Superman "hasn't done anything to his hair since the 50's." Are you forgetting the Super Mullet of the 90's?

Umm... You think mullets count? I do not.

Ask me anything. Typing actual english words helps though.

Is there such thing as "pretentious" artist?

Yes, absolutely.

You see it in "fine art" especially with the recent spate of them ripping off commercial artists and calling their "reproductions" "found art" or some such. Meaning in art is a lovely thing but honestly, it's really about how pretty and aesthetically pleasing something is at the end of the day. I miss the days of actual technical proficiency that'd go along with the long winded "explanations" for their art too. I appreciate most art, as I appreciate the beauty, even in the ugly side of life... but I really wish decent figurative art would make a come back.

Banksy, now, there's an artist who at least for awhile had real meaning and social commentary to his work.

In my opinion, the worst offenders of "pretentious" artists are some musicians, who rate their own work far too highly and go on and on in such serious ways...when the intelligent people in the room know they're simply derivative of many a musician before them, or even worse, are a creation and simply a front for corporate blandness sold as "edgy" and "new" when it's been written by committee and the singer mimes the words and looks pretty. People who don't even write their own music are not musicians, they're taking part in some shallow commercial karaoke business. Yeah, musicians, when you've written a piece that captures the mood of the times and affects a generation or becomes their voice, then you can take yourself uber seriously. Odds are though, those talented folks are just humble and like to write and acknowledge that it's luck of the draw as to what sticks. You're not all David Bowie. You're not all Nick Drake. ( Nick Drake impersonators are the funniest to me. )

To me, art, all art should first and foremost be a creative outlet that makes the creator happy. Sod anything else. Sod all the extra layers of meaning you want to add to try and make yourself "serious". Just have fun, make something beautiful and
hopefully many others will also agree. And by beautiful, I don't mean happy. By al lmeans, share your sadness with the world too. Don't fluff yourself up as if it's some deep thing. It's not. Unless you watched your heroin junkie parents parents die in a burning car wreck and were then raised by an abusive step uncle named Jeff, living with the demons he got while off fighting in some war that damaged his brain and the depleted uranium shriveled his testes and made him a eunuch...then you're probably just a middle class effete bastard play acting at such things. Don't take yourself so seriously. Because I won't. It's either pretty to look at/listen to or it isn't. "Meaning" ( pretention ) is too often used to cover up for lack of quality. I crack up when I hear musicians get interviewed and droll on and on about the importance of a certain piece or blah blah blah. Especially when they've got a 100 million in the bank. Yes, you have it so tough, please share your troubles with us. Same for you, Damian Hirst.


End angry old man rant. I tend not to like pretentious holier than thou types. Or as we call them, wankers.

Ask me anything. Typing actual english words helps though.

DOCTOR WHO

Not entirely sure if this one'll see print but here's a bunch of work in progress shots as it shaped up.

& yeah, the Christmas special was rather sappy & spiffy at the same time, wasn't it.

CHOKER 5 is almost here

Image have a large preview up so go check it out!

Yeah yeah, I know the book has slipped... it's been the bane of my existence in 2010, constantly on my mind, constantly *almost* done, just with other crap coming up that pushed it back just a little further. Ben should have #6 script finished soon so I can get cracking on the last issue hopefully and then it's going to make a mighty fine TPB. It'll be big too. I usually only stick to 4 issue miniseries, because a 6 month slog is a lot more draining than only a 3rd of the year commitment... and I've set myself the goal of 3 miniseries this year, plus some smaller projects. ( So at least 10 issues worth of stuff, plus if all goes well, a whole bunch of paintings for things. )

Just need to get settled, get contented and get focused on working again. Huzzah!

Last Year...

Sort of started off shit, & decided to stay that way for much of the year. Between being T-boned & being incredibly lucky to walk away with just really bad bruising, missing out on an international acting role in an advertising campaign playing *myself*, divorce, finances being all locked up, lost cats, losing pets for good, complete loss of privacy on some correspondences, temporary paralysis ( *thankfully* temporary! ), having people threaten to sue me ( Nothing real that couldn't have been defended easily enough but who needs the headache ) generally arsing up my deadlines and plans because of the other things and crazy stuff like a mentally unstable fan type claiming the last 8 years of my life have all been a sham & about ulterior motives... yeah, it was fun. You certainly find out a lot about yourself.



But there was some good stuff too... I did get asked to be part of a campaign, as myself, to flog a cellphone of some kind, even if I couldn't do it due to US visa travel restrictions...I should really add that to the "good" column. WORMWOOD was basically the biggest thing on the Sony PSP on the comics front for the longest time, constantly being in the top ten and at times being number 1. CHOKER did amazingly well ( and will eventually be finished, I'm currently waiting on the final script and the second last issue is about to hit stores ) I self published my first art book, Squidgirls, I stood on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, where my career began at a place called Barrow, I got to travel to so many places, like the UK, Spain, France and had my first ( hopefully not last ) real exhibition, in Paris. And I met a girl named Molly, whom I'd met a few times before and fiiinally decided to remember... I also met some amazing new friends, & learned the value of some older ones, so there's that too. And of course, I owe a huge thanks to fans and new readers alike who picked up anything I did last year. Cheers guys.

Slowly getting back to the work, hopefully under control soon. ( Yes, I know I've been horrible at getting back to people and getting on top of things, ) As with the rest of life. I always bite off more than I can chew ( or draw ) ....and a lot of interesting things are planned this year More travel is planned for this year, with conventions and festivals in Australia ( where I am right now ), the UK, Poland and obviously, around the US, though not as many as last year at this point. Moving to an entirely new city and new life in the US and if I don't like that, well, being a hermit on the side of a mountain in NZ or Tasmania sounds good too.
So come on 2011. Show me your worst. 2010 didn't break me, so let's see what you've got.

Art and stuff on the blog again soon, oh yes. ( And that pic? It's from my French gallery Exhibition at Gallery Maghen )

Do you have any advice on how to encourage your kids to get into art? You say you got the art gene from you mum & grandfather; did they teach you how to draw/paint, or take you to the gallery?

Well, you can only encourage so much I guess. Either they take to it or they don't, in the end I guess. I was always happy to sit in a corner & get my imagination out onto paper... It was really just something I *had* to do. It came from within.

I'd say just show them fantastic art that enriches their imaginations. That doesn't have to be galleries, it could be as simple as a comic. ( which worked for me) & showing them amazing visual things like dinosaurs & space things. ( which also got me drawing! ) When I said I got the art gene from my grandfather & his daughter, my mother, they didn't teach me, I just knew they had artistic skills above the norm.

Ask me anything. Typing actual english words helps though.

What did you like to draw the most when you were a kid?

Dinosaurs. Always dinosaurs.

Until I reached 13 or so and then it was drawing naked wimins. Well, tracing them off comics ( they weren't naked initially in the comics mind you, that's where I got *creative* obviously )

Ask me anything. Typing actual english words helps though.

Name a book, a movie and an album that would introduce someone to "who you are."

Book: "Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom. " by Tom Holland

Film: "Mad Max2."

Album: "Mule Variations." by Tom Waits

Ask me anything

Another Squidly Girl

If you saw me work on this as I tweeted, well, it's now up on ebay. Actually quite like how this one turned out. Done on a piece of paper nicely borrowed from the great Dave Johnson!

Comicspipeline

If you've not heard me scream it yet, or seem my tweets, I'm actually part of this Comicspipeline thing.

What is it? Well, a bunch of really good and some quite well known comics artist types are doing a sort of private site where we show off exclusive and never to be public images, our process and sneak peeks on new things coming up.

Me? Well if you sign up and check my bit out, you'll see a bunch of original art commissions I'm doing but won't be making public as well as a complete behind the scenes process on a new zombie book I'm putting together. From rough sketches and writings to the final actual book ( if all goes to plan! ) It's a sort of horror comedy thing, tell the story of...

Well, sign up, stick around and find out. I'm a teasing bastard that way.

I do a lot of work in progress type blog entries, and give a lot of content I generate away for free online... I'll still be doing that, but the real good stuff and the more frequent stuff? Well, that's likely to wind up in my pipeline in the future. For a small subscription fee, you can see a whole bunch of us mad buggers doing our artistic thing.

LOBO

Had to get this image out of my head and try to stay sane amongst the mountain of real work needing to get done. Always had a soft spot for Lobo. If you dig it, the finished result is also up on ebay.

SQUIDGIRLS: EROTICA TENTACULAR is now available online!

Yes, after what feels like forever, after many many email requests and queries too... and just in time for Christmas... I've put the first batch of SQUIDGIRLS: EROTICA TENTACULAR up online in a new online store. Eventually there's going to be much more in the store but for now, just the first batch of Kraken Editions. So get them before they're gone. Once sold out, I'll do up another batch and proceed until supplies run out. Humboldt and Colossal Editions will eventually be online also, just not yet. If you're interested in purchasing all three at once for some reason, best to hold off for now. Otherwise, get them while they're hot!

BLACK SKY

The first teaser trailer is out, from the very fancy chaps at Halo-8.

Trust in the power of the Squid.

I could go all Mark Millar on you and make a ton of claims about this being possibly the first truly game changing "illustrated film" where only paltry half arsed motion comics have come before, that it'll crack the internet in half, cure lung cancer, give everyone free unlimited energy and solve hunger world wide... but I won't.

Once I'm working properly on this thing ( Which I can't wait for, ) things will get very interesting. We've got to do voice casting and deal with the animation and all that stuff. I find the story telling possibilities fascinating. It's going to be a real journey of learning for me.

So let's see if I don't arse this up!



Black Sky Teaser - 120110 from Halo-8 Entertainment on Vimeo.

I'm on French bloody TV!

I'm on French TV.( France 24, their culture show ) Arsing it up & yapping comics & horror.

Way better than the Fox "news' bit I did a few years ago. Their studio was third world compared to the French one & they were completely disorganized. France 24, by comparison was slick, ran smoothly and the set/studio was state of the art. Was awesome. Skynet controlled the entire studio, all cameras were handled from some room elsewhere in the building.

And apparently we shared the green room with one of the biggest musicians in France... but he's unknown in english so, he was just another hobo looking guy to me. Forget his name anyway. Ah well.

I'm All French And Stuff

Further info

The Gallery website

Hope it goes well. If you're in Paris drop on by! Contrary to what many believe, I don't "paint on computer" at all. Come see the originals before they hit photoshop. This will be a pretty big retrospective of my work. Pretty much all the best stuff I've still got. Over 100 art pieces including FELL, WORMWOOD, WELCOME TO HOXFORD and oh yes, some 30 DAYS OF NIGHT ( But only RED SNOW, since the older stuff isn't fit for exhibiting I think )