Tango

Tango 9: Love and War was launched on the 10th with all the pomp and ceremony it deserves. My 12 page story adaption of All Quiet on the Western Front made it in along with Bobby.N, Bruce Mutard, Mandy Ord, Owen Heitman, Kirrily Schell and a host of other people too long put here. Sadly I missed the launch but accounts can be read here and here.

The Tango Collection was also launched which has been published by Allen & Unwin. The Tango Collection is a collection of Tango's greatest moments over its 8 previous publications. Sadly this is my first submission to Tango so I've not made it into the collection (and possibly I wouldn't have anyway).

Singapore

Working fairly slowly at moment. Lots of different stuff on.
Here though is a page from my upcoming Dicks anthology. The story is an adaption of Tom Waits' Singapore written by Jason Franks.

Love and War

Finally I am submitting something to Tango. I have had a few attempts over past few years but never got myself into gear. To be honest I must admit that I could never get into the themes of the previous Tango comics. Love and War (Tango’s theme this year) was perfectly timed for me. I have been thinking about doing a war story for quite some time now and the coinciding of having just read ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and Tango Love and War seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.
So here are a few samples.

Other Peoples Dicks

Well, some poor time management and lack of research has meant that my new comic ‘The Dicks Anthology’ (working title) will not be ready for release at Armageddon Melbourne in October. I had thought Armageddon was in late November and had planned accordingly. I had forecast 50 pages or so but instead, with an early 2010 release the comic will be closer to 70 pages.
There’ll be pinups from Trevor?, Bobby N. and others whom I haven’t told. Stories by James Andre, Tom Taylor, Jason Franks, Jen Breach and myself and others…perhaps. Getting people to work other than their own in this indie industry is a big ask and extremely generous on their behalf as it takes them away from their own projects. So thanks guys!
Here are some samples from James Andre’s story ‘That Bastard Benway.’


…and Tom Taylor’s ‘Snakes on a Head.’

Nectar of the Gods

Over the past couple of years I've been doing some illustrations for a role playing game that a friend of mine has been creating. I don't know much about it but apparently Dungeons and Dragons went public several years ago and now anyone can release a game under the D&D logo - so this is what my friend has decided to do.
I don't know much about the story either but I do know that it involves dark elves, squidmen, beholders, giant ants and vast caverns. When completed it should be a pretty spiffy little production with some nice pictures too.
Here are a couple.

A review of The List

Here's a great little review of The List here.

Angouleme

The 36th annual 'Festival de la BD' was graced by my presence on the last weekend of January.
Not that it cared very much.
It was MASSIVE! I've not been to many conventions but compared to when I went 10 years ago it has at least tripled in size. Imagine an exhibition hall packed to the brim and then apply that to a small town. You could hardly move down the main street.
Of course when it started it was small and personal. You could easily go up to an artist and get your book signed but now you have to get in line with a ticket you got earlier. Of the locals I met none of them were BD fans though they enjoyed them and enjoyed the festival in its younger days. But you get that attitude where ever you go. If you're a fan Angouleme is the place to go. In fact there are heaps of conventions all over Europe and as far as I can gather they're all the place to go. Angouleme just happens to be the biggest.
The major publishers all had stalls with the artists set up doing signings. It's a real shame I didn't like any of the artists that were there. Except of course for Jean Giraud. But as I said before you needed to have a ticket which you'd picked up before some where else. The website is a mess, my French not so good and the place so poorly sign posted that I didn't understand any of this. I'll know next time.
The independent publishers where all there too and much more approachable. You could wait for only a couple of minutes and get a great little drawing/painting. I found some cool little anthologies - one even had a Dean Rankine comic in it! But once again, in my flustered state, I didn't profit from this and came away with only a few drawings.
They had a great tent full of second hand BD, original art and BD merchandise. You could grab a great bargain here. And I did. I found almost all the comics I've been looking for and not wanting to buy new (mainly because of new printing techniques and paper quality). I looked through lots of portfolios of work for sale and scrutinised how the greats do it. I learnt a few things.
Over all though my experience was very much like my experience at Bristol. I got very flustered and frustrated and felt very small and untalented. I had met up with my mate Roger Mason (who went to the festival 5 years in a row, made good contacts and got a job) the day before in London to chat comics and get some tips and contacts. Of his contacts I only managed to meet up with 2 and only one liked (some of) my work. I did manage to interest a couple of others who gave me their cards and asked me to email them some more stuff. I'm not holding my breath though. Going there really made me realise I've still got a way to go.

Sorry to not go more in depth. I'm an artist not a writer. But not a very dedicated one otherwise I would have done a comic about it.