On Losing an Imaginary Friend

Prince came to live with me in Xmas 1984 (or maybe '85), via the kind of cassette tape you could pick up for a couple of quid at any market stall in the country during those prehistoric, lawless times. As I listened, wearing out the tape, he told me strange, unknowable things, things I sometimes …

Proud

A sad image from the little-known fairytale of the boy who is cursed to turn to stone every time his thoughts turn to the single lady who lives across the road. A cautionary tale, if ever there was one. Especially as he looks to have developed a serious case of wood worm.

Sculptor

Writer/Artist: Scott McCloud Look, we're only human and within that complex web of biology, psychology and need to own every shiny new thing also rests a dark core. And that dark core burns hard when someone who has previously written the industry's best how-to books such as Understanding Comics, Making Comics, and Reinventing Comics actually …

Skateboarding & Rollerblading

  Have fun, kids. You're young - you know nothing of the world and the dangers it holds. Think not of the terrors of unemployment, the hateful specter of bigotry, the night sweats that come from merely considering your place in the universe. No, don't give it a second thought, you, our last best young …

Favorite Movie Scenes

Everyone has a favorite movie. Most people I know have a Top 10, although it might change day to day, hour to hour, bowel movement to bowel movement. But they don’t really love movies – if you love movies, you have a top 10 list of favorite scenes. Great movies are made up of great …

Gift Wrapped

I have no idea what this could be. None at all. And neither do you, virtuous and angelic reader. Let us move along.

On the Making of Memories

Sometimes you find yourself cornered by Destiny. Hemmed in at all sides with no choice except to submit to her will. Destiny, in this instance, looking very much like a store full of shiny tat. You know the kind. The jeans are $50, the mirrors are decorated ironically, the music wafting into your ears is …

The Proud Tradition of Dad Jokes

On my return visit to the Old(e) Country, I was surrounded by images like this. This is Tynemouth Priory. When I look at this, I remember the thing my dad said every time we visited, sighted, or casually mentioned the priory. "It'll be nice when it's finished." My childhood, ladies and gentlemen.

Rudolph in April

So, it comes to the end of December and you're taking your decorations down. But...maybe one of them has come to seem like an integral part of the decor of the room. For me, it's the fairy lights above the fireplace. For Llano, TX, it's a giant Rudolph leaping forever across a road in the …