Posts Tagged ‘violence’
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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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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 thats why you shouldn’t lie to ol’ Uncle Alan. Because he’ll make sure that you’ll be limping for the rest of your life.
Another week and another page in what is turning out to be my favourite side story yet! Its been really enjoyable so far but there is more joy (and woe) on the horizon. First the joy.
The books should be arriving either sometime this week or the beginning of next week. If you want a book you can either buy one from me in person at the 2010 Webcomix and Small Press expo in Mile End, London on the 27th of March or you can just e-mail me and we’ll sort it out. I’ve only got 35 so £2.50 in person or £4 to be posted abroad. All orders should (fingers crossed) get a free postcard, badge and fridge magnet! Everyone loves fridge magnets.
Now the bad news. Recently the UK has been buffeted by what can only be described as political indecision. And its this which has spooked the financial world which in response to this indecision has been gradually devaluing Sterling against the Dollar and the Euro. Last year the Dollar was worth about $1.65 to the Pound which was a great rate and enabled me to run this comic. Today however it is barely $1.48 to the Pound which is frankly hurting me.
Obviously despite being almost near parity, switching to the Euro is not an option as the exchange rate between the Euro and the Dollar is even worse at $1.30 to the Euro.
I’ve had a chat with both German and Jules and we’re going to wait until the 24th of March when the UK Budget is announced and see how the markets react. If there is serious action to deal with the UK’s economic woes and the markets give it a thumbs up and the pound gains strength against the Dollar then happy days. If not then I’m going to have to put the comic on hiatus until things improve.
In any case, because I’m flying off to Japan for three weeks I’m going to put the comic on hiatus in May anyway. This is all very tough for me as I really want to keep going with this and I look at the scripts every day and dream of how awesome they’re going to be when I share them with you on this site. I’m going to get my books and I’m going to show them to my Mum and Dad and say “look what I’ve been doing with friends” and they’re going to love it. So its killing me that I have to stop it because of the current situation.
If the exchange rate improves over the next 10 days I’ll keep you updated and so on. Until then, lets hope things improve eh?
Yes, well, we all saw that coming.
Well manipulating traffic lights, paying off the local police and trapping him between a rock and a hard place are all part of the job for these two although their methods do diverge slightly depending on their backgrounds. As for our Bratva man his day has gone from bad to worse. I hope his car is still there when/if he gets back.
Here in the UK, snow has given way to grim reality: rain. Things are pretty damp at the moment with all those lucky, lucky guys up north in Scotland getting all the snow and the 2,000m avalanches that come with it. Apparently Glencoe has more snow than any other resort in the world right now! All great fun. I could imagine people in Kent skiing on the South Downs back when it was really snowbound a couple of months ago.
Fan map update! Yet more people flood onto the map like they’re trying to get the last ‘chopper out of Saigon! So hello to Omegus in Iowa USA, HP & Jeff in Berlin Germany and Luke in the capital of billiards: Sheffield.
So here is the first page of the 2nd Hard Graft side story: a shattering revelation!
This takes place after the first side story and a weeks before the main storyline so as you can see we’re starting to slowly explain the backstory to Hard Graft. Jules was thrilled because she was getting to see lots of Hard Graft before everyone else. Be jealous everyone!
Tajikistan is a bit of a desperate place. It hasn’t had the oil & gas boom that has made Kazakhstan such a major player and has instead has slowly fallen further within the Russian sphere of influence. It gained independence back in 1991 when the Soviet Union turned into the Commonwealth of Independent States (or CIS) but like many of the former Soviet Republics it turned into an authoritarian regimes run by former local Soviet leaders. A major civil war caused devastation throughout the country and relations between them and neighbouring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan aren’t really that good. It also has a long border with Afghanistan. So, its a great place to set the beginning of Alan’s adventure in Afghanistan & Pakistan!
In other news, Valentines day was a big surprise for me as Alex came up and surprised me! Took her out for food & drink as any self-respecting boyfriend should and I must say it was one of the best Valentines days ever! How was yours?
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.
The start of a new era! Makes one tear up with excitement!
Meanwhile, Alan seems to be taking exception to being hit around the ribs with bar stools while Bernadette jokes sarcastically/pervs over looking after Alan. The locals however have an altogether different view of the situation.
These Czech bars are awesome. The locals are old and surly and most usually have an angry Scottie or Westie growling at you from his own seat. Something that would send Antoine over at the Drunken Fools into raptures I’d no doubt suspect.
I do apologise for the really late running but I’ve been to Italy over the weekend for a dazzling few days of sights, food, wine and rugby including me dancing like a muppet:
…quite.
This is the REAL page 35!
Okay, a bit of explanation, two pages were delivered to me yesterday by German and I wanted to upload page 35 and schedule page 36 for next week.
Now, what ACTUALLY happened was that I managed to schedule page 36 for TODAY and not schedule page 35 for ANYTHING at all. Result was you all saw page 36 and page 35 was left on its own in draft status and Albi the Racist Dragon 
This situation has been rectified and huge apologies for everyone who has turned up and seen Page 36 mistaking it for page 35! Hopefully this double update should go a long way to cheer everyone up!
EDIT: For the record, Alan and the shopkeeper are exchanging traditional greetings. It isn’t quite as orthodox as what you’ll read on t’internet but there you go. Also, Bernadette’s..er..greeting is probably par for the course for the relations between..well..any of the nations of the British Isles.
…sorry for the late nature of this comic this week but there was an emergency of kinds revolving work, the cricket and so on.
Sadly, the 3rd day was rained off and I spent my of my day at Edgbaston stadium getting wet with 20,998 other fans most of whom were dressed as:
- Bannanas (“England’s Bannana Army”)
- Queen Elizabeth II (there was a “gang” of ten of them, complete with tiaras and silk gloves)
- Elvis
- “Bumble’s barmy builders” (complete with moustaches and sunglasses)
- The village people.
- Bo Derrick lookalikes from the 1980s (“wanna get physical, physical!“)
So yeah, despite the rain and the lack of Aussie bashing (most of the Aussies had beat a wise retreat to drier climes such as the pub) fun was had by all. Still though that meant catching a train that evening to rush down south to catch work and then rush here and so here I am, hurriedly lettering (badly) this weeks page! Hope you enjoy it!
…the term “dicker” and “dicked” is a slang term used by British soldiers when talking about enemy spotters and being spotted. Its use reached its zenith in Northern Ireland when an Army patrol would spot that they were being observed. Whether it were grown men watching from a bar or a building site or indeed a kid on a bike its the same the world over. The term has been “rediscovered” in Afghanistan since the resurgence of the Taliban.
In any case, things aren’t looking good for that small town/village. This page is going to serve as part of a series of pages illustrating the characters in the middle in what is right now a very bitter and dirty war between the two sides. Much like how The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was set in the middle of the mayhem and chaos of the US Civil War in fact.
Recently, I’ve gotten some feedback and questions about the grenade that was used in issue 1. The F1 grenade is a Soviet design from the 2nd World War which has since been out of production but has been copied across the world where there has been Soviet influence. The Chinese, Cubans and North Koreans for example made extensive copies and distributed them to their allies in Africa and East Asia. Many were given to the many and various combatants in Afghanistan through its long and brutal wars in the latter 20th century and are still being used against American, Commonwealth and NATO troops for example, these were confiscated by 45 Commando, Royal Marines when on patrol in Helmand province a few months ago:
Hopefully this should have answered everyone’s questions. If anyone is interested, then I suggest that people follow the link to the original article from the Sunday Herald.
