Thursday 27 November 2014

Brain Damage, Part 4 - It may never happen

More from Brain Damage here, now - a round-up of Kevin Woodcock's numerous contributions over the issues. Kevin Woodcock as in the Leicester-based cartoonist, who did a ton of stuff for Private Eye, Punch, The Oldie, Knave, Fiesta and so on, right up until his death in 2007, at the age of 64. There's a lot of that sense of "not-quite-right" about his cartoons, certainly - disquieting surreality and all that. I'm trying to sound like an "art critic" here, and it's not working, but I like what I like and I like these a lot.


More below!

Monday 24 November 2014

Tits and arses - Brain Damage Part 3

Yeah, this is working, right? Several smaller posts spread over a week while I'm getting a bigger one ready, saves all the delays and whatnot. This time, we're looking at a selection of Hunt Emerson's work for Brain Damage - specifically, the strange character of Arsover Tit, a two-headed rat-like creature that's naturally in two minds about every issue it's presented with.

We've already seen this one in the "main" Brain Damage piece, but here it is again, just so they're all in one handy place:



This isn't ALL of the adventures of Arsover Tit, just a few of my favourites. Partially because I don't have every issue of Brain Damage (YET), and also because... Well, wouldn't it be nice if they were all collected into a book, eventually? Mr. Emerson's recently had success with a Kickstarter-backed reprint of his Calculus Cat collection (get it if you haven't already, it's ridiculously brilliant), so, there's always a way, perhaps? Unless Arsover Tit is tied up with that American company that bought the rights to Brain Damage and then did nothing with it, that is.

But I blabber, here's the rest after the "jump" (this way):

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Brain Damage, Part Two - A Bit of Borin

Here we go, the first of several "extra bits" for the big long bit about Brain Damage, this one focusing on several bits done by surrealist illustrator Borin Van Loon...


Monday 17 November 2014

John was right! Brain Damage (part one, sort of)

This is the first of a seven-part (or eight or nine perhaps, maybe even ten) look at the various titles that Galaxy Publications put out between 1989 and 1992 (and several that spun-off from those titles). It's a bit of a complicated mess, and I'm not the tidiest of folk anyway, so expect things to get slightly jumbled here while I try and piece it all together... But it'll be worth it, really! Even the worst of Galaxy's output is about fifty times more entertaining than Smut ever was - and that's even with Galaxy being most well-known as the publishers of Fiesta. We're beginning, naturally, with the first of these in a chronological sense, and it's a good 'un. It's called Brain Damage.


This is a bit of a long one this (almost a hundred images, apologies to those with slower Internet facilities), so it'd be a good idea to put the kettle on before carrying on.

Sunday 2 November 2014

Bob and the girls

Sincere apologies to all who care - I've been working on an article, I really have, but it's taking FOREVER. Just so folk don't think this place has been abandoned, here's a bit of something that that nice Adam Smith has just shared with us. Taken from the end papers of the 1973 Judy annual, it's a silent masterpiece from Bob Dewar - this could be a classic children's book, instead it's tucked away in obscurity. It shouldn't be that way!





This remains the only reason I can find for investigating comics aimed at girls... Was Mr. Dewar hiding in the likes of Bunty and Misty as well? Who knows?