#curseborisjohnson

My contribution to the rather amusing #curseborisjohnson tag on Twitter

Fat Batman With Balloons

After a rather bleak confusing week I thought I'd draw a fat Batman with some balloons to cheer you all up!

In, out, shake it all about!

In a week of vicious political divisions let's all remember we're all BRITISH! In that spirit, here's a picture of some people tutting in a passive aggressive manner up to their waists in shit & mud at Glastonbury.

United Kingdom of UKIP?

I drew this in response to an article by Marina Hyde in The Guardian. The absolute nonsense & outright lies involved in the both sides of the EU Referendum have been pretty lousy throughout but I find Nigel Farage & his pandering to lowest common denominator racism & his 'ordinary bloke' schtick particularly odious

Read the article here

Vacuum cleaner chaos!

Illustration for an article in Which? magazine about vacuum cleaner tests

Dragon eating sandwich in bath

I was alerted to the fact it was British Sandwich Week (it's true, look here!) this week & this fella popped into my head & onto my paper.

NB As a cautionary tale, sandwiches & hot soapy water don't go together very well from bitter (& soapy) personal experience. Due to the ongoing horror of '70s school dinners, the 6 year old me begged my long suffering mum to allow me to take sandwiches to school instead. One day, whilst washing my hands I  somehow managed to drop them into the sink, whereupon one of the more peculiarly sadistic dinner ladies insisted I eat them, thinking it was a ploy to avoid eating my dinner. Mmmm hot wet soapy corned beef! (not sure it'll ever catch on!)

One that got away...

Rejected cover for a recent project (boo!) Some things are never meant to happen, often one party has a very specific idea of what they want but can't always articulate it which makes an illustrator's job harder. Equally, sometimes it's the wrong illustrator for the job which I think was the case for this one. Pity, I LOVE a dinosaur!

Happy birthday your Majesty!

Yep, Iggy Pop's 69 today!

Monster on budget shopping trip

In between doing monster-y things it's *always* good to grab a bargain, maybe a talking ice cream in this case?

You don't believe in such a thing?

You cynic, you!

...& the Devil in a black dress watches over... (part 2)

I've been in a very Devil-y mood recently...
(apologies to The Sisters of Mercy)

...& the devil in a black dress watches over...

I'm rather fond of a devil & a recent conversation reminded me of the line from Temple of Love by The Sisters of Mercy mentioning the 'devil in a black dress' so I thought it'd be a shame not to depict one.

More devils?

Go here!

Let's wrestle!

Just another Saturday night...

Colectivo cover art

I drew this recently for the cover of a new literary magazine called Colectivo.
The image takes a little bit of artistic licence from several experiences of shared 'bush taxi' journeys a friend of mine & I experienced while traveling around in Gambia, Senegal & Mauritania a few years ago. Whilst travelling around West Africa on the cheap one becomes more & more aware of the myriad workings of what I came to call 'Bush Taxi Top Trumps'
Here's a couple of the original sketches.

For more exhaustive & often far better written & funny musings on 'different' travel experiences I heartily recommend my friend Graham Askey's Inside Other Places blog

Happy World Book Day (even you villain-ish types)

'cause you gotta source your fiendish plots from somewhere!

Batman vs Superman (the 'avuncular years')

Re-imagined in the George Reeves /Adam West oeuvre...

Year of the monkey!

Here's a monkey triangle ensemble to celebrate Chinese New Year - year of the monkey!

Diary of Dennis The Menace - The Great Escape published TODAY!

It's publication day for the 6th Diary of Dennis the Menace book - The Great Escape written by Steven Butler with illustrations by me.

In this story, Dennis the Menace - Prankmaster General and feared enemy of softies everywhere - has been sent to Posh Street, an elite boarding school run by the terrifying Mrs Snoot. Help! Dennis is surrounded by bookish boffins, can't hang out with the Bash Street Kids and is nearly starving as the school dining room only serves super-healthy food. What he needs is a plan. With a little help from his menacing buddies on the outside, some fart pellets and Gran on a Charley Davison bike, it's time for Dennis to make his great escape . . .

Very sadly I recently found out that this is going to be the last Dennis the Menace book I'll be drawing. It's been a huge amount of fun & I've absolutely loved the chance to be able to reinterpret a childhood hero of mine in the books. I've also thoroughly enjoyed working with the lovely Steven Butler (any author who can make me laugh out loud with the manuscript is ALWAYS a good sign!) & lots of thanks to all the people at Puffin & The Beano.

Kimono Dragon (slight return)

A return to the  'kimono dragon' from an original pun by a friend & drawn as a birthday present for another.

The creative process (or caffeine solves everything)

Flappy ghost