To Russia With Love

I was originally going to draw Vladimir Putin getting bummed.

With the Russian president creating laws against homosexuals, the first temptation is obviously to draw sodomy with his face on it. But I hate his face. And sodomy is great. The other thing is, it felt provocative. You see, in my country same-sex marriage has been legalised. In Russia, homosexuals are beaten on the street. I'm safe from that violence in my country, so provoking facists with an illustrative 'fuck you', quite literally, seemed... well I thought I could do better.

So instead I decide to draw something patriotic. Something loving. 'cos that's really the point.

Infamous Comic #39

Here's the latest installment of my webcomic The Infamous Five! The group finally find out why Ant is so insistent on them having a gang name, and what it means for them. Click here to read!

Mario Bothers 6

I thought I had drawn all the bad guys from the first Mario game. I relaxed, felt safe in victory, I grew plump and complacent. But I had missed one. The realisation struck  me like a hammer. I mean, it didn't really. I just needed a verbal link to the image.

I can't decide which of the bad guys in Mario made me more fearful as kid. Lakitu or the Hammer Bros. Lakitu rained enemies on the player but you could at least flee through the level. Hammer Bros would block your path. You had to wait for an opening in their attack or defeat them, which wasn't easy as their movements didn't seem to have a pattern. There were usually two of them, jumping between a pair of platforms, whilst throwing an erratic barrage of hammers, waiting for you to come forward.

And there was one moment I had forgotten. Or perhaps blocked from memory. If you hung around too long, waiting for the right moment to avoid or kill... they'd start moving towards you. I can't remember who was playing at the time when this first happened to me. A friend, a family member or myself. I just remember the screaming.