Strawbs

Top Ten Albums Countdown

February's Pick

Strawbs: Then and Now

Introduction

The criteria I will be using for selecting albums for my top ten list will consist solely of one thing: Can I play the LP from beginning to end, without skipping any songs? Does it play as if it were a complete piece, and that the removal of any song would render it incomplete-sounding? If the answer is yes to these questions, then the album qualifies. To me, it's a perfect recording. 

So let's begin for our first band for February: Strawbs. 

The band was founded in 1964 as the Strawberry Hill Boys, and later became "Strawbs",  not The Strawbs, but Strawbs (as Dave Lambert of the band has pointed out to me). I became aware of the group during their early Folk Rock days and was pleasantly surprised when they turned to Progressive Rock as well as Symphonic Rock. 

As much as I love all the Strawbs albums, these are the ten lps that clicked with me from first song to last, from the first time I heard them to today. Not that the other lps are any less great; it's just that on those recordings, I tend to have favorite songs. On these records below, I have favorite albums, that is, collection of songs. 

So, here we go:  

10. Heartbreak Hill 1995

Tracks:

"Something for Nothing" Dave Cousins, Chas Cronk) – 7:23
"Another Day Without You" (Cousins) – 2:57
"We Can Make it Together" (Cousins, Cronk) – 4:18
"Heartbreak Hill" (Cousins, Cronk) – 7:31
"Starting Over" (Cousins, Andy Richards) – 10:48
"Two Separate People" (Cousins, Cronk, Richards, Tony Fernandez) – 2:55
"Desert Song" (Cousins) – 4:19
"Let it Rain" (Cousins, Cronk, Richards) – 4:04

9. The Broken Hearted Bride 2008

Tracks

"The Call to Action" (Dave Cousins) – 7:38
"Christmas Cheer (Everything's Going to be Alright)" (Cousins, Chas Cronk) – 4:39
"Too Many Angels" (Cousins, Cronk) – 5:55
"The Broken Hearted Bride" (Cousins) – 5:11
"Shadowland" (Dave Lambert) – 4:48
"Through Aphrodite's Eyes" (Cousins, Cronk) – 7:26
"Deep in the Darkest Night" (Cousins) – 4:38
"You Know as Well as I" (Lambert) – 3:44
"Everybody Knows" (Cronk) – 4:30
"Action Replay" (Cousins) – 4:54
"We'll Meet Again Sometime" (Cousins) – 6:02

8. Deadlines 1978

Tracks

"No Return" (Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert) – 4:57

"Joey and Me" (Cousins, Chas Cronk, Lambert) – 3:52
"Sealed With a Traitor's Kiss" (Cousins) – 3:21
"I Don't Want to Talk About It" (Cousins, Cronk) – 3:56
"The Last Resort" (Cousins, Cronk, Lambert) – 4:10
"Time and Life" (Cousins, Cronk) – 4:11
"New Beginnings" (Cousins, Lambert) – 3:40
"Deadly Nightshade" (Cousins) – 3:56
"Words of Wisdom" (Cousins) – 5:48

7. Ghosts 1975

Tracks
"Ghosts" (Dave Cousins) – 8:31 ("Sweet Dreams", "Night Light", "Guardian Angel", & "Night Light")
"Lemon Pie" (Cousins) – 4:03"Starshine/Angel Wine" (Chas Cronk) – 5:15
"Where Do You Go (When You Need a Hole to Crawl In)" (Cousins) – 3:02
"The Life Auction" – 6:52"Impressions of Southall from the Train" (Cousins, John Hawken)"The Auction" (Cousins, Dave Lambert)
"Don't Try to Change Me" (Lambert) – 4:28
"Remembering" (Hawken) – 0:54
"You and I (When We Were Young)" (Cousins) – 4:04
"Grace Darling" (Cousins) – 3:55

6. Blue Angel 2003

Tracks

"Blue Angel" (Dave Cousins) – 11:13"Divided""Half Worlds Apart""At Rest"
"Oh So Sleepy" (Cousins) – 3:44
"Further Down the Road" (Cousins) – 3:25
"There Will Come the Day" (Cousins, Don Airey) – 6:05
"Strange Day Over the Hill" (Cousins) – 3:56
"Cry No More" (Cousins, Brian Willoughby) – 3:18
"The Plain" (Cousins) – 5:48
"Do You Remember" (Cousins, Willoughby) – 3:12
"Rhythm of the Night" (Cousins) – 3:19
"Morning Glory" (Cousins) – 4:52
"Sealed With a Traitor's Kiss" (Cousins) – 2:57
"Lay Down" (Cousins) – 4:09

5. From the Witchwood 1971 

Tracks

1. "A Glimpse of Heaven" 3:50
2. "Witchwood" 3:23
3. "Thirty Days" John Ford 2:52
4. "Flight" Richard Hudson 4:24
5. "The Hangman and the Papist" 4:11
6. "Sheep" 4:14
7. "Canon Dale" Hudson 3:46
8. "The Shepherd's Song" 4:34
9. "In Amongst the Roses" 3:48
10. "I'll Carry On Beside You" 3:09

4. Bursting at the Seams 1972

Tracks

"Flying" (Dave Cousins) – 4:49
"Lady Fuschia" (Richard Hudson, John Ford) – 3:59
"Stormy Down" (Cousins) – 2:45
"Down by the Sea" (Cousins) – 6:17
"The River" (Cousins) – 2:21
"Down by the Sea" is placed after "The River" on the 1998 CD
"Part of the Union" (Hudson, Ford) – 2:54
"Tears and Pavan" – 6:35"Tears" (Cousins)"Pavan" (Cousins, Hudson, Ford)
"The Winter and the Summer" (Dave Lambert) – 4:07
"Lay Down" (Cousins) – 4:31
"Thank You" (Blue Weaver, Cousins) – 2:11

3. Hero and Heroine 1974

Tracks

1. "Autumn"I. "Heroine's Theme"
II. "Deep Summer Sleep"
III. "The Winter Long"" John Hawken, Dave Cousins 8:27
2. "Sad Young Man" Rod Coombes 4:09
3. "Just Love" Dave Lambert 3:41
4. "Shine on Silver Sun" Cousins 2:46
5. "Hero and Heroine" Cousins 3:29
6. "Midnight Sun" Chas Cronk, Cousins 3:06
7. "Out in the Cold" Cousins 3:19
8. "Round and Round" Cousins 4:44
9. "Lay a Little Light On Me" Cousins 3:27
10. "Hero's Theme" Lambert 2:28

2. Prognostic 2014

Tracks
01. Heartbreak Hill 07:41
02. Through Aphrodite's Eyes 07:20
03. Something For Nothing 07:19
04. Starting Over 10:47
05. Deep In The Darkest Night 06:06

Bonus Tracks:

06. The River - Down By The Sea 10:00
07. Blue Angel 09:48
08. Tomorrow 04:50
09. Lay A Little Light On Me - Hero's Theme - Round And Round 08:47

1. Grave New World 1972

Tracks

"Benedictus" (Dave Cousins) – 4:24
"Hey Little Man ... Thursday's Child" (Cousins) – 1:06
"Queen of Dreams" (Cousins) – 5:32
"Heavy Disguise" (John Ford) – 2:53
"New World" (Cousins) – 4:11
"Hey Little Man ... Wednesday's Child" (Cousins) – 1:06
"The Flower and the Young Man" (Cousins) – 4:17
"Tomorrow" (Cousins, Tony Hooper, Ford, Blue Weaver, Richard Hudson) – 4:49
"On Growing Older" (Cousins) – 1:56
"Ah Me, Ah My" (Hooper) – 1:24
"Is It Today, Lord?" (Hudson) – 3:07
"The Journey's End" (Cousins, Weaver) – 1:46

************

Thank you for joining us today. Next time, we'll do a top ten list of KING CRIMSON albums. See you then. 

Waylon Bacon Update 

#3 in a Series of Updates

edited by Anthony Servante

www.waylonbacon.com

https://www.instagram.com/waylonbacon/

What's on everyone's mind? What's new with Waylon Bacon in 2024?. Let's find out. Here's the latest update on all the projects Waylon is working on. 

Waylon Bacon lets us know: 

https://www.instagram.com/frownlandcomic/

Frownland
I've been drawing a webcomic called Frownland since roughly 2015. It's an observational humor thing, done in the single panel format (I'm a devoted Far Side fan) that, for a time, I was posting once a week. However, in 2021 I put Frownland on hold to concentrate on a long form comic project.

Cut to October of 2023: my alternate comic project had stalled out, and I had a number of Frownland concepts that I'd been writing down in a book. In light of this, I decided to start posting the comic again, with the difference being that I'd only be posting once a month instead of once a week. Not only did this free me up to do more quality control, but it also appealed to me because it's the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do on social media.

https://www.beatdom.com/

Beatdom
I've been lucky enough to draw about ten covers for Beatdom, a literary magazine founded and edited by writer David Wills. The theme for the latest issue was the environment, and explores how the beats prefaced the later environmental movements generated by the hippies . After pitching a few ideas back and forth, David and I settled on portraying a protest in front of City LIghts Books, circa 1971. That year a large oil spill occurred in San Francisco, and as a direct result many environmental groups were formed, such as International Bird Rescue. It was very interesting to research City Lights Books to make sure I drew the building and surrounding area as it would have looked 50 odd years ago. Surprisingly, not much has really changed! A miracle in the San Francisco of today.

Click Here to Buy

A Room Above a Convenience Store

William Taylor Jr. is a great poet from San Francisco, whose latest book, "A Room Above a Convenience Store" is an astounding collection of reflections on memory, identity, and urban isolation. 

I was honored to be tasked with generating both a cover and a title page for him, and choose to draw the skyline of San Francisco (since the city is a recurring character throughout) and an arrow presumably pointing towards the "room" of the title. It was a bit of a challenge at first, but once I decided that the imperfections of my drawing might give the cover more personality, I ended up having a lot of fun with it!

London After Midnight
For years, I've thought it would be cool to do a comic adaptation of the famously lost vampire film "London After Midnight". Directed by Tod Browning ("Freaks" "Dracula") and starring Lon Chaney ("The Phantom of the Opera" "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"), it seems unbelievable that a lush, gothic film combining these talents can't be seen: yet the last known print was accidentally destroyed in a fire sometime during the 1960s. A few years ago I decided to give this reconstruction a shot (the main reason Frownland went on pause), and spent a considerable amount of time trying to piece it back together in comic form, using production stills and the cutting continuity sheet (a document detailing all the shots in the original edit) as a guide. 

However, I never actually finished it, due to a combination of dissatisfaction with the art and general life nonsense. Of course, I continue to pick at it because I'm stubborn, and hope that someday I might actually finish it- unless someone actually finds a copy of the film somewhere...

https://mydadsvideostore.buzzsprout.com/

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7rPm1KMFYidIEYiEl3pKSG?si=O8vJO1DsTIm_zhinohtbzQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-dads-video-store/id1726831552?i=1000642403626

The Podcast

"In other news, I am now also a co-host on a podcast! "My Dad's Video Store" is the brainchild of friend and filmmaker Bradley C Jones, whose dad owned a video store. As a kid, this gave him access to tons of obscure b-movies, as well as first hand knowledge of the many trends the advent of home video created. In every episode, Brad, myself and fellow friend and filmmaker Gray Creasy delve into specially curated blocks of VHS titles "plucked" from the shelves, discussing the weird, the campy and the forgotten. Our first episode is available now on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts, in which we discuss a late 80s film trend, where executed convicts return from the dead to take their shocking revenge. The episode is called "Capital Dismemberment", and covers the films Prison (1987) Destroyer (1988) The Horror Show (1989) and Wes Craven's "Shocker".

Waylon adds, "I also drew the logo for the podcast, with Brad supplying many of the fake film titles you see on the VHS spines!" 

*********

Always good to hear from Waylon Bacon. Things always happening. Stay tuned for our next update when the time is right. I know I have my sights set on London After Midnight. Hope you do, too, dear readers. See you soon.

 
"Psychological Horror Stories" by William Cook

Reviewed by Anthony Servante

Purchase here.

The act of a fictional serial killer, or any killer, monster, or fiend, resides in the narrative choices the writer makes. In "Psychological Horror Stories" by William Cook, the narrators not only provide insight to the horrors but also personal traumas that shared with the reader. It is this perspective that gives the stories their psychological aspect. I want to make this clear because in "psychological" horror movies, we as viewers are caught between two perspectives: one, is the horror real, is it a real monster, per se; and two, is the horror all in the main character's head, is the monster a figment of her paranoia, for example. William Cook does not toy with such notions. His horror is real. Which is why he provides a "Trigger Warning" for readers. Expect to experience the horrors that the narrator experiences. 

Let's take a peek at these experiences. 

Hopeless – William Cook provides a narrator who describes the horrors of domestic abuse. Young Anne witnesses a brutal father destroy her family and must face life and death decisions if her family is to survive.
Anomalous Perigee – Here we have a narrator who longs for lost love and measures what kind of life could follow. The most romantic story of the lot, although its horror cannot be minimized.
Dead Memories – The narrator begins with "the anniversary of her death." The "her" is Alicia who now haunts him as he goes through the routine of work and life. But even a repetitive routine can't hide the horror that his inner thoughts try to conceal.
Night Walker – The narrator that William Cook provides here is in love. His horror comes to us in the way he deals with this type of obsession.
The Dead Avenged – Donny Cox is our narrator who faces the horrors from bullying. Part supernatural, part coming-of-age story, the final story is a tale told by a traditional narrator in an otherly-world circumstance.

I've always enjoyed reading the works of William Cook. He doesn't shy away from real horror, that day-to-day terror and fear that waits for us as we go through our routines in life, that horror that we find in the most well-lit places of our lives. This is horror to be respected because it doesn't respect us. Whether we find it in at work, home, or school, these five stories present the reader with narratives that will pull readers into the horror that we sometimes avoid facing in real life. Here, there's no avoiding it.

I'd like to present you to Dani Brown, the Queen of Filth, who kicks off our new blog with some flash fiction. 

Two to a Desk

By Dani Brown

The teacher thought the scratching came from behind the whiteboard, like her nightmares the night before. Alone in the classroom, her former student stood in front of her with hooks where hands should have been. The same piercing blue stare she had in life surrounded by an aura of decay.

The art room developed a chill in the seat in front of the drying racks ever since the girl who sat there was discovered mutilated in the tin mines. No students wanted to sit there anymore and covered the seat in paper flowers and daisy chains picked on their way to school.

She asked the class to quiet down and noticed the chill spread from the seat in front of the drying rack. The sun didn’t shine from the windows on that part of the classroom anymore.

The girl discovered mutilated in the abandoned mines came to her in her sleep and pulled back the layers of her dreams with hooks where hands should have been. Murdered the day before she turned fourteen.

The students moved away as the daisy chains decayed. They’d rather sit two to a desk than be near the icy chill. That wasn’t their classmate anymore.

Hooks scratched, trapped in the walls. The teacher turned her back on the class and tried to investigate. She didn’t get much sleep last night. Please, I want to go home to my birth mother. The teacher snapped around.

“Who said that?”

The children were clearly frightened, cowering in their seats. Two to a desk, except that boy over there.

“Where’s your desk partner?”

“I don’t know miss, he said he heard singing and just disappeared.”

“Children don’t just disappear.”

A girl stood up and pointed to the drying rack.

“She did.”

The daisy chain fell off the desk and the paper flowers floated to the chair.

“She was murdered by her stepmother and thrown down the mine shaft.”

“They never found her hands.”

“Please be quiet.”

Hooks scratched behind the whiteboard and the teacher rubbed her temples. Please help me, I want to go home to my birth mother. She remembered the plea from her broken sleep. My father can’t help me anymore. He’s held within my stepmother’s spell. The girl didn’t have hands or a school uniform anymore. Dried blood ringed her neck. Her throat slit before her body landed in the tin mines.

Orange orbs floated from the drying rack. A girl with pigtails turned around and tried not to scream. The faces behind the orbs had melted away. Flesh bubbled in blisters where noses should have been.

Hooks scratched behind the whiteboard. Hooks scratched behind the drying rack. Don’t look the miners in the eye. A teenage girl laughed. It wasn’t a student. The whiteboard shuddered and screamed. Blood oozed down and smudged the answers to the art history exam.

The intercom buzzed into life.

“The miner’s will steal your classmates and take them to the tin mine unless you return home.”

Hooks cut through the whiteboard and the blood dripped into letters. Please let me return to my birth mother. My father doesn’t love me anymore. My stepmother promised him a new daughter, if he follows her to the Neon Dream.

Hooks crashed through the drying rack and ruined the paintings and prints. Another girl stood there with hooks where hands should have been. Maggots poured out of her mouth when she tried to speak.

“Do what my mother says.”

The girl at the opposite end of the classroom held her hooks above her piercing blue eyes. Maggots landed on her tunic when she opened her mouth.

“Please, you were meant to be my friend.”

The miners stared with eyes in a shade of demonic red and surrounded the girl with pigtails. Off she went, to the tin mines. They left her desk partner behind. The intercom came to life and the classroom could hear the girl with pigtails cry.

“You are fallen now. Trapped inside a cage. Your hands will power my neon dream.”

A final shrill buzz cut her screams.

The former classmate trembled. Her hooks scratched her thighs and released her flesh to the floor with maggots and scraps of fabric from her dirty tunic.

“Please help me.”

The miners came back with their lamps held high and hoods concealing their demonic eyes. The girl at the back of the room walked to the front and slapped her stepsister with a gleaming hook. Maggots fell where she stepped.

“Do you want my mother to kill all your former friends? They didn’t like you much anyways. Her tin miners are begging for action. Look at their orange orbs, do they seem a bit brighter?”

The paper flowers floated to the floor. The petals on the daisy chain curled in. The blood letters on the whiteboard started to drip.

“Your father left you to be with my mother. Can you blame him?”

The teacher tried to step in. A hook grazed her skin.

The former classmate started to cry and lost an eye in a river of tears. The miners held their lanterns high and their hoods fell back. A boy screamed at the melted faces. The lost eye hit the other girl with hooks instead of hands in the foot. She put a hook through it and held it up for the class to see.

“Come on, back to the Neon Dream. Maybe we’ll run into your father?”

The girl hissed at her stepsister’s former classmates and the miners closed in. The former student screamed. Her hooks held high, she tried to slash at the miners. They carried her away through the whiteboard. Her stepsister turned to the class and opened her mouth. Maggots fell out before she disappeared.

Sirens approached the school. The teacher told her students to tell the truth. They had the maggots as proof.

******

Love/lust gone in 56 seconds. Carried over the Wi-Fi never to be seen again. 56 seconds and a lifetime of regret. She walks out of the fog with a glass of gin and a slice of lime. Flies return to life. The other screams inside his head. DJ Donnie. Still a dick. Still a jerk.

So much can happen in 56 seconds, 4 seconds shy of a minute.

Available from amazon https://mybook.to/56SecondsReissue

Strip/Becoming is the story of how Marcy died. Trapped in a loop and stuck with him. The robotic shapeshifting demon from Mars.

Read more here https://danibrownqueenoffilth.weebly.com/stripbecomingselection.html

Available on amazon https://mybook.to/Strip_Becoming

Suitably labelled “The Queen of Filth”, extremist author Dani Brown’s style of dark and twisted writing and deeply disturbing stories has amassed a worrying sized cult following featuring horrifying tales such as “Ghetto Super Skank”, “56 Seconds”, “Name Dropping With Hayden” and the hugely popular “Ketamine Addicted Pandas”. Merging eroticism with horror, torture and other areas that most authors wouldn’t dare, each of Dani’s titles will crawl under your skin, burrow inside you, and make you question why you are coming back for more.

Find Dani online here https://linktr.ee/DaniBrownQueenofFilth

 

The Marc Hempel Interview:

Of Mice & Madness

Conducted by

Anthony Servante

The Marc Hempel

Introduction

The Gregory & friend

"Gregory" is locked in a cell all day, arms in a straitjacket. His best friends are Herman, an arrogant sewer rat who occasionally dies to resurrect shortly thereafter and Wendell, an extremely cheese-addicted mouse. 

Gregory looks at the world around him with the innocent naivety of a toddler. What is it like to live like this? More fun than you can imagine - especially if you're one of the "outside" who has to deal with the stress and bustle of the treadmill called life day after day. 

Gregory by Marc Hempel (draftsman Sandman: DIE GÜTIGEN) is one of the few comics in which the method has madness. How many stories can you tell about a boy in a madhouse cell who can not even talk properly? 

Hempel provides countless variations of happy lunacy in which rats and cockroaches are welcome guests, but only disturb caregivers and therapists. Black humor with deep black heart. [From Amazon].




Biography,

Marc Hempel: 

I'm a freelance writer, illustrator, and cartoonist, best known for my work on The Sandman with Neil Gaiman; Mars, Blood of the Innocent, and Breathtaker with Mark Wheatley; my humor titles Gregory and Tug & Buster; and full color cartoons in MAD Magazine and Nickelodeon Magazine. In 2007, I created the art for a 21-page Escapist story that was finally published in the new trade paperback Michael Chabon's The Escapist: Pulse-Pounding Thrills (Dark Horse Books). In my spare time, I drum in a cover band that plays vintage rock & roll.

Contact and Goodies at these links:

http://marchempel.com/

https://teespring.com/stores/shirtshow-2

https://teespring.com/stores/shirting-the-issues

Gregory on a rare walk

The Interview:


Anthony: Before Gregory, what were you up to?

Marc:  Well, I grew up in the Chicago area, and began writing, drawing, and painting at the age of two, and continued on this creative path through high school, where I won some awards. I later graduated from Northern Illinois University (with a BFA in painting) and moved to Baltimore, Maryland to join Mark Wheatley at Insight Studios, where I endeavored to earn a paycheck from my passion. After getting some attention with comic strips for newsstand magazines like Questar, Epic Illustrated, and Heavy Metal in the early 1980s, I found myself collaborating with Mr. Wheatley—mostly happily and successfully—on the comics series Mars and Blood of the Innocent. Then, circa 1986, Mark and I were asked to be the regular art team for Comico's Jonny Quest comic book.

Jonny Quest

Anthony: How did that lead to Gregory?

Marc:  Mark and I were both fans of the animated Jonny Quest TV show, which was airing in prime time in the sixties, so it was initially a great honor and pleasure to be working on the comics series. For me, however, the novelty wore off quickly, and I was becoming increasingly frustrated on a creative level. I wanted to do my own stuff again, and in a big way! My own indoor-life-by-choice-of-livelihood inspired the original version of "It's Spring!," which appeared in Honk! magazine (Fantagraphics, 1986) and featured a taller, ganglier version of the character that was soon to become Gregory. Several months of development led to a book proposal and the eventual sale of the property to DC's then-new Piranha Press imprint in 1988.

Click here for more.

Anthony: Can you give new readers some basics before they jump into the Gregory universe? Unless you prefer readers jump in feet first.

Marc:  Basically, just jump—in whatever manner feels right! And the "universe" is essentially just a cell in a psychiatric hospital, so it's nothing terribly daunting. That said, the basics (for the sake of this interview): Gregory is a patient in said hospital, a little kid with a big head who wears a straitjacket, has an acerbic rat friend named Herman Vermin, and speaks mainly in vowels. He runs around screaming in a manically mirthful manner whenever it amuses him. Gregory's cell is truly his universe, and most of the time—e.g., when doctors and therapists aren't trying to "cure" him—he's quite happy there. The stories (of varying length) are sometimes poignant, usually humorous. Stupid puns abound. There are four books, as originally published. Alas, the full size, original editions are now out of print!


Anthony: Can we view Gregory as a satire or is it best not to overthink the comic?

Marc:  A satire, certainly. A sociological, psychological satire of sorts. That said, the series is probably more enjoyable if one doesn't take it too seriously. A lot of silliness ensues. And, annoyingly, alliteration.


Anthony: As I'm currently working on a series on trauma, would you recommend Gregory as therapy to get your mind off your problems? 

Marc:  Well, working on Gregory took my mind off my own problems, so I'd think there would be some benefit for readers as well! For what it's worth, I'd also recommend petting cats and listening to Django Reinhardt.

Sandman artwork by Hempel

Very therapeutic

Anthony: What comics and comic artists, old and new, feed your unique imagination?

Marc:  Among those who have inspired or influenced me at one time or another: Winsor McCay, Cliff Sterrett, Lionel Feininger, George Herriman, Roy Crane, Elzie Segar, Milton Caniff, Crockett Johnson, Walt Kelly, and Charles Shulz from newspaper comics ... Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder from MAD ... Frazetta and others from Warren magazines ... many New Yorker cartoonists and cover artists ... Hergé ... Will Eisner, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, and Bernie Wrightson from comic books ... Jim Woodring, Lorenzo Mattotti, Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, and José Muñoz from more recent years. Alas, I don't keep up with current comics.


Anthony: Any suggestions for artist novices looking to break into comics?

Marc:  Use a crowbar. Seriously, though, I have nothing pertinent to offer, as the industry has changed so much in thirty years. Some creative advice, as that's more my forte: Learn the ins and outs of drawing at a good art school, focus on effective visual storytelling (as opposed to rendering pretty pictures), and make expression of character and emotion a priority. Importantly: "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." ―Oscar Wilde

Marc at work. 

Anthony: I couldn't help but notice that Gregory is in black and white. Is that your choice?

Marc:  Yes, it was. I love black and white—my two favorite colors! Stark and expressive. Color, in this case, would have added another level of visual complexity that offered little or no utility in terms of serving the story. It certainly wouldn't have made the jokes funnier. I also wanted to create a feeling of drab dreariness for Gregory's world, so any colors would have been muted tones, anyway. That said, I did intend for portions of "Out" in Gregory III to be printed in full color (to contrast with the grays), but DC nixed this because of added cost. The story does appear as intended in a lovely German hardcover collection.


Anthony:  What's the future hold for Gregory and you?

Marc:  At this point, an animated TV show would be nice!

*********************************

A special thanks to Marc Hempel for taking the time to meet the Servante of Darkness readers. I've been a big fan for years. And years. Now it's your turn. You're in for quite the journey!

The Gregory Treasury Volumes 1 & 2 

by Marc Hempel are available here on Amazon.

Click here to purchase.

For all other comic artwork (Jonny Quest, The Sandman, Gregory the Third, and more) 

visit Marc Hempel's Amazon Page here.