It's a snowbound Wednesday morning and as well as the blog there are other pressing considerations - have we got enough food? will the heating hold out?. I suppose if the worst comes to the worst we can just eat the huskies but I am old enough to remember the winter of 1962/63 and that was endless, about two - three weeks at least of everything being shut down but great fun when you're a kid - we actually did build an igloo.Anyway it's that time of the week to reveal another page of Cloud 109 to you and as we've had a bit of a festive break I'll upload the previous pages so you can get a good run at it.
I'm hoping that everyone is in general cool with the way this blog is evolving as I think I've already explained it's nigh on impossible to do a blog like this on a regular basis by just confining oneself to the product in question, both David and myself are creatives and being a creative involves a journey as you are constantly seeking out new stimuli and then absorbing and reacting to that stimuli.
With this approach, none of you (often myself included) knows quite what will be unveiled on these pages, which is for me what makes visiting blogs so much fun. But rest assured David and I are ferreting out all kinds of stuff that we are really enthused by in the hope that you will also share some of our enthusiasms too.
So here is episode twelve of Cloud 109 and as you can tell David with omnipotent heartlessness has cast Gina, Cary and Rabby into a large and very dark dungeon - can they navigate their way through it?
Only time will tell ...
I stumbled on the same conclusion that you did, Peter, about showing some of my creative influences. If you were to restrict yourself only to new comic pages when they're ready, the blog couldn't gather momentum.
ReplyDeleteI think the balance you've been hitting is exactly right. Every post is fascinating- it takes me right back to a brilliant series of lectures that Frank Brown, my art master at RGS Guildford, used to give to the sixth formers covering the whole history of art. Your articles about guys like Barks and McCay are meat and drink to me. Cloud 109 is the first blog I turn to every morning - often before you've even had time to get a new entry up :-)
Love that little touch of Cary going up a level by casually zapping the bat lol.
Ahh you noticed Dave. The Cary wizardly progression is just the kind of thing that is a hidden reference to Dungeon Master cognescenti. David and I are both strongly into the idea of little references throughout the unfolding story, so hopefully people can read and re-read the books and still find stuff they haven't noticed before.
ReplyDeleteWhich makes me think of a Parrish trick which I didn't notice immediately but is something he did from time to time. If you go back a couple of posts there are some beautiful endpapers of an ogre on a red lobster engaging in combat with a sword wielding boy - have a look at the ogre's club (assuming you haven't already noticed).
Many thanks for your really encouraging comments Dave, just the kind of feedback that spurs one on.
I just need to get myself out of hibernation mode a bit earlier in the morning.
At the risk of this turning into a mutual admiration society I am really knocked out by what you and Leo and Nikos have done with the whole Mirabilis project and the really creative fun you're having with Mirabilis on your blog. Again it's the kind of experience that gives a completely new dimension to the story itself.