England prevails

This afternoon, took advantage of a non-raining day to go for a walk by the sea, then lurked happily in a second hand bookshop. Also popped into Dave's Comics to buy V for Vendetta which I ended up reading avidly this evening. Graphic novels are for grown ups too. I never really believed it when people said this before. This one is very bleak and is set in a post nuclear war England, where a Nazi-like Fascist government has taken over the remains of the society. An anarchist weirdo dressed as Guy Fawkes starts attacking the government, whose say "England Prevails" to one another in a "Heil Hitler"ish way. Strangely compelling. The graphic novel form is great because you can show images which are not immediately connected with the words - so you can get a film like voice over effect. This dissonance then creates something in between, a third meaning, which gives the graphic novel format a richness.

I've always liked strip cartoons and have tried to draw them myself. At University I drew a sarcastic cartoon strip attacking a tedious philosopher lecturer called David Holdcroft, called "The Alternative Holdcroft threatens the universe" and talked about the longueurs induced as he repeatedly paused mid sentence for several seconds. Poor bloke, and what an ungrateful wretch I was. Anyway, my friend Andy Smith photocopied it and thoughtfully posted it into the entire philosophy department's pigeon holes, including the lecturer concerned. Fortunately everyone suspected the turbulent Andy of this thought crime as I had cleverly used the nom de plum of Cedric O'Boogie.

I used to read Marvel comics when I was a kid, chiefly because the kid next door in Neasden called Ajit collected them. We used to have superhero themed fights, I always got to be Iron Man because I was the youngest of the gang and others chose the more glamorous heroes such as The Mighty Thor. In some ways Marvel artwork was the first art that I found for myself. Some youthful scribbles of mine below, which I recently disinterred show this influence I think.

Below: JRR Tolkien and an orc bite the dust near Isengard, some other waffly stuff, and a nice little fish leaping design. Click to enlarge.