Stupidmonsters

We have moved!

2007-12-11T18:13:00.000Z

All news, sketches and illos are now over at http://www.garynorthfield.co.uk/

This blog will self-destruct when you close your browser (well, maybe not. But there's no point in checking back as it'll never be updated ever again. Unless I invent some brilliant concept to take it's place.)

I thank you.

New site

2007-11-23T11:36:00.000Z

I've recently been working on a new portfolio site at

http://www.garynorthfield.co.uk/

It's one of those "easy to use" website-in-a box-things, although to be honest, it's a real pain in the backside to use. But anyway, it's also got a news/blog on there, which is slowly making this blog redundant. I'll probably wind this site down soon, which is a shame as it's been around for about 5 or 6 years and I'm a sentimental sort and rarely throw anything away. Even websites. So maybe I'll turn it into something else. I'll have a think about it.

Jolly little interview

2007-11-22T21:40:00.000Z

There's a brief little interview with me over at Douglas Noble's Strip For Me.

Be sure to pick up a copy of the upcoming Giant-Size Avengers Annual which Douglas has written a story for. I've been a big Avengers fan since I was a kid, so I'm well excited to actually know someone who's written for them.

C'est bon!

2007-11-12T20:36:00.000Z

Norbert Le Mouton finally rears his ugly head! The book ought to be out next February/March, which is all very exciting.
The equivalent book from Bloomsbury has been slated for September 2008, just in time for the Christmas market. It seems it's going to be a hardback too, so hopefully Bloomsbury can convince the shops to stock it next to the various Beano Annuals. Maybe they should call it the "Derek the Sheep 2009 Annual" just to fool 'em.

Also got myself some work with the old dip-pen, so all those splats and scratches paid off. Unfortunately it's for two secret projects, So if I told you what they were, I'd then have to kill you. There'll be some ducks though, so don't panic!

I've also been looking at sparrows for an idea I had and it's so sad how their numbers have depleted. I was checking out the RSPB website and they're now on the endangered list, which is pretty shocking. The little things used to be everywhere when I was a kid and it seems to be only starlings hopping about these days. Nothing wrong with starlings though; they've got a certain cheekiness about them.

(Apologies for the waffling; I recently went full-time freelance working on my own all day, so I don't get to talk to real human beings as much these days....)

Cow

2007-08-02T12:41:00.000+01:00

In case you think I've gone all soft, here's a picture of a cow I drew for someone on facebook...

Little birdie

2007-07-31T23:16:00.001+01:00

I was sitting at my desk this afternoon, suffering from one of my all too frequent writing blocks, when a pretty little bird sat on my window-sill and started singing away as though he didn't have a care in the world. This awoke me from my creative slumber and I quickly pulled out my pen and started sketching the chirpy chap before he flew away...

(Click to enlarge)

Hahahar!!! Not really!! I copied it from a photo in a book on wildlife as an exercise in drawing nicely with my dip pen! Ho ho. Had you going there, didn't I?

Tomorrow, hopefully I'll find time to post the quick drawing I did of the pack of grizzly bears that ambled past my front door, just the other day...

Ducks 'n' bees

2007-07-29T01:25:00.000+01:00

Plug

2007-05-20T11:43:00.000+01:00

My friend Natalie Abadzis, fellow Eaglemoss illustrator (and fellow "Lost" obsessive), who keeps me sane at work with her pearls of wisdom and spontaneous dancing, is also superlative artist/illustrator in her own right. She has an exhibition this week at the Coningsby Gallery from Monday 21st until Saturday 26th May and you are implored to pay a visit if you can.

As one door closes...

2007-03-31T23:32:00.000+01:00

Round up time!

Finally came to the end of an exhausting two year, 60 issue run on "The Magical World Of Roald Dahl". I half expected to find myself putting my feet up a bit more at the weekends, but there's no such luck! My old editor from the Beano is now running the new monthly BeanoMax, so I've drawn one Derek the Sheep spread for him for issue 4, and now have a couple more to be getting on with in the coming months (this on top of Derek's regular Beano appearances).

Also, my big news is that Bloomsbury have agreed to publish a collection of Derek's early strips! Hopefully it should appear next year in time for the Beano's 70th Anniversary. I should also have a similar collection of strips out in France this Autumn with Actes Sud/Editions De L'an 2 under the title "Norbert Le Mouton".
Here's the front cover for that particular book:

(Click le pic)

The cover from Bloomsbury will be quite different to this one, and I should have it completed soon, in time for the Children's book fair in Bologna next month!
So anyway - so much for putting my feet up. Not that I'm complaining of course!

More "Ducks With Beards" coming soon too. Maybe even "Ducks with Beards; In Space - Smoking space Fags".

Comicspace

2007-02-12T17:09:00.000Z

Decided to set up one of those Comic-space thingies.

http://www.comicspace.com/gary_northfield/

Seemed like a good place to consolidate all those sketchbook stories and portfolio pieces. I'm everso slowly putting up all my old bad Dog strips too!

2007-02-01T00:16:00.000Z

Click le pic

Ducks With Beards

2007-01-29T23:56:00.000Z

As requested...

Click the pic

2007-01-24T01:32:00.000Z

Click to make big

It's not big and it's not clever...

2007-01-22T08:51:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

2007-01-21T12:32:00.000Z

I've been getting increasingly dissatisfied with using fibre-tip pens for my work. Mainly because you need so many different sizes and they wear down so quickly, burning a big hole in my pocket money-wise. And so, inspired by my recent reading list of Krazy and Ignatz, Nicolas Mahler, Popeye and the Moomins, I've decided to have a crack at the good old-fashioned dip pen! And you, my friends will be joining me on this voyage of discovery. Yes, I will be shit for a little while, but by gum I'm determined to master the bugger!
I've bought a little sketchbook especially and will draw all manner of nonsense as I try to tame this wild horse! (Bit over-dramatic I know)
Here's my first scribbles, some bees!:

Click to enlarge

I've left in all the splats and dribbles to see if they noticeably diminish throughout my progress. Let's hope!

Steve Bright

2006-11-09T13:47:00.000Z

Living Legend, fellow DC Thomson artist and all-round nice guy, Steve Bright (Banana Man, Beryl The Peril, Bad Max and about a hundred million others) informs me that he now has his own super-funky website! It's chock-a-block full of glorious artwork, so go feast your eyes!

Sumo Spiders

2006-10-17T22:43:00.000+01:00

Did anyone watch that Beetle Sumo Wrestling on Jonathan Ross's Japanorama? People turn up with their personal stag beetles and watch them do battle in tiny arenas. Anyone?
I was inspired to try it out on two huge spiders in my garden. I picked one up with the end of a broomstick and put it in the web of a similarly sized monster and stood back to watch the mayhem.
Well, to be honest, it was all a bit embarrassing. The owner of the web dashed straight after the intruder, they flapped their arms about a bit and the intruder ran off and hid under a leaf! I thought spiders were meant to be hard! What a load of rubbish. I was entertained for exactly 5 seconds. Maybe I'll put them in tiny canoes next time and they can race each other around a big puddle. Perhaps that's where their competitive talents lie.

Sumo Garden Spider ready for action. Or not as the case may be.

2006-07-15T12:27:00.000+01:00

And while you're here, more genius from the sublime Simone Lia.

And by golly, I'm desperate to tell you all some brilliant news about Derek the Sheep, but I can't, so you'll have to wait. So watch this space mes amis.

2006-07-13T01:28:00.000+01:00

Now THIS is what I call a brilliant stripblogjam. Awesome. From the guys who put out Hickee.

Bow Down to the Mighty Hercules

2006-06-27T23:43:00.000+01:00

Top geeza Hurc has been in touch to let me know about his great new website lordhurk.com, so please do mosey on over and check out his marvellous comicstrips as he's definitely a hidden nugget of genius.

I never normally plug Derek the Sheep in the Beano on this site, but check out this week's issue as it has some lovely jokes in it. Also I'm well chuffed with the colouring this issue (I stopped doing it myself a few stories back), and my strip looks mega sparkling. I'll be sending some reddies over to the Ed to make sure I get this colourist permanent!

Laziness equals punishment by God.

2006-06-15T01:21:00.000+01:00

I decided to take a couple of weeks off to watch the footy; which seemed like a great idea, but after 5 or 6 days lounging on the sofa drinking lager and scoffing jaffa cakes I woke up this morning with one of the most painful stiff necks in the history of the Earth. If I turn to the left I get a tremendous stabbing pain in my neck, so I have to walk about looking to the right. It's a bit dodgy going down the stairs I can tell you.

I haven't had a decent day off for ages, i.e. sitting about doing bugger all, answering to no one, no responsibilities, reading comics and listening to music, that sort of thing. My weekends tend to involve writing and drawing Derek or drawing Roald Dahl and I'm usually wracked with guilt if I vaguely visit the shops to buy a mars bar or some lager. So I was really looking forward to taking it easy in a guilt-free manner and instead I ended up watching the German V Poland match like an invalid wrapped in a blanket (I couldn't put a shirt on!!!) propped up by cushions living in fear whenever I'd shout obscenities at the T.V. as invariably I'd get a great big shot of pain up my spine when excitable.

It's just flipping typical that's all I can say.

A few G & T's seem to have dulled the pain, so hopefully I'll be ok tomorrow.

In other news I have an interview in the children's magazine Aquila. It's subscription only, but this month they have an online preview version and you can download it here. Big thanks to Sue Wilkes who conducted the interview.

Bernard Cribbins

2006-05-21T21:10:00.000+01:00

Ooh, a review of the first comic I did with Matt a year or so ago!
"Roar out loud funny." That's me! And Matt's story contains "much amusement".
Email me if you want to buy a copy, I might have one or two lying around.

2006-05-07T23:04:00.000+01:00

I was in my garden this afternoon when I spied a funny looking green beetle flying towards me. I decided it would be a good idea to kick him in the head as he flew past, but unfortunately I completely missed him and flinged my slipper right up into the air!
The slipper nearly ended up in next door's garden! Imagine having to go next door and asking for your slipper back! I was millimetres from an excruciating embarrassing moment in my life there.

A true representation of the excitement this afternoon.

2006-05-04T23:23:00.000+01:00

Norman the existential worm.

2006-05-03T23:08:00.000+01:00

Neville the depressed bohemian bee.

goodbye cruel world...

2006-03-17T01:11:00.000Z

Yet more evidence that we're all going to die horribly within the next twenty years. Oh well, I guess it's all going to go a bit "Mad Max" as we drive about in our mad cars with rockets sellotaped to the sides and lethal boomerangs. All of South London will just be a big desert filled with dinosaur people who live in caves, so you won't want to leave your front door.
Fortunately I live opposite a row of shops, so I'll probably be one of the lucky ones.

In other news, I visited that Giant Squid at the Natural History Museum. Very peculiar. it's kept in a room full of pickled animals in jars, including monkeys. I asked if they had a pickled gorilla, and they did! I also asked what was the largest mammal they had pickled; the curator starting telling me about some whale or something, and I said "No, don't you have a pickled elephant?".
I don't think she was too impressed (nor were my fellow visitors, but someone had to ask!). I'd pay money to see an elephant pickled in a jar.

No drawings today, as they are a bit boring.

Fear not, I am alive.

2006-03-13T23:04:00.000Z

I'm extremely aware of how horribly neglected this blog has become. Not wanting you to think that I hate you all (I don't: you're all lovely), and to prove that I'm really excruciatingly busy I thought it would be quite nice to post up some of the work that I do during the week. Of course it will all be unforgivably self-indulgent, but it's my blog and if you can't be self-indulgent on your own blog, then what's the point? That's what they're there for really.

I had a really busy weekend starting with Saturday morning when I inked two pages of comic-work which I needed to get out to my colourist pretty sharpish as she was going on holiday in a week's time. I've been working on this series over a year now for a part-work magazine. I'd rather not say what it is in case I get googled and sued for showing the artwork early or something. Anyway, it's a regular strip based on a famous children's author and his exploits in life before he started writing.
Drawing this strip has been a real rollercoaster ride; as I say, I've been drawing it for over a year now around about once a fortnight, sometimes once a week. Sometimes they turn out so terrible as I try and keep to tough deadlines that I wonder at how I kept the job! But it's been a fantastic learning experience and after about 30 issues I really feel I'm starting to hit my stride.

This page shows our hero just after he crashed his plane in the Second World War. (I get a rough thumbnailed script, so I have little to do with creating the storyline.)

(Click on pic)

Trying to keep it loose (in the spirit of a certain illustrator) and coherent is the toughie with this strip. And they want it to look all zappy and manic.

After I emailed the finished pages, I needed to crack on with writing Derek the Sheep. I'm coming to the end of writing and drawing a big six part story for Derek, and I'm finally getting to the end of it all. The tough part with the last episode is tying up all the story strands together so they make sense and make sure there are no big holes in the plot. AND make it finish on a suitable enough big ending worthy of six parts! No pressure round 'ere though. It'll be on your desk next week ed. come hell or high water.
Unfortunately I can't show you those pages as I don't want to give anything away (and it might infringe rights etc.), so here's a page from my sketchbook from the previous story (Everlasting Cola) that I edited out from the final narrative.

Derek is showing off his great new book "A to Z of the Countryside. for Idiots", and ends up insulting Bert Worm by calling him "a common worm".

(Click on pic)

I also popped over to The Thing in Bethnal Green Saturday afternoon, a Small Press Expo thingummy for East London, got a bit drunk, then got up early Sunday morning and drew lots more Derek!

So you see I did squeeze in a bit of fun in between drawing, so it's not all bad.
Tomorrow, what I get upto in the week!! How exciting!

Greg Cook

2006-02-07T21:19:00.000Z

Holy moley! One of my favourite cartoonists, Greg Cook, has a new website!!
His brilliant book, Catch As Catch Can is a luscious delight, with lots of comedy animals swearing and killing each other. I was also fortunate enough to pick up a few of his minis from the dear departed Highwater comics website, plus from SPX a couple of years ago. I haven't read through his new site yet, but I'm sure I read somewhere that Firstsecond or someone are putting out a new book by him pretty soon. Hooray!

The end is surely nigh..

2006-02-05T21:31:00.000Z

After all my shenaningans in the Angouleme snow I've not felt too well this week and in fact felt quite horrible over this weekend. I'm trying to draw an epic Derek adventure but I couldn't ink to save my life today after a couple of excellent days pencilling. My brain is verging on delirium and I've developed horrifying "devil powers".
This morning I was admiring a pretty little yellow fish in my aquarium and reflecting on how lovely it was that he was born and bred and that very same tank and what a lucky soul he was to have a stress-free life swiddling about without a care in the world.
When I looked again a couple of hours later he was dead.

Then later this evening, someone was revving up a car outside my house whilst I was trying to listen to the mad ramblings of the deluded psychics on "Britain's Greatest Psychic" on channel 5. So I twitched my curtain to see who it was, glared at them and they almost instantaeously drove off.
Job done.
To cap it all, I found myself downloading a KT Tunstall track off i-tunes. I'm definitely very ill. Next thing you know I'll have visions of xylophones flying through the air (this actually happened to me when I was about 7 years old, so it's not as strange as it sounds).
I'm not exactly the King of Spain yet, but considering the path I'm veering down I wouldn't bet against it.

Snowy Angouleme

2006-01-30T23:00:00.000Z

Popped over to Angouleme for the weekend and had a lovely time buying new comics and drinking lager.

It also snowed extremely heavily throughout Saturday and I love snow me. Saturday evening consisted of going to a party in honour of the excellent Finnish cartooning contingent, with all it's free booze and snazzy music. Then, when all the free booze ran out at 1 o'clock, me and my friend Matt decided to find somewhere that was still serving beer (Hotel Mercure most likely). But instead we degenerated into having an hour-long snowball fight throughout the streets of Angouleme (sans gloves). It was exactly like a Spaghetti Western, but in the snow. In France.

After an hour we were probably sobering up and getting very cold, so we dropped into the Hotel Mercure for more beer, but that was boring. So we decided to go home or find another pub, or whatever.
Outside I spotted a v.famous cartoonist (best not say who) and I greeted him like an old friend, he reciprocated and was very pleased to meet me. He then asked if we actually knew each other to which I replied "Nope!". Matt then called out, "Hey! {+++insert name of famous cartoonist+++}!" The cartoonist turned round and Matt gestured him to move out of the way and threw a large snowball at me, narrowly missing said famous cartoonist.

Another snowball fight then started up between me and Matt that lasted until about 4 o'clock in the morning.

It was a cracking evening and I'm still surprised that my fingers haven't dropped off from frostbite.
Here's a small selection of photos of the snow in Angouleme and of the snowball fight.

Me in my great new hat, all snowed upon.

Bald Dog

2005-10-14T00:26:00.000+01:00

Your wish is my command. Any more requests?

Zebra Documentary

2005-07-25T23:22:00.000+01:00

Freddy the Little Goldfish.

2005-07-17T16:44:00.000+01:00

Bad Dog starts next week

2005-06-25T12:41:00.000+01:00

... and here's a tantalising panel from the story in my sketchbook about Freddy the little Goldfish.

I'd better go and draw the bloody thing properly now.

2005-06-18T12:13:00.000+01:00

Grrr..

¡Pedro!

2005-01-31T23:20:00.003Z

2004-12-12T15:30:00.000Z

Here's a copy of that recently discovered Van Gogh painting "Stupid sheep shouting at birds".

2004-11-27T14:27:00.000Z

He didn't much like the idea that he had to eat worms either.

2004-11-27T02:07:00.000Z

Nobby the little hedgehog didn't much like the rain.

uglybug

2004-10-10T01:48:00.000+01:00

Just testing flickr...

2004-10-09T18:42:00.000+01:00

2004-10-06T23:51:00.000+01:00

2004-10-05T22:21:00.000+01:00

2004-10-05T01:03:00.000+01:00

2004-09-14T23:22:00.000+01:00

As I went to bed last night, I spotted this little fellow crawling up the bathroom tiles. I had visions of my wife finding him at 3 o'clock in the morning, screaming, so I flushed him down the toilet. As I pulled the chain, I looked up to spot a little spider, quivering with fear on the ceiling. It then occured to me that maybe they were together, trying to make a break for it and that the millipede got caught, a bit like that scene in "The Great Escape" where the German officer says "nice weather" or whatever in English and catches out the escaped prisoner. And then shoots him. In which case that little spider was last seen riding an old motorbike, over barbed wire on the Swiss border. Well that was the strange vision that kept me up for the rest of the night.

2004-09-08T00:43:00.000+01:00

Got home too late tonight to see what Charlie the spider has been up to. So here's a pic of the little brown spider who sat on the ceiling above one of my settees. I decided not to sit there in case he fell on my chips.

2004-08-30T00:12:00.000+01:00

I'm actually getting quite obsessed with drawing bees at the moment. I've just done a story about one and I think maybe a new bee comic will be next on my list. I was going to do a comic about spiders, but it's definitely the bees that are calling me...

2004-08-24T00:48:00.000+01:00

Lots of bees in my garden and some of them are much grumpier than others. They give out a low, droning, almost arsey buzz, just to let you know they're there.

2004-08-15T01:05:00.002+01:00

2004-07-31T01:03:00.000+01:00

And of course, the last thing you want do in the summer is leave the backdoor open AND leave the kitchen light on. That's just asking for trouble.

2004-07-30T00:04:00.000+01:00

There seem to be literally hundreds of these hoverfly thingies in my garden. They're like little flattened wasps and hover as if motionless, darting sporadically into the flowers. They do the same job as bees and wasps, i.e. scoff all the pollen, but I don't think I've ever heard of a 'hoverfly-nest'. Maybe they're nomadic and live in tiny little tents up in the trees? I'll have to investigate further...

2004-07-25T21:06:00.000+01:00

The best thing about moving from a flat to a nice semi with a small garden, is all the groovy insects that hang about the place.
Yesterday, this one watched me intently as I mowed the lawn.

I may do a survey of all the strange creatures that inhabit my property, including the horrific spiders that live in my shed and spy on me as I go about my business.

2004-06-18T00:11:00.000+01:00

Well, Derek's latest little adventure hits the stands as we speak, so I hope you all rush out and buy it.
I've also had news today that a regular comic strip gig I've been working on has just received the green light. It's for a licenced magazine, and I get to draw it entirely in my own style (hooray!) and in full colour! It's two pages long and (eventually) fortnightly, but I can't tell you what it is as it's top secret. So watch this space...
To celebrate, here's the new strip that appeared in the everso rare "Bad Dog 2" which debuted at Bristol.

2003-12-20T22:51:00.000Z

2003-12-08T23:43:00.000Z

2003-07-24T23:07:00.000+01:00