No comic this week, but instead here’s my influence map…

These are people whose influence I recognise in my work. I’m sure there are plenty of others I haven’t realised I’m influenced by – leave a comment if you can think of anybody.  Obviously doesn’t include writers, notably John Wagner and Neil Gaiman, who have influenced me, and also doesn’t include people I admire enormously but I can’t see any of in my work – Kevin O’Neill springs to mind.

Inspired by this post on the Forgotten Pelmet blog, linking to a bunch of other artists who’ve done it: at the last count John Allison, Aaron Diaz, Adam Cadwell, Rene Engstrom, Hugh Raine and Paul Shinn.

Frank Hoar (1907-1976), the distinguished architect architect and architectural historian, who designed the first terminal of Gatwick Airport among other things, also drew cartoons for Punch under the name “Acanthus”.  I really wanted to include him in the Irish Comics Wiki, but marrying the daughter of a TD is a bit of a tenuous claim to Irishness. But, gorgeous drawing. I mean, just look at that perspective!

When I was growing up I was always pretty good at drawing, but my ego was always kept in check by the fact that my cousin, David Cousley, could draw rings round me.  He’s now taken the plunge and gone online at Flickr, where he has a selection of his paintings and illustrations.  Here’s a few samples:

You might not be aware of it, but there’s an Irish-based international development charity called GOAL who do lots of good work. My brother Simon worked for them in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a while and has nothing but good to say about them, unlike certain of the other NGOs he’s spent time with.

Turns out fellow Irish cartoonist Cliodhna Lyons’ dad Conor also worked for them, in Sri Lanka. He died last year, and Cliodhna’s tribute to him is the handsome anthology “Sorry I can’t take your call right now but I’m off saving the world”.  It’s got contributions from loads of names, many of whom I don’t know, but the ones I do include Sarah McIntyre, creator of “Vern and Lettuce” in The DFC, Liam Geraghty and Philip Barrett of Gazebo fame, top animator Tomm Moore of the Cartoon Saloon, Patrick Lynch, creator of Last Bus.  In this blog post Cliodhna explains how she created the beautiful screen-printed cover.

You can buy it online using Paypal – check out the Goal Anthology website for details.  All proceeds, of course, go to GOAL.  I’ve ordered my copy. Do yourself a favour and do likewise.