Headline: New EU proposals to reduce carbon emissions include banning old-fashioned filament light bulbs.

I wasn't planning to do these over weekends, but Antonella thought of this one yesterday evening and it was just too good to pass up...

Saturday, March 10, 2007 12:05:45 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

The next page of the Team Sputnik adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, The Crime of the Brigadier, or, How Brigadier Gerard Slew the Fox...

While drawing this strip, I was lucky enough to get hold of a DVD of Sergei Bondarchuk's film of Waterloo (Christopher Plummer as Wellington, Rod Steiger as Napoleon), which includes a slow-mo sequence of a famous point in the battle, the charge of the Scots Greys (itself inspired by a famous painting by Lady E. Butler). The ecstatic nature of the sequence, portraying the moment when excitement and sheer terror lifts one onto a higher plane of consciousness, was so close to the feelings Gerard describes in frame 1 that it gave me all the inspiration I needed.

...which just left me the problem of how to give the impression of slow motion in a still picture! 

Saturday, March 10, 2007 11:56:59 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: many TV phone-in competitions shut down after accusations of fraud.

Friday, March 09, 2007 11:29:24 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Oh dear, it's a Friday, and this is Brigadier Gerard page thirteen...

Friday, March 09, 2007 11:26:51 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 12 of the currently-running Brigadier Gerard story...

Thursday, March 08, 2007 10:09:24 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: Somebody pays £24,600 for a Tom Baker Doctor Who costume at an auction.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007 2:50:49 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 11 of the current Brigadier Gerard story...

Sir George Murray (frame 1) was Wellington's quartermaster general. Sir Stapleton Cotton (frame 2) was Wellington's cavalry commander. Both characters are based on portraits I found in the National Portrait Gallery website, although now that I come to check again, I can't seem to find the same ones I used.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007 10:43:41 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

This is the worry man.

All day long, he sits in his chair and worries. He responds to each new item of news or information by sitting in his chair and worrying about it. That's all he does.

This is an idea for a daily cartoon I had a while ago but never got around to developing fully. The idea is that each new cartoon will be the same as before, but slightly adapted, and each will show the worry man's response to something in that day's news. Here's today's version:

I'm going to do one of these every day from now on. Just try and stop me.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007 7:39:11 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's part 6 of the Really Heavy Greatcoat "student party" story...

Tuesday, March 06, 2007 9:25:57 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Another page of the Brigadier Gerard story...

Credit is due to M. Prof. Ronan Jouan de Kervenoel, our neighbour, for the accuracy of the French swearing on this page.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007 9:21:34 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's part 9 of the first Brigadier Gerard story...

The inn Gerard stumbles upon is based on a photo of a building that featured in a tourist website of the Torres Vedras region. The site was in Spanish, and I have no idea what the building actually is, it just seemed suitable.

The British officers Gerard sees from the hayloft are (l-r) a light cavalry officer, a staff officer and a Scots' Grey. The "Sir Stapleton" they refer to is Sir Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere, who was Wellington's cavalry commander at the time. In other words, Gerard has just discovered that he has chosen to hide in the British cavalry HQ.

Monday, March 05, 2007 4:07:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the next thrilling installment of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Crime of the Brigadier, or, How Brigadier Gerard Slew the Fox..

Although I found plenty of reference on Napoleonic uniforms on the Internet, I could never find anything for cap badges and other insignia. Ironically the best reference for British uniform badges I could find was for the South Essex, the entirely fictional regiment featured in the Sharpe TV series starring Sean Bean. In the end, I made most of them up. I know I could have gone to greater trouble to find these things out, but I live in Lancaster and the Imperial War Museum is a bit of a schlep from here.

Sunday, March 04, 2007 11:01:29 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

The latest Gerard page...

Depictions of the landscape around Torres Vedras are accurate, but I got the British fortifications completely wrong - Wellington had 30,000 men building the lines at Torres Vedras, much of which is still standing today. Something a little more substantial than the rough picket fences depicted here then.

Please don't get the idea from all this that I am fascinated by war, or approve of it. Conan Doyle wrote the story as a "boys' own" adventure typical of the time, something that would have gone down well with British readers since the seige at Torres Vedras was a notable example of Wellington's military skill, which resulted in a British victory. Certainly, British histories of this action tend to focus on Wellington's brilliance in having the fortifications built a year in advance of his actually needing them, or the fact that the whole job cost only £100,000, making it one of the most "cost-effective" military manouvers in history. 

But any patriotic pride British readers may feel swelling in their breasts at this point should be modified when I tell you that, due to Wellington's scorched-earth policy, 50,000 Portrugese civilians and 20,000 French soldiers were to die of starvation and disease before Massena was forced to retreat to Spain.

C'est la guerre.  

Saturday, March 03, 2007 11:21:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]