banal pig fan club

i'm thinking about starting a banal pig fan club where you get a badge which says something like "i'm a banal pig lover" and some other shit like a code cracking wheel and a patch. what did you used to get in those sort of things? a certificate and maybe an exclusive little comic or something. thats it- i'm kind of thinking of things as i'm writing, but i could include my as yet unpublished "swearing clock" too.

any more suggestions for what i could include?

who's up for being a pig lover? just send me a postcard with a pound coin sellotaped loosely to it.

portrait corner number 1

here's a little thing i did ages ago which made myself laugh upon looking at it again.

meanwhile, i am roughing out banal pig 4 which is looking pretty good already i reckons. pig lovers can look forward to fez man dying in every panel, a 6 page cat dad story, 2 uncle ken stories and etceteras.

BPWF- 28 days later...

Hopefully if you have looked at this blog previously, you will be well aware of Banal Pig's Web Funnies . The idea was for me to have a go at a 3 panel strip for a month to see if i was capable of churning a strip out every day. Well, i've done it so the churn isnt in question, but is it any kop? let me know what you think. details over there........

blast from the blast

i found this sketch whilst googling myself from here. it's from my first ever con, brighton 2005, where i was naive and innocent. no-one asks me to do sketches at cons anymore because i am an intimidating physical presence.
also i found this lady, who likes our comics, and does some quite nice stuff herself.

steBay

any pig lovers out there thinking about what to get their beloved for christmas look no further! for i am officially flogging all my original art from the banal pig comics at the rock bottom, stone cold bargain price of £50! they're A3 size on nice thick paperstock and obviously are much nicer as drawings than laserprints.



Also. if you like any of the web funnies, i'll do them for £20- theyre 1/3 of A3 size and its just the line art (the colouring's done on computers and that).

please contact me for more details if you're interested- discounts for bulk buys available. have a look here for a reminder of whats on offer, or look at all the comics that you obviously own

joke of the day

how do you kill zombies?
-make loads of really shit comics about them!

ha ha!

seriously though, how are you?

banal pig funnies

so i'm doing alright so far, nearly half way through and i've still got enough ideas to keep me going for a week or so. the trouble is, my scanner's deteriorating so i can only scan in two thirds of the page at a time, which is a bit of a pain in the balls, and if it gets any worse i wont be able to do it. drawing the strips is fairly easy- i do them in my lunch hour at work, but scanning and colouring them when i get home is a bit of a pain, especially when i want to go out on an evening. i keep thinking that i'll do a few in one go to keep me going, but i can never be arsed, the one you see on a morning is the one i finish the night before, the pixels have only just dried by the time it gets to you.

its an interesting learning experience, and good i think to not be so precious about the strips, just bang them out, and i'm now looking forward to starting BANAL PIG IV- the quest for peace, after this month of strips has finished.

go on then...

well seen as everyone's sticking them up, here's my observer blah blah cape and ting. it seems like all us losers have posted as a cathartic experience, and talk of a collection is a good idea i reckons. there's more to see here: http://www.drawanyway.com/2007/10/16/cartoons-the-observercape-winners-and-some-worthy-entrants/ cant be arsed hotlinking, including jim medway's, which is really good, and oli east's is on his blog (trains are mint link, left)

i would have coloured it in if i had the time, but i didnt.

banal pig funnies up and running

yes, pals, as promised, for the next month or so, i will be posting a brand new and exclusive strip EVERY DAY (hopefully) on Banal Pig's Web Funnies. All comments will be gratefully received and please tell your mates.

i will do my best to keep to this gruelling (self-inflicted) schedule, but its probably likely that i'll miss a few days, but my plan is to ease off after a month but still do a couple a week, after the initial burst to get people hooked, you know.

Today's Strip: Space Whale versus Space Kraken.

Birmingham

Hello pals.

Hopefully it goes without saying that i will be presenting my wares at the Birmingham International Comics show this weekend. I know my loyal commentators will be there, but if there are any casual pig lovers out there who fancy a trip to the picturesque west midlands this weekend, then do it! The repeatedly aforementioned JBFCSS2 is now back from the printers and looking fancy, and we'll have all the good stuff, including Gareth Brookes' new book "The Smell of the Wild".
Good old Oliver East will also be joining us, and i understand he'll be bringing not only his excellent Trains are Mint series, but some of Jim Medway's books as well.

Cor Blimey! Why would you want to go to any other stall?

finished

yes yes oh yay, Jolly Bear & Fun Coconut Summer Special Number Two is finished, and i will be whisking it to the printers first thing tomorrow. here's the cover- yes colour, and there's a nice colour painting on the back too. it will premiere at the Birmingham International Comics show this weekend, so please come and buy as many as you can afford.


p.s. this image is not a true representation of the cover, and i have no idea why it's so crazy, but i like it.

JBFCSS2 Preview

yes here he is! a picture from the hotly anticipated Jolly Bear and Fun Coconut Summer Special Number 2, which will be on sale in less than 2 weeks(!) how exciting. I'd better get my arse in gear. same old same old eh? another comic convention, another mad rush to finish. i'm not gonna spoil it, but terrible things happen, as you can see, i've done it a bit painty, like.

clock i made

here's the thing i made for my lovely girlfriend's birthday. a clock with a lion on it. it's based on an antique we saw that julie liked, but as i think you'll agree, it's much better.

pastel pic yeah

quiet week. another nice picture. yes thats right i did do a painting based on this pic too. i found the image on the ground in walthamstow thanks for asking.

another piccy

Here's another one from the vaults. i didnt like it when i did it but i think its pretty good.
Meanwhile in comics, JBFCSS2 is gathering pace like a large round cheese rolling down a steep hill, and the preparations for the all new web funnies during October continue. 'citing.

more never before seen art

here's a couple of things i did a few years ago, and havent seen myself since we moved to bristol. the footballer is from my pastel phase, and the flamencos are coloured pencil (i was completely gay for coloured pencils at one stage) both pics are A1 size. i do want to get rid of a lot of my old art and prints and that but i dont want to chuck them for the sake of it, so i would be prepared to virtually give stuff away as long as it went to a good home. please contact me if you are interested.

tv guide drawings

here's a couple of pictures from an old sketchbook. i used tv guides as reference material quite a lot due to their universality and their pointlessness. i used to enjoy this coloured pencil technique, and i'll post a few more things over next week. i've been a bit nostalgic about being a proper artist and i actually started a new painting yesterday.

banal pig's art appreciation society part 1

have a look at this picture pig lovers, what a beauty! we saw it in a charity shop in wells yesterday and had to "snap" it (didnt buy it though). It is an image full of enigma and symbolism. for example, the little bear is obviously out of his depth, standing still in a world which is always on the move; he clutches a pencil- a creative soul? and his bow tie shows he is part of a society which values appearance over personality. he looks up to show he has aspirations- will he ever achieve them? - i hope so.

also, who wears a yellow skirt, red tights and green high heels? -i like it.

banal pig web funnies up and running!

there'll be no new work up until October probably, but i'm just getting the format right by putting old stuff on there, so any feedback would be appreciated- here it is! there will be a large fanfare etc when new (and exclusive) work goes up, featuring all new Crying Dog, Benny the Ballbag (from Cat Dad) Truculent Strawberry and a new recurring feature tentatively named "Office Funniez", which is a bit of a pastiche of the usual office based rubbish humour we see so much of. Gareth "Man Man" Van Brookes will also hopefully be contributing from time to time, so it should be non-terrible.

Ah, New Look

Yes i thought i'd have a bit of a facelift, so to speak. What do you think? it matches my myspace too. i am however a bit chagrined that i cant put a nice little picture as a header-i've tried loads of times but it just keeps loading forever with that irritating exclamation mark in a triangle.