Are you familiar with “Cliff Richard Dying Inside“? It refers to the expression on the septugenarian pop star’s face in every photo on his annual fan calendars. In 13 days, it will be “octogenarian pop star”, by the way, happy birthday for then, Sir Cliff. Sir Cliff is very important to Christmas in the UK. I sing his 1988 hit “Mistletoe and Wine” when I need comfort. As for “A Spaceman Came Travelling“, was it Chris de Burgh’s finest moment? Or was that “Don’t Pay The Ferryman”?
Archive for October, 2020
You know what I mean by a “helicopter experience”, the sort of gift that is a card that invites you to do something you previously thought too terrifying or inconvenient to contemplate, free of charge.
Calm down, it’s just Brian in a costume. No need to reach for the smelling salts. If anyone is interested in staging Tom Pendennis’ fresh, modern take on Mother Goose, I hope you can glean the basic elements of staging from this story. You’re definitely going to need a small Stonehenge and some drag queen sewing experience. And a magic (Satanic) piccolo flute. And a tolerance for mild pain.
Maggie’s eyebrows may be my greatest ever comic creation. Eyebrows are very important to character design. Think about how many choices you get on Mii Maker or the Memoji creator on the iPhone. Eyebrows are a living, vital thing. As men tend to discover in their forties, when their eyebrows suddenly begin to sprint for the moon.
I had to take several passes at that big panel. A lot going on. I am satisfied that I got it right. Unfortunately, my delight at the correctness of the final panel led to a sort of disease spreading through the remaining pages, where every day I seemed to have to redraw a panel in its entirety after I’d inked it. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Additional note: I looked at a lot of photos of posed Japanese sentai TV show rosters during the drawing of this page. If we were all so dedicated to symmetrical standing, I think the world wouldn’t be subject to half the trouble it’s in.
If you have any Tully Monster survival tips, please write them in the comments below and I will pass them on to the cast.
A comical mismatch. Who’da THONK it? &c. UPDATE: Someone (Joe King) in the comments asked me where “Secret Sentai” came from, was it a pun first or a story idea. I wrote the name on the same page as the sketch below from February.
When envisioning the Secret Sentai, I wanted him to be like a battered action figure. One that had had a lot of adventures, been buried, dug up, then chewed by the dog, but ultimately will not quit, ever.