polarized double

ALMOST a third variation on 'Flogging a Dead Horse', these items are added here for storage purposes and reveal just exactly how I put these suckers together....... -------Clearly, the BIFFO head was drawn large-scale,  then shrunk into a smaller, seperate body, which is usually what I do when selling cartoons to payees, or as in this case, I want an especially polished look----after these composites are assembled 'as one', of course, the 'invisible mending' approach makes it all look seamless. Once you get used to this, it's a very handy tool---if time-consuming-----but the results are pretty much what I was looking for. I remember drawing a cameo BIFFO in a large crowd scene of characters I done for D C T around 1985, but I can't recall drawing Biffers ever since then---wonder if I will ever draw him again? Here's hoping! Plate One: extreme close-up of 'the head' Plate Two:   the composite character with basic color added to the background:

LIBERTOONS  are really just a BABY BOOMER off-shoot, centred around Lady Liberty herself, with some silly character-based interplay- interaction from KOONG KING:  ---this is my variation on the format employed in  the   CHARLIE BROWN/ PEANUTS strip,    stopping abruptly so that SNOOPY and WOODSTOCK the tiny yellow bird can grab center stage for a good few appearences---making 'spotlight attractions', momentarily, of the supporting characters. As these new drawings  are just basically warm-up sketches and never intended for any sort of publication anywhere, I can afford to be slightly more subversive with these, making them a wee bit more 'adult'.....hence the Statues' more 'revealing' attire , and provocative pose. These are great fun for me to work on, and are very quickly rendered, to boot: loads more of these are already finito and on the way.

    DUDLEY D. WATKINS:  [1904-1969]  Clearly, it is unthinkable to leave out such a giant in British Comics Publishing as the true phenomenon that was Dudley Dexter Watkins: his material over more than four decades was, and is, literally familiar to tens of Millions in his own time and ours, through the massive comics sales achieved within his own working career: he and the top artists back  then enjoyed  levels of readership we will never likely see again; the world has moved on from those times, in many ways too multiple to outline here, but comics sales today are indeed pitiful in comparison, if better documented via the web........... in the eyes and minds of many, Watkins  was the best---[in my view, certainly one of the very best] and most famous comics creator[s] Britain ever produced. One established BEANO writer I conversed with---and who well  remembered him-----stated that Watkins was the only  comics artist of his time who was truly famous, through the simple expedient expl

MORE recycled artwork, but in this case at least it offers the viewer decent close-up shots of detail rendered almost-invisible when featured in the finished JUDGE DREDD composite of recent weeks. The two facial close-up shots are of NEMESIS THE WARLOCK ['horsehead'. left] , and TOMAS de TORQUEMADA, a long-running fixture from 2000 AD comic, a strip set in far-future Earth, with much mass extermination of  Aliens by the demented, Ku-Klux-Klan-like Torquemada, whose triangular pointed steel mask betrayed his 'human' origins. This astonishing strip [always illustrated with much hyper-imaginitive designs] was originally inked by Kevin O'Neill, who drew in a very aggressive, spikey-looking style that must have taken him several days to complete a page. The events in this strip are truly mind-bending and surreal---even compared to the far-future World of Mega City One, as detailed in the pages of JUDGE DREDD, but for the commited reader these tales are an unforgettable e

I am picking up cartoon work again, which has to take priority as it pays me, meaning I have a lot less time to turn out the polished images added on here, of late:  however one or two almost-completed polished items will be screened shortly, but for the next few weeks, I will be mostly adding on 'quicko roughs' as I can belt these out in minutes apiece----I also wish to keep this site ongoing and regularly updated. I am sticking, for the moment at least, to variations on the STATUE OF LIBERTY images  as there is a whole seam to mine there, I reckon: also, I have to rein in the endless new projects I have started just over the past few months--since December 2014 I have kick-started:                                                                      THE FLY                                                               MEDIEVEL WORLDES                                                                  ADULTOONS                                                                   KO

-----or:  HICKNER by name; HACK by Nature, and other Movie-Business  Horror Stories Being a cartoonist is MOSTLY a good thing: despite what many cynics  claim, most folks can't do this task--at least not  very effectively:  but  if you can draw decent cartoons, it is easy to impress most people, break the ice with strangers [ and yes, the opposite sex can use  reference  to your drawing ability as a chat-up line---this has certainly happened to me]----and it is a good feeling being in a position to draw these images: as you age and lose your youthful looks, assuming we ever had them--------- but usually  yer drawings actually IMPROVE through experience !------- of course, there can be occassional skirmishes   related to cartoonery---cartoonists are just as flawed as anyone else, naturally------but really they are quite minor: for example, I have been banned from a UK cartoon site, but the people who done this only have the very limited power of stopping me from  adding to their se

The 2000 ad site hosting the competition artwork only allowed images of 800 pixels wide, and so eventually the painful realization that a lot of the lavish detail within the DREDD Toon would have been rendered almost invisible , and so at the eleventh hour, I decided to scale down the overall concept, just concentrating on a close-up of the Judge. Originally, the scene was to have featured a cameo by a 'baby' version of the ruthless MEAN MACHINE character, a sadistic  villian featured in the third great JUDGE DREDD epic the Judge Child, which ran for six months throughout 1980 in the pages of  2OOO AD. The Judge Child saga featured the usual high-caliber standard of fantasy artwork by Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon and Ron Smith...the Galaxy -stretching tall tale is episodic, to be sure, but is one of my favorite 2000 A/Dredd  tales out of the entire near-40 year run.....indeed, this story is one of my fave rave comics stories----ever. Plate One: the Notorious Cursed Earth/hillbil

These days, I am able to view a good chunk of British Comicdoms' past glories in a way I could only dream of until relatively recently. I am able to get a good butchers not only at the obvious and extensive BEANO and DANDY archives, but also equally worthy endeavors like the long-running BEEZER and TOPPER, ---the weekly comics as well as the voluminous annuals and Summer Specials, etc--- and also the usually- unsung but quite worthy publications like  70s contenders CRACKER and PLUG.  What follows here is an appraisal of the many artists from DCT who undeniably  invaded my psyche---in the nicest way possible-----and who have since  refused to leave my collected memory, even long after the comics they appeared in have sadly vanished from the Newsagents' shelves. The list of esteemed contributers here is fairly complete and lengthy [I know this stuff quite well, as the time others are spending watching TV, I am happily skimming through these comics: much more entertaining!] and  

KONGTOONS are still going strong for a USA site, who get 'em 'foist!' They will all be presented on here, though---you can actually blow 'em up larger-scale here  on POLARIZED OPINIONS, so it is all well worthwhile, me hearties. KONGTOONS were concieved about two years ago---and indeed the original sketch of the piece seen here was drawn by me about 600 days ago!  Ah, the backlog---this doesn't include the pile of almost 100 unseen -as-yet sketches I have so far completed this year. for the uninitiated , or those not that interested in King Kong folklore, the hub of this gag is the following: ---the guy in the chair at the bar is Willis O'Brien, Kongs' special effects technician/animator, who was known to like a drink or three in his off-hours. PLATE ONE:  --the full Technicolor Glory Version PLATE TWO:  Monochrome-a-Go-Go