Semiotic Cohesion Comics & Art

I am listening to the new Decemberists album. It is very complicated. Wikipedia tells me it's about changing shape and people generally getting raped. I will get the hang of it eventually.

First, I will show you a comic that Melody Lee made for me when I was telling everyone I was about to be ill and then didn't. I just found it in my mailbox now. There's all kinds of stuff in that mailbox!

And now let's get down to the giant info. As always, I'm conducting secret talks, negotiations and black ops strikes so that I may get this very website completely remade from the ground up. Then I shall turn into a beautiful butterfly and all will know my trilling call. So I've been making some graphics. Here.

That is a dancing man. He might be some sort of gnome or tokoloshi, I haven't quite figured out the mythos yet. But in any case he's the mascot of the new site, which shall no longer be called 'Semiotic Cohesion.' Nobody knows what Semiotic Cohesion is and not one person has caught the obscure Transformers reference in the title and logo. Not even the fellow who's been writing Transformers for most of his adult life, Simon Furman. I had to explain it to him, years ago, at some sort of big event. He didn't seem to think it was very funny.

Oh, so - the new site will be called 'Little Old Man.' That's him there. You will relate to him and want to eat his cereal.

Also, you will be able to buy stuff from us when the site is finished. Isn't that a nice thought?

Among the stuff you will be able to buy - a Saga Of The European King audiobook, with all the voices and everything. It is going to be so great. Have a taste, you savages:

Saga Of The European King Chapter Two - The Council Of Very War

Closing item: I am going to be at the UK Mini and Webcomix Thing this Saturday. I am fully expected to be excited. I am even going to buy a tablecloth. The first illustrated chapter of Saga Of The European King will be out, as will Sebastian's Mexican Piss Dream, for the ladies.

The Decemberists album is finishing again. I think they're getting married now? Didn't everyone hate each other a minute ago? I shall have to listen again. Or maybe I'll put on some Presidents Of The United States Of America. Pretty much all you need to know about their songs is in the title.

Sincerely,
Tom McNally

Hey guys, I did this! It will be the backing for the next six months of Shark Of Wisdom. I think it is funny, don't you?

I must nod to this handy receipt maker for an authentic-looking heading. Thanks, website!

My brother got kidnapped in Cambodia yesterday. I can't wait for him to update his blog with the whole story.

I'll have some comics for you, the internet, next time. There will be horses.

Sincerely,
Tom McNally

Too late Sebastian! Too late for this cat.

I do not make any presumptions upon you, gentle reader, so let's pretend that you aren't acutely and painfully aware of the new art I made for the 'daily' Shark Of Wisdom homily. Normally I wouldn't trouble our lovely readers with the minutia of its creation, but that is probably what this COMICS & ART blog is all about.

The day of the three hundrenth Shark Of Wisdom card was looming, so I took my first pass at it in the usual way - standing behind the counter in an off-licence during a period when there weren't too many drunks about. If any customers come in while I am doing this, I show them what I am doing and they ask me why I like sharks so much. People ask me this a lot. It's a fair question.

The concept, you see, was that there was this presumably Neolithic family hanging out around a fire and they see Shark Of Wisdom streaking through the sky for some reason and he merrily doles out the good stuff while he falls through the atmosphere.

"Hey! Looks pretty nice," I thought to myself. "There can be colours and everything. But jeez, that looks like it will be a lot of hard work to get right. Why not do something simpler? Like expand on this sketch I'm working on in another part of the drawing pad? It looks so much easier." The hypothetical rest of me to whom I was addressing this question agreed.

Oh yes, much easier. Big shapes, clear lines, I could make most of it dark and cop out on the colours. Also, hey, this one is a lot funnier. Look at that martini glass. That's hilarious.

Then a secret, latent desire to try and replicate the style of an Albrecht Dürer woodcut took hold of me. This has been happening every so often since high school. Normally I am able to withstand the urges but this time my flesh was the picture of weakness. "Won't take a jiffy in Photoshop," I reasoned, poorly.

And so, with a ruler, my Wacom, the entire series of Transformers: Animated playing in the background and a curse in my heart, I Dürered that sketch up so hard it didn't even see it coming.

Then, last night, I awoke in a cold sweat realised that I needed to blacken that smoke up a bit. Smoke is black. Everyone knows that. So I abandoned the warm bed of my sweetheart and ran back to my lair to spend all afternoon ruling line after line to the tune of Neil Shubin's 'Your Inner Fish,' to some degree of success, maybe.

So there we have it. Now you know why the Shark Of Wisdoms have been coming late this week. Too many lines.

Sincerely,
Tom McNally

P.S There's a new chapter of The Saga Of The European King lying around half-written. That's late too. I will prove I am not lying: