ROMO 2, Week 24 (Part One)

So, here begins a slower, kinder relay of what’s up in the world of New Work from me.

There’s been a wee flurry of exhibitionism on. As one display that my artwork has been a part of closes (THIS show at the London Cartoon Museum just coming down):

Another one opens: (poster artwork showing an excellent satirical strip called SATYR)

(Ignore the dates shown there. A slight delay meant the show actually opened on June 5th, while the Opening Night Preview happened on Thursday, June 3rd. And what an almighty wing-ding it was…)

Here I am menacing the Quentin Blake Centre’s director Lindsay Glen on the night. Not auditioning for the role of Andre the Giant in the remake of The Princess Bride, honest. That’s some kind of weird perspective trick of the camera… I think. Photo credit to the wonderful and glamourous glamourpuss Vyla Rollins (my inamorata).

(NOT me. And uh, NOT Vyla either, I can assure you… er whoops. Bad segue there.)

Here’s me, talking to UK Gay Comics Legend David Shenton, pink gin in hand.

(We are comparing notes about which is the best beard oil on the market. Go BULLDOG!)

And here, with Dutch legend and Comic Art Master Théo Van Den Boogaard (artist on the longstanding strip album series and its titular star, Léon La Terreur - ‘Leo, the Terror’), as he shows me something quite unnecessary in such a public place (by now those pink gins are really kicking in). Photo courtesy of Edwin Jansen.

If you’ve never experienced any of his superb Léon La Terreur, you really should:

Reimagine a mix of Jacques Tati’s sublime creation Monsieur Hulot with the irascible and often unreasonable Captain Haddock from Hergé’s Tintin (the analogue is perhaps here obvious). Much calamity ensues. Of course it’s not in English! What is!!

And here’s one of my strips on the wall! Just one out of 56 or so episodes…

There were about 65 contributing artists to the show, whittled down from hundreds, and of which, I am just one. And no bias, I have to say the curation is wonderful, with the final display really something to see and read: make your way to the brand new Quentin Blake Centre in London’s Islington between now and October if you can!

Then, just last week, Vyla and I took ourselves off for a quick flit to Basel in France. Or is it Switzerland. Or is it Germany. (Seriously, it appears to be in all three!) There, we took in the mammoth retrospective exhibition for Argentina’s lost son, Jose Muñoz (Alack Sinner, Billie Holiday, Sudor Sudaca and so, so much more):

Jose is primarily known as a master of black and white inkwork (Encres), something like this:

Or this:

And yet now that bossy algorithmic bot interrupts to tell me that I am near to my limit for this post, so I have to draw a line under it all, for now.