I has kittenz!

I'm trying adopt follow a more structured format for the blog, with regular features on different days, but the best laid plans etc.

I had hoped to post a sketch today, but our new kittens - courtesy of our neighbour Micheal and the ISPCA - sort of hijacked the weekend and I didn't get any drawing done.

Patrick (ginger tom) and Mia (tortoise-shell female) are still a little shy of us, but they are house-trained and adorable.

Daddybag (Theme from Nadthology)

There is a move afoot, in Irish comic circles, to produce a comic of stories about getting bashed about the tenders. I support this endeavour. Through the medium of song.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, OK Erok is proud to present... Daddybag. (Inspired by a true story of misfortune, capriciousness and vile fate.)




Lyrics:

You really hurt me in my daddybag
You hit my sack and you made me sad
Little girl why you hate my nad?
What I do to make you so mad?

Daddybag
Daddybag
Daddybag
Daddybag

D to the A double D Y B to the A to the G
A little girl hit me...
D to the A double D Y B to the A to the G
A little girl hit me...

Daddybag etc.

Right in the daddybag!

Here is a song I have written, inspired by a recent tale of woe from Bob Byrne.

"I was just standing at the bus stop when WHAMMO!!! this 4 year old girl socked me in the daddybag. That’s all I have to say about it."

How had I never heard the word daddybag before? It had me in stitches the whole day after I read Bob's post and then slowly, as though by magic, a song began to form...

'Daddybag... Daddybag... Oh woah Daddybag...'

Irish Comics wiki

I was planning to write an A to Z of Irish comics, but when I hit a dead end after 'D', I decided to give up.

Instead I've created an Irish Comics wiki, to hopefully pull together some useful information for and about Irish comics creators.

For example, I've already come across the wonderful Irish illustrator Phillip Barrett.

I Make: Erok strips

My own take on the comic strip challenge.

Veteran Character Actors is GO!

I love veteran character actors. I have a burning passion for them. Now I wish to share that burning sensation with you! Enjoy!

Did I mention that I dance?

Gift Economy

I'm very interested in the concept of the the commons and the gift economy. Despite the recent republication of Lewis Hyde's The Gift - a sort of cultural history of social attitudes to gifts and creativity, and of creativity as a form of gift giving - there has been very little written about it. Hyde describes his interests as 'the public life of the imagination'.

In the last 10 years, there has been a little more interest in the gift economy. I first became aware of it through George Bataille's The Accursed Share, and the advent of open source software development (and especially the success of Linux) and participatory media (and especially the popularity of blogging, vblogging and podcasting) has kept the subject current.

Category F

Well, here it is, my first short story in a decade?! It is called Category F. I won't preamble. Please enjoy it, if possible.

(Actually, this is a little bit dishonest. Nobody knows about this blog. This blog is a secret, at least for the next couple of weeks, until I build up a head of steam.)

This is really just a part of my process. I feel that now that my story is on the blog, now that it's out there, bobbing along on the internet, I don't have to worry about it any more. Now I can forget about it and do something else if I want. Or I can rewrite it later or write another story, sew a hat, do a drawing. But at least it's out there. If somebody wants to read my story, they can read it.