¡Hoy es un día maravilloso, glorioso y magnífico como el Steve muy primer y Bob la novela gráfica tiene finalmente, FINALMENTE liberado! For those non-Spanish talking folk, what I said was today is a wonderful, glorious, magnificent day as the very first Steve and Bob graphic novel has finally, FINALLY released!


The first one hundred strips has finally been released in a 68 page graphic novel in full colour and none of the boring, uninteresting extras that most books have. Okay, some of them are genuinely interesting, but most of them aren't. Who cares about some guy's foot odour problem and why would you put it as an extra in a graphic novel?
This is sheer comic loveliness documenting the building blocks of Steve & Bob's relationship, the reason behind Jo's utter contempt and the introduction to later main characters Dave Duff, Radox and Chapter 26's star, D.I. Garfield.
Speaking of Chapter 26, the reaction towards the chapter has been far from what I expected. There is a departure of the lighter side of Steve & Bob and it's gone to the darker world of the sinister and clever William Garfield.
Since it has gone down so well, I'm leaning towards doing another chapter like it in the future. I thought I would eventually but I wanted to see how well received this would be. Garfield, Fiona and Katie will appear again. As for the Bank Manager, well, quién sabe?

Oh it's lovely to have a day off! A day without correcting prices, complaining about the credit card machine or asking Merchandise to call me at 678. And yet it was a day of self-loathing.
Yep, it was another depression day.
It turns out I won't be able to order as many of the Steve & Bob graphic novels for this Exhibition Thing as I would have liked which really put a spoiler on my day. Without much hope, I tried to think of other ways of selling SOMETHING at this Thing. Then I thought of posters! There was a project I started ages ago of a poster with Shelly. I won't reveal much about it, but all I'll say is that is so damn sexy, even Alexandros will divert her eyes from the Prince to look at it.
Actually, I was just working on the background in Flash this very moment when the inspiration of this Newsie happened. My computer crashed. GAARGH! This, by the way, is a very, very, complex background and I was pretty sure I hadn't saved it.
I'll never learn!
As the computer began to reboot, I had to leave the room. I had to come to terms with the fact that I lost everything. Then, the computer popped on (very slowly mind), uploaded all the anti-virus rubbish and all the other programs that I'll never use and will never figure out how to uninstall, then anxiously, double clicked the Flash icon.
Clicked on the open icon.
Found the file.
Opened it.
(Yes, my computer really is this slow)
And it was all there!
Phew! This Shelly project might see the end after all!
But I'm also planning a simple poster of Steve & Bob with a logo, a smaller poster of that Arm and a Leg strip I've done for the exhibition, an octopus one, maybe a Dave Duff one and a few more.
Knowing I've got the week before the exhibition off has really given me a boost and I feel renewed energy.
Well, of sorts. I'm still a bit down. Nothing chocolate can't solve. *Hint, hint*

Urg, it's Spring. This means I have to update the Newsie Archive again. Urg! Okay guys, this newsie will just appear as a winter thing, just for now. Just pretend the cherry blossoms aren't out and the snow hasn't melted in Animal Crossing just yet…
Just a quickie because I need to mark this day down. Today I have finally finished my pin up poster of Shelly! I won't reveal much as I want to show it properly on the 17th of March, but it's a very sexy poster that is influenced by the series of strips where she rescued Steve from the bears.
There's a very strong urban look about it but it's not your typical skyscrapers. Being Steve & Bob, it has a distinctive London theme about it but with a bit more sparkle and glamour that a girl deserves.
There are a few more touch ups it needs but it is otherwise completely finished.
PHEW!
Now to work on the other posters! They won't have quite as much detail as this one though but saying that, I'll probably go all out on these ones an' all.
If you happen to be in London, this exhibition will be happening at Queen Mary University, Mile End, London. The UK Web and Mini Comic Thing 2007 will have me sitting there, looking out of place and wondering where the chocolate is. So I you are in London, feel free to pop in and if you have chocolate, added bonus!

- and then the dilemma arose, where to hide the sheep after the deed was done…?
Oh, hello there! Sorry, that is for another Newsies. I got my first Steve & Bob graphic novel in the post yesterday! Yeay! The good news is that it's very nice and extremely glossy! I could lick it all over and it'd still be brand spanking new! Apparently. Bad news is that it's riddled with mistakes. There's spelling errors left, right and centre and I actually repeated one of the strips twice! Gaah! This is all being rectified but hey, if S&B does become very popular in the future, this could be a collector's edition!
After a quick visit to the Pontius Pilate for a Betty Boo, I showed off the comic to anyone who was walking by. It was somewhat refreshing to see big smiles on faces and people making excuses for my truly dreadful spelling. A bit less refreshing when people would say, "Well, it's certainly glossy. Look how glossy it is! It's nice and glossy!" Either way by cheeks were red all day. Or at least a burnt pink.
By lunchtime I couldn't stand the embarrassment of it staring at me while I ate my Kit Kat Chunky, so I put it on the other side of the table and began to flick through a big copy of Previews. I drooled at all the new models that will be coming out as well as pondering when the new, super-hyped Buffy comic will be coming out when something else caught my eye. They've re-made Tank Girl! They've re-made it and Jamie Hewlett isn't involved!
*shudder*
Apparently this is a reinvention of Tank Girl to fit in with the 21st century. Ruddy hell. First I was shocked and appalled. How could they re-invent Tank Girl, she was perfect just the way she was! Then I remembered some of the storylines (especially in the second graphic novel) and I realised that no, they weren't that great. It's been ages since it became a cult phenomenon so hopefully it's done by a faithful fan, but I also hope that they've got some good writers for it. I hope it's more like the first Kev graphic novel and not the second one. The first was funny and really quite clever, the second just had loads of psychobabble and tried to 'flesh out the character'
Urg.
I can understand wanting to try something new with a character, but it needs to be done carefully. And putting in soppy flashbacks can ruin the comical element of it all.
And we all know how much I dislike flashbacks (refers to previous Newsies 9 May 2006)
Aside from the news that one of my favourite comic book characters was being reinvented, it's been, well, a challenging day. And now I struggle to think of a closing line for the newsies.
Erm. Bum cheeks! That'll do...

So, it was another hectic day at FP today. Actually it didn't even occur to me yesterday when I was talking to someone about the new comics coming out.
"Here, Mike G (they still insist on calling me Mike G even though I'm the only Michael in the shop now), have you read the new Captain America?"
"No, I work at Tills, not Comics, thanks for rubbing it in. No."
"Guess who dies in it!"
"Captain America?"
"T'oooh!"
"Really?"
And so the conversation went. It was about time really. Everyone was very disappointed with the way Civil War 7 ended and there was a lot of talk about it being a total fluke. Everyone was expecting a major character to die and, well, they didn't. It was just some clone of a major character.
But now the Captain's dead and yet, it didn't occur to me what work would be like the next day.
So I come in at eleven (the joys of doing the late shift) and have instantly been told, "Did you hear about the comics today?"
Thinking that they might be banned for some strange reason, I get my outrage ready and say, "Yep, the Cap gets capped."
"Well, we can only sell one copy per cover per customer."
A customer came in the morning and bought thirty copies. We later realised that the Captain's death made it in the London press (the Metro, London Lite) and the British press (The Guardian, The Independent and others). I also heard that it was being sold on ebay for astonishing amounts of money [linkie]. One person told me it was for ninety dollars.
Needless to say I nabbed one.
Usually when it comes to a death in fiction, I'm not this casual about it but this is Marvel. Superheroes never die and I'm sure he'll end up coming back to life and either wanting revenge or turn evil or shoot lasers out of their eyes, you know the type.
But could he really be dead? Could Marvel really be willing to let go one of their biggest franchise? I'm going to say no. Not while there's money to be made.
As for me, could I really kill off Steve? Well, if I could, I wouldn't let a sniper do it, that's for sure. Maybe his mother with a rolling pin.

After spending over a year at Thorntons, a month of unemployment and nearly a year at Forbidden Planet, I have finally got some holiday time! Hoo-flipping-ray!
A week away from serving people, from checking fifty pound notes, from shouting, "Nnnnnext please!"
But I won't be lying on a beach somewhere, drinking margaritas and throwing stones at small children, oh no, in true Mike fashion, I shall be working hard. For those of you that don't know, there's an exhibition on Saturday and I will be there with an assortment of Steve & Bob artwork and merchandise.
But I am experimenting with other stuff as well.
Those of you who don't remember, a while back I briefly introduced a character called Ark. He's a sort of alien with hoofs for feet and horns on his head. Well, I've been working on some artwork with him and some other characters invented by our resident decapitator Lupus.
As well as that, I will be showing some really, REALLY old stuff. Some of you may have seen some of the Burnsbury project on my Artists Page. Well, I'll be showing a bit more of that too.
As holidays go, it's going to be very, very busy but there is a spark of excitement in my chest. I'm looking forward to this Exhibition Thing and I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as I possibly can.
Right, now, where are these margaritas…?

Progress is, well, progressing. Much more slowly then I would have liked, but it's getting there.
Yesterday I was working on a picture of Dave Duff leaning on a signpost. I've been sitting on this idea for ages and have re-drawn it several times. This was the perfect sketch, so I inked it in, added another layer of ink to it and scanned it in.
Very proud of myself, I coloured it in and started doing some rendering. The fur was the most time consuming part of the rendering. Trying to make it look wild and scruffy is easy once I figured out how. Then I moved onto the shirt, trousers, pressing save all the time.
The picture was nearly finished. All I had to do was the souls of his boots and the signpost and that was about it. I clicked on the save button. As it was saving, as the bar reached 78%, as quick as a flash, the computer screen turned black.
An error message appeared on the screen.
The computer had crashed.
NOOOOOOOO!!!
I was so close, SO close to finishing it! Usually when the computer crashes, it's fine because the picture would have been saved anyway. Not this time. It crashed WHILE saving.
With a sore heart, I clicked on the duff.cpt file. This appeared…


I could have cried. All that work, gone.
I had to leave the computer. I cooked something for dinner, sat down to eat it and watched an episode of Lost I taped. The food was lovely. I resigned myself to do it all over again.
So I did. I spent another load of hours working on it from scratch.
Now, needless to say, it's finished!
Woooooo!!!!
Phew! That's another poster done and indeed dusted! And with the completion of the Ark, Nil and Alyss picture, things are shaping up very well indeed.

As holidays go, this has been a strange one. I've been on full alert and on the go since I left work, drawing, sketching and using the fill tool to it's full potential.
Firstly there's the portfolio. This contains mostly Steve & Bob stuff but it also has some of the old Burnsbury pictures. Some of which I had to re-work and re-colour just for this 'folio. As well as that, I've got Loop's Ark creation and an old painting of Super Mario just to show versatility.
Then there is the official Steve & Bob prints and boy is there a lot of prints. These are what I'll be selling tomorrow at the exhibition and there are four varieties:
Steve and the gang in the desert.
The gruesome strip I made for the exhibition.
Dave Duff being very camp.
Shelly on her motorbike not the least like a biker mouse from Mars.
I'll be selling them for £3, so a bargain if ever there was one. Honest.
Also there's the two huge posters. One is the aforementioned Shelly on her bike while the other is a huge Steve & Bob logo with the characters looking pretty chuffed with themselves.
I tell you, it's such a relief to have all that done. And I've not even done anything for Red Nose Day! Argh!
Time for bed now before I pass out on the keyboard. Hff! I tell you, after this holiday I think I deserve another holiday to recover!

Upon arriving at Southgate station, ready to make the hour trek to Mile End, I discover that the station has been closed. Luckily I managed to get a left to Wood Green station but by that time, the anxiety was eating up on me and needed to ‘power my nose’.
After navigating my way to Mile End, finally finding the right entrance to the university (it was flipping huge) I started setting things up. There was the huge Steve & Bob poster for the base of the table, and other posters scattered around the table.
And then I waited.
And waited.
It became very apparent to me how very, very lonely I was there. Every other table had at least two people. Why didn’t I bring anyone with me, even just to keep me company?
Then the answer came in several phone calls riddled in confusion. Lupus was in London and was marveling at the red buses. As well as sounding a bit lost. I admit I wasn’t exactly helpful and even noticed that shrugging on the phone wasn’t going to be much help to anyone.
After getting another call saying he was at Mile End, I was starting to feel a tad anxious. He came all this way and I wasn’t really helping out much. When he said he had arrived at the university, I told him to keep going until he saw the clock tower. At this point, I don’t think I could sit still any longer. Asking my neighbouring comic, er, neighbour to keep an eye on my table, I walked out into the court yard, very self conscious about my Steve & Bob t-shirt, had a bit of a meander about the place and then found the mass of leather that was Lupus behind a bush, looking perplexed at this phone.
After a reassuring and highly relieving hello, we went inside and proceeded to be bored together. I managed to sell about three posters but the hot new poster that everyone wanted was the Dave Duff one, “I like bears” It’s fair to say that a fair few people said they thought it would work well in Soho and as a t-shirt.
But after a while I lost interest in selling stuff and just spent my time nattering with Loop. And after we got bored of that, we were just waiting for the exhibition to end and just started flicking rubber bands at everyone. I was very proud when I managed to flick one at the most miserable person at the exhibition’s backside just as she was bending over.
After that we gathered all the stuff, took an entertaining and life-threatening tube ride to Covent Garden. I say life-threatening due to my complete lack of skill when it comes to telling directions. AS we were going up the escalators at Holborn, I said, “Oh, hang on, we’re going the wrong way!” So I clumsily ran down the escalators in a comical fashion, trying to get off and landed back at the base exhausted. Poor Lupus looked very flustered but was still in good spirits (or at least I hope).
We went to FP and said hello to everyone. It seems that more people there were interested in my posters then they were in the exhibition! But I tell you what, after spending a week away, it was so good seeing everyone again. So much so that I forgot about Lupus at one point (and his extremely heavy bag that he took with him everywhere).
Frootz, being an obsessive collector of all things Nintendo shaped gave a absolute classic reaction from my painting of Super Mario!
Loop and I had a quick bite at McDonalds (and I mean super quick, we were both famished!) took the loooong journey home, sat down and watched some South Park and an Irish comedian on the telly.
Needless to say it was a long day, but boy was it an eventful one and eventful ones always make for good stories! I think Lupus is a bit home sick but I’ll try and show him the best of London while I can. Or as much as I can while I’ve got the energy. This’ll be the first day of my holiday that’ll genuinely BE a holiday!
In spite of what he insists, Lupus was fantastic company today. He was polite enough to laugh at all my dreadful jokes, is a good listener and didn’t get too angry when I didn’t listen quite as hard. Now, I think it’s about time I stopped this work and started enjoying the day!

Hey you beautiful people! There's been a few changes to this site.

1. The Logo
The flash archive that is at the top of the page, I've changed the logo so it matches the one that was at the exhibition. Now, instead of Steve swinging his legs and Bob sitting, it has Steve with a pint of the black stuff and Bob, er, sitting. The logo is also a lot for colourful and it's even more transparent so you can see Garfield's lovely menacing face in the background.

2. Profile's Page Update
Link to the flash page
The profiles page has two new members in it. Alfie, the archaeologist in chapter 25 and Katie, the woman following Garfield in chapter 26. I've also re-jigged the backgrounds a bit more as well as changed some of the buttons.

3. DeviantArt ate my Posters


The spin off comic strip for the Web Comix Thing Anthology poster, Dave Duff's "I Like Bears" poster and now Shelly's Motorbike poster are now in my artist's page! I'll put the forth up there on Steve and Bob's third birthday (26 March just so you know!) but this is a big day for me! I'm finally showing off this Shelly picture on the Internet AT LAST! Please, do leave your feedback either in deviant art, or the guest book, or at Sarah Brightman Online, or anywhere else I may have plonked it!

Today is Steve and Bob's third birthday!
Woo!
Time to get the balloons out!
Also, in an unexpected turn of events, something quite extraordinary has happened to the site! Click on to the Counter Statistics to see what, but, well, I can't help saying it...

Tue, March 20, 2007	12
Wed, March 21, 2007	7
Thu, March 22, 2007	11
Fri, March 23, 2007	15
Sat, March 24, 2007	10
Sun, March 25, 2007	16
Mon, March 26, 2007	106

I don't know what to say. Well, I do, but I may offend many younger readers. But, well, sod it, WOOOOOAARGH!!!
BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!
Thank you so much everybody and please, for the love of God, KEEP VOTING!!!

Yes, April Fools yet again.
Yes, it is the same gag, but, well, you see, I like it a lot, so, there.
As well as celebrating a year of more dirty apes feeding phallic foods unto each other, yesterday marks the day when we lost one of our own. Yes, Dani from FP has left work.
MOOOOOARN!!!
I'll miss you Dani! You and your strange Australian ways. Feel free to say hello to her on her website, But, Our Empire. It rocks like a mother. Until then, marvel at the doodle I did for Dani's card. I-said-MARVEL!

I've come to a realisation now that I've started working on Chapter 27. This is a different approach for Steve & Bob. Firstly, they aren't in the pub. Secondly, Steve isn't in hiding (He's not even pretending to be Peter Nurse anymore) and thirdly, the strips are getting very dark.
Chapter 26 - Witness Protection was the first chapter that didn't involve Steve or Bob but revolved around the story of a merciless enemy, DI Garfield. It only had ten strips but each strip was about eight boxes, all in grey tones. There was no black and the only white was in the border outside the boxes. It had human characters and a hell of a lot more care in the drawings.
Everyone whom I've shown it to loves it. Not only that but they are disappointed to see me drawing Steve again. "Oh, you're going back to him are you?" One person at work said. "Well, yes." I said, taken aback. "Oh. Well, you seemed to be improving but..."
Grr...
It does prove my theory that people do prefer human characters to animals. Even the introduction of Katie proved that. Everyone loves her and you only see her face in one box!
It was essential that I do something different from the norm just because I knew what was going to happen in the temple. For those of you who don't know *spoiler alert btw* at the end of Chapter 25, Steve runs off inside the temple after overhearing a bear who was planning on stealing the treasures before hand.
Chapter 27 show's the repercussions of this decision.
Thus the problem.
I forgot that S&B was supposed to be a funnie.
Thus the dilemma. Should I go all out and be dark and brooding (Witness Protection) or should I keep to the standard everyone's used to with S&B (all the other chapters).
Well, the standard shows that there is humour and there is darkness. For example, at one point Steve battles bears only to discover a seemingly dead body of his friend. This proved to be a trick, but a twisted one never the less. Then there was DI Garfield murdering a prison guard and framing Steve for it. Then Pledge, a once loyal friend of Bob raiding and burning down his pub and even murdering his brother. Not to mention others (mainly coz it's too late for me to remember them).
It had seem so effortless to balance the dark with the funny but now, after such a long break from doing the strips and after finishing a rather dark chapter, I need to remember how to do it again. How can I be tactful when I have to kill a rather important character?
This temple is formidable and Steve needs to learn that he can't go into things headlong and without a plan. Or, well, he can but he might very well come to a sticky end.
So, this is tricky. I'm bored of shows like Smallville, which always kills the character who has just learnt something that would compromise its main character. Convenient deaths. Death needs to be dealt with responsibly, be shown in its sheer horror and show that it's only natural all in one go.
Tricky.
Thus the battle rages on. Comedy vs. Story. Funnies vs. Darkness.
Tricky…

Today, Friday the thirteenth is lucky as it is my birthday! Woo!
I think it's a good time to be self-indulgent here, so I'll talk about the year that's passed.
This time last year I went out with my friend, Jani who had just left Thorntons to pizza hut. Nice, safe food. Then I remember Easter being a rush of eggs and no sign of a manager. It was a horrible and stressful time for me but everyone at work was so fantastic. My prized memory was Stanley icing skills surpassing mine. I felt proud for him as well as a tad jealous.
Then, after a big row with the new boss and complications with the company, I quit and had a month of unemployment. I would recommend it to anyone who has more then enough savings to take care of themselves. I managed to finish a chapter in time for Lupus' birthday. I even remember printing off a whole load of copies and sending them off to him. He managed to see the chapter before anyone else. Sure I lost a lot of hits, but man will I have trouble topping off that present this year.
After a long meander around Central London one boring Sunday with Jani, we passed Forbidden Planet. He rolled his eyes but I couldn't help running over and gawping at the Doctor Who window. Then I saw the position for Full Time Cashier. Dare I apply for a job at the Mecca of all things cult?
Thankfully, Jani supported me.
After writing and re-writing my CV (as well as a covering letter), I went to Forbidden Planet on a Tuesday morning. I remember feeling desperate for the loo the whole time, but I managed to drop off my CV. I even bought a copy of Batman Year One. Nearly bought a Mr Flibble as well.
I got a call and was asked to attend an interview. Nervous as hell, Happy100 was there to support me. She kept saying, "They'd be mad not to hire you, you've got the training!" I was interviewed by a bearded man and a very pretty woman with a punk chick vibe. I was enthusiastic, cheery and answered all the questions. As soon as I left, I called Happy100 and told her everything.
Then it was actually Lupus' birthday that I got the call from FP telling me that they hired two people and I was one of them. Needless to say I was ecstatic!
The summer was boiling. FP had no air conditioning and considering half of it is downstairs, it was a smelly affair. I just remember being swamped with comics and with all these new people. Then I got invited to my first party.
I remember rushing around the place, searching frantically for pirate paraphernalia. I felt embarrassed when I didn't have anything piratey for the party, but I got a quick felt-tip tattoo on the arm never the less.
It was a fantastic night. There were so many people from work and so many that weren't from work. I remember walking home and there being tiny splatters of rain and being very light headed.
As well as meeting with Stephen in the summer, arguing with Stephen at the end of the summer and not talking to Stephen at all, autumn came and everything settled down. I discovered buzzComix. I made friends with a "dragon" called Klesk Vadrigaar who writes ficition and is the best writer I know. Bar JK Rowling of course. I also got onto deviantart and showed some of my older stuff. Strange how everyone loves the Burnsbury stuff. I also tried Sushi for the first time.
Winter came and I had signed up to join an exhibition, The UK Web & Mini Comix Thing 2007. I started working on my Shelly poster but was having serious writers block on that one. I also fell in love with Twilight Princess and the day before the last Christmas, I made loads of cards for everyone at work. That seems like such a throw away comment, it was bloody exhausting! I remember being in the pub at the end of the day and feeling ready to pass out. While I was trying to reconcile with Stephen, I was making friends left, right and centre. One of which was Luke.
A year went by and I had my first holiday in what must have been two, maybe three years. Brighton! Fantastic! Apart from the whole 'searching-for-a-hotel' part, it was fantastic. We got to see a whole bunch of shops, got to the pier, went to the cinema and most importantly, got to sleep it all off afterwards! Bliss!
Then chapter 26 was finalised and I really had to put my foot down and finish some stuff for the exhibition. One of which was the S&B Graphic Novel. It was published but there were so many spelling errors in it, I could have cried. I couldn't sell it in the exhibition anyway, I left everything too late. I finished a bunch of posters and got to the exhibition. Sadly I didn't sell as much as I'd like to have, but a big plus was that Lupus was there to keep me company! It was great, we were flicking rubber bands at all the people.
Then I had to say good-bye to him rather sooner then I would have liked and carried on with my life. Things have been plodding on ever since. I've been obsessing about Life on Mars, Heroes, Lost and (gasp) Smallville.
I also have a fantastic, amazing muse who keeps me going and seems to make it that much easier putting pen to paper. I still have that lump under my throat, but that's just my stubbornness. I have the same old glasses, same old baggy trousers I sleep in, but a different life. I no longer talk about the passions of Continental chocolates but I do talk about the latest Civil War comics, Joss Weldon's interference with Captain America's death and speculate over when All Star Batman and Robin will be out.
My sister is now in a happy relationship with someone, Happy100 is still fantastic and the person I think of when I'm in difficult times to make me feel so much better. A hundred times better actually. Alex has forgotten all about pi but now loves e coli. Lupus has all the makings of a great mate. He's got the charisma (in spite of what he says) and he's actually very handsome in person (again, in spite of what he says).
As for Steve, he's still in a hot place, feeling very confused, chasing bears and looking for diamonds.
As for me, I'm shattered! Time for bed me thinks! Thanks for reading and here's to 25 years on this planet!

What better way to spend a night at home then taking pictures of yourself in various positions in the nude?
If your answer to that is, "Show me! Show me!" then it'd be rude of me to object.
But sod it, I will object.
Anyway, the point being that I've taken a bunch of photos again and you'll have the suffer then for now, so, ta-daaa! You'll also notice that they are all birthday related...

	Prezzy 1 : Samurai Jack! This was one from the people at work. Something I've kept in my stash draw for a month. Exactly the time it takes for people to keep items in the stash draws. It's almost as if I had planned to keep that there for my birthday... Intriging... Anyway, I'm a huge Samurai Jack fan and this will go well with my collection which, currently, consists of one item. Well it's a start...
	Prezzy 2 : Joker and Harley Quinn. Many people may besmirk me for saying this, but I love Harly Quinn! She's goofy, she's super, hyper active and her name sounds a bit rude! Perfect!
	Prezzy 3 : Goomba Keyring. What was even sadder then buying a Super Mario plush toy was that I kept stroking it all night long in the pub. Good thing I had the excuse of booze to fall back on. I'm afraid I do love the Super Mario games but I did fall in love with this fella as soon as I saw him. Now I'm afraid I have a slight obsession with Goomba. Sad, ain't it?
	Prezzy 4 : Life on Mars. I am in mourning that the current series has ended, but now I can watch it all over again! If Bob could learn anything from insults, it's from Gene Hunt's, "You great, soft, sissy, girlie, nancy, French, bender, Man United supporting POOF!!"
	Prezzy 5 : New Sketchpad! Finally, someone's noticed my absolute fetish for paper! I'm almost too scared to open it as it's all wrapped in plastic, but by Joe that won't stop me! Mmm, paper! *licks*

The Card : 'twas huge! Everyone signed it. I don't mind the whole robot thing it's just... the hair?!

Yes, the photos are a tad Birthday themed, but, well, I didn't have time when it WAS my Birthday, so, meh. Enjoy the pretty pictures!

Don't be fooled by the dull looking title, this is an action packed, edgy, no holes barred newsies!
It's basically about the Steve & Bob Graphic Novel.
Basically, the links to it haven't been working because the printed version Lulu has sent me has got a major printing error on every page. They are all printed a bit too low.
See, told you. Action packed! Pow, pow!
Something else has also struck me about having it on paper. The colour scheme is a bit off.
When I was in Primary School, I would draw Bob all the time. Back when he was named Bobby, of course. I'd draw him on the computer and colour him in. His fur was a dark blue. When it was printed out, you could just about distinguish the blue from the black outline, it was THAT dark. So I decided to make him lighter.
Now the same problem ensues. Looking at this new graph, I have discovered his fur and his pink tail are far, FAR too vibrant! He looks like he might just as well glow in the dark!
So, in the near future, you might see some changes to Bob. Mainly the colour scheme. I'm aiming for a paler pink for the tail and fur. Not pink, blue. Wait, that's confusing. Oh, pretend you understand.
This is a sample of what it may look like, but some alterations might go through. I won't go through it in detail, but since the strips are getting darker, he might gain some darker tones.
Watch this space.
Hopefully not indefinitely...

Good evening. Yes I have left it a tad late to get this up, but I have finally finished a strip for St. George's Day!
Woo!
For those of you who don't know, St. George is the patron saint of lard. He had a lard castle, a lard bed and a lard goat.
One day while riding his lard goat, he encountered a huge fire breathing dragon. Like most normal brave men, he pooed himself, but then steadied himself and chucked a great big spear at the dragon. Unfortunately, the spear itself was made of lard so it just squelched on the dragon's scales.
Bugger.
What the dragon didn't know was that the lard also had marmite on it. Being a sophisticated dragon that it was, it smelt the marmite and went beserk. trying to eradicate the smell, it set fire to everything. Trees. St. George's goat. The next door neighbour's cat, Brian Blessed's beard, the nearby mari-marju- mariju- bad drugs farm and of course that ruffly thing on St. George's head. At which point, George grabed a wooden chair and whacked the dragon repeatedly in the Davina McCalls. Confused, the dragon turned around but forgot it was on a cliff. As the dragon fell off the cliff and onto some jagged stones, it's last words were, "But I'm a lady!"
Thus the story of St. George's Day.
Next week, I shall be butchering Alice in Wonderland, Jesus's crucifixtion and, of course, little red riding hood's saucy adventures with the seven dwarfs.
Rubber gloves please.

It's the (almost) brand spanking new Steve & Bob Graphic Novel!

As well as fixing the numerous (and by numerous, I mean collosal amount of) spelling and grammar errors, this graphic novel also has:

A shiny new cover

A shiny new back cover (goes without saying)

A new copyrights page (with a picture of ME!)

A re-working of some of the old strips (like this one).

A Spell Checker! (Woo!)

A New two-page article about The Creation of Steve & Bob.

Did I mention a new cover?

Anyway, click on the picture above or click here to buy the brand spanking new graphic novel!
Oh go on!

It takes great will power to actually get away from the DS to actually sit here and write this, but I managed to get my hands on Pokémon Diamond Yesterday. Anyone who has read Jason's profile in the character's profile page may know that I am a tad knowledgable about the pocket monsters.
A mini review so far...
I'm a tad disappointed. The game is pretty much exactly the same as the others but with buildings that curve as you walk on by. The 3D is a nice touch but it's the online option that I'm really into. So far, not much luck (as the game has just be released, I really can't start trading just yet) but there is a nifty option which works as a sort of swap shop. You put your critter on the market and say you want to exchange it for another monster. Well, trust me, it is a nice feature and less complicated that I make it sound.

In other news, I went to Bluewater on Sunday and watched a really good film called "Straightheads". It's got Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer and is a very, very, VERY dark film. And I mean VERY dark film! Gruesome, cringeworthy and sickening. I loved it! Fantastic storyline, hideious plot and fantastic cast! I highly recommend it to anyone over eighteen. Like I said before, very, very dark...

One last thing, Steve McArthur seems to have learnt a thing or two from Dylon in the past and has his own MySpace! Feel free to pop on over and say hello as he doesn't have any friends at the moment. Although if you ask me, he's inviting trouble. He doesn't seem to understand the whole concept of "Staying Underground" very well. Go see him at this link and he'll be well chuffed.
Champion.

This is a an incredibly sad thing to write in a Newsies, but today I discovered that a very dear friend to me died yesterday.
Regulars to the website and members of Sarah Brightman Forums may know her as well enough to take this news with as much shock as it took me, but it's with great regret that I have to say Happy100 died yesterday morning.
Happy (or Corinne as I like to call her) has been struggling with cancer for over a year now and I was convinced that she beat it at one point. I was convinced that she'd be back at work at some point, jumping around excitedly in her bright orange coat.
My fondest memory of Corinne was a time when I was cleaning the air conditioning filter at Thorntons.
I was standing on this little ladder, pulling down the grate that covered the air-con, and giving it a good dusting. As I was doing it, dust would fall liberally all over my face. As I was "Pah-tooe!" with the dust in my mouth, I looked down to see Corinne there, looking at me with a very wide grin, highly amused. After another "Pah-tooe!" she just giggled. "Oh, I did want to talk to you about something." She said to my boss, "But I'm enjoying watching him."
We all laughed. And then we always laughed ever since. It was hard not to. Corinne had an infectious and bubbly personality, and as naff as she thought the name Happy100 was, it pretty much suits her.
I'll miss her terribly, I'll always remember the melted chocolate, the doughnut guy and that Steve and Bob mug. Cheers for being so fantastic and thanks for always bringing a smile to my face.
Rest in peace.