What Once Was

This here's one of those procrastination posts, the kind that keep me from getting on with the crop of proper, important stuff I have laid out for the rest of the evening.
I'm gonna go ahead and come clean, the blog's gonna be pretty sparse for the next little while. Aside from Skwigly roundups like documentaries and podcasts, since the Channel Flip contract ran its course I've gone back to working on projects that can't be publicly discussed. As far as personal projects go, there's always stuff on but I feel like some streamlining needs to be done. I recently sat down in front of Excel and put together a grand master plan to see if I could tie up all the loose ends I have as far as unfinished projects by the end of the year. The conclusion, in short, was "No effing chance."
Nothing new about this. I'm a habitual bite-off-more-than-I-can-chewer, always have been. For every five things I set myself, if I can get two done it's a minor miracle. I guess on some subconscious level I've adopted the approach from my musical hero, entrepreneur and sometime anger sphere Mike Patton:

Study the above video well, mainly the bit before the awfulness of Wolfmother deservedly gets a dressing down. Let's recap the upcoming projects he lists from about seven years back:

•"A couple film soundtracks" - these you gotta give him, as he's scored three feature films and an indie short in the years since.
•"A record of 60s Italian music with an orchestra" - this also got done, came out in 2010 and is bloody great.
•"A record with Dan The Automator" - one assumes this is a project called Crudo, very little of which ever saw the light of day if it was finished at all.
•"A record with Amon Tobin" - Yep, this never happened
•"Me and Rahzel are gonna do a record" - If only, but nothing's appeared as of yet.

So that's two out of five. Am I calling the man lazy? Hells no. I admire his proactivity, and one thing I myself have experienced many a time since this video was filmed is that lots of creative projects fall through for a multitude of reasons. Also, plans change; The Amon Tobin, Rahzel and Dan The Automator albums never materialised but instead we got three live DVDS (with Fantômas, Melvins and Kaada), a third and fourth Tomahawk album, six Moonchild albums, an album with Ictus Ensemble and over twenty guest spots on other records. Oh, and he also had the good manners to rejoin Faith No More for a three-year reunion tour. He performs countless live shows, does voices for video games, runs his own record label - the man's a busy sumbitch. Seriously, I don't understand why someone wouldn't be a fan, if you don't like one of his records you only have to wait ten minutes for a new one that sounds completely different.
So I doff my cap and try and take some cues from his attitude and overall approach as an artist. Not everything one wants to have happen will happen, but as long as you're enjoying the process, go for broke.

Obviously paid work comes first, but as far as things to attempt to get done in my free time, right now I have:
Bullies - fourth film which has been 'finished' since 2013 but still just doesn't quite hold together. If I tweak away at it much longer it's in danger of falling apart completely.
Speed - fifth film I don't think I've ever mentioned before, which is 'half' animated but, complicatedly, not completely written yet.
Throat: Book 3 - pretty much ready to go but waiting on final sign-off for the additional content.
Brain Scrapings - a second volume of sketches following on from Brain Spillage
My Pretties - a compendium of character designs, a very limited run of which went out in 2011 but since the surge of design work last year brought in I'd like to put out a proper, updated edition.
The Birdcage - latest Struwwelpeter album that has been marinating since 2011 after the release of The Book of Women.
Erica - first graphic novel since Throat, although I'm contemplating releasing it as a miniseries of five 20-page comics first.
On top of all these is a potentially major project I have to bite my tongue about (which I'm referring to just as Project Group-Hug for the time being), remastered reissues of all my major musical releases in the past decade or so, an assortment of behind-the-scenes vids, promotional whatchimajiggery and the demanding mistress that is Skwigly, which in and of itself involves documentaries, podcasts, regular written content and the odd field trip.
So, which of the above will get done? Who the bloody bloodying hell knows? Irritatingly I have two more film ideas I really, really want to get started on now, but that would take an already ridiculous situation and make it outright farcical. Realistically the next few months will yield two more Skwigly documentaries which I've been having a blast putting together, the final volume of Throat and, if I'm being super-optimistic, the final cut of Bullies. Whether or not that means other stuff will evaporate remains to be seen. I hope they don't but I don't exactly shift enough units to suggest that the world would stop turning if they do.
So I'll be retreating for a while, to focus on the slog and poke my head out for podcasts and whatnot. On a sort-of related note, I'll be with Skwigly at this year's British Animation Awards to get some coverage of the event, so knock wood there'll be a nice little featurette out of it next week sometime. If any of you folks will be there and I don't seem too squirrely, tap me on the shoulder and say hi.

One last thing, I recently found some source files for two EPs I put out in the lead-up to The Book of Women, one in 2008, the other in 2010. Both feature a smattering of early versions/alternate mixes and I figured there'd be no harm reposting them on my Facebook page. The physical versions of each have long since run out but they each come with printable artwork if you're old school and like your music in them shiny plastic boxes.

Download Sibling Ribaldry EP (2008)

Download Digital Stimulation EP (2010)

Panelling

Every time I visit my old home I try and get at least one attic rummage in to clear things out and, on occasion, unearth toys with ornamental value. So far I've found all my ghostbusters except Winston, which is pissing me off. Especially as I've found THREE Janines. Seriously. THREE. Why would I have even had ONE Janine?What I did unearth this most recent trip was an old "Ren & Stimpy" comic, apparently the last one ever, which makes sense as it was put out around the time the show itself would've been canceled. I'd forgotten about this completely but I wanted to show it some love here because it holds up surprisingly well. As passionate a "Ren & Stimpy" fan as I was, I never got that excited over the comics. Most of the artwork was by Mike Kazaleh who, despite being a perfectly passable artist, was very distinct stylistically and didn't really replicate the atmosphere of the show. The stories by and large were much lighter in tone, with far less by way of the violence and psychotic meanderings that gave the show its edge. You would get some lovely artwork from time to time, like this:Generally I wasn't a regular buyer and at present only have the first sixteen issues collected over four graphic novels. Rediscovering the final issue I'm kind of curious to look into what came between.The art is by Jeff Jarka and it's really fantastic - a lot of severe, extreme poses and an overall tone that echoes the faster pace of the unfairly maligned Games-era episodes when they were in their stride.I guess the reason I never really committed to subscribing at the time is the rather sad admission that, in all honesty, I'm just not into comics. Unless there's something really special about the draughtsmanship (eg. Doug TenNapel, Eric Drooker) or the story ("Maus" = no brainer) or if it's just really weird, creepy or funny. Otherwise I struggle to muster up much by way of excitement.
It's sort of bizarre, given my passion for art, animation and sequential storytelling, as well as the fact that I've produced several of my own graphic novels and comic anthologies (available at these LOW, LOW PRICES, kids!), with two more being worked on at present.The only series I ever followed with any fervour was "Clive Barker's Hellraiser", mainly motivated by my love for Barker himself and the first few "Hellraiser" movies, helped along by the comic's lack of mainstream popularity that made them fairly easy to grab up in bulk on eBay. Recently, and for reasons I'm unsure of, this series was revived after a twenty year hiatus. I've bought the first two issues and enjoyed them, but mainly I'm curious as to what Barker's long game is with the characters. If it's to gauge consumer interest, the outlook is good as both seemed to sell out the moment I got my copies.I'm personally hoping it will serve as a prelude to "The Scarlet Gospels", a forthcoming Barker book almost as mythical as the universes he creates in so much as he's been writing it FOR-FUCKING-EVER. I seriously cannot think of another book I've been more excited about seeing published. Supposedly it will serve as a magnum opus, concluding the story of his progenies Harry D'Amour and "Hellraiser"'s Pinhead in a presumably far more respectful manner than the relentless parade of stilted, straight-to-DVD sequels. But my "Hellraiser" geekery is a post for another time.
I was recently at a small press expo in Bristol where a few friends of mine were exhibiting. Wandering around it seems that there really is an impressive degree of talent in the independent scene as far as artistic ability goes, if not necessarily as much in terms of storytelling. Some standout stuff such as "100% Squishy" and "Babel" really grabbed me on a visual level, as well as this anthology put together by a bunch of artists at Aardman:I'm working on a feature on it for Skwigly, and so far the people involved I've discussed it with have some pretty interesting things to say about the process, so I'll let you all know once it's up. It's essentially a collection of short stories and standalone artwork that encapsulates the spirit of Great Britain, in an alternately patriotic and derogatory sense, but where it really shines are the visuals.
Meanwhile my two graphic novels "Throat" and "Erica" are continuing to take shape, and I'll leave you with the first full-colour layout from the latter. I've had to blur out certain bits to keep it family friendly.Reckon it'll be targeted toward something of a niche market. Ah well...

Quickies

In my continued effort to keep the holiday season alive ('cause I just don't know when to let go) I'm happy to say there's another 2011 screening for "The Naughty List", this time at the 6th Athens Animfest. It's really nice to find this out as my second film "Ground Running" screened at the 4th edition back in '09. It's being shown as part of the Tributes 2011 Panorama section, haven't worked out the date/time just yet but check out their website and Facebook page for more info.
On another note I've finished the first of several supplemental showreels, these are spun off from my main showreel which kind of lumps all the animation stuff together. The idea being that I can submit tighter, more theme-specific reels when certain job applications call for it. Plan is to have one each for character animation, digital animation, motion graphics and VFX work, which will give me an excuse to create some new content in all those areas. In the meantime here's the first version of the character animation showreel (which features the first looks at some in-the-works projects such as Alpaca Gals and Erica):
Any thoughts always appreciated, especially if you can somehow use the opportunity to tell me how handsome and sympathetic a fella I am. Not sure how that would work exactly, but roll with it.

So it only took me fifteen years to finally finish this...

The full-colour reissue of the first 'Mitchells In England' anthology is done and can be purchased through that oh-so-fine website Lulu. I'm really stoked to see old comics I drew up to fifteen years ago all cleaned-up and coloured-in, and by filtering out the horribly unfunny ones (I started when I was ten, so you can imagine a lot of it doesn't date too well) it makes for a pretty decent retrospective.

In the really old strips, adding colour goes a long way to making the comic more legible.

I've modified this second edition somewhat - aside from colouring it all in, while the cover is the same save for some additional shading, the back design has been tidied up a little since the original 2006 release. Also, the option to create a full-wrap design with Lulu means the spine is less generic, with a more fitting typeface.

The 2006 edition front/back design, compared to the slightly-modified 2009 reissue.

Inside I've now included new introductions to each chapter, as well as an afterword describing the 'restoration' process.

An example of a 1994 (drawn at age 10) strip in its original form, and the end result after the cleanup and colouring stages.

So if you feel the urge, go to the checkout page and buy yourself and everyone you know several copies each! As with 'House Guest', the book is available in paperback and as an eco-friendly digital download. Plus you can read sample pages online to gauge whether or not it's up your alley.
Buy 'The Best of "Mitchells In England" Volume 1: 1994-1995'

Squeezing My Duck Dry...

A couple months ago I wrote about the possibility of developing a character from my old webcomic ‘Mitchells In England’ for a graphic novel (or possibly several). This has been incrementally taking shape, but only as far as the writing is concerned. I think it’ll be a funny and interesting story when it comes together, but I’ve been going back and forth as to what kind of visual style I should use.
While my usual ‘Mitchells In England’/’House Guest’ look seems logical, it may be better to approach the artwork in a more contemporary way. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess.
In the meantime I’m still eager to produce a graphic novel of some sort, and a friend of mine came up with a pretty nifty idea: adapt ‘House Guest’ into one! In theory it’d be pretty easy - as all the artwork produced for the film could be used, converting it to a comic-book format would just be a matter of laying out the stills and text. I could probably even include segments that were eventually edited out of the film, so it wouldn’t just be a picture-book of material people are already familiar with.
It’s early days (well, early first day) but I think that with some thought it might come together really well. I actually got so enthused last night that I even whipped up a concept for the book cover:How do you like them apples, Spiegelman?

Panel Discussion

I am presently musing on the surprisingly wide-ranging and diverse subject of graphic novels, or bandes dessinées as the Montreal bookstores refer to them. It has previously been a casual interest of mine, although recently I’ve grown to become fascinated by them and developed a pressing urge to do one of my own.My initial interest came as an offshoot of my childhood devotion to the band Faith No More over a decade ago, when I traced the source of one of their album's covers to 'Flood!', a then-obscure graphic novel by Eric Drooker, a New York-based artist, poet and political activist. It was interesting to see the book’s story told without words, as well as seeing the author’s style develop and strengthen as it goes. At the start there’s a cartoonish goofiness to the characters, which evolves into a more disciplined rigidity that takes nothing away from the artwork’s stripped-down charm.
Since then I’ve stumbled across a handful of others that really serve the medium well. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to embrace comic-book culture. 'Batman' and 'Spawn' nearly won me over in my early adolescence, but ultimately I’m just missing that part of a geek’s brain that finds appeal in superhero stories.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m making no pretence of being above it - I’m one of the biggest geeks I know. While most of my friends’ interior decoration comes from IKEA, mine comes from Forbidden Planet. One time I even went to all the way to Birmingham just to meet Pinhead. Y’know, like an infant gets taken to meet Santa Claus at a shopping mall. Here’s the proof:So that digression will doubtless have left no ambiguity - I’m a total fucking dork, and I've finally embraced it. Back to the graphic novels...
Being limited to non-Marvel/DC franchises my tastes are a little less obvious. I guess I generally enjoy the Indy section, veering toward stories with dark humour rather than the indulgent and/or emotional stuff.An exception being Art Spiegelman's ‘Maus’ which, like all good literature, is over-hyped until you read it and find it lives up to every expectation you could have of it. Marjane Satrapi's ‘Persepolis’ is similar in that the strength of the story is its virtue more than the artwork, and it’s ultimately an easier read, being peppered with welcome moments of levity.Jo Hepworth put me on to Roman Dirge’s ‘Lenore’ when I first showed her the concept art for ‘House Guest’, chiefly for its similar aesthetic. The development of its universe and the characters within remind me a great deal of my own, infinitely more obscure webcomic ‘Mitchells In England’. You can tell that the stories mean a lot to Dirge even in their apparent ridiculousness (in the good sense of the word).Doug TenNapel is probably my favourite in terms of artwork. He created ‘Earthworm Jim’, which was a fantastic games franchise (although, ironically, not an especially good cartoon series) and, among other things, writes and illustrates graphic novels that have such visual depth as to rival Bill Watterson. I’d recommend them all, but ‘Creature Tech’ is a great starting point.

Over the years, my cartoon sister and self maintained pretty much the same attitude toward one another.

The aforementioned 'Mitchells In England' had few consistencies - it was a strip that took people I knew and cast them in a series of fictional adventures. As it spanned ten years there were characters based on friends that would alternate in their association with my cartoon self, much as they did in real life. When my friend Ed moved away he eventually stopped being a character in the strip; When my parents got divorced their cartoon versions just disappeared - and so on. The only characters present in every* series (the whole strip was divided into twelve self-contained stories, and with each one I'd consciously develop the style and modify the premise) were myself and my sister, Erica, who was essentially the villain.

Erica threatens the world in series 10.

The in-joke with that scenario was that, bizarrely, the two of us got on in real life far better than any other siblings I've met. Even in the tempestuous furies of adolescence any mudslinging between us was swiftly resolved. Maybe that's just the way I remember it.

But when Erica left for college the arc of her character also changed, and after a period where she was barely a presence in the strip I reintroduced her with a heightened desire for spreading evil and despair. In the strip she forms an all-girl alliance called 'The Emasculators', eventually selling them out so that she can destroy the world and rule what remains. In the penultimate series her character has become so iniquitous that she has physically morphed into an androgynous demon-silhouette.

The decidedly-more 'evil' Erica from series 11.

To return her back to normal, I (well, the Ben in the comic) team up with a lime-green-suited Jesus Christ and follow her into a fugue of non-existence that she has created. At this point I was in college too, I guess I was trying to be deep. In the last series of 'Mitchells In England' the now-human-again Erica has become an actress whose face is repeatedly seen on billboards as a recurring sight gag.
The evil-silhouette Erica is probably my favourite character to draw. Mainly because she has no features, just eyes and proportions that vary on mood. This is the character I'd like to do something else with, perhaps by writing the story of how she originally grew so demented and Machiavellian, which was never explained in the strip. 'Mitchells In England' is definitely something I drew a line under, and I don't fancy doing another comic strip again any time soon, but I think a one-off spin-off (a 'spin-one-off', perhaps? Actually that sounds kinda dirty...) graphic novel might be a good excuse to revisit the character again.
*Actually there was one series in 1996 that I misguidedly set in space, which didn't feature any of the other recurring characters save for the one based on me.