Stumbling Along the Road of Life

In a slightly maudlin frame of mind, 

it occurs to me, that time is running out on me 

and that 

all of the vague plans, ideas and aspirations of my youth, 

are probably never going to amount to much.

I suppose, that the larger question would be, 

"Does it Matter?"

These days, as an older person, I would have to answer truthfully and say, no it doesn't!

That is a point of view, that my younger self, would have had a great deal of trouble and were we to be in the same room together, a heated argument would probably ensue...

Something that I have come to understand, as my body has aged and I have lost a number of physical capabilities, 

is that an awful lot of our human desire, to push forward, in every sphere of our lives, is 

PASSION!

Sadly, I am almost passionless, these days and I am in awe of the younger me, who was SO passionate, about everything!

Oddly, in an almost ironic twist, I have a better understanding of and ability to draw, more interesting cartoons, 

than I ever could have done as a younger man

BUT

I lack any inner compulsion, to actually make new things and while I feel that I should, I am quite comfortable with letting things slide.

Sometimes, I would give almost anything, just to feel that old, "fire in the blood", that is passion

but then again, 

I wonder what I would make of it, 

here in this Brave New World of mine?

I found a few tutorials, in my travels, that I thought were worth a look and I am reposting them here for anyone who may have an interest

As a final note, I thought that this young woman, 

Lily Williams,

made the point, raised by many other artists and cartoonists, that doing work for FREE is not an option.

Strangely, people who would never think of walking into a restaurant and suggesting that, for a free meal, they would be willing to tell all their friends about the place, have no trouble at all, in saying to a cartoonist, I can't pay you but look at the EXPOSURE your work will get!

As I used to remark, that was all fine and good but my family can't eat exposure...

Which never went over very well!

Whatever Happened to Gary Davis?

Way back when, in the fall of 1986, I found a copy of a black & white comic book, entitled "The Starjongleur Collection",

on the shelf, at The Silver Snail and I was impressed!

Gary Davis, the artist and publisher, was an accomplished talent and a pretty fair writer, it was a fun read and when the second volume arrived, a couple of months later, I bought it too.

There was a strong "European" flavour to the art and the story lines, tending toward the Moebius, aka Jean Giraud, style and the detail in the artwork was, at times, almost overwhelming.

What I find astonishing, in rereading these books today, is Gary's grasp of empty space because, although there are passages of intricate detail in almost every panel, there are also expanses of untouched white (or black) in them too.

In the years that followed his two self published books, Gary contributed stories to the Dark Horse anthology, 

Dark Horse Presents:

A lot of those stories were about Delia & Celia and they seemed to be set in the same world as the stories that Gary had drawn for his self published books.

The stories appeared, on and off for something like twenty issues, from #21, in May of 1988, to #39, in May of 1990 

but "Comic Vine" says he made twenty appearences in the title?

War World!

Was a stand alone story and a one-shot issue, also from the good folks at Dark Horse.

Published in February, 1989, it is also firmly set, in Gary's private universe and could easily have been intended for a never published issue of The Starjongleur Collection

Sometime after that final appearance of Delia & Celia, i Dark Horse Presents, Gary Davis slipped away and quietly disappeared.

Even today, with the amazing amount of data available on the Internet, he is an enigma.

I wonder where he is and what he is doing today.

Before I go, I would just like to thank him though, for the hours of enjoyment his work has given me and the inspiration that he was and is.

Keeping One's Chin Up

Given my advancing age and the simple fact, that there are fewer years ahead of me, even under the most optimistic estimates, than the sixty odd behind me, 

perhaps it isn't surprising to discover that I have experienced a little melancholia, from time to time.

Words of wisdom, about surviving life's trials and tribulations, are only as true as we want them to be.

However, I thought that these words expressed a philosophy of life, rather well.

It isn't always easy and as one ages it gets harder, to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try again...

BUT WE SHOULD

because, in the final analysis, 

HOPE

is all we have

and "It ain't over, until the fat lady sings".

Poor old Robert Crumb has often decried the commercial thievery that kept him from making any money out of this cartoon

but I think that it sums up my philosophy of life, rather well.

Previewing Coming Books

The latest copy of the Diamond "Previews" catalogue,

has a couple of items of interest in it.

Unfortunately, after almost 50 years as a comic book lover and collector, neither of them are from either Marvel Comics 

or the venerable DC Comics... heck, the closest

that I come to being interested in a major comic book publisher's wares, is with IDW and Dark Horse!

There are two items, though, that are of special note. 

The first one, is a reprinting of the Jim Starlin autobiography, A Life in Words and Pictures, which came and went, so quickly, back in 2010, that I never even saw a copy!

This time around, it is a company called "Aftershock", that came into existence in 2015 and publish a few comic book titles.

Considering the rather high prices, being sought by sellers of the 2010 edition, this is welcome news, at a proposed price of $50 U.S.

The advert above, culled from the pages of the Previews catalogue, is a nostalgic treat.

Way back, in the mid Sixties, I was the recipient of a subscription to the brand new comic book out of Britain, 

The Ranger

and within it's pages, I was introduced to the world of the

 Trigan Empire,

which was beautifully illustrated by Don Lawrence

and I was swept away by the wonder of it all!

Needless to say, I cannot wait to get my hands on this edition of Illustrators Special!

If anyone is at all interested, in what the rest of my "wants" list, from this latest catalogue:

Dark Horse, Resident Alien: An Alien in New York #2

IDW, John Byrne's X-Men: Artifact Edition

Strangers in Paradise XXV #4

Boom Studios, Coda #1 of 12

Flesk Publishing, Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea - Studio Edition

and finally,

The Book Palace, Illustrator's Magazine #22

The Kindness of Strangers

A few months ago, for reasons that have never been made clear, Black Magick #8, from Image Comics, was "short shipped" and I was unable to find a copy, here in Toronto.

The issue was available, on E-Bay etc. but I was loathe to go that route, when the shipping costs were usually more than the cost of the book!

When Black Magick #9 came out, I was still looking for the missing #8 and I happened to have a conversation, in The Labyrinth, on Bloor Street, with a young man who was buying a copy.

It turns out, that he was lucky enough to have received a copy of the elusive #8 because he had a standing order for that title, at 

The Labyrinth and they had actually been shipped the number of books that they had asked for!

In the course of our conversation, I lamented my ill fortune and my inability to locate a copy locally.

A couple of months later, when the next issue, #10, hit the stands, I was in The Labyrinth and the manageress, Dobi, surprised me with a copy of the missing issue #8!  I was dumbstruck and amazed, especially when she told me why I was getting it...

It turns out, that the young man that I had spoken with, had not forgotten my plight and when he decided that he was less attached to the comic series, than I was, he approached Dobi, with the idea of allowing ME to have it!

What can I say,

Kindness is the Strongest Magic

and I was deeply touched 

by his thoughtfulness.

It's not quite finished yet, the lettering still needs to be added but I made this, as a "Thank You" card, for the young man and I will ask Dobi to pass it along to him.

It isn't much but I hope that it conveys my appreciation of his selfless act and how much it meant to me.

IDW Artist's Editions

When IDW hit upon the amazing idea, of making books out of photographic scans of original Comic book artwork, I was at the head of the line to buy one!

That first book, reproducing the Dave Stevens, Rocketeer artwork, was amazing and I continued to grab each new Artist's Edition title, as it hit the shelves.

BUT

The price of the books steadily increased, here in Canada, as our dollar lost ground against the American dollar and IDW began making volumes of work, that I was less interested in and I began skipping volumes.

However, I have a feeling that I will have to make an exception in April, when this one is due to arrive:

When the stories, that the artwork in this volume reproduces, I was blown away!  I had already become a Jim Starlin fan, from his time on Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu and this sequence about the character Warlock, was just plain awesome!

Some of Starlin's later work, seemed to me, to be rather repetitious, at least in the general thrust of his story writing and I finally drifted away from being a solid fan, around the time that he was making Dreadstar at Epic, in the early Eighties.

I look forward to reliving those feelings of teenaged wonder, when I buy this volume.

Remembering Dave Holmes

On the 13th of this month, it was one year on from the death of Dave Holmes.

I met Dave when I returned, tail between my legs, to the relatively new, Andromeda Bookshop and discovered that he worked there.

A friendship developed, at least from my side and since Dave never suffered fools gladly, I always assumed that he didn't completely despise me.  So, from around 1974 until I left England, in 1980, he was a regular feature in my life and in some ways, a distinct influence.

Dave managed to push me into attempting a few things, that I would not have tried to do on my own and one of them was working on the electricity wires, in his mother-in-law's house.

I was working, at that time, for the GPO (now known as British Telecom) and I had a MINOR understanding of the way electricity worked... which in Dave's mind, qualified me to fix his problem!

The job in question, was to repair the light fixture, in an under the stairs closet, that had a "pull-chain" switch built into it's base and Dave wasn't taking NO for an answer!

Well, I sweated my way through it, very carefully keeping all of the exposed wires separate from each other and working with the crappy tools he had available.  Amazingly, it worked and I didn't fry myself or the house wiring.

That was a life changing moment for me, because I was not the most self possessed or self confident personality type and Dave forced the gift of realizing that I could do things, that I didn't think I could, upon me.

I don't think that I ever told him how much that meant to me and I am sorry for that.  In the following years, much to the amazement of my Canadian wife, I was fearless in repairing/rewiring any minor electrical issues

and

it all started with Dave!

Dave and I had lost touch, reacquainted, lost touch, reacquainted and had a tenuous contact in the last couple of years before he died.  But I never forgot him and I still don't because he is woven into the fabric of my being and as someone once said,

"You are never really dead, as long as someone remembers you".

Rest in peace.

In the interests of fair play, this photograph of Dave, was borrowed from someone who posted it to Dave's Facebook page.