Scottish or English Splank?

Splank NHS Thank You art by Joseph McCafferty

Further to my mentions of the newly launched Splank digital comic annual, thought it might be fun to compare the 'Scottish' and 'English' versions of one of my strips!

I have other contributions in Splank 2020, but the panels below come from a fun one-page strip called 'Boom from the Room', which is a hospital inspired piece originally included in Colin Maxwell's CHAS charity comic. The story is fired by children's imagination, regardless of where they are and was originally in black and white and, CHAS, being a Scottish charity, in my native Scot's dialect. It was fun to do and perhaps a homage of sorts to my artistic hero, Dudley Dexter Watkins, of Oor Wullie and Broons fame; Boom from the Room = Broon?

The very talented and reliable Matt Soffe provided the colours and for the strip's new audience, I took the opportunity to 'translate' the dialogue into something more recongisable to most readers, although I do have rather a fondness for the original!

Don't forget to download Splank! for the full story and some 150 pages of comic goodness and also to please contribute to editor Peter Duncan's NHS fundraiser if you are able.

Splank! Annual 2020!

John Farrelly's epic Splank 2020 annual cover!

Delighted to see the coverage that Peter Duncan's Splank! digital comic collection is receiving since it's launch a couple of days ago. It's a monster of a comic collection and just perfect for this warm sunny spell we're (hopefully) all experiencing.

The collection is free to download and is an entertaining diversion for these odd times but also provides a showcase for the contributing artists who, like myself, have lost income through the cancellation of all comic conventions and events and also acts as an NHS fundraiser.

I was delighted therefore to submit a couple of pieces including a special NHS message and, for the first-time, the Matt Soffe coloured version of my one-page strip, 'Boom from the Room', originally a black n white hospital inspired piece for Colin Maxwell's CHAS charity comic. It's fun to finally see it in all it's glorious colour alongside many other talented contributors.

Please check out Peter's contributor links for more information and download a version to read, (I found the Google Drive download option the most user friendly for my kindle) and consider making a contribution if you are able. Splank!

Coverage at the always reliable Down The Tubes comic news site is also worth reading and includes a link to an interview with Peter himself.

Watercolours Two

Here's a few more watercolour sketches to brighten your day? :)

Watercolours

At or before I attend conventions, I try and do some postcard sized original watercolours of some of my comic strip characters and sometimes I remember to take a picture so here's a few from last year that have all since gone on to find a new home :)

Richard Sala R.I.P

I wanted to mark the recent sad news that artist Richard Sala had died. He was a unique comics talent who had ploughed his own furrow in a series of regular and entertaining graphic novels which I greatly enjoyed. His imagination was fuelled by many things, resulting in a unique combination of macabre characters and settings with a strong horror vibe, not explicit, but suggestive and playfully grotesque, reminding you of some old forgotten b-movie.

I think it was his Delphine books where I first encountered his distinctive work. The story was serialised in four large oversize volumes by Fantagraphics just over 10 years ago and I had fun tracking them down as quickly as I could and devouring the story. My curiosity into the artist and his work luckily led me to his website from where he was selling off some of his art and I was privileged to purchase a couple of sequences from the Delphine books I'd been reading and have a few short communications with the man himself.

My interest piqued, I bought as many of his graphic novels as I could find - using the finding of his work in comic shops (alongside other distinct voices of Jason, Rick Geary & Tim Truman), as a kind of 'quirky quality benchmark' whether it would be worth me delving further into that store's stock in the, sadly too often superhero dominated comic marketplace. I was therefore able to build up a decent but still incomplete collection of his work, often with recurring characters and themes, some more succesful reads than others but all a delight to experience and enjoy his artistic talent.

It seems that my appreciation was not alone as there have been several moving tributes made to the man which, even if you are familar with his work are worth a read, even moreso, if you are not, in which case I encourage you to explore the fine legacy he has left.

 https://www.comicsbeat.com/rip-richard-sala/

 http://www.tcj.com/richard-sala-1955-2020/

 http://www.tcj.com/richard/

lhttps://spyvibe.blogspot.com/2020/05/remembering-richard-sala.html

VE Day

Despite the current strange times we're in, it's been heartening to see respects and tributes paid to the wartime generation who clearly suffered way more than we can imagine and still made it through, usually smiling.

I'm from a younger generation who thankfully never knew war or it's effects first-hand but it has of course been an ever present over our lifes through Remembrance, Momuments and tributes. Funnily enough much of the comics I love which entertained me as a child and still inspire me as an adult were born out of conflict and the Second World War in particular.

The Victor, The Hotspur, Battle, Wizard, Warlord and of course Commando were among the most popular, all relaying heroic tales of derring do to an eager readership both immediately after the war, and through subsquent generations. With modern perspective you do wonder perhaps why these were (and to some extent remain) so popular when the generation who had actually fought and lived the experience themselves largely rarely spoke about it. Maybe it was just such an overwhelming event that it was a way for, mainly, children to understand and process events without directly having to discuss it?

Who knows but reading those comics allowed me to gain a respect for those who had fought and learn a little of the tragic events which impacted the whole world in a way we've thankfully never seen, so it's more than appropriate that we pause to reflect and provide our own thanks.

Colin Mathieson artwork, Matt Soffe colours

The Tower King!

Catching up with reading led me to The Tower King, an exciting black and white reprint comic I'd picked up at Enniskillen Comic Festival a couple of years ago - yes I can be that slow!

This was the second edition of an authorised limited reprint from Hibernia Press, reprinting a complete story from the instalments first serialised in the New Eagle #1 to 24 back in 1982. This was a comic’s void period for me after leaving school the year before and having dropped comics as 'childish' as you did back then. I think I picked up the occasional Marvel Conan magazine around that time as, with its sword 'n' sorcery violence and sexual content it was at least considered for mature readers! Other than that though, comics passed me by for almost the whole decade, meaning I missed out on the period when comics grew up! So much of what was published back then remains unknown or new to me, such as The Tower King, a comic arguably more violent and gloomy than the Conan stories I was reading!

I think it was an online mention just before the Comic Fest by the very talented Leigh Gallagher, 2000AD artist on how the Tower King's Jose Ortiz had influenced his art that led me to seek out the issue at the event, that and the fact that the story's writer, Alan Hebden was also going to be in attendance for a rare convention appearance.

As it happened, although the one day event was hugely enjoyable I didn't get a chance to speak to Alan, (or sadly another attending legend, Carloz Ezquerra). I was exhibiting on my own and in the rare time away from the table couldn't commit to standing in line to patiently wait my turn, such are the joys of juggling creating and fandom - don't feel too sorry for me though, my table neighbours were the wonderful Cam and Isobel Kennedy who I was honoured to have a fun wee banter with.

In any case, having not at that time read The Tower King or recalling any of Alan Hebden's countless other comic stories for the then crowded British weekly comics market, I didn't feel too bad about that - in my defence, many of his earlier comic scripts were uncredited and having discovered Marvel comics around 1976, I'd largely moved away from British comics.

Anyhow, now finally reading the whole Tower King story, I can only say that it was my teenage loss; it's a great visceral frantically paced tale. Crammed into punchy 3 page instalments, it's tight script gallops along with no let up as our titular hero plunges from one death defying encounter to another, exploring the anarchic landscape of a London (and World, although we don't venture that far) left without electricity or government control.

Jose Ortiz's artwork is breath-taking, more than keeping up with the frenetic pace as danger and action explode off the page with countless groups of characters and ravagers rapidly introduced and overcome without drawing breath!

The pace is both the episodic story's boon and Achilles heel as, enjoyable as the whole experience is, it leaves no time for only the most basic of back story and characterisation, before coming to a rather abrupt end. But sometimes that is enough and perhaps like the Mad Max Fury Road movie, it's simply a case of going with the flow and enjoying the ride. I'm certainly glad I did, even if it took me a while to get there!

Hibernia's online store doesn't list any copies so probably ebay is your best bet of tracking a copy down or the original Eagle issues themselves? It's possible that the story could be collected by Rebellion under their fine Treasury of British Comics reprint programme, but the reprint credits the Dan Dare Corporation, so I don't know if that would impact on the rights?