polarized double

In my youth, I was able to pick up some comic-strip work from Scottish publishers D C Thomson, the best-ever purveyors of 'cartoon comics-fare within these shores, in my view........it was a lot easier to attain work in the mid-80s, of course: although the standards and sales of comics in general were undoubtedly starting to slip overall during that time , the situation and opportunities/outlets for new artists was absolutely thriving in comparison to the bleak state of affairs that is the reality seen in this industry  today. When I was doing this in my early 20s, I had a lot of enthusiasm:  but to  be honest, my patent lack of experience in putting together effective comics-imagery  is often painfully evident the few times I ever dust down the published material for a 'butchers' hook' :  nevertheless, there is one aspect I DO share in common with top comics artist Dudley D Watkins: we both took a few years to 'get any good', we both needed some experience unde...

Number 13 in this series of now-vintage inkings: I make that a Baker's Dozen: Overtly stylized as per usual but sometimes that is what it's all about.......

UNUSED COMPOSITE dating from late 2015: ------these elements often look a bit odd when seen in isolation like this, but THIS is how I work these days! This artwork was mooted for inclusion within a full-color composite, but sadly I have so many unfinished ideas I will never find the required time to do them all . I have stacks of artwork as yet unseen.   Regretfully, I have to start pruning  some stuff out, even potentially good cartoons like this........ This one woulda bin a corker, though, once the effects  speed-lines, K-O stars and stuff was all added . I am confident of that....... Fine for adding on here though: it's a good Veronica sketch and I wanted to show it. So...who are the two victims getting bopped?   Answer:.......... nobody of any note. You CAN'T get vitality such as this from a computer alone:  this was drawn with pencil pen and paper and NOTHING ELSE!!!!! [oh, alright: I needed imagination, experience and a working drawing hand.............

NEW SERIES: POPULAR MUSIC: from the 50s to the 70s, I still love it, and even the sometimes-sterile 1980s gave us quite a few creative sounds...come the 1990s, the quality just seemed to dip and tail off regarding modern music [ maybe my youthful time had naturally passed, of course] : although some stuff like the KLF, Suede [ NOT Slade!] and the Verve were up to scratch creatively, I thought...... ------Mass-produced fare like Spice Girls or Oasis never did much for me sonically, nor did public-school fake yobboes BLUR ......however, Blur did come up with an early 90s album title that I regarded as really rather spiffing: MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH ...... This is a sentinent I wholeheartedly agree with, and I have shamelessly nicked this title for a 'brand new' cartoon series, which wil be illustrated by the Boomer Crowd------no more brand new characters at the moment, I have more than enough to contend with at present. Anyway, this series will be taking a look at the many modern ...

YET ANOTHER 'vintage' drawing from the previous Century:  at that time, the British Comics Industry was maybe starting to die off, but it was positively healthy compared to what we have left today..... -----------I used to try out a lot of my own early characters and concepts at that time: I have a vague memory of sending these 'GANGSTER-HOODS' chappies into a comic called OINK! who expressed interest in my style: they declined, saying my characters looked 'too off-putting'. Maybe they had a point with 'deze guise' , my stuff today is a lot more appealling-looking.

SEEN BELOW is a typical example of the sort of thing I used to draw in the days before I switched over to creating characters all on my own: in the days when the British comics scene was thriving, [remember THAT?!] artists who were good at copying established styles---or 'ghosting'-------could fairly easily pick up work putting out carbon-copy versions of already-famous characters. It was an approach I never especially enjoyed, I found it very restricting, however getting paid work in any form through cartooning was certainly a lot better than finding nothing. I have left the original rough pencil lines here, as such an old drawing is probably best left 'as is'. I have added in some nominal color, however......... I have been looking through decades of BEANO material recently, and that 50s-early 70s period especially was truly Magnifique! The rot started to set in long after  the departure of Baxendale and Ron Spencer [the early artists on LITTLE PLUM]: the BEANO is sti...

ANOTHER from the seemingly endless series of quicko rough cartoons I belted out over a year ago in New York:     I reckon that this really IS the very last one, I just cannot concieve of any more other unseen cartoons from that time. Photo 2: THE CARTOONIST MEETS THE CARTOON CHARACTERS, photo taken December 2014 in Times Square. Incidentally, although the island of Manhattan is undoubtedly expensive and ultra consumer-slick, buying a beer and burger ---even in fairly costly Times Square--cost me ten buxx and generous helpings to boot---still considerably cheaper than the equivalent here in Le' Cosse!! Ah...dontcha just lurve rip-off Britain?.............

THIS CARTOON reflects my biggest-ever influence upon my approach to doodling---or at the very least, a huge chunk of drawing style that inspired me to start minting my own cartoon stuff. Many onlookers have pointed out that my B BOOMER concept is very close in appearence to the famous KORKY the Cat phenomenon: believe me, I collect reams of vintage UK comics---which I appreciate and study with much relish-------- and in all honesty,  my main cat character is much more inspired by the character of PUSS out of PUSS 'n' BOOTS, a very successful cartoon strip out of SPARKY COMIC, the stories drawn by John Geering and which ran from summer 1969 on to the final issue in summer 1977, and beyond in other D C Thomson comics. I actually had to make sure I wasn't doing an absolute carbon-copy of 'PUSS' , and I done hundreds of try-out sketches before settling on my own cat. But, I suppose Korky is a lot more famous than Puss, hence the observation...but what IS new or original...

I HAVE A SNEAKING SUSPICION that at least one of these sketch-sheets may have already turned up on the notorious MAGGIE THATCHERS' STARCHED UNDIES cartune-   site , -------- but what the Hell, here we go again: Yes, I am well aware that I could scan in the original drawings for clarity better than this compact snap, but really, everything seen in this image was actually originated in the land of the Yankee Dollar, so somehow this way it seems more 'real'. The second picture is a travelogue job, and features me seen at the base of the One World Center, a single block-skyscraper situated not far from the site of the ill-fated Twin Towers, [ probably from late Nov, 2014---man, was it freezing then, hence the Arctic Expedition gear ]:  I had absolutely no idea of the One World Tower or that it even existed--until I arrived in New York: but it is even taller than the World Trade Center was, and in fact it is the tallest scraper in the USA. It was so new [when I was there] there ...