Looking for Christmas Present Ideas for the film and comics fans in your lives? This clever lunar phase calendar, on sale here from 2000AD artist Simon Gurr, gives you advance warning of new moons, full moons and all the phases in between, for every night of the coming year and has been described as “ingenious” by a Royal Greenwich Observatory astronomer.
Most lunar calendars offer you the facts but lack any obvious references to popular films from 1977. The data here is presented in an attractive, spherical arrangement which might be mistaken for a moon (or something bigger).
“Lunar predictions are useful for gardeners, lycanthropes, sailors and moisture farmers,” says Simon. “This is a present which will last all year, priced low enough to make an ideal Christmas stocking-filler or present for someone 'hard to buy for'.
The calendar uses GMT/UCT (Co-ordinated Universal Time), so wherever you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you're never more than 12 hours from total accuracy. A Southern Hemisphere edition available soon.
He's been very busy lately, has Simon. He'll have a new, self-published book out at Thought Bubble called 140 CHARACTERS, and it rounds up some of the drawings he has posted on Twitter at various times over the last five years.
“The nature of social media means a lot of things get missed and this is the first time all this work has been seen in one place,” he says of the book. “Some of the drawings are working sketches for comic or illustration projects, some were done on the spur of the moment – purely for the amusement of my Twitter friends.”
The book is named after the character limit for tweets and, yes, contains 140 drawings. Page size is 140mm x 140mm, it’s a limited edition of 140, with b/w interior and colour cover.
• Simon will be on Table 9 in the Royal Armouries Hall at Thought Bubble at the end of November and this is the first place 140 CHARACTERS will be available. After that it will be in his shop
• Buy the calendar from Simon Gurr's online store
• Simon's official website: http://simongurr.wordpress.com
• Follow @gurroo on Twitter, used mainly for announcements and Gurr Illustration news
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comic Creator Spotlight, Featured News, Merchandise