NARC ILLUSTRATION (FEBRUARY 10)

The first bit of artwork I've produced this year is an illustration for an article on this year's Newcastle Gateshead Comedy Festival for NARC magazine.

I tried to come up with an image that was iconic and about stand-up comedy in general, rather than specifically about who's on the bill this year or a kind of generic image to represent comedy.  I opted for a spin on 'The Ascent Of Man', showing how British stand-up comedy has developed over the years.  Kind of an 'Ascent of McIntyre', if you will.

I like the illustration a lot (especially Ken Dodd at the beginning there), but I'm not entirely sure it works in the context.  Are people going to get it?  Or are am I just leading people to think that all these people are performing at the festival (which would be a huge feat as Bernard Manning has been dead for a wee while now)?  I dunno - judge for yourself - the new issue of NARC is in shops and venues around the North East as I type.

"COUPLEDOM" REVIEW AT THE COMICS REPORTER

Sorry for the lack of posts this month - I'm a bit preoccupied with writing at the moment and as a pursuit it's not as easy to post about as drawing funny pictures is.  Normality will resume in due course.

Following Small Press Big Mouth's review, I've sent copies of Coupledom off to a few noteable reviews places in order to (hopefully) get some more quotable feedback for the shop and to raise awareness of the title.  Or, at the very least, some sort of criticism as to where I might have gone wrong.  I did the same thing with Melanchomic when that came out and although it got mixed reviews, there was plenty of positive soundbites to utilise.

Tom Spurgeon over at The Comics Reporter is the first to post a review and it's not a good one to be honest.  Not entirely critical by any means, but you can tell it wasn't his cup of tea.  Check it out here.

However, as the hullabaloo that arose from last time hopefully showed, I am not averse to airing criticism of my work.  It was tempting to ignore the review and hope no-one saw it, but sod it.  It's right there - read it if you like.  I have had plenty of positive feedback from folks already - I was due something to balance it out.  I don't agree with all the points Tom made (or else the comic would have come out completely different), but at least he was eloquent about it, and there's certainly some stuff in there to consider for next time.

NARC ILLUSTRATION (JANUARY 10)

I'm not having a very productive start to 2010.  It's already the 5th and I've spent the last five and a half days recovering from the food poisoning I contracted on New Year's Eve.  Thinking back to the Millenium, it seems I'm destined to see in every decade crouched over a toilet hurling my guts up.  At least this time I hadn't been drinking.

For the blog's sake, it's lucky I still had this illustration post to tide me over until my enthusiasm for life returns.

I rounded off 2009 with an elaborate piece for NARC magazine's 'Opinion' page.  The article was about the effect alcohol has had on great musicians, so I envisioned a supergroup of famous hellraisers.  I managed to fit five of them in, which is good going, I thought.  If I could have legitimately had Oliver Reed in there I would have.  Hopefully you'll be able to guess who they all are (otherwise I've not done my job properly).

As I mentioned before, this one was a bugger to do, cos it involved doing individual illustrations for each person (plus the drum kit) then assembling it all somehow on Photoshop.  The process took the best part of two days, which is pretty stupid for a non-paying assignment.  But never mind!  I think I did an alright job of it - Keith Moon was a bugger to get on there while still being clear who he is and what he's doing, but I think the Mod colour scheme on the drumkit helped a lot.

The issue is in the shops and pubs around the North East now, so go get yourself a copy.  Go on - get moving!