EPISODE 16: ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS

We really enjoyed putting this episode together, as ASHLEY WOOD is a BIG influence on my own storytelling, and influences my own art too. I love the way he puts comics and paintings together, and have collected a lot of his work over the years.

ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS was originally published by IDW, but here ASH and CHRIS RYALL, who wrote the stories, took back the rights to the material and republished them all together in new comics, enabling readers to have all of the stories together.

There's beautiful page layout and design here, as ASH really know how to put a comic together - did I mention I REALLY like his work?

We also talk about my earlier career as a Graphic Designer, as it seemed like a more practical option than being a cartoonist when I was twelve... I still drew cartoons when I worked in design studios!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay. Welcome back to Morgan Talks Comics. Uh this week we are looking at Zombies versus Robots, which is a reprint comic of Ashley Wood art from I think about two years ago. With me, as always, Eliza Mariah Chamberlain.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Good afternoon, good evening.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

People could be listening anytime.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

They could. So good morning, good afternoon, good evening. We don't know where you are in the world. Well we do a bit.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

We will do after this got out.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Mike, you did turn round as if you were asking me something about this, but you know I know nothing. Yeah. What were you asking?

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Uh I don't know what I was going to ask actually, to be honest. Um, chosen this week to have a look at um Zob vs. Robots. Uh this was originally reprinted in uh I think IDW comics that we've talked about before because um they published a lot of Ashley Wood's work beforehand. Ashley Wood is an Australian artist uh and toy designer. So a lot of he is a he. Um yeah, Ashley Wood draws these great sort of big clunky robots, and a lot of his designs have been turned into into really nice toys, very desirable toys that are very collectible. You can buy robot figures and stuff like that. They're they're really I have got a couple actually. Up there, yeah, you see the little silver one. Oh yeah, the little silver ball, that's an Ashley Wood.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Yes, yeah, well fancy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

So um yeah, they're they're they're very collectible, really beautifully made figures, and Ashley Wood is another one of my favourite artists because he's a big influence on my my storytelling. Um when I self-published my first comic a few years uh back in 2020, it was kind of influenced by his his sort of storytelling, and I had robots and stuff like that in it, and I and I took a lot of inspiration from the way he paints as well. He's just these fantastic oil paintings. Sometimes he draws just really naughty ones. Yeah, I'm shocked. I hope he didn't look at them. I might have seen one or two. Um, yeah, he does he does quite often draw women with not a lot of clothes on and um sometimes engaging in stuff with other robots. Yeah, uh, and then other times he does this does this great sort of world war, it's almost like a World War III kind of thing, sort of like apocalyptic kind of robots and soldiers walking around and stuff like that. How depressing. It could be depressing, but I actually find it quite good fun. He has a there's a lot of humour as well, I think, in these comics as well as as well as that. But yeah, so sorry.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

I was gonna say, you're gonna show me some of his naughty pictures after this. Yeah. Just don't tell anybody.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

No, I just got a really lovely book uh recently, a collection of of Ashley's uh paintings uh from an exhibition that was held in Japan. He does uh most of his toys are made in Japan and he's got a big fan base. He's got a worldwide fan base, but he has a very big fan base in Japan. Um he now makes toys under his own his own company. He was working with another company called 3-0 who still make toys and still make really good stuff, but they've sort of parted ways and he's now taken control of his own stuff. Yeah, big off it that way. Absolutely, yeah. So let's dive in after the nice after this great sort of scratchy kind of oil cover.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

It looked like a first world war helmet, actually. Yeah, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Yeah, it's kind of interesting. The the military stuff that he picks up on.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Oh being um you're putting your tail in there.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah, Breeze wants to get involved at this point. She's very interested in what we're doing.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Yeah, but she wants CREATE.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

She wants attention. She's had she's had her treats for this evening. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Right, let's have a look at this.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

So um, yeah. A little bit more background before we dive in properly. Um stories in here are written by Chris Royal, uh, who I think is an American writer, but him and uh Ashley Wood have worked together a lot. Ashley Wood has predominantly worked for American publishers. Um, yeah, so they were originally published by IDW Comics, who we've we've talked about before, we've looked at some of their stuff. Um what happened what's happened is that um Chris Royal and Ashley Wood set up their own studio to re to reclaim the rights to these stories so they can have the original rights back. So it's very much a creator-owned project.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Right. So they get this right, they'd already done this for another company.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

But then they've done it all over again and said that the rights to that are mine.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

But surely they couldn't do that because they didn't have the rights to use it.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

No, because they've bought the rights. They've got they've they've got the rights back.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

They've bought them.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Right, that makes sense. Right, that makes sense about the rights.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah, so they've set up their own imprint within Image Comics, uh, which I believe are the third biggest public comic publishing company. After Marvel and DC, I think Image are third. Are they? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

You look as again as if you're asking I know nothing I know nothing.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Pretty pretty certain about that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

What's going on here?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

So the way Ash did Ash draws his robots is because they're kind of quite clunky and it's got like sort of sot and steam and everything sort of billing out of the bucket.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

Is it steampunk?

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Yeah, it's kind of got a bit of a steampunk vibe to it. You like steampunk, don't you? I do indeed. Well, I I like books that have it in. What's this? So on the opening page here, there's a zombie bouncing along, dreaming of eating a freshly fried chicken or whatever for some reason, and then uh an axe comes along basically locked off his head.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Oh, so is that this person?

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yeah, so it starts right here on the inside front cover where all of the publishing details are.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

His legs all tidy there than no, because that's the the robot chops off that zombie's head. Oh, I see. I I thought you were telling me that this was there. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Didn't believe it. No.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

What's this?

SPEAKER_02 6:48

So that's the zombie's head after it's been chopped off by the axe that's held that's held by the robot.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

I can't quite see that as a head, but I believe you.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yeah. I really like the way Ash Ash draws. He's got this kind of quite scratchy fountain pen style, uh, and he uses a lot of um lectro-tone, sort of which is self-adhesive. This this grey tone in the background is like it's it's not used. Some some art some artists that still use it. It was much bigger before, it and it's what it was, it was sheets of tone on film that could be stuck onto artwork to give a gradient effect.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Right, so that means you don't have to spend the time to shade it.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Yeah. Yeah. So and some some artists like uh I know uh Ashley Wood uses it like Jim Mafood, who's another one of my favourite artists, he uses it quite a lot in his work as well. Quite a few artists are using this using tone styles, but they're that it's big hot, it's got made you can make it digitally now as well. I've I've done it digitally myself.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

I was going to ask you if you've done it, so does that mean you've not got any other film?

SPEAKER_02 8:04

No, no. Um it is still available, but I wanted to see it. Yeah, so diving into a big splash page. This is part one of the story. This is Ash's really lovely, quite kinetic drawing style. You can see all the tone in here, and they've dropped in like some colour, dropped some simple colours into it here. Yep. Um I just love the way he puts pages together. He's a he's a big influence on how I put my pages together, even down to the balloons and everything. Yeah, he's while he's all while he's all while he's he is a great cartoonist, he's more to me, he's almost like a fine artist because he works does his painting in oils and stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Yeah. What do you think the medium is for this?

SPEAKER_02 8:53

So here I think he's working with um like a quilt or fountain pen and ink, so lots of really heavy ink.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

What about the pink?

SPEAKER_02 9:03

The tone, the tone will be then set up digitally. He could have possibly painted it on there, but I suspect it was when it's been scanned and and turned into a digital page to put you know put together for print, they dropped this secondary colour into it.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Right, I see.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

So we've got a big montage of zombies versus robots, and then it's quite common in in these stories that they have these sort of these funny little scientists sort of going around with big with big sort of mechanical machines. There's a lot of stuff about time travel and stuff like that in it in these stories. That sounds like steep punk to me.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

Yeah. What are these things supposed to be?

SPEAKER_02 9:43

So this is looking at this um big machine that they've got here.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Washing machine.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah, it almost does look like a washing machine, doesn't it? But you've got these three scientists here all talking to each other.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Yeah, it is like a look, like an advertisement, washing paddle. It is almost, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Yeah, it's got that kind of feel to it. Yeah. So they're having a conversation, and then one of them's gonna go into this portal thing, but he's in a he's in like a robot suit, in a protected suit, so he looks looks sort of like they've got a robot coming in here and putting him into it. It's almost like an asteroid suit. Yeah, I just I love the way he draws, I love the way Ash draws. It's really lovely. The way the pages are laid out and everything, is it's really I love the way he uses space and everything.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Yeah, he's not too busy, he doesn't go board.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Even though it's quite uh quite an energetic style of drawing, he'll he'll he lets panels breathe, you know. Here you can the figures are just left in white space, and then so they then one of the scientists goes off into this portal and disappears.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Disappears to where? Don't we know?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

We don't we don't know yet. So the other two scientists and the little the little droids from the the scientific laboratory they're in does.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

That looks like a television aerial.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Kind of does, doesn't it? It's got that kind of feel to it. But what's it supposed to be? An aerial?

SPEAKER_02 11:13

No, that's the that's the roof of the laboratory they're in, and that's where the machine is hanging down from.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Oh you see, I'd never get that if you didn't explain it to me. That's where these lose me.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Yeah, this this is the thing because Eliza Mara is more of a visual. Isn't a visual thinker. No, I'm not. So visual storytelling is kind of lost on you, isn't it really?

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Yes, I used to draw do drawings when I used to learn cases, legal cases, I used to do drawings, but I think it was the act of having it written in front of me and doing the drawing rather than remembering the drawing. Don't want you dribbling.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Over on to the next page. We see one that see the boot of what of the the scientists coming back in back through the portal again.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

Is it just his foot?

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Literally pulls it through, and all that is left is his suit. Oh well, he could have taken it off. So we're moving on to chapter two here. Um with another big splash of uh one of Ash's typical sort of style of robots with these big big bodies, short, stumpy legs and everything going up against a zombie. That's a mystery. So this is this is where the where they are, this is where the scientists are. It's in New Mexico.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Oh, is that a building from the outside?

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, it's a building from the outside.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Yeah, I my first thought was breathalyzer, but they don't even look like that anymore, do you?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

So we've got the scientists looking back into this portal and trying to work out what's happened to the other guy who's basically looks like he's disintegrated. All that's come back is his suit. Is that what's in the suit? Yeah, but he'd be left in like a doggy bag. There's one of the robots here cleaning him up with like a vacuum cleaner.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Do you realise there's a dog here looking very hopeful? Because you mentioned doggy bag.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

I'd said doggy bag, yeah. The doggy is the doggy is very keen. Yeah, you can probably see a bit of a paw coming into the shot here.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yes, if you mentioned poo bags and things, you think she's going somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

So the scientists are talking to each other, looking at the portal, trying to ponder what's been going on. The other scientist has gone off and got this massive robot suit, and he's gonna go off and find out what's happened to the other guy. So he's in this massive, big, sort of like looks like brass because of the colouring. This big, this big huge metal.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

He doesn't get the size doesn't count, no. Is he gonna come back in a poo bag?

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Well, we'll find out. He looks like he's got he's taking the poo bag with him.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Oh right.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

So he goes, he goes over to the uh dark side, over to the uh portal. You can see him here talking to the little sort of like domestic droid they've got in the lab. And then for some re some reason he's going on about humans and robots, um, proving that humans uh are superior to robots, and he cruelly knocks over the little robot.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Oh, well he doesn't deserve to come back, does he?

SPEAKER_02 14:31

And then so he then he decided then he gets gets up to the portal and dives through the portal, and then we see him come through on the other side.

SPEAKER_04 14:39

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Again, really lovely use of space on the page. Where is he? He's gone through into he's gone through into like another dimension. Yeah, but where is he on the page? He's here at the here in the last panel.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

What did they do? Forget to draw those?

SPEAKER_02 14:56

No, it's put the portal in there, but it's just um showing that there's nothing, a passing of time, nothing's actually happening, and then he then he comes through the portal.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Is he alive?

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yeah. He made it.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

He didn't deserve to because he bullied the other one.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

So this is now part three of the stories. These were originally put published in like little sort of six six-page chunks, little chapters. Right. What they've done here is they've collected it all together into one big comic. So it's a really nice way to have have them all all collected. Oh look, you can see Breeze as well. Breeze is joining in today.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

As long as she's not dribbling on the right.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

I think I might move it over a little bit. So we're on to part three, which came first. We've got one of one of the big robots, probably American because of the big star on the American tanks and so on, had a white star on them in like World War II and stuff. Did they?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

They'd be like sort of military green with a with a white star, was quite a common on common markings on like jeeps and tanks and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

Why?

SPEAKER_02 16:04

That's the way the American army they had a star in their their logo in on aeroplanes and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

Did they?

SPEAKER_02 16:13

In the same way, they didn't have stars and stripes on the on the American flag. What did we have? Um we generally had wings. We had wings, and the RF had a round all, red, white, and blue round all on their planes.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

So we're back at the laboratory. The last the last of the scientists is left with the ro the poor robot who's just got like smoke coming out of him now.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

And over on the other side of the portal, the scientist in the big robot suit is is going around and trying to work out what's going on, seeing if you can find out what's happened.

SPEAKER_03 16:50

Again, really well, I like that one. That.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

But I can't see what it is exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

So there's a robot here, there's a person standing beneath it, so there's a person standing here with a really with a really big robot. This the last scientist in is left behind at the laboratory and he's surrounded by these other robots. So it's this is showing off the way Ash designs and draws robots. Oh, right. A lot of a lot of the toys that were made at the at this at the start were were toy versions of these of these robots.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Right, they're not intimidating the scientists then. No.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

No, they're he's the last of the scientists is trying to talk is talking to the robots and looking for help and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

What's happening there?

SPEAKER_02 17:37

So back over on the other side of the portal, the the the scientist in the big robot suit is being attacked by zombies. So there's a bit of a Barney going on.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Yeah, there had to be.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Yeah. But this waited a long time. Again, really nice showing off of how how well Ash draws like mechanical stuff, you know, and draws weapons and stuff like that. He's done a lot of uh game design and film design and stuff like that. It's a really yeah um big influence on my work. I just love the way he puts stuff together.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

Well, I'd like it if you did some film design.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, me too. I'd love to do some film design. Who knows? Maybe my new graphic novel will get turned into a film. Sorry. Yeah, thanks for the voter confidence, Eliza Mariah. Anyway, um, one of the robots then turns on the scientist and blows his head off.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Oh that's not very nice.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

It's not very not very politically correct, is it? It's rude. Back over in the other dimension, the other scientist is running off, trying to get away from all of the zombies. And he comes splashing back through the um portal, and the the big robot is left behind with light zombies, so we've got a really nice little splash panel here.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Well, surely he gets set upon, doesn't he? Yeah. If the other scientist has been taken out.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Yeah. So on the on the next page, this is some of the backup stories. Quite often one of the ways that Ash works, um, rather than doing like one big long form story, quite often, if he's working on stuff on his own, he'll do short five or six page stories. They will sometimes link together, but quite often when you buy his comics, um there's there's there's sort of like lots of little chunks of stuff, and there'll be different characters being introduced and stuff like that. These are all ones that they they'd created for for the IDW line. Um so it's all zombie versus robots there, and then they've I think they might have possibly done some new stuff when they put these together as well. He's he's a very prolific artist. Um, you know, he's he's he does comics a lot and he he has shows quite often, especially with his painting and his toys and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Does he ever come over here?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

I don't I he actually he has apparently done work in 2000 AD. Which we've looked at.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Oh yes, that's one of the few I know the name of.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah, so Ash has actually had work published in 2000 AD, so it has certainly been published in the UK. You were wondering why I wandered off. I was wondering why you wandered off.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

I'm getting the thingy. It's a thingy.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

So these these were made in conjunction, so these are based on uh robots from uh the earliest version of Gundam, which is a Japanese cartoon, and these little these are the little sort of like helper droids, these are the little condo they're almost like they're almost like little apples because they're quite often green and stuff like that. And they were done as what as what's known as a blind box, so you don't I know yeah, so you don't know which one you're getting. Um so it was all based on based on the the the little Bandai robot shape, but Ash has like then redesigned it a bit as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

It's cute, isn't it? Are they goodies then? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

He's a little bit dusty, but yeah, I was really chuffed when I got that because as much as I'd love to collect all of his stuff, his toys are actually quite expensive because they're really well made and everything. You're looking at about £200 at least. That didn't no, that was about fifteen pounds. Might yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

What do you think, Victor?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Yeah, you like it? Good girl. Yeah, it's gone up, yeah. She likes that. Anyway, yeah, so should I fight for her? No. So that's an example of some of Ash's toy work as well. And then here, nice use of his his I love the way he letters stuff as well. He's just I just really like the way he puts pages together. It's really lovely. Um this is like looking like World War II fighter planes or something like that having a having an aerial battle. Dog fight. Dog fight. And then one of the planes. One of the planes has crashed and a robot has fallen out of it. So the pilot is trying to carry off the robot and save it.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Well the pilots the robot isn't the pilot.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

The robot isn't the pilot. There's a robot and a human pilot in the ship, in the in the ship, in the airplane.

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Again, more of this just lovely use of colour and layout and stuff like that. It's just really it's just great.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

I like the aeroplanes, they're good.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Yeah. And then it looks like that the the pilot might not have made it and the robot then decides to go off and get some decides to go and get everybody else.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Or do you mean get everybody?

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Go and retrieve people or go and shoot go and shoot people more likely than not because he's carrying quite a large semi-automatic rifle.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Right, let's hope it's got a limited number of people.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

And this is like a sort of an in-house advert for CG, which is the publishing company in imprint that uh Chris Royal and Ashley Wood have set up to publish their own material and other people and other companies, other people's material as well. Excuse me, please, Breeze.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Oh, what's that?

SPEAKER_02 23:48

So here. No, what this is, this is this is really nice. Quite often Ash and he works with his wife quite often as well as she writes a lot of his uh of material, and they will actually have text stories, so they'll actually have stories that will be illustrated. But what this is is this is a behind the scenes of how zombie vs robots came to be and how how they kind of got the rights back and all that kind of stuff. So this is a this is a backup article that that flows through that. I think there were four issues of zombies vs. Robots that was collecting all of them.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

We needed to do this with first, didn't we?

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Yeah, yeah, we probably should have done, but yeah, but yeah, long story short, so there's some of Ash's original illustrations from the earlier stuff, and then this is this is Chris Royal here talking about how they got how they got the the comic off the ground in the first place and then how they ended up make you know Chris.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

I've I've been assuming that's a man. Is it a man or is it a woman?

SPEAKER_02 24:55

Yeah, it is a man, yeah. So it's kind of like a a potted history of of how it came to be.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

And a bit of this was um it's an a Zumper versus robots here, 74174 annual, which I have got, which is absolutely beautiful. It's a much it's a larger size comic, and it's more more sort of traditional of Ash's work. It's it's lots of collections of short stories and stuff like that, even though the characters will flow from one story to another, they do all kind of link together, but they also like Stephen King book.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah, yeah, that's got that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

And there's a really wonderful series here. The Chris I think this was the first one that the the Sidji imprint product called Rain. It was a sort of a it was taking acid rain to a a uh sort of a extreme? Extreme, yeah. Thank you, Lazemorra. I couldn't think of my words then. Um and it's kind of it's a it's a love story of how these two characters trying to find each other and then there's this there's this really horrible this really extreme weather.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

And that's sort of curtains, is it?

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah, uh but this was the first I believe this was the first series that Sidy put out that wasn't by Chris and uh and Ash. Even though the Chris is the publisher, because he's he does a lot most of the writing. Ash is the main artist and also does all the design, so the layout and everything for she's a graphic designer. He's got a very yeah, he's got a really good eye for design. He's like I say, he's worked in game design and film design and stuff like that, sort of title design, and then another one of Ash's Ash's lovely ladies with a robot head. This is rolling on to um the next issue onto issue two. That hints at what Elsie does, I think. Yeah, hints at what Elsie does, yeah. What's that on the back? So that's a zombie head. Oh, it's a face, yeah, it's a zombie head. Right. So it's rate it's rated mature as well because there is a bit of language in there and there's people being blown up and shot and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Um I didn't realise that they were well ranked, that's not the word I want. Got censored. Yeah, that's what you said, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 27:14

They quite often do. I mean, there are some comics that will come sealed, you know, like there's a bit there's a real trend which personally I don't like, but there's a real trend for having naked women on the covers of comics, and it's just I noticed that they're not so good at having the naked men, are they?

SPEAKER_00 27:30

No, they're not, they're not, and I I don't know if I'm being prudish or what, but I I it I find it a bit uncomfortable. Well, it's a bit dated really, it is like it is free on the side, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 27:42

It is really um say Ash Ash Dor does paint a lot paint and draws a lot of women with like quite often just naked. Um but that's why you know I consider him to be more of a fine artist than just a comic book artist. You know, his his oil his oil paintings sell for quite serious amounts of money. Um and like with the robots with the toys and everything, they um they h they do big shows around the world, like in I mean Japan, there's a there's lots of big shows in Japan because toy, you know, toy collecting is really is a big big thing over there. It's becoming big over here, but sounds like it's becoming bigger over here, yeah. I it's when we like when we talked earlier in one of our earlier episodes about how in like America and other countries being a comic book artist is a is a very much a viable option as a job. You know, it's not yes over here it's kind of frowned upon. There's not there are professional British cartoonists who I know quite a few of. Um but you you were steered away from it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

Excuse me.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Yeah, so very yeah, very early on. I've as we've we've said, I'd be I'd been reading comics for basically as long as I can remember from when I was tiny tiny. Um and when I was about 12, I re I all I wanted to do was to make comics, but I was kind of steered towards doing something else creative, and I that's why I became a graphic designer. And I I loved I loved design, you know, I enjoyed it. Um I did eventually get a bit burnt out on it, but even so, even when I was doing graphic design, I still did cartoons, you know. That was in fact the fact that I could draw cartoons by hand was what got me my first proper design job. You know, I had my design skills, but they said because at the time we were just shifting over to working more on computers, so we were using Apple Macs in the studio, and I'd only just started doing design on that, most of my layout work beforehand would be made by hand, you know, so drawing with pen and ink and all the rest of it. A bit like how Ash puts his stuff together with like old school materials, um, anyway. But the fact that I could draw by hand, you know, I was a good artist as well. That was the tipping point that got me my first job. That's good, yeah, yeah. Um and it meant you could carry on doing that, yeah. It was great, you know. And the last big job I ended up doing for that studio was pure illustration. Um, I was putting together instruction sheets of how to clean various pieces of equipment and vehicles and stuff like that, but it had to all be illustrated step by step, so I had to break everything down like that.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Well, footpaths we went used to go out and find your work on football.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Indeed, yeah. So the last studio job I had before I went self-employed, um, I worked for for the local council here in Leicestershire, and um the last big job that I did for them they was uh it was all about footpaths around the country, uh especially within within the county of Leicestershire.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

I think we need to explain that because all countries aren't the same, are they?

SPEAKER_02 31:15

No.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

That over here that if a footpath's been used for as long as you can remember at time immemorial, isn't it? If it's been used, then it becomes an actual public footpath, and it doesn't matter whose land it goes over, that person can't stop people walking on it. And in fact, we live opposite a footpath that goes over a farm.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Um yes, people have to respect the land over owners. But I I've heard that people from other countries I'm thinking of the US, but uh that you know, they don't really believe that you can walk just about anywhere if you've got if it's a proper footpath there. And of course there's they're everywhere because people always go from A to B over and over again. Yeah. I think that's a good thing. You can walk for miles and footpaths, can't you?

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 32:20

Yeah, so I need to think about that now.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

So yeah. Um sorry, but sorry, I was just gonna say reiterate again, big influence on my storytelling. Love the way Ash puts pages together and does the does he, you know, he does all the designer layout, uh even the way down to even down to the way he does like speech bubbles is something that I reference a lot in my work as well.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

Well, I have noticed that when you do what I think of as pot proper art with acrylics and a an easel and all that sort of thing, I can see influence from there.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Big influence on my painted work, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

I forgot to look. Is it in uppercase?

SPEAKER_02 33:04

No, it is in it's still in uppercase. Right, that that they still they still use uppercase.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

So bang goes a point there.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Paper's nice.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Yes, I'm re I mean, again, quality it's on quality paper, so that you know the printing print comes through really well.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

The colours are good, but I couldn't tell what things were without you telling me like that. Yeah. I didn't know what that was, or the head and things.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

So then your your preferred mode of story storytelling is is to read.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

Yes, but I'm giving my opinion. Yeah. And it comes from that angle. So that not good enough for me. Um had a bit of Barney, but they were I don't know, it wasn't a riveting story. They could have told that in fewer pages and then gone on to something else.

unknown 34:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

Is there more?

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Of the story, yeah, there's another four, there's another uh three issues of all of this material collected together.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

So maybe they'll um back up the ideas of the story.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Yeah, I mean again, this is the thing with visual storytelling, it's allowing the story to unfold over a number of pages.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

And that just mystified me.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Yeah. Yes, well. So that's the other side of the portal, and then nothing happens, nothing happens, and then the scientist comes through in this big protective suit.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

It had a bit of a buzzer.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

There's a tree for you.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Let me see again. That's not bad as a trees go, is it?

SPEAKER_03 34:50

I'm just thinking merely. This is a difficult one because I like individual bits. I like that and other bits. On the other hand, I couldn't make head nor tail of some bits. I think I have to give it a six. I I was teetering on seven, but if it's written in uppercase, you can't have that one.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

What do you think, Bayers? What's your opinion?

SPEAKER_02 35:19

I don't think she's got an opinion. She doesn't care, does he? No, she doesn't care.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

She just wants to be here because she doesn't like being left out.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

No, she likes to be involved.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Mm-hmm. Alright, yeah. Yeah, that's good. I'd like to see some more of his art.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Just I mean, I really like what's what's he has he got a name?

SPEAKER_02 35:42

I can't remember what they're called now. I know they're from Gondam, from the the the original Gondam series. They're a little helper robots.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Well, we'll call him Malcolm. Um I do like that artwork, and as I said, it reminds me of um it's a little bit tighter than you often do, but it's not far off.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

All good. There you go. Yeah, you're very welcome. Really happy to show this one off because it's yeah, it's just I really like the way they're put together. I think I've said that often enough.

SPEAKER_03 36:21

Um points. Or would everybody uh everyone get ten?

SPEAKER_02 36:28

I don't know. I that's yeah, that's really tricky. Eliza Mariah's put me on the spot now to actually give me a score. I would give this uh an eight.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

And where does it lose points? Where does it lose points? I suppose, in a way, some of some of the art some of the artwork can be a little bit confusing.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Um so the flow of the story is kind of a little bit lost. Sometimes it's just you know, art for the sake of art, but I mean being an artist, I like that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

Well I like that, but I like it when it's on walls, not necessarily in a story I'm reading.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

I think I think I'll dig out the um exhibition book of of Ash's work. I think you'll really enjoy that because that's more of that's more of his big paintings and stuff like that. Again, he's just I I love the way he puts stories together, um, the big influence on my stuff. I've when I wrote my first self-published comic six years ago, it was a it was very much a uh it referred to like his his sort of mode of storytelling quite a lot.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

But if but in my style.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

I saw the gap as you were doing a quick calculation.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Twenty away from twenty-six, what is it?

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Twenty away from twenty-six is twenty hang on, twenty oh it's six.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Oh dear are you tired?

SPEAKER_02 37:57

Faculties are running out, it's been a long day, done a lot of work today. Um made at least two pages for my for my next comic. Yeah, so uh it's been a long day. Um yeah, can never just can't say enough good stuff about Ash's stuff. I just really well in that case it should be ten. It should actually, yeah, no, it should be a ten, because it's it's just I love the way it's put together, so yeah, it has a it has to be a ten out of ten.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Oh, but no such thing as something being perfect, is it? No. No. How can I argue down to nine now?

SPEAKER_02 38:31

No, you can't. So before this turns into us into a zombie versus robots battle, I think we'll leave it there for this week. Yeah, I'm falling asleep. Oh dear. Lives my eyes getting tired. It has been a long day today. Uh anyway, hope you've enjoyed that episode. Again, if there's comics that you'd like to see us talk about or or that we've not mentioned yet, or or just say hello. Or just say hello. Yeah, it'd be nice to hear from from people. We know people are listening to the show and watching the videos, but it'd be nice to have a little bit of feedback, a bit to let you know what are you? Yeah, who are you, where are you, what do you like, you know. Give us some suggestions for other comics. I've got lots of comics lined up, but it'd be great if people started coming in giving us suggestions as well. I'd really enjoy that. Because it might pick up on stuff that I've not read before.

SPEAKER_03 39:23

Yes, it's always good to find something new.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Absolutely. So, with that that being said, we will see you next Wednesday. Bye. Bye.