gulagcomics

It's the Easter holidays now, and the school I work at has broken up for two weeks. This has given me plenty of time to get a-comicing, and I've managed to keep up a schedule of drawing a page a day for the whole of this week. It's good to be this productive with comics again, as Silent V #5 had taken an altogether ungodly amount of time to write and draw.

There haven't been any reviews yet of Silent V #5, but the bits of feedback I've had have been positive about the inclusion of a back-up strip. It works well for me too, as drawing the same characters and locations does get tiresome. As I type this, I'm 5 pages in to drawing the main story for Silent V#6, and I've got some ideas for a one-off secondary strip.

As just mentioned, there haven't been any reviews yet of Silent V #5, though it has gone out to Optical Sloth and High-Low. I must admit I'm somewhat nervous about the critical responses to this one, as I don't know how the rather unsavoury "Flotsam and Jetsam" strip will be received by reviewers. Time will tell. And, hey-ho, I liked "Flotsam and Jetsam" even if no one else does.

Perhaps it's a bit premature to say this now, but Silent V is starting to draw to a conclusion. I think there will be another two comics in this series, and then I'll move on to new creative endeavours. At time of writing, I'm not sure what my next project will be. I've been reading a lot of Dave Sim's Cerebus of late, and this has me interested in doing something in a medieval fantasy setting. But we'll see...

It's a long time since I've written a review of someone else's work to go up on here, and its great to get back into doing such with a peek at a comic by my old pal and colleague Rob Jackson.

His latest serial offering (this is the first part, of two) is an autobio comic, detailing his decision to abandon a life of office drone drudgery in favour of supporting himself and his art through the manufacture and sale of ice cream.






This is a subject that I have (sort of) personal experience of. A year or so ago, my fiance started her own vegan cake business (www.deerlybelovedbakery.blogspot.com) - so the ups and downs of cottage industry food production and retail are well known to me. My better half and I laughed plenty at Rob's over-analysing of customer reactions to his wares, as related through his wry story-telling style.

In the early pages of this comic, Rob tells us how he decided to quit his job and sell ice cream so that he'd have more time to concentrate on his comics. It's fitting that some of his first comics work since going into the ice cream trade should revolve around the very thing that's supposed to be providing financial support. It seems Rob's getting a lot more out of his newfound business venture than he initially suspected. Not only is hawking ice cream around at farmer's markets providing Rob with an income, it's also inspiring his art.

As is often the case with Rob's work, the drawing is somewhat erratic. The first few pages are extremely loose pencil drawings, that sharpen up and become more defined as his business begins to take shape. Rob's clearly more comfortable drawing backgrounds and scenery than he is rendering the human form, but the simple figures aren't distracting, and the slice-of-life narrative is the main focus here anyway.

This is a great addition to Rob Jackson's rich and varied oeuvre, and I look forward to reading part two.

Well, this post has been a long time coming! The fifth issue of Silent V is now completed and duplicated and ready for whoever wants a copy. It includes 17 pages of the main story, and also a 13 page back up strip I drew last summer called "Flotsam and Jetsam."





Things continue to develop in the world of Silent V, as Groznug and his acolyte travel forward in time in an attempt to save the temple from the treefrog/dingo coalition.





The comic is available by emailing me at brokenbiscuit at gmail dot com, or if you can hang on until 19th May, it'll be available at the self-publishing festival at Victoria Baths, Manchester.

If anyone is interested in back issues of this series, I still have a number of copies of parts three and four available. Issues one and two are now completely sold out.

It's been many a moon since I last updated, I know. The good news is Silent V #5 is off to get printed today!

I've finished the "Flotsam and Jetsam" strip now and I'm really pleased with it. I really feel like my drawing came on a long way whilst I was making this one. The strip weighs in at 13 pages, which is a lot longer than I originally planned. I'm still gonna put it in Silent V #5 as a back up strip though. This will have the effect of making issue 5 something of a bumper issue.

So far there's only been the Optical Sloth review of part four (which was probably the most positive review my work's had yet). I'm still waiting on a couple of other reviews for it.

I've started cracking down on the main story for issue 5 now. It starts exactly where part four left off. The end of the story's starting to come into sight, which leaves me wondering quite what I'll do next.

I'm getting ahead of myself ...

The subject line says it all really, but Silent V #4 gets a rather good review from Optical Sloth today ...

http://www.opticalsloth.com/

Oh yeah, and sorry the promised preview pages didn't materialise. I've had a busy few weeks!

Those half-promised preview pictures of "Flotsam and Jetsam" have yet to materialise. They're hopefully on the way! I'd asked Kayleigh to take some pictures of the strip, but she's been so busy with other things that it slipped from her pretty, elfin mind. She's a business woman now, y'know; she has more important things to do than take photographs of my comics.

Anyway, I'd better get going and teach some art to some kids!

I've just started making (as in, I've pencilled and inked the first two pages) of a new piece called "Flotsam and Jetsam". It's basically a humorous and somewhat disturbing look at the dangers of over-eating. At first it was just going to be a bit of an experiment, and I thought I might possibly submit it to a few different anthology comics, but I really like how it's turning out. My current plan is to include it as a secondary story in the next issue of "Silent V". This does mean that the main story of "...V" will occupy somewhat fewer pages in the next issue, but the comic as a whole will be more varied than it has been up until now. I might start putting back-up stories in quite regularly if the response to this is good.


I will probably put some preview shots of "Flotsam and Jetsam" up on here soon (there isn't a huge ammount to see at the moment).

It's so long since I updated this! I thought I'd rear my virtual head and nod it at anyone who might still be paying attention. I've been very busy these last few months; I now have two jobs which means burning the candle at both ends a bit ... but somehow I'm still finding the time to draw comics. Silent V Part Four is finished and available to anyone who'd like a copy. I launched it at Natalie Bradbury's zine fair in Manchester a couple of weeks ago, where it seemed to go down fairly well.

If anyone's looking to fill holes in their Silent V collection, you should know that I'm almost out of issues one and two now - so get the orders in fast!

Yep, Silent V#3 is completed, duplicated, and there are several copies of it sitting in a box in my spare room. Should anyone wish for a copy, please email me at brokenbiscuit@gmail.com. I realise this isn't the most exciting or amusing blog I've ever written but my brain's a bit frazzled from working too many late nights.

Here is the cover...



Here is a quick preview...




I'm well underway with drawing the fourth installment now...