I’m not even gonna begin to try and sum up this stuff, but my very brilliant friend, the very brilliant illustrator and storyteller GLYN LLOYD DILLON (who some of you may recognise from his work on early Tank Girl and other strips in Deadline Magazine) has just put his blog up for all to see http://www.naobrown.com/news/ 

I cannot recommend his work highly enough – the sweetest guy doing some of the sweetest artwork on the planet. Go take a look, and then stay tunned to that station – there’s lots more to come!

Alan X

Various sources have various release dates, but it should be hitting the stores very soon - the all new shiny (well, matt finished actually) trade paperback collection of this summer’s smash hit Tank Girl comic series VISIONS OF BOOGA. Published by IDW in the States and by Titan in the UK, featuring a wrap-round cover by Ashely Wood and fabulous interiors by drawn by Rufus and coloured by the very talented Christian Krank. The book will have several re-worked and tidied-up pages as well as an all new six page extra “Digging The Lonely Eternity” (a sample of which you can see below).

Buy lots! Great for old folk and kids!

Get a box of twenty of these bad boys and your Christmas present list will be sorted.

I thank you.

Alan X

To paraphrase from the title of the great John Candy film…

Well… what a week.

I’m doing the tonal work on Episode 5 of Tank Girl – Skidmarks, and thought I’d be really clever and have not one, but two double page splashes (I always loooved the Judge Dredd double pagers when was a kid)….

Of course, being an idiot of some reknown , I didn’t count the pages, so I designed a DPS that went over two pages that aren’t adjacent….duh… So I had to make the proceeding page a DPS as well.. so now there are THREE DPSes… perhaps overegging the pudding, but it is for the Christmas issue, so I hope you’ll forgive my stupidity!

I was contacted last week by the Organizers of Amadora Comics Festival, the FIBDA (Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada da Amadora), in Portugal… and they have very kindly nvited me over this weekend, so I’ll be back on Monday with photographic evidence!

I’m really excited, I’ve never been to Portugal, and am looking forward to meeting Portugese writers, artists, and collectors!

Right…it’s getting late I’d best get back to work!

Rufus

PS – Apologies the Tank girl site was down, we exceeded the bandwidth, as traffic has doubled in the last couple of weeks! Thanks for all the support!

Sorry I’m a little late with posting this, I’ve been…erm…a bit busy (more of that at a much later date)…

It was the featured interview a few days ago, but it’s still there for all to see – an interview with yours truly conducted by the lovely Nicole Powers over on the Suicide Girls site

http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Alan+Martin%3A+Tank+Girl+Resurrected/

and stay tuned to Suicide Girls, because, starting November 2nd, Rufus and I will be doing a regular monthly splash page of Tank Girl exclusively for them. Rufus has drawn a real peach of a picture to kick off with.

Man, I need to get some sleep!

Love ya

Alan X

Once more I indulge my obscure musical passions. This week – the amazing Buffy Sainte-Marie – this woman has so much power she scares the hell out of me. I had a cd compilation of her songs back in the late 80s, but didn’t really get her until I discovered a bunch of her albums on vinyl (Vanguard label) in a junk shop in Berwick a couple of years ago.

This song weaves some mighty witchcraft when spinning around on an old valve-powered record player.

Stay tuned for more Rock and Roll

Alan X

At last! The search is over. A little too late to be included in The Cream Of Tank Girl, but here they are – the most elusive items of clothing on the planet – the infamous Tank Girl and Booga PEN!S and VAG!NA t-shirts!

A lovely lady called Paula Hambly had bagged these back in 1993 and tucked them away safely in her collection, unworn and unwashed. Thank you again Paula for letting these go, they will be treasured.

the original art for Jamie’s brilliant designs on these has been lost in the mists of time, so these are a real score for me. I’ve taken some high resolution scans and my plan is to eventually have a new range of official (rather than the photocopied crap on ebay) Tank Girl t-shirts, featuring classic and new designs.

I’ve got a couple more of the old designs from the same source, which I’ll be posting up later.

Love and kind wishes

Alan X

It’s been a very busy week… Finishing off Episode #5 of Skidmarks… Created a monster for myself doing this tonework…. what was I thinking?!

I popped into Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue at Lunchtime, and saw the posters for our signing.

I’ve been going to FP since I was a kiddie (and it was in Denmark Street..), and I have to admit I wasn’t prepared at how excited I was to see my name in the shop. I wish I could take l’il Me forward in time… achieving a childhood ambition is strange… and I’m very grateful that FP,and Alan, have given me the opportunity to realise this small boy’s dream.

My mac is playing up again, which is a real pain, and I’m waiting to hear back about getting a new machine.. this one has been a problem since word go.. grumble.

Well back to work for me!                                             Rufus

another chestnut from my photo archive…

copyright (c) Alan C. Martin

I took this photo of Jamie on my roliflex in paris at some point early in 1986. So that would make him about seventeen – a mere baby himself!

Alan X

…and for no noticable reason whatsoever, here is a great LOOK-IN cover from August 1972 featuring family DJ Ed “Stewpot” Stuart on a child’s bicycle!

Alan X

So, I write the article for them and we send them a copy of the book we want to plug (The Cream of Tank Girl) with HEWLETT AND MARTIN stamped in bold black letters across the front…

…and this morning I open up the Guardian Guide to read the tag line “Jamie Hewlett’s cult comic hero Tank Girl…”

Thanks a lot for that fellas (next week they’ll be plugging a new book about that famous comedy outfit ”Morecambe”).

Anyway, here’s the piece -

(click on image to see full-size and zoom)

Lucky I wrote myself into it, or i wouldn’t have gotten mentioned at all.

Still, I’m glad to see that the Guardian’s standards haven’t slipped.

Yours, on the lonesome, grumpy road of relentless self-promotion,

Alan X