Just a little more. 22:57

Hang in there man, we're all behind you.
Just a couple more days, okay?
Because If we mess this one up we're
all in trouble.

Random note: my sister got her hair cut in Chicago by the same person who does Michelle's. I'd find a picture but it might embarrass her. I'm not sure she likes being the best looking dyke in London :)

Resolution No #187. 12:51

I made a new resolution today. This happens about once every couple of months, or whenever i'm in a bad mood. This time I thought i'd share. It comes in a form of a checklist. Any comic I write (drawing other peoples doesn't count) Must contain:

1. A Story that reflects my concerns
2. A story that has merit; either personal or external.
3. A story that is defined and complete both in its purpose and construction
4. Rounded characters that reflect some form of my personality, or those around me.
5. An art style that is vibrant and mobile.
6. An art style that is flexible enough to portray my characters and the story to the best of its/my ability.
7. A visual storytelling style which is flexible enough to allow for the very best representation of any given emotion or scene.
   

To explain:

1. Is because I spend far too much time telling stories that do not reflect upon me. These are rarely good stories. More going through the motions of creating an "epic tale" or squeezing emotion out of something- which is always going to be hollow and constructed. Also, I think if I analysed my concerns more closely, i'd end up with a stories that were really important to me. This would, in theory, make them much better and much more enjoyable to create.
   
   
2. I don't mean "worthy" merit here. Nothing is worse than stories with heavy handed messages. What I mean is that the story must have a reason for being. Not the idea, which might be "Post apocalyptic city with jetbikes" but rather the story. Jetbikes, although awesome, are not an appropriate raison d'être for any story.
   
   
3. And even if the story is about jetbikes, far too often I start comics with only a cloud of emotions, scenes and character traits which involve jetbikes, rather than an actual story. ( I don't know how we got onto the jetbikes, sorry.)
   
   
4. I'm sure the really great storytellers can pluck characters out of thin air. I'm not one of them. This doesn't mean I can't exaggerate, or place myself or my friends in outlandish situations, but to have truly three dimensional characters, I should really stick to what I know. The only thing that's stopping me from using my own extensive list of insecurities, shamefull machiavellian streaks and pretentious delusions of eloquence (duuh, I used big words!) is my abject terror of laying myself bare for my art, which obviously holds it back. ooh, that's going on the list of insecurities too.
   
   
5. This is because I get caught up in the details. Or rather, I get caught up in the set pieces- scenes, locations, whatever. This always seems to damage the "character" of both my figures and my precious backgrounds. Just because the building doesn't bend like that, doesn't mean I shouldn't bend it.
   
   
6. This is to reign in my style. A comic should not rest on style, and one that is very interesting and striking, can clash with the way I may want a story to be told. I feel style should be slave to the story- rather than the other way around.
   
   
7. This is to make sure that I make the fullest use of the comics format. A friend of mine is currently stuck drawing a comic in a rigid 4 panel-per-page layout. Conversely, I see many manga artists using layouts that seem worryingly like manga for manga's sake. No layout precedent or artwork style should restrict me from drawing the best panel, or page, possible.

I hereby resolve not to write myself another comic unless it adheres to all of the above.
(resolution may be subject to change and revision without notice. ahehehe ^-^)
This probably all seems like common sense, but I need to be reminded of these things, plus I feel like putting it in writing might just make me somehow less likely to trundle on with mediocrity. (hey! another one for the list of insecurities!)
Finally, and in case you were concerned that i've become all contemplative and morose: I really really need to stop buying so many moleskines.
~John~

War wip. 03:22

I want to do a war comic for the DFC. The big bowtied-bossman is very keen, but it's not an idea that comes without risks. The thought of toeing the razor fine line between war glorification and "too harrowing for the kiddies" is probably what's turning me towards the idea in the first place. One slip to the left or right, and it's head-first into a deluge of cancelled subscriptions and angry letters to You and Yours. One day i'll kick this masochistic streak and write a nice story about a magical-girl or something.
(oh, this is a wip, by the way.)
~John~

Bi-weekly Akira fetish. 12:44

My problem, or rather the principal problem in my vast catalogue of problems, is that I have too many "styles". They all boil down to a similar way of drawing- but when it comes to the rendering, panel composition, "comics narrative style" and even the way characters are drawn, I'm all over the place. The problem is really that when I see a marvel pinup, or a page of manga, or a pencil-inked BD spread, I think to myself- "I could do that!" and most of the time- I could. (or rather- a barely passable knock off.) To be a Jack of all trades is definitely a plus in this industry , but I often feel the "master of none" part of that phrase tickling the back of my mind. At least once every two weeks, however, I decide that Otomo is amazing and I must replicate everything he does. I reckon this is because Akira was one of the comics that strongly influenced me as a kid, but I still think it's strange that I return to it all the time. I don't want to make perfect Akira copies, but there's something in the way he draws that's clearly very appealing to me. If I can just figure out what that is, I might just end up a better cartoonist one day.
Anyway, here's a girl doing some abseiling. This was from an idea for a competition that I never entered- because I decided to turn it into a comic that I never finished. Typical.

No more Wendling for me thanks. 01:02

Urgle. After spending some considerable time replicating a very Franco-Belgian "clear line" artwork style (hey, I do what i'm told) I had a mental spazm and gorged myself on some of the best comics to come from Italy. Massimiliano Frezzato, Barbucchi & Canepa, Liberatore and the slightly disturbing Fernado Caretta. Claire Wendling too, but she's French so she doesn't count. Okay, so they're all produced in BD form in French first, but then SkyDoll is now a marvel book, I hear (So that's what that guy was doing with Soleil at Angouleme. I'm glad I was drunk when major comics deals were going down- it's very reassuring.) Anyways, here are the scribbled results. I wanted to do a fantasy story with a young female heroine for the DFC. I wrote the whole damn thing before I realised Kate Brown beat me to it.
Oh, and nothing happened in the last six months. no really, I'm seeing schooners when I close my eyes. I'm going to try and update this more frequently, honest.

~John~

The top five. 16:10

I got a whole torrent of abuse shouted at me from a passing car the other day. None of it was particularly imaginative, however it did get me thinking about the very best racial insults I've ever been handed. Sure, I get decent amount of Niggers and Paki's thrown my way (obviously not at the same time, that would be one slightly confused racist) and with the imminent doom of the return of the sus laws on the horizon, I also get stopped and searched a whole freaking lot. To be fair, being a 20-something male with dreadlocks and a headscarf doesn't do me any favours. Amazingly, I manage to tick the knife wielding black youth, drug dealing Rasta and Islamic terrorist boxes all at the same time. Win.
The following list, however, is the more amusing ones. Most of them are pretty subtle, by the middle class, art school softies I tend to end up around. And so I present to you:

John's top 5 all-time favourite amusing racial slurs:
5)"Do you know where I could get some weed, mate"
God, I get that a lot. Nobody ever offers to sell me any weed; they just assume my pockets are bulging with the stuff already. Not really funny on its own- but I like to imagine the thought train of the people who ask me this. "Dude, I really need some weed...Hey, look! Brown person! Dreadlocks! We're saved!"

4)"Where are you from originally?" - this is a great one. It takes the form of a whole conversation & happens a lot. I answer, "Brighton" and then they reply, "No, I mean, where are you from?" and I answer...."Brighton." "No, no, where were you from originally?" "Brighton!" "But where were you born?"... It goes on in that vein for some time.

3) "Oh, you must introduce me! I get on really well with black people!" - spoken about me to my friend Molly, by her roommate at college. Followed by Molly's long incredulous silence. Subtle and completely unintentional by a true art school toff. Love it. Molly never introduced me.

2)"Gollywog!" Shouted at me from a passing car. Genius. Who says that any more? That's like saying "Radical!" or "Cowabunga dude!" get with the times, man.

and number one on the list.....

1) "Filthy Jap" Shouted at me on the street. Wonderful. The poor individual didn't even bother to differentiate between those various "ethnic" types. Perhaps he didn't know the difference? Perhaps he was pressed for time and selected the first one to hand? I look like many things, but Japanese is not one of them. Deliciously surreal, not to mention sounding like something last shouted at Iwo Jima. I want a "Filthy Jap" T-shirt. In giant letters.
( this also pushed "Ching Chong Chang" off the list. Unbelievable, I know. Are these people blind?)

Also another related fave- "Go home cripple" written across the front of Al Davison's house. Probably wasn't funny at the time, but Al seemed to find some humour in the re-telling. To were exactly? Cripple-land?

~John~

Angouleme. 18:50

I can't be bothered to blog about how amazing the biggest comics con in Europe is. If you haven't been it's not really worth describing. Instead I'l just make a list of some of the stuff I enjoyed.
-Munoz Exhibition
-Clamp Exhibition
-Seeing Olivier Vatine
-Comics classes with Savoia (my idol)
-Meeting a Marvel editor hungover in the street at 7 in the morning
-Bumping into Yishan Li at 4 in the morning
-Going to the pub with Gene Luen Yang.
-Going to the pub with Ed Bagwell
-Going to the pub with Nick Abadzis
(there's a theme emerging here...)
-Going to the pub with Bart Beaty & Stephen Betts
-and randomly being given two tickets to the award ceremony!
All good fun. The photos here are just to give you an idea of the scale. This isn't the convention area, just trying to walk down the hill.
~John~