blips and pieces

Blippy Christmas!

2011-12-28T03:55:00.000-08:00

Nebula-tastic

2011-11-24T08:37:00.000-08:00

Well, lookee here. Art imitates the cosmos imitating an 80's arcade classic - for real...

Squared Encounters-23-28

2011-11-09T06:53:00.000-08:00

Squared Encounters-17-22

2011-11-09T06:34:00.000-08:00

Squared Encounters-9-16

2011-10-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

Squared Encounters-1-8

2011-10-25T02:52:00.000-07:00

Pinning things down

2011-10-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

Remember those badges I mentioned, so very long ago? - Well, they turned out great, and I reckon I'll be making plenty more in the future. Take a look for yourself:

Now you see me

2011-10-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Went a big quiet there, didn't we? - Well, it's been a hectic few months here, with barely any time for Toonhound, let alone this blogging lark. But I'm back now, and BLIPPING like crazy. Our li'l alien friend is currently passing through Arcadia, which is home to these strange guys:

BLIP badges

2011-04-28T01:55:00.000-07:00

So the wife and I are purchasing a badge machine. It's orange and shiny, and will enable me to put together all sorts of promo stuff. It makes sound economical sense too, given that I have several designs I want to work up for BLIP and others. Yes, they're the promos I was referring to last time. Here's a taster for you:

I'll be making new designs for each BLIP volume, as I go. And other stuff. My good wife is a bit of a crafter in her spare time, and she's got a few Big Badge Ideas of her own. So again, it makes sense, rather than forking out for each new design. Now we can experiment at our leisure, create one-offs, and stuff with different badge backs....

Covering up

2011-03-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

I've been tinkering with some cover ideas for BLIP, this week, and have settled on these trim designs for Part 1 and Part 2:

Yes, I know there's no title on there, and I know that in any real world scenario I'd be committing commercial suicide. But this isn't a commercial venture right now. I'm self-publishing these first encounters for my own gratification, initially. And these are going to be limited promotional runs, prior to them being compiled into a standalone volume. And I like them. So there.

Actually, the title will be on the back, and on the preface page. And if you really want to know where I'm coming from, I'm thinking ahead to some fabulous future day, where there might be an array of BLIP stories out there, in the Great Beyond, and I like the notion that you could line up all the chapters side-by-side and see the progression on the covers, almost like a flip book. That plain design also lends itself well to a promo device I've got planned... a li'l freebie... if I can get it together...

See, I have got my commercial head on. I've just screwed it on at a funny angle...

Ducking & Dodging

2011-03-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

I'm my own worst enemy, you know. No matter how hard I try, I find it almost impossible to settle on one side-project and see it to its conclusion. There are always umpteen new and exciting ideas that pop up when I least expect them - when I least desire them - and threaten to steal my creative momentum.

BLIP is going very well indeed, right now, and I've already mentioned how I successfully fended off two short comics stories and a full-length GN project, so as to stay on course. And a book project, which I reluctantly shelved as well. But here we are again, four months on, and there are two more Very Big Projects that have shuffled into my slightly astigmatic eyeline.

Project Number One is yet another full-length bande dessinée series that popped into my head, back in December. I immediately tossed it on the backburner, but ever since, little details have coalesced and - in a very cunning move - it's married itself to a far older project of mine and become a most complete and tangible thing. There's magic there, destiny and an Undead Horde. It's bloomin' exciting. But I've donned my armour - Theoden style - manned the ramparts and successfully fended it off from Castle Blip.

For now.

But Project Number Two has successfully breached my defences. It's a great shaggy film script from eons again that has finally matured. I've been encouraged to pick it up again by an Outside Influence. And as any creator will tell you, if you're developing your own things on the side, an OI changes the game. It means there's the teeniest, tiniest possibile wink of a greenlight, out there in the creative darkness. And however slight that is, you just can't ignore it.

So, I'm still doing BLIP. Absoloutely, that's still a going concern, and if I squint real hard, I can see a finishing line out there, not a million mles away. Only now, there's a feature-length screenplay to consider as well. I've thrown myself into it, this week, and juggling both projects hasn't been an issue. In fact, it's been rather rewarding. When I reach an impasse with one, I can turn to the other until the problem solves itself, or the blockage is cleared. And hopefully, I can keep things going like that...

Pushing on

2011-02-20T07:47:00.000-08:00

After a short break, brought on by sickness and demands elsewhere, I'm back on BLIP. And here's the proof. It's the third page of Part 3, otherwise known as page 68...

Feeling lousy

2011-02-01T05:58:00.000-08:00

Or "lousey", even, given there are Space Lice converging upon my li'l alien buddy in today's panel. Anywho, the point is, I've got flu. It feels like I've been kicked in the head and getting anything done, on BLIP, on Toonhound or anything else inbetween is nigh-on impossible right now. I'm supposed to be on holiday, and I had some Big Plans to fill my fortnight, but they're currently sitting just out of reach of my bed, and my Lemsip, taunting me...

Things to come

2010-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

So here we are, on the cusp of the new year. I wonder what the next twelve months have in store? Where will my li'l alien buddy take me, once this first adventure is all wrapped up?.. What strange new encounters might he have, as he follows that signal through the depths of space?... Whom might he meet?.. What might he see?... And what about all my other strips and characters, how will they slot into place?... It's going to be a fascinating year, that's for sure!...

I should be happy

2010-12-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

Crikey, I've finally finished colouring parts one and two of BLIP, just like I promised last time I blogged here, and... erm.. actually, it's a very curious place to be. I mean, I should be happy, I've hit my target and I have all these lovely pages to show for my efforts. In fact, I've pencilled, inked and coloured more pages than I've ever managed before. Yay. But instead, it's somewhat sobering. See, what I'm already learning is, you never really finish a page. You can sign it off, and it can go off into the world pretending to be completed. But you know it's not. You can see all the errors and mistakes and colour adjustments which mean it's far from finished. I don't think I'll ever be properly happy. Mild contentment might be the best I can muster. And I already know I'll be going back to many pages to tweak and adjust them as I proceed with part three...

Ah, yes. Part three. Now that's truly put the mockers on any celebration. Those thumbnail sketches spilling out of my sketchbook remind me that, actually, I'm still only half-way through my cosmic encounter. So it's all a sham. I haven't finished anything. But parts one and two are nearly, just-about, I-should-be-a-lot-happier-with-them, they'll-suffice finished. And that's as good a place to be, as any, I guess!...

It's back!

2010-11-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

Yep, we've had a load of the white stuff dumped on us again. Ten inches, at last count. And it's not even December. 2010 has been a very snowy year. But as luck would have it, we've just taken delivery of a brand new boiler and central heating system. That's something we didn't have last time and, boy, does it make a difference. Now we're all toasty in our King Street home. We're able to emerge to take fab photos of Elgin Cathedral and its environs, and - heaven forbid - we can even enjoy the picture postcard scenery at last.

Creatively speaking, the snowy weather is hugely inspiring. But I'm having to keep things in check because, despite all of my previous promises, I'm still working on BLIP, slogging through the colour work, adjusting things, terribly s-l-o-w-l-y. And alongside that, I've been preparing a short story for my favourite sea-dog Pedigree, R.N. It's a six-page encounter set around All Hallows' Eve. Even so, as the world turned white this weekend, so a second short story idea pushed its way into my head. A Winter one, this time. So that's two trim tales for me to work on. And if I'm not careful, there'll be more on their heels...

Oh well. These two tales will enable me to test the waters, so to speak, before I launch into that full-scale sixty-page adventure I've already scripted and prepared. I'm desperate to get drawing, but I need to finish BLIP before I go any further. I mustn't dwell on Pedigree, or that beautiful new snow, and just keep focused. So it's BLIP, BLIP, BLIP all the way for the time being. And I'm hoping beyond hope that, next time I post on this blog, I'll be holding the finished article in my hands. What a wonderful Xmas present that would be!...

Starzoids and Moon Ticks

2010-10-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of weird and wondeful space creatures in the BLIP universe. I've already given you a glimpse of several Space Lice, those bio-mechanoid Limpets, and the Great Cosmic Jellyfish they like to interact with. Today, however, I thought I'd introduce you to two more species who put in a wee guest appearance in our first story.

First up, we have the Starzoids. These are the equivalent of galactic starfish. You'll find them everywhere, from Adromeda to Centaurus A. There are many-legged variants, and they come in all sorts of rainbow colours, but they all share a fondness for liquid methane. Look for them in the shallows, or basking in the rising heat of a Red Dwarf, until it all gets too much for them. Then we get to witness the spectacle of their mass exodus to a new home. It's a naturalist's delight...

And we'll follow up with an example of a Moon Tick. They're parasitic beetles, and they're quite harmless, unless provoked. You'll find them on every barren moon going. They'll scuttle out of their craters to scavenge on - well - whatever's in reach, they're not at all picky....

The Big Bang Theory

2010-10-10T04:23:00.000-07:00

I want to end my little interstellar encounter with a bang. So I've just come up with this. It's only a quick scan, sans adjustments and colour, straight off the desk, but you can get the feel of the thing. Right now I'm not a hundred percent sure of its placement. It could come a page before or after the big climactic panel I've already put together - I've got some flexibility. I need to sit with the artwork a little longer and see how it all flows. And as for that climactic page itself, well, I've completed and coloured that one, and personally, I love it to bits. But I'm not going to reveal it here.... Show and tell, and all that...

Show and tell

2010-10-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

How much of your work should you show in advance? - That's the Big Question I'm faced with right now. I've finished drawing parts one and two of my interstellar encounter and am now knee deep in Photoshop layers as I make the final adjustments to each page. It's a horrendously time-consuming process, with far too much internal debating going on, but there's a little skip of joy to be had as I eventually click and save those final TIFF files, in turn, knowing that I'm one page nearer my goal and counting down to some sort of publication. Now I want to share them with the world as they appear, but I reckon I have to hold back a bit, and wait until I can give everyone a fully-fledged, all-singing, all-dancing preview to get their teeth into. Well, okay, by "everyone" I mean the seven folks who have kindly subscribed to this stop-start blog. But as I've said here before, the fact that anyone at all is interested in my cosmic endeavour gives me a fuzzy feeling inside. I am most truly grateful. And so's my li'l alien buddy. He wouldn't have got this far without you...

Evolution

2010-08-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

What was that I said, back in May? - Sheesh....

One year ago, I had a plan to focus on a simple comic project. I wanted to create a short dialogue-free adventure which would help to develop my Photoshop skills, and give me the satisfaction of being able to hold up my very own self-made comic book, and to this end BLIP was born.

Now let's jump forward twelve months, and what do you know, my little toon sprint has evolved into something more akin to a marathon endeavour. Seriously. Forget my previous posts here, the way things stand, my efforts of the last year now amount to no more than parts one and two of what will eventually be a three-part first adventure in space for our little alien-in-a-bubble. Yes indeed, we're now talking 120+ pages - Yeek!

Part one is 7 pages long, part two is 56 pages, and I'm currently half a dozen pages of re-scanning, colouring and adjusting away from its conclusion. As for part three, well, that's another 60+ pages rolling out ahead of me, on to the horizon. Now if you think that my output is a tad slow, bear in mind, I'm having to fit this in around my work on Toonhound, my freelance endeavours, development on my adventures with Captain Pedigree and my Victorian Adventure novel (here), a crumbling Georgian property in desperate need of renovation, and a ridiculously demanding night shift that I simply can not afford to surrender at the moment. So with all that pulling at me, 63 pages in twelve months surely isn't too bad....

Well, regardless of what you think, I'm very happy with my work, thus far. And to sustain my ego still further, I'm considering printing up the two finished sections independently, in a wee while, so's I've got something to show the world as I toil away on part three. BLIP has been a big experiment for me, and on those terms, it's been a hugely rewarding success. I love, love, love to draw the strip and watch as my li'l alien trip comes to life. I've taken a fair few wrong turns along the way, however. See, I never planned out this adventure in advance. It just sort of happened. I think that's why I'm loving it. There's no one telling me what to do, or how long I can journey for, so my creativity is untethered and able to travel where ever the mood takes me...

Look into my panel...

2010-05-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest single-panel page from BLIP. As usual, it's presented in isolation, so it won't make much sense. And it might make you dizzy, like it did to me when I was colouring it. But there you go. More BLIP. As promised. And I'm very happy with the way it's coming together. I'm inching ever closer to my final, completed comic/book/graphic thingy. Oh, the excitement is tangible...

Old friends

2010-03-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

Dagnabbit. I've been buzzed by those old Distraction Flies again. Try as I might, they've been circling in my head and teasing me away from BLIP. In particular, they've drawn me towards two old projects that I've now dusted down, ready for a relaunch someway, somehow, soon.

If you're a Toonhound regular, you might recognise this chap. This is Captain Brutus Alexander Pedigree - Pedigree, R.N. - and it seems his first riproaring sea-bound adventure has finally come together, in the form of a fully-worked and ready-to-rumble storyline. I've harboured fantastic dreams about this Sea Dog for the last - oh - ten years now, so it's very exciting to be able to sit back and see that everything works, all the plot points slot neatly together and there's an explosive denouement in the Solent that looks great on the page. The Eye of Pharos features a nemesis from Pedigree's past, a Stygian Witch and a dastardly plot to kill the King of England and steal the throne. It would be - nay - should be a 60-page album, but I mustn't get carried away here. After all, I still haven't even drawn the first page!

And then, well, there's my long-gestating series of Victorian Mystery Thrillers. The genre is back in vogue now, following the popular exploits of Mr Moore's Gentlemen and Mr Ritchie's hit film. But I was ahead of the curve when I started. Honest. Anyhow, I have now fathomed out the plots and arcs for four Darke & Wilde adventures. That's Mr Darke, known as The Twice Dead Man, and his troubled companion Mr Wilde. They could be great fun, though once more, my dreams are running away from the reality in which I have written only the first 8,000 words. But they're good words. And as first drafts go, I'm very happy indeed. I've written lots of scripts and screenplays before, but have always felt that a novel, or novels (ha!), might be beyond me. I don't have the patience for all that additional detail. Or at least, I didn't until my two lead characters finally coalesced in my head last week. It's taken ages to get here, now everything's flowing like water, and the characters are writing their own dialogue. I've never really experienced that before and it bodes well.

So what of BLIP? - Well, he's still here/there. In fact, he's just about complete. I have maybe five or six pages left to draw and colour, so stay tooned for a proper BLIP-only posting very soon. I might just add, I'm very happy with what I've achieved, if a little perturbed at the length of time it's taken to produce an encounter that's so very slight on the page. Seriously, when you see it, you'll wonder why on earth it took me so long... But don't blame me... Bzz... Blame those fiendish Distraction Flies... Bzz... Bzz...

Hard Times

2010-02-11T03:07:00.000-08:00

Okay. Admit it. You thought I'd gone. You thought I'd given up with this whole blogging lark, chucked my Bristol Board out of the pram and headed off into the furthest reaches of cyberspace. But I'm here still. Honest. I've just been busy. Busy, busy, busy, busy. Like the proverbial bee. And there have been a few obstacles between me and my darned comic strip, since Xmas. Like this:

15 inches of the white stuff built up over the New Year period, confining us to quarters, and it was accompanied by several nights of intense frost. I think we reached -13 one night and, as a result, a pipe in our outhouse burst and completely washed out a wallet that was already wet with the tears of an expensive Xmas period.

My other work - my far-too real shift work - also decided to stamp its size 12s all over my free time, with extra hours and stress on top of a working regime that's being kicked and punched eveywhichway by the Powers That Be, who are using the word "recession" like a beating stick. It's driving me towards an early grave. Seriously. I have to get out of there.

But how can I when, when, one week after that pipe fiasco our faithful TV decides to blow its final gasket? Yep, our 28" Hitachi bit the dust. We bought it with our wedding vouchers, ten years ago. It was our original widescreen friend. Our best pal. We'd laughed with it. We'd cried with it. Now it was gone. So we dried our eyes and bought a gleaming 40" Series Seven Samsung LCD that's a wonder to behold. But one look at my poor, poor wallet gets the ducts flowing again.

Meanwhile, there's BLIP, which I've been coming back to at every available oppurtunity. You might recall, this was supposed to be a 48-page shoo-in, back in the day. And it was all supposed to be wrapped up for Xmas. Ha. If only. You see, over the festive period I reached that magic page count - or at least, I pencilled and inked that far - only to experience something of an epiphany. Why, this li'l old cosmic encounter was over too briefly. It needed more breadth. So I scrapped and rejigged a run of pages, and I expanded it, and now, I'm currently steaming through a bunch of additions which will bring the finished project in at around 56 pages.

I guess that's the beauty of a self-managed project like this. You can add an subtract as you please, without interference. Of course, the danger is that you end up tweaking and adjusting forever, as your original finish line fades in to the distance. But that's not likely here. Not with the Night Shift From Hell looming large over my life. It's there at all times, grinning over my shoulder, beckoning me towards its filthy maw, and it will swallow me whole if I let go of my dreams for just one second...

The downside of blogging

2009-12-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying this blogging lark. It's helped me to focus on my creative goal, and I've produced so much more work this way, over the last few months. I'm driven on by the need to fuel the thing, I'm stimulated by the jolly feedback and the knowledge that there are - let's see - one, two, three, four folks now officially "following" me and the development of BLIP. Four folks, taking at least a passing interest in my comic book endeavours. Okay, so that's a teeny-tiny figure in the Great Wide Web of Things. But for me, personally, it's a source of great encouragement. It gives me something to reach for, when the creative candle burns low and the Ghosts of Self-doubt come a-knock-knocking once more...

But there is an iddy-biddy downside here. You see, a blog needs content. And there are times, like now, when you just don't have much to offer up. Or rather, you've got stuff , but when it's taken out of context it just becomes another meaningless image file, squatting in cyberspace. BLIP is particularly tricky, in this regard, because of its structure. Most pages are single-panel and if you've stopped by this blog before, you'll already have noticed how many lose their significance, when you present them individually. With luck, next time, I'll have a run of pages to show off. But for now - ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - may I present my latest undertaking... three shapes... er... moving past another shape...

Cosmic Jellyfish

2009-11-19T08:46:00.000-08:00

In case you hadn't realised, BLIP is just... out there... somewhere in the cartoon galaxy. And this first encounter has been freeformed, rather than planned. I wanted to release myself from my usual regime, and let things develop in their own way. See, I have a rotten habit of over-analysing my work. I'll hone and hone and hone a project until, if I'm not careful, I've lost the creative spark that got me so excited about it in the first place and I'll drop the thing cold. As a consequence, I'm quite ridiculously guilty of never finishing things. Seriously. You should see my attic, stuffed to the rafters with projects started but ne'er to be finished. So here I've changed tack. I've thought about the basics and sketched out the slimmest of thumbnails. But for the most part, I've let my mind wander down whatever path it chooses, towards some sort of intergalactic conclusion that makes sense to me, at least. The aim being to just get drawing, pronto, and to GET SOMETHING FINISHED. In capitals, just like that. And I've adopted a handy motto/mantra, which I've printed out and stuck to the sloping ceiling above my desk:

Get it done.

Even so, at the end of last week, that ol' chisel of mine was out once more, chip-chip-chipping away at the conceit of my story. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't work. I could do this. I could do that. Oh, I was honing away alright, and I came perilously close to blinding my creative process again. I was all for tossing the thing aside and starting something new and exciting instead. But this time, I forced myself to keep on drawing, and what do you know, eventually, that funk began to clear. Come Tuesday I could see again. And lo and behold, it was obvious I was still on the right track, and had been all along.

Curse you, you artistic fog, you!

Mind you, you can surely forgive my uncertainty. I mean, this first BLIP strip already features swathes of signal-munching Space Lice. And now, well, I've only gone and thrown a jellyfish into the mix. Yes, indeed. A Great Cosmic Jellyfish. I told you this was a freeformed adventure...

Wee Beasties

2009-11-12T02:05:00.000-08:00

So there's me, with my head in the stars, speculating on the interstellar exploits of a wee alien, when all the time I should have been looking closer to home for my inspiration. You see, we've got our very own little visitor, right here in our back garden. Whoever or whatever it is, has taken up residence in our olde wall. I say "olde" because it's Grade C listed, along with our house, so whoever it is, they have good taste. And they like rose hips. A lot.

That's quite a spoil heap. Our two Springers are drawn straight to it, whenever we open the back door - sniff, sniff, sniff - and that rose hip in the hole confirms there's an internal residence.

I'm guessing it's your common woodmouse, and I'm also guessing that he/she has brought a few familial companions with them, which means our own home is about to be over-run with the little blighters once more (It comes with territory, I'm afraid). But I'd love to know exactly who or what it is, and have taken to leaping out in to the dark each night, with my trusty flashlight ready to blind the culprit(s), mid-nibble. But all to no avail, thus far.

Actually, this visitation is quite timely, as I've now entered the final third of my first BLIP book, and my thoughts are turning towards the next adventure. There's going to be a lot more flora and fauna on show in that one, and juxtapositioning of size and scale... but I'll save the detail for another day...

Meanwhile, there's our own little visitor to ponder once more. And sniff.

Decompression

2009-11-06T09:35:00.001-08:00

I'm no comic book fool. Before I began this Not-Particularly-Great Endeavour of mine I sketched my li'l story out in thumbnails, checking the flow of things, seeing what worked. But you know, in my head, I'm always editing. How can I streamline this? How can I take my adventure from Point A to B in the most efficient way? I'm all-too aware of that dreaded comics term "decompression" and it's burning bright, at the back of my mind, with every page I create.

For the uninitiated, "decompression" is a term applied to modern comics storytelling. Google it and you'll find lots of folks talking about it. It's all to do with the way today's comic artists tell their stories, st-r-e-t-ching out action via single panel pages and telling their tales via repeat panels with sparse dialogue, so that a 24-page modern comic can be read in a heartbeat, and all that it entails for publishers, blah-blah-blah.

Um. Kind of like I'm doing here.

Look, I'm so aware of what I'm doing it's almost painful. But in my case, this is my own comic experiment to create as I please. And if I want to stretch a wafer-thin encounter out over 48 pages, then I'll do just that, and you can't stop me. So there.

But, but, but the point of this blog post is that, even here, in this laid-back, self-created comic environment, I'm always thinking about the pacing of my tale, and how best to present it. And although those initial thumbnail sketches I made are essential, I'm still editing, even as I finish each page, so to help me I've taken to creating rather jolly finished thumbnail pages. I reduce 24 of my completed pages on to a single A4 page, so's I can look at them in sequence, checking the flow of the story and just as importantly, the mix of the colour scheme, all on one sheet. And it's been darned handy this week, because I've now looked at the finished article(s) and I've been able to edit out two whole pages of action and tone down a big shouty example of colour overload. I was on page 34. Now I'm on page 32. But my spacey tale flows a whole lot better, now I've condensed the action, and it looks better too, now that I've recoloured a panel. So there you go. It begins with thumbnails, and it ends with them too!...

Layers of difficulty

2009-10-16T00:57:00.000-07:00

So far, I've been colouring BLIP using Photoshop layers. And there have been no problems . Drop each colour on a new layer, combine, and voila. I know there are quicker methods. I just like working this way. But when you up the ante, it can't half cause problems. Take a look at page 25:

I've got a number of pages like this. Dropping all of those colours on to different layers has proved tricky for this beginner, and once or twice, as I've shifted between layers I've found myself adding touches of the wrong colour to the wrong layer, and - the biggest sin - dropping colour on to my top layer, which floods the black line copy. I'm working at 400%, a lot of the time, and it's very easy to miss this kind of thing and realise too late that you've just saved your file in this flooded state. I did that twice on this page. I'm guessing it just takes practice, and it's all part of that big creative Learning Curve!...

New readers start here

2009-10-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

Now that I've shown my hand at Toonhound, it seems a few new readers have hopped over to this blog to read up about my cartoon endeavours. So it probably makes sense to go back, right back, to the beginning and explain a bit more about what I'm up to with this BLIP project, and the thinking behind it.

I've set myself a task to create a 48-page Small Press comic, by the end of the year. Now, in the past, I've had the most dreadful habit of abandoning projects halfway through. Seriously, I've got umpteen unfinished creations scattered around my attic workplace. So BLIP is one final attempt to get me focused upon my prize. And to that end, I've set myself some stringant guidelines. I'm sticking to single-panel pages, with intermittant three-panelers. There's no dialogue, and currently, no fx sounds. And it's all being drawn in clean black and white, without shading, and scanned and coloured on Photoshop. That's because I find it all too easy to lose myself in a crosshatching haze. I can spend way-y-y-y too long on a page, if I'm not careful, scratching in background detail, and forever altering dialogue. So no shading, no dialogue or superfluous rubbish. I just want to be able to move page to page, quick as I can. That way, I can pick it up on a whim, inbetween the demands of Toonhound, the house, the dogs, and my always-forgiving wife. And there can be no excuses for not reaching my goal. Except that I've not used Photoshop like this before. Not for colour comics work. So that's another box I'm ticking as I go.

It helps that BLIP is a ridiculously simple concept, that fits the bill so precisely. Seriously, I'm jazzed about this one. It's all come together so neatly: What if there was an endless signal passing through the depths of space? And what if a little alien in a little bubble ship latched on to this signal? Where has the signal come from? What does it mean? And why has our little alien buddy latched on to it with such determination...?

I think you'll agree the possibilities here are endless. I know the answers, but I'm not telling, at least for a while. In the mean time, you'll just have to dig out the clues buried in the various cosmic encounters. And yes, I said "various" because I already have four 48-page adventures planned out, with far too many more swirling around in the creative ether. But I'm not jumping the gun. I've got to get this first Tall Tale out of the way. It's already October and I've only just reached the 30th page....

Pages & Buses

2009-10-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

So here I am, struggling to work around conflicts of THE ZONE (see my previous post) and fighting a growing desire to just sweep my pad and pens and everything else associated with my current creation on the floor and give the thing up altogether, because I just can't clear my head of that all-pervading daily clutter, when all of a sudden, a page rush is upon me. Productivity comes at me like a blurr and before I know it, I've done three whole pages in one day. That's three pages drawn and inked and scanned, ready for colouring.

Wow.

It's like buses, isn't it? A trio of the darned things have trundled up to my attic bus stop, all in a row, after a barren week in which I've scoured the timetable fruitlessly. And today I'm already riding two more pages, all the way to Adobeville - Ding! Ding! - Goodness, the sense of release is almost tangible. And it's come just at the right time, when I was beginning to think my Magnum Opus was perhaps in danger of becoming a Magnum Hopeless. There's still a way to go, of course, but I'm approaching Page 30, and that's a pyschological barrier I've been eager to hurdle. This first BLIP book is a 48-page encounter, so - do the maths, folks - I'm beyond the half-way point now, and beginning to ease towards my second act conclusion and finale.

Of course, I really shouldn't get too excited. I've some big plans for said finale and they'll be mighty tricky to pull off (unlike that ridiculously simple page below). I'm sure there'll be a queue of pages stalling or breaking down completely on the roadside, as I progress. But this weekend has been a good weekend. The Conductor has ruffled my hair and waived my ticket!...

THE ZONE

2009-09-30T00:50:00.000-07:00

With its (mostly) single panel pages, you can hardly call BLIP a complex comic project, but when you're juggling your creation around your endeavours at Toonhound, a busy home life and three nights of exhausting shift work a week to ensure the mortgage gets paid - well - that's when you find out just what a labour-intensive process this comic making mularky can be.

It doesn't help that I'm not that good at drawing. Sure, I can knock off a quick cartoon, but my technical skills and my ability to draw properly, they can be a bit lacking. And I'm hindered somewhat by having a slightly squiffy left eye that can drag my creations a little askew, at times. That's not to say I'm some dribbling one-eyed pirate. It's just a slight astigmatism that I have to work around. And if you add that to the above, you can see why, more and more, I find I have to be in THE ZONE before I can begin drawing. But finding THE ZONE can be a nightmare, at times, and it can be sent scurrying in to the shadows by the slightest of things: an ill-timed phone call, the dogs wanting out, my turn to cook, etc. Take young Stan here (below). Who can resist a face like his?

If you throw in my near-constant tiredness from all that shift work, you can begin to understand there are weeks when THE ZONE has fled the house altogether and vanished up the street. And it all means that my simple little project designed to get me focused on my cartooning is in danger of becoming a mammoth undertaking. And yet... in a strange way... I'm finding that the frustration of being out of THE ZONE has actually been a good thing. It's been a wake-up call. If I really want to do this cartooning thing full time - which I do, I know with the most absoloute certainty now - then I have to learn to keep on, no matter what. I can't go running after the security of my ZONE when there's a deadline to meet. THE ZONE won't put bread on the table. It won't feed the dogs and it won't pay for our little Georgian house to be properly renovated...

What a dummy!

2009-09-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

No. Really. What a dummy. See, I've just put together my very first BLIP proof. A dummy comic, if you please. And I'm almost beside myself with giddy glee. It's a greyscale A5 edition, with a colour cover. Nothing fancy. Just the first 23 pages, printed up for my own amusement on Tesco Finest Copy Paper via my ip6700d, and saddle stitched using my old WH Smiths stapler. The cover design needs tweaking, and there's a bit of creep in the page alignment, but I love it, I love it, I love it - curling corners and all, darn it!

I'm quite taken back by the quality of thing. I had no idea that I could produce something like this from the confines of my attic. It's a real jolt in the arm, and it's made me even more determined to get back to my Bristol Board and complete the rest of this spacey tale, and - oh - so much more besides. And funnily enough, despite all the effort I've poured into Photoshop, layering and colouring every page, I think BLIP looks just as good in greyscale. It's certainly a cheaper way to go, initially, when I finally crank up my Small Press... So you can colour me very excited indeed!

On site with BLIP

2009-08-20T01:44:00.000-07:00

For those who might be interested... there's an iddy-biddy BLIP web site on the way very soon... er... HOORAY!... and all that...

Though my blog posts have been thin on the ground of late, I've actually been super-busy behind the scenes, drawing BLIP, creating his little cyberhome and... dusting down an old friend, who is soon to embark on a dangerous - nay - legendary adventure... But that's for a future posting...

BLIP has also been a great adventure for me, thus far. I'm slowly getting the hang of this Photoshop lark, learning how to cut corners and deliver the art I want in double-quick time. I haven't been this jazzed about cartooning since... well.. my school days, I guess... and BLIP has been a way for me to ease myself back in to the cartooning world... big panels.. block colours.. nothing fancy... If my li'l alien buddy finds a fan or too online, well, that would be the icing on the cake. But I'm not fussed. I'm just happy to be back at the old drawing board again!...

Almost, nearly, just about there...

2009-07-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I haven't finished part one of BLIP as quickly as I'd hoped. But Im almost, nearly, just about there. And here's page 18, to prove it...

Super-domestic-girl

2009-07-05T04:48:00.000-07:00

Picked up a bargain in my local TK Maxx, this week. Three DC Showcase editions for just £3.99 each, which means I'm now feasting up 1500+ pages of vintage DC brilliance. And the first, DC Showcase Presents: Supergirl is an absoloute peach of a purchase.

Now I don't know about you, but I've never actually sat down and read the early DC material. I'm familiar with it, obviously. Heck, everyone is familar with this stuff. Or at least, they think they are. Everyone knows it's a bit hokey, right? But sitting here, on page 134 of this magnificent compilation, I've gotta tell you, this stuff goes all the way down Hokey Street and beyond. It's so mired in its 50's philosophies it leaves you aghast and agog and the sheer audacity of it all. Coincidence and happenstance abounds left, right and centre. Supergirl performs the most outrageous fantasy feats and manouevres in a heartbeat - stuff that leaves the mind boggling at its ridiculousness. And best of all, she's performing most of her super-miracles merely to allow her alter ego - Linda Lee - to fit in to Middle Americas's desire for domestic servitude, or to save the kiddies blushes at her orphanage hideaway.

Here's my favourite, thus far: Supergirl wants to stay at her orphanage to maintain her secret identity, so she figures if she burns a roast with her x-ray vision it will stop a pair of prospective parents from adopting her - after all, no good parent will want to adopt a young girl who can't cook properly!

Aint it a doozy? - Oh, you could go on all day about this one. In those first one hundred pages, Supergirl has tossed horses around like salads, she's turned herself into as Super Fairy Godmother, and helped a lad get adopted. She travelled back in time and tamed a fire-breathing serpent. She's tasted from the Fountain of Youth and visited an Interplanetry Orphanage of the future. Linda Lee's feats have been spectacularly daft, and they all been done to allow her to fit in to this cockeyed vision of 50's society. There isn't a super-villain in sight.

These strips frequently leave you laughing out loud at the utter stupidity of it all. But they're also brilliant. I'm so thrilled at having finally caught up with this stuff in such an affordable and accessible away. So thank you DC. Thank you for this great 500+ page slab of archival wonders. I've got Teen Titans and Justice League editions to tuck into next, and I'm sure they'll bring their own unique flavours to the comic table for me to savour. One things for sure, though, I'm hooked on this whole Showcase mularky. I want more. I want a library of these volumes lined up here in my Elgin attic, to dip into as I please. Oh, I reckon I'll be visiting TK Maxx a whole lot more over the coming months...

A lousy preview

2009-05-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well, here goes nothing. What you see below are the opening seven pages of my very first BLIP tale, in which our hero in a bubble follows that strange interstellar signal and encounters a rather hungry Space Louse...

The Genius of Jason

2009-05-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

Oh, what giddy glee. There's a new Jason book on the way. Low Moon is published by Fantagraphics this June, and frankly, this particular reader can not wait. Serves me right for mentioning Jason in that reason posting. I've been devouring his back catalogue again, ever since...

Jason is just the sort of artist/creator that I'd love to talk about at Toonhound, only, he doesn't fit into the remit of the place (he's Norwegian, and Toonhound is Brit-centric). It's one of the reasons I've started this blog, so that the folks who slip through the net can get caught and celebrated here. Anyways, let's get back on topic... Jason's work is bleak and brittle and completely beguiling. His anthropomorphic characters are put through hell. They're dragged backwards through life's hedge and left staggering blindly on the pavement. Each clean line panel quivers with meaning. And in the last few years, he's added melancholic swatches of colour to proceedings - muted blues and purples, autumnal reds and browns - colours that compliment the mood of each tale beautifully...

Why are you doing this?, The Living and the Dead, I Killed Adolf Hitler - It's just impossible to choose a favourite, but it must be said, Hey, Wait... tore my heart out when I first read it. The book is split into two distinct parts, and together they take us from the unfettered joys of our childhood days, to the splintered reality of adulthood. And there's a twist - a turning point - halfway through that shatters the first-time reader... What a book this is...

Jason is a genius. He takes the humdrum and amplifies it. He stokes up great flames of fantasy - time travellers, hitmen, and zombies - but is quick to douse it all down with a bucket of cold reality. And speaking of which, he's keeping me from my own work now, so I'll have to be strong, put his books back on the shelf and GET DRAWING....

Ch-ch-changes...

2009-05-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, alright, I've changed the blog. It's relocated here, with a new name. But you see, the old place was created before I'd really felt my way through this blogging lark. When Films Collide was the title of my very first Flick cartoon collection, back in the day, and my original intention was to give the old fella his own home to roam around the web. But everything's moved on now the cartooning bug has struck me again. I'm going through a hugely creative period at the moment, with fresh ideas and projects cropping up everywhere, and I've stuff I want to talk about that's kind of an extension of Toonhound. Hence the new home and title. Now all I have to do is to get writing and drawing and sharing stuff with anyone who might be slightly interested in what I have to say!...

Phabulous Photoshop

2009-05-09T06:42:00.000-07:00

Wow! - Photoshop has been a fabulous learning curve for me. I'm not professionally trained, and have self-taught myself how to use Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Coreldraw in order to create Toonhound and to knock my strips and toons into shape. But now I'm getting serious about comics, I've had to move up a gear and teach myself how to scan and colour using the Daddy of them all. And I've got to say... Photoshop has been mercifully painless, thus far, and totally inspiring.... It helps that there are so many terrific tutorials online, helping to smooth the curve.

It also helps that I'm keeping it simple for BLIP. Just flat blocks of colour. I'm a big fan of Jason, as it happens, and - well - sometimes less is more, if you know what I mean. Oh, by the way, the bug-eyed fellow below is a Space Louse. He pops up on Page 5 of our adventure, munching on those BLIP-BLIP-BLIPS - much to the chagrin of our tenacious space traveller. Anyways, that's quite enough waffle for now, I've a dozen more pages to colour... Photoshop beckons!

Not gone - just busy!

2009-04-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hold your horses! - Don't panic! - My new-found enthusiasm for all things self-doodled hasn't gone just yet. I've simply been busy. Busy-buzzing-bee-busy, as it happens. Toonhound's needed a whole lot of work, of late. And I've been dealing with some super-stressful things on the outside world, from dogs with broken teeth to a planning nightmare that's unspooling opposite our happy Highland home. But despite everything, or maybe because of it, I've decided to embark upon the very first, fully-fledged, all-singing, all-dancing BLIP strip. Yep. And it'll be in colour, too. That's if I can get my head around Photoshoping and separating it all correctly, instead of quick-filling and painting with Fireworks. My old scanner's not so hot, either, and knitting those 600dpi scans together without errors is causing me no end of bother... Sheesh... Anyways, stay tooned for BLIP, beginning here... very soon!...

Oh, the possibilities...

2009-03-07T02:35:00.000-08:00

Interstellar hazards... Strange planets... Space Pirates... Yes indeed, the possibilities are endless...

BLIP copyright Frazer Diamond / F2009

What if...

2009-03-06T05:53:00.000-08:00

What if there was an endless signal, blip-blip-blipping through space... And what if there was a little alien, in a little round ship, who latched onto that signal and followed it... relentlessly... on, on, on towards its distant source... taking us past a myriad of stars and galaxies, black holes and alien encounters?

Who is this alien being, and why is he following that signal so singlemindedly?... Is he lost?... Is he searching for home, for family, or friends?

And what of that strange signal... Is it a call for help, or a beacon of hope?... Maybe it's something more sinister... a trap, perhaps?... Or simply the residue of some lost event in a far distant galaxy?...

BLIP copyright Frazer Diamond / F2009

Preeeesenting...

2009-03-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

Something different... Not Flick... A new toon... in its earliest of early stages... I'm not quite sure where this is going, but then, neither is our hero... Anyways, without further ado, here's... well... we'll let our newcomer tell us for himself...

BLIP preview pages 1-5

Incidentally...

2009-01-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

...I've just composed another toon. Wowsers, what a great Western this is... Such a bleak morality tale... Why isn't there a special edition of this, on DVD in the UK? - Darnit, the distributors ought to hang their heads...

The Return of Jack Arnold

2009-01-07T02:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's post reminded me that Flick has touched upon the worlds of Jack Arnold before. Back in '99, I came up with this whiffing homage...

Hallelujah!

2009-01-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

Well, now... It's official... It's 2009, and wouldn't you know, our friend Flick has hauled himself out of the creative ooze once more, after far too long away... Oh, yes... them films are colliding again!

Hooray, and all that.

First out of the mire is this take on a Jack Arnold classic. Hope you like it. Oh, and stand by for more movie mayhem soon... ish...