David Bowie Is...

Like most people, I was shocked to wake up this morning and hear the news about David Bowie's passing. The only album of his I actually own is the 2002 greatest hits compilation, Best of Bowie and I never made it along to the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A a few years ago. But I enjoyed his music, and the movie Labyrinth, and that time he played Nikola Tesla. And the stars look very different today....

And for someone that started making music in the 1960's, he was still so culturally prevalent, a fact that was reinforced by the solid wall of David Bowie tributes that quickly made up my Facebook news feed this morning. And just yesterday while I was sorting through the work on my computer, I found a couple of Bowie drawings I'd done in previous years...

First, a piece I did for an art show in East London by the band Emperor Yes, for the release of their single Cosmos. I drew an illustration of the band surrounded by various space-themed pop culture characters, including (of course!) a cameo from the Starman himself!



The other was a card I made for my friend Nanae, who as well as being a fan of David Bowie shares the same birthday as him (8 January), and has a pet poodle...

Late Nite Sketch: The Grand Budapest Hotel

I went to watch Wes Anderson's new film The Grand Budapest Hotel this evening and really enjoyed it. So much so, that when I got home I was still thinking about the film and decided to do a quick sketch before I go to sleep...

Fan Art Friday: The Legend of Zelda

Yesterday I got a letter from HMRC. I also went to the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess concert in the evening. I combined these two things to draw a quick bit of Zelda Fan Art...

Fan Art Friday: The Secret History of D.B. Cooper

Today's Fan Art Friday picture is inspired by one of my favourite comics of 2012: The Secret History of D.B. Cooper by Brian Churilla, published by Oni Press.

So, who is D.B. Cooper? I was unfamiliar with this particular chapter in US history before I started reading the book, but a quick Wikipedia search later, and I was intrigued by the story of the only unsolved air piracy case in US aviation history:

On November 24 1971, a man using the alias D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 747 aircraft between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. On the ground in Seattle, he demanded $200,000 in ransom and two parachutes. When his demands were met, he ordered the plane to take off, and somewhere over the Washington widlerness he parachuted out of the plane. Over forty years later, D.B. Cooper has never been located and is still on the FBI's most-wanted list.

Churilla's comic finally reveals the truth about D.B. Cooper's history and the events surrounding the hijacking, a psychedelic adventure involving a fringe group within the C.I.A., psychic assassinations, and a red teddy bear called Lee. The Secret History of D.B. Cooper is one of my favourite comics of 2012, and continually keeps you guessing about where it's all heading, before finally coming together in a truly satisfying conclusion.

Here's my drawing of D.B. Cooper and Lee facing off against one of the monsters within "The Glut", the psychic battleground within the human mind...

The fifth and final issue of The Secret History of D.B. Cooper was released on the 18 July.

Fan Art Friday: Saga

So I've decided to resurrect Fan Art Friday, which was a very short-lived series of posts I started a few years ago, featuring drawings inspired by some of my favourite comics, movies, video games etc. and posted on a Friday.

Today's drawing is inspired by a comic book that I'm really enjoying at the moment, called Saga. It's an ongoing series written by Brian K. Vaughan (who also wrote the equally amazing Y: The Last Man and Runaways) with incredible art by Fiona Staples, and published by Image Comics.

The book is a sci-fi/fantasy epic which follows new parents Marco and Alana, lovers from different planets whose people are at war with one another, struggling to survive with their newborn daughter Hazel amid a galactic war. People who like to compare things to other things in order to make them easily digestible have likened Saga to Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Lord Of The Rings and Romeo And Juliet, but it's a lot more unique and original than that makes it sound.

Fiona Staples has created a cast of weird and wonderful characters, but my favourite so far is Izabel, a ghost from the planet Cleaves who ends up being Hazel's first "babysitter"...

Saga #5 is out on the 18 July.

Depressed Cat fan art

The other week I noticed a tweet by Lizz Lunney (@Lizzlizz) looking for people to submit fan art of her character Depressed Cat (who also has his own Twitter page – @depressed_cat). As I'm a fan of Lizz's comics, and Depressed Cat, I decided to join in and sent this image of the fed-up feline...

Lizz has featured the fan art images in her new comic book: Depressed Cat: Nine Miserable Lives.

I'm happy to have my drawing included in the book, and received a copy from Lizz yesterday at the Comica Comiket independent comic fair.

Depressed Cat: Nine Miserable Lives is now available to buy from Lizz's online shop.