Posts Tagged ‘joy’
19 items.
Well she’s had to slum it in the dust and mud with nothing but a jumpsuit and a bunch of guns for company, she’s battled her way through a burning building and now not only are there yet more bad guys to kill Alan is about to have his throat slit.
Brilliant. Just..brilliant. Those guys had better hope that Bernadette isn’t on her period right now!
Welcome to issue 3 and I got to say that I am so BLOODY EXCITED now that we’re back on the main storyline! Really looking forward to the next four or five pages as they are possibly some of my favourites thus far.
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And it isn’t looking too good for poor old Yuri now, is it? Alan probably wanting to put the guy out of his misery and considering the state of the guy’s knee I don’t blame him!
After this side story we’ll be going into a period of hiatus until June. The reasons for this are twofold:
- I am going on holiday to Japan and need to save some money.
- The current economic conditions are making the process of running a comic harder.
My aim is to go into a process of posting what we’ve been doing behind the scenes, some donation art and general filler. Also I’m going to be doing a caption competition which will start on next monday by the latest.
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Also ALL BOOKS HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD! Please do not try and send me “moar moneys” as I will have to tearfully return it with a tear in my heart 
Thanks to everyone who bought them online and at the Webcomix Thing 2010 on Saturday, especially the guy who bought the last one who looked down at me staring at him with sad-puppy-angel-in-the-snow eyes ;.;
If there is enough demand, I’d be up for doing another print run of about 10 books. Maybe. I have enough postcards, magnets and badges left to sweeten the deal anyway.
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Now, the Webcomix Thing 2010! How did that go? Well…
Had a phenominal response at the Webcomix Thing 2010. Met lots of people such as Sarah Burrini, Veronika Mischitz & the Zwerchfell crew, John Jenkins, the venerable Noel Curry and many many more! I even managed to get (vaguely) near Tom Siddell and gave him a postcard which was sadly instantly taken away by a lackey. Such is life.
Friend and James May look-a-like Bill Boy is planning a webcomic apparently. Huge thanks to him and Steve Dismukes for helping out all day!
The other good news from the Webcomix Thing 2010 is that I SOLD OUT OF MY BOOKS! ALL OF THEM! HONEST! The bad news therefore is that there aren’t any books left. Sorry guys, I may start a pre-order for those who couldn’t get their orders in on time.
Edit (1PM the next day):
Wow, I was quite drunk earlier this morning. Still feel a little tipsy now but I’m still buzzing. Absolutely ecstatic that I sold out and even sold some buttons and magnets.
In other news because I’m amazing/a total spacker, I forgot to bring my stickers! This meant that when the people who had been given Dino-saw-us Passports passed by from time to time I had to improvise so I drew:
- A smiley face
- An angry face
- A head with a fez on it
- A head with a bomb on it.
- A head with a top hat and monocle on it
- A lumberjack baby seal cutting down a tree for a Canadian (arf! arf!)
- A stick man hanging onto a windmill with clogs on smoking cannabis for a Dutch lady.
- At least three blocks of steel for Sheffield people.
- Hacksaw Jim duggan smiley face (complete with 2 x 4 and “USA! USA! USA!”) for an American.
- Noel & Liam from Oasis having a brawl for a Mancunian.
All in all I think that went pretty well..
So we start to see more of the story emerge! Can’t be that hard to spot a blue cargo container surely?
Sorry chaps, currently at work but I may/may not have something to show you around 8pm GMT tonight 
Update 21:00 GMT:
Yeah well here was the big announcement I was going to make aaaand:
…nobody was in, I was at work, etc. Tomorrow however people will be in and I’ll have some to show for all this waiting you guys have been doing! It’ll be worth it, promise. Also I’ve got a competition that will hopefully tie into tomorrow’s announcement and it’ll involve:
And so, now that Alan has made sure his ribs aren’t broken, they conclude hiring negotiations and get down to business. If only all hiring was this awesome.
This concludes side story one. Now what seems to be on people’s minds recently is whats happened to German?! Well I can answer that question!
He’s been hard at work on issue 3 and on Friday and next Monday I’ll have some stuff to show you from what he’s done so far which has been absolutely superb. On top of this he’s been doodling the covers for the Hard Graft limited edition minibook and he also worked overtime to deliver the Kathy needed for the Comic Creators Alliance wallpaper.
Obviously though we all need our Hard Graft fix and at the same time we can work on explaining parts of the story which would otherwise be left to the sidelines. This is where Jules comes in.
In the end its a win win situation. We all get more Hard Graft from two top quality artists. Whats not to love about that?
Also got a few nice things to point out to readers!
We’ve got a Hard Graft Fan Map! If you like Hard Graft and want to tell the world where you are in the world follow the easy instructions to put your mark on the map! Its good fun but I can’t do much about the tiny map size :/
Next we have the formspring.me Hard Graft question widget! Got a question to ask either Prestwick, German or the cast? Then dump it here and we’ll do our best to get back to you. Also listed are previous questions and answers.
Strong opinions abound in this strip right from the start.
Now, some of the references here may not get the most..uh..positive of reactions but to put this in perspective: these aren’t the views of either the author or the artist whoever they may be. We’re looking into some of Bernadette’s motivations and we’re getting some of Alan’s professional views into the bargain. That is worth more than its weight in gold.
If you want me to play devils advocate then yes, while both the British Army and Loyalist paramilitaries caused or committed some of the most infamous acts of death and misery in the Troubles I think Bernadette does have a point when you have groups who believe in indiscriminate killing regardless of religion or political affiliation or even nationality then you’ve officially given up the moral high ground. For those who have romantic but ultimately false visions of some sort of heroic “struggle” look no further than the women of the Bogside or Free Derry who were tarred & feathered, I say again tarred & feathered for the crime of being friendly to British Soldiers.
Everyone have their skeletons.
On a lighter note, I thought I’d re-iterate that I’ll be at table number 63 at the UK Webcomix Thing 2010 in Mile End, London on the 27th of March! I’ve already ordered 100 postcards as well as a nice display poster so you won’t confuse me for the utterly superb work that Rose Loughran does at Red Moon Rising. To find out more and to see who else is coming, click below!
And that wraps up issue two. Another 22 pages in the can and issue 3 is..er..well..we’ll chat about that on Friday. My apologies about the lack of a colour page but this is being remedied ASAP so check back in the next 24/48 hours. UPDATE: COLOUR PAGE IS HERE! BASK IN ALL ITS GLORY!
And so, like a pheonix from the ashes, Bernadette emerges and she isn’t very pleased but then again if you had been pulled back into a burning building by a bloodied Talibob psychopath then you’d be pretty annoyed as well wouldn’t you?
The inspiration for this page came from when I was writing and Muse’s Space Dementia came on last.fm, the whole climatic scene just built in my head and the whole thing just wrote itself! Amazing how easy things were back then.
EDIT: Please remember to spare a thought for the tens of thousands of Iranians who will go out onto the streets today to protest against the reigime and campaign for a free Iran. They’re braver than I’ll ever be. If you know anyone who lives in Iran, please pass this message on.
Anyway, thanks once again for coming along and reading and please tune in on Friday when I’ll explain where Hard Graft will be going next!
It was a close one but this week after a last minute fitness test, Jules Rivera was cleared to podcast with the lads (Prestwick & Albone) where they talked about sickness & cigars in Las Vegas as well as settings, music and how they affect the development of webcomics. Speaking of webcomics, Prestwick has a random rant about “Open Source comics towards the end” VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
Listen below, download or subscribe via iTunes!
Ah! Gaddafi, supplier to the rich and famous terror groups across the globe. If the French and Israelis won’t sell to you then these chaps probably will…or at least used to anyway.
The weapons featured in this strip are a Benelli SPAS-12 shotgun and a Pakistann license made Rheinmetall MG3 which looks like this and is probably one of the most capable machine guns in the world (gympy not withstanding). True, the Benelli is kind of out of character but who knows what may turn up in those sneaky arms shipments, eh?
In other news (apart from England winning the Ashes back, see below) I have a SERIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT!
Right, that caught your attention. Basically German is very busy for the next two weeks or so which means that we may not get fresh comics until mid to late September! Relax, don’t do it, when you want to go to it because I’m trying to arrange adequate cover thanks to my good friends on t’internet and when has t’internet ever let me down?
Anyway, to recap:
- This will be the last proper page for two/three weeks.
- The comic IS STLL GOING, I WILL be posting on a regular basis to remind you that I’m still here.
- I’m REALLY SORRY!
- We’re getting cover from other artists to help fill the gaps and scratch that Hard Graft itch!
…I feel another zany adventure coming on!
EDIT: Did I mention that the first panel cracks me up every time I look at it. Utter genius by German, muchos muchos…er..laugh..erm..os..
Poor Kath, she never gets a break. I’m wondering how she ever gets any work done with her talent for being kidnapped at every possible opportunity. I guess it comes with the job. Robert Fisk never had this kind of trouble, then again during the recent protests in Iran, when every reporter and news organisation was heading for the hills due to the apparent clampdown on foriegn press, ol’ Robbie Fisk of the UK Independent roamed around Tehran (complete with his trademark scowl and ability to condemn a yak from 50 yards) at will. He never got lifted.
Anyway, my apologies for the delay for yet again I was late coming back from work. Nightshifts can be a killer but such is life. At least the weather is good.
On a lighter note, Alex is off to Indonesia today so lets all wish her a safe journey and a happy holiday swimming with sharks and manta rays (actually, stay away from the rays, yo).
After his heroics at Lords, did we expect anything less? 
Huge props to Anderson & Swann as well for some phenomenal bowling. Broad also gradually living up to the family name as well. With the Ashes series now 1 – 0 with three more tests to go, its definitely game on! See you all at Edgebaston on the 3rd day!
