STANLEY

I won me a bronze Stanley award from the Australian Cartoonists Association on the weekend in the Graphic Media Artist category for my Paddington bear editorial illustration for the Daily Telegraph, and also for my Week magazine cover of the Ruddmobile driving over Turnbull.

My hangover's finally receding, just in time for some odd flashbacks of the night to start emerging... !!

BETTER READ THAN DEAD

My comics are now available in Better Read Than Dead in Newtown, Sydney.

They're appearing on the front counter and all copies there are signed!

A cool shop with cool people (and a non too shabby graphic novel section), BRTD is dead centre in the funky part of the King St strip. If you've not been there yet, now you have the perfect excuse!

COLOURING...

I'm a quarter of the way through now...

just thought someone out there would like to know.

COLOURING HAS COMMENCED...

Yep. I've started colouring Uncle Silas in earnest and thanks to Tom Brown and Tony Giles it's going to be a hell of a lot faster than if I was doing it solo. I've just figured out on a couple of pages (17, 18 + 19) that they average out to taking me about an hour to finish.

By my calculations at this rate I should just get this monster done by christmas, and that's including a full sunday every week of pure Silas colouring.

This makes me happy.

PULP FICTION COMICS

Pulp Fiction Comics in Adelaide, South Australia are now stocking my collected Kookabarry, BeanBoy and Uncle Silas promo comic, so if you live in the city of churches and want to check out my printed wares, head on down and check out the local talent shelf in Peter's snazzy new digs on the ground floor. Only fitting it's stocked in Adelaide- it's where Uncle Silas is set, after all.

BERKELOUW BOOKS

Berkelouw Books here in Syndey are now stocking my Uncle Silas promo comic and the collected Kookabarry!

Hunt them down in their Leichhardt, Newtown and Paddington shops and if they've sold out- be sure to ask them to restock!

IT JUST GOT EASIER...

...to buy my stuff!

I've added PayPal to both my blogs so now you have slightly less excuses to not buy my comics, posters and postcards. Global Fiscal Connundrum be damned.

Heck- I'll sign the comics and I'll even draw a little scribble on one of the postcards for you for nuthin'!

Go on... you know you want to...

INKS ARE DONE!!

Finally, I've finished the ink linework on Uncle Silas Book 1! All 126 pages worth.

I'm off to the pub for a gin and soda and a hearty steak...

and then it's onto the colours.

Thankfully Tom's working on the flatting and it looks like I've got a couple of other magic elves to help, so this stage should really scream ahead.

Santé!

INSPIRATION

Inspirations for Uncle Silas.

I've been absorbing all sorts of stuff over the years in terms of character design and adventure stories: V.T. Hamlin's Alley Oop, E.C. Segar's Popeye, Osamu Tezuka, Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse, E.P. Jacobs' Blake & Mortimer, Tintin, Roy Crane's Captain Easy, Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon... I'm sure there are more that I've forgotten right now...

For the most part what attracts me is the ability to tell an adventure comic story really bloody well. The fact that all these strips were syndicated as either daily 3 panels, 2 tiered strips in sunday papers, or full page spreads on sundays or in magazines and the each ended with a cliff hanger that left you wanting more is shining testament to the narrative skills of each artist/writer behind them.

More often than not, the artwork in each is brilliant as well.

I was introduced to a lot of the old american strips thanks to my 21st birthday present of the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics.

A brilliant book.

I should shut up now and finish inking...

INKING... NEARLY... DONE...

Currently on page 118 with the inks... so close to finishing this I can almost taste it! Ack!!