Thom solves the problem.

A friends recent dilemma required an urgent response.  Here is mine..

BERNARD SHOW COMIC SCI-FI FLEA MARKET

Thomo promo time...

01st Feb-HOURLY COMICS DAY..

HEY YOU.

So.  Here are all my riveting, insightful comics from the #hourlycomicsday challenge yesterday...

AAAaaaaahhh, the beauty of Saturday mornings...

Thom's Drunken Letter

So one night recently Heid said to me, "last night when we came home you asked for a pen and a piece of paper and you did this..."

I had no recollection of this because I had been steamin. The night before, Heid had to drag me home because I had got over excited at the possibility of dance and party and had drank most things I could see. And if I'm excited half a glass of Lambrini could send me over the edge. This night I was basing my drink of choice on what colours it was. They were all potent.

So when Heid presented me with a drawing of something I had supposedly done and couldn't remember, it was sweaty palms time. It's really weird having experiences that you completely have no recollection off. Like, ANYTHING could be on there and if you're drunk you tend to be a bit more floppy and wild thinking. I thought, Jesus what if it's some weird, sexy, perverse thing that even I didn't know I had been thinking about. You just don't know.

Well, thank God, in times of my inner subconscious, it seems there's nothing much there apart from perhaps some child like thoughts that describe very few needs. In this case, "EAT TOAST" and "I NEED A JOBBIE".

Heid did get me some toast and tea that night so I must have at least verbalised it. Suppose he had the note there to keep him straight. I conked out soon after that.

The only thing worrying from the whole experience was as he said, "that you were going to shit the bed".

THE LAKES! International Comic Art Festival

Been a very busy Thom recently. Just come back from whoring my wares at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival . 

It twas EXCELLENT and you must check out this fabulous event for 2017

CHECK ON IT...

NEVER stop believing...

If you are but as lucky as I to know another one that is similar to yourself in the old, “head department” then life will never be dull.

I was sent such a beautiful gift by my other, other half in the form of this…

Weirdly enough, I was feeling slightly grim about the old artistic confidence the week before and when I did eventually open this, it came with a rather appropriate message.

YOU KNOW ME SO WELL SMINSH.

I enjoyed such classics by Kyla such as, You Raise Me Up, Time to say Goodbye (which along with said friend who sent me this wonderous gift, we would repeatedly sing this classic in our own superb operatic voices-over and OVER again-while our other first year flatmates thoroughly enjoyed the repertoire) O Mio Babbino Caro and my personal favourite, Art is Calling Me.

Pity Mary couldn’t give a shit though.  (CD bought from charity bin)

Thom at MCM IRELAND COMIC CON!!!

Hey you-

NOTHING TO DO THIS WEEKEND??

Try and forget that you don’t have friends and come along to MCM Ireland Comic Con down at the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin!!

RDS Ballsbridge

I will be there and shall greet you at my Thom stand with my banana smile. I have lots of goodies to offer (plus a bowl of Haribos) and a turnip with flags in-TEMPTED??

Be there or…be off making “friends”.

Make It Then Tell Everybody

‪#‎podcast‬ ‪#‎inspiration‬ this is a must to check out for little inspirational golden nuggets of goodness @MakeThenTell...

Make It Then Tell Everybody on Twitter

Silly Thom

So I was at home recently and managed to squeeze in a quick little “hulo” to my little niece, who was standing with Gran and Pops, mouth “agog” at the size of the bus I was about to come out of.  I saw her and she was all excited!  With a sweet little perfect banana shaped smile and ready to bolt toward me when suddenly all that animated expression fell and she suddenly looked unsure.  She had spied some kind of bearded monster emerging from behind me that she hadn’t expected.

She was told and Gran had said, “Now, Uncle Nick is coming too, do you remember?  He was here at Christmas.”  And although she said “yes” she wasn’t listening because she was too busy building stuff.

Anyway, it didn’t take long for her to come round.  And especially when, quite forcibly, she insisted Nick was on her toy telephone and furthermore she insisted it was him calling to himself and he should take the call.  She was rather amused (but also slightly bewildered) at the rather convincing telephone conversation he had with himself.  It confused her a little because he did it so convincingly that she would take the phone away saying, “Hello?  Hello?” into the speaker, then come back through shouting, “NICKY!  NICK!  NICKY!”  and he was forced to speak to himself again, which I think eventually was a little frustrating because his tea was out on the table and was getting cold and as he told himself on the phone, “he really did have to go now because his dinner was getting cold...but take care, yeah…(he must have told a joke to himself because he laughed at this bit)..yeah, you too….bye now, bye.”  And the end of that conversation seemed to satisfy Amber for a while.

We have a funny little relationship, my niece and I.  She now knows I must be connected in some way to the people she knows, but I don’t think she knows quite in what way.  I’m not there all the time, but see her often enough that she remembers who I am and sometimes talks about me when I’m not there.  She knows I use a plane to come to see her, but sometimes I emerge from within her Gran’s house from “up the stairs” (the place she’s not really allowed to go).  If I happened to be home and she was there, I did stop calling her name from upstairs and slowly tiptoeing down to meet her because it did dawn on me that to someone who wasn’t expecting it, this could be really rather creepy in a sort of nightmarish way.  So I stopped doing it.

She can see I’m taller than her which should mean I have some kind of authority, but I make my body move in weird ways and sometimes tell her what we’re going to do but in song using  a Mr. Bean sort of voice.  And I tend to ask her things and talk about things that make her go “What?”, “Eh??” a lot because they don’t make sense to her.  I’m not sure she knows quite what I am. 

When we were walking back home from the bus stop I was stomping ahead of my niece, directing her down all the right paths.  I was showing her the correct way of walking was leaning back at a slight right angle (leaning forward at the same degree also works well) fixing your arms into sharp "L" shapes and swinging them to a beat that’s in your own head in a robotic fashion, and then moving the legs in a piston type movement, marching up and down making sure the knees reach as high as a 36 year old human can.  

After I was walking along the street like this shouting in a kind of Mr. Bean tone, “THIS WAY!  THIS WAY AMBER, THIS WAY!!”, I heard from the distance this tiny, but frighteningly mature little voice peep, “You’re Silly”.  That’s from a two and a half year old. 

I just said, “What are you talking about?  This is how I walk”. 

I carried on walking like that for most of the way, while she carried on walking in a more human like acceptable fashion.

Happy New Year

Well that's the New Year then, innit? 

I don't have any stories really.  Well, it'd be stuff like, "the night I was disappointed to have finished off my box of Tunnocks tea cakes," or "the day that went in dead quick.  Like one minute it's half 7 in the morning, then it's 11, then  it's 4, then half 6, then  8, then shit-I'm going-to-miss-the-bus, then f*!k it, I'll walk, then 9, then tea-time, then 11-thirty-shree, then off to beddybumbose.  Went in dead quick that day did, but no one wants to hear about that.

But plans for the Thoms for this year:

Online shop is a biggie,  2 comic cons, writing up some Thom based character animation TV series proposals, doing some Thom toons  and an annual of Shite Me Up.  I have some ideas for books of Thoms but I'm feeling an annual of Shite Me Up has to come first.

So for the now, no stories just some pictures of things that I have drawn over my lunchtimes at work.  It's kind of surprising/startling/unnerving at how little I remember of actually doing some of this shit after I go back and look at it the next day.  

It's nice not to think sometimes...

Thom's Testimonials

So the Belfast show has been and gone, and a good time was had by all.  Especially Carl Weathers who ended up chatting to my Dad about the disaster of earthquakes that are becoming increasingly more frequent in California.

One of the joys of having a table at a Con is enjoying the reactions of folks. Both good and bad. 

I LOVES it.

 “All Things Thom” is probably the most genuine, creative thing, coming straight from my little Thom insides, that I do.  I dabble in fairly realistic figure work, it’s something that I can do, but all my Thoms are a total relief of getting the nonsense that bangs around in my heid out.  It’s actually a need that I have to get them out and allow them to live in the world.  So it doesn’t really make a difference as to what kind of reactions I get.  As long as they keep living in me and saying the stupid stuff they do, it’s my duty to sick them up and get them out.

Painting for me takes a LOOOONG time.  My day to day studio work is so intense that to come home and “do a Thom” is as much of a relief as it would be to “do a dump” after being a fatty and stuffing your face on rubbish. 

At the Con, it seemed particularly evident that it wasn’t always obvious to folk that I was the one behind the Thoms.  And I’m pretty sure I’m right in thinking this as I’m sure some faces wouldn’t have looked quite so disgusted, and the negative remarks been quite so loud had they known. 

But perhaps maybe they would.  

I don’t have a beef with that.  It’s rather fun feeling slightly invisible and being able to witness someones gut reaction to what you’re trying to do.  I don’t want to be a middle man.  Anything I do I don’t want it to be “Ok”.  Either love it or think it’s shit.  I just like when you have the bollocks to stick by what you think. 

So here are some Thom testimonials that it was a pleasure to witness, whether the people knew I was the Thom or not…

And my favourite...

...that little kids response!  Brilliant.   

Belfast Film and Comic Con!!

So, the Thom show is near to hitting the road.  VERY excited but also feeling slightly wobbly knee-ed.  (Ok, so thats totally not a word.  And I only say that because I was sure it was and had to Google it up.  But it's totally not a word.)

Well, really looking forward to seeing the mad mix of sorts there's bound to be there in both art and creativity! 

And incase you're looking for something to do this weekend and you want to avoid the boring stuff you've been putting off but vowed to yourself you'd DEFINITELY do it this weekend...Don't bother and come to this!...

Belfast Film and Comic Con

Make sure you make time for having a little bit if fun today.  Like, if you're having a cup of tea, have a REALLY good biscuit with it. 

(That's genuinely something I get quite excited about)

Bye now.

Giant Chair Fail

So this is what happens when you’re too over enthusiastic about getting a leg up to bound onto a 7ft giant’s chair in a Leprechaun Museum but you’re neither as limble and light as you once were.

For your perusal, I have attached here an image of myself plus a close up elbow image.  You can't quite appreciate it, but the bump is about the size of an egg.  And that mouldy yellow smudge isn't that I have a dirty elbow.  Thats the beginning of the bruise.  I have to say, for a while there I couldn't even see my elbow.  It was just one big giant Popeye type swelling.

Anyway, at the time of the said fail, the last things I thought were,

“Aaaaahh”

“Nick catch me”

“God this is quite high up” and

“This is going to hurt”

And it did. 

All that came out though was a sound like “Eeeeeeeep”

I’ve got injuries now that remind me of scrappings I got as a tiny Thom. You don’t tend to get those type of damages once you grow into a grown up because really, you’re meant to be a little more in control of your body and how you make it work. 

But unlike those times in primary school when I would tend to bound up and give it another go, I lay on the floor for a good while to make sure things weren’t broken, while everyone else enjoyed bounding onto the chairs in a much more sensible way.

Sensible isn’t as fun, but it Goddamn hurts sometimes.

Thom the Tink

In my normal every day,-day-to-day style of dress, I so often feel like a tink*.   In my 9-5 job I don’t consider myself as actually having to present myself to the world, so I dress in my “Sunday-clothes-for-bumming-around-the-house-when-you‘re-sure-noone-will-see-you” outfit.

One day recently in my 9-5 attire, I had an unfortunate meeting with an arse ugly dog who, as I came upon it, remarkably seemed to be looking at me with an air of disgust.  Sitting there, with its fat, wrinkly gut spilling over the pavement and a face that could make shit melt.  The cheek of it.

And I’m sure it wasn’t thinking very much at that moment, but my God, the look in its bulging fly eyes said, “Bitch, you ain’t nuthin but a scruffy ho”

Thom the Tink

I walked away with an unintentional feeling of bewilderment, genuinely questioning what was that about.

I didn't think I was that insecure.  Although I did once apologise to a pigeon for not being able to get out of his way.  You know, I went one way, he went the same way, I went to the left, he went to the left I went to the right, he went to the right…It was all very awkward.

The animal world is so odd.

(*bum, hobo, vagrant)

Monster from the Deep (and Spinning Around)

Unfortunately for The Heid, I can be annoying for most times, in a kind of, “slightly wrong in the head” kind of a way.

The first one this evening was as he was straining the mixed veg over the sink, I popped my head in-between his view of what he was doing, the strainer and the “smoke” (although as Heid corrected me, the steam, which is really what I meant but it came out as “smoke”) and made some kind of crusty old gurn face and asked if I looked like a “monster from the deep”.

The “smoke” was just asking for a monster type gurn face to be put in it.

The second evolved into a very long winded process. 

The simple request was, “Thom, could you pass me a couple of bowls?”

Rather than acting upon the simple ask, I proceeded into a “what would you do” scenario.  So instead of replying, “Yes my Heid.  I shall pass ye the bowledge” I instinctively began turning in circles and in this episode of “What Would You Do” I said,

“What would you do if I had a disease that meant I couldn’t stop turning round in circles?”

And so, frustrated Heid stood at the cooker, still bowless, as I tried to pick the two bowls from the dishwasher while turning round in circles.

It’s actually more difficult than you think.

(And incase you’re wondering what Heid’s answer was to “What Would You Do” it was, “I wouldn’t be here to answer that question”)

CHAAAA' MOWEEN MUTHA FUPPAS

Halloween treat.

This clip is not quite how I'd planned.  I'd say about 65 percent how I'd planned.  It's not like the quality would have been any better, but if you can imagine lots more zombies, some sexy camera moves, a soundtrack that would have included a kazoo, casio keyboarding and mouth trumpet, and a bit of dialogue at the end in the style of a jolly Yorkshire man going,

"Eeeee, that were good",

then you're almost there.

Whatever way, I'm sure I'm championning the legacy that is Mickey J.

He would have wanted it this way.