A Possibly Garbled and Maudlin Post

It's been a long Lockdown this one and I've not posted anything since the start of it. Apologies for that. I haven't been slouching though. I've done quite a few new designs and returned to some older ones. 

In between this and that, I've also (finally) got round to being tested for autism. This has been the bane of my life since my last breakdown in 2017. 

My apologies if the following gets all garbled and maudlin. 

From the early 90s, I've suffered from serious depression and anxiety issues. I've had three full time jobs since 1990 and each has virtually ended with nervous breakdowns. I have wanted and needed to get to the bottom of this and my GP suggested the test as it would either rule it out or confirm it as one of the the root causes. Also, if the former proved to be the result, it would more than likely indicate other reasons for my continued periods of depression and anxiety. 

I've been on a waiting list for just over two years and was about to reach the front of the queue when the first lockdown hit. I had a letter the week before lockdown one. It asked if I was still seeking the consultation as an appointment could now be booked. There were also a lot of forms which I filled in... in a lot of detail. Then another letter stating that due to lockdown, all appointments would have to be cancelled until further notice. It was a bit of a bombshell but I'd kind of accepted it was going to be heading that way during that first scary week after the lockdown announcement. 

I kept myself busy over the following months. I isolated and physically kept myself to myself. Doing silly things in Photoshop and the interactions on social media were a huge part of my coping with the situation. I ventured out once a week for shopping with a friend - both of us lived alone so we formed an early bubble right from the start. 

Fats forward to February and I got a letter informing me that things were back on track with my assessment and I could now book one. The only problem being that it would be via webcam. There was the alternative to wait until face-to-face meetings were available but, despite hating zoom calls, I went with the virtual one.

The assessment took two afternoons to complete. I haven't received the full report back yet but the assessor seemed to think I had some autistic tendencies but that my condition may be ADHD or ADD. They suggested I get an assessment for that since it was causing problems with my social and work life.

So that's where I am at the moment. Between an autism rock and a ADHD hard place. On the whole I feel reasonably happy. Things are happening. I have bad days every so often. I have a coping mechanism for them. None of those days have been as dark as the ones I had a couple of years ago - even though I've been trapped in my flat (virtually) 24/7 for the past year. 2021's playing field certainly feels a bit more level these days. 

Anyhow, I've waffled on for far too long about my sighs and woes. I'll be updating the blog with all the material I've done since last Christmas over the next week or so. I hope you enjoy seeing the stuff tidied up and in one place. I get my enjoyment from creating these things and having folk find them amusing is just a bonus. 

Thank you for your continued support. I really appreciate it. You're all lifesavers in a very special way.

'Nineteen Eighty-Four' Blu-ray and DVD cover

It's 2021 and this year (this month in fact) marks the end of copyright for much of George Orwell's original works. This includes his novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and the control that his estate has over any dramatic productions of said novel. Thus the BBC is now free to exploit their 1954 adaptation of the novel and release it to the public in whatever form BBC policy dictates - be that DVD, Blu-ray, streaming, broadcast, talking book, read-a-long vinyl LP, etc...

Last year I did some Blu-ray covers for the BBC's 1981'The Day of the Triffids' (I didn't like the official cover) and Nigel Kneale's 'The Creature' (which is lost to the ether anyway). I also did one for the BBC's production of 'Nineteen Eighty-four' but for some reason didn't upload it here. You may have caught a fleeting glimpse of it on the Twitter. He it is in all its 'boot on the face of a man' glory. 

As a bonus, there's also a full size DVD cover that you use to wrap your VHS transferred copy in to keep it warm until the BBC releases the fully restored version later this year.*

* May not be this year. This is the BBC after all.

Click for larger. Right-click to save. Any problems, tweet me.

If you've enjoyed this or any of the 300 odd post of this blog, then you can show your appreciation to the blogger by purchasing for him a nice coffee via his Ko-fi page - where you'll find a gallery of the tat he thinks is his best work. The link is here.

Some Quatermass Annuals 4 Da Kids...

I'll admit that with these, I started off doing 50s period 'annual' style book covers. Spent a bit of time and couldn't get the look right to be honest. I'll return to them later...

Instead I took the colourised full length figures of each of the Quatermasses (Reginald Tate, John Robinson and Andre Morrel) and applied them to some of the modern Doctor Who annual templates I'd created a few months earlier... with mixed results. 

That set me thinking again... why not do some pages for these annuals? They'd look pretty cool and there'd be plenty of opportunities for obscure gags and period juxtaposition. 

A day or so later, I forgot about this splendid idea until now. This time I'll make a note and put it with the other "good ideas" for when I'm staring at a blank page again.

If you've enjoyed this or any of the 300 odd post of this blog, then you can show your appreciation to the blogger by purchasing for him a nice coffee via his Ko-fi page - where you'll find a gallery of the tat he thinks is his best work. The link is here.

The 2020 Doctor Who Christmas Special That Wasn't... Again!

There haven't been proper Christmas specials for Doctor Who since 'Twice upon a Time' in 2017. 

Since then, I've taken it upon myself to fill in the gap with my own takes on these festive sci-fi treats. Just a blu-ray cover or two together with a Radio Times cover to whet the appetite. 

Before you ask... Yes, I do have plots for these adventures in mind. 

If any Doctor Who showrunner has run out of Christmassy ideas for future specials, then they should contact me via the Twitter. 

My DMs are usually open. 

Here are the original two specials that I did for 2018 and 2019 - 'Hark the Weeping Angels Sing' (in which the WA's invade Earth using Christmas cards) and 'Daleks of Christmas Past' (in which the Daleks infiltrate a US town in the 1950s and plan to turn the inhabitants into drones under the cover of a mysterious and magical circus that's a bit like the one in 'The Seven Faces of Dr Lao' - Davros might even have been the eponymous Dr. Lao... I hadn't got there far in my head. Bit obvious though. Maybe make the Master the Ring MASTER instead now that we have him back on the show.)

Anyhow, this year's was tweeted out on Christmas Eve as part of a Christmas TV Specials of Old advent calendar. Here are the finished articles in full. You might even be able to read the text on these images...

Links to the previous ones:

The 2018 Christmas Special that wasn't.

The 2019 Christmas Special that wasn't.

If you've enjoyed this or any of the 300 odd post of this blog, then you can show your appreciation to the blogger by purchasing for him a nice coffee via his Ko-fi page - where you'll find a gallery of the tat he thinks is his best work. The link is here.

Lockdown II - Cinema Posters

Yes, I'm back. It's been three months since my last post so not only am I apologising to you for the neglect, I've also got a backlog of stuff to post. So without further ado, here's a very large one to be going on with...

Obviously, there's been a second lockdown in the UK during much of December and that very nice Emily Cook from Doctor Who magazine again took it upon herself to organise a selection of tweet-a-longs for the Whovian community. 

To cut a long story short, I uploaded one of my cinema posters to the lockdown website and next thing I know I'm doing social media ads for all of the tweet-a-long episodes. 

They are (with one or two exceptions) all based on vintage (and not-so-vintage) movies. Some are quite familiar whilst others are on the obscure spectrum. They've really been fun to do and the only real labour was the effort in finding suitable old posters to homage. 

In no particular order, here they are - all 23 of them*. At the end of these, is a list of posters that I paid homage to.

* Yes, I know there weren't 23 tweet-a-longs but I kind of overdid it. All of the Christmas/festive specials are included even though they weren't all selected.

A Christmas Carol – The Muppets' Christmas Carol (1992)

Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways – This Island Earth (1955)

The Christmas Invasion – Invaders from Mars (1953)

Dark Water/Death in Heaven – Original

The Return of Doctor Mysterio – Batman (1966)

Last Christmas – Miracle on 34^th Street (1947)

Resolution – Not of this Earth (1957)

Revolution of the Daleks – Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

The End of Time – El Cid (1961)

The Husbands of River Song – Tobor the Great (1954)

The Next Doctor – Konga (1961)

The Pilot – Fantastic Voyage (1966)

The Runaway Bride – I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

The Snowmen – Great Expectations (1946)

The Unquiet Dead – Scrooge (1951)

Thin Ice – Wuthering Heights (1949)

The Time of the Doctor – The Time Machine (1960)

Turn Left – Original

Twice Upon A Time – It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Utopia – Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Voyage of the Damned – The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

If you've enjoyed this or any of the 300 odd post of this blog, then you can show your appreciation to the blogger by purchasing for him a nice coffee via his Ko-fi page - where you'll find a gallery of the tat he thinks is his best work. The link is here.