Dylan Horrocks's Blog

Presenting two new things that I have made, both of which are now available for purchase:

DARKEST DUNGEONS

Issue no. 1

(126mm x 71mm or 5″ x 2.8″)

24 pages, black & white with 2-colour covers

$10.00 (USD)

(includes shipping worldwide)

Two young women are unwittingly drawn into the thrilling, spiritually perilous world of fantasy role-playing. At the end of each issue, readers have the opportunity to vote on what will happen in the next instalment. The format serves as an homage to certain well-known cartoon religious tracts, frequently found in bus shelters or handed out on street corners.

DARKEST DUNGEONS

Issue no. 1

$10.00 (USD)

(includes shipping worldwide)

…and…

WANDERING MONSTER

14 illustrated postcards

A6 (105mm x 148mm or 5″ x 2.8″)

$20.00 (USD)

(includes shipping worldwide)

The perfect gift for the old school grognard in your life: a set of 14 full-colour postcards, drawn as a tribute to the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (1977) and Fiend Folio (1981), all lovingly illustrated by Dylan Horrocks.

WANDERING MONSTER

Illustrated postcard set

$20.00 (USD)

(includes shipping worldwide)

Photo: Matt Emery

The great New Zealand cartoonist Barry Linton died last month.

Funtime Comics asked me to write something about Barry, and here’s what came out:

BARRY LINTON 1947-2018

I’ve been trying to write an obituary for the great New Zealand cartoonist Barry Linton, who died on the afternoon of October 2nd at Auckland Hospital, aged 71. Carefully checked facts about his life, a sober assessment of his life’s work. But I can’t. I apologise if this is rambling and inelegant. But Barry’s comics have been an important part of my mental landscape since I was a schoolboy: shaping the way I draw, the way I think about cartooning and art, the way I see my home town and the islands we live on. I’m not ready to write about him with detachment, and I’m not sure I ever will be.

Barry’s art helped define the look of the New Zealand counter-culture in the ‘70s and ‘80s, through band posters and record covers, cartoons for the alternative press, and his unforgettable, iconic comics for Strips. He did commercial work, too. For a while, he worked as a graphic artist for the Auckland Star newspaper, drawing maps, diagrams of cruise missiles and aeroplanes, and whatever else the daily news required. Later, he drew illustrations for On Film magazine, a handful of books, and even the NZ Woman’s Weekly. But he was never financially secure, and he never stopped making his unique, intensely personal comics – even when no-one was publishing them. Occasionally he’d put out a mini-comic or self-published collection, but for years, his best work was seen only by flatmates, friends, and family.



In recent years, Matt Emery’s Pikitia Press managed to get some of Barry’s work into print, including the first two instalments of his magnum opus: the Aki saga. Barry was allergic to computers, and too poor to buy one anyway. So Matt visited him at home with a borrowed laptop and scanner, to scan hundreds of pages of artwork, which he then painstakingly processed over several years. All of this was supposed to culminate in a glorious collection of Barry’s best work, from the 1970s to the present, with a biographical essay by Tim Bollinger, and a critical foreword by me. But small press comics is a tough grind and Pikitia has sadly, inevitably gone into hiatus, leaving that badly-needed book as yet unpublished. Hopefully, that will change before long, and Barry’s life’s work will get the treatment it deserves.

Yesterday, I stood in front of his desk, where a half-drawn page of Aki sat where he’d left it: careful, meticulous, bright with the clear deep joy of drawing. Beside it were scripts, notes, sketches, for a long-planned epic: at least six volumes, which will now remain incomplete. He used to joke that the real title of the Aki series was “a hundred and one ways of drawing water.” And, like all of Barry’s jokes, it’s pretty accurate. Page after page of rolling swells, towering waves, frothing foam and glittering sunlit oceans. The Aki comics are light on dramatic plot; instead he used this cheerful tale of ancient Pacific exploration to draw into being a profoundly personal utopia. The Neolithic island cultures he imagined probably never existed, but in page after page of lovingly rendered panels, panoramas, maps, and even cardboard models of ocean-going canoes, Barry was slowly bringing them into our reality. That’s the world he wanted to live in, and for much of the past twenty years, he did.

At a memorial event in Herne Bay, one of his many friends mentioned a phrase Barry had used often: “tune out to tune in.” Tune out all the distractions – bills, flatmates, the madness of the world – so you can tune in to the world inside you and the slow, private work of making your art. Throughout his life, Barry did just that: making his art with few compromises but plenty of sacrifices. He left us a body of work unlike anything else in the history of comics – here in New Zealand and around the world. I hope we can do that gift justice.

Photo: Matt Emery

More about Barry:

Barry’s last published comic, a brief autobiography in ten guitars, was in press when he died. It’s in the new issue of Sport, and they’ve generously made it available online (PDF).

This is an article about Barry’s death in The Sunday Star Times.

The Spinoff reposted my comic about Barry (originally drawn for this 2007 book), with an introductory note from Toby Morris.

Audio Culture has a bunch of posts about Barry, including a lovely profile by Barry’s friend Arthur Baysting.

Here’s a moving tribute from writer Martin Edmond.

Tim Bollinger is one of Barry’s great champions. Here’s a bunch of things he’s written about Barry’s work: an essay for a 2017 Bowerbank Ninow auction catalogue; a review of Barry’s Aki series for the NZ Listener; a post about Aki for Werewolf.

There’s a new autobiographical comic by Barry in the latest issue of Sport (along with a short tribute from Tim Bollinger).

You can see more of Barry’s work here, here, and here.

This is a clip featuring Barry from my step-mother Shirley Horrocks’ 2007 documentary about NZ cartoonists, The Comics Show:

I wrote and drew this new issue of the Pickle mini-comic in November and it was first distributed at the New Zealand Arts Foundation Art Awards (on account of they made me an Arts Laureate!!!). Now I’m making it available for public purchase. It’s a very personal response to earthquakes (geological and political), health dramas, moving to Wellington, and the faultlines in which we all live.

Anyway, if you want to buy it, or just to see a little more, go here.

(click on an image to see larger version – opens in new tab)

This is a character sketch for a secret side project, which won’t be see in public for a wee while. In the meantime, if this sketch takes your fancy, you can buy the original drawing (see below), to help support my unfortunate comics-buying habit.

The Red Coat

A4 (210mm x 297mm; 8.27 × 11.69 inches)

Original drawing in pencil, watercolour and gouache on 150 gsm paper.

US$180

ON SALE: US$90

Sorry – SOLD!

(click on an image to see larger version – opens in new tab)

This is a character sketch for a secret side project, which won’t be see in public for a wee while. In the meantime, if this sketch takes your fancy, you can buy the original drawing (see below), to help support my unfortunate comics-buying habit.

The Red Coat

A4 (210mm x 297mm; 8.27 × 11.69 inches)

Original drawing in pencil, watercolour and gouache on 150 gsm paper.

US$180 (including shipping to anywhere)

I drew this sketch of Guido Crepax’s Valentina for a limited edition art booklet celebrating the first volume of Fantagraphics Books’ The Complete Crepax. I chose to show Valentina at work, camera in hand, because (as I said in the booklet) Crepax’s comics are all about looking: Valentina’s eyes, the lens of her camera, frozen details, mirrors. They’re dominated by Valentina’s gaze, the things she lingers on, the images that fill her mind’s eye. Crepax was fascinated by her fascination.

To get the booklet, go here (it comes free if you order The Complete Crepax directly from Fantagraphics). And if you want the original art, just click on the “BUY NOW” button and it will soon be yours!

Valentina

(Guido Crepax tribute)

Original art: ink on paper (A3, 297 x 420 mm, 11.69 x 16.53 inches)

US$ 180

(including postage)

Hacked by HolaKo

I’m releasing four more pages of original art from Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen for purchase. I tentatively put a handful up for sale a couple of weeks ago and most sold within hours. So I thought I’d better let a few more go.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 130:

I finally took the time to set up a shop, where you can buy original art from Hicksville. Quite a few pages have sold over the years, but many are still available, including some of my favourites.

Go take a look here.

I also updated the Buying Stuff page, which tells you how to buy everything from books to prints and t-shirts. Any purchases are, of course, hugely appreciated by me and my hungry family.

I have been reluctant to sell original art from Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen, but more than a year after the book’s release, I think it’s time to tentatively let a few pages go.

I may change my mind tomorrow and take them down. Or else raise the price. We’ll see.

But for now, the following are available for purchase for US$350 each (including postage).

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 21:

Poor old Sam is late for a deadline And so, while his wife Sally sleeps alone, Sam sits staring at his computer screen, stuck on page 17 of his Lady Night script. Sam’s predicament here is uncomfortably familiar from my days writing scripts for DC Comics. As a consolation, I indulged myself with the decorated bedspread and curtains in panel 1. Drawing details like this – and slowly, meditatively shading – are among my favourite parts of the process.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 21

(Japanese marker pen, ink & white-out on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

(Click through to see more pages)

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 47:

This is one of my favourite pages; it was SO MUCH FUN to draw! Sam is surprised by a giant Martian Sand Monster. I worked out a bunch of information about the Sand Monsters that I never got to use in the book. In short, they feed off their prey’s fear, rather than their flesh. The teeth and claws, horns and roar are all designed to terrify rather than kill. I have pages of drawings and notes in my sketchbook for numerous Martian (and Venusian) creatures – some of which are mentioned in the book. Maybe I’ll do a bestiary one day?

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 47

(Japanese marker pen, ink & white-out on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 51:

Ah, Miki. Here she flies across the barren desert of Mars, with Sam clinging (a little too tightly) on her back. My earliest plans for Miki were very different, but once I started trying to draw her, a completely new character forced her way out of my pen – loudly demanding her own back story – and the Miki you see here emerged. Her presence changed the whole story, and made it even more fun to write and draw. On this page, she’s wearing the outfit I first gave her, before changing it halfway through the process of drawing the book. I later went back and redrew her clothes, giving her something closer to the classic manga sailor-suit school uniform. All of that was added in Photoshop, so the original version remains here. Warning: there are two errors in the lettering, which I also fixed in Photoshop, making this page an excellent conversation piece for the compulsively pedantic proof-reader in your life.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 51

(Japanese marker pen, indian ink & white-out on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 61:

Sam is proclaimed the Cartoonist God King of Mars. This is another of my favourite moments in the book, because… CARTOONIST GOD KING, right? It took ages drawing all those Martians in the crowd. Also, you’ll notice that I had second thoughts about Sam’s thought balloon in panel 3, and tried out a couple of alternative lines in the margin. In the end, though, I stuck with the original line. Feel free to white out the rejected dialogue yourself.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 61

(Japanese marker pen, ink & white-out on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 67:

Sam meets his Venusian wives. I apologise for the messed up lettering in panel 1 (which was later fixed in Photoshop). Again, feel free to correct it on the original before framing. Of course, the black and white drawing gives no hint of the queens’ bright green skin (as seen in the published version). But hopefully you’ll be able to imagine that while looking at it.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 67

(Japanese marker pen, ink & white-out on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

SORRY – SOLD

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 75:

Sam escapes to the Royal Bedchamber (accommodates 50), leaving his “wives” outside. I had so much fun drawing all the decorations on those pillows and blankets on the bed, forgetting how many times I would have to draw and colour them before the book was done. It took aaaages! Likewise the shading on the curtains. All hugely enjoyable to draw, but it’s lucky I wasn’t on a tight deadline.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 75

(Japanese marker pen & white-out on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 115:

Miki’s back – and introducing Sam to some of the Magic Pen’s many mysteries. This is the first time we get to see Miki’s extensive comics collection – some of which we explore with Sam and Alice in later chapters. Also, YAY SATCHMO! Note there are a couple of lines of dialogue on this page that I tweaked later in Photoshop, so it doesn’t exactly match the published version.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 115

(Japanese marker pen and ink on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 119:

Real Life. You may not want this page on your wall, and I wouldn’t blame you. Unless skip-diving is seriously your thing, in which case HAVE I GOT A TREAT FOR YOU! Either way, this is one of my favourite pages in the book, even if it did take days to draw all that bloody garbage!

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen page 119

(Japanese marker pen on Fabriano paper)

420mm x 299mm, 16.5 x 11.8 inches

US $ 350

(including postage)

SORRY – SOLD