Mergsworld: The Silent Comic-strip

Introduction
Mergs lives in a grey and oppressive world, confined by a plethora of laws which are concerned with catergories, labels and order. This is Merg's world.


Pt.1 Sunrise!
Our protagonist awakes to the automated sound of chicken, and in his mind he sees the sun rise over grassy hils. As his eyes open he sees the world in the only colours as he knows it for, and prepares accordingly to his timetable for work duties.

Pt.2 Breakfast, cartoons and then...
Mergs takes pleasure in the little things in life; looking after stray cats and cartoons from an age gone by are his little treats before facing the day at the Old Factory. Without these (and a few other things) life as Mergs knows it holds very litle pleasures.


Pt.3 ...Off to work!

Pt.4 "Got a snout?"

Pt.5 "You need a new hat more than a snout, bub..."

Pt.6 Take flight!

Pt.7 Snow in the city
"Its cold and this hat is stinky, but hey, I feel like I've started the day well! I'm bettin' my granma's funky drawers that I've just made that old chap's day!"

Pt.8 Time for a snout...

Pt.9 A vision!
Right before Mergs' eyes a world comes into view within the smoke ring. He has never seen anything so strange, so bizarre...
...and is left speechless!

Pt.10 Sweating on the bus
As the vision dissolves back into the city, Mergs is left in a daze. His bus arrives and seats himself on the upper floor, reflecting on the mysterious world he has just been allowed to catch a glimpse of...and the world that is in front of him...

And he asks himself, "Just what is this place?"

To Be Continued...
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a soldier's dream

Brand new art work!

A regular night at the old Afroba

Sticky situations...

Moody Cats!

Someone brought up the subject of drawing cats..heres one i did earlier..moody!

Smoking Ban!

Smoking in Bars: R.I.P!

The Hand Of Glory!

The 'Hand of glory' is a device which superstitiousburglars considered an essential part of their kit until the early 19th Century. The hand was that of a gibbeted criminal: after the blood was squeezed out, the hand was embalmed for two weeks in a solution of saltpetre, salt and pepper, before being dried in the sun. Acandle wa made from a number of curious ingredients sucha as hanged man's fat, wax, and a substance called Lapland sesame. The resulting confection was thrust between the dead fingers, and lit when the burglar broke into the house. The hand was supposed to open locks, render the thief invisible, and send the household into a deep sleep.
It was believed that the candle's spell could be broken only by putting out the flames with blood or skimmed milk: then the houshold would wake!
Apparently there is a 'Hand' on display in Whitby Museum, N. Yorkshire, England

Ibetya Poster

A web Poster for "iBetya/Social" at The Oakford Social Club...

early stages of MERGS the figurine!

look hes got a mini snout and a tie!

around and around...

..started drawing when i got a seat on the train the other week, then got told to move over... then I started drawing again when i got a seat...

Man in the city

Heres an old project which I've re-drawn/layout etc recently-The project itself was a collaboration with a secondary school in London where 12 year old students had to write stories in their creative writing class which were in turn given to us at random to illustrate. Lucky me, I was given an essay which was all 'statistics' and 'facts' about man and his effect on nature in the city! The comic here is my translation of the essay which I asume would have been written for a public speech about pollution in the city. The absurdity of the events in the comic itself were a reaction to the essay because although the essay was essentially facts and statistics, it was quite obvious there was no research behind any of what was written-which I quite liked, this in turn gave me a lot of room to interpret it as literally as it was written. I have editted heavily on the essay, but seriously there really wasnt much to go on...Hope you like this interpretation of man in the city!

"Gasha-Dokuro" skeleton spectre

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A few different styles in this one pic! my whole body is aching after drawing this! Hope it was all worth it n u folks like it! More on the "Gasha-Dokuro" when I got more research done! Check the October archive (left somewhere) for an older version of the skull man!

Jinkininki

From Lafcadio Hearn's classic Kwaidan, 1904.
Once, when Muso Kokushi, a priest of the Zen sect, was journeying alone through the province of Mino, he lost his way in a mountain-district where there was nobody to direct him. For a long time he wandered about helplessly; and he was beginning to despair of finding shelter for the night, when he perceived, on the top of a hill lighted by the last rays of the sun, one of those little hermitages, called anjitsu, which are built for solitary priests. It seemed to be in ruinous condition; but he hastened to it eagerly, and found that it was inhabited by an aged priest, from whom he begged the favor of a night's lodging. This the old man harshly refused; but he directed Muso to a certain hamlet, in the valley adjoining where lodging and food could be obtained....


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To read on copy n paste link:

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/mergz/jinkininki-txt.gif

The Hannya and the trophy

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Hannya are a female type of demon or 'oni' and are never a pretty sight. The Hannya is normally created when a woman dies of some kind of in-justice or was treated badly in life and with a great vengeance burning inside of her becomes this horned creature of dramatic behaviour.
In the Edo Period of Japan there was once a demoness who haunted the gates of Rashomon, the entry point to Kyoto (Japan's capital city of the time). All who passed were tormented by the fierce spirit until one day a samurai named Watanabe No Tsuna vowed to slay the demon. He had spent several hours waiting for the Hannya however she did not appear. Time was passing on and fewer and fewer people came through until a young woman approached the gates, and spoke to Watanabe asking him to escort her through the city. The samurai courteously accepted and led the way. As they walked in the late hours of the day, Watanabe noticed in the corner of his eye that the girl behind him was changing. Watanabe quickly drew his sword and slashed at the nearest thing! The Hannya let out a piercing scream and fled leaving a severed arm on the floor, Watanabe was left shocked after the experience however when he came to his senses took the arm as a trophy of the incident and hid it in a chest in his home. Several years passed and by now Watanabe was an old man, and was famous for ridding Rashomon of the Hannya. Many people asked to see the trophy, but Watanabe always refused until one day when an elderly woman came to Watanabe to see it. Watanabe could not resist as the old woman explained that her son had been a victim of the Hannya and needed closure to her own experience. Watanabe swiftly went to retrieve the trophy from the chest, and no sooner had he lifted it out the old woman transforms into the hideous Hannya and grabs the arm, racing off into the streets with it!

The 'Kappa' knocking some beats out on the MPC!

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Above is the elusive 'Kappa' of Japanese folk lore. They are generally about the same size as small children, however they are much stronger and usually depicted as humanoid tortoises. The Kappa has a varied reputation, generally considered mischievious, they are known to fart loudly or behave like peeping toms! However, the Kappa is also known for some extremely terrible crimes such as rape, kidnapping and more notoriously eating children! The natural habitat of the Kappa are normally ponds, lakes and springs in the forests of Japan, perhaps they were created to explain accidental drownings and to warn children of playing irresponsibly by ponds, as Kappa are described to grab children by the ankles and drag them into the water. Kappa are notoriously tricky characters, their main source of weakness is contained within the bald patch of his head-sometimes simply a bald patch, a small dish or even a leaf in the parting of his hair where it holds water! The idea is to out smart the damn demon and make it knock the water out of the recipticle. All Kappa are suckers for formailty and etiquette and cannot resist bowing if they are bowed to first, done Japanese style this would mean that the head is bowed far over out of humble courtesy, thus spilling the water from the spot! All this said, not all Kappa are supposed to be bad, and if you happen to save one from danger or befriend one, they will become your best buddy and carry out all manners of services in reward!

Vampire cat of Nabeshima

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Also known as Bakeneko or Nekomata- "Nekomata" means forked cat in japanese. These big cats are shape-shifting demons much like the fox and Tanuki (japanese racoon), who also like to take on the form of humans which allow them to get close to their victims. What the Nekomata then does is suck the blood out of the humans and then as in the story of the above title, they take on the form of the victim and then attack another house member. Many japanese folk lores include animals endowed with a variety of abillities, shape-shifting being the most common attribute. The pairing of nocturnal creatures and fantastical powers would as much serve to tell colourful tales of morality and horror as to remind the listeners of nature's mystery.

ghost fam

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Vice magazine and Lynx Deodarant Collaboration

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Vice/Lynx brief: Lynx improves attraction...

The Tanuki and the Tengu's Magic Fan

This is a childrens book I designed and illustrated in my final year at university. It ties in quite neatly with my interests in folklore and mythology, hope you like it as much as I did in making it.

Hoody season 001

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Just thought i'd put this one up-its gettin cold pretty soon so u better get ready!

Kirby's revenge!

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This is an homage to my favourite artists, musicians, cartoons, anything! I just let my mind go on this so theres a lot of strangeness going on here and there! Enjoy!

Diplo Magazine November

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POLITICS!
Heres an image about Bush and Blair's objection to Iran having nuclear power factories-the article in Diplo talks about Iran's potential for renewable energy sources.
Just to explain the image a little because some folks have asked about it and have misread it a little,the composition is taken directly from Hokusai's screen print of Mt.Fuji, what Ive done is to re-draw the main elements and placed Blair, Bush and the president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a boat. Where they're sitting it can be interpretted (as I see it) in two ways: 1) With the gigantic lava like wave looming in front of them the three leaders are heading towards a potentially disastrous future, much like the topic of anything nuclear, current or otherwise. And also: 2) As leaders of their countries they have the potential and obligation to work together and deal with the heating situation; as literally interpretted they are sitting in the same boat (Yes quite naive and idealistic but I think the idea and the image work well together, therefore it delivers the message in its own way!). Also, looking at their seating arrangements you can see theres a comment on the relationships between the leaders, who's gettin on who's back, especially with Blair and Bush! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did drawing it! Please leave a comment on what you think of either the image or the topic!

Anti v.2

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Heres the one that went to print!

Anti v.1

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Promotional posters for an Independent Hip Hop night @the AfroBa! Oh yeah and look out for all the film references in this poster, its loaded with em! Please submit guesses to my blog or myspace! The first person who gets them all wins a prize! I just counted and there arent actually that many...hmm

Tatts 2005

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Night Parade...v.2.1

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Here's what they look like all together at the moment-im still about 70 short of a hundred though...

Night parade...v.2

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Some more of those creepy crawlies-the points and dots was something ive never wholeheartedly tried before , which quite disturbingly has become a bit of an obssesive thing of mine now yet creating a printed quality(?) anyway that and many of the creatures was also inspired by another artist named Mizuki Shigeru! Enjoy, there'll be more soon...

Night parade of 100 Demons v.1

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The images here will be part of an on-going project to document the myriad of characters from inside my mind and also those that I have been inspired by. The project of the 'Night parade..' began as I was researching folk-tales of Japan and its plethora of spirits and goblins known as 'Yurei' and 'Yokai.' The idea of the night parade is taken from Toriyama Sekien's 'Myriad of a hundred Ghosts and Demons' and initially began as an homage to it. However as the different personalities of each creature came to be put on paper, I gradually became more and more carried away with the characters from within my head also-so here we have it! Ive barely begun this project, but it looks like the traditional Yokai parade will also be shaired with the characters from my own little world...