4 of Hearts

Last night I took part in a cool little exhibition at Bean Bag Bohemia. 27 artists were given 2 playing cards to illustrate. Above is one of my attempts.

I'm getting involved in a new project that will get me scribbling again, which is awesome! So look out for new Schnozz blog updates again soon!

Dreams

Change is something that effects us all, it's the second thing we know for sure will happen (death being the first), I like the Chinese philosophy of "being like water", to blend with change and to use it to your advantage, it's the central concept in any Chinese martial art and I think it's a great way to learn to embrace changes in your life. I suppose it takes practice to "be like water" a certain mind set must be applied and a strong sense of intuition would help you through it, also experience plays a big role, the older you get the more you learn to adapt. Another Chinese concept is to "do without doing" (which is actually the same as being like water), it sounds like lucky laziness, but it's a skill that, if mastered could really be cool! Timothy Ferriss pops to mind when I think of people who seem to have taken these ancient concepts and applied them to their lives.

There is a bit of change happening on my side of the bubble, I'm getting married on the 9 May, and I've gotta start moving house soon and there's a bunch of other stuff, but I think this is a good opportunity to be trying some of this being like water stuff, maybe I'll learn to surf life a bit better!

It's gonna be ok!

Life has its niggly things, more for some people than others, like the people in Zimbabwe or Gaza have a lot more to be bummed about than I do. Anyone who knows me will know that I’m a huge cynic and I moan and groan about most things in life, not about things that have happened to me, more like things that the world is doing, I like to scoff and roll my eyes at the world and this fills in the bored patches in my day.

I do however have a low level of self pity. Don’t get me wrong I feel down in the dumps sometimes, but not very often. I have acquired this cynical outlook on life over long periods of sickness and recovery, when you have skimmed death's ball hairs as many times as I have then the world starts to feel a lot less important and you gravitate towards the simple things and your understanding of the worlds chaos starts to diminish.

The above cartoon is a reflection on this state of mind. Schnozz’s head it detached from his body (the world) and although he is still under a black cloud of obvious negativity, he is smiling and reassuring himself of the okayness of the situation. I have felt like this on numerous occasions, but for some reason I always look for the okayness in life... “It’s gonna be ok, I have Jenna”, “It’s gonna be ok, my family loves me”, “It’s gonna be ok, I can still hear, see, taste, touch and feel”, “It’s gonna be ok, people are still making great films and writing great books”, “It’s gonna be ok, at least I’m not a poor Zimbabwean or Gazan or any other hungry, cold, unloved person” etc…

Toilet Bowl Blues

Hiya folks! Today's doodle is an illustration for a song I wrote a few years ago when I was a... well... lonely person. I had just had my heart broken and spent my days locked in my flat noodling on a borrowed guitar and coming up with the most horrid emo songs you could ever imagine... not a proud moment in my life I can assure you!

You can download this particular gem by CLICKING HERE (1.06mb zip file)

Enjoy!

Vault of Horror

I once modified this awesome Vault of Horror comic cover and got it printed on a t-shirt. I was very popular with my friends. Alas girls gave me the skwonky eye!

My friend Muttly and I used to watch tons of zombie films before he got married and skidaddled off to New Zealand (where a lot of the cool zombie flicks come from). We used to get Chinese food and watch these cool cult films and we had great philosophical conversations about them and debated certain aspects of the characters etc… I actually learned a lot about life from watching these zombie movies, for a horror film to be a zombie movie there needs to be certain aspects in the film, I’m not talking about the walking dead people, that’s a given, there needs to be a group of people running for their lives, one must be the reluctant hero and someone else (usually the boyfriend of one of the three women) has to be the arrogant, selfish, all-for-himself, ego maniac whose stupidity and spite gets the group almost killed. He usually gets munched by one of the living dead and we all cheer. Then there needs to be the cool guy who gets killed cos this is a tragedy. Then there has to be a quick sex scene or a flash of boobies, usually the booby flasher is killed (also must be blond). Then the reluctant hero and the last surviving chick end up running around for awhile until the movie ends in disaster or our hero gets flung back in time or the disease gets cured by daisies or something. Now you are probably wondering how this has taught me anything about life, well, if there ever was a zombie holocaust it has taught me that real friends kill friends who become zombies. ALL my friends would kill me therefore it has taught me that I have good friends. Friends are cool!

My top five zombie movies (please note that some of these films are not classed as pure zombie for they might lack the essential elements, but who cares, these films rock my balls!):

1.) Evil Dead 2
2.) 28 Days Later
3.) Brain Dead
4.) Bubba Ho-Tep
5.) Dawn of the Dead

Lazy Cartoons

Cartoons to me are a bit like photo’s, I enjoy seeing cartoons that sometimes don’t make sense but the drawing has a certain feel that is appealing much like a photograph, a photograph can just be a moment frozen in time, but can mean so many different things to different people, I like cartoons that have that mystery as well, what is funny is I hate fine art that does that, which is unfortunate for me, but I love scribbles that are weird and that have a certain charm.

Today’s cartoon could be an example of what I’m thinking, Schnozz is perched on top of a pile of money, he is visibly upset about this situation, were all of us would be happy about it, so what does this scribble mean? It could be that the dollar signs are reversed indicating that the money is from a corrupt or evil source, however at the time of drawing the cartoon I thought that was the right way (maybe my sub-conscience had that idea?). It could be that money can’t buy you happiness, but I’m inclined to agree that it probably could. Maybe it’s because Schnozz is opting for the simple pleasures of life and this good fortune will just complicate things. Whatever the reason, I would like the viewer to come up with their own story behind the tears. I’ve adjusted my opinion of the cartoon many times, I first thought it to be a statement against capitalism, then it was a belief that too much “money” (greed?) destroys relationships, now I’m hoping you could tell me your opinion… aaaaah, sometimes it’s just nice to be lazy!

The whole mess of things

I enjoy reading Jeremy Nell’s blog. I’m usually a silent reader preferring not to contribute comments and just enjoy his cartoons and satire, however last week I left a couple of comments on the Israel – Gaza mess and my opinions where taken rather badly by some of his readers. I was called an idiot and told that I didn’t have a clue. Which is fine by me, as I couldn’t care much for that sort of thing, what did annoy me however was the lack of respect that these guys had for opinions not their own, at the beginning of the Israeli invasion into Gaza I was all for the attack, I saw the reports on TV and thought “yeah, you don’t wanna mess with Israel cos they are hardcore!” Then for some reason I decided late one night to look into the situation a bit deeper, I read up on Israel’s history and the Palestinian struggle and I visited numerous news website’s and read reports and blogs and stories from both Israeli’s and Palestinians and I started to develop an informed opinion on the situation, my basic opinion was that Hamas AND Israel are at fault, I condemn the actions of Hamas and I condemn Israel for it’s disregard for human life. I am deeply saddened by the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza and I believe Israel’s actions are only going to breed more hatred from the Muslim world.

Frank Zappa once said that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds. I believe this to be true and I was not commenting my opinions with the goal of changing anyone’s mind. I was just contributing to the discussion about one of Jeremy’s cartoons. I did not enjoy the fact that some of these guys where so blind to the real humanitarian situation in Gaza and they were saying this is war and no wars are pretty, just because it’s war doesn’t make it right.

Jeremy later posted that some people read too much into his cartoon, which I find to be a bit of a cop out, the cartoon was a truthful representation of what is happening in Gaza and I doubt giving one’s opinion about the subject that he chose to draw about is reading too much into it. It is what it is… a bloody mess!

P.S. Jeremy’s cartoon today is also great!