A tale of 2 comics

Two contrasting images: The first is from my recent visit to the Athens comicdom con, where I was invited by the British Council to run a 'Boz' workshop as part of their Dickens 2012 celebrations. This is a little snapshot image of my time there, however, the British Council website will soon host some of the great work produced by the participants during the workshop. When they do I'll add a link........

The second has nothing to do with work and everything to do with pleasure. This is the birthday card drawn in celebration of my father-in-laws 85th birthday last weekend. An inimitable chap with a penchant for fine whisky and antiquarian childrens books.

The day Mrs Prune became Prunella

After creating Mrs Prune I sat back, ever so contented, and admired her. I admired her until a little comment about noses burst open a little niggle that had sat quietly brooding. A week went by with quiet indecision - life rolled on, but with a higher than normal propensity for distraction. And then it came, more with a pop than a fanfare - Mrs Prune would become Prunella, her nose would be different and all the characters in the story will be children. Bingo! I slept well in my bed that night.

The Apple - Mrs Prune

The first 6 pages of the Apple are painted, Mrs Prune 'enjoys' a brief encounter with the apple before it bounces off into the bright grey yonder. Still very much a work in progress, there's a lot more I could do with Mrs Prune, although when all five characters are done, it may well work to keep them short and sweet.  Am going to give myself time for a few more um's and arrhh's with this one.

Starting with The Apple

The cover! And the rest will surely follow!

The Apple

The Apple is a short graphic story that begins in the garden of Mrs Prune. From it's hazy days growing amongst the leaves of an old apple tree to its crunching end, the apple lives a brief but fruitful life amongst the inhabitants of Windy way. Or at least I think it's called Windy way, haven't quite decided yet. Anyway, this is an initial sketch of Mrs Prune, the first of five characters that encounters the apple and she has a penchant for sherbet lemons.

Dickens 2012

Some new work for The British Council and their DICKENS 2012 celebrations. This is a modern interpretion of Dickens' 'Sketches of Boz' - 'THE STREETS - Morning'.

I've featured the spread plus some details of the frames and some initial pencil sketches.
http://literature.britishcouncil.org/projects/2011/dickens-2012/sketches-by-boz-sketching-the-city 

Despite an early and somewhat chilly start, wandering about the streets of London, this was a great job - one which has been a joy to do.

Was I talking about colour?

 Was I talking about colour? Here's the greyscale - long story or not so long story. Anyway the long and short of it is that I'm rather liking greyscale, just a smidgey.

The first 16 pages can be viewed below.