Like all the best Muppets stuff this is just very silly and almost puerile but it made me laugh and laugh and laugh...

Buh-bye Facebook. Just gone and deleted my account (well, I've gone and set it to be deleted in 14 days time because apparently they can't delete it like... oooh.... every other internet thing). I feel slightly odd about potentially losing contact with some people but far less bothered than I thought I would be. Says something about how attached I really was to it I guess. 

Here, courtesy of Budgie, is a proper scanned version of the Endless family portrait I posted the other day.



This is actually about third the original size but it would be ever so slightly too big to post full size here. It's a full A3 drawing originally though, so you'll just have to imagine it full size.

I've just got back from going into work and sorting out when I go back, which was oddly daunting. Officially I'm back on the 22nd of June but because of accrued leave I don't actually go back until the 9th of August so I have another six months at home with Callum before I get back to the daily grind of an actual job. Or, well, you know, a job that isn't looking after Callum. So it might all seem rather easy in comparison...

It does mean that between the end of March and the end of June I'll be getting no money coming in at all, but we knew that was going to happen, and at least what with Callum starting school full time in September I'll be able to go back to work full time so won't have to have any kind of pay cut or anything. Of course there will be the joy of a few months of tax being all screwy again until it sorts itself out, but at least it won't cause anything like the problems that it did since I started adoption leave.

So, anyone wanting anything drawing might want to get in now while there's a chance. I have about half of what i absolutely have to have to go to Bristol but could do with at least three times that if it's going to be comfortable and a bit more would help with the bills. I wasn't convinced I was going to make anything though, so even if I don't get to Bristol I'll still be happy.

Right, cup of tea and then back to colouring before Callum gets home from his day with the In-Laws.

 Callum has two Buzz Lightyears, one big action figure one the size he is in the films, and one teeny little model one a couple of inches high. Anyways, yesterday Callum pointed to the big Buzz and said 'Buzz'. The he picked up the Little Buzz and said 'Buzz far away' before flying him around the room for a few minutes.

Now either that means A) he's frighteningly preceptive, although not quite getting the point of perspective yet, B) he actually meant Little Buzz was going far away and I'm reading too much into it, or C) he's secretly been watching Father Ted when I've not been looking.

Right, decision (sort of) made. I've signed up for Twitter as @bevismusson (ah, the advantages of having  unique name...) and added a few people that were in my address book, but if I've not added you and you're on there feel free to add me as well. 

Yes, I know, I'm about to suggest something that I've sneered at once or twice (ahem...) but never mind. Mr Boultwood sneered even more and signed up ages ago. :p

I'm having a few issues with Facebook, the privacy and 'fair use' amongst others, and more and more it's become pretty apparent to me that I could do pretty much everything that i use Facebook for with a combination of LJ, good old e-mail and Twitter. I'm not really sure if I'm asking advice or what, but in terms of keeping in contact with people and stuff and I right in thinking that Twitter is as good, if not better, than Facebook?

 I actually did this drawing a while back, but I've only gotten around to putting it on-line now (although the others in the 'set' went up ages ago if you trawl back through my LJ). It actually started from a conversation at Bristol with Budgie and Tony and went from there. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out, even if getting Despair right made me think she was actually living up to her name...

Just because you never know, I thought I'd better mention yet again that I'm needing to raise money if I'm going to get to Bristol (or, you know, pay bills over the last three months of my adoption leave...) so any commissions or paid comics work (well, you never know...) that anyone may have then let me know. I've had a couple of things sent my way, for which I am very grateful, but need a lot more. If I do get to Bristol I plan on having Dead Queen Detectives 2 finished and printed up as well, but I'm not going to rely on possibly making money from that so need to have the cash up front (or at least a fair amount of it to pay for the hotel) if I'm going to be there. Oh, and as before, if there's something that I've done in the past that anyone wants to buy there's very little that I have that I'm so attached to that I won't sell.

My head tells me i won't, my heart says I will. And my heart almost always wins in these things.... ;)

Catherine the Great Awesome gets two pages for her spotlight page, because she is Awesome. Obviously.





Right, now to go and think about Thundercats...

Hatshepsut's spotlight page from DQD2. Who says that the Dead Queen Detectives isn't sophisticated humour? Ahem...

 

Marie-Antoinette's spotlight page from DQD2. not a great photo, but what the hey...

 

Right, decision made. I just spoke to the Ramada reservations people and the Comic Expo room rates (£60 for a single, £70 for a double) are cancellable right up to 14.00 the day before so I've gone ahead and booked myself a room since if i leave it too late and do get the money i might not get a room, whereas if I book it now and don't get the money then I can always cancel. I'm booking my ticket now but even if I don't use it that's only £12.00 wasted, and cheap train tickets don't get released until three months before the date of travel so I couldn't book those until the end of February anyways. I'm being optimistic about this at the moment, although at the same time I'm finding it hard to believe that i am going to get enough money together. 

Profile page for Catherine The Great. She's actually Catherine The AWESOME though.

 Profile page for Isabella

Profile page for Hatshepsut

What do you get if you cross Batman, a fireman, a green monkey, a spider-octopus thing and a nearly three year old at his birthday party?

Action Cthulhu, Firefighter! , that's what.

 

Profile page for Marie-Antoinette. 

I have spent a large amount of today making Callum's birthday cake (it didn't actually take all that long to bake and stuff, but obviously it had to be totally cool before I could ice it). There's a full set of photos of how I made it over on flickr but here's the finished cake in all it's glory. The black icing in the eye is only stuff I didn't make myself which is why it's annoying that it's gone a bit melty...

 This, I Won't Say I'm In Love from Hercules, is probably one of my favourite Disney songs ever. It's one of the only big love sons from one of their films that i can think of that isn't actually just a straight forward ballad. It also should be said that Menken is one of the finest musical writers ever and seems to forgotten sometimes when people list the greats. Also, considering the Disney films that have been adapted to the stage, I'm surprised that there doesn't ever even seem to have been hints that they might do the same for Hercules simply because it has the most straightforward theatrical score of almost every Disney film. Sure there would be challenges about how you stage it and show the monsters and stuff but it could be brilliant.


By the by, and I've only just discovered this myself, this is the song that was originally going to be in the above scene until it was replaced  by I Won't Say I'm In Love. It is a lovely song and Susan Egan sings it beautifully but it's just wrong for Meg as a character.