Because of Dragons

Large version available here: http://tinyurl.com/gqge97t

Bandages: Part One

"Bandages: Part One" OR "On realising that I was dead"

Larger version here: http://tinyurl.com/hekslhg

JAB

T-A-K-E-N-O-P-R-I-S-O-N-E-R-S

This is what they make you take the medication for.

JAB

A First Shot at a Panel

I finally got down to creating a panel for my comic after sifting through hours of recordings and doodling little bits and pieces, I'm not overly happy with it to be honest and will probably end up redoing it, but a start's a start. I think I've decided provisionally on a title too - 'An Inherent Appreciation of His Own Absurdity', as I feel it sums up exactly what I'm hoping to capture.

If anyone's interested in giving me their thoughts on it all or just wants to see some comical childhood photographs can visit the facebook group page for the project here.

Thanks,

Hope this goes as well as it looks inside my head.

JAB

Down-Up-Down-Up-Down-Up-Down-Up.

I like suits, why can't I wear suits more often?

After what I must admit has been a crazy few weeks for numerous reasons that I won't go into here it's nice to be able to see an inspirational side to things at the end of all the madness. I've come up with a few ideas and have spent two days just sat at my desk drawing things which feels like some kind of major breakthrough. I suppose it's not really, but it's nice to feel that way.

Another drawing from Mum's Wedding photos

Resolution: Some kind of epiphany? Speaks for itself really.

I do like drawing days. Ultimate relaxation doing something you enjoy.

The comics are hopefully the start of a project that I suppose has been sort of floating around my head for a while but I've been too afraid to do comics again that I just kind of ignored it. That and the fact I've not been productive, but you know that already. There's more of them on the way over the coming weeks and months and I'll probably post some of them to my website too. Keep you all posted.

JAB

A Collage of Senselessness.

"and if it seems like an accident, you weren't looking hard enough"

Hello to one and all, so I decided that the "news" section on my website wasn't particularly effective for updating regularly and so on, basically I couldn't be bothered going in and out of the file uploader to post some fairly banal news. I also enjoy Jen's Blog quite a bit and so wanted to start one of my own.

Today is Thursday as I'm sure you all know and it's July, I am aware that I'm stating the bleeding obvious but I'm just sorting my head out as I type. So to begin, June was an extremely eventful month, to list a few things that have happened, there was graduation, my birthday, a trip to london for D&AD Newblood, an extremely enjoyable "Hat Party" and moving out of my flat in Dundee. 

My Birthday

This year my birthday fell on an awkward day of the week - the day before my graduation and so as a result my birthday got spread out over most of the month of June which I can hardly complain about too much I suppose. There's been lots of enjoyable days and nights of drinking and merriment with friends and family over the past month, probably a few too many to account for here (also the fact that I can't remember many of them), the picture above is from the card my sister got me, awesome (I got lots of swell cards and even a handmade badge but this card was the only one I had to hand at this moment in time). Then from the birthday month came the 2nd annual hat party...

Hat Party

Let's just say as a family the Birch's know how to party. Last year whilst travelling in Morocco me and my Dad decided a "Hat Party" would be a great idea for my birthday party, so much more simple than fancy dress as there's much less dressing up involved and let's be honest, who can resist wearing a fine hat? Last years party went down a storm, it consisted mostly of my close companions but we had a heck of a time. This year we decided that the Hat Party would become an annual occurrence and that the event would be a three pronged celebration - My birthday, my Dad's birthday (as we are in Morocco on his actual birthday) and my graduation. It was a swell party. We worked out the day after (whilst hungover and all) that around 64 people came over...that's a lot of hat's. Oh and we had a mass sing-a-long, we sang such numbers as "The Leaving of Liverpool", "Dirty Old Town", "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Valerie", I'd like to say we pulled it off but to be honest i was rather inebriated and all of my concentration went on trying to remember what chords I should be playing on the Banjo so I would hate to lie to the reader.

This was the only photo i could get my hands on to illustrate the hat party...

Graduation

Graduation took place on the 19th of June (the day after one's birthday), got up early to greet Dad into Dundee and have breakfast with him. After getting all dressed up had to go and get "Robed" up and photographed etc. Felt quite rough for most of the day, think that the build up to the whole thing made me rather nervous and I couldn't stop thinking about falling over on stage, luckily I didn't though. Vivienne Westwood also graduated at the ceremony as us, she only got an honorary degree mind, I'd say I was awestruck by her presence only i found her a bit scary looking if I'm totally honest.

London (D&AD Trip)

Journeyed down to London on the 22nd of June with people from University on the overnight Megabus which I can hardly say I enjoyed. However had such a fab time while we were there that it kind of nullified the ridiculous amounts of time that we spent on the bus not sleeping. D&AD consisted of putting up work for people to look at, looking at other people's work and then swanning around London when we'd finished doing that. All in all, much fun was had by all, at least I think so.

Whilst in London our tutor Mick pointed us in the direction of an awesome comic book shop in Tottenham called "GOSH!" where I managed to get my hands on  two books by my favourite comic book artist/author Jeffrey Brown, two books I'd been intending to get for a while and not been able to get my hands on. They complete my Jeffrey Brown collection quite nicely and I can easily say I have thouroughy enjoyed reading them both!

A small example of how swell Jeffrey Brown really is.

Other...

After London Jen and I travelled ourselves back to Wallasey to spend a few days together before I head off to Morocco on Sunday. Jen has gone home now though and I won't get to see her until August (sadface), however we did have a swell few days, being lazy, drinking, tea, partying, wearing hats, eating cake, playing Nintendo, watching films, eating pasta, walking on the beach, going to Liverpool, going to Museums, going to Manchester and exploring rock pools. Fun times (:

Anyway, I should wrap this up now, just wanted to fill out what happened for the whole of June in one go, wanted to write it down somewhere, it has been a highly enjoyably month and July promises much of the same! 

Today's mood summed up in a song "King of Carrot Flowers Part 1" by Neutral Milk Hotel

Sincerely, Faithfully, Lovingly and whatever else,

J.A. Birch