Have you been out today?

So I just leave the room for a moment with Radio 3's Late Junction playing on the radio and a high res scan going on and when I come back I think for a moment that my scanner's busted because it's making a horrible grinding sort of noise. But no, all is well: the noise is, in fact, some of your standard Late Junction fare (Transylvanian throat singing or something of that ilk) and my scanner is making no more noise than a contented whirr. Phew.

I was reminded of the existence of Mr David Lupton yesterday and dropped him a line to see how he was getting on. Dave is a charming and talented young fellow whom I first met when we did the same (lifechanging in my case) MA course at the University of Brighton. Anyway, I was heartened to hear that he's doing well and successfully illustrating for a living (the crazy fool) and happy too to observe the same dark loveliness in his recent work as was apparent back when we were filling our heads full of book learning together.

Go take a look, I command it.

Sickeningly talented but otherwise delightful illustrator, Tom Gauld, has a new piece of work on view at his website which fits in rather well with the title of this blog. Go thence and enjoy.

Updated the website proper over at daveshelton.com for the first time in ages and made one of my old small press picturebooks, Gerald Goes To Mexico, available as a PDF. It's really pretty stupid but has moments of charm here and there.

An unexpected treat in Saturday's post: Mark Stafford, the most tragically underemployed cartoonist in Britain, has produced (most beautifully) a slim volume of his Scenes From Books I Have Not Read. Despite it being an edition of only 60, he saw fit to send me a free copy. Hurrah! It is a thing of strangeness and beauty (and, on one or two pages, of rather frightening pinkness) and, presumably, is not available at all good bookshops.

Further good news was enclosed on a postcard which informs me that Mr Stafford's collaboration with a major name in UK comics (not sure if it's public knowledge yet so excuse the coyness) is going ahead so presumably the great man's work will finally reach a wider audience in the not so very distant future. And not before time.

I got a badge too. Cool.

Went on holiday for a while. Came back a week ago. Really will write something again soon. Honest.