Tee squirts

I designed some new shirts a couple of weeks back then forgot about them. The colours on these aren't final (more random than final), but they seem too good to bury in the hole in the garden.



[EDIT: These are the final designs, get them in the shop if you like them!]

Best new cartoonist

I don't get very excited about new web-comics any more. Five years ago there was a good new one every ten minutes, these days very little gets my dander up. But today I discovered a powerful new talent in the fetid backwater of "Livejournal".

Check this deal out!

Now I rest

The poster has gone to the printer's (from now on I am calling it an "art print", because it is our duty to be classy). The LBAE reissue is paid for and on its way to the printer's , so expect orderin' time real soon. New combo packs, magical dreams, all because you said YES.

Finally today, something I drew just to be kind of a jerk.



That isn't real, but if you ask me to draw your band's album cover, that is what you'll get.

No no no this time I've really got it

According to the folder on my computer called "posters", I have made 11 separate attempts at prints and posters, none of which have reached production. I think this blog reveals how much material the modern cartoonist throws away. Believe me when I say that I am not the worst person for this.

Anyway, I think this time I have really got it.



Maybe I am the worst person for throwing things away, actually. I'm pretty certain that that is the case. But if you are a computer-o-artist, you can recycle.

They let me back on the internets

I can get in on the Batgirl deal, I play golf with Bob Kane.

Book 4

I finished the cover for Book 4. Depending on the ebb and flow of the marketplace (and my bank balance), it may not drop until late summer, but I thought you'd like to see it anyway.

My favourite bird

Pied wagtail.

The radio has overexcited me

People always look at me like I've gone mad when I say I would rather do a radio show than comics. But for about ten years I've been captivated by the idea of what a radio show would be like if I did one. Playing some songs, saying some things. Doing some "items". I was, after all, trained in the art of audio presentation by the BBC. I have pushed a fader, I have taken a call "from the phones" - but never in anger. I have edited some waveforms in my time.

Now the age of "Podcasts" is upon us and perhaps I should make one. Just to see if this is a game worth playing. And apparently Garageband 3 makes this extremely easy, even when you do not have a studio to hand. It would be me, at my most egotistical.

The hot flame of excitement I feel today may be the result of some sort of manic episode, but I'll take a day where I'm as giddy as a five year old if it's offered.

Finally, if you like me love radio as a medium, be sure to listen to Harry Shearer's "Le Show" (if you haven't before). The eminent comic actor holds the world record for "most laconic host".

ROCK DESK: The Dan

I don't know why the rock desk is so busy this week. It may be due to a pressure front.

Did I ever tell you (dear reader) how I quit Dumbrella in summer 2004 in New York City, because none of the other members liked Steely Dan? I seriously did. I did not want to be in an organisation that could not respect The Dan, the snarkiest band of all time. In my rural English youth, those gents taught me how to cock a snook LA-style from 200ft. Hipsters before "hipster" became a dirty word and another uniform.

(I only rejoined Dumbrella in the car on the way to SPX in 2005 because new member Steven Cloud had some god-damn respect for shit-kicking country music. It's all about checks and balances.)

Anyway, that aside, today the internet played a mean trick on me, by revealing that there was a lost version of the Gaucho album. The internet had MP3s, but they've gone, like scotch mist. Needless to say the first person who can provide me with these MP3s gets the run of the SGR shop and any one item they would like.

ROCK DESK: Regina Spektor "Us"

I am led to believe that Regina Spektor has a new album due and this song has been both "appended to it" and "lifted from it" as a single. Click the "video" link here. Regina Spektor is another artist who I had the wrong idea about. This could be a series!

Rock Desk: TRACHTENBURG

I am a late convert to the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who I always imagined must be awful but are actually the exact opposite of awful. Their website tells you what it's all about.

Work is powering ahead

I've done the new cover for LBAE 2006.

Looks Brains and Everything reissue

It's been a year since I ran out of Looks Brains and Everything and there have been a steady stream of requests for a new printing. A second printing would have a nice new cover, be the same (smaller) size as Blame The Sky, and cost me several thousand pounds to make. Are you one of the people who craves this long-lost tome? Do call.

Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen

Liz Phair's childhood passport:



Proof positive that even the most awkwardly bespectacled of us can make it as a globally admired song siren and indie-boy lust object.

Rock desk

I am confused and excited to say that my favourite under-rated band, the Loud Family, is back in 2006! There's even an MP3 to hear, proving that this is the modern age and not just a whisper from the past.

Rocks Off (Rolling Stones cover)

PS I have updated my charts page to include 2005 and a few albums I caught up with from 2004.

Maybe things are going to be okay

After thinking about VAT for a really long time yesterday and this morning, I have convinced myself that perhaps the government are going to let me off VAT accounting, because:

1) There's zero tax on books
2) My t-shirts are made in and shipped from my New England tax haven, outside the remit of HM Customs and Excise
3) What remains ain't worth a dang of anybody's time

However I think I might have been hallucinating when I deduced this from the many fascinating documents I read this morning.

If this is really true, I promise (to you, and Jesus) that I will finish the thing below without complaint, by the end of February.



It is about ghosts, phantoms and spectres.

Welcome to 2006, in which I fret

Happy new year! I have spent most of today's waking hours (fewer than usual due to antics) worrying about the complexities of VAT. Sleep a little more soundly at night, my friends, knowing that you will never have to think about value added tax in a way that includes the following phrases that I uttered this evening:

"Oh no. Oh god. Oh no. Oh dear."

I think I might have to release my vice-like grip on my accounts. The prospect of VAT has ruined the love affair between me and numbers. It was less a love affair than a blind date, where your date is a spreadsheet (who hates you).

Running a business is really hard, it's not all crowns and capes round here, you know. I'm cancelling the comic and going to live in a hermit's caravan.

GOODBYE.