Fly me to the moon 2

Dan liked my superman/disappearing moon story so much, he drew it properly. Pencils below. A slight improvement on mine, I think you'll agree.

Okay, now for MUCH better drawings

Dan's card on my birthday this year:



And a card he drew for me for my birthday the year before:



And the year before that. Timothy Dalton is giving me a cup of tea in a nice china teacup and Sean Bean has got me some French Fancies. Perfection? Why yes.

Hallmark eat your heart out

And, finally, here is the Valentine card I made for Dan. I am a one woman Moonpig.

Birthday Card 2008

And, while I'm on the subject, here's the card - which was more of a fanzine - which I made for Dan's birthday the previous year. The drawings are deliberately bad, of course...

Birthday Card 2009

Dan's birthday is in October so this post is very belated. I was sorting through a pile of Dan's artwork when I came across the card I made for him last year. I destroyed what was probably a sacred comic story in my endeavour - but I should add it was a reprint of the book. I also used an entire bottle of Tip-Ex - one of the comic book vandal's tools.

Mini Comic-Con

We didn't go to San Diego, thanks to Dan's heavy workload and our light bank balance, but we did go to a local shindig, part of our local literary festival.

It was a small affair, with only a handful of speakers, but it did mean we had easy access to them: Pat Mills, Alan Davis, Dez Skinn and Rian Hughes.

Pat Mills talked at length about Requiem - a vampire epic - and he had an intriguing take on the comics industry. He has taken his wares to France, where comic books, he explained, are treated with a bit more reverence. Requiem has proved a major hit over there, even inspiring a clothing range, based on the costume designs in the book.



Alan Davis talked about his work and his methods at length. He talked about how he doesn't see comic panels and pages, as some do, like film scenes or film sequences. He used a page with huge motion lines and sound effects to illustrate his thinking. Comics can do things which film can't.

Dan chatted to Pat Mills about how to get kids reading comics, he talked to Alan Davis about drawing and Dez Skinn and he talked Doctor Who.



It was a small event, it rained mostly, and it meant getting up early on a Sunday - unheard of. Well done, our usually crap little city for organising it, though. They even have a Marvel Studies night class running at the university in September. About time, considering Dundee's history with folk like Dudley Watkins.

Chat Noir

This picture has nothing to do with this blog post. It's Cosmo, soaking up some sun beams this afternoon on the back of the sofa. He disappeared into the garden around 10pm, came back half an hour later, making a lot of noise. We got up to see what the commotion was about - a very large and very dead mouse. He's been doing this a lot lately. He's so proud afterwards but we're torn between praising/thanking him and feeling very sorry for the little mice (exactly like Mouse Guard!) and birds.

We've had a noir week, while I've been on holiday and Dan sits at his desk. So far we've watched, Double Indemnity, The Killers, In a Lonely Place, Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai...I think that's all.



In a Lonely Place has to be the best so far. Bogart is troubled, Gloria Grahame smoulders and the story isn't just the usual man loses his soul thanks to some dame. The sense of alienation is palpable in this film. Bogart's character keeps weird hours - setting him apart from normal society; his apartment has barred gates; light filters through venetian blinds creating a cage-like effect. The film really has something to say about man's dark places and the psychological prison we can all find ourselves in.



Bogart is playing a freelance in this... I just hope Dan doesn't try to strangle me some day...

Colouring In

Not only have I been reading comics, I'm also being 'trained' to color inked pages. Dan bought me a nifty Bamboo tablet and I have been learning how to use Adobe Photoshop to colour.


I can only do flat colour at the moment. It will take ages for me to learn how to understand shading and light sources etc. I draw a bit (badly! If I can find them I'll publish the various pictures I've drawn over the last couple of years. They are hilarious) but like to dabble and, hopefully, will eventually understand more of the fundamentals. So, here is my first attempt. It's rubbish! The colours are garish and I have coloured it very lazily: there are lots of white spots, I've basically ruined Dan's sketch:




A few more goes later and I finally did something I was pleased with. It still just flats but it has a nice mood to it:



You can see that Dan does all the hard work really. It's really a case of choosing the right colour palette to compliment the style. This worked well for me when I coloured the next piece. A scene from an idea Dan had about a boxer called The Red Bolt. He's got loads of ideas for very cool comic strips, but too busy to develop anything properly right now. Bah!

Anyway, here is the coloured panel:




Again, you can see that Dan's inking does most of the work.

Mouse House

by David Petersen

Published by Archaia Studios Press

Before Dan I knew a little about comics and graphic novels. Since Dan, I can hold my own at a comic convention with any comic book guy or gal. My usual reading is 19th century fiction, and a bit of 20th century modernism. This diet is bolstered with a bit of teen and children's fiction and by the occasional dip into modern adult fiction. Iris Murdoch and Margaret Atwood are probably my favourites in this category.

And now I also read comic and graphic novels. I like Dan's Doctor Who stories, for example. Mortal Beloved and The Deep Hereafter are particular stand-outs. I can even boast I've contributed an idea or two during Dan's 18 month tenure writing the 10th Doctor's adventures.

I also love Jersey Gods. Glen Brunswick is a jolly good writer and a lovely guy too.



One comic series I've really liked over the last couple of years is David Peterson's Mouse Guard. I'm hardly alone in this: it's been a big hit for Peterson. He was at the New York Comicon last year in artist's alley and I'd taken my book all the way from Dundee to get it signed. I'm such an idiot though I didn't go over. I can be weirdly shy sometimes.

The gorgeous artwork is just one of the reasons to get seriously into the series. Dan introduced me to the book when it first came out. We were living in London and were pottering around Forbidden Planet in Shaftesbury Avenue. We saw Kim Newman there! He was browsing the shelves, looking very dapper as always in a waistcoat, pocket-watch ensemble. He's quite short.

Mouse Guard is published in lovely little paper-back editions, eight inch square, full colour, and feature the adventures of a brave, intelligent colony of mice. The stories focus mainly on three characters: Leiam, Saxon and Kenzie, who are mighty warriors facing deceit in the first issue, then winter famine and attack in the second.

There is a collected edition of the first story and it looks beautiful - autumnal gold being the main theme of the cover. The second issue has a winter theme and the little mice, their mediaeval houses and their forest habitat looks timeless and iconic against the white falling snow.

Dan also got me the little PVC figurines of the little guys and they are actually very well done. So well done, in fact, that I was inspired to...well, build one of the little houses from the one of the stories. It's still a work in progress as it's a pretty big project. A wiring and lighting job is next. Is this sad?

This is the house I built


which is meant to look a bit like this:


The inside is far from finished:

and is modelled on the map-maker's room from the first series:

Artist's Corner

Dan's art table and other drawing and writing necessities are a major part of our little flat. His corner of the room is a Dickensian muddle of all sorts of interesting things: sketches, brushes, India inks, French curves, pencils, books, toys...
I sit on a sofa just out of shot, when I'm home, and generally blether about my day at school. We thought about moving to a bigger place so that Dan could have a studio, but how could he get by without my excellent stories?

Victoriana

I think I may be a walking cliche. I'm an English teacher with a cat who loves Victorian literature, fabrics and paintings. Ah well. I stumbled upon a picture of a lovely vintage quilt when browsing the internet for reference pictures for a children's story I'm trying to write (another cliche) set during the period.



My effort uses similar colours, but is much less interesting. I wanted to keep it very simple, so that I would actually finish it and have something that can actually be used. It makes a very lovely throw on the back of our sofa by the window.


It's all hand sown (I don't own a sewing machine). The middle block is made from pieces of cotton squares which I bought as a job lot from Ebay. The border is a lovely fake silk which I bought from my local fabric shop. It's an olive colour and feels and looks exactly like raw silk. The backing is, again, a fake silk, this time in a deep red.

It didn't take long to do and has inspired me to be a bit more ambitious with the next project - a Mucha inspired quilt.

Patchy

As well as kntting, I've also become a patchwork fiend. I put together a very untidy (and still unfinished) quilt three years ago, when we were selling our flat in Scotland to move to London for a bit.

It kept my mind busy when the roof suddenly started to leak and the rain never seemed to stop. Selling then moving all that way on a budget, to a flat we'd only heard about on the phone ...from my dad, of all people. Dad, who I love, is not the best person to ask about home comforts. A carpenter since he was a boy apprentice, he never quite mastered the art of home comforts in our house when I was growing up. Everything was half finished. I suppose that's why mum became the jack-of-all-trades. But, then again, this quilt is also half-finished and has been for three years, so who do I really take after...?



Dad's description of the flat in Kentish Town sounded okay. We arrived by train, excited and nervous, having finally sold the flat to a lovely young chap (roof repaired), while our few bits of furniture arrived via Shore Porters. We walked around the flat in the half light of a September evening. It seemed fine...until we realised there was no bedroom.



The tiny living room would double as our sleeping place. The flat we'd just sold had been enormous...Victorian and lofty...with seemingly hundreds of huge bay windows. I sat down in our tiny new flat and wept. Of course it all looked fine in the morning and we set about our London adventure.



The quilt is made up of patches of embroidered cotton. I chose quotations from Shakespeare (typical English teacher) which I could illustrate with simple embroidered pictures. Dan helped me with the illustrations. I really like it. I have no idea why I haven't finished it. Perhaps I am worried the finished piece won't look as good as it does in my head - nothing ever does!

The flowery bits are cut up old shirts which I'd worn to death but couldn't bear to throw away. It's backed with a piece of French red toile fabric which I'd originally bought to make curtains with, then couldn't be bothered.The quilt is edged with a lovely silky cranberry red ribbon.



The quilt is being modeled by our cat, Cosmo, who loves to sleep on my quilts. Sweet prince!