Headline: NHS trusts revealed to be making up to £2m a year from hospital car park charges and fines.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:13:27 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's Antonella and Anton Emdin's King Pest page six...

Anton writes: Seeing as though I was in constant pain, and could only rotate my wrist a few degrees, I decided I'd need to lighten the burden a little. I asked fellow comic artist Glenn Smith ( http://www.glennoart.com/ ) to help me out by doing the inking of the hand lettering.

Besides being an excellent artist in his own right, he has the knack of being able to copy styles really well. Can you tell the difference between these last couple of pages and the first few?

Antonella writes: One problem I found dealing with Victorian authors is that although they loved to set their stories in historical times, often they described things contemporary to themselves. In this case Poe set the story in an undertaker's shop. There were no such things, as he describes them, in that period. I love to be accurate, especially in a historical setting, so I spent ages trying to find anything compatible with the description in Poe's story. In the end I found myself wrestling with hamletic doubt: should I be faithful to the setting (1348) or to the author (1835)? 

Kudos to Glenn Smith for the excellent job!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:07:32 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Today's Headline: The Independent newspaper publishes a front-page apology for promoting the legalisation of cannabis for the last ten years. It now says that new findings about the long-term effects of toking has caused it to reverse its stance.

Monday, March 19, 2007 10:57:12 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [1] 

Here's the latest page of Antonella and Anton Emdin's version of King Pest, by Edgar Allan Poe...

This story was originally published in the Edgar Allan Poe edition of Graphic Classics (3rd edition), in 2006.

Anton writes: I think it was at this point that I decided to go and fracture my wrist. Well, actually, SHATTER my wrist. The drawing one, of course.

I was skating (skateboarding) on a little half pipe, and decided to try something new. Well, it didn't quite work right, and after I picked myself up, I noticed that my arm was a different shape. I got taken to the hospital, where they promptly sliced my arm open, screwed all the bone fragments to a large metal plate and stitched me back up again.

The surgeon did a bloody good job of it. I was back at the drawing board within a month or so, and somehow managed to ink two of these pages a day with a very stiff swollen and painful arm.

Antonella writes: I know I set myself a three-lines-per-box rule, but every rule is made to be broken. These boxes are very verbose, but it's quite impossible to gag Poe... therefore I cut the dialogue. 

I didn't know about Anton's wrist until I was told by the editor, Tom Pomplun. I had assumed it was something less serious, until I read what Anton wrote above. What a true professional Anton is! 

Monday, March 19, 2007 10:47:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's part four of King Pest, by Antonella with artist Anton Emdin...

Sunday, March 18, 2007 10:40:06 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

No headline associated with this, it's just a bit of silliness.

Saturday, March 17, 2007 1:17:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's Antonella Caputo and Anton Emdin's King Pest, part three...

Anton writes:This was a fun panel. Originally, I was going to place the narration box on the top left, but I liked the octopus too mch. Saying that, there's a cool monster under the box now. And you'll NEVER know what it looks like!

Antonella writes: I know this box has more then three lines, but there's a lot of space! Pity about the monster, but I found  the art of this page very enjoyable indeed. The more you look at it, the more things you find!

Saturday, March 17, 2007 1:13:43 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest FRET cartoon. I redesigned it to be more in keeping with the usual style of a daily newspaper spot...

Today's headline - Russian spy activity in the UK is "as high as the Cold War".

Friday, March 16, 2007 11:59:29 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the second episode of our weekly-running strip NICK MILLER, SPACE HERO...

Friday, March 16, 2007 11:04:30 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

This is a strip Antonella wrote around the turn of the millenium. It's a space adventure set in the futuristic world of 2000 AD (the time period, not the comic), as imagined by the SF writers of the '40's and '50's.

Antonella wrote it in the format of a daily newspaper strip, with 24 daily episodes and a climax or a cliffhanger at the end of every three frames. I haven't drawn all the episodes yet, but we'll be publishing these on a weekly basis from now on. Don't forget to check out this blog for new episodes!

Friday, March 16, 2007 10:51:36 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page two of Edgar Allen Poe's short story King Pest, adapted by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Anton writes: Before I started this strip, I was given instruction by the editor to keep my text small. I have a habit of making the speech almost as big as the artwork (a habit that's stuck from years of gag cartoons). Actually, I see handwritten text as art in itself. And a dying art, to boot. But who am I to talk? I've used a computer font for the narration in this one. "Mary-Jane Windlin" or something like that.

Antonella writes: I'm used to dealing with Victorian authors and Poe has something in common with the rest, in that they all use a lot of words! I always try to be concise, bearing in mind that the artist then has the task of fitting all those words into boxes. Early on, I set myself a rule: no more than three lines per box. I try to stick to this, if only because as a reader of comics, I like to enjoy the artwork without having a load of text getting in the way!

BTW I have always envied artists like Anton who have such clear handwriting.

Friday, March 16, 2007 10:41:18 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: Chiquita Banana company own up to paying Columbian guerillas for "protection".

Thursday, March 15, 2007 2:01:51 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the new story we're running: King Pest by Edgar Allan Poe. It's the story of two lads looking for a beer and finding love. Ok, put this way it looks like chick-flick stuff, but since Poe is the author of the story, and it's known that he wasn't a cheerful chap, in fact he set it during the Plague of 1348. Not cheerful at all! For all those people who like splitting hairs,  he described things that didn't exist at the time, for instance there were no caretakers as such and funerals were something for very rich people. Anyway. Apart from the historical inaccuracies, this story is a lot of fun.

The artist is a very nice guy from Sydney Australia, Anton Emdin. He has been able to grab the spirit and give the right twist to the story. I hope he had as much fun drawing it as I had writing it. Anton does a lot of other things, check them out at www.antongraphics.com

I hope you enjoy reading it ~ Antonella

Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:43:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

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]