Fifty Years Ago Part Two

Half a century ago ('kin 'ell!) I went on a trip to Windsor Castle...

 

Next Time- Part Three 

 

 

Fifty Years Ago Part One

While packing stuf up for our house move a couple of years ago I came across an old box full of loads of old childhood stuff. Amongst this nostalgic treasure trove I found an old school book that was a weekly diary we had to do on Mondays at infants school. We had to write about what we did over the weekend as kind of an exercisw in practising our newfound skills in writing, as well as a bit of drawing as the top half of the page of the exercise book was left blank for a drawing. It runs from September 1976 to June 1977, so for us in the UK is pre Star Wars, though there are a lot of Doctor Who references! I was 7 years old and it was the same year that I sat with my dad as he painted a still life of the union flag which is the banner of his Facebook page.  You'll see as it progresses that my hand writing does improve so I guess the exercise must have worked. Did you have to do any of this sort of work at school? If so what memories do you have? Tell us about it below...

 Strap yourselves in, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

 

 

 NEXT TIME- PART TWO 

 

Where were you in '76?
 

Woolley Jumper #12

 

More Mondo classics from Mr Woolley!

Next- MORE STUFF

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030

The Listening Post #4

 THIS...

One of my all time faves

Next- More...

Coming Soon- Fred Fortune: City of Tomorrow 

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030

Dreddful Submission

Presented here for the first time is my 2002 art submission to 2000AD. It was from a spec script that appeared in that year's Christmas special prog drawn by Cam Kennedy. As I was drawing it I deliberately avoided reading the published version so that I couldn't, even on a subconscious level, be influenced by Cam Kennedy's fantastic version. It took a few months to do in my spare time, not helped by the fact that we moved from south west London to Milton Keynes (60 odd miles) while I was working on it.

The original pages are black and white traditional pen and ink on bristol board, scanned and digitally coloured around 2010. I added the grainy texture and pinky colour in the gutters to age it up a bit and evoke the old school cheap newsprint 2000AD was printed on back in the day. This colour version was going to be included in a Mondo 2000AD fan special that we still might do one day. Mondo master Lee Davis was going to rewrite all the dialogue to create a new story, hence his name on the credit card.

I much prefer the above older chunky graphic logo for Dredd than the current spindly robotic one.

Judge Dredd is copyright 2000AD/Rebellion.

Next- Something Else

Coming Soon- Fred Fortune: City of Tomorrow 

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030

Here Comes The Judge...

 

I'm not someone who does much fan art, but here's some of my attempts at drawing 2000AD's

1998ish traditional pen and ink

Love drawing the eagle shoulder pad and trying to give it some character. Above is a panel from a 1999 submission to 2000AD traditionally drawn and digitally coloured around 2010 I think... can't remember for sure. The submission was rejected.

Above was done for a Mondo project that has yet to appear. We were going to do a 2000AD pull out section that morphed into a 'zine in itself we were going to call '2K' as an alternative to 'Zarjaz' probably the UK's biggest 2000AD fanzine.

This one was just for the fun of it... 

Judge Dredd is copyright 2000AD/Rebellion.

Next Time- Dreddful Submission

Coming Soon- Fred Fortune: City of Tomorrow 

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030

The Listening Post #3

 

A couple of years ago my wife and I bought a new house. As part of this momentous event we decided to spoil ourselves a bit and buy a couple of new sofas for the living room after the old one had done twenty plus years of faithful service. It was all very nice...

 

Then came the stupid data sharing... For about six months after we had the new sofas my Facebook was bombarded with advert after advert trying to sell me... new sofas!! Not only that, but they were all from the same company I'd just bought the sofas from! Duhhh, you stupid dumb data driven muppets... I've just bought two expensive brand new sofas from YOU. If they are made properly I expect them to be in use for at least the next decade, so try as you might to get me to buy another I'm not going to. We're all 'sofad' out!! Ask me again in 2033!! This illustrates the fundamental flaw in data driven algorithm reliant AI nonsense in our current clown-world. The algorithm has no consciousness, no awareness, no personality and no soul, so it cannot use any discretion which would suggest 'I'd better not waste company A's advertising budget by trying to get this guy to buy another sofa when he clearly won't'.

 

And don't ask me about AI creating art...

 

Having said all that I do have a pleasant use of targeted data sharing that completely contradicts my rant above... Such as it to be a real human being...

 

Quite some years ago I discovered the early 70s Canterbury Prog Rock scene through hearing bands like Egg, Khan and Hatfield and the North. All very jazzy, English and whimsical. Top of the charts for me in that scene are the band Caravan, mostly because of their sense of humour (Album titles like 'Cunning Stunts' and 'For Girls that Grow Plump in the Night'). My favourite of theirs is the classic third album, 1971's 'In the Land of Grey and Pink'  which I listened to over and over again on Spotify.

 

 

I noticed that it had been released on heavy weight vinyl as a pink and grey splatter double album packed with extra tracks etc. Being a vinyl collector I thought yes that's for me and it went to the top of my shopping list. So, a while later we went on a trip to Britain's second city, Birmingham, and knowing there's a gigantic warehouse style HMV shop called the Vault in the middle of the town centre I checked online and the out of date site said it was in stock. Of course, once in the shop I searched far and wide throughout the shelves for ages and no it wasn't there. So I bought a few other vinyl albums that were further down my list. I did find it on CD though and bought that instead. Not the same but it'll do for now.

 

 

Not long after buying the CD I had this documentary recommended on my YouTube feed. I enjoyed it and watched some more of the channel's other music documantaries. Great work that wouldn't be out of place on BBC4 or SkyArts late on Friday night. Just a fan producing entertaining and informative content about the bands he loves which has a lot more creative integrity than drab fake corporate puff peices. Give it a watch if you've got a spare half an hour.

 

My top songs 2025, Spotify wrapped... 'Winter Wine' is my favourite though...

 

 

The pink vinyl is still on my shopping list for when the pennies allow.  

 

NEXT- MORE THINGS...

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030

Woolley Jumper #11

 

Power Hat was always one of my favourite John Woolley strips...

More next week...

Coming Soon- Fred Fortune: City of Tomorrow 

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030

Mondominium #5

 

Last seen lurking in the depths of the Mondo Facebook page we now present this classic story from Mondo #17 way back at Christmas time 1993. The issue came complete with Mondo's first colour cover and a free gift of tissues for mourners! Scripted by Lee Davis and drawn by Nick Raybould. Digital restoration and colours by Jonathan Odds.

Next- Woolley Jumper #11

Coming Soon- Fred Fortune: City of Tomorrow 

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030

Next Week...

Apologies for being away for most of 2022 and 2023, and the first half of 2024, lots of real life stuff has been eating up all the spare time. We'll be returning proper next week with this Mondo classic from the December 1993 issue, restored and presented in colour. Hope to see you then...

 

Hail Mondo!

Coming Soon- Fred Fortune: City of Tomorrow 

If you like Funky Punk please follow, subscribe, comment and share. If not, thanks for reading this far and we'll be back with some more comics and other stuff next Friday.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
'NO' to 2030