Urso do Relvas

O URSO CONTINUA COM OBRAS (ORIGINAIS)

2012-02-19T18:41:00.011Z

O Urso continua em obras e regressará em breve com obras originais. O post que aqui estava foi mudado para o Hard Line.

R

URSO HARD LINE

2012-02-08T13:51:00.010Z

O Urso tinha que mudar um dia. Se alguém ficar surpreendido com a nova apresentação e com o desaparecimento de algum conteúdo, fique sabendo que basta clicar na assinatura Relvas no final de cada post (também me custou a descobrir esta) para chegar ao meu perfil e ao outro blog Hard Line, onde encontrará o blog original e informação complementar. A partir de hoje vão tornar-se dois blogs diferentes, sendo que o Urso ficará reservado para apresentação de trabalho gráfico.
Hard Line foi criado estava eu na Croácia, em 2006, quando comecei a pôr imagens nos meus blogs e a escrevê-los ora em portuguès, ora em inglês. Graças aos blogs e à experiência do sistema print on demand, e apesar de não ter visto grandes lucros, continuei a poder testar novas técnicas, desenvolver vários projetos e completar alguns, e receber algum feedback, sem o apoio de um editor. Antes de vir para Portugal, em 2010, decidi fazer uma grande limpeza aos blogs e concentrá-los sob um único nome (também há um Urso do Relvas no tumblr), mas a solução não foi a melhor e cá estamos nós de novo, na velha linha dura.

GO VISIT THE HARD LINE! GO!

Assim é que é. Divirtam-se.

R

COM UM FORMIGUEIRO NAS MÃOS

2012-02-03T18:37:00.009Z

Pois é, estamos, a Nina (texto e cor) e eu (texto e desenho), com uma história de formigas em mãos, como podem ver aqui, duas formigas, uma cigarra e um escaravelho. Esta é a banda. A banda é canja, o pior vai ser desenhar e pintar um formigueiro à beira dum ataque de nervos.

A VANTAGEM DO MARRECO

2012-01-11T18:27:00.026Z

Quem inventa o instrumento assegura, afinal, o resultado, pois o instrumento condiciona o desempenho humano, cujo, através do uso e interpretação do instrumento, leva ao melhoramento ou criação de novo instrumento, que condiciona o desempenho humano.
O material tem sempre razão, contudo há sempre uma volta desconhecida a dar-lhe, ali à nossa espera, e a curiosidade é um vício que se instala cedo. Ao fim de alguns anos de experiências, os inconvenientes da curiosidade tornam-se óbvios. Sem entrar em mais pormenores, um deles é que se acaba com uma diversidade de obra em cima dos braços que exige desesperadamente seleção.

Eliminadas desta seleção (feita com base na minha exposição durante o AmadoraBD) estão obras mais velhas que quinze anos, passe a qualidade e o apelo que possam ter para os interessados, pois não me vejo a regressar tanto no tempo e no estilo. Sobraram, depois de olhar com atenção para as obras expostas (tenho tendência para as esquecer), e consultadas algumas opiniões externas, os três exemplos abaixo.

DIGITAL
Apesar da resistência generalizada dos apreciadores e editores sérios da arte ao desenho feito diretamente em computador, as magníficas reproduções que vieram de Beja para a exposição da Amadora fizeram boa figura. Os mais reticentes não as elegeram como o melhor da exposição, mas ninguém se atreveu a dizer mal, cara a cara com elas. É caminho que vou continuar a trilhar, em havendo tempo e condições.
Do exemplo abaixo podem ver outras versões neste blog. Material: Flash. Vantagem: cabe tudo numa caixinha, combate os vícios da excelência, presta-se a um sem número de novas experiências e corrige-se e adapta-se com facilidade. Desvantagem: faz doer as costas e pode provocar tendinites.

MEDUSA
Esta é uma história infantil feita em conjunto com Nina Govedarica, a primeira experiência no género para ambos. Outras histórias estão na calha, caso haja tempo e condições (de todos os editores contactados apenas um respondeu, negativamente e cerca de ano e meio depois... por este andar...), mas gostámos tanto do resultado, apesar de ainda haver muitas coisas a resolver, que vamos fazer um esforço suplementar. A aprovação foi geral, tanto mais que as ilustrações funcionam melhor ao vivo. Material: lápis (eu) e acrílico (Nina). Vantagem: é bonito e trabalhar a dois é estimulante. Desvantagem: os editores dormem.

CHEZ, MARRECO!
O vencedor, por estranho que pareça, foi o Marreco, na técnica aqui utilizada (que condiciona, como já se viu, o desempenho). Apesar da aprovação não ter sido tão unânime como para o infantil, teve votos de peso, entre eles o de Jean Schulz. O exemplo abaixo foi publicado num jornal local, Grandamadora, nos finais do século passado. Podem ver mais exemplos desta técnica em INK FLOW, ou folhear o livro em yudu.com. Material: tinta permanente aguada sobre papel Canson mi-teintes, aparo Rotring macio trabalhado de costas (o aparo). Vantagem: presta-se à espontaneidade e à facilidade da tradução da ideia para o papel (pode facilmente ser executado sem esboço) e o resultado é elegante. Desvantagem: está condicionado por um tipo de material, neste caso o aparo, o que é muito irritante, sobretudo num país com falta crónica de materiais de que precisamos num dado momento.

THE DUOH REPORT (the original solution, check the first post of this label)

2011-11-08T22:30:00.007Z

BIO & BIBLIO

2011-10-14T21:27:00.019+01:00

Ler esta minha biobibliografia (a mais completa até à data), organizada por Jorge Machado-Dias, no blog Hard Line.

Estudo para personagem, 1977

THE DUOH REPORT

2011-09-05T21:44:00.032+01:00

The Duoh Report was published for the first time in the defunct blog The World Seen From A Head in the first half of 2009, with a type of illustration better suited for a report published in a blog (see the original solution in the next post from this label). I was not satisfied with the new results and the project is temporarily stopped. It was funny to try the watercolor, though.

NEW WORLD OF LI

2011-07-03T18:36:00.014+01:00

Here are the first nine pages of the Li project, reworked in color. In this moment I am still looking for an opportunity to publish this type of work, while finishing older projects, so don't count with the complete story of Li anytime soon.

Está também a ser feita a versão em português desta história, sob o título O Arrulhar das Fúrias.

KRIKS, O TRABALHADOR IDEAL

2011-04-30T16:04:00.014+01:00

Esta versão em português do Kriks (ver label) será publicada na revista BDj nº 27, a sair na abertura do Festival Internacional de BD de Beja, no dia 28 de Maio de 2011.

Old Stories – Iva Jau e o Dr Manga (1999) / Palmyra (2007)

2011-03-09T23:07:00.013Z

With the title Iva Jau e o Dr Manga this story was finished by the end of 1999. Divided into several chapters to be published regularly by a comic strip magazine between 1999 and 2000, the release was postponed by the magazine until its end in 2002. The original pages followed me wherever I went from then on, and appeared on several exhibitions.

In 2006 I decided to make some changes, altering the story and organizing the sequence differently, and publish it with the title Palmyra on the print-on-demand system of Lulu.com, where you still may find it (and buy it, by the way). I decided, for the occasion, to shift from Portuguese to English, although I was not so sure I could write in English well enough. I discovered though, when mentally putting it back to Portuguese, that forcing me to use a language I was not so familiar with helped me simplify the ideas for my scenarios. In the end Palmyra became a lot different from the original story.

Iva Jau e o Dr Manga is the true old story of the two versions, closing a century and a cycle that started almost twenty years before with Concerto para Oito Infantes e Um Bastardo. Here are some pages of this first version.

Old Stories – Concerto para Oito Infantes e Um Bastardo (1982)

2011-02-23T16:12:00.019Z

This story was conceived when I was living for a short while in Germany, with the title Fred? Fred is dead. A young taxi driver is involved in the troubles of an older friend, Fred, who ends up dead due to his line of work, dealing in cocaine. It was supposed to succeed another story I was publishing in a Portuguese magazine, specialized in comic strips -- a more lord-of-the-rings type of story -- and mark my return to the hard world of suburban hard drug of life.

But the magazine ended abruptly and I had to look for a new one if I wanted to survive in the scarce world of Portuguese publishing. I choose a weekly newspaper, at the time the only one that dealt with movies, theatre and mostly music. After some hesitation they finally decided to accept publishing a comic strip.
The taxi driver was transformed into a journalist, grew up in size and dressed in the last central European fashion, and part of the plot dealt around a pop star, Kiki Lavil, the sole purpose of which was to make the story even more fashionable. On the other hand I decided to give Fred a chance of surviving, for it is unclear, in the end, if he dies or not. It is a story of 23 pages titled Concerto para Oito Infantes e Um Bastardo (Concert for short, the rest of the title being very hard to translate properly).

Soon I realized that the usual reader of this type of newspaper had difficulty in following the rhythm of one-and-a-half-page-a-week black-and-white poorly-printed story and, after a second unsatisfying attempt to bring to life the characters from Concerto, I started a period of several years of short stories in that same newspaper, experimenting with a number of styles of text and drawing with irregular results, that lasted roughly till the end of the decade.

The pages you may see bellow are a version from 2002, partially published in a short lived magazine. Bottom you may see how they appeared for the first time to the reader.

Old Stories – Çufo (1995)

2011-02-06T16:36:00.023Z

Another story with historical background, this time inspired on a real character, João Machado, born in the north of Portugal in the last decades of the 15th century and exiled young to serve on the ships of the trade with India to expiate an unnamed crime. Left by himself or with a companion in the eastern coast of Africa, possibly entrusted with a risky mission, he travels instead to India where he enters the service of several local lords under the name of Çufo (Sufo). As the captain of foreign troops of Yusuf Adil Sha, king of Bijapur and lord of Goa, he sees the siege laid by the fleet of Afonso de Albuquerque to this town. After being the perfect go-between in the war between Albuquerque and the Sha, he finally leans to the side of Albuquerque and joins his troops, this time inside the fortress. He is then nominated captain of the local troops under Portuguese rule in Goa and is sacrificed, along with many of his men, when covering the retreat of more aristocratic companions of arms after a foolish attack these led against an Indian town.

I recently recovered sketches and an earlier version of the beginning of the story that were lent for an exhibition, years ago (otherwise they wouldn’t have probably survived), and paired them with some finished pages.

Like the story in the previous post, the book is also only available on public libraries, like this one (Bedeteca Ideal).

Old Stories – O Rei dos Búzios (1989 – 1999)

2011-01-30T22:48:00.014Z

O Rei dos Búzios (The King of the Seashells) was published for a time in 1989 on a Portuguese weakly magazine. I have to concede that the idea for the story was interesting but the result was not very satisfactory in terms of both text and drawing. But I didn’t consider this to be a valid excuse for the newly appointed director of the magazine to have interrupted it with no warning or explanation to the author or the readers. For that reason when, almost ten years later, I had the chance to choose one of my stories to be published on CD-ROM, I decided to make deep changes on the existing material and draw an entirely new last chapter.

Bellow, are two pages of the early work. Ten years later I was feeling much more at ease with the crayons, as you may see in the complete last chapter at the bottom, and loosened up a bit the drawing. Text, in this chapter, was kept outside the drawings.

The CD is only available on public libraries, like this one (Bedeteca Ideal). The information on the site of the Bedeteca that this story was formerly published in the newspaper Sete is incorrect.

The story goes like this: in the distant year of 1484 Gil Roiz, the owner of an old caravel from Algarve, in the south of Portugal, trades in goods from the North of Africa.
Business is not very good. The king is limiting seriously the power of private ship owners and declares suddenly monopoly of the crown every item that may be traded for gold in the area of São Jorge da Mina, down the West African coast, an area patrolled by the king’s caravels that also make the trade.
Most of the items that Gil is buying, mainly textiles, fall on the category of forbidden goods. Gil knows about this while at port in the Moroccan town of Azemmour.
At the same time a Jewish merchant he knows proposes him a deal, to take his nephew Sem Tob, a pilot and an old acquaintance of Gil, along with Isaac, introduced as a blacksmith running away from justice, to a certain place in the coast of Africa.

Transporting forbidden goods along with a runaway Jew could coast Gil several death sentences, but he is so furious with the declaration of monopoly that he decides to take the risk.
He forces the passage of the mouth of the Oum er-Rbia river where one of the king’s caravels is anchored and manages to reach the point of the coast where he is supposed to deliver Sem Tob and Isaac.
There (see the last chapter bellow) he discovers that they are looking for a certain cousin Elias, established in a village inland, and to get from him cowry shells to smuggle to Portugal. Those shells would be sold to a person travelling on the king’s caravels and used to buy gold on the surroundings of São Jorge da Mina that would be then smuggled back to Portugal, with enough profit to risk the head and family fortune of the smuggler.
But the caravel that pursues Gil catches with him, thanks to the defection of the master of the ship in a previous watering point, the crew is taken prisoner, Sem Tob is hanged, the old caravel is sank, and Gil, Isaac and the remaining of the crew are stranded in the coast of Africa with cousin Elias.

FADO NA NOITE

2011-01-07T18:17:00.011Z

My first animation movie. Lisboa, middle of the 19th century, with plenty of fado, red wine, pipe smoke and sailor knifes. We are still on the storyboard stage.

O meu primeiro filme de animação, ainda em fase de storyboard, com muito fado, vinho tinto, fumo de cachimbo e facas de marinheiro. Lisboa, meados do século XIX.

THE WORLD OF LI (6)

2010-10-25T08:00:00.001+01:00

THE WORLD OF LI (5)

2010-10-18T08:00:00.001+01:00

THE WORLD OF LI (4)

2010-10-11T08:00:00.001+01:00

THE WORLD OF LI (3)

2010-10-04T08:00:00.001+01:00

THE WORLD OF LI (2)

2010-09-27T08:00:00.002+01:00

THE WORLD OF LI (1)

2010-09-20T08:00:00.009+01:00

This story started last year with the title Sweet Cousins and featuring an archaeologist called Salima Dix and a security expert called Ulysses Mbondo. The action was set in this same Floating Island you will see in the fourth episode, but on Panamanian waters, not the Mediterranean. A draft of the story with the first five pages was sent to some publishers but there was no reaction.
This year I decided at first to revive Li Moonface and adapt the story to her surroundings, with the title The Cooing of the Furies, which I never liked very much (although the title in Portuguese sounds much better).
Finally, at the last minute (this meaning last month) I changed Li so much that she became a different character, Miss Li, and integrated the plot in the broader series The World of Miss Li (is always slightly ahead of us).

(Later edit: miss Li became just Li and a person with a different story...)

KILL THE PAST IN THE FUTURE

2010-08-20T07:05:00.006+01:00

I liked so much making a poster to remind me of an idea for a story (previous post) that I decided to make more of them.

But in this case I am already making a story around the theme above, although with a different approach.

And then, sometime yesterday, I stumbled on this article on the Huffington Post. Take a look.

THE SPORES ARE COMING!

2010-08-18T19:29:00.005+01:00

If nobody makes a story about it I will do it someday. See this article about "zombie ants" on the Guardian.

FUNNY ILLYRIANS WITH LONG NOSES

2010-07-27T07:42:00.025+01:00

The posts about our - me and Nina - stay in Croatia and travels in Istria have been edited and condensed into this one after the photographs and some of the drawings were moved to tumblr.com, where you may go on following them.
I only retained here the first drawings, photographed and edited in Photoshop, playing with color balance and brightness-contrast. All of them are simple small line drawings, the bottom two on yellow paper, the other ones on white paper.
Those Illyrian or maybe Greek artists (above) liked to see themselves with long funny noses and no beards. You may find these in the Archaeological Museum of Istria, along with many interesting items.
Pula/Pola (follow this link for the address), Istria. If you came from the Historical Museum, you will have to go around a while before you find the place. Then greet all the Roman statues that mark the entrance.
Luigi (above) is the name of the boat on exhibition at the entrance of the Historical Museum of Istria. The life in the old Austro-Hungarian shipyards of Pula is largely documented in the museum. You can also see in these drawings details of the rudder. The rudder attracted my attention because it made me think immediately of the old war galley's rudders, probably attached in the same ingenious way. To get there walk up to the old Venetian Fortress.
We were there in 2004. We had just come from Malaga. In our first summer together in Croatia me and Nina were selling our work on the street in Pula. It was fun, we didn't make much money but we had to pay none anyway. It is over now. When we were there we were almost the only independent artists showing drawings and paintings on the street. One of the local best known artists died that summer. You will not see any now. Close to the Forum in Pula/Pola, Istria.

We still sell our work. If you want to see it, here are the links:
http://www.cat-on-the-beach.blogspot.com
http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/86566-anica-nina-govedaric a
http://stores.lulu.com/relvas
enjoy.
Above, house near the Forum in Pula, the Istrian metropolis. The street on the background goes round the perimeter of the old town. It is a tourist's paradise. There you can buy all sorts of souvenirs exactly like the ones you bought in similar places around the world but with different tags, posters that sometimes look like paintings and paintings that sometimes look like posters, cheap pizzas and minuscule čevapi (tchevapi) only balanced with expensive seafood. You may also lay down on one of the several empty Roman sarcophagi scattered around and visit a high density of ruins whitened by ages of sunshine and storms.
To obtain this perspective get out of the crowd and turn to a garden close to the parking lot. I once dreamed of opening here, in a large empty space for rent, a bar or a disco called Pula-pula.

Two images of two different vans we found on our travels to Istria. To read the captions and see more you may go to tumblr.com.

Israeli Army Shooting Range

2010-06-02T11:24:00.002+01:00

An old Odyssey

2010-05-23T18:00:00.003+01:00

A new Odyssey

2010-05-22T20:28:00.002+01:00

The Ziggurat and the Market

2010-05-18T13:36:00.007+01:00

See bellow post under the title of Ziggurat, and also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/18/brain-food-markets-politics-religion

Zombies

2010-05-15T15:40:00.003+01:00

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/opinion/Supremo/elpepuopi/20100515elpepiopi_1/Tes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/14/garzon-suspended-franco-investigation

Oil

2010-05-12T07:59:00.003+01:00

Facebook

2010-05-10T09:16:00.003+01:00

Ziggurat

2010-05-08T12:52:00.003+01:00

Greek blood

2010-05-07T07:36:00.003+01:00

Do you know?

2010-05-05T09:11:00.003+01:00

The danger

2010-05-04T07:24:00.002+01:00

Sure you want this?

2010-05-03T05:54:00.002+01:00

Ice

2010-05-02T00:00:00.001+01:00

A few days more...

2010-05-01T00:00:00.002+01:00

A few days later...

2010-04-30T06:20:00.004+01:00

Jump

2010-04-29T07:46:00.003+01:00

Aliens suing zappillions

2010-04-28T06:52:00.004+01:00

If you missed the opinion of Stephen Hawking about humans advertising to aliens, click here.

Aliens suing

2010-04-27T09:10:00.003+01:00

Rich blood

2010-04-26T10:56:00.002+01:00

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/sms-fights-malaria-scourge-in-africa
http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/worldmalariaday

Chili beans

2010-04-24T06:11:00.002+01:00

TMI

2010-04-23T07:53:00.002+01:00

Extinctions

2010-04-22T08:54:00.009+01:00

"... what if the extinction we might be beginning to see turns out to be what will one day surely occur, and that is the extinction of us?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/iceland-volcano-ash-extinction-human-race

Credit

2010-04-20T13:47:00.003+01:00

Extinction

2010-04-16T19:45:00.003+01:00

Offer

2010-04-15T08:19:00.007+01:00

Bomb

2010-04-10T13:54:00.002+01:00

Did I say next Tuesday? I meant Saturday. See you any other day. Don't eat too much.

Clear the land

2010-04-06T00:15:00.003+01:00

WE WILL BITE AGAIN NEXT TUESDAY.

3D men in black

2010-04-05T09:57:00.002+01:00

3D beer

2010-04-04T13:06:00.002+01:00

3D football

2010-04-03T10:41:00.002+01:00

iPad

2010-04-02T09:46:00.002+01:00

Gossip

2010-04-01T09:20:00.002+01:00

Hard bite

2010-03-31T13:15:00.008+01:00

JOGANDO AO PAU COM OS URSOS

2010-01-29T08:09:00.008Z

Já lá escrevia o Pessoa, "Que é do pandeiro, ó urso parado?"

(Este é, na realidade, o primeiro post deste blog, os anteriores e outros até Junho de 2010 foram importados do Hard Line)

INK FLOW - A HERDER’S LOVE

2009-08-20T17:52:00.002+01:00

HERE ENDS THIS BOOK.

INK FLOW - ANTINEA

2009-08-06T17:28:00.002+01:00

INK FLOW - THE NAKED PRINCESS

2009-07-23T17:13:00.002+01:00

CALLING THE RAIN RABBIT!

2009-07-16T09:46:00.002+01:00

INK FLOW - THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTHWEST

2009-07-09T16:58:00.002+01:00

INK FLOW - THE PALACE BY THE LAKE OF THE THREE CHERRIES

2009-06-25T19:38:00.002+01:00

RISK OF FIRE

2009-06-17T19:19:00.002+01:00

INK FLOW - SEEN FROM HERE

2009-06-11T20:48:00.002+01:00

GUNCINA AT THE STAKE

2009-05-24T20:33:00.002+01:00

KRIKS, THE PERFECT WORKER

2009-04-14T08:47:00.002+01:00

Kriks, The Perfect Worker was published as a weekly webcomic on The Chinese Master Spy blog between January 26 2009 and February 27 2009.

BURNOUT

2008-12-28T14:46:00.002Z

THE PERSIAN AMBASSADOR

2008-12-25T11:39:00.003Z

KISELO ZELJE - The last show of the Cabaret Chicken Dancers

2008-11-23T17:07:00.003Z

FAT RATE

2008-11-11T18:31:00.002Z

The Chinese Master Spy, the book with the first love story (yes, it is a love story) of Li Moonface, with some texts from this blog and an exciting new final chapter, is late.
“I knew it! I knew it!”
No, you didn’t. At the last minute we had to change everything and the pages are being patiently resized to fit the A5 format, which is a European format, in an attempt, probably futile, to reduce shipping costs.

We all know that banks in the richest part of the world found an easy way to swallow a lot of money, but somebody as to put the money on their mouths, so prices go up and jobs go down. We were expecting that.

But what we were not expecting was this. To send a book more or less the size of The Chinese Master Spy to Croatia, the place where I am writing this post, cost last year $5.58. Prices for the European Union still are around that amount, in between $4.99 and $10.66 (this one for two books, although Lulu announces slightly different prices, but to get exact information from Lulu is a funny experience, maybe because theirs is an idealistic one).
But to receive in Croatia a book which cost increased this year thanks to expert banking worldwide, we must pay now, imagine the size of the number… $168.69. This means several times the price of the book.

As we have little hope that the new format will reduce the shipping costs, there are only two options left for someone living in this part of Europe and wanting desperately to have The Chinese Master Spy in his hands. Or you decide finally to make a visit to that distant Slovenian cousin you almost forgot by now, or you opt for the download.
In meanwhile, you wait. But don’t worry, you will have it before the end of the year.

CONCERTED ACTION

2008-10-16T08:11:00.002+01:00

“EU commission president urged concerted action on the global economy yesterday.”

GO! GO! GO!

2008-10-03T08:53:00.002+01:00

'"The U.S. remains the dominant global power in military terms but the growing economic clout of nations like Russia, China, India and Brazil is changing that dynamic," said Stephen Flanagan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.'

Reuters, yesterday.

BAIL OUT

2008-10-01T09:06:00.002+01:00

THE CHINESE MASTER SPY, CHAPTER 2 - SNAKE CREEPS DOWN, CHAPTER 3 - MONOCHROME PLOT

2008-08-28T06:30:00.004+01:00

THE GREEN FISH, chapter 3

2008-08-04T06:30:00.002+01:00

This story reads in the usual order of blog posts. It was interrupted here in 2007, after being published through Lulu in Costa 1 and Costa 2 . If you wait long enough maybe you will be able to read the final chapter.

DE MÁLAGA, COM ARDOR

2008-07-15T09:53:00.002+01:00

Encontrei estes desenhos num velho CD muito bem guardado (mas não tão bem preservado, só passando as imagens pelo Flash consegui que elas saissem aqui com a cor original), ainda do tempo em que estávamos em Málaga. O blog que eu escrevia na altura não tinha imagens.

THE GREEN FISH, chapter 2

2008-07-01T12:31:00.002+01:00

FUEL

2008-06-22T08:02:00.002+01:00

THE GREEN FISH, chapter 1

2008-06-02T18:34:00.002+01:00

THE CHINESE MASTER SPY, CHAPTER 1 - RAKIA FOR THE GHOST

2008-05-01T07:26:00.003+01:00

The Chinese Master Spy was published as a weekly webcomic on his own blog between February 7 2008 and August 28 2008. Along with the story The Persian Ambassador it is available in book form under the title Li Moonface, on Lulu.com.

KIKI IN THE CANAL

2007-01-04T17:58:00.003Z

Where Kiki lives houses are small and grow slowly, and most of them are not even meant to be finished. Not far away from her world there is a canal and two ominous long smoking things.

Kiki does not remember being invited, but the smell of the neighbour’s ham was in itself an invitation. Kiki jumped to embrace the ham that was hanging in the neighbour’s larder but, while Kiki is usually very discreet when falling, she was betrayed by the ungraceful ham.

Next thing she recalls is being outside the larder, running in the direction of the canal, the neighbour somewhere behind her.

The sight of the huge smoking things coming closer.

The threatening grunts.

The dry noise, the blow, the jump in the water.

Kiki is now paralyzed from the hind quarters. “Maybe next time”, says her owner, “it will be my son or my husband…”

WIRELESS SEX

2006-11-21T20:09:00.003Z

Hello! I am communicating with you. I am a communicator.

My name is Pao. Pim Pao.

My friend here is Che. Broo Che.
We do more than just communicate. We manipulate all the knowledge available in the world.

But we do more. We do sex, for example.

The person I am attached to uses me all the time for sex. When she is not using my access to knowledge and my communication abilities, she is using my body.

I am very good in all sorts of movements, I am very warm and I sweat gently.

The person I am attached to sweats a lot, and all around me.

The person my friend Che is attached to likes the person I am attached to. But, by law, they can only have sex in order to procreate.

So, we devised a stratagem.
You guessed. From time to time, me and Che, we have sex.

Although I have the feeling something in here does not work as it should, we think this may make the persons we are attached to somewhat happier.