Roger Langridge's Blog, page 242

So Here's the Plan...

Couple of things...

First, apologies for neglecting the blog over the past couple of weeks; I've been extremely busy, which is a nice problem to have after last year's abysmal performance... and, to be honest, 2013's daily posts had left me feeling a little bit burned out. However! I'm going to try to get back in the saddle as of now, so I'll be posting a couple of items a day while I play catch-up. I like the idea of having a post per day, especially as I'll be off the comic shelves for some quite long stretches of time this year while I work on something fairly big and substantial (shh!). It's always a good idea when you're in that situation to remind people on a regular basis that you're still alive.

Second, it's been brought to my attention that the Fred the Clown link above is no longer working. I've looked into it, and the very simple reason seems to be that my "lifetime account" on WebComics Nation is no more – as indeed, it appears, is WebComics Nation itself. Happily, the Fred the Clown book is still available, so a lot of those strips are still out there for anyone who wants to read them (albeit in black and white); however, there were many, many strips that never made it into the book, either because the drawing was a bit shonky, the idea was topical and didn't warrant being stuck between covers for posterity, or because I just didn't like them quite as much for whatever reason.

So here's the plan. I'll start posting the odd Fred the Clown strip from Ye Archives here, on the ol' blogeroo – the ones that aren't in the collection (a.k.a. "the shit ones"). I actually redrew and updated some of them for various anthologies over the past several years, so there are some previously-unposted (and substantially improved!) versions in the mix as well – something new-ish for anyone who's read them all before. I'll be tagging them, too, and I'll amend the link at the top of the page so it takes you to the tagged posts. The current plan is to post them Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and inflict other rubbish on you during the rest of the week. I may change my mind because I'm capricious and fickle that way.

Onward!

Activities!

The Li'l Dynamites comics are coming out thick and fast at the moment. My own effort, Li'l Ernie, hit the stands last week, and this week we got Li'l Vampi, the kid-friendly spin on Vampirella by (deep breath!) Brandon Jerwa, Art Baltazar, Agnes Garbowska, Eric Trautmann, Molly Mahan, Joshua Cozine, Orion Jerwa, Ken Haeser, Chris Caniano, Katie Hidalgo, Jason Ullmeyer, Josh Johnson, Josh Green, Hannah Gorfinkel, Joseph Rybandt, Keith Davidsen, Rich Young, Juan Collado, Nick Barrucci and Andrew Elder – and also with a couple of activity pages by Yours Truly.

In fact, I did activity pages for all the Li'l Dynamites books. You can see the one I did for Li'l Sonja below... and you can find the whole lot over at Bleeding Cool if you're so inclined.

Barney Google Will Never Die

I found myself with an unexpected day free today while I wait for some stuff to be approved, so I (a) did some writing and (b) knocked up a reconstruction of this 1920 Barney Google advertisement. I sourced the original image from NewspaperArchive.com (they host thousands of scans of newspaper microfiche files, including many, many old strips – I used to have an account before they jacked their subscription fees up to an unmanageable level, and I gorged myself on Barney Google for a few years there) and, as a technical exercise, reconstructed the image in brush and ink. Here are the results.

Badenov for ya

More Sketches...

Thank you to everyone who's bought sketches so far! I appreciate it a lot. I've uploaded several more today, so there are still plenty to choose from. And to clarify for those who have asked, I do sign everything before sending it out – the only reason I don't sign them in advance is because sometimes people like to have me write a special dedication.

Here's that link again! And thanks for looking!

Sketch Sale!

I've just finished uploading about 50 sketches to the old web store for people to peruse, or perchance to purchase. Prices range from £10 to £30 (about US $16-50), depending on size, subject matter, amount of detail and perverse whimsy. Most of them have been posted on this blog at some time or another. The link in the header above will take you to the store, but to go straight to the sketches, just click right here.

Think of it as the Hotel Fred's January Sale! Browse around! Tell your friends! If you haven't got any friends, go out and make some! Then tell them! All sketches will be mailed flat in cardboard envelopes.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Fez, Friend and Foe

A Spirited Finale

This is the last commission for a while, as I need to get my head down and do some work for publication. A nice one to end on, though.

Happy New Year!

Here's a commission-in-progress with a suitably festive atmosphere. Hope everyone had a grand old Hogmanay.

Goodbye 2013

It's December 31st, so I guess it's time for a look back at the year just gone, and maybe a look forward to what's coming up in 2014. Let's start with the look back.

I've had a bit of a challenging year, one way or another... mostly financially. A project I committed to early in the year was delayed by several months; I used the time to write a graphic novel and self-publish a couple of comics, but I wasn't earning anything from those, and the occasional, isolated work-for-hire job didn't really fill the financial hole. Fortunately, things seem to be back on an even keel, and it looks like I'll be busy for the next year or so at this point. I suppose the lesson to take away from that experience is to be more aggressive about cutting my losses and moving on. Or just not letting myself get into that situation in the first place. My heartfelt thanks to anyone who bought sketches, artwork or books from me this year; you really helped me a lot.

One thing I did this year was to post something on this blog every day. It was my New Year's Resolution for 2013. My thinking was that , in these days of an alternative comics market dominated by original graphic novels, or periodical comics not having letters pages, my website is the one remaining place you can be assured of finding regular news and content between isolated print projects. So it seemed that some sort of formal, public commitment to the website was appropriate. To be honest, I'm incredibly relieved that the year is ending and I won't be obliged to post something daily any more; it was a real grind sometimes. But I do want to keep posting stuff here pretty regularly. I've got about twelve hours left to figure out exactly how I'll do that in 2014...

Published work this year:

The final Snarked! collection came out early this year. This is the series that won me an Eisner Award and one of the most satisfying things I've ever done, not least because it was my own project and not some big corporate license. I hope I'll get the chance to do more stories with these characters at some point.The last couple of issues of IDW's Popeye came out. The final one, #12, is one I'm particularly proud of: I was allowed to bring back Billy DeBeck's signature character, Barney Google, for a guest appearance, along with his faithful nag, Spark Plug. I insisted on doing everything for this one: writing, art, lettering, colouring, the lot. I adore the Barney Google strip (finding, scanning and digitally restoring those old newspaper tearsheets from the 1920s has been a quiet obsession of mine for many years) and doing that story made me about as happy as I've ever been doing anything.The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror miniseries was released this year. I wrote it, and the fabulous J. Bone brought it to life. I was so pleased with how this thing ended up looking. One hundred and eighty degrees away from Dave Stevens' work on the character, and yet so very, very right. This year's Adventure Time Annual featured a short piece written and drawn by me. It was nice to do something my kids were impressed by for a change!I drew the eighth issue of Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time , returning to the first Doctor I ever drew in the venerable Doctor Who Magazine many years ago, Paul McGann. I was pleased to be a part of the Doctor's big year (I expect Paul McGann was, as well!).And I self-published two issues of The Fez, my own creation. I can't imagine not working on my own characters and stories at least some of the time. It's what I live for, really. There were also a couple of Fez stories in Aces Weekly, David Lloyd's digital comic anthology. Expect more Fez stories in the future.
Looking forward, I've got some fun stuff coming up:

Firstly, out today I believe, is Li'l Ernie from Dynamite. This is my kid-friendly reinterpretation of Evil Ernie , one of the oddest things I've been asked to do, but I think it came out pretty well.I'm currently working on Rocky and Bullwinkle for IDW, written by Mark Evanier. Mark is doing a terrific job capturing the spirit of the show; I only hope I'm doing the scripts justice.I've just turned in the first draft of a script for an 80-page one-off project I'm doing for Archaia/Boom. That will be out towards the end of 2014. I'll be drawing it as well. And there's a huge Omnibus Edition of my Muppet Show comics coming out from Marvel in March. It's got the lot, from the Disney Adventures stories right through to the Marvel four-issue series, with all the Boom Studios stuff in between. Can't wait to see it!So there you go - a snapshot of where I've been in 2013 and where I'm going next. Again, big thanks to everyone for their support and interest this past year. See you in 2014!