Writing the last entry about role-playing games reminded me that I did actually get to work on Tunnels and Trolls - well, in a way. I had been in touch with the game's creator, Ken St. Andre through his fanzine, TnT in the mid-eighties, and some years later (1999) he got in touch to see if I'd be interested in doing the cover for a 6th edition of the rules, to be published by Flying Buffalo Inc.

Ken sent me his brief and I drew it up (see below). Sadly, the 6th edition never happened, in fact, a 6th edition was skipped, though it did eventually go to a 7th edition. The cover, this time, has been painted by T&T's rightful artist - Liz Danforth (who I was delighted to meet in 1986 at Origins, even if I was a bit too shy to say a lot to her). You can see the cover to the first edition, by Rob Carver, here.

Really, I just wanted to record an entry on 29th February as that date doesn't come along too often, so just a couple of links. Firstly, the third Scarifyers audio adventure is ready for pre-order, so hop over to Cosmic Hobo to learn more.

Secondly, a short but interesting podcast interview with Julian Friedmann (of Blake Friedmann literary agency) on the business of books to film.

Related to the last entry, I thought I'd present three versions of the poster I illustrated for Return to the Forbidden Planet. This was commissioned by Josef Weinberger Ltd. in 2005, who license the musical, including use of the poster artwork so amateur or professional groups can utilise it in their promotions. So these are perfectly legal versions.

The poster on the left is my original design - it's available with or without lettering. The second version is a standard use of that poster (in this case for the Bottleneck Theatre Company), as seen up and down the country for various productions - note that not all productions use it, some use their own. And that leads to the version on the right - a curiosity, from the Coliseum in Oldham, in that it is quite clearly based on my (the Josef Weinberger) version, yet has been completely re-drawn! I'm intrigued by the reason certain things were changed - the heroine carried by the hero, who looks a bit more 'comic-book classic' (does it look as though he's offering the girl to the alien?), the rocket on the opposite side, taller mountains... I like it actually.. maybe a little luminous for my drab tastes (note how the middle one has whacked up the contrast too!)

I was disappointed to find, once again, that some of my artwork has been used without my permission. This time it's the Gateway Playhouse (or maybe it was Searles Graphics, their designers), and their 2006 production of Oliver!

You might remember that this has happened before, when my Oliver! logo was used by the Act Too Stage School, again without my permission or knowledge. Gateway did respond kindly to me making them aware of the transgression and have agreed to credit the piece. Worryingly, they seem to think the design may have come from an apparently public domain source book (or site), which, if true, bodes ill for future versions of my design turning up. I haven't been able to find anything.

top: my original Oliver! rough sketch and finished logo from 1998
below is the logo as used by Gatehouse and Act Too

Lest you think I'm as heartless as Bill Sikes for not being generous with my art, two other organisations did get in touch and kindly asked permission for use of the design; one, being for charity, I charged a minimal fee (also designing a new poster); the other being a high school production in New York state, for which I allowed free usage. Of course it is only right that I should have the chance to make money from my own creations - they are my sole form of income. That logo is the result of many hours sketching, going back and forth with the original client (the June Easther Theatre Company) to get it right.

There's a lot of it about. Last year there was the Todd Goldman 'Dear God' affair, where he stole Dave Kelley's Purple Pussy comic. More recently Jess Fink (language warning!) has had her 'soap' design ripped off by Hot Topic. And it's probably more prevalent (wildly rife, actually) in the world of text. Whole websites are daily copied and used without proper attribution (including my own), but it's not just the amateurs - The Scotsman newspaper printed an edited entry from the blog of Hydragenic without any permission or payment whatsoever. There seems to be an attitude, even among 'professionals' that, if it's on the internet, it's free for the taking.

Fink's soap design (top left) and the Hot Topic copy (top right)
and Kelley's original Purple Pussy (left) with Goldman's direct copy (right)

Looking at the deserved support for artists such as Dave Kelley and Jess Fink, I do wonder how many of those commentators and supporters who shake their fists in anger at the art thieves also regularly illegally download another artist's music, films and television episodes onto their computers - which in my view is pretty much the same thing - stealing.

A few bits of some of the work done in the last couple of weeks...

The Devil of Denge Marsh, the second adventure of The Scarifyers, is now available for pre-order from the Cosmic Hobo website, and due to be released on 7 May.

While drawing over the weekend I listened to an advance copy and it is really excellent, very entertaining. You can listen to a trailer from the website. If you like Rainbow Orchid, I'm sure you'll like The Scarifyers.

I've had to illustrate the subject of bullying twice before, and here's a third time. I think I've exhausted my ideas on the subject now!

Every day this week, Tonto Press are posting the rough sketches I did for The Burglar's Dog cover. Go see on their blog. The dog character, by the way, was created by the author Mark Jones.

Now this is what I call a bottle of ink!

I'm a week late with this... last Monday Tonto Press launched The Burglar's Dog, for which I drew a rather curious cover illustration. It's had some good feedback in the press, including promotion in Viz, which perhaps gives some idea of the tone of the book! If you're going anywhere near Newcastle, I'd recommend it, or even if you're not, it's a chuckle-worthy read.

And while I'm on the subject of this type of book, also very funny is Smackheads Don't Get Fat. If you need one of those books for the bathroom 'library', the more liberally-minded waiting room, or for that extra Christmas pressie, then this is the answer. Written by a friend, but genuinely made me laugh out loud.