Merry Christmas and thank you

Merry Christmas from me and Louise. Thanks for reading our blogs, commenting on our blogs, buying stuff from our shops, following us on Twitter and just being you! More fun to come next year.

A Christmas Cumulus

One of the highlights of the year for me was seeing Inspector Cumulus appear on the shelves of shops all over the world as a vinyl toy courtesy of (the great!) Crazylabel. I was overwhelmed by the reception to him and then "over-overwhelmed" by all the entries to Toysrevil's "Drawing Cumulus" competition (thank you, Andy Heng!). He's sold out completely now so thank you to everyone who bought one.

There will be further Cumulus developments in 2012. Stay tuned!

Carol singers

Another festive post.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

I've already watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and listened to the soundtrack about 6 times and it's only the 21st. Where do I go from here?

Scrooge

Seeing as it's almost Christmas - a festive drawing/bad joke extravaganza!

Wet dog

Finished your Christmas shopping? Well, spare a thought for this poor hound. He's been waiting here for 40 minutes for a bus AND he's sat on the Tesco Classic Dips Multipack.

Thomson & Thompson

The last of my Tintin posts - Thomson & Thompson (or Dupont et Dupond if you're French).

Professor Calculus

Back to my Tintin drawings - here's Professor Calculus.

Christmas DoodlePlanet

My contribution to the Christmas DoodlePlanet live drawing event. Three hours to produce a piece from scratch which was then put up for auction. A Dulux emulsion match pot, black Posca and a brushpen = fun!

Back to the Tintin posts tomorrow!

Captain Haddock

Following on from yesterday's Tintin - Blisterin' Barnacles! - it's Captain Haddock.

Tintin

I love the Tintin books. That's all!

Grobblock - a fun new festive character!

A fun new festive character! Introducing Grobblock. Say Grobblock's name (it's "Grobblock") three times in a row while pulling a cracker and looking in the mirror and he will magically appear!

Disclaimer - He's quite an excitable chap and will devour anything within 5 feet of tinsel including trees, presents, pets, grandparents etc. I'm not responsible for any damage/bereavement caused by Grobblock.

Nervous Business Cat

I didn't know what to draw today so I went for the obvious - a nervous business cat attending a seminar in a hotel (circa 1981).

It's a Boba Fett Christmas

I've always felt Boba Fett's uniform was quite festive, what with all the green and red, then I discovered he'd recorded this Christmas album before his sad demise in the Sarlacc pit. Featuring songs such as "Silent Carbonite", "Jango Bells", "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Bespin", "O Little Town of Tattoine" and "Rockin' Around the Sarlacc Pit". Anybody remember the rest of the track listing?

PS Thank you to Richard Clayderman for the use of his living room for the photo shoot.

Jim Henson Tribute Exhibition - Gallery Nucleus

Tonight is the opening of "The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me", a Jim Henson tribute exhibiton, at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California. We were really, really pleased to take part as we both love Jim Henson and the Muppets. Louise's piece will be unveiled later today but in the meantime he's my "concept artwork" for our contribution - Pepperdelica.

A quick Batman

Yesterday on Twitter Mr James Howard (AKA @themooks) was asking people to draw Batman. I did a quick Bruce in brush pen and a worn out Posca. Here's a colour version. To see some truly brilliant Batmans just search #drawbatman on Twitter.

Emo Terrier

Following this week's unintentional theme of miserable looking mammals - here's an Emo Terrier. Fully house-trained apart from the ability to tidy their rooms.

DC and Lansbury

Here's two pics I've recently done for other people's blog. First up is my version of Lizz Lunney's Depressed Cat. If you're a fan of feline ennui and existential angst (who isn't!) then you need Lizz's Depressed Cat book in your life. Buy it HERE.


And secondly here's a young, glamorous Angela Lansbury (which I've "hilariously" titled - Angela GLAMsbury!) for Timothy Winchester's annual Angela Lansbury week on his blog. Timothy is the creator of "People I Know". A brilliant webcomic which regularly features ghosts, unicorns, Angela Lansbury references and crying. Go have a look.

Another type of Clerical Panda

Yesterday I posted a drawing of a Clerical Panda. "Clerical" has various meanings and certain people ("Hello" Craig! "Hello" Bridget!) thought I meant "of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the clergy or a member of the clergy" as opposed to "of, pertaining to, appropriate for, or assigned to an office clerk or clerks". So just for Craig and Bridget here's another Clerical Panda.

Get yourself "Creaturized"

An A5 "creaturized" portrait of yourself, a loved one or merely an acquaintance can now be yours! Following the success of doing "creaturized" portraits in Selfridges in London and the Sketch-o-matic at Cornerhouse in Manchester I've decided to offer them online for a trial period. See the image above as an example. Click HERE for more details and to buy. Thank you!

Clerical Panda

Not every panda's life consists of flying into Edinburgh Zoo on a specially chartered flight. Some pandas have to work for a living. Look at this poor sod - 9 till 5.30 with just two 15 minute Bamboo breaks. It's an outrage.

The Pugilist

Ah, good ol' Terry Flynt, star of The Pugilist films. The first one is still the best (Diana Dors as "Big Val" and the inspired casting of Bernard Breslaw as gangland crime lord "Tony 'The Meat Grinder' Cumberland") but even the sequels were entertaining - "London Punch-Up" (1978), "I'll Fight Ya!" (1979) and the karate-themed "A Proper Hong Kong Hiding" (1980). Basically just 90 minutes of fighting with an Alan Hawkshaw soundtrack but classics nonetheless.

Scrugg of the Bailey

This is possibly my favourite of all Benley Furton's "Scrugg" novels. Scrugg's adventures delighted tens of children in the seventies and eighties. He was a psychotic, cave-dwelling feral elf/chimera hybrid who just wanted to live a normal life above ground with the humans (or "hoobuns" as Scrugg would say). "Scrugg of the Bailey" ended with Scrugg being chased out of the Old Bailey by torch-bearing Londoners when he hilariously ate the witness for the prosecution. Oh, Scrugg! Other titles in the series include "Scrugg and the Fetid Delicatessen", "Scrugg the Town Planner" and recently "Scrugg and the Quantitative Easing". Anyone else remember Scrugg? No, me neither.

Desmond Sternhound

Desmond isn't very happy today. Someone has been strolling across the bowling green in non-regulation shoes. He will find out who's responsible. Was it you?

Hilda

I'm going to post a pic a day on the run up to Christmas (my version of an Advent calendar) so here's the first - my version of Luke Pearson's "Hilda" from his brilliant new book "Hilda and the Midnight Giant". I can't recommend it highly enough. A great story beautifully drawn and chock-full of ideas like a Snickers is chock-full of peanuts. Buy it now!