Saturday 12 November 2011

Free Bookplates!!

Here's a couple of bookplates for those of you who still read the old fashioned way. Go on , print 'em out & deface that overdue library book that the local library has been hounding you for! Stick one in the front of your mother's Dan Brown paperback to add a bit of quality to that shit she reads! Or slap one in that celebrity biography that you bought at the charity shop so when you give it to a friend for Christmas it looks like you actually thought about the present that you only paid fifty pence for!

Agamemnon & Cat...

The complex relationship between Man and animal is explored here in this little cartoon. Should I say more? Maybe not, as even I don't fully understand what's going on here. Ridiculous or profound? And who knows the difference anyway?

I shall say no more...

Brush and Ink on 8 1/2 x 11" 2-Ply Bristol Board

Various Sketches!

Some "loose" sketches drawn with a variety of pens on whatever paper was to hand at the time.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Filthy Moods/Retro Girl Flyer

Good news for cartoon fans! This is now printed as a glossy postcard. After a lot of pissing around setting it online to be printed and it fucking up my Blog post image(?) Dunno how. But here's another go... Who said that the promotional material takes longer than the work itself? Me. That's who!

Oh, yeah.. Hope you all enjoy it! Let me know if you want one! They do look pretty good!!

Big Thanks to Rachel, for nursing me through the technical horrors of making a cartoon postcard...(I don't want to exaggerate, but I'm a cartoonist, it's my job!)

Monday 5 September 2011

Galloni

I swiped this from Galloni (Who in turn swiped Tomi Ungerer's style)

I wanted to try something different. This is marker pens on cheap paper. Dunno? Any comments? What do you think, Hunt?

Okay, back to the brush & Bristol...


 This is a version in Brush & Ink. I wanted to try to keep to the "Galloni" style, which is kind of "flattened out" pen work with no variation of the line. I imagine that he drew this stuff with a rapidograph. Anyway, here we are!
More stuff from my last note/sketchbook, What else can I say? It's another Cautionary Tale: Don't drink and draw at the same time. For experts and pretentious cartoonist only.

 Panel from an unfinished comic strip (The Bone Idol), from a while back featuring my Manga spoof character, Sin-YU. Brush and ink with a bit of Letratone. Included here only because it was drawn on the now extinct Daler Truline illustration board. The best surface in the world. And they stopped making it. Bastards.

Sunday 14 August 2011

Original Sinners _ The Video!

My New Brush...

I'm a bit fussy when it comes to brushes & ink (Even though I'll sketch & draw on a paving stone with a burnt twig if the mood takes me..) I usually use W&N Series 7 sables.

This is inked (Today!) with a Daler "Dalon" No 0 brush & sketched out first with a blue pencil. The whole thing took 30 minutes.

I must be slowing down these days...

Notebook Sketches...


I carry a little notebook around to write my script ideas in, but being a compulsive "scribbler" I end up drawing cartoons instead. Hey, why not?

Here's a few pages from my recent "notebook", including the preliminary drawing for my birthday card to the Great S Clay Wilson. And you thought that I didn't plan this stuff out, didn't you?

Monday 25 July 2011

S CLAY WILSON at 70!

S. Clay Wilson, the legendary ZAP cartoonist, creator of the Checkered Demon and notorious pioneer of Underground Comix is 70 today!

This drawing is brush/pen & ink on 2-ply Bristol Board and measures 30 x 21cm. If anyone wants to buy the original, I'll donate the fee to the SCW fund.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Original Sinners

This may look like a still from a Hen Party that just ended in a knife fight, but it's actually a photo from the July 2nd performance at Three Minute Theatre in Manchester's Affleck's Palace of my short comedy play, Original Sinners with Mabeth Davies as Lucifer.

Mabeth was also in my previous play, The Rembrandt and the Sausage and I'm writing a monologue: Holiday Snaps, for her...

Now, I'm not one to overly criticise, but I think that maybe Milton missed a trick or two with Paradise Lost, so I thought I'd helpfully fill in a couple of missing bits explaining that old rift between God and Lucifer and some of the complicated Creation stuff. And there's some gratuitous humour too.

But I really wanted a female Lucifer. I'll also post some pics of God and Adam soon, but you may want a drink first. You are duly warned.

Photos by Rachel Gibson

Sunday 12 June 2011

"And where do you think you're going?" (Detail)

At some point I thought that gags with horror themes (Yeah, yeah - Of course I know who Charles Addams is...) would be a good idea. This is a detail 'cos the original was too big to fit in my scanner(!)

But I wanted to post it up because I inked this with a W&N No3 brush, which is pretty hard to control. Although, the style of this cartoon is a nod to the late Mike Matthews, who handled the No3 sable like he was born with a brush in his hand... And I ain't joking.

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Water Demon

Ink and Paint on Pastel Paper. This study of a Water Demon's encounter with a giant Sea Worm used to hang on my living room wall.

Some cynical individuals doubt my artistic integrity and think I deliberately confuse symbolism with smut. Hey! I just paint what I see...

From the Tomb - Cover Rough

From the Tomb was a magazine edited and published by Peter Normanton (He's a great guy - look him up!) it was devoted to old Horror Comics. Just my kinda' thing! He did a great piece on Basil Wolverton, amongst other old favourites. I drew this Brush & Ink idea for a cover after I got in touch with him a few years back. But other commitments stopped me from finishing it up.
Pity. One day I'll get this into shape as the finished full-colour painting that it was intended to be.

The Lurkin' Stiffs - Episode 1

I did this late last year for the, now cancelled, Manchester Comix Collective site. The plan was to do one of these a week & post it on the gallery page. Sort of like a syndicated strip - You know: Pogo, but with Zombies, guns and boobs.

The site owners started charging for the use of the site and nobody wanted to pay for it, so that was that.
I also began designing the Lurkin' Stiffs as animated shorts. Remind me to show you the character design/story boards one of these days.

 Here's a page of rough character designs for the 'Stiffs. I'll get the animatic together as well soon(ish...) when I've got a few background concepts to post.

Rod Zilla

From the same sketchbook as Glassblowers.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like individuals, and I'm sure that you're great! Honestly. Why else would you be reading this Blog?

But sometimes, humanity...

Come on, you know what I mean!

Mervyn Peake - "The Glassblowers"

The life-size oil painting by Mervyn Peake hangs in the Manchester City Art Gallery. I copied this sketch of the central figure whilst sitting in there one day.
Peake is a favourite artist of mine. He seems to be having a new burst of popularity these days (About time!) I think that for a long time the public had difficulty working out what he was, because he was a writer as much as an artist. The public likes to pigeon hole artists, rather than find out who they are.

This posting is dedicated to the late Jeff Jones. A great Artist. Already missed.

Even More Old Oink! Stuff...

I dug this up the other day. One of the earlier jobs that I drew for Oink! The script was by one of the editors.
It wasn't often that I got to do anything in the Horror Comic style, so this was a bonus compared to some of the art jobs I had back then. Brush and Ink with a colour overlay added inhouse.

Monday 23 May 2011

Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament - Judges: 19 - Neil Gaiman

This is my most reprinted comic story. Probably because it was scripted by Neil Gaiman and also because of the trouble it got the various publishers into. Knockabout thought that this would be a commercial success, but the Government, the Church and the Legal System (All in cahoots with the tabloid press) reviled and condemned the book. Even Pox Magazine in Sweden nearly sacrificed its editor to a prison sentence.

In this Post South Park, Post Mel Gibson world it's a bit hard to believe all of the shit and nonsense that ensued. Especially, as these days the strip is reprinted and posted on the internet so often with no one so much as batting an eyelid! Well, apart from a few complaints...

I'll tell you about those later!

Sunday 22 May 2011

Easter Island

I feel that this merits some sort of explanation.

Then again maybe not...

HUMOURfest Poster (Cropped Version)

This was drawn as part of a HUMOURfest exhibition in the '90's. Sometimes they wanted some biographical/promotional material. I thought a typed resume wouldn't be attention grabbing enough, so I did this.
At the time a local newspaper ran a piece on me, and published this (in black and white). I don't think they realised that the alien artist isn't wearing pants! After it was published a journalist phoned me and said not many people had even noticed it, except for someone who wrote in to say I could draw "nice teeth".

Oink! Spoof written by Charlie Brooker

Before he achieved the dizzy heights of fame and fortune, Charlie Brooker started his career writing stuff like this. Note: Even then Charlie was using the word "knobs" in his writing! (Although, I'm probably not the best person to point this out...)

When Oink! was first being published it had some complaints from the Mary Whitehouse brigade because they thought it was too rude for its intended audience (Not just Charlie, all of it). But it sold pretty well, so the editors ignored the criticism and the newsagents just put it on a slightly higher shelf in their shops.

Beach Bum and Rod Zilla

Another Pen & Ink with Sepia Washes from the same "Sketching Book" as below.

"It's a..."

Pen and Ink drawing from my "Sketching Book". This is what happens when you start drawing without thinking it through beforehand!

Filthy Moods - "Website" Promo

A few years ago (Before I discovered Blogs!) my wife helped me (She's the technical one..) start a website on our old PC. It was a pain in the arse to do, so I just let it expire. Anyway, here's an Ink & Watercolour "promo" piece that never made it onto the site...

Tuesday 17 May 2011

"Sketching Book"

Pen and Ink sketchbook "title" page. I usually start my sketchbooks off with a "title" page. It gives me the impetus to fill the book with nicely rendered drawings and studies before it becomes covered in incoherent scribbles (By about page 5...)

Sin Yu & Harry Stottle!

You had to ask, didn't you? From my Manga spoof sorta thing - Brush on Bristol Board & a copy coloured with Letraset Promarkers. More to follow!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Dante G Rossetti & Friends

Coloured pencils & ink letters in a sketchbook. Rossetti was an artist who was interested in literature as much as drawing and painting (More unusual than you may think) Some Pre-Raph stuff is in the Manchester Art Gallery collection & that's where I copied this from. We saw a major retrospective of his stuff in Amsterdam a few years later & it blew me away. There's also a drawing here of a naked lady for those of you who think I'm taking myself too seriously.

Enjoy 'em both!

Greek Sketchbook

Just like the title says: Drawn in a sketchbook whilst in Greece. We sailed to the island of Patmos, where St John wrote the Book of Revelations. No coincidence intended. P.S. If you ever visit, pay your respects to the monks and buy a St John Key ring or a tea towel. They take religion very seriously.

It's Cubby Hole!

An unfinished painting of my favourite character, Cubby Hole. Remember our motto: Good Trash is Always Better Than Bad Art & Ask for more cartoons of Cubby! You know it makes sense.

Serious Tree

This somewhat dour and austere nature study was executed with pen, ink & sepia washes. Remember, rudeness, like beauty is in the eye of the Beholder. So it's your fault not mine.

Jack O'Lantern and Pals...

A while ago, I decided that every night for fifty nights I would write and sketch at least one page of comics in my trusty Moleskine. I had no idea what would happen when I opened the book & nothing was planned beforehand. It was knackering, but certainly hones your brain cells. I think. Recommended for adults and crazy cartoonists only! And then there's the long slog of drafting this all up in ink on illustration board. What the hell was I thinking?

Page From Moleskine Sketchbook

I'm not big on Superheroes (Like 'em - Just can't get the hang of drawing 'em!) But I must have made an exception for Wonder Woman. Don't know who the other two guys are...

Books Comic Strip

No idea what this was done for. Pen and ink on Bristol board. The Sin Yu character is a sort of Manga spoof that I've worked with on & off for a while. Someone out there remind me to finish it up one of these days...

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Calling Victor H. Marsillo!

Hi Victor - I tried to email you yesterday. Send me your email contact & I'll send you the info - Steve G

Saturday 7 May 2011

"Wanna Samwidge!"

Rough sketch with markers for the cover of an online journal called "Utopia Redux". I'll probably post the stuff on this Blog instead. No idea what the picture is about. Any suggestions? My wife really likes the "samwidge" demanding fish-thing though!

Retro Girl

I drew this sketch today. Markers on layout paper. I'm trying to get the hang of drawing with letraset markers, but it's tough to get a finished looking picture. "Retro Girl"? What's all that about? Dunno. I like Modesty Blaise and the Old 60's Avengers TV show though...

The Trial Book - Knockabout

In the early '80's Knockabout Comics was in trouble with HM Customs for importing Sex & Drugs related Underground books & comix. This is before such subjects were regarded as the mainstream staples of entertainment. So, naturally Knockabout published more comix and artists & writers were asked to contribute to the Trial Book to raise funds for Knockabout's legal bills. Cartoonists included, Steve Bell, the late Mike Matthews and the great Hunt Emerson. This is my contribution and the original was bought by Hunt after a book signing in Birmingham.