Dropped the soap

You know, I started uploading this picture, went to the post office, came back and now I can't remember which one it was. What fun! Let's find out together. All I'm sure of is that it's an Inside Soap spot illo. Hooray!

The Old Country (Any Old Country)

I'm trying to remember what this is. I know it was for Horrible Histories, and part of my brain is telling me it was the Maoris discovering New Zealand, but the tattoos are wrong. Unless that's what they looked like back then. Otherwise it's a more generic South Pacific scene. Or it's a bunch of out-of-work movie extras looking for Merian C. Cooper.

The Unusual Gang of Idiots

I've been doing a kind of elaborate dance with MAD Magazine for some time now, and there was a brief point where I did actually do a piece for them, but they decided not to use it at the 11th hour for reasons I'm still not quite sure I understand. Anyway, I guess enough time has passed now that I can post it without the ghost of William Gaines coming back to haunt me.

That's a Raptus

The very lovely people behind the Raptus Festival in Norway have kindly invited me to attend as a guest later this year - this illustration is one I've just finished for them, for publicity purposes. The theme is "the cartoon characters are taking over the city!" and the weird edifice they're surrounding is Bergen's Fantoft Stave Church, a reconstruction of the original thousand-year-old building which was destroyed in a fire in 1992.

Give me enough Soap and I'll hang myself

I'm posting this image from Inside Soap for no other reason than it's quite sweet. Particularly surprising as it features the terrible Wendy Richard, whose picture I can never look at without imagining two glowing red coals in her eyes while she cackles.

Agent Orange

By popular demand...

The 20th Century: What Nearly Happened

Sometime in the mid-nineties I was asked to illustrate a book which (they said at the time) was intended to be a rival to Horrible Histories (oh, the irony!). I assume it tanked, because I wasn't asked to do any more. Anyway, this is the cover, which was far and away the best illustration I did for it. The briefs were a bit odd - sometimes they were incredibly (impossibly) detailed and I'd have to simplify it to get the illustration down to the size of a postage stamp; other times it was along the lines of "Do something funny about Agent Orange". (Which I'm pleased to say I managed to pull off!)

Little Head?

This is a pinup I did for Batton Lash's most entertaining Supernatural Law, which I recommend you check out immediately. It was for a CBLDF benefit thing they did. Wolff & Byrd are the logical poster children for that particular organisation when you think about it...

The Redoubtable Tarquin Investigates Mysticism and the Sublime in Women's Art in Aotearoa

I'm posting this for no particular reason apart from the fact that I was looking at it recently and it made me laugh like a drain. Script by cartooning genius (and little brother) Andrew Langridge.



(Tarquin, incidentally, is based upon a real person.)

Horrible Hadrian

When I'm feeling low, I like to take some Hadrian's Wall. It gives you a lift! Hadrian's Wall. At selected pharmacies.

("Mmm. Hadrian's Wall.")

Glass Dalek

Here's another Who picture for you. A glass Dalek, no less. And you thought not being able to get up the stairs was a problem. (Flash: Dalek Empire Brought To Knees By Bloke With Spanner.) Those wacky guys!

Mad Love

I've tried to get into Mad Magazine a few times. This was from an attempt I made a few years ago. It's a redrawn version of a Fred the Clown cartoon called 'Pig of My Heart". The original is better, I think, but this one isn't too shabby...

Q-nuts

I was rummaging around for something interesting to post and I came across this, which I'd completely forgotten I'd done.



Also, not related to anything at all but just so you know if this is your sort of thing, I've updated my Art For Sale page for the first time in a while, so if you'd been wondering when I was going to put some new stuff up there, the answer is yesterday. Apologies for the slim pickings there lately.

Frankenstein Junior

A few years ago I was asked to contribute an opening panel for a Halloween comics competition, the idea being that the entrants would spin off their own comic strips from the splash panel I provided. There were some excellent entries, really funny ones. I kind of like this picture in isolation, though.

Don't call me Tracey

Bit pressed for time today, so why not foist another Inside Soap illustration upon you? Answers on a postcard please.

This one was the first where I just couldn't capture the likeness sufficiently well to pass the scrutiny of the editor. In the end they said, "Just think of the money and trace the bitch," advice which I've taken to heart ever since.

"It Tickles!"

Or something to that effect (I forget the exact wording now). This was a Jimmy Neutron gag for Nickelodeon Magazine, which is a few months old now so I guess it's all right to post it. Yet another case of me being asked to draw a character from a television programme I've never seen and getting away with it. This seems to be what the paying part of my working life largely consists of nowadays.