Christmas Card 2011

Nelson themed Christmas card that I didn't send out to nearly enough people.

A full review of this excellent British anthology of cartoon talant, and my small part in it, can be read HERE.

New Work

New work from me coming in 2012. A page from The Fist, which should give you a clue where I'm going with this story. Extreme violence ahoy. And below that a page from the types of dementia chapter of Psychiatric Tales 2

The Fist

New work from me which will probably debut on Act-i-vate.com next year.

More Psychiatric Tales 2

Another page from the Types of Dementia chapter of Psychiatric Tales 2. This one page from the section looking at Lewy Bodies desease.

Psychiatric Tales 2 Artwork

A page and a bit of artwork from the Types of Dementia chapter of Psychiatric Tales 2. These are redrawn pages. I don't usually go back and rework strips, but in this case, I felt that the chapter had got into something of a muddle and wasn't visually interesting enough, so I was obliged to redo all but one page. Tiresome, but I feel much better for it.

The book should be out next autumn.

Uncle Bob Adventures Cover

Possible cover from Uncle Bob Adventures. Lettering by Jonathan Edwards. Out April 2012.

Thoughtbubble and Nelson

Last week was an extremely busy one. On Monday I was invited to do a talk at York University's sociological society. This went well. A young very receptive audience. I got a day out in York and sold a few books too. Thanks to Will Patterson for the invite.

On Thursday I was the keynote speaker at the Graphic Medicine conference at the Leeds City Art Gallery. I was somewhat nervous about this on the days leading up to it, but of course it was fine. The talk went down well with the crowd, with only one person being negative about it, when I was roundly criticised by a mental health nurse there, for, as he put it, exploiting the mentally ill. He thought the book harked back to the days of old Bedlam when "inmates" were viewed for entertainment by the general public. I easily dealt with his criticisms and was backed by the rest of the audience. The guy was red-faced with anger. He left early to get a train.

That's the first time anyone has been negative in public with me over the book. I was quite surprised. I'm expecting a lot of flack for Science Tales, but I didn't expect any for PT. Go figure.

Then, over the weekend, it was time once more for the annual Thought Bubble comic book convention in Leeds. A huge whirl of an event that gets bigger every year. Both my publishers, Blank Slate books and Myriad Editions had tables. It seemed like nearly everybody I knew connected with the comic book industry was there. I couldn't walk five yards without bumping into someone familiar. Good to see so many friends at once. Well done to the ThoughtBubble organisers for doing such a staggeringly good job. I had an amazing couple of days.

The big event at ThoughtBubble, for me, was the launch of the huge British comics anthology Nelson. A very impressive and handsome looking volume, containing 54 British based cartoonists, including me. Each chapter written by a different cartoonist. My thoughts in advance of seeing a copy were that such an experimental concept, one story written in an exquisite corpse style, couldn't possibly work as a whole and that it would be bitty at best. How wrong I was. The book works as a powerful, heartfelt story about the strange randomness of life, the ebb and flow of friendships, and the importance of identity. No single author could have written the fractured pattern of Nel's life without it seeming contrived, but here the multiple voices and art styles give it a sense of reality, and of a life actually lived, as if Nel was a real person who could actually step out of the pages at the end of the book and greet you in person. No bigger compliment can be given to a work of fiction than that.

Nelson Panels

A couple of panels from my chapter of the huge British comics anthology known as Nelson..

Comiket Video

A video from last year’s Drawing Parade, recorded at the November 2010 Comica Comiket. After the excellent Roger Langridge, you'll see me talking about my comic strip work and doing a bit of drawing.

Comica Comiket drawing parade part 3 from Claude TC on Vimeo.

Extended Uncle Bob and Death

An exended version of that Uncle Bob and Death drawing.

Nelson

I've a chapter in this book.

Nelson is a 250-page collaboration between 54 of the UK’s most exciting comic creators. It is an unprecedented experiment to create one complete story – a collective graphic novel.

London, 1968. A daughter is born to Jim and Rita Baker. Her name is Nel. This is her story, told in yearly snapshots. Each chapter records the events of a single day, weaving one continuous ribbon of pictures and text that takes us on a 43- year journey from Nel Baker’s birth to 2011.
Based on an original idea by Rob Davis and co-edited by Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, Nelson celebrates the incredible diversity of talent in British comics today. Creators known for their editorial and national newspaper strips unite with those from humour comics such as the Beano, The Dandy, and MAD Magazine joining a wealth of talent from children’s books, indie publishing and webcomics, with the science fiction and superhero worlds of 2000AD, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

Part exquisite corpse and part relay race, Nelson spans decades of British history and a myriad of stylistic approaches in telling the story of one woman’s life by 54 creators, in 54 episodes, detailing 54 days. The result is a surprising and compellingly readable book that is sad, funny, moving, poignant, ridiculous, heartfelt, and real. This is a story like none you have seen before.

Now available to buy.

Unce Bob and Death

Uncle Bob plays chess with the Grim Reaper himself.

Uncle Bob Adventures Drawing

Various characters from the all-ages book from me, Uncle Bob Adventures, out spring 2012. Blank Slate publications.

A Few Thoughts About The UK Economy

We don't have left-wing parties in the UK. What we have instead are three right-wing parties, one of which has a radical ultra-right arm, who are obsessed with free-market monetarist policies beyond the point of common sense. Their ideals are profoundly undemocratic and utterly opposed to liberal values. They believe in a Darwinian world where the strong have every right to dominate and exploit the weak. They are militantly capitalistic and against the common good. They put strength above morality and despise the common man. There is no society in their philosophy, just a collection of individuals competing against one another.

You might think that David Cameron's coalition is right-wing, but to to hard-right in the conservative party, poor Dave is seen as a feeble wet: an appeaser to the spineless liberal-democrat section of the coalition. If it was up to the hard Tory right, Britain would be suffering a far more brutal austerity programme than we're seeing now. And as it is, things are bad enough.

I'm not against capitalism. Capitalism has given us the technological world we live in, without which, our lives would be shorter and harder. What I'm against is an unrestrained capitalism that benefits a tiny elite group at the expense of everybody else.

Britain's economy has barely grown since the austerity measures began. We have the highest level of unemployment in fifteen years. The government has slashed public-sector jobs, putting more than 100, 000 people out of work. These deficit-reduction policies have failed to revive the business confidence that was supposed to encourage private-sector hiring. No effort has been made to stimulate growth by spending, because this runs counter to the right's myth that all government spending is wasteful and harmful.

This is blundering idiocy. Any fool can see that these policies are driving the country into the ground, but our glorious leaders are so wrapped up in their dogma, that they'd rather destroy the economy for a generation, than admit they're wrong.

Dementia Page 6

A page from the Types of Dementia chapter of Psychiatric Tales 2.

This just in. The first volume of Psychiatric Tales has been included in Paul Gravett's 1001 Comic You Must Read Before You Die. This would be a terrific read even if my book wasn't featured.

Stan's Piano

It's nice to be able to do something completely un-serious for a change.

Possible cover for Science Tales. More details here.

Psychiatric Tales 2

A page from the Types Of Dementia chapter of Psychiatric Tales 2.

 

Science Denial

Last chapter of Science Tales. The summing-up chapter. This is the beta version, so feel free to add comments and corrections.


 
A Few References

Article on how big business twists science fro its own ends. When science is hidden behind a smokescreen.

On media. Science and truth have been cast aside by our desire for controversy.

'Mbeki Aids denial 'caused 300,000 deaths'.

All about Continental drift.

Sense About Science PDF about peer-review and the scientific process..

Super-Sam and John Of The Night

A few pages featuring Super-Sam and John Of The Night. A strip which originally ran on the Forbidden Planet blog. There are two long stories featuring these characters: The Mystery of the Seven Faces (which includes the pages you see here), and The Streets of San Diablo (which ran on Activate.com). I'm still looking for a publisher for these stories if anyone is interested? One day I hope to do a third story in this series: The Throne of God.

Three Favorite Photos

Denial Page

First page of what will be the final chapter of my Science Tales book.

Chiropractic

Here is the beta version of my strip on chiropractic therapy. It's a little rough and will need proofreading from those of you with eyes sharper than mine. All comments welcome. This is, of course, a chapter of my upcoming Science Tales book, which will be out from Myriad Editions next year. Each chapter of the book will come complete with references and acknowledgements, including this one.