I was disappointed to find, once again, that some of my artwork has been used without my permission. This time it's the Gateway Playhouse (or maybe it was Searles Graphics, their designers), and their 2006 production of Oliver!

You might remember that this has happened before, when my Oliver! logo was used by the Act Too Stage School, again without my permission or knowledge. Gateway did respond kindly to me making them aware of the transgression and have agreed to credit the piece. Worryingly, they seem to think the design may have come from an apparently public domain source book (or site), which, if true, bodes ill for future versions of my design turning up. I haven't been able to find anything.

top: my original Oliver! rough sketch and finished logo from 1998
below is the logo as used by Gatehouse and Act Too

Lest you think I'm as heartless as Bill Sikes for not being generous with my art, two other organisations did get in touch and kindly asked permission for use of the design; one, being for charity, I charged a minimal fee (also designing a new poster); the other being a high school production in New York state, for which I allowed free usage. Of course it is only right that I should have the chance to make money from my own creations - they are my sole form of income. That logo is the result of many hours sketching, going back and forth with the original client (the June Easther Theatre Company) to get it right.

There's a lot of it about. Last year there was the Todd Goldman 'Dear God' affair, where he stole Dave Kelley's Purple Pussy comic. More recently Jess Fink (language warning!) has had her 'soap' design ripped off by Hot Topic. And it's probably more prevalent (wildly rife, actually) in the world of text. Whole websites are daily copied and used without proper attribution (including my own), but it's not just the amateurs - The Scotsman newspaper printed an edited entry from the blog of Hydragenic without any permission or payment whatsoever. There seems to be an attitude, even among 'professionals' that, if it's on the internet, it's free for the taking.

Fink's soap design (top left) and the Hot Topic copy (top right)
and Kelley's original Purple Pussy (left) with Goldman's direct copy (right)

Looking at the deserved support for artists such as Dave Kelley and Jess Fink, I do wonder how many of those commentators and supporters who shake their fists in anger at the art thieves also regularly illegally download another artist's music, films and television episodes onto their computers - which in my view is pretty much the same thing - stealing.

If you wanted some news on that new weekly comic of which there have been so many whispers of late, I can point you to these press releases at PR Newswire, the Bookseller.com and at Publishers Weekly (thanks to Linda for pointing them out).

News on the Orchid books - the first batch went out last week. The second batch is going in the post tomorrow. I have about 20 left, and they will be going in the post sometime next week. Almost there!

And talking of updates... this rather amusing alert just popped up on my wife's iMac.

First, the news... I will not be doing any work on The Rainbow Orchid until at least the second half of April, though at that point I will then be working the rest of the year to finish the book, depending on the publishing deal. The reason for the gap is that I am working on another comic strip, and its deadline has priority. I might drop a teaser for the new strip here every now and then (like the one below...)

If you've pre-ordered a Rainbow Orchid book, then I apologise once again for the delay. Still sorting out some business on it, but they are coming! Any worries at all, just contact me, and I'll be sending out a newsletter soon.

And now some links... Firstly, have a look at Matthew Badham's blog, it's got some great independent comic-related tidbits, including recent interviews with David Baillie and Stuart Kolakovic.

I'd also like to point you in the direction of my brother's new music project, City Music, available for download at the Internet Archive. If you liked Spacewreck, you'll like this, another 'narrative in sound'. Lovely stuff.

Does anyone else hate those 'Snap' website previews that keep popping up every time your mouse hovers over a link?

Something strange is going on over here...

And here's another linky for you... be good, and have a lovely Christmas!

I do apologise for the delay with the Rainbow Orchid hardback books. I am having a slight issue with the printer, and while it will be resolved, their customer service is absolutely terrible. I'm just sorry that it is you - my readers who pre-ordered the book - that are having to wait. I'm really grateful for your patience, and don't worry, it will be resolved soon. To make up for it, I shall be including a little extra goody with your orders when they go out.

I also apologise for the lack of or late updates to the daily LiveJournal strip - it's just not updating for some reason.

Episode 9 of The Rainbow Orchid ends with strip 228, and also sees me taking a break from the strip for a good few weeks. This is because I need to turn my attention to some new material I'm developing, and want to concentrate on it wholeheartedly. Orchid will return as soon as possible, and when it does, I'll be concentrating on that to finish it by the end of next year.

But don't go away! Keep an eye on this blog (RSS/LJ), visit the forum, join the Facebook Group - and keep visiting this site as I'll try not to leave it for too long if it can be helped.

The Rainbow Orchid Special Limited Edition of part 1 is sold out. What, you say, you didn't even know there was one? Well, I had mentioned it was limited to 50 copies, and that newsletter subscribers would get first dibs. With a week's headstart for registered readers, the print run was sold out, and apart from a couple of days on the Facebook Group, I didn't get to publicise it elsewhere (eg. this blog or the forum). Limited edition, see?

So the order will be going to print in a couple of days time, and the books should be available in about a month or so. Out of interest, of those who requested a character sketch - Lily was the most requested character (9), Julius next (8) and then Evelyn Crow (5) and Tayaut (3). The rest had one or two each. Copies will be going to the UK, USA, Norway, Australia, Canada, France and Holland. In the meantime, below are some more photos - click on them to see bigger versions.

Starting today I will be posting The Rainbow Orchid, as daily strips, on LiveJournal. If you have an account, just 'friend' LJ user rainboworchid and start on the adventure.

If you don't have a LiveJournal account - get one for this very reason!

In the post in the past few days have been The Rocketbelt Caper from Tonto Press (for which I illustrated the cover), Leonie O'Moore's graphic novel Some Forgotten Part (yet to read but looks magnificent), and Bulletproof issue 1 (in 1994 I inked a strip called Snowstorm, written by Paul H. Birch and pencilled by Michael Perkins - it sees print here at last).

Thanks to Colin Mathieson for suggesting the rather bleak sequel to the last entry...