jackcomics

Now I've finished my part of birdsong I feel almost dizzy, still nose back to the grindstone I still have plenty of work to do and I have a hankering to try making a mini comic over christmas.
Anyway I thought I'd share the above pages since the Famous Five cover is perhaps my favourite thing I've drawn for peckham.

I'll make a better post later in the week, right now I want to just doodle like a mad man.... I't been far too long...

http://catandgirl.com/?p=2286

Late night working, difficult morning. I'm not very good at winter mornings.



The marvellous writer of the book I illustrated, Morris the Mankiest Monster, Giles Andreae, has lots of other tricks up his sleeve, including the famous Purple Ronnie series he originated, and his more recent line of stuff, Edward Monkton. Last week the Times ran a huge three-page section on his thoughts behind his new animation, The Pig of Happiness. While I could relate more to the Pig of Comfort this morning than the Pig of Happiness, I was hugely intrigued by his description of his breakdown into clinical depression. His stark, insightful description of it reminded me of the huge gulf between being depressed and suffering depression; people who have never suffered depression can't even start to appreciate the total wiping out of personality and horror that come with it. More than a call be 'be happy', I found it a call to be gentle and patient with people who are depressed, something I could use reminding about when I'm tempted to wish they'd 'snap out of it' or something equally callous. (Giles related that to someone telling a person with a broken neck to get a grip.)
You can read the whole article at Times Online here.

It also makes me think about how much creative people who have suffered serious mental health issues have to offer the rest of us in giving us a window into this whole world. Their contributions are so HUGELY valuable; it's not enough just to write something worthy, that will only get a small audience. These guys know how to make the subject genuinely interesting, and what can be more interesting than the dark and strange places the mind can go. So few people are able really to communicate what breakdown and chronic suffering is like, or make us see things differently, want be more understanding and contemplate the fragile thread that keeps us all from falling into the same pit.

A lot of people in the comics community have come to value Leeds-based writer and artist Darryl Cunningham for having this very gift. He's someone who has struggled hugely with depression, but has retained a sensitivity to what others are going through and lets us see what really happens. Keep an eye out for his upcoming book, Psychiatric Tales, coming out with Blank Slate in February. You can see extracts from his book on Live Journal (he's tallguywrites), or to go straight to the autobiographical chapter, click on the image:



Thanks, Giles and Darryl! We all really need to hear this stuff, and you guys make us look forward to reading about it.

dudes I have Riker'd it up, perhaps you should too:

Riker Town

My fave episode still is the one where everyone is falling on the bridge. I think I have only seen like four episodes of TNG, perhaps I should nerd up and watch more. They're pretty amazing.

A week or two back I was reading the AV Club's "Best Music of the Decade" list and it brought on the dismaying notion that maybe there had been no good music for the last decade! But I couldn't believe that, so I sorted through my music "library" and made a list of the 25 albums I enjoyed the most these last ten years, in rough order:

25. Joanna Newsom - Ys
24. The Black Mages (self-titled)
23. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
22. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
21. The Blow - Paper Television
20. The Knife - Deep Cuts
19. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
18. MIA - Arular
17. Morrissey - You Are the Quarry
16. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
15. Outkast - Stankonia
14. The Advantage - Elf Titled
13. Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain
12. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
11. Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
10. The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
9. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
8. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Greatest Palace Music
7. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
6. The Decemberists - Picaresque
5. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
4. The White Stripes - Elephant
3. Deltron 3030 (self-titled)
2. Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins
1. Madvillian - Madvillainy

Hello! I have added some new items like Minicomics and Buttons to my shop! Supplies are limited. In addition, there is a sale on 8" x 10" prints (buy 3, get one free).

If you are thinking of buying prints or buttons or anything as gifts, please order as early as possible. It takes me time to package and ship everything, so the sooner you order the more likely it is that it will reach you in time. Thanks!

Educational comics for youngsters. Put your children in front of this comic and don't let them leave until they learn it.

My auntie took Stuart and me to the newly renovated Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and I made a couple drawings based on some of the pictures. I love the face on this kid, from a series of photos taken by Joseph McKenzie of kids in Glasgow's Gorbals. But darn, he was hard to draw! He kept looking like an old man, which is part of his charm, really, but he shouldn't actually look like an old man. I finally ended up thinking, what would Gary do, and drew him that way, which seemed to work the best.

This one isn't spot on either, but I loved the gormless expression and composition of this painting by painter and optical repairman John Quinton Pringle, one of the Glasgow Boys. The gallery was displaying a large collection of work by the Glasgow Boys, which will be on exhibition at the Royal Academy next year (when you'll have to pay a whopping fee to get in. See 'em for free in Glasgow!).

( Lots of Glasgow photos under the cut )

If you've got a minute to spare, could you do me a favor? Check out my website and let me know if it works for you, and if there are any missing images on the front page. Then check it out without the www and let me if know if that one works too? Is it showing a different URL in the address bar?

Website maintenance causes me no end of headaches. I am kind of proud of myself in that I can usually find the answers I need after hours and hours of searching and trial-and-error, but there's always another problem popping up. I will be glad when we move to Holonet and I can and I can build my website just by thinking it with my brain.

EDIT: Judging by the fact that various people are having different problems, and the fact that it now works for me despite changing nothing, I think this was an issue with just waiting for the DNS to propagate properly (whatever that means!). Of course there are still problems, but I think I will leave them for tomorrow because I am super stressed! Thanks everyone for taking the time to give me your input. When I get this all up and working maybe I'll draw you a comic or something.

I think the CBC blew half its budget on The Tudors because the whole time that I lived in Toronto, every bus and every subway car was plastered with Jonathan Rhys Meyers' pouting face and ten yards of cleavage. I believe we've all learned a valuable lesson here, and that is William Cecil may have been a crack statesman, but if he wants to me to give a shit about him he better start hitting the gym.


stoorree

I've now made it through my first official fresh meat assessment and lived through two scrimmages. At first I was reluctant to even want to scrimmage - my approach to derby has been one of caution and patience, because I can't imagine ever being ready to bout. But luckily just seeing other meaties passing the assessment (and me not) the first time made me realize I DO want to get better faster, and compete, and scrimmage. All that good stuff of derby I want but am terrified to get.

I find it really interesting seeing what derby has brought out in me and in the other meat. Some people have quit, some people have effortlessly gotten better. Some people are competitive to succeed and some people reluctant. For me it changes constantly. One minute I'm terrified, the next thrilled, then frustrated, then ready to vomit. All I know for sure is that I LOVE this, even though sometimes it feels like I have to force myself to do it. It's a test for me. I've always thought I was a person who craved action with a tad bit of violence ... But it's easy to tell yourself that's "you" when you've never even tried anything that brings that out in you. I've always preferred to not try things that are scary or new. I'm dedicated, but I can frustrate easily.  I hate sucking at things. 

Somehow derby has shown me that I was completely wrong about all of these things I thought about myself. Does that mean every new experience brings something new out in you, or was it there all along? I guess you never know until you try.

Before I moved to Britain, I'd never heard of Wigtown, which is strange, because it's a beautiful Scottish small town with TWENTY independent bookshops! Who cares if it rains all weekend, there's so much browsing to be had!



Here's the the proprietor of the children's bookshop, The Box of Frogs, Fiona Murphy, with her assistant Linda Cameron. Two lovelier people you could never find, except perhaps for the brave souls (about eight kids, with accompanying parents) who charged through rain, landslides and mid-road lakes to make monsters with me in the back of the shop.
( More Wigtown and farm photos under the cut )

YouTube link

Produced by Colenso BBDO and animated by Andersen M Studio for the New Zealand Book Council. (Thanks to Neil Gaiman for tweeting the link.)

As promised, here is Part 2.

The Incroyables and Merveilleuses are my favorites, gosh I tell ya. What they wore was once a political statement, but then they gave up on making statements, and that was a statement. Or some such.


stoorree

Planning a November visit to Scotland is dodgy at the best of times, but wouldn't you know it, we managed to hit it during one of the wettest weekends in recorded history. Here's Suzie the border terrier, sneezing on the swollen riverbank of the Bladnoch.



Before Angus met us in Dumfries to take us out to his farm, we had a little look at what the River Nith was getting up to. Scottish words such as dreich and drookit spring to mind.



Stuart and I were well impressed by Dumfries' selection of sandbags.


( More soggy photos under the cut )

http://jonnycrossbones.com/2009/11/25/buy-my-book/

http://jonnycrossbones.com/?p=672

Happy Tick-day, everybody!

Today’s the day the first issue of The Tick, vol. 2 comes out! I drew it, and Benito Cereno wrote it. It’s kind of a big deal.

You can check out a preview here, then head on down to your local comics shop and buy five or six copies.

Also don’t forget about the original Jonny Crossbones art for sale.