Archives: comics

Jude is not so well at the moment. He has a bit of a cough & is having to deal with a blocked nose & all that. He’s coping quite well really… He’s not especially happy, but he complains little. He’s not throwing up or anything more than usual. Speaking of which – Eve did yesterday evening. She tripped up over her ball, & the boy who passed it to her & probably caused it, “Didn’t say sorry”. She fell over again coming up the street home, so whether it was that fall of before (it’s difficult to say – not seeing the initial, but the latter being a nasty fall) but she managed to bump her head quite badly. The reason she was sick was because she was so upset. Poor lamb.
Jack started nagging me about the garden before I even got him home from school yesterday. I would say that he likes gardening. For want of anything else to do, & to quiet his pleadings, we ‘dead headed’ the daffodils – which are getting quite past their best by now. I suspect that it was enough to satiate him as I ended up finishing it off. He’d disappeared for a while, but now I realise he must have been taking in Louise a flower that Eve had plucked as her contribution to the activity. Hey – they’re puling flowers – I’ll pull …this!… one. “Eeya-ar daddy!”. Mauve primula by the kitchen sink in a little jar.
Plans that Louise & I do the attic went awry. Louise went to bed & I did a little bit of filling between the wall & skirting where I noted a gap the other day. I then proceeded to scan an old comic as I found the ‘printing’ proofs on Sunday when we were tidying & sorting – 1st stage to putting those on my web space as well.
Still not made my definitive decision on what colour paint to but – but I will buy some on the way home tonight.

Train home – I usually write in the mornings, but it was a boneshaker this morning – with no tables nor nuffink & well crowded – so that was no good.
Had fun over the weekend with the camera. Managed to get some rechargeable batteries – but they still get the life sucked out of them in no time. Anyway – as suspected – there will be a lot more pictures up on site. All I have to do now is clear all the stuff off the scanner & I might start getting some of those pictures that Jack (& Eve) have been doing.

Actually drew a comic strip the other day (this would be the 1st one in uh… far too long to think about!). Did it on the computer – altho it is a scrappy affair I’ve proved to myself that it can be done – so that’s a good thing. Perhaps with a bit more farting about I may become proficient, but it will have to wait. I want/need to get the attic sorted. Hattie has hopefully been around today putting a radiator up there & they should also be coming round to fix the flushing round the chimney breast to see off that annoying leak we have somewhere. We really do need to get it sorted & usable as a bedroom for ourselves as we cannot cope with the new baby in a cot in our present room as well our bed – as there just isn’t the room!
Still got walls & skirting to paint & paint & strip, respectively. Then some carpet to buy & all sorts of bits like that.
Hmm
Lots.
Still – I think I can get it all done before the new baby moves to a cot.
Went to Leeds on Saturday & spent my parent’s birthday money on a bunch of comics. Glad to see that Hicksville has been reprinted. I was short a copy of this comic/graphic novel/whatever you wish to call it. I’m not sure how Joe Public would go for this truly excellent story’s the ideas in there are so comics orientated in spirit. The ideal of the comics library in there is such a beautiful idea for anyone who has struggled with their comics creation… <sigh>.
The idea of creating my own ‘Kupe’s lighthouse’ online swims round my head for a while… another dream to dream.

Meant to do some of the ol’ polyfilering
yesterday, but I broke my spatula thing (what do you call it?) On
Sunday’s effort. I have a putty knife, but it’s difficult to get a
smooth edge with that. Instead I spent the evening trawling for
comics/cartoon references of ‘the news’ as Pete on his bugpowder comics blog
had said that comics don’t seem very important at the moment. I am
seeing some very good editorial cartoons in the papers I read, so I
thought I’d try to prove a point by finding some. Bit problematic
though as it seems most newspapers do not deign to put their
cartoon/illustrative work on their websites. bah. Would like to
have seen Chris Riddelll there & so forth, but it was not to
be. I did find some content to put my counter to Pete’s statement,
but when I tried to post it, it would not go. A bit frustrating all
round.

Louise is getting warmer – incubating the
new baby perhaps? Heh. I’ve noticed that when we hug she is warm
& when I go for a shower she has turned up the temperature too
high for me to bear. The ‘lump’ is beginning to show a little now.
She has been wearing clothes that might disguise its presence, but
it is there… Other mothers who don’t know she is pregnant are
starting to give her quizzical looks. It’s not that she’s hiding,
we’re just not the sort to announce to all & sundry (&
here’s me typing away – heh).

Bleh

not a great night sleep. Had metaphorical dreams of clearing my chest – wiping data from a computer that I did not want – appropriate enough for my foolish computer addled brain. Tidied up our/to be the kids bedroom yesterday. Took all to hyuge boxes of books & records upstairs again. Was surprised that I could actually lift a couple of them! We weeded through a couple of boxes as well – disposing of books that we will never be reading, & do not really want gracing any shelves that we may have in the future. Three bags & a small box full to go to the ‘book bin’ at the recycling point in town (for Oxfam).

Anyway – all the shifting & opening of books generated the sort of dust that really gets to me, & thus I have ‘tight lungs’; just a bit of a phlegmy cough – the sort of thing that does not help sleep. Still, I don’t feel too bad this morning, that considered. I really must not stay up too late tonight or I will really start to turn into a zombie. Still a lot more sorting out to do! I rather hope that we can get some bookshelves for downstairs, it would be good to have the sort of thing again. The records tough… eep – what are we going to do with those long term? The do make excellent ballast for a bottom shelf (making a free standing unit very stable.

Jack was all keen to help, & Eve enjoyed pottering about, but I was left on my own in the end to tidy things up. Jack later burst into tears when he realised I’d done this as he was evidently been expecting to help. Louise went round ‘our/to be the kids’ room later & hoovered & so on, so it now looks… unnaturally tidy! Weird. I guess that’s what we are supposed to aspire to though. Perhaps when the walls are one uniform colour & not half wallpapered & half green washed old plaster with many patches of polyfiller… Be nice if we can stretch to a new carpet in there as well, but I feel that may be pushing it a bit.

Read James Kolchaka’s Diary strips the over the weekend. Finished it over my morning breakfast. It’s an intriguing thing. I’ve read a few diary comics (John Welding’s Goathland & Jim Cameron’s ‘ision’ series) but this is in the form of a 4 panel strip. It must have occurred to him at some point that this could be ‘sellable’ to a ‘daily’ paper. Having said that I may be being over cruel in my thinking on his motivation. It may have started with no real intention of being used in that way… Means must at times. Whatever, the whole concept intrigues me. I keep this text as a form of diary, & the limitations are frustrating, but they are usually due to my Lousy memory & inability to capture those tiny moments of life that are so interesting. It makes me think that drawing a 4 panel cartoon in this was would be a good discipline, but I have so little time to do what I want in the 1st place, that this seems a foolish ambition. It makes me think that I should at least try to illustrate, in whatever way, my daily ramblings.

What has James achieved in his comic? Well, I would recommend it as a comic to another comic creator, but I have misgivings as to how Joe Public would approach such an item. James snatches little moments in time, & they range across many little facets of life… love frustration & the occasional bit of crabby joy. Reading an individual strip would only make you feel as though nothing was happening, but a collection like this, or a daily drip feed, I think would soon have people hooked (even a great many of Joe Public). People, I guess are inherently nosey, & this, you could amply theorise, is just another block in the ‘Big Brother’ syndrome (as we is all big brother now). It’s kinda sweet, & I like the way he draws – always have.