Season's Greetings!

Joyeux Noël!, ¡Feliz Navidad!, Frohe Weihnachten!, Buon Natale! Merry Christmas! メリークリスマス！圣诞节快乐!, 메리 크리스마스!, Happy Holidays!

With thanks to my friend, Luna for modeling.

Or alternatively, another card I made a while back…

As the 25th is now upon us, may this festive season bring you happiness and prosperity. Thank you for tuning in to Secret Oranges this past year, I’m now just twenty shy of a thousand subscribers which I’m amazed by, and very grateful for.

I’ve been working on three different posts at the same time but none are finished, so meanwhile here are a few seasonal pieces of memorabilia from my collection.

A Thrill-Powered Christmas!

A Festive production piece from 2000 AD Prog #145 - 29th December 1979. Art: Carlos Ezquerra.

East End Humour

I photographed this superb piece of graffiti just down the road from where I lived in London’s East End, on Christmas day in 2013. I’m sure it’s long gone by now, but was well worth recording as a sign of the times. Most certainly a Banksy original!

LISETTE!

One of the French magazines that Strictly Kev and I found while hunting for interesting relics in Notting Hill back in May of 2012. Some of the interior graphics for this are rather beautiful and you can see them on his DJ Food site - here.

I can’t remember which of my magazines I got this from. A Pepsi Christmas advertisement from 1956.

Here's one from virtuoso of the vectors, Rian Hughes. He did a series of these cards for Idée Fixe in 1998. Click on the one below, to see it in its panoramic glory.

Meanwhile in Paris…

erm… something I don’t think I mentioned before. I used to style and photograph Barbie for the Barbie Magazine covers. This was one for the French Barbie magazine, with added snow! I photographed around sixty covers during the time I was also working on 2000 AD. Making the little newspaper was fun!

He Knows When You’re Awake…

A couple of seasonally relevant Chromalin proofs. One from 1993 and another from 1992. First up, Colin MacNeil's fabulously festive painting of Tharg as the Spirit of Christmas Future, co-starring the Command Module Droids. Asleep on the floor is the Burt droid (Richard Burton). The one with the glasses is the Bish-Op droid (David Bishop). Then left to right Mac-2 (Alan McKenzie), with 'Danger' sign - Automo-Tomlinson, (John Tomlinson), Mac-1 (Steve MacManus), Cyb-Aud (Audrey Wong) and peeking over the ledge at the top, that's me, Robo-Cook : )

The other proof I found was for Prog #772, which was actually a Birthday, rather than Christmas issue, (but it looks seasonal enough!). This was one of my own covers from 1992. I originally designed and drew all the character icons on paper, then cut them out of Rubylith film with a scalpel. They were then copied and replicated using a pmt (photo-mechanical transfer) machine, which took up half the space in my studio at the time. All the colours were specified for the repro-house and the ribbon and bow were printed in a fifth colour metallic gold for the final publication.

This design has been featured on a Christmas jumper from 2000 AD Rebellion for the past couple of years, seen modeled here by my office assistant, Bruce Bearski.

Surprise

There is a festive related reason for this cover of Lynsey de Paul’s first album 'Surprise'. I was given this as a Christmas present from my parents in 1973, and I bought her following albums up until and including 'Love Bomb' in 1975. It's probably not considered cool to be a fan of her music (not that I give a damn), but I think she deserves more credit than she gets. As one of the first successful female singer-songwriters in England her track record is incredible, as referenced on wikipedia. Judging by the video below, I think Lynsey de Paul could have made a convincing Gwen Stacy. Check out these male dancers! This is the 70's at its most flamboyant... and totally bonkers!

And last but not least…

A detail from the cover of my favourite Rupert annual by Alfred Bestall.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!