My wife is starting a new job today, moving from part time to full time employment. And, for at least the first six months, will be in an office for five days of the week. This is the first significant change in how things are around here since the birth of our now 21 year old son. (these younger than the blog! Holy crap!)
What this means is I’ve a chance to block out a brand new daily routine, with scope to do some of the slightly barmier things I might want to do, like micro podcasts. I’ve been obsessed with making things for a long long time. And I’ve always wanted to do more media things, but there’s always someone in the house (couple of years ago I bought my dads house and went from a roomy flat – albeit one that shrank over the years – to a small house which came pre shrunk. Moving my studio to a much smaller space)
I’ve a new microphone and a patreon, and I’m not afraid to use it.
right now, I need to get back to the “Two things per day” system. Two pages of pencils or two pages of inks. I’ve slowed way down on that front, unsure why. But sure of the results: slight financial disaster. I only get paid when I work.
Yesterday on bluesky
(a new feature where in I highlight whatever the previous nonsense in Bluesky was)
one of those “show me a thing that describes a personal thing about you so I can reverse engineer it to figure out your date of birth and PIN number” started… somewhere… this one was
“Show me a comic you loved when you were 13, that’s all I need to know about you” – Brad Meltzer
And, look I knew it would be 2000ad, so I just googled 2000ad for the year and … ok. This wasn’t the first one to turn up… but I mean…
an absolute stunner of a cover, and a back issue of 2000ad that is just overflowing with classic stuff.
The Starborn Thing, Dredd meets alien/The Thing. Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. Classic.
Fort Neuro. Rogue Trooper Stumbles in to Fort Neuro where madness has taken hold. Stone cold classic by Brett Ewins and Gerry Finlay-Day
Skizz – SKIZZ! Alan Moore, Jim Baikie – Boys from the Black Stuff meets ET. I mean!
Invasion of the Thrill Snatchers. Tharg has his detractors, but actually I always loved when there was a Tharg centric story – this one written by “Tharg” and drawn by Massimo Bellardinelli, so looks alien as all get out.
AND finally…
Chrono Cops – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s delivering the greatest comedy time travel story to have ever or will ever exist.
I mean, what a thing for a 13 year old boy to read in one week, it’s really not much wonder my life turned out the way it did.
Somewhere I have this issue in the house. Buried, I’m sure under a million things, but it’s in there, it’s thrill circuits, gently thrumming and powering my brain even now.
As it happened, decades later, drawing a fun Dredd story about an alien wig monster trying to take over Mega City 1 I got to do a homage to this cover.
Literally the only piece of my work I’d consider hanging in my studio (if I can find it, because it too is buried somewhere…)
Brandon Peterson posted this over on bluesky
The story you’re carrying around in your head. The one with the twists you can’t wait to drop on the audience doesn’t exist. You gotta get it “down on paper” in some form. As soon as you do it begins to change, and you begin to react to it as you solidify choices. (This is a self criticism)
Man, I feel that.
It hit particularly yesterday because – on the drive up to my mother-in-laws (a good solid hour long drive) I was thinking about a new Terran Omega story, and how to start it and i found my hook in to the story, and having done this before where I’d conjure up a story but not write or draw it, I’m aware those ideas are just… gone.
Anyway that terran omega story has started as a note in my notes app. And let’s see how it grows.
And finally, Will McMillen posted this on bluesky… and frankly in this Pilots and Comic Artists are united…
