By the peolpe, for the people

This week has been a quietly productive one, with the finished story appearing on2000ad Review , and I’ve even managed to complete four episodes of the Mighty Yammer. I’m hoping to keep up the pace and begin showing the episodes here in the next fortnight or so.

Did I mention the bolt-mobile was off the road? The cam belt went last week and I’ve been stung with a hefty bill for repairs. However, at least the money was there, unlike other times in my life, I’m finally in a position where getting some money together is actually possible.

I love the corp is continuing, with the second page taking shape at the moment. According to Dan, the pile of potatoes looks nice… sigh.

Dave

More Whistler

The return of Whistler!

More Whistler scribbles. I’ve decided upon the last member of my new ‘team’: a poor fellow who secretes vast amounts of oily substances through his skin, named ‘Slippo’.

Also, I’ve got some sketches of who might be the overall bad-guy for the strip. Don’t want to say anything about him, but his surname is Watson.

In other news, I’ve finished the third illustration for Richmond Clements’ story to be hosted on 2000adreview, and I’ve burned the CD for something Wicked.

Dave

This is a pic of part of a display wall at the Natural history museum in London.
We took little Nano-bolt there for her birthday so she could see the dinosaurs and had a great day.

D

Whistler vol1 reviewed

"DOGBREATH PRESENTS: WHISTLER, Reviewed by Ben Dickson

DOG BREATH PRESENTS: WHISTLER

(Bolt-01, A5, 36 pages, £2.00)

I should preface this by saying that although I have read Strontium Dog in the distant past I don't remember it too well, and have not read any issue of Dog Breath. The reason I say this is because I found many aspects of Whistler confusing, and this may simply be because I'm not that au-fait with either the original strips or the fanzine.

Whistler collects six chapters of a story initially published online at 2000adonline.com. Whistler himself is a Strontium Dog bounty-hunter, whose mutation has left his head looking suspiciously like that of a parrot. After an excellent and highly enjoyable introductory first chapter, the story settles into one of conspiracy and corruption amongst the Strontium Dogs themselves, as Whistler tries to get to the bottom of just what's going on.

The illustration of the book is superb and well-suited to Strontium Dog fan fiction. The art is clearly very heavily influenced by Carlos Esquerra, and is very effective in its execution, with well-drawn figures and backgrounds, and containing a similar vibrancy to Esquerra's 80s black and white work.

I must confess, despite having read it three times, I still don't entirely understand what happened in the story. Most of the strip is well-written, with strong dialogue and good characterisation, and plenty of interesting and entertaining things happen, but the plot itself seems to make giant leaps of faith in terms of the reader actually understanding what's going on. Whistler has conversations with characters where the conversation itself is actually missed out, leaving a sense of confusion and frustration. Other plot points in the book are also assumed as read, and if you read Dog Breath it's possible they are as read. Yet for me, this book either doesn't stand up on its own or simply assumes too much foreknowledge or assumption of its own plot.

Well worth picking up if you're a reader of Dog Breath, but readers should be wary if they are not too familiar with Strontium Dog. (BD)

Contact: whistlerstrip@aol.com

http://emperorowl.blogspot.com/"

This is the first time I've seen this, though I must admit that since it was sent to me via an Email, I'm not sure when it was written.

As a review, it is pretty good, with some very welcome comments about the art & story. I must take it on the chin about the poor plotting overall, as the strip was only written as each new chapter was due to appear- something I'm rectifying for the second story.

The accompanying pic is the first time I've drawn the man himself for ages, quite pleased with it though.

D

FQ05 review

Whistler is back.

The return of Whistler!

So far this is only in the planning stages, but I’ve finally got a storyline that holds together. Details are still a decent way off, but this time, Barnes will not be alone in his adventures.

One of the things that I’ve been thinking of is the working of the Dog-house. The strip has it set-up in a very undefined way, with it being little more than somewhere for the SD agents to hang around. This would not really be the way it worked. I imagine that a cut of each bounty was retained by the agency to fund the upkeep of the base, and that it would have quite a few staff involved in the upkeep and maintenance. Why would the doghouse not also have a ‘shop’ based armoury, where the agents would buy the ammo and equipment needed for the missions? That would be a solid way for the doghouse to gain funds and to stop the mutants from acquiring too much in the way of financial security. I finished the last story with Barnes taking up a post on the doghouse as a combat instructor. I open the first episode with him returning from a training run with a group of ‘puppies’ fresh to the doghouse.

Those accompanying Barnes are: ‘Smudge’ Williams (?) who has purple skin, ‘Fuzzy’ Frazer(?) who is possibly related to other overly hirsute Agents, ‘Elbows’ Adams who has massively elongated arms and one other I’ve yet to realise.

As before, these strips will appear on the 2000ad website before I put them out as a collected title for Dogbreath. At least, that is the plan. I may actually run all of these in Dogbreath if Dr bob carries on with the title.









Dave

For the People...

Here are the initial sketches I’ve done for a series of illustrations to go with a story by Richmond Clements. Called “For the people, by the people”, it is going to appear on the 2000ad review when ready.



Dave