Diary of an up and coming sociopath

While I prepare to bore you all stupid with tales of the remaining couple of weeks since a manics gig, I thought I’d show you all one of the things I’ve been doing with my day off.

I have started a new little project. After doing a year’s worth of Alternate Cover columns on NTS, I feel that I’ve proven to myself that I can keep up writing with a fair amount of regularity. However, reviewing superhero comics week after week can get a little boring, because I don’t have enough money to buy a wide range and there’s only so much you can say about one issue of Ms. Marvel to the next. So, as you may have noticed, I’ve put that on semi-hiatus for a while - there will be new Alternate Cover columns on NTS, some by Seb, some by me, but they’ll not be weekly again for the forseeable future. 

So, after a couple of months off, I’ve been looking for something new to stretch my writing muscles with. I was considering an artist-specific music blog about the dear, departed 3 Colours Red, but as we all know, writing about music is like tap-dancing about architecture. I’m not sure I can adequately translate my passion for music into words like so many others can, so for now that idea’s on the back burner. Instead, I’m doing a comics blog, focussing entirely on the work of Jeffrey Brown.

It’s called (and props to Josh for suggesting the name) Crudely Drawn Naked People: The work of Jeffrey Brown. (If the title doesn’t give it away, it’s worth noting the banner image isn’t entirely work-safe - there is slight nudity, but it’s also crudely drawn.)

I haven’t decided how regular I’ll make it - I’m thinking weekly, but it may be more or less frequent. There’s a sizeable body of work that I’m going to go through, but it’s also small enough to be manageable. Once I’ve done it all, I’ll probably pick a new topic and run with that, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You’ll notice two things. Firstly, it’s not hosted on any of my own servers. This in itself is an experiment, though it’s also partly for the convenience - I’m getting too old to be installing point releases of wordpress every five minutes then fixing all my plugins again. Secondly, you’ll see the Amazon US/UK links at the bottom of each entry, when possible. That’s also an experiment, and one that I admit isn’t entirely altruistic (I love money, you see) but if it sells more Jeff Brown to people, that’ll make both him and me very happy. Please feel free to check it out, especialy if you’re not normally into comics, because Jeff Brown is one of those comic creators I feel really reaches a wider audience. Spread the link around if you’re feeling generous, and definitely make some suggestions if you’ve got any.