Monday, September 22, 2008

Ten zesty years

Today I'm celebrating ten years of making comics on the internet. How am I celebrating? By being drunk all day. A cup of wine instead of orange juice, Baileys on my cornflakes instead of milk, irish coffee and a vodka jelly shot as a sharpener to finish. For someone who barely drinks any more, this is very uncomfortable, but binge-drinking is all the rage and I need to get my spurs. Hopefully my spurs aren't on a high shelf as I am having problems standing up.

Of course, I am telling a lie. I am actually working furiously hard before I take off for the Dumbrella Wedding Of The Year in New York in two days! My good friend Andrew Bell is marrying a special lady and I will be there in my suit, top hat, spats, velvet lined cape, cummerbund and woad. The dress code is severe but Andy promises pomp and pageantry of the first order and we must all do our part. Jeff Rowland and Tallahassee are going to dress as Herne The Hunter and the Lady of the Lake, Steven Cloud intends to adopt the livery of Robin Hood, Jon Rosenberg is going as Stringer Bell from The Wire and Rich Stevens says he is going to be "skyclad", I guess we'll find out what that means on the big day!

The Scary Go Round front page is a big mess of gratitude today but I imagine the blog readers are the most faithful readers (or the most in need of diversion) so thank you, blog readers! I'd draw you a picture but the jelly shot is kicking in now and I can't actually hold a pen.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Explode-o-time

For reasons beyond my control, yesterday I sought out the cheapest watch in town. It had to be a Casio. Of course I bought it in Argos, and I was pleased with my £7.99 efforts. That is until I put on my Casio F91W. Suddenly I was overcome by a sense of shame and ennui so powerful that I hooked my sweater over my wrist so that people could not see this craven timepiece. My old watch was nice. This one... seemed nasty. Reassurances to the contrary warmed my heart but did not soothe my mind.

That evening, my brother called and read generously to me from Wikipedia about the cheapest watch in Casio's arsenal. Why not visit the Wikipedia page for the F91W and scroll past the technical details to the long section marked claimed use in terrorism.

That's right. I, the Freedom Eagle, have bought and now wear the watch that hates America.


"Infidels!"

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ling-wa fran-ka Ming-Na

One thing I know in my heart is that there are about 80000 English-language webcomics. But do other countries have a similar tradition in their own languages? France and Belgium are hotbeds of comic art, but do they have their own equivalents of "Control Delete Alt" or "Very Good Cats"? Is there a Latvian "Overcompensating"? And whither the Polish "Order of Some Sticks"? Surely the Russians, the leetest haxxors of all, have their own tall-eyed "Gurl Genius". Are you foreign? Perhaps you know the answer!

As a fact bribe, here's a picture that will resonate in any ancient society's cultural memory.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Turn, karmic wheel

I think that if I could choose one perfect mode of existence, I would be Rag Dolly Anna. Now I know this is a controversial choice, I am a grown man and people are going to be crossing the road to avoid me after this. But watch this instructional film and rejoin me on the other side.



Rag Dolly Anna has a wicked time, all the time. She is only small but her concerns are few. She gets to:

1. See a fresh steam roller
2. Chillax with a nice bunny
3. Talk to a friend on the telephone
4. Push a little wheelbarrow (friends of mine know my love of the barrow)
5. Hang out with lovely old Pat Coombes
6. Have, not to put too fine a point on it, "a bunch of paper roses in her big straw hat".

Maybe the fact that someone drove into my car on Saturday causing a lovely crumpling effect, combined with the knowledge that my roof is leaking, has caused me to revert to an infantile state. I think someone had better send help, and fast.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Monday, September 08, 2008

Radioface

Good homegrown home-made comedy is beginning to emerge on Youtube, proving that you can't keep an honest nation down because we are Good At This Sort Of Thing. Turn away, watery eye, from the sad fizog of BBC Three and watch a Radioface.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

The vapidity of choice

Earlier this year I took one of my most popular and successful shirt designs, "I Am Your Secret Scary Friend", out in the yard and shot it. It was (I think) the first or maybe the second ever Scary Go Round shirt and it stayed on sale for five (count them), five years. That's a lot longer than blue Pepsi lasted for.

I was so sick of the sight of it, but the hot, seamy desire was still out there for what that shirt said about a person. So a new version is hours away from being on sale. It features a demond playing an organ and took roughly 100x longer than the original to draw.