Tiny Manu #33

Tiny Manu #32

Seasons Greetings

Tiny Manu #31

It's the cat's meow 57

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.

It's the cat's meow #56

Tiny Manu #30

Tiny Manu #29

It's the cat's meow #55

Tiny Manu #28

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.

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.

It's the cat's meow 54

Us Lot 13

Tiny Manu #26

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.

It's the cat's meow 53

Us Lot #12

My attempt at being topical.

Tiny Manu's guide to four dimensional space

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.

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.

It's the cat's meow #52

Tiny Manu #24

small soap #6

It's the Cat's Meow #51

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.

Tiny Manu #23

It's the Cat's Meow #50

Small Soap #5

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.

It's the cat's meow #49

Small Soaps #4

Tiny Manu #22

Tiny Manu #21

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.

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.

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.

Small Soap #2

Tiny Manu #19

It's the cat's meow #48

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.

It's the cat's meow #47

It's the cat's meow #46

Tiny Manu #18

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

Tiny Manu #17