The Mysterious Paving Slab

This isn't really street art even though I've given it that tag – but it definitely comes from the street. In fact, it's on the street itself!

This afternoon, Michelle and I went for a walk in the suburb of Malvern, and at the corner of Kooyong Road, I noticed this inscribed paving slab:

It's 27 years old and a bit weathered, so if'n ya can't read it, it says:

A CURSE UPON THE

REMOVAL OF THIS SLAB

AS IT FINALLY

LAYS TO REST

WITNESSED

1ST DECEMBER 1989

What's that all about, eh? 'Curse'? 'Lays to rest'? Don't tell me some poor schmo was buried under there? Alas, no. It turns out someone called 'Eugene' put it there to protest at the street being dug up time times in a year (presumably the year 1989). He was the chairman of the High Street Traders Association, and was fed up of losing business due to roadworks (lucky he never worked in Hong Kong, then).

It seems to have worked, as the slab is obviously older than the surrounding ones; the subsequent roadworkers just paved around it. So they did heed Eugene's curse, esoteric as it may be.

Four Volumes Of Airbury

Beware the Ides of March! The photo below shows the four volumes of my Airbury Academy series that are now complete. Only two more volumes to go!

That all amounts to over 450 pages of comic art, and a whole heap to go...well, a three-digit number at least.

Sticky Institute Zine Fair

The Sticky Institute is a small shop in Melbourne, located in an underpass beneath Flinders Street Station, which sells zines of all kinds. Robert Scholten and I got a table at their zine fair today, and experienced the "zine scene" for the first time.

Zine production is unabashedly low-tech. A long-arm stapler goes a long way, as does a spare printer. Here's Rob doing some stapling. On the table is the "Never Trust A Songwriter" title card he did in Thailand for the China 5 music video (which I also filmed in Thailand).

The finished zines.

My zine, Xtra Cheez, was available in several flavours.

The Melbourne Town Hall was rather packed. Who's that at the bottom right?

Rob at our table.

Steve Carter of SCAR, with way more titles available than we had.

Antoinette Rydyr of SCAR setting up their extensive catalogue of zines and comics. She also came up with the name of my zine. I picked it from a list and changed the spelling.

Now, naff orf!

Happy New Year 2016

Happy new year 2016, and welcome to what will be the seventh year of this blog. Facebook has reliably informed me that I joined three years ago today:

Back in April 2010 I quit Facebook, but I rejoined on January 1, 2013 and I don't have to tell you why I did it. So there y'go, punters. Three years of other people's cats, generic inspirational quotes over images of sunsets, and political humour that isn't funny.

The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam

This is an illustration inspired by The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam, a book of 11th Century poetry from Persia which you should read if you get the chance. Most printings include a series of colour illustrations, much more detailed than my simple watercolour.