Merry Christmas 2015 - Chaos Eve

(2B pencil on a 141mm x 103mm postcard)

 

"Black Friday? Super Saturday? These were nothing but feeble side shows compared to the utter blood-thirsty carnage that has become Chaos Eve. That one, last, desperate shopping day before Christmas where real bargains were there for the taking, if you were ruthless enough..."

 

Like the Santa Clause artwork I did last year, this was put on the front of a Christmas card I printed out and gave to various people. Unlike the last one, extra pages had to be stapled in to fit the following delightful seasonal tale of the joys of Christmas shopping:

 



 

 

(Just click on one and you should be able to scroll through them all)

 



WIZBANG! Star Portal

(2B pencil on a 139mm x 87mm postcard)

  - NOT AVAILABLE -

As I remember, the original small-ads were very crude in their appearance, so the rough nature you see in the ones I've done do match that. This is helped by doing them with a simple 2B pencil, which gives them that rough "letterpress" feel that the original adverts once had. So it's fortunate that I didn't choose a fineliner, because I don't think they would have looked as good.

WIZBANG! Mind Probe

(2B pencil on a 139mm x 87mm postcard)

  - NOT AVAILABLE -

The old comic-book adverts were something of a phenomenon that many have fond memories of. They instilled a sense of wonder in the kids that fell under their spell, and even though what they received through the post fell way short of their expectations, they still sent off for more. Ad agencies today can only drool at the way these small ads captured the imagination of the young, knowing they could never get away with anything like that now, not without spending some time in prison.

 

In this artwork, I've created a fictional company called WIZBANG! as usually these small ads were from the same company who used different names. In this case, it's a strange company that creates genuine items like the mind probe and sells them cheaply.

 

And just a note: Don't send any money to the address in the ad, unless you're really stupid, because I doubt you'll receive anything back. If you do, it won't be what you expect. Pretty much like the original comic-book ads themselves!

The One-Eyed Man Is King

(Red biro on a 139mm x 89mm postcard)

- NOT AVAILABLE -

When technology is so prolific and beyond the comprehension of many, it can easily intrude on our everyday lives, whether we like it or not. And when this happens, the one-eyed man is truly king.

I thought I'd enter this into the Guardian's online "A to Z of Art" which they ran in December of this year. It got chosen (and I think published in the newspaper). Here's the link to their page:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/jan/04/smash-the-system-your-art-on-the-theme-of-disruption-in-pictures

Glad someone else thought it was good :)

Cut-Price Holidays

(2B pencil on a 125mm x 75mm notecard)

 

Another juxtaposed pop-art style comic-book frame with an everyday smalltalk phrase.



BlamGirl

(Black biro on a 125mm x 75mm notecard)

 

A pop-art style comic-book frame juxtaposed with a common everyday phrase.

The Laughing Girl

(2B pencil on a 139mm x 87mm postcard)

  - NOT AVAILABLE -

A pop-art style piece depicting a single frame from a non-existent comic-book. When you take a frame from a comic-book and show it on its own, it can totally change the context of the characters and situations they depict. A frame from one which doesn't exist doesn't even allow you reference to the original and almost asks you to think of possible scenarios for it.

 

On it's own, it takes on a more symbolic from. Whether it's the acquisition of great power, wealth or knowledge by those too inexperienced to handle it, or an image that's a metaphor for the onset of adolescence, it can have different meanings whichever way you look at it.

 

Or it could simply be a fantasy image of a little girl that's suddenly discovered amazing magical powers.

Lucid Trigger

(HB pencil on a 139mm x 89mm postcard)

- NOT AVAILABLE -

It wasn't the blatant fact that she was sat naked in a waiting room next to an invisible man who wore a harlequin hat, bow tie and kinky cod-piece to get himself noticed. Or that there was a hideous, bug-eyed, tentacled monster making sexual advances on her.

No, all this seemed quite normal in her mind.

The point that finally made her realise she was dreaming was that the dragon-headed man had the nerve to be smoking in a no smoking area and she just couldn't accept it.

I mean, she thought, how fucking dare he?!

Hentai 4 Food

(Black fineliner on 125mm x 75mm notecard)

In the 1980s and 90s, when it broke into the west, manga and animé had a cool factor that nothing else had. It was edgy, underground and subversive. If you read manga, watched animé, or you were a manga artist, you were part of a very select group.

But, those shining gems we were first given from the east were quickly submerged by a tsunami of low-budget shite. Both manga and animé soon became a shameful cliché of itself, further compounded by the flood of hentai which inevitably followed.

Now, whenever the words "manga" and "animé" are mentioned, they're associated with cheesy animation or sex, because that's all they're really worth now. A terrible fall from grace for what was once the coolest kid on the block. It's everywhere and nowhere, and worth nothing.

Even though I used to love drawing manga, this crude, half-arsed example here will be the last manga image I ever draw. Perhaps, one day, it can somehow regain part of that lost credibility, but until then it's nothing more than an unclean dirty whore, an embarrassment to view and use, very much like a sign written in comic-sans.

Prophecy 3 : THE RISE OF THE TECHZED

(2B pencil on a 140mm x 88mm postcard)

- NOT AVAILABLE -

Shuffling here and there, but going nowhere. Or just standing and staring at blank cyber-optic screens that once buzzed with their favourite banality. Their hands twitching and contorting on virtual keypads, typing nothing but gibberish.

They are the Techzeds (tech-zombies) and they're on their way.

First there's a few, then hundreds, then thousands. Victims of an imbalance which devours their minds. The result of high technology dumbed-down too far for the masses to comprehend any of it, or any of the dangers it will bring.

The techzed will become utterly withdrawn from friends, family, and the world around them. All higher brain functions gone as they exist on automatic. The world itself nothing more than an ethereal plane of faceless shadows and lost memories. They will be dead, but the devices which they simply couldn't live without will, ironically, be the only things keeping them alive. Some might say it would be a blessing to switch them off and so end what's left of their miserable lives, but many will be left in their mindless electronic purgatory. A disturbing warning to all who see them.

"Look at them. Isn't it awful? I'll never be like that."