ZULU Goodwill Festival

Glynn Baker - Sir Stanley's son, delighted with his graphic novel!

  

HRH Princess Zama-Zulu and James and Tim of the Die Hards

Macc-Pow is Back!

This year's events calendar is starting to take shape with a few applications pending but just received welcome news that I'm returning to Macclesfield this summer for the 10th Macc-Pow!!

It's testament to Macc's own Marc Jackson that he's made a success of this fun annual event over the years, boasting a fab line-up of the UK's (and beyond!) comics talent. Guests announced for this year so far include the following;

Alongside Yorkshire's own Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, which have also recently confirmed their 2025 dates, Macc-Pow stands strong as one of the UK's finest celebration of comics - put the 28th June in your diary now for fab comics fun!

Birthday Bowie

Happy Birthday Starman, gone but not forgotten - almost 9 years now! Playing my favourite album of his, not only a great listen but the first I bought on release, happy memories.

Sale Christmas Comic-Con!

Fab poster art by local artist Rick Eades!

This coming Saturday is a special Christmas edition of Sale Comic-Con, a nice local one for me and a great festive way to finish off the convention season amongst artist friends and like minded people.

The summer edition back in June - seems ages ago now - was good fun and surprisingly busy for a small town's event. This Christmas edition has more attractions spread out throughout Stanley Square, the Library, M33 Emporium and more, including a fab sounding Ray Harryhausen exhibition at Sale Waterside theatre, just round the corner!

I'll be in Zone 5 the Market Way shopping throughfare with special comic gift packs & more alongside several other comic creators, artists and traders, so potential to find unique gifts for the big day!

Hopefully see some of you there :)

An unknown artist now known

Driving while listening to Radio 4 - an increasingly common choice from the handful of available stations remaining after an unwise carwash decision, I caught the end of an interviewee passionately discussing the art, works & life of artist Frank Auerbach who's death the previous day had been announced. 

I didn't recognise the name and was unsure of its spelling given its, to me, unusual pronunciation but the passion of the interviewee and her assurance that his art would survive him caused me to make a mental note to check him out. Doing so I discovered that he had indeed lived a remarkable life but it was  the description of his painstaking method of painting that really stood out, the habit of starting each day by scraping off the paint of the day before and starting afresh on the same canvas, continuing the laborious process for weeks, months, sometimes years until the raw truth of the subject was revealed to him.

Almost as remarkable was the realisation that in searching for images of his paintings, I immediately recognised the style, being identical to the cover of a long treasured album from the band Japan, Oil on Canvas pictured above. Sure enough the release had used one of his paintings, Head of J.Y.M II created in 1980, a couple of years before the album's 1983 release.

I was not a huge fan of Japan at the time but for some reason I had bought and enjoyed this double album and the subsequent Exorcising Ghosts compilation on release. I eventually replaced it with it's CD re-master in 2003, which on checking doesn't appear to credit Auerbach as the artist, although the original vinyl sleeve may have?. 

(This incredibly insightful article goes into great detail about how Sylvian may have first encountered Auerbach's work and how it led him to use it on the album).

The Oil On Canvas album ultimately led me in the early 2000's to belatedly follow the solo releases and career of Japan's lead singer, David Sylvian which I continue to find rewarding, (along with the music of Vangelis), as a motivating soundtrack to my own creative endeavours. 

However it is only now, sadly on his death, that I now know the name of the enigmatic artist behind the album's distinctive artwork which has been in my collection for more than 40 years and I look forward to discovering more about the man and his art, Frank Auerbach.

Thought Bubble Time!

Looking forward to returning to Thought Bubble next weekend, arguably the UK's biggest and best comics convention! Always a firm favourite from its humble beginnings in Leeds Town Hall's basement to its subsequent moves to larger premises at The Royal Armouries, Leeds City Centre before moving to it's present home of Harrogate's Conference Centre. 

It has grown and grown and now attracts comic creators from across the world, attracted by its reputation for showcasing a diverse range of talents and the capabilities of the comics medium. You'll find creators behind the latest polished superhero juggernauts to small press publications telling the most intimate personal stories and everything else in between!

This year I'll be in the DSTLRY Hall (one of an expanded four halls this year!) at Table C45 with my latest releases, art and prints. If you're around please stop by and say hello and if you've never been or not been recently, it's not too late to buy a ticket here!

The Secret of the Samurai!

Delighted to see ol' comics chum Garen Ewing after the fab Battles Through History show, our first proper catch-up in ages - Actually Garen reckoned it was at the Copenhagen Comics show way back in 2017 and here he is in a photo I found from then, hard at work!

Garen's one of my oldest comic creating pals, bonding years ago over a shared enthusiasm for European Comics and Victorian Military History, so we've always enjoyed catching up even if it is a lot less regular than we'd like. This occasion was a lovely relaxed informal evening dinner with family and we'd such a nice time we forgot to take any photos, so here's an old one of us being social a long time ago, possibly the early 1900's!

Amongst many artistic achievements, Garen's probably best known as the creator of the wonderful Rainbow Orchid comic series (featuring the intrepid Julius Chancer) and character and background design and artwork for the card game, The Lost Expedition and subsequent computer game, Curious Expedition 2;

One of Garen's stories which had sadly eluded me was The Secret of The Samurai, originally serialised in the Phoenix Comic so when Garen surprisingly announced earlier this year that he'd received copies from his European publisher of a limited collected English hardback edition, I and other fans quickly pounced to finally devour this dynamic tale! Not surprisingly, it sold out, leaving many disappointed but Garen told me that he's received additional stock which he is currently offering on his website, with optional sketch which I highly recommend!

Here's hoping its not so long till we next meet up :)