King Monkey-Back!

I took a little break from drawing King Monkey to get some other bits done, but as you have already seen in the title to this post, it's back. Hooray! Break out the Aldi's own brand Cava!

Caricature 2

And here's McCain.

Caricature

I've been doing a lot of research into contemporary caricature recently in my capacity as an illustration lecturer and I was inspired to have a go myself. I haven't done any for ages, since university really, but I very much enjoyed getting back into it. Here's an illustration of Barack Obama I've just this minute finished. I'm nowhere near the league of artists like Hanoch Piven, Noma Bar or Stephen Kroninger, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Observer competition

Here I present the first page of my entry for the Observer Graphic Short Story competition. It's a devastating exposé of the english education system from a teacher's perspective. It should bring the government down or at the very least the crumbling and bizarre edifice that is british education. I expect no less.

I was walking home from the Metro station and the whole of the idea came into sharp focus. It happens that way sometimes, especially when walking. I find that my mind is much sharper as I walk. The artwork has been much more difficult to produce. I've tried some experimental approaches, but in the end have opted for a regular cartoony approach that I hope works as a counterpoint to some of the serious things in the story. This first page is very introductory in tone, but the other three have a definite plot and resolution. The only problem is that I've got masses to draw and the deadline is looming. Comments are very welcome.

Captain Biceps

I went to Bordeaux a few years ago and picked up a copy of tcho comic which is the kind of thing we would kill for in England. Packed with great characters and amazing art, it was a joy. The lead character is a little guy called Titeuf who also appeared in The Dandy around 2005 as Tootuff. God knows how the Dandy printed it as it's pretty near the knuckle at times. Titeuf is a prepubescent kid who is confused and obsessed by the great unknown world of girls and sex and is a little scared by it. It has a good line in toilet humour, too. In one episode I saw in the latest album he and another kid are standing next to each other at a urinal. They develop a urinating rivalry which results in them both being drenched. Can you imagine THAT in The Dandy? Or indeed in an American Newspaper?

Along with Titeuf I was totally mesmerised by a character called Captain Biceps. He's a ridiculously muscled Superhero who does battle every week with a marvel superhero, or a character from fiction, or myth, or whatever the creators Tebo and Zep can come with. (Zep is also behind Titeuf). It is simply marvelous, and drawn in a wonderfully unfussy style. The design of the pages and colouring is also brilliant. Here are the first two episodes which I found on the net:


I now have all four of the annual collections, which I ordered through The French Bookshop in South Kensington. I can't read french, but it hardly matters, most of the humour is visual anyway. In one of my favourite episodes, a superman-alike is helping Biceps every time he gets in trouble, rescuing him from being crushed by moving walls etc. At the end of the strip Biceps is caught short without any loo paper. He calls for 'Hyperman' and wipes his bottom on his cape. The last picture of his bedraggled, stinking, poo-covered cape is just great. Of course it's not all poo and wee, there are some great visual jokes and ingenious ideas in there, along with superb characterisation-Biceps little sidekicks who each get killed are a good example. I hope this stuff gets translated, but I have my doubts it ever will. We get plenty of translated french to english albums in comics shops over here, but most of it was drawn more than twenty years ago. It's a shame that the current children's comics scene in france is unaccessible to english people, as we have a lot to learn. Even, amazingly, about toilet humour.

Johnny Ryan

I'm a huge fan of Johnny Ryan. His work is the most fearless I have ever read, excluding Crumb maybe. Racism, rape, disgusting sex acts, he puts it all in. He just doesn't give a shit. Quite a while ago I drew some fan art and sent it into his website and now I re-present it to you my readers, if you still exist. For those who don't know, the guy doing the stomping is Loady McGee and the stompee is Synus O'Gynus.

Hate that BA

I went back to england for 6 days last week and BA lost my baggage. My drawing equipment was in it, which was frustrating beyond belief. They have a brilliant baggage tracker on their website which just says 'no information available' so I had to repeatedly phone them and hassle them. I had to take deep breaths as the people on the phone knew nothing either. I finally got it back after 4 days. Four days! it was in the airport for two of those apparently. Anyway, the people on the phone were telling me that it was going to arrive soon, so I kept deferring my King Monkey deadline right up to the last minute. I really should be working weeks in advance, and I was when I first started posting the strip, but currently I am working only one week ahead (laziness!). So anyway, this episode was drawn with a track pad on my laptop moments before the deadline, and I had to cheat rather a lot. Just about got away with it, I think.



I am also working on a KIng Monkey website right now. It's a work in progress, but all the strips are on there. Have a look, tell me what you think: kingmonkeycomic.com