Here’s the latest (and possibly the last for a wee while) of the Flick’r Friends series. This one is for Marcella aka Viavisconti, and her new nephew, baby Federico. Update 24/07/10 Here be a newly evolved version of an old caper. Now I really like it! Update 28/07/10. And here be another recycled, or rather, actually finished version of something truly ancient, Reversal of Fortunes, and a proper, new thing., Leaky Penguins. As I’ve  said elsewhere, my fingers have been itching to do something on the subject of “spies”. The Second Coming of the Great Wikileaks “scandal” was the catalyst wot sparked the graphic revolution. I say second coming, because that Wikileaks saga’s been going on for quite a while, really. Some of the stuff exposed by it has been doing the rounds on the net for yonks. But of course, it didn’t acquire its new-improved-hallowed Scandal Status until sanctified by the New York Times and the Guardian. Well, good luck to all concerned.

And so we come to that four-yearly cyclic event. That which can whip by and large emotionally catatonic people to a paroxysm of frenzied apathy and, like a civil war, turn child against parent and neighbour against migrant strawberry picker. Yes, it’s the Dreaded World Cup. Here’s my first take  on what, so far, looks like a staggeringly dull tournament. Not that I’ve been watching any of the matches, but I did see on the news the England goalie making a dog’s dinner out of that penalty kick. I was in stitches! Anyway, passssh the bottle, Paddy, will you… (Mmmm… Interesting.  I seem to have been taken over by the passing  spirits of dead British comedians. Funny. And no pun intended, either). Update 27/06/10 And here’s what the great Manolito thinks of the whole thing, including (particularly, actually) today’s match. Update 04/07/10 Here’s Patricio’s vignette. Update 10/07/10 And so we draw near the end of the dreaded Four-Yearly Event. If the toss is between Holland and Spain, this time I’ll invoke genetics and ancestral memory and go with Spain, like the German octopus (so cute, too!). However, whatever the result, Manolito will be hung, upside-down, for his lapse in lofty detachment. So, here’s the preview. Also, a wee birthday card I cobbled together rather in a hurry, and resorting to much recycling, for a dear Flick’r friend. Happy birthday Helene!

As I was saying, I’ve been spending more & more time on the lovely Flick’r, where people actually talk to me and like my monigotes.  Got quite chummy with some of my contacts there and they have, in turn, begun to infiltrate my illustrations, somehow. Here are a few examples. Never mind the incomprehensible in-jokes. Update 10/06/10 ‘ere, ‘ave some more p’litical stuff. This one is to counteract the public rants on the subject by that mega-idiot, the “Reverend” Pat Robertson. You very bad health, reverend!

The Great Revision proceeds smoothly and more than pleasantly. Here’s the last one. Better than Odin hanging from whatsitsname thinggy tree? Update 04/04/10 And here’s another one. Nay, two. Update 07/05/10 No, I haven’t gone anywhere, really. Just been living more on Flick’r that here. The Revised Majors are all done. Here are the last of that lot.

Right. As I was saying. The Tarot deck revision is up & running & coming along nicely. In fact, I’m getting to fall in love with the cards all over again. Or at leastl, some of them anyway. This one, today’s lot, for instance. One of my favourite in the whole deck (any deck). But this new version has beasties and flowers and the ambiguity of its meaning is emphasized, if I may say so without sounding too drastic and…well, not ambiguous enough. And to keep it company, a leetle p’litical rant for all of us who are sick entirely with the old moronic question of the bloody Falklands/Malvinas. Oh, yes, and the back of the cards as well. Update 10/03/10 And today’s special is … Death! Note. The skellies are not Mexican. They be Tibetan. So. Plus, have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day. Update 18/03/10 And here be a variation of the back of the cards for a Flick’r pal who calls himself Visual Fuck (priceless!) and who’d like a t-shirt with snakes. Here you go, mate. Up.d. 10/03/10 Voila, the new Fool. Update 23/03/10 And a few more new old things. Update 26/03/10 And some more. 27/03/10 More!

It truly is. One more Cup, the notorious Devil and…that’s it, folks. Thank Bumba I still have the mammoth revisionist task ahead, otherwise I’d have ginormous withdrawal symptoms. Anyways, here goes. Update 02/03/10 I’ve been meaning to do this ever since he died, but you know how it is. Well, it’s done. Goodbye Howard, you heart-breaker, you… Update 07/03/10 The last but one. Ah, the cold turkey,the cold turkey… NB. This one features a botijo, just because the lovely Señor Ubé hinted (ever so nicely) that perhaps … You know… The botijo contains a particularly heady variety of Valdepeñas. Salut! (Hic!) Update 08/03/10 And so we come to the end of a very, very long road. It is done. But, thank Bumba, not dusted. I’ll have nearly as much fun revising and re-thinking the whole damned thing. Life is sweet. Sometimes. Update 14/03/10 The Great Revisionist Endeavour is up & running. Here’s the first revised card, a great improvement over the original, as it has a perrrrrito, and the symbols are more  and more accurate.

Cloppity-cloppitying along the course, here comes a yoof on a horse. Wot closes the Court Cards series. Or, as I call it, the Palace Contingent. Three Cups, two Swords and one Devil to go, chaps. Ay, que emosssssion…. Plus, as a bonus, you may as well have two girls not to be messed with. Update 26/02/10 The last of the Swords!!! And a little something to celebrate the end of my (internet) connection problems.

Long live the Rehab-Lab! This item is one of the really special ones. You know these horrible English filums that English people like so much only because they are English? It would be OK if they liked the bloody dreary things and left the rest of us alone but, oh, no! They do go on , and on, and on. And they don’t stop until you’ve sat down and watched it, and got enormously bored and irritated and in a murderous mood. And then you tell them you think the movie is total crap and they look hurt, and then offended, and finally they say you just can’t appreciate them because you’re a sad little foreigner. That sort of thing. I can’t be the only one who’s “been there”. For they who know what I’m talking about… Update 15/02/10. It never rains… Plus  two more cards. Update 16/02/10 And two more. Seven to go, folks. Hai! Hai!

The good ship Refusenik has graced my shores once more with her presence, and has been kind enough to bring a new refugee to that welcoming and capacious labyrinth that is my hard drive. His name is PaulDirac O’Higgins-Stein (his mum was a mathematician). He’s very young (a mere 675 years) and quite naive but he takes no shit from nobody. The Refusenick picked him up (and the Penguins) bobbing up & down off the coast of Cape Verde. They were trying to reach Madagascar on a rafter build by the Defecting Penguins with money stolen from Somali pirates. The pirates are well pissed off and they have sworn dread revenge. The plot thickens. Plus one more card. This “angel” is no bringer of peaceful, opiatic bliss. Quite the opposite. Just look at he face. The doggies know. 27/01/10 And another one.

Today I’d like to introduce the few lost souls that ever visit this souk to the art & craft of one of my favourite contacts on Flick’r. I don’t know much about him. He calls himself El Señor Botijo,  he lives in Leuret, a non-existent town not far from where the glorious Don Luis (Buñuel) was born, and  he’s got a fixation with botijos. If you don’t know what a botijo is I feel very, very sorry for you, which is, in part, why I’m hanging one of his pics here. The other part is that I really, really like his stuff, obsessional and one-track-minded though it is. Or perhaps because of it. His montages seldom fail to cheer me up, when not make piss with laughter. I dare say, this says nearly as much about me as it does about him. Anyways, here goes the first of a series of offerings from the gifted toolbox of a true maverick. El Señor Botijo does other stuff that doesn’t contain botijos. It’s also very surreal and very good and often includes sardines. Or what I like to imagine are sardines. One of these days, if you’re  good, I’ll tell you why botijos and sardines float so freely and profusely in an out of the Spanish psyche of a whole generation. The pic I hang here today I’ve entitled Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Botijo (Our Lady of the Perpetual Botijo), because its author couldn’t be asked to give it a proper title. Mind you, he wrote a very funny caption to go with it. You can go check that I no lie by either dropping in on his site  (http://www.diariodelhombreinvisible.com/)  or by going to Flick’r.  One more thing and I’m done. So that OLOTPB won’t feel lonely, I’m hanging next to it an old image I did years ago, in a fit of nostalgia for darling Don Luis. Only those who know well his films will know what I’m on about. Life is a bitch. And Aragon rocks. PS. I was almos forgetting. A botijo is what Our Lovely Lady is carrying in both her delicious hands. Blessed be! 27/01/10 Here, have some more “botijerias”. They’s good for you. Update 10/03/10 Have another Botijada!