Semiotic Cohesion Comics & Art

Hey all you special people, I bet you're brimming with love.

Back in that crazy old 'Scot'land, I met a Mr. Jeremy Briggs, who purported to be from some species of comics website, and he enchanted me into handing over some valuable Semiotic Cohesion product. The machinations of journalism have turned their oily wheels and lo, and behold - a review!
http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-review-semiotic-cohesion-4.html

Of our fourth comics anthology! We haven't had a review in ages and ages.

He draws attention to the beautiful production, the general sense of bafflement and Colleen Brice's fine skill with a pencil. He also aggressively misspells mine and Sebastian's names. I think it is a good review. What do you think, readership?

Here, again, is the original article:
http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-review-semiotic-cohesion-4.html

While there is no true thread tying the stories together, the shark is very much the symbol of the title, be it the editorial from The Ancient Shark Of Despair to the Shark Of Wisdom which is illustrated by Brice Reignier and takes in such non-tradition shark locales as desert, mountains and the White House. From chocolate eating robots to demons discussing their female dates, Semiotic Cohesion is never going to be a tradition comic, but for me two strips stand out. Pegasus, written by Paul McNally, tells the story of a winged horse buying cigarettes for a girl and is drawn in a very early Seventies nursery comic style by Nandi Williams. Less traditional is Rhino, written by editor Tom McNally. This is silent strip telling the story of a tiny civilisation which takes over a rhinoceros turning it into a robot to roam the world with lovely graphite-like pencils by Colleen Brice. Two very different strips, but both left me wanting more.

In other news, the last chapter of The Ancient Shark Of Despair should be up by the end of the week and the fifth Semiotic Cohesion anthology should be out by, I don't know, August? There was a laptop theft, you see. I think it will be awesome when it does come out, but until then, why not read some King? It's pretty good!

Sincerely,
Tom McNally

Well Sebastian, well well well. I can blog about the past too. Only in my version, the past happened just last weekend. In Scotland.

Yes friends, I broke a habit of a lifetime and stopped being in a place that wasn't Inverness. I paid way too much for a train journey and a reasonable amount to host a table at Hi-Ex and then let one of these events follow the other.

It was quite nice. I mean that in every way possible. I'm smiling while I write it. I overused the word 'nice' that weekend. I brought great shame to the ghosts of my English teachers, who are probably all dead now. I think they may be used to the dishonour after years of watching me use a comma splice in just about every sentence I write. The poor old shades. Go get some rest!

So I didn't take any photos at all because I lost my camera somewhere downstairs after a particularly successful fondue. But other people are less into that sort of thing and they have by now compiled some vigorous reports and Flickr compilations and what-have-yous, so I'll forego the whole damn report and link to their stuff, even though they seem to have not spent the whole weekend writing alarmingly romantic dedications upon the back cover of Semiotic Cohesion Number Ones recently purchased by teenage boys. I cribbed all the romantic lines from Sebastian, by the way. And the guy from the art supplies table gave me the pen. So I'm really quite far removed from the whole process.

Here are some picture photos taken of the event and Inverness in general from a dangerously delightful and suspiciously talented lady who goes by the name of Melody Lee or, for unknown reasons, TPCat. Her comics are full of animals eating and then/also fucking each other, all lovingly pencil-rendered in a painstakingly soft and whimsical storybook style. Some people wish they were James Bond. I wish I were Melody Lee. She's a lot more useful.

Also, she took a picture of my ass.

Those blogs I mentioned? There are here. Forbidden Planet UK has manifested one, as has Graeme Neil Reid, a fine young man whom I helped load his stuff into the hall on that frosty Saturday morning because I am polite. I didn't actually help him all that much, actually. But you can still go and read about him. I'm sure he's pretty interesting.

And Mr. Jeremy Briggs from Down The Tubes apologised for the spelling mistake his site had made many years ago, chatted for a bit, scooped up all the latest goodies from my table and then I found that he didn't write about me at all. He does have a pretty great picture of a cold dog in his report though, so I can deal.

Now I must go. I am disgustingly ill, with snot and sweat and everything, possibly due to various moral outrages I have committed. I should have got the flu jab this year. Apparently it was a really good one too. The flu jabbing guys were really proud of it. I'm sorry, flujabbers. I should have listened. I thought you were just showing off.

Sincerely,
Tom McNally

The site is under fire from a rowdy bunch of Sumerian Demigods. We're so in the process of fixing this!

Check out all the wonderful goodies available on SEMIOTICCCC COHESIONNNN
at our page made almost entirely of meat!

- Sebastian

(In light of this post I was going to make a new category 'Revenge!", but I didn't because I know Tom would disapprove. Did I tell you about the one time he outright said he didn't like laughing? Exactly.)

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of all nations except the scary ones. I trust you are having no difficulty in reading the inaugural post of the Semiotic Cohesion Comics & Art blog. If you are experiencing any difficulties, perhaps you ought to try again. Try blowing on it first.

While we already have many wonderful blogs that shock and amaze the world on a nearly-regular basis, this one will be rooted in as much fact and non-fiction as the bounds of entertainment will allow. Here we will festoon you, the ridiculous public, with the fruits ripened in the brains and hearts of our many dark artist-orchards. We will also keep you abreast of miraculous real-world events of import, such as when we release fantastic new product or slither our way into the public arena to tout or hawk as appropriate.

Right now there are many exciting things bubbling just under the surface. The ghosts of our web designers are hard at work on skinning the remaining blogs while their bodies lie inert on filthy mattresses in the bad part of town. I have personally been on the phone to a nervous polymath who assures me that the luscious Semiotic Cohesion anthologies will be available as a downloadable Paypalistic sale-for-money option quite soon. In the depths, a mass of musicians do shift and creep, ostensibly working their bodies into the form of a number of new songs that will make us all so happy. Sebastian, that storm-tossed orge of light, is awash with the delight of bringing you many quaint picture-stories that I have heard referred to as 'webcomics,' or 'webcomicz.' I have recovered a Micro-phone from a decrepit Chinaman that will allow me to record my voice in such a way that it resembles a series of Saga Of The European King podcasts that render the venerable text as hard sound.

It will be so great. I promise, I promise, I promise.

Now tell me all of your secrets.

Sincerely,
Tom McNally
(The Editor)