18/03/2012
The Mazeworld collected edition now available I feel free to show some recent ‘drawings’, a couple of which appear in the book. These are presented here as a curiosity. Curiosity is what got me started on them in the first place. They sprang from me idling with what I thought of as a t-shirt design (pic.1) on the laptop using PagePlus software. I then considered playing with other possibilities. The result was 'Hanged Man with demon' (pic.

03/11/2011
Hoshino Yukinobu  (B Jan 29th 1954) esteemed Japanese manga artist, visited the British Museum in 2009 and subsequently produced a mystery story set in the museum. The story featured his popular Professor Munakata who had first appeared in Japan’s Big Comic.

02/11/2011
Telly last night - BBC 1 Imagine ( if you missed it I believe the technology exists for it still to be seen - an I-player or something) had artist Grayson Perry organising an exhibition at the British Museum and related adventures. Grayson Perry (b 1960 in Chelmsford) ceramicist, Turner Prize winner 2003.

26/09/2011
New York's  Museum of Modern Art is showing a retrospective of Willem de Kooning (1904 -1997)  between September 11th 2011 and January 9th 2012. Containing nearly 200 works it shows de Kooning's development over seven decades.

23/07/2011
The Guardian on Thursday July 14th in it’s g2 section ran an article ‘The artist’s artist. Graphic novelists. Six leading graphic novelists choose their favourite peer.’ and I have been worrying about it ever since. The artists and their choices are :-

21/07/2011
Lucian Freud. Painter. 8th August 1922 - 21 July 2011 "The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real."

13/07/2011
Here is a book you might be interested in - Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss. Titan Books. Publication date July 22nd.

06/07/2011
Cy Twombley. April 25th 1928 - July 5th 2011. American painter.

04/07/2911
The British Library has acquired the archive of English novelist, illustrator, poet and artist, Mervyn Laurence Peake (b. July 9, 1911, d. Nov. 17, 1968). Peake is best known for his ‘gothic fantasy’ trilogy  Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone

01/07/2011
Gene Colan 1st September 1926 - 23rd June 2011

21/06/2011
It seemed an idea to bring these together. Some are new, most or parts thereof appear elsewhere on the site.

22/05/2011
Li'l ol' Guardian reader me blogged (  Words and Pictures March 1st) a complaint about the paper’s Saturday Review failure to credit artists when reviewing graphic novels.

21/05/2011
Out of this World - Science Fiction but not as you know it.Exhibition at PACCAR Gallery, British Library 96, Euston Road, London, England, NW1 2DB

15/04/2011
Comic book artists as film fans.
Identification list.

08/04/2011T
he death has been announced of publisher and editor Anant Pia (1929 - 2011). Born in Karkala, Karnataka, India he worked for the Times of India managing Indrajal comics which reprinted US titles such as Mandrake and Phantom.

21/03/2011
In the intro to the X-File page there is mention of doubts over a particular form of computer colouring, a question over the aesthetics of one approach to colouring comics. There is the suggestion that the reservations will be reappraised. Well I have done that and decided I was right first time - or at least I am now prepared to state a clear preference and try to explain why.

07/03/2011
Painter John Martin (1789-1854)  whose dramatic and biblical apocalyptic works were so popular throughout the 19th century - five thousand people paid to see his ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’ - but fell into disregard in his later years is now being re-assessed . . .

01/03/2011
The Guardian Guide section recently ran an article about a writer of comic books with illustrations from his latest  project BUT DID NOT GIVE THE NAME OF THE ARTIST! They were nice drawings too. I was offended. The Guardian judging from its Guide and Weekend section is not staffed by folk who are good in the what-things-look-like department but, their bias to the words-are-king apart, this lapse demonstrates a  lack of understanding of the appeal of comics and how they work.

22/02.2011
I came across a list of The Greatest 50 Comic-book Characters.  It was wrong. Here is my list. Not ‘Greatest’ which is a little too butch for me, but ones I happen to like ‘Best’. It is sooo subjective, and no doubt influenced by nostalgia. In alphabetical order ( sort of ) rather than ranking. I make no excuse for including some I just happened to draw.

01/02/2011
On 20th October 2010 the UN assembly passed an unanimous resolution that the first full week each February would be World Interfaith Harmony Week.

26/01/2011
An occasional series.The comic with the longest continuous run is The Dandy. Published by Scotland’s D.C.Thompson it has been going since December 4th 1937.

09/01.2011
Alfred Bestall (1892-1986)  trained at London  Central School of Art before the first world war.

15/12/200
Norman Rockwell (1894-19780) was and probably still is the United States of America’s best known illustrator. Dulwich Picture Gallery are presenting the first exhibition in the UK of his original works from 1916 into the 60s.

02/12.2010
An occasional series.The first comic strip.Comic strip definition - graphic medium in which sequential images convey a narrative. Often accompanied by text in either captions or speech balloons.

14/12/2010
An occasional series.Burglars in cartoons always wear horizontally striped jumpers because . . .