FRED EGG COMICS REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2024

This has been another year greatly enhanced by taking time and making an effort to work on comics as much as possible. It’s not the easiest or most comfortable thing to do, but I’m glad to look back and see I’ve achieved what I have. 

I started off 2024 with an appearance in Pocket Thoughts Annual #6. This US zine from Ryan Ewing has become a regular project for me over the years, and is always a pleasure. This latest effort portrayed a real event where I was witness to a child’s genuine excitement about fruit being educated out of them by their parent.

This story was added to others I wrote and drew specifically for my comic book You Get What You Get. I also wrote stories for 26 guest artists to illustrate. They were: Emre Altındağ, Claire Brown, Clio Ding, Zu Dominiak, Joan Edam, Helena Edwardson, Fraser Geesin, Andy Hanks, Rozi Hathaway, Olivia Hicks, Rebecca Horner, Iain Cranford Hunter, Tim Kelly, Marc KZ, Francesca Mancuso, Nando, Paterson, Iestyn Pettigrew, Alex Potts, Ludi Price, Neil Scott, Mike Sedakat, Tom Stewart, Sam Stovold, Andy Strachan, and Cherish York. Thanks again to all of them for their sterling work. 

The comic launched at Dundee Zine Fest in November. I have wondered about the effectiveness of Zine oriented events as opposed to comic centric ones, but found to my surprise that the DZF was successful for me. Perhaps the sheer variety of topics covered and formats included in zine culture meant they were open to the comics I make? In any case, and whatever the reason, I had more sales there than I’ve had at any other comic con. 

Something else that came from that event was that a few weeks after, one of the people who bought my books contacted me to ask me questions regarding making comics. Turns out they were a student, and looking for quotes for their latest essay. Have a read of the Q&A session here.

Now, That Comic Smell. After our episode on comics available in local shops, you may have seen Tom’s video announcement that the podcast has ended. While this is true, there’s a little more to be said. Firstly, we are still meeting up regularly, just not recording the chats, so I sometimes forget we’ve “stopped”. Also, there are many episodes still in the can that will be put online (as Tom mentioned in his statement). And, we do plan to record further podcasts on a particular recurring topic we’ve been covering over the years. Lastly, we are still working on a third edition of our That Comic Smell Comic. So, although we’ve finished, there’s still more to look out for from That Comic Smell.

Towards the end of the year, it was a delight to guest once again on the Marvel Star Wars Explorers podcast. Their enthusiasm for Star Wars / Lucasfilm / Marvel / Disney keeps the show going past them having covered all the original Marvel Star Wars comics. At this point they are on to The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 1980s comics, while also discussing the 1990s TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the current Star Wars Skeleton Crew TV series. The podcast is always an enjoyable listen.

Next year I am going to be concentrating on a couple of longer stories. The first is provisionally planned to be between 18-24 pages, and I aim to have it published this year. The other is around 60 pages and I’ll work away on that until it’s finished. In the meantime, I’ve done another page for the next Pocket Thoughts Annual, so hopefully that will be out soon.

Thanks for your interest. Wishing you all the best for 2025!

CHRISTMAS COMICS: Valiant and the Christmas Truce 1914

Here's all the best for Christmas!

A great Valiant and Lion cover from December 1974 portraying the wartime Christmas truce of 1914.

I'm not sure who drew this. As ever with British comics, no credits were given. If I was guessing, I'd say Mike Western.

Have a great Christmas!

CHRISTMAS BREAK IS COMICS MAKING TIME

I've had an idea in mind for a longer comic story for a while. I'm aiming for something in the 18-24 page range.

Time off work for Christmas means I can concentrate on this. I started by collating all my ideas for it today. I now have enough to be getting on with, and if any more occur to me as I go along, I'll add them.

I'll start writing and laying out the story tomorrow.

MARVEL STAR WARS EXPLORERS: Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #19

Cover by Brett Blevins.

I'm guesting on the latest episode of this fun podcast, with hosts Brian Rudloff and Sam Stovold.

Discussing Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #19; "Dragon by the Tail" by Larry Lieber, Vince Colletta, Robbie Carosella, from July 1984.

From the website: 

"As Indiana Jones... fights a dragon, David Robertson returns to the cast to share with us his Skeleton Crew scribblings, to join us in a test of our collective Henry Jones Sr. knowledge, to determine at what point the supernatural becomes too supernatural for Indy, and to go Star Trekkin' across the universe... on the Starship Enterprise under Captain Kirk." 

Have a listen here.

COMICS Q&A

I was contacted out of the blue this week by a comics student who had picked up some of my books at Dundee Zine Fest last month. He wanted to ask me a few questions for his research.

James Ingle: What aspects of an image/ a story do you think comics or graphic novels are able to convey better than plain text?

David Robertson: Better than? I’m not sure it’s better, but something that comes to mind is in text you are able to very effectively build a picture in the reader’s mind cumulatively through evocative language and passages. In a comic you can aggressively startle the reader by presenting an image that was unexpected. This is typically done after a page turn, but can be done all in one page if the balance is properly calibrated (see “Hoovering” Of course, I’ve maybe lessened any intended surprise by telling you look for it). This comics process is perhaps more brutally effective in a particular instant.

JI: When you have an image in your mind that you wish to convey in comic form, how do you think this process differs to if you were writing it down?

DR: It’s completely different means to achieve a similar end. If I want to draw a building, I imagine what it looks like, or get reference materials, then use lighting, or other visual effects to set the mood and scene. If I want to write about it, I start making up sentences, with varying levels of metaphor, description, poeticism, whatever, depending on the purpose.

JI: I understand that some of your publications feature comics that are written by you, but drawn by other artists. How often do you feel the images you have outlined are recreated as you had them in your mind’s eye? Is this ever the case or is everybody’s interpretation different to your own?

DR: There is often a case of the artist’s interpretation being different than my own. What I’ve learnt to do is let go of specifics of how things look and convey only the information in the script that is necessary for the storytelling. So putting it crudely, if I want James Ingle to cross the street waving to someone, that is what I will write. I will leave what the street looks like and other details open to the artist’s preferences. If it is important that the street or James look a certain way, or something happens in a certain fashion, I will be clear about that. I try to dictate nothing that is outwith the purpose of the story.

One thing that is a balancing act is that I like to sometimes have the subtextual point of a story come together in a reader’s mind as they take in the panels. This is often controlled by what is drawn and how it’s drawn. Now, I like to have the artist experience the story and “get it” in a similar fashion, to hopefully enthuse them about drawing the story. However, I also have to explain what I’m up to to them, and there’s a kind of “spoiler” that comes about there. These kind of processes are continually being refined.

JI: Thinking especially in terms of adaptations of novels, do you think it’s possible to assign a figure of exactly how many words of plain text a particular comic panel is worth, in terms of recreating the original setting description/action/dialogue or anything else that occurs in the original story?

DR: No, it’s going to be different and vary wildly depending on level of detail and purpose of the adaptation.

YOU GET WHAT YOU GET at OPTICAL SLOTH

Kevin Bramer has written on You Get What You Get over at Optical Sloth.

"David always draws a few of his stories, so you’re obviously going to get his style for those, but several other stories were by people I hadn’t seen before, making this issue really stand out. Not that that would matter much if the stories were garbage, but good news everyone! There were some pretty solid stories in here too."

Read the article here.

You Get What You Get is available here.

SIGNALS colours

 Digital colours on the comic today.

I also made line art and grey tone versions, to give my editor options.

SIGNALS inks and blacks

Inks done, and blacks spotted today:

SIGNALS pencils

A couple of days off is an opportunity to get a comics page done.

Script, layout and pencils done today for a story with working title, "Signals":

YOU GET WHAT YOU GET at DOWN THE TUBES

John Freeman has written on You Get What You Get over at Down the Tubes.

"...there’s an undefinable nature to David’s work, they have a quirky, rather haunting appeal. I particularly enjoy the wide range of art styles, very much a snapshot of some of the best current and rising talent on the independent zine scene."

Read the whole thing here.

You Get What You Get is available here.