Headline: Government's proposal to renew Trident missile system leads to protest on roof of Scottish parliament.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 10:37:14 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the last page of the Brigadier Gerard story we're currently running. To see the whole strip in one go, click on the Brigadier Gerard category on the right.

From tomorrow, we're going to start posting daily episodes of King Pest, a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, adapted by Antonella and drawn by brilliant Aussie artist Anton Emdin.  Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 10:33:35 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the 8th Greatcoat strip in the 'Student Party' sequence...

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 3:16:10 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: BBC finally allowed to reveal contents of email connnected to 'cash for honours' affair.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:09:30 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 17 of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Crime of the Brigadier...

I had a lot of fun doing the 'reaction shot' faces in the middle frame!

When Tom Pomplun, the editor of Graphic Classics, (who is an American), gave Antonella and me this strip to do, he didn't get the joke. I had to explain to him that in fox hunting, you're NOT supposed to kill the fox yourself. This is considered unsporting. You're supposed to let the hounds tear it to pieces instead. Much more efficient, and fun to watch, too. The 'crime' of Gerard was in actually killing the fox with his sabre. Without this basic knowledge, the humour of the situation is missed. In the end, Tom suggested Murray's line: "And what is left for my poor dogs?" to explain things.

Don't let the Countryside Alliance fool you into thinking fox hunting is a real sport, and don't let them con you into thinking everybody in the country supports them. In the small Shropshire village I grew up in, there was a local fox hunt. It always took place during a weekday, just so you'd know none of them actually had to work for a living; although it was the 'local' hunt, none of the members were from our village (or from our social class) and we never saw them otherwise; and most of the local farmers wouldn't let the buggers cross their land. Consequently, the fox usually escaped. Go, fox! 

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:04:05 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: Tories propose new air travel taxes. This is described by newspapers as "Taxing the air".

Monday, March 12, 2007 4:03:43 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's Gerard page 16...

The background in frame 1 is based on the gallery of mirrors at Versailles.

While drawing frame 2, I remembered a documentary about film director David Lean. During Doctor Zhivago, there's a sequence in which Omar Sharif's character witnesses the massacre by cavalry of a crowd of protestors. We don't see the massacre itself, just a mid-shot of Sharif's shocked reaction, with the screaming crowd on the soundtrack. According to Sharif, to get the right expression on his face, Lean told him to imagine he was making love to a woman, and was just about to reach the moment of climax.

If you check out the film and watch the sequence, you'll see what he was talking about. Lean wanted to show, I think, how extreme emotions can become confused. In frame 2, I tried to get the same expression, the ecstasy of violence. 

Monday, March 12, 2007 10:45:08 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 15 of the current Brigadier Gerard story...

Sunday, March 11, 2007 7:57:48 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Really sorry this is a couple of days late. Here's part 7 of the Really Heavy Greatcoat story we're currnetly running. Enjoy...

Sunday, March 11, 2007 7:55:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

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]