Dylan Horrocks's Blog, page 29
April 8, 2009
The Elfish Gene
Mark Barrowcliffe’s The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange is a fascinating memoir of being obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons in 1970s Britain. It does a good job both of capturing the time and place and also of dissecting various forms of cringeworthy D&D geekery. I first got into role-playing games a few years after Barrowcliffe (around 1980, at the age of 13), and my own experience was considerably more benign than his; but even so, many of his anecdotes had me squirming wit
April 6, 2009
Exhibition in Auckland
The Bath Street Gallery in Parnell, Auckland, is holding an exhibition of comics art from 8-25 April. I’ve got a few pages in there, as have Tim Bollinger, Darren and Kelly Sheehan and the great Barry Linton. There is also work by comics-influenced artists Mark Braunias, Dick Frizzell, Robert McLeod and Denys Watkins.
I’ll be at the opening on Wednesday 8 April, 5.30-7.30pm, so come along and say hello.
April 2, 2009
Calling all Auckland comics people!
On the first Friday of every month, Auckland cartoonists and fellow travellers are invited to a gathering at the Auckland Public Library (upstairs at the Central branch, on Lorne Street), at 6-8pm. It’s mostly pretty informal and sociable, but this month I’m going to give a little talk (probably about my recent work, webcomics, and general interweb-related matters).
All welcome!
April 1, 2009
Read this: my favourite essay on comics
Tom Spurgeon’s You Can Lead a Messiah to Water, But You Can’t Make Him Walk. Written 9 years ago, but it shakes me to the core every time I read it.
Just the tiniest taste:
I used to keep comics bagged and the best ones taped mosaic-style to the wall above my bed; it never occurred to me this was dopey until the fifth grade. Learning about how to design a room to fit your personality, a little girl named Holly with big, brown eyes that dominated her head like a muppet’s turned to me and said, “I
Other comics news: Robert Crumb’s take on the Book of Genesis
Best comics news in a while: Robert Crumb’s adaptation of the Book of Genesis is now completed and will be published in October. BoingBoing even has a picture of some of the artwork (see above), courtesy of Phoebe Gloeckner’s beautiful 2005 photocomic about Angouleme, which can be read at Indy Magazine.
March 31, 2009
Toby Morris online
The very fine NZ cartoonist Toby Morris, who now resides in sunny Amsterdam, has a lovely blog named XTOTL, where he posts a daily drawing of life in his adopted city. You can also find a heap of his gorgeous gig posters at GigPosters.com:
March 30, 2009
New page: The Magic Pen
Click for new page
New page: The Magic Pen
Click for new page
March 27, 2009
New page: The American Dream
Click for new page
March 26, 2009
Rock Cookie Bottom
Just when you thought the internet couldn’t get any better, you stumble across Rock Cookie Bottom. This guy (Jonathan Mann) writes a song a day, and puts ‘em online (complete with music video) for us to enjoy. They’re smart, hilarious, and topical. My personal favourites (from the last week alone!) include:
and his second economics-related follow-up hit:
Go visit Rock Cookie Bottom now and improve your day considerably.
