42nd Post

Looking back at last year's 42nd Post I remember what tough year that had been. This year my feet have continued to recover and my walking looks less and less like a sketch from Monty Python. I think this may be it and I'll take that, it's a long way from where I was.

I've traded my car in for an Automatic, so I can now drive again. You don't know how important it is to be able to just pop into a car and go somewhere. Being able to drive again has had a huge impact. A very positive thing.

The driving has allowed me to have a full year of Comic Conventions, and it's great to get back to those too. Standing up for 3 days at the MCM's doesn't help my poor feet but they are recovering more and more quickly and I think the MCM endurance is helping that.

Speaking of MCMs, this year I picked up the '42' book in October, subtitled 'The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams'. The man had a lot of improbable ideas that are now, or shortly will, become reality. Interesting that he didn't see all of them as a positive thing and I do often wonder if we are creating things because we can and not because we should.

Quantum has been a highlight. It's a lot of work, stress and strain getting something like this ready for publication every 2 months, and financially it's a real challenge too, but we need to try. Things are looking encouraging at the moment and so I think it'll continue for many years yet (I hope I haven't just jinxed it).

A new thing for us is the idea (which came from a friend) to have a subscription to TimeBomb where we produce some very limited edition comics and provide other content. This will help flatten out the ups and downs of print costs and distribution income. The first will go out shortly and features a variant cover version of Quantum 5.

Thanks you all for your support through 2023, and before.

All the best for 2024.

Gator Boys Figures.

As far back as WesterNoir Issue 2 Gary and I introduced The Gator Boys, a family haunting the Mississippi swampland.

They were kind of a hidden joke as we called the the Pontipees, to see if my Mum ever actually read my comics as the name comes from one her favourite musicals (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (which I believe is based a pretty horrible story (which may have also been true))). 

Anyway, many years laters and we are pulling together some figures to make the table at conventions look a little more interesting than just a load of comics. 

You'll have seen Josiah Black on a previous post so here are two of the Pontipees.

I started with an easy-ish one. It was quite easy to get to all areas of the figure and he only had a pair of trousers on, so only two textures really.

The second one proved much more challenging.

A torn shirt and he was crouched over himself, making it really difficult to get to some parts without messing up parts already painted. The trick, I remembered from old, is to keep very little paint on the brush at such times. 

Quite happy with the result, I wanted his shirt to look as if it had been dragged through a swamp. I think I achieved that :o)

So, 2 down and 5 to go.

Quantum 5

Yep, just before Xmas Quantum 5 hit the stores. 

It features the last part of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?, who also features on the cover.

And some people have turned it into an ornament for their Christmas Tree (thanks for the photo Shaun).

You'll be able to find it in your local newsagents or W H Smith stores.

We hope you enjoy it, ideally reading it but if you prefer to use it for your Christmas Tree then that's good also.

Josiah Black Figure

I forgot to post this, I worked on it as I was painting the Kingdom figure from Stephenson's Robot, but we also printed off a Josiah Black figure.

It's a bit bigger than the old figures I used to paint back when I was using them to play D&D

It was good fun though and I'm pretty happy with the end result.

We've made a few other poses so I'll be doing some more in the future, the idea is to use them as a table display.

Oh, and we'll be having a go at the other characters from the series as well.

Catching up with my friends from Smart Meters

Well, a few years ago I was employed as an Information Architect at Smart Meters, yep, the guys who are putting meters in people's homes so you can see just how much you are going to be charged for making a cup of tea. I didn't last long, the company really was between a rock and a hard place and to be honest I didn't fancy banging my head against that particular rock for more than about 8 months.

Whilst there I made a couple of good friends though and every year around Xmas we meet up for lunch and a catch up in London.

Sadly this year Freddie couldn't make it due to health issues, and we both hope he has a speedy recovery, but Frazer and I enjoyed a burger, a few coffees and chatting, setting the world to rights, for the afternoon.

I'm not one for selfies so I took a few photos of the bill posts on various boxes along Tottenham Court Road. I love the way they age, where some stickers are torn off damaging the ones below and others just fall off probably due to the weather. They have their own story to tell.

The D&D boys get together for the second time in 2023.

We've been playing D&D as a group for many many years now and continue to meet up twice a year in person to play.

Renting a cottage / converted barn in Leek, we arrive on Friday and play right through to Sunday evening.

This year I arrived first, driving down the long sloping road to the barn, surrounded by lovely green fields...

...only to wake up on Saturday morning to a white-out.

It's the first time I've driven to the get together for quite a while, due to my poor feet, and I just knew I wouldn't be able to walk out of the place to the GastroPub about a mile away. Also I knew that my 2-wheel drive car would never manage going up the slope with that much snow on it. 

Luckily one of the guys has a 4-wheel drive and took me to the pub, so all was well and the food was fabulous.

A great weekend of D&D, with us making the same mistakes that we did some 20 odd years ago and having a good laugh about it.

We ended the weekend with our little Crib tournament, and I manage to beat Shaun in the final and so got to bring the trophy home with me.

It sits in my cupboard alongside my EAGLE award, although I guess I have to allow someone else the chance to win it next year.

Looking forward to the next session.