Monday, June 26, 2006

In 1987 I self published my first comic book,a black and white story that was meant to be at least 100 pages,but due to the cost I crammed it down to 20! Tom Tom Macoubre came to me while visiting my then girl-friend in Northern France. Partly inspired by the movie Highlander that I`d just watched on the ferry across the English channel and a response to my love of the work by Jean Moebius Giraud. (for a related Moebius story press View my complete profile and go to D-TAYLOR`S DREAM)

Tom Tom Macoubre #1 was the tale of a young man flung into a bizarre and utterly confusing (to the reader) adventure that took him from his safe warm bed to the ends of the universe via the Swiss Alps,a French Cafe,a train to Scotland and the Mojave desert to name but a few!

Last year I was signing comics at a British comic convention when my old fellow Marvel UK comrade Liam Sharp invited me to contribute to his forthcoming anthology Event Horizon. The offer was to "do something Moebiusy...something like The Airtight Garage or Arzak...free flowing stream of consciousness type thing."
So I let my mind wander.

And this is what happened!... (WARNING:ADULT CONTENT)












No. It`s not meant to make sense,although I can "read" it and explain what`s going on to anyone with a spare six hours!

I`d wanted to re-do Tom Tom for a long time. To tell his story properly,without page count restrictions and aided by my experience. What you see here are snapshots of a vast cosmic epic that I`ll get around to telling one day!
The pages were drawn in pencil in my sketchbook and then scanned and photoshop coloured. It`s made me think why the Hell do I bother inking!!

(thanks to mr.Culbard for suggesting I put these up...so ya can blame him! See his blog here StrangePlanetStories )

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well thankyou Mr. Culbard, these are lovely. I remember when I used to tell people I hadn't seen Mobius' work and would ask people if he was any good. They would usually answer with a pursing of lips and a long exhale. I remember when I first picked up one of his books and was blown away by how effortless and dreamy it all looked, and how everything seemed to 'float'. I get that same feeling here, thankyou.

Like 2001 until Leonard Rositer turns up.

D.TAYLOR said...

That sir is high praise indeed! I`m going to have to get wider doors fitted!
I`ve also seen this pursing of lips phenomenon! I`ve probably done it myself!

I. N. J. Culbard said...

My comic 'dealer' (not in every sense of the word) loves the imagi-naut in ideaspace page (page three). He wanted to leave a comment but doesn't have a blogger account so I'm here to pass on his admiration. Great stuff.

D.TAYLOR said...

Well you can tell "your man" his "Great stuff" is very welcome,but insist he get a blog or he`ll be left behind in our race to the future!
That page three is actually the only one I had doubts about. Would it look too odd? Would it stand out of place? Nice to know I was right to keep it! Yay!

Unknown said...

Looking at those pages again it weird to see how its almost become a historical document. Pages 1 and 9 in particular take me back. You should definitely do more. Lovely stuff.