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!
The first, King Kong (1933), has just been edited and posted over at the Adventure Films Podcast blog. Yesterday we recorded our discussion of The Man Who Would Be King, and that will be up in about a week or so. Be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Apologies this is up rather late today - my website database was down this morning and I couldn't get round to it until this evening. Usually it will be up before lunchtime (GMT) - depending on how busy things are. Hope you enjoy it!
I've updated the shop to include the new badge set. At 38mm (1.5 inches) these are larger than the old set (25mm - sold out) and there are five designs in all. I also had some mugs made, but I'm afraid these are not for sale. I created them primarily as presents for my agent, editor and designer, but I did get a couple spare for a competition at some time in the future - so look out for that.
I believe De Regenboog Orchidee (deel twee) is out this month (I've yet to see it myself) and Silvester Strips are having a special promotion where you can buy volume 2 along with Olivier Marin's beautifully drawn De Godinnen van de Weg (The Goddess of the Road) for just €29.95.
Last week the Christchurch Kids Blog featured three posts on The Rainbow Orchid as part of their Reading Crusade. In part one I answer the question 'what are graphic novels?' and in parts two and three I explain the process of how I make my own comic from script to drawing and lettering.
To end off, something nice! On Monday I will be posting the first strip of a four-page preview of The Rainbow Orchid volume 3. A new strip will be going up three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for five weeks. There will be more preview later in the year and in a few months time a brand new Julius Chancer story will be made available on the web as well. But for now - make sure you come back on Monday!
King Kong (1933) : The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) : Hidden Fortress (1958)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) : Time Bandits (1981)
Lost Horizon (1937) : Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
She (1935) : The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974)
I have a very specific definition for what I term an 'adventure film', though I must say it's a definition that is rather fuzzy round the edges, and I find it difficult to pin down in words. It's got something to do with having to go on a journey, maybe a quest of some kind, and it's got something to do with starting out in the ordinary and being led off into the extraordinary. It may also have something to do with genre to some degree - The Lord of the Rings trilogy are definitely adventure films, but I don't quite categorise them as such due to the fact they take place in a fantasy world. Likewise, The Guns of Navarone or A Bridge Too Far are adventure films but, for me, the category of 'war film' trumps the category of 'adventure film'.
If you have any suggestions for good adventure films, please do let me know!
Edit: My brother and I have turned this idea into a series of podcast discussions on each of the the ten films. Click here for the archive.
It's published in hardback by Silvester Strips in a translation by Mat Schifferstein, and as part of the publisher's 20 year anniversary celebrations I believe you can buy both volumes for 29.95 Euros.
So if I'm a little slower with emails, if work takes a little longer over the next few weeks, and if I'm a little behind in getting orders out, I hope you'll understand why. Thanks, as ever, for your patience and support!
P.S. I've just noticed that this is my 500th post (on this incarnation of the blog, anyway).
Dodenrit naar Monte Carlo ('Death Ride to Monte Carlo') was serialised weekly in Eppo Wordt Vervolg in 1988 and published as a book later in the same year. It was written by Martin Lodewijk and drawn by Eric Heuvel. On his blog Eric mentions there are possible stirrings in the direction of a new January Jones adventure (after a couple of short stories in 2009) ... we'll have to wait and see!
Special thanks to John Wigmans for the heads-up.
Edit: The latest Silvester Strips catalogue lists De Regenboog Orchidee vol 2 as being scheduled for April 2011.
Alex Fitch's excellent Resonance FM show on comics, Panel Borders, has reached its fifth anniversary. Alex interviews a wide range of interesting subjects and always asks good questions, so if you like comics it's a must-listen. The latest programme is part of the Women in Comics month and sees interviews with Selina Lock, Jeremy Day and Philippa Rice. And don't miss the Trina Robbins Q&A as well.
Carter's Column, the weekly strip running over at the Birmingham Mail's Speech Balloons blog, ended its 52-episode run of Sang Ri La La La at the end of January, and this month sees the start of a "thrilling new epic", Brand of the Dragon. Creator Paul H. Birch continues as the series' writer and a new artist, Jon Edwards, is on board - you can see an interview with him right here.
Fans of Gary Northfield (ie. everyone!) should do a jig of delight because he's started a new webstrip, Burp the Caveman. So far Burp has moved into a giant apple, gone to sea on an enormous leaf, and met the cavewoman of his dreams. Each episode has made me laugh out loud, and that's a sure sign of fabulousness.
This news a bit late in, but quality web comic Tozo has had its fourth issue printed up as a comic book and is available to buy. If you don't have any of them, get all four! It's one of the best UK adventure/mystery strips out there, and a rare sibling to The Rainbow Orchid as a British-based ligne claire comic.
Here's a project worth supporting - Andrew Wildman, well-known for his amazing Transformers artwork for Marvel UK will soon be starting a new graphic novel called Horizon, but this one he's doing all himself, writing, artwork and publishing. He's using Indiegogo to accept contributions which will enable the book to become a reality - please check it out, it's going to be really good.
I get quite a few emails asking how to get into comics (and sometimes people are even nice enough to thank me for the time I spend writing back to them with advice!) - but there's never a straightforward answer. The Comic Academy is something that could be of great help to comic creators and aspiring comic creators all over. Phil Hampton, the man behind it all, has set up the Academy to inspire and inform, and he is currently previewing several interviews he's recorded with a wide variety of comics professionals. Yesterday you could listen to the wise words of letterer Rus Wooton and web comic creator Will Turner. Today (3rd March) there is artist and editor Diana Greenhalgh and, oh, me! The interviews are only available for 24 hours once posted, though you can pay a subscription to have access to all of them, and more (there is a special offer until Friday). Do sign up and check it out and spread the word.
Finally, I just had to share this marvellous Julius Chancer fan art with you. It was sent by Mary Lau, from Hong Kong, and she says: " ... he's watching the famous 'Spam' by Monty Python with Blake and Mortimer." And he is! Thanks very much, Mary - that made my day.
The British comics scene has two representatives in the set: Return to the Forbidden Planet is based on my 2005 design for Josef Weinberger Ltd., and 2000AD artist Leigh Gallagher has his 2006 Rocky Horror Show poster for SWD included.
I was contacted by Webb & Webb, the stamps' designers, back in June 2009. Since the previous November they'd apparently been looking through over 150 years worth of musical posters and had somehow decided that my Return to the Forbidden Planet artwork merited inclusion. I believe it was originally going to be just part of a collectors' pack - not an actual postage stamp.
I didn't hear anything for months and presumed it was one of the many jobs that starts full of enthusiasm and then fades away quietly to nothing - there are a lot of those! Until one day a nice lady from the Royal Mail phoned up - it was all on, they'd finally contacted Bob Carlton, the author, Her Majesty the Queen was looking over the stamps personally to approve them, mine was going to be an actual postage stamp, and they were coming out in November 2010. Somewhere along the line this got put back to February 2011, and here we are - I'm now nationally available to lick for those wanting to send something that costs 97p (eg. a large letter weighing 101g to 250g in the UK or the price of a worldwide airmail letter from 11 to 20g).
You can see my initial sketches for the original job in this blog post and there's another post about the design here. You can buy special sets of the stamps and postcards at the Royal Mail website and in all good Post Offices across the land (the ones that are still open). So go and send some mail! Especially airmail letters to countries outside of Europe! Or slightly heavier large letters to your fellow citizens of the British Isles! And buy a Return to the Forbidden Planet stamp with which to send it!
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