Monthly archives: April 2016


The Berlin Job

I did a bit of a Spring clean recently, and came across this. On six postcards, I had done layouts for a comic idea. It dates back several years, and was going to be called The Berlin Job.

Set in an alternative fifties, where Berlin was the first city to have an atomic bomb dropped on it, it was going to be a heist story that turned into a conspiracy tale. As a team of crooks and ex-servicemen broke into the abandoned city of Berlin- looking to find the vaults full of looted treasure etc.- they would stumble across a terrible secret. Hitler was assassinated by others in German high command, and they had offered up surrender terms to the Brits and Americans, afraid of what would happen should the Russians overrun their capital. This was ignored, and the atom bomb was dropped as a show of force, taking out some of the Russians already in the city.

Now, several years later, tensions are building again, and the city is still sealed off, waiting for someone to come in and dig up its secrets.

The Berlin Job

Obviously, I never started this project properly, though I think there may be a larger, more polished version of the first page somewhere.

If it’s not obvious, the first three pages are side by side narratives from the end of the story and the point in 1946 (I had a set of backstories that would have explained why the war went on a year longer, if necessary) when the bomb was dropped. Page 6 is messy and cluttered. I’d like to think I’d have turned it into a double page spread, framed by either end of the building/block, if I’d gone ahead.

I’m always thinking about doing some comics again. Finding stuff like this just makes me ponder what story I’d like to tell that way.


They’re knocking down my walk to work

It was confirmed last week that the Black Horse would be demolished to make way for expensive flats, and now it’s certain that Ye Olde Nelson is going as well.

I moved to Salford just over two and a half years ago, around the same time as work on the Chapel Street renovation started. My walk to work takes me along the Crescent and Chapel Street, and I’ve seen various buildings disappear. Some of them were nondescript seventies boxes, but others were more characterful. Now two of the more interesting remaining buildings are set to be pulled down. Shame.

Source: SALFORD LISTED YE OLDE NELSON PUB NEXT FOR DEMOLITION – Salford Star – with attitude & love xxx


A little Sunday morning Photoshop- Nothing of value inside…

Nothing Of Value Inside

Number 10 door from the official 10 Downing Street Flickr account. Used, as far as I can tell, within the rights assigned to the photo. ‘Nothing of value….’ sign photographed by me yesterday*.

*On what used to be Walkabout, on Quay Street. I don’t think I ever went in, but I did photograph racists forming up for a march outside it.

You can share larger versions from Flickr, if you’d like.


More planning shenanigans in Salford

The Salford Star is doing good work digging the dirt on suspect planning decisions coming out of Salford Council. It seems that one man is arbitrarily giving the nod to applications and waving them through with minimal charges.

The developers should be paying the council for the extra costs of traffic and infrastructure requirements arising from their buildings. But they’re having them waived or seriously reduced by claiming these payments would make their plans financially unviable. It seems to me that we Council Tax payers are subsidising their money making schemes, taking money away from the services we should be getting.

Source: PLANNING DEMOCRACY DIES IN SALFORD – Salford Star – with attitude & love xxx


Pickers- post climate change action and adventure

Pickers-cover-200Available from Amazon.

The Lost Picture Show is home to films yet to be made, putting a twist on genres and playing with plots. Grab some popcorn, settle down, and enjoy.

In a climate changed future, Pickers travel the badlands between towns and farms, salvaging what they can from before the collapse.

One family of Pickers is about to start a search for a prize that could change everything.

Remy and his family are on the hunt for a seed bank, hidden away before climate change crashed everything. The trail has led them to a hidden bunker, and what they find inside is going to set them on a long journey, back to the community they ran away from ten years ago.

With a grain blight ravaging crops in France, the seed bank could be the only hope of finding resistant strains and saving the country’s remaining towns from starvation. Remy, Maxine, Veronique and Tony are determined to break into the vault and liberate the seed lines. However, they are in Spain, and they will have to cross the country, dodging ravaging bands of Raiders, and get over the Pyrenees before they’re even in France. And then, there is another obstacle. Only one valley over from their destination is the community they ran away from ten years earlier. The people of The Valley would be ideal recipients for a bounty of seeds, but will they welcome Remy and his family back after all these years?

Pickers was first released as a four part serial last year. This collected edition has had sections re-written.


Bye bye Black Horse?

Black Horse Hotel
Update: The plan has been voted through, with only one councillor voting against it.

I walk past the Black Horse every time I head into Manchester. It’s not in a good state, and really needs and deserves refurbishment.

What it doesn’t deserve is to be knocked down for bland, expensive flats, which is what could be happening.

Source: FRED DONE SEEKS TO DEMOLISH SALFORD LISTED BLACK HORSE PUB IN INCREDIBLE PLANNING APPLICATION – Salford Star – with attitude & love xxx