TQ74 ONE XMAS DAY AT A TQ READER'S HOUSE...

We're keeping with the Christmas theme here for TQ74, the winter issue of 2024. I love the domestic cosiness of dads with pipes, wooly yuletide jumpers, cards on the mantlepiece and drinks on the sideboard.

I imagine this young reader to have a collection of cassette tapes from such labels as Matching Head, Steep Gloss, Invisible City etc. The sort of gear any fan of underground drone and scrape might enjoy. He gets what seems like a big present from his parents, and as it's some equipment to help maintain his cassette collection, he's over the moon.

Its only got six panels this, and one of them is the title, so no plot development here. Just a one shot joke. It took up a full page, so you had to turn the zine sideways to read it.

TQ CHRISTMAS CARD 2022

 

Many thanks go to top TQ fan and Belgian correspondent Tony Van Dorst who kindly alerted me to the fact that a cartoon had been missed out of the blog. Heavens above!

For Christmas 2022 I was asked to create a festive card. I thought about something experimental and abstract, and then I thought stuff that, lets go for a traditional feel good vibe. The jolly old fat chap in red is in his reindeer-powered sleigh sailing above a couple who've built a TQ logo out of snow, he's showering them with TQ zines too.

I've just noticed that the snow is kind of falling in the background, but not over the couple and their dog. Oh well.

TQ72+73 THE EVOLUTION OF A DRUMMER

I thought about the drummers I'd known for this one, the different kinds of kits they used for their chosen genres and whether flashy gear is really necessary?

I was in a band in Boston in Lincolnshire a long time ago, in another life. Our drummer was technically proficient, but he insisted on bringing his entire kit every time we played. We performed at some very small pubs and the size of his kit took up most of the stage space on several occasions. 

One icy night we drove out to a village pub and set our gear up. This was before mobile phones, and the pub landlord came to explain that our drummer wouldn't be coming. His dad had phoned the pub to say that the roads were too frosty and he'd decided it wouldn't be prudent to drive.

Understandably we were a bit put out. Luckily however, because he couldn't physically fit all the gear in his own car, we had some of the drums from the massive kit with us: A snare, a tom and a cymbal. We knew a bloke called Lonnie was in the audience and we knew he was a drummer, so we invited him to do the best he could playing songs he'd never heard before on two drums and a cymbal placed on a pub seat. Using a spanner and some pliers (we had no sticks) he picked up the songs and banged away admirably.

Needless to say Lonnie became our new drummer, the old one was sacked and our unstoppable push to bring high quality original music to Lincolnshire continued.

TQ56 BONUS CARTOON: SHUNYATA IMPROVISATION GROUP

This cartoon was in a supplement that came with TQ56. It was dedicated to an appreciation of the wonderful Shunyata Improvisation Group and their sublime music. To truly appreciate this band you really have to see them live, because the music evolves and grows as you experience it in the moment. The experience is quite extraordinary.

Characteristically the band begins each improvisation by sitting in silence for a few minutes to somehow calibrate the room's vibrations and to feel the unique ambience of each location.

I was quite pleased with the likenesses of the group members here, but looking back, the hands of the two people flicking cigarette ends in panel 2 are completely wrong. This should have been corrected at quality control, but obviously sneaked through somehow. Blast!

TQ70+71 - CONFESSIONS OF A RECORD COLLECTOR

For this issue I was asked to draw a cartoon which complimented an article about record collecting. Entitled Precious Plaything, it was devised and written by subscriber Ian Shelley. Essentially it entailed an  interview about music collecting conducted by Ian with an interesting person in the TQ orbit. The first victim was Andy Wood himself, the creator and editor of the illustrious zine.

It would be foolish to claim that the character in the strip was not, at least partially, based on Andy himself. It has a cat in it after all. Obviously the idea that he would put buying vinyl ahead of anything else is clearly a fabrication. Andy is a very considerate individual who doesn't spend all his money on records. He buys malt whisky too.

TQ69 - BRAIN CELLS

 You know when you haven't made notes, but you think 'I'll remember this when I get home and I'll be able to write all about it then'? Of course you mean well, but when you sit in front of the computer everything is erased and your mind's a blank. You can't remember names, places, songs, times, anything.

It isn't just applicable to music, I find this occurs in all walks of life: For example when you think you can remember the shopping list in your head, or when you don't bother to note down your partner's birthday because it's easier to simply commit it to memory.

It's your brain cells having a nap.

TQ68 - LET'S BUILD A COMMUNITY

I wasn't very happy with this one really. I wanted to make it a never ending loop showing how a community is built and keeps on renewing itself. Unfortunately a method of arranging the panels so that they form an elegant, continuous whole eluded me. I had to resort to those cumbersome arrows which ruin the overall look. Also when printed out for the zine on A5 paper, everything was too small.

It all stemmed from an editorial written by Sean Urquhart called The Withering Musical Community which discussed the never ending problem of keeping things going, getting people to attend gigs and be open to new sounds and structures.