ABSTRACTION and COMICS is here! I am very grateful to be included in this splendid international publication, with 42-pages of my theory and artwork printed in the Practice section of Volume 1.  Many thanks to the hard work of Aarnoud Rommens (ed), Benoit Crucifix, Bjorn-Olav Dozo, Erwin Dejasse and Pablo Turnes, The University of Liege, and ACME Publications, we now have this massive 2 volume 900-page tome to enjoy.

More pages from WiP

Duncan Youngerman's Dick Strip

Here is a work from 2001 that I just remembered while documenting some art of mine. It is "Covers" work Nr. 36 --- ink and gouache on paper. 21 x 15 cm / 8.25 in x 6 in. Dated August, 2001. "Duncan Youngerman's DICK STRIP." Price "20K x 10¢." In the company box: "Pan-a-Logue." The images and lettering are based on those of Chester Gould, a comic strip artist and author both Duncan and I admire, the creator of Dick Tracy. Even my signature is in emulation of his. It has 4 panels forming an abstract comic.

This was done for my friend, the wonderful French and American contemporary music composer Duncan Youngerman. We did several things together, particularly an exhibition and concert in 2001in Espace Lhomond in Paris, France. His compositions were dedicated to superhero comic artists we both admired. My works in the show were as well. We both merged them with our more experimental concerns. It was wonderful. I made a large painting of this as well on a roll-up projection screen, so he could have as a backdrop for when the works were played. When I think of it now in 2019, I realize it prefigures my current Dr Great Art work!

Free PDFs of my current work

Some updates from me, for those that don't follow me on social media...

My current Abstract Comics project 'Too Dry To Rot' involves me drawing over pages, and then redrawing over them again, using my earliest Intercorstal pages as their starting point. Have just completed 'Phase 5', during which the project got twice as large due to a printing error, and has produced two comics.

The first, 'The Exploding Mess', was created with my daughter, my nephew, and my son, helping in different amounts on both art and story. You can download the PDF of it here, it's a lot of fun: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lHY-cN1ZzsznW5ceu6n0bbIK6cGvrpxX

The second comic is as yet untitled, and is made up of pages that didn't fit in with 'The Exploding Mess'. I still have work to do on it by adding text, but since that's undecided and I have other comics to make, I've released this already: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1L9hE-aOTW1R3GNrhzcUMQRIErL4_Wi9q

Finally, last year I made an abstract autobio comic that dealt with my grief at having lost an old friend of mine whilst also acting as a love letter to my family. David Hine, of Bulletproof Coffin fame, called it 'profoundly, brilliantly original' which was nice. It came out via GOOD Comics, and can be bought at the link below, but specially (and secretly, so ssssh) for the Abstract Comics blog, here's the first chapter, in full: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1abXN_bVLHg9b2ALmwK82djPuvD5jjvvj

You can buy Petrichor here: https://www.goodcomics.co.uk/product-page/petrichor-by-gareth-a-hopkins