Drawing of David Joyce

 

AZAD

 

Here's a very rough pencil drawing for the first panel from a four page short story I'm currently working on called AZAD. I hope to have the story completed by the end of next month.

 

 

 

"Rebirth"

 

Here's a panel from a three page story I've just completed with the theme of "Rebirth".  I wrote and drew the story for inclusion in the booklet for this year's CAPTION SMALL PRESS & COMICS FESTIVAL in Oxford this coming August.

LOST IN SPACE 2: Commentary corollary 5 (of 5)

 “Charley says..."

 

 

When I was working on  Lost In Space 2 I showed a friend of mine one the above pages from Barry The Alien and The Messenger in The Black Hole Bar and Comedy Club. He then asked me if I had stolen the idea for the language difference from C3PO and R2D2 in Star Wars.

 

 

 

Nope. Barry The Alien’s first comic book appearance came in my 1995 mini comic The House of Hatch, the inspiration for which came from one of those public information films aimed at children which were on the telly quite a bit in the 1970s. In Barry’s case it was “Charley says…” an animated cat warning kids of the dangers of messing about with everything from a box of matches to strange men in the local park asking if you’d “...like to see some puppies?”. The complete “Charley says…” can be seen on YouTube here. My 1995 Barry The Alien strip was basically “Charley says…” in space.

 

 

Having just read all 26 volumes of the utterly brilliant series The Complete Peanuts by Charles M Schulz it’s certainly worth mentioning that Schulz used the same conceit back in 1967 when he introduced the character of Woodstock to Peanuts. Whether this was a first in comics or not I don't know, but Schulz certainly used it to great comedic effect.

 

 

TOKEN GESTURE... IT'S ALIVE!!!

Copies of my latest comic TOKEN GESTURE arrived at THE HOUSE OF HATCH from the printers yesterday and they look great! Certainly the most childish, immature and embarrassing comic I’ve ever done so obviously I’m pretty pleased about that. But don’t take my word for it! You can judge for yourself for just £6 incl p&p! Buy here Read more here

LOST IN SPACE 2: Commentary corollary 4 (of 5)

 

 

As well as drawing the Lemmy mask (see the commentary text in Lost In Space 2) in the splash page of The Recruitment Chronicle story in Time We Left 3, I also added another in joke which only a few friends of mine would’ve appreciated. The slightly obscured text in the picture on the wall above Steve’s head was taken from real life. It came from a picture of the Mekon’s impressively large head I’d drawn on a huge piece of cardboard with some 1984-inspired text “BIG MEKON IS WATCHING YOU”. 

 

BIG MEKON IS WATCHING YOU - artist reconstruction

 

I intended to post this oversized masterpiece to some friends of mine in Hull all of whom were well aware of, and suitably amused by, my then obsession with the evil genius back in the early 90s. My plan came asunder when I took the cardboard picture into Wellingborough High Street Post Office as the guy behind the counter absolutely refused to take my priceless work or art for reasons I don’t recall. What I do recall was he got pretty arsey about so it was clear there was no way Royal Mail were going to do the honours between Wellingborough and Hull.

I did manage to get Big Mekon to its intended audience as I hitch-hiked to Hull a few weeks later. All I remember about that particular adventure is the wind made hanging on to the cardboard image a bit of a challenge as stood roadside trying to cadge a lift. My friends in Hull were suitably amused when I turned up with my massive Mekon though, so we all lived happily ever after.

Next: "Charley says..."

1 March 2025 Addendum: I posted a bit about my giant Mekon picture on Facebook and it turns out one of the Hull recipients, Jason Drewitt, seems to know what happened to it "I’m pretty sure that I borrowed the original 'Big Mekon is watching you' and took it down to London and had it on stage when the little band Hunni I was in played at The Water Rats in Kings Cross as first support for Skunk Anansie"