Christmas is a Love Story

The kids these days - and by kids I also mean middle-aged nostalgonauts, have apparently taken to dubbing a certain Bruce Willis movie a 'Christmas Movie.' Fair enough - I can't argue, as to shout against all that would also be to shout against some other fine Yuletide romps, like Gremlins, Batman Returns - and even Shazam! has Santa in it. It's a movie about children, wishes, magic and families - of course it's a Christmas movie!

But similar things could be said for songs. We adopt songs for our times, and reinvent songs to fit our times. I was agog this week to discover, for example, that my chosen musical bete noir of Nativity-tide, the veritable dog in the manger if you will, said Jingle Bells - is many times not Christmas. It's a Thanksgiving song, apparently. But here we are. And sometimes songs slip into Christmas by intent, despite some ropey sentiment (cough!DoTheyKnowIt'sChristmascough!) and, in the following case, by timing and visuals.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love, the third and greatest of the singles troika going by that name in 1985, is now 35 years old. Sweet Baby Jesus. Released in November of that year, it crept into the public consciousness and made FGtH's third consecutive number one from their debut album. Thematically, it's not Christian in focus or Christmas in theme, but I cant hear it without thinking of the Godley and Creme video and its multi-ethnic magi, imagining the lyrics to be the sentiments of a bewildered and bowlderised Joseph, who loves this girl, but like her is just being carried helplessly along by a greater tide. Back in its native home that video (not to mention single sleeve) did the job, almost, and it would have made the coveted Christmas Number One slot but for Sir Bob Geldof and chums. Never mind. Enjoy this at the close of another brutal year- the sweeping strings, lulling piano, children's cartoon bogeymen, and those vocals. Dampen down the inhumanity and misfortune that 2019 wrought, and hope for better things to come. Let yourself be beautiful, indeed.

I had a girlfriend once who thought this song was warbling drivel. Always knew she was a wrong'un.




"I always felt like 'The Power of Love' was the record that would save me in this life. There is a biblical aspect to its spirituality and passion; the fact that love is the only thing that matters in the end."
- Holly Johnson

Drokktober 2019. Day 31

Oof! Last day of Drokktober 2019, and the theme is The Death of Dredd. Fatality by Fattie it is.

Done in a hurry to get the bloody thing over with by the deadline, I fluffed the big tummy, which should be the feature of the illustration. Gah. And so ends Drokktober 2019! Will there be a 2020 - and will I return? Maybe. It's a marathon, to be sure, so training, pacing, and getting ideas down well in advance (or as will as can be done) is a definite advantage. This pooper of an image seems an anti-climactic one to end on, but...

Yeah. Why not?

New Jack City

It's Halloween again! Time to get carving... This year I was helped just a little bit more by Jet Jr, who's still not quite coordinated enough to be trusted with sharp implements, but did his darnedest, and once again, designed his own hinkypunk. Check out that Nike swoosh grin! In fact, Junior was going for a Pac-o-Lantern, being arcade game mad at the moment, but the lopsidedness of the fruit made for a wonky smile - and it the more charming for it, I reckon.

While the junior pumpkin is a bit tipsy-shaped, there's a good reason. It was home-schooled, and home-reeared, by virtue of my unpatented pumpkin ladder! Do I have a picture of it?

Somewhere, I'm sure. It's folded up, now, ready for next season's batch (this year's wasn't actually that succesful, with the junior version being the only viable one.) Pics when it happens.

In the mean-time... Boo!

Drokktober 2019. Day 30

Day 30 is an obvious theme: My favourite Halloween monster/creature as a Judge. So it's Judge Jack, from The Nightmare Before Christmas

Drokktober 2019. Day 29

Whee! We're nearing the end. Day 29 is "Dredd vs the independents. Any character from newspaper strips or independent comic books" 

Nobody was going to draw the most famous chin in NZ newspaper strips - Wal Footrot's up against Jo Dredd's. So I did.

Drokktober 2019: Day 28

 Today's theme called for Dredd's silliest villain. 

Dredd's had lots of fun, funny, groan-inducing and very silly villains, but Jonni Kiss takes the cake. To a resounding silence from the audience I outlined why Garth Ennis' assassin who cannot die and is too cool for school was Dredd's silliest villain (Dredd gets his man, naturally) Let's say he was no Orlok.

This is a stink illustration - I've had trouble with similar facial angles, and also the slog of the challenge is getting to me a bit now. Not many days to go!

Drokktober 2019. Day 27

Day 27's theme: "What's under Dredd's helmet". The answer can only be a third boot - also one size too small!

Drokktober 2019. Day 26

"Dredd vs any TV/movie character of your choice" is today's theme.

So I did Wellington Paranormal's Officers O'Leary and Minogue. I was reasonably happy with this, and then my Tweeted pic got a like from the real O'Leary and Minogue. Crimminey! 

Drokktober 2019. Day 24

Today's theme is Sinister Sov-Blok baddie Orlok the Assassin, whom I've thinned up (he becomes a typical muscle-bound lunk in the Nineties strips) and modelled on a young Anthony Perkins. 

Drokktober 2019. Day 23

Day 23's theme is '7 Degrees of Dredd: Draw any Character with Loose Dredd Connections' - and, Ma'am, there's none looser than David Bishop and Roger Langridge's Judge Dredd Megazine series Straitjacket Fits - ostensibly set in Brit-Cit (no Judges to be seen), with more than a few references to NZ music (Split Enz, Screaming Meemees, Martin Phillipps, and of course the titular Fits), it must have bewildered UK readers and suffered that most ignoble of ends, a finale safely away from regular pages in a holiday special. 

I liked it. But I did miss the Judges.

Drokktober 2019. Day 22

Today's theme: The Judda! Renegade Judges bred from stolen clone stocks and secreted away in Uluru in the future Oz because reasons! I can't replicate Brendan McCarthy's fantastic lines for this guy (who can?) but given the Judda are wildly varying in their looks, colours and accoutrements, that's okay. 

Drokktober 2019. Day 21

Aaand... after setting Old Stony Face against a DC Comics character, why not set him up against a Marvel one? This was easy. I took longer on the boot treads, to be honest. It's not great, but I'm pretty happy with the foreshortening - my REAL arch nemesis!

Drokktober 2019. Day 19

Yet again, an atempt to keep things interesting. Today's theme is Marlon 'Chopper' Shakespeare. But this is young Chopper as a wall-scrawler, and not mid-era Chopper the skysurfer.

Drokktober 2019. Day 18

Day Eighteen is Otto Sump - Get Ugly! A picture usually paints a thousand words, but this one's a little short on conversation.

Drokktober 2019. Day 17

Day Seeventeen and the theme is Dredd vs a DC Comics character. Anticipating a whole host of Supermens, Batsmens and Wondrous Women, I went for a funner one: Quality Comics' Plastic man, who later became DC property.  And yes, this image is an homage to a Judge Dredd/Judge Death cover by Greg Staples

Drokktober 2019: Day 16

 Today I draw a female Judge. AGAIN? Yes, another one. This one is Galen DeMarco, who is very much a character with a long story arc which I did not follow because I had stopped reading 2000AD well before then.

And that is why she looks like this.

Next: Things get better again.

Drokktober 2019. Day 14

Today's mission: Favourite Cursed Earth Scene

This was a toughie because Pat Mills' The Cursed Earth - Dredd's first mega epic outside his city, is broad and packed with craziness. Flying rats, mutants carved into Mount Rushmore, Ronald McDonald warring with other fast food icons out in the radioactive desert. And vampire androids nursing the frozen-in-suspension body of Bad Bob Booth, the last President of the United States of America. So that's what I went with - drawing from McMahon's take on Kinski's Nosferatu

Drokktober 2019. Day 13

Today's theme: Mean Machine Angel!

 Fun to draw, and surprisingly quick to do. Happy with this one :)

Drokktober 2019. Day 12

Today's topic: Chief Judge Hershey

Like Rico, Hershey has a 1995 big screen Judge Dredd incarnation as portrayed by Superman's mother from an adopted planet, Martha Kent- I mean, Diane Lane. As Judge Hershey she was okay - but it was Stallone's show, and so Lane gets lost amongst the Ricos, the Angels, Fergie (urhurhrhr) and the Hammerstein war droid. o I gave her a second life - as Chief Judge Hershey in the Karl Urban Dredd-verse. 

Drokktober 2019, Day 11

Day 9 was Cassandra Anderson. Short of time, I cheated a little and submitted this old thing. Day 10 wasn't an illustration challenge. But that gave me time to work on today's entry: Rico Dredd

Dredd's clone brother gone bad, returned from Judicial prison moon Titan (where he's undergone involuntary surgery to survive the oxygen-free environment), and swearing revenge! I've avoided the usual Mick McMahon version in The Return of Rico and instead gone with a 'what if?' The 1995 Judge Dredd also had Joe's bad brother in the form of a set-gnawing Armand Assante. I just gave him the old comic strip Titan makeover...

Drokktober 2019. Day 9

Drokktober 2019. Day 8

Something of a change of pace, today's theme is Sensitive Klegg

Sensitive Klegg is... (checks notes) a Klegg who is sensitive, and until recently a confused and must set-upon citizen of Mega City One. More recently he's joined a Hell-Trek and found a new life for himself in the New Territories of the Cursed Earth. Aww.

Drokktober 2019. Day 7

Today's theme is that most enigmatic member of the Angel family, Fink Angel (and Ratty)!

A similar pose to Mean Machine makes me think I should try for a family portrait at some time. I had fun doing the hair on this one.

Drokktober 2019. Day 4

Today's challenge: create a Dark Judge. So I did. A long time ago.

Judge Fury. 

@guanolad and I created him twenty five years ago for a fan comic strip. It never got published, let alone finished, but the script is still in storage, waiting for the day the world needs and demands an overdose of continuity and fanboy service.

Judge Fury (nee Erin Fuery) has whips and wings and a bad attitude - and she's BLIND! Oh yes, I gender-swapped him. Her.

Drokktober 2019. Day 3

Today's theme: Walter the Wo- I mean, Robot

It seems I wasn't the only one to combine one of the most polarising of Dredd's early sidekicks with murderising morality-computer Max, star of Scream comic's The Thirteenth Floor.

Drokktober 2019. Day 2

A choice of themes today: Rok of the Reds - a new comic strip by John Wagner, or an Alien Judge

I choose: Alien Judge! Based of course on the Attack the Block hairy beasties, but the illustration a riff on Prog 182's Block Wars cover. Fun to do, and it seemed to go down well on Twitter.

Drokktober 2019. Day 1

Courtesy of the thrill-powered podcast Everything Comes Back to 2000AD, this October I've entered Drokktober - a daily Judge Dredd/2000AD-themed challenge spanning the entire witching month. Fun! It'll largely be illustrating. Challenging. But hey, I did this once before, voluntarily, with Doodle a Day - so here goes!

Day one is an easy start: Dredd himself. I've drawn his head since I was fourteen, so this was a gentle beginning.

Can You Feel the Warps?

 "That's not a moon... THIS is a Moon!" - Old Ken Benobi, Star Warps 1

Happy Star Warps Birthday, to all of you at home.

The Midlands Cuckoos

The Bojeffries Saga by Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse

"Where do we go when we die?"  "Vhe Gho to Blutty Hyingland!!"

- Uncle Festus Zlutodny 

After months of seeing this on the shelves at the local library and not knowing much about the title, I finally borrowed it-  this beauty born from two trusted creators. So glad I did.

The Bojeffries Saga, a stuttering but undefeated epic spanning the pages of Warrior, Dalgoda, A1 and eventually its own full collection by Top Shelf Productions. Jobremus Bojeffries lives in Northampton with his children Reth and Ginda (a man-frightening giantess with subatomic powers), brothers/uncles Fester (vampire) and Raoul (werewolf with the smell of and taste for dog), grandfather (on the brink of onmipotent protoplasm) and the baby - which is nuclear. Their terrace home is dimensionally precocious and equipped with a curiosity dampener to keep mere earthlings out (but, alas, not rent collectors.)  And with all of this awesome potential, what do the Bojeffries family intend with the world of man? Well, simply to live in it. And be left well alone.

His monsters aspiring to living small, circular daily lives. Moore specialises in pulling the spandex pants of goshcrikey comicking down to reveal the everyday absurdity. He doesn't necessarily mock the format; it's too useful, and he clearly loves it and speaks its language.  His co-conspirator in this endeavour is similarly fluent. Parkhouse is a comics powerhouse, a writer, script editor and formidable artist in a caricature style. We have Parkhouse to thank for the early Stockbridge and Voyager cycles in Doctor Who Weekly, as well as the later Luke Kirby stories in 2000AD, not to mention the comic's early Nineties bete noir Big Dave, which may well share some of its DNA with Bojeffries.

There’s hay to be made in the satirical approach to comics; take a successful formula from other media, skew it with a local variant or a ‘what if?’ Question in the time-honoured style of Alan Moore adherents like Mark Millar and Grant Morrison, remove the adolescent power fantasy nonsense, and with luck you get what Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse do so well. The truly bizarre - skewed so much further it’s hilariously familiar. And so Bojeffries is as much a salute to England's working class, Moore and Parkhouse's "Jerusalem", though the title may well be ironic, ostensibly set in the Eighties, and then the Nineties and beyond. It is more or less timeless; weirdness locked in its own suburban eddy.

Each member of the family gets their own story - some more than one if you include the 24-page epilogue which brings the family up to date (as of 2014) and includes a good number of pop culture cameos and a torturous phonetic narration (with occasional insight by a similarly phonetic Gok Wan) Each story is a cracker, helped immensely by the characterisations of the family - near-ultimate power combined with ineptitude and bathos. Parkhouse renders them with an expert hand, and is unafraid to use a lighter pen for thinner strokes - just a hint of holding line around the edges of characters, but otherwise as true and ephemeral as Lowry's matchstick men. 

 And ephemeral is what Bokeffries may well be described as, too. Bits and pieces pulled together by the universe into an improbable creation, shuffling through "Hyingland"'s pot-holed streets on the way to the bingo. I love it, and will probably buy it. And I haven't even mentioned the musical episode yet.