Monday 29 December 2008

Saturday 27 December 2008

Thursday 25 December 2008

Tuesday 23 December 2008

Saturday 20 December 2008

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Dad on Arrival arrives

So, Dad on Arrival is finally out. More or less. To see it, go to this address

http://www.dads-space.com/Register.aspa

and register. DoA will be part of the newsletter. If they ever put an archive up on the site itself, I'll be sure to let you know.

Sunday 14 December 2008

Saturday 13 December 2008

Saturday 6 December 2008

Friday 5 December 2008

Sunday 30 November 2008

Saturday 29 November 2008

Tomorrow'sWhilred #2


I've long since given up trying to think of anything witty to put on leaving/birthday cards at work. I now just think of something generic like "have a great day". But since everyone else puts that, the challenge then becomes to find the bit of the card furthest away from where anyone else has written the same thing. It can be quite a challenge.

Saturday 22 November 2008

Tiny Manu #27



For the first time in ages, I was walking down the street when I felt my sock slipping down and around my heel. This used to happen to me a lot when I was a boy, and I was surprised that one of my socks should suddenly rebel like this after so many years. It made my walk into work just that little bit more unpleasant.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Sunday 9 November 2008

Tomorrow's Whirled #1



Ah, another new strip. We'll see how long this lasts, although I sometimes come up with science-y things which don't really fit into anything else, so it may be around for a while. Or not.

Friday 7 November 2008

Monday 3 November 2008

Us Lot #12



My attempt at being topical.

Friday 17 October 2008

From the sketchbook #8



Well, I gave up on the random book plan. Didn't really bring me much inspiration, although was a pretty interesting exercise. This picture is from "Railway Motor Buses and Bus Services in the British Isles 1902-1933, combined edition". It's a Miles-Daimler from 1907.

Saturday 11 October 2008

Tiny Manu #25



Recently, I've got into this new routine to try and get some inspiration. During the morning, I use a random number generator to choose a number between 100 and 999, and then at lunch I go to the library and read whatever book is on the shelf according to that number.

One of the books I read was a dictionary of abbreviations, and while I looked through them, I was pleased to see that A Member of the Institute of Patenters and Inventors can have the initials "MInstPI" after his name.

Friday 10 October 2008

Saturday 4 October 2008

Thursday 2 October 2008

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Sunday 28 September 2008

Old practical jokes that no one seems to do any more (if they ever did)

Glueing money to the pavement

In the olden days, it was considered hilarious to glue money to the paving stones and laugh as people tried to pick it up. Nowadays no one stops for anything less that £1 and, frankly, if you've got a pound, you may as well spend it.

Having money on a thread




See a pattern emerging here? It must've been something to do with the great depression. Oh, and apparently thread was invisible in those days.

Putting a brick under a hat



People in the olden days loved to kick hats. So if you put a brink under a hat in the street, passersby wouldn't take it and keep it (although these are the same people who'd pick a tupenny bit off the floor), instead they'll kick it with all their might. Hence the disguised brick. And fractured metatarsal. These days brick and hat have been replaced by a pile of leaves carefully placed on top of a fresh dog turd.

Thursday 25 September 2008

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Sunday 14 September 2008

Thursday 4 September 2008

On Sale Now



An old-fashioned paper comic of Tiny Manu's best stories, plus a few that haven't appeared on the site, has been put together by me and is available at the knock-down price of £2.50. Since I don't have any smart internet shop thing, you'll have to email me and we'll sort something out.

Wednesday 27 August 2008

Saturday 16 August 2008

Friday 15 August 2008

Wednesday 13 August 2008

Tiny Manu #21

Saturday 26 July 2008

Small Soap #3


So I'm still around. Finally moved into my new place, and have got back into the habit of writing every day, so there's no shortage of material to come. Just need to get to a scanner once in a while, and it'll be business as usual.

Saturday 5 July 2008

Tiny Manu #20


Gone a bit quiet

In between working on Dad on Arrival, and getting ready to move to a new city, I've not had much time to sort out anything on this site. Apologies for that. And this is a situation that'll continue for a couple more weeks while I try to settle into my new life.

Thursday 26 June 2008

Some good news

So, recently my luck seems to have changed a little as far as getting stuff accepted goes. Nothing earth-shattering, nor anything published any time soon, but still good.

First, the UK magazine The Skeptic has accepted The Institute for Knowing Things for publication. But this is a quarterly publication, and so the first strips will not be seen until January 2009. It's not paid, but will look good on the cv.

Next, a website Dads-space. A new comic strip I've been working on for them, called Dad on Arrival, has gone down well and will be part of the proper launch in October of this year. Not sure what part it'll play, but it'll be in there somewhere. This is a proper paying gig, so Dad on Arrival won't be appearing on here, but I'll put up links as and when necessary.

High five me, somebody.

Sunday 22 June 2008

Wednesday 18 June 2008

Monday 16 June 2008

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Small Soap #1


Another new format. This time the idea is simple - take a typical soap opera storyline and condense it down to five frames. So far I've come up with a few ideas, so perhaps it has potential. We shall see.

Friday 6 June 2008

Thursday 5 June 2008

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Monday 26 May 2008

From the sketchbook #7

I often wonder about putting up rough sketches of strips on this blog, but rarely do since I don't want to ask people to decipher my scritchy scratchy writing, and it's uncommon to think of a strip that wouldn't be improved by drawing it up neatly. Also, published sketchbooks tend to be pretty boring. Even if they're from excellent artists such as Chris Ware or Dave McKean, I find myself flipping through them, half-disinterested. And sometimes, such as with Spike Milligan's posthumously published sketches, they can be so bad that they lower my opinion of the rest of the writer's work.

Having said all that, this little meditation on how to deal with the blank page pleased me, and the spontaneous nature of it seems better suited than drawing it again with more care.


Us Lot #11


Sunday 25 May 2008