"FRICANDEAU: 1. Slice of fried or stewed meat, esp. veal, served with sauce".

Saturday, June 07, 2008 5:55:50 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

"Humbug: 1. n Fraud, sham; deception; impostor. 2. Kind of hard-boiled sweet usu. flavoured with peppermint. 3. Delude (person into, out of, thing or doing). 4. Be, behave like, impostor". 

"Matrass: Long-necked glass vessel with round or oval body, used for distilling".

Friday, June 06, 2008 3:39:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

In an effort to generate some kind of creative impulse, I've taken to choosing words from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary at random, sketching whatever comes into my head, then going back to the OED and checking the definition to see how close I came. Here's the first two...

"JAGER: Var. of JAEGER:German or Austrian rifleman; kind of woollen clothing-material excluding all vegetable fibres as unwholesome; garment of this".

"RETROGRESSION: backward or reversed movement; return to less advanced state, reversal of development, decline, deterioration".

Thursday, June 05, 2008 10:30:26 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Just a little something I've been messing about with, when I should have been doing something else. The lyrics are a single verse from Tom Waits' song Reeperbahn. As with the Team Sputnik version of Frank's Wild Years, I didn't get permission from Tom Waits, his agent or his lawyers to use his lyrics this way. Don't rat me out.

Monday, June 02, 2008 11:04:07 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Because aparrently they've both been at it...

Monday, June 02, 2008 9:20:52 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Talk about a shrinking world. When I was young (and I never thought I’d ever be old enough to say something like “when I was young”), making a phone call abroad or receiving one was a complex business. International phone calls had to be booked in advance; then a human operator with a strong foreign accent was the only link between you and the other party. Receiving an international phone call was a good way to increase your social prestige; it meant you had some important connection somewhere far from home.

The march of technology has cut us off from the romance of international calls but given us something more useful: we can get connected much faster; we can have videoconferencing and do business internationally without leaving our comfy rooms. Thanks to this technology I have had the chance to collaborate with somebody who enjoys Christmas Day on the beach, and who, when I am sweltering under a hot sun, is wrapped up in his winter clothes.

So, back when I was young, it never occurred to me that I one day I would collaborate with an Australian artist. But it happened. When I adapted King Pest, a short story by Edgar Allen Poe for Graphic Classics (c) , editor/publisher Tom Pomplun gave the job of illustrating the strip to Australian artist Anton Emdin.

I’m always on tenterhooks waiting to see the final art. It’s hard to describe the frenzy I get into whenever I receive a complimentary copy; for the first time, I can see how the artist interpreted my script. So when one morning the postman arrived with a parcel from the US, and I opened it and saw the cover of Graphic Classics©, the first thing I looked for was the King Pest strip.

Poe isn’t known as the most cheerful chap, and I was prepared for something gothic and dark, but Anton’s art threw me a curve: plenty of silliness and humour, I started to laugh. His art reminded me most of Jacovitti, one of the most famous Italian cartoonists, who drew salami with big feet, wasps with huge noses, fish bones, mixed with the art of Don Martin.

Cocco Bill, by Jacovitti

Mona Lisa, by Don Martin

Anton was able to turn a dark tale about the plague into a humorous, silly, funny story; every time I look at it I spot some new silliness, which gives a new twist to the story. If I’m feeling blue, it’s enough to flip through the pages of King Pest to cheer me up. Anton’s art is more effective than an antidepressant.

Anton has kindly written a few lines about the adaptation of King Pest and has answered some questions. Enjoy King Pest.

Anton Emdin, by Anton Emdin

Boo Boo, or Tasmanian Devil?

To make love with or just to hold? Can you please clarify?

What’s in your drawer?

Looking in my top right drawer right now I see:

One monitor cleaning cloth

Two of this month's *ahem* men's mags (my cartoons appear in them, I swear!)

One old notebook

Pack of obsolete business cards

Broken business card holder

Seven Mini DV's of family video footage

A Firewire cable

Nintendo Gameboy games (where the hell is the Gameboy?)

BB gun and pellets

Wad of US dollars (from selling comix through the post)

Old bum bag (god that sounds wrong. The yanks call them Fanny Packs. That sounds even worse.)

Three spare Wacom nibs

Skateboard stickers

Two old wallets

One Mini Mag light (broken)

The other drawers are full of spare drawing paper, printer paper, original artwork, random clippings and cards I've kept, plus boring officey things like staplers and hole punches.

On the road with…

...clenched knuckles, grinding teeth, and a tank full of whiskey.

What was the first book you ever read?

I'd love to say "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carl but more likely it was something dull like "Your first book of shapes".

If your life were a graphic novel, who would draw it?

Probably no one. I'm not too interesting.

It’s a waste of time to…

...try to think up funny answers to interviews. People just think you're a wanker.

What do you prefer to read in a waiting room?

Anything but womens' magazines.

Instead of taking sleeping pills, you would read a couple of pages of…

Doctor Zhivago

Never give up…

...learning new techniques. Getting comfortable is the end of an artist.

Are you there yet?

Hopefully not even close.

Sunday, June 01, 2008 12:18:23 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

In life, there are a few things you can be sure of, but the kind of job you end up doing isn’t one of them.

It happened to me. Due to a long series of coincidences, I found myself doing something I never thought of – writing.

I started with a 12-episode comic series for a big Italian publisher. Then I wrote comic scripts for an American children’s magazine; this is when I started my collaboration with Nick.

When I think back to those days, it all sounds very unlikely. At the time I still lived in Italy, and Nick was in England. The only way we could communicate was by phone and by ordinary post. Then Nick bought a fax machine, and everything became easier, although I still had to rely on access to a friend’s fax. Then we both got computers, although compared to the ones we have today they looked like shoeboxes with keyboards attached. Suddenly, the world shrunk – Italy and England were seconds apart.

It was at this point that Tom Pomplun, and American publisher, contacted Nick. Strange things happen in life – he was looking for someone else, and came across Nick’s website. Tom thought that Nick’s style was suitable for a project he had in mind: an adaptation of Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

It was the first thing Nick and I did for Graphic Classics©, the beginning of a long adventure that I hope will continue for a long time.

I have very little experience of publishers, but Tom is definitely not the kind of publisher you see in the movies: the kind who only publishes work by writers they think will make them a lot of money. As far as I know, Tom doesn’t drive around in a Ferrari, and I don’t think he’s on Bill Gates’ Christmas list.

Sometimes I find myself crying on his shoulder (metaphorically speaking; he is in the US and I live in England) because some critic has given me a poor review. Yes, I still have a soft skin!

He always has words of encouragement, and a very soft touch when he disagrees with something and wants it changed. He has an iron fist in a velvet glove, if you know what I mean.

I’m always amazed by his talent for finding the right artist for a script, someone who can give the perfect twist to the story. Sometimes I have been puzzled by his choice, but then realised what he was looking for.

I have no advice to offer him, although I know he is as affected by a bad review as I am. Perhaps we should both follow the advice Vigil gives to Dante: Non ti curar di lor, ma guarda e passa, which translates as: Don’t pay attention to them, but give them only a glance and walk away.

Good luck!

Tom Pomplun

Batman or Mr Incredible?

Who’s Mr. Incredible? Oh, I just looked him up on the web. Actually, that was one of the few Pixar movies I’ve enjoyed. I hate the rubbery look of most computer animation.

 

What’s in your drawer?

I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it is buried under a lot of junk.

 

What was the first book you ever read?

Probably Dr. Seuss. The first “real” book I remember reading was John Wyndham’s “Day of the Triffids”.

 

On the road with…

My 1993 Honda. It’s got over 200,000 miles on it and still runs great, as long as the rust holds together. I read just yesterday that the resale value of 15-year-old subcompacts has risen 40% in the past year, due to the skyrocketing gas prices here in the U.S. More recent models get less gas mileage.

 

What would you read while travelling from Earth to the Moon?

Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon”, of course. Or maybe Wells’s “First Men in the Moon”. I always loved it that Wells claimed Verne “can’t write himself out of a paper sack”.

 

What would you be happier without?

Twenty pounds.

 

It’s a waste of time…

Trying to get rid of that twenty pounds.

 

What do you wish you had bought but never got around to it?

Microsoft stock. X-Men #1. Oh wait, I did buy that, then foolishly gave it away along with most of my other comics.

 

Why do you do it?

Because I don’t know what else to do with my life.

 

Never give up

All the information they ask for.

 

 

ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

Sunday, May 25, 2008 3:24:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]