends a book out, that you have contributed to, you can get a little bit of cash for it to happen. It’s amazing. This happens regardless of whether you’re the copyright owner. So if you’re a comic artist, it’s perfectly reasonable to go on there and sign up and tell it which books you’ve contributed to and what percentage (for books with me as sole artists I do 50% for books where I’ve contributed a portion, I calculate it pro rata and do that percentage).
Now not every book will make much money, but Bad Magic, the book did a couple of years ago seems to be very popular in the library – at least according to the statement I’ve just received. Now, it’s not enough money to buy a kindly. BUT it is enough to pay for a reasonable lunch for two. You should go sign up here.
Yesterday in Social Media
Oh, speaking of great films, Excaliber! What a flick – here’s a great article I stumbled across on the Socials by Tin Phelan (I mean absoloutly worth it even just to see that high res poster in all its glory!)
And er.. that’s it. But, it was Cary Grant’s birthday yesterday (he of An Affair To Remember – wait… it’s like my subconcious is making connections!) and WaltyDunlop over on bluesky posted this delightful photo.
When I started doing Terran Omega, there were a couple of things I really wanted to do, quite apart from write/draw my own comic.
I wanted to really experiment with how I bring an audience to it. As an artist, I often defer to the writer/publisher when it comes to chasing an audience. I’m conscious that sometimes I can be obnoxious, and irratating and general worried that I’ll mess up, and so I tend to sit back, get on with drawing and allow others to organise PR.
I mean, I probably shouldn’t. I probably should pursue that stuff to, but it’s so much easier if a publisher is the single point for that stuff. Besides I have limited access to venues, and all I can do is ask those places based on what I know.
So usually I say yes to every interview that’s organised and hope.
Way back when we were talking about doing a collection of the Folklore stories, having built some sort of audience for it on twitter by posting it weekly, I wanted the publisher to offer a kickstarter – not so much to pay for it, but to actually build excitement round the book, and try and get that twitter audience that I’d been building to buy in to the kickstarter. I think that’s where something like kickstarter can be good. I mean it would also help fund the book, but really the book cost a lot of money to produce and it’s unlikely the kickstarter would’ve funded it. BUT! It would have then gone on to do what the publisher originally wanted anyway selling how they expected. Sadly, I couldn’t really convince anyone of the value of that, and the book while it is beuatiful and produced to an incredibly high standard by the publisher ultimately hasn’t really had much of an impact.
So Terran Omega is allowing me to try all of the things. One of the things I’ve been doing is dropping the comic strip weekly into various reddit forums:
r/comics is the most obvious (as long as your comic is marked as [OC] – meaning Original Content – you can do that any day) it averages 1.6m weekly visitors, my strips get an average of around 1.5k views with 4-5 upvotes.
r/indiecomics ([OC] required, but you can only do this on a Thursday) 445 weekly visitors, 217 views, 4-6 upvotes
r/webcomics (no need to tag it, though if you’re crossposting – posting in one forum and then using that post to post in other forums, you’re better just leaving [OC] in the title, for clarity) 134k weekly visitors, 410 views, 2-3 upvotes
r/2000ad – because I’m best known as a Dredd artist, I figure it’s ok to post this scifi comic there, I mark it as [OC] 4.3k weekly, 638 views, 4-5 upvotes.
r/scifi – this is the major scifi topic in reddit, and allows original content (Marked [OC] BUT only on a Saturday!), but I get the impression there’s a few in there that maybe aren’t keen on comics because I’ll see upvotes that then become downvotes. BUT the readership makes it worth persevering! The average visitor count is 364k, and the strips tend to get around 4k views, with upvotes about 1 or 2. With the caveat that I’m convinced at least one or two people have been downvoting it (possibly paranoia!)
In the my latest post of the strip in r/scifi I decided to try a little upvoting experiment and asked anyone who was following me on bluesky to nip over and click the upvote – and howboy did that make a massive difference. My average upvotes went from 1/2 quickly skyrocketed to 32!) Making it the #6 most popular post on that subforum today.
So I might try and do that.
One thing I’ve done each time I post in the forums is ask people to head on over to my patreon and sign up, but I’ve also posted about signing up to the newsletter and coming on over to the blog. I think I’m sending very mixed messages.
I’m not sure how many are doing it. I do have some stats, a very crudely built utility that counts where someone has come from as it sends them on to my patreon page. Based on that, in the entire time I’ve been doing this (about 18 weeks) there’s been about 510 uses of the link. Now, that might be miscounted, over counted a little because sometimes the links are followed by bots (and ai bots). So let’s call it say 1/5 of that total. 100 real uses of the link. Well, my patreon following is about 243 right now, but for a large part many of those people are coming from bluesky. In other words, I don’t think reddit is doing a heck of a lot.
I think I need to start to refine my call to action (see, now the blog title makes sense!) simply to send them to the patreon.
I should add as well as posting the comic in reddit I’ve also put in an effort to be a good reddit citizen and tried to contribute to as many topics as I can (where my contribution is useful or interesting, and avoiding where I’d just post a zinger – which is terribly tempting sometimes)
I start firming up ideas about a kickstarter I hopefully will be able to take the passive audience that exists and convert it into a kickstarter audience. I’m conscious that not everyone buys in to patreon (and patreon has made it a little difficult to see how to follow people for free sometimes).
That will allow me to post in r/kickstarter and kickstarter itself, all with a simple call to action.
Anyway, that’s it. I’d intended to talk about making sure you keep one simple call to action ask in any post, otherwise you risk people having to make decisions and people don’t want to do that when they’re passively reading stuff. Instead it’s been about my adventures in reddit.
Yesterday on Social Media
Well, flip, for whatever reason I didn’t actually post a lot on bluesky yesterday! I know! I’m as shocked as anyone!
I dunno if you’ve been following the traitors, but I have – it’s such low stakes/high camp/drama, it’s a delight.
Anyway, I made this observation
Jessie from the Traitors is like if Harley Quinn was a good guy. (Gal)
And I guess that was it! (Ok, I also got annoyed about the state of the world, but if I’m honest, the stuff I’d rather hold on to now are funny jokes about the famine than the possibility of wwiii starting with Trump invading Greenland)
And I’ll let the final word fall to Nick Stone‘s great little Project diagram.
