This blog began in 1997 as a single news page called Nucelus. In 2005, during a long wait to move into a new house, I decided to learn some php and MySQL and write my own blogging system, which became inkyBlog and which now powers this, my own Webbledegook blog.
Thank you to my brother, Murray Ewing, for help with some of the more challenging aspects!
Last year was a good one for getting on with the new Julius Chancer adventure. This has partly been thanks to my Patreon supporters (who are a few pages ahead), which provides just enough of a sense of obligation to keep going with things. I now feel I've reached a tipping point - I'm in this far, so let's keep going!
I began 2025 by completing page 20 - that's now as long as The Secret of the Samurai (a few copies still available, by the way). For The Brambletye Box I'm looking at two volumes, each about 40-48 pages long. I really want volume one to be done this year, so that's a lot of work. I don't know how some artists produce so many pages - on BlueSky Matthew Dow Smith just said his goal is to produce 1000 pages this year. Yes, I know some pages can't be compared with others, but even so. Tezuka apparently averaged 10 pages a week. Sigh.
Still, the important thing is to keep going.
My interest in things Japanese goes back to the 1980s when I got into martial arts, and through that developed an interest in Samurai, and through that an interest in Japanese film, and that led also, eventually, to an interest in some Japanese manga and anime.
As a karate teacher (I'm testing for my 5th dan next weekend, gulp!) I have some Japanese already, so it's nice to work out from there into more of the language. Also, as an artist, it's nice to be able to write it, the kana forms are very satisfying. At the moment just hiragana, but I'm currently working on katakana, and then I'll dive into some kanji.
a page from my workbook - Japanese names and karate kata written as hiragana
Years ago I came up wih the name for our karate club, Kanzenki, which consists of three characters for kanzen (perfect, complete, whole) and ki (spirit, life essence), reflecting the idea that through karate you can improve all aspects of your life.
This past summer one of our club members went to Okinawa to train with Hokama Sensei, whose bojutsu (staff) sytem we practice. Whilst there Hokama Sensei brushed calligraphy for our club - at the same time confirming my Japanese was correct (phew!). We now have banners featuring the kanji (Kanzenki dojo).
Kanzenki dojo banners and Hokama Tetsuhiro Sensei brushing the calligraphy
There is a playlist for each (War and Adventure) and there is a playlist for all of them together. Of course the old blog still exists and they're also up on Apple Podcasts, but it seems that YouTube is the most accessible.
I don't know how the algorithm works on YouTube, but somehow the Golden Voyage of Sinbad episode has eleven-thousand views, with most of the others having a more-expected few hundred each.
I really enjoyed discussing these films with my brother, Murray, and I think they turned out to be pretty decent podcasts in the end. Give them a listen if you have a moment!
I have not deleted my account, but it is locked, perhaps in the hope that one day the current owner will realise what a mess he's made of things there and it will pass into more enlightened hands. But I have removed links to my Twitter page and will no longer visit or update there.
I am not a strong user of social media - I'm just not very good at it! I certainly see the positives, and, as I said, that has mostly been my experience. And I have no criticism of anyone who continues to use Twitter - we all have out own priorities, whether business or personal, and I respect that. I am not losing much by opting out.
This blog remains my main home on the internet. I do have a Bluesky account which I am keeping engaged with, and the same goes for Instagram - so please consider giving me a follow at either or both of those, if you wish (see the community section on this page for more). Thank you!
We had a very late-booked summer holiday - my first time in Spain, and my first time ever on the Mediterranean, at Sitges near Barcelona. It was very nice, if just about at the limit of my heat tolerence.
The Brambletye Box is still chugging along with this theatre scene, which (as already mentioned) was the genesis of the story ... a stage magician's assistant turning up to ask Julius Chancer for help. I'm really enjoying drawing it - despite the numerous audience-filled backgrounds!
I did end the month with a very nice and long overdue get-together, having dinner with Colin Mathieson (Zulu Water Cart Rescue) and his lovely wife, who were down for the Battles Through History event at the nearby Ardingly Show Ground. We worked out, rather shockingly, it's been seven years since we last met up, at Copenhagen Comics in Denmark. It's actually been that long too (the Munich show, three months after) since I've had any (real-life) interaction with comics folk at all! I need to get out more ...
Kubota's father was a jukendo expert (bayonet fighting) and during the war his home village took in two Okinawan refugees who taught the very young Kubota some karate. As a teenager he moved to Tokyo and hung around various dojos, training whenever and wherever he could, or just watching and learning. Kanken Toyama and Yasuhiro Konishi were two such sensei from this period.
Shotokan must have had quite an influence on him too - besides his numerous own kata his school teaches the Shotokan forms - though it is rarely cited in his biographies. But a Black Belt magazine interview from 1964 mentions Shotokan was his favourite "method" and that he was a member of the JKA at the time. Soon he was helping to train the Tokyo police and accompanying them into various dangerous situations, helping to forge his own 'hard and fast' style of karate further. More connections came as he taught at a variety of US military bases in Japan.
In 1964, invited by Ed Parker, 'Tak' Kubota brought his now named style, Gosoku Ryu, to the United States. He was present at the 1967 All-Star Tournament, giving demonstrations alongside the likes of Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and his longtime friend, Fumio Demura. Some of these relationships hinted at his future 'side-hustle' in Hollywood, with roles in films alongside Charles Bronson and James Caan to name just a couple of his numerous appearances. Kubota's reputation continued to grow as he helped train the Los Angeles Police and invented the kubotan key-chain as a self-defense weapon.
I have a number of fond memories of my time at the Glendale dojo, including attending the 11th Annual IKA Tournament where So-Shihan (as he was called when I trained there) was presented with a 400-year old Tokugawa meditation bell. Kubota struck it three times and everyone present meditated to the nearly endless ring that the Shogun himself had once meditated to.
In a 1965 Black Belt magazine interview, Kubota summed up his 'Tokyo Way' of karate: "Practice the first form five years, one and a half hours every day. Begin kumite at the age of eleven. Now practice three hours every day; more kata! More waza! That's karate the Tokyo Way."
You can read the latest strip here, which resumes after a four-page scene cut from the online preview, but available to Patreon supporters - and, of course, in the book when it comes.
As before, there is no update schedule, but there should be a few strips uploaded in the coming weeks (work and life stuff permitting!).
My first introduction to Juillard was with his self-written After the Rain (Apres la Pluie, 1998), translated into English by NBM in 1999, and then via his masterfully illustrated Blake and Mortimer albums, seven in all, written by Yves Sente, from 2000's La Machination Voronov (The Voronov Plot), to 2016's Le Testament de William S (The Testament of William S). On one of my visits to Germany, in Colne in 2014, my German publisher very kindly gifted me two volumes of Juillard art books (Péle-Méle) - I often flick through them when inspiration is running a little low!
Juillard's beginnings included drawing classes from the likes of Druillet (Lone Sloane), Mézières (Valérian) and Giraud (Mœbius) with his first published work in 1974 for Formule 1 (previously Cœurs Vaillants, the first home of Hergé's Tintin and Jo, Zette and Jocko). He soon established himself as a devotee of the historical comic, adapting Romeo and Juliet and debuting his 13th-century set story, Bohémond de Saint-Gilles.
Widespread success was slow to come, but did soon arrive with Les Sept Vies de l'Épervier (The Seven Lives of Sparrowhawk, seven volumes from 1983 to 1991), written by Patrick Cothias and set in France at the beginning of the 17th century. This lead onto the series Masquerouge (Red Mask, ten albums from 1984 to 2004, written by Cothias and then Marco Venanzi). Juillard also teamed up with Jacques Martin (creator of Alix and Lefranc) for a Napoleonic series, Arno (three volumes, 1983-1987).
Juillard's reputation was now without question, and more work, both in comics and illustration followed, with portfolios and art books released to continued acclaim. He won the Grand Prix at Angoulême in 1996. His last few albums included Léna (with Pierre Christin, three volumes, 2006-2020), Double 7 (with Yann, 2018) and a return to Les Sept Vies de l'Épervier (with Cothias, 2014 and 2021). Before his death he had been working on a new Blake and Mortimer album, the series' 30th, Signé Olrik (Signed Olrik), set in Cornwall, and scheduled for an October 2024 release.
There is no doubt the world of comics has lost one of its master creators, but André Juillard leaves behind a legacy of incredible work, a treasure-trove of bande dessinée art of the highest quality.
