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Acid! Eating through the floor! [18]

Chronology

Review: "I can attest to simultaneous joy/shame of discovering this sort of relic, sharing it with the world, and never, ever being able to take it back." Laura Hudson - comicsalliance.com

It's really difficult trying to place dates on this stuff. I'm starting to wonder if this and the previous one were from '82 when I was 14?

It's possible that I finally saw the actual film and the official HEAVYMETAL adaptation around 1982, and briefly attempted my second adaptation. If you've been following since Xmas day, you'll have seen it. But I gave it up. It was a bit beyond me. And I no doubt reluctantly returned the recently loaned graphic novel back to a friend.

A cover for an unrealised magazine. This was me trying to grow up a bit. My 'Battle of the Planets' comic - looks more contemporary with today's page. Must have been pre-1983. If it wasn't, I was an uber-nerd!

The cover (left), inspired by Marvel's EPIC magazine - a copy of HEAVYMETAL was done in November 1983 and looks a bit more advanced than today's page.

(UPDATE: It also looks preciently, very like a scene in Prometheus, when the 'giant 'Trilobyte' attacks the Engineer')

But did I really give up on the second more informed adaptation and go back to finishing this earlier less informed one? - even with all its oddities and mixed up characters? It's possible, but I can't say for sure. This also looks contemporary with the Battle of the Planets comic that I made and that can't have been when I was 14! (I bloody hope not)

One thing's for sure, I was being more ambitious, using more colour.

F is for Fake?

Or something else...

I was reading a couple of comments on a site last night that have been irritating me more and more. At first I didn't care but I began to understand why Rod over at BlueMilkSpecial sometimes takes negative comments very much to heart.

Two people state that these comics are fake. I suppose it was only a matter of time before that accusation was levelled. Tom Gatto and I have joked about it; you know, child-labour churning out pages in the basement for bread and water. But, seriously: I wouldn't have the time to do it; it's not like I'll make money from such a ploy; and if I did have the time it'd be better spent on something ORIGINAL. I'd be a sad case if I not only tried to trick people (hardly anyone has read these things until recently) and the ones that do, I have respect for. It'd also be pathetic if I was just trying to say "Look at me - I was a child prodigy!"

I have lots of grown up illustration work that I'm proud of and it's something that I want to get back into and develop further. I want to keep creating, not just looking backwards lamenting how I've creatively strayed off-course in my career.

And I'll just say one other thing. I hate the idea that anyone would consider that there's anything cynical about these works. They were done by a young kid and gave hours of joy. the idea that more than a few people would ever actually see them - especially 3 decades on just would have been unimaginable.

And I'm very excited now, that they are :)