Maisy’s puppy dog eyes, have been fantastically captured by Evs in this wonderfull picture shes drawn. Her talent shines out with every new picture she draws.

Easter Egg Hunter 2024

Its Team Phillips yearly tradition of a big ester egg hunter with a overly complicated map, which no body but me can understand (I even struggle with it at time also).

Anyway below are some of the pictures of the highlight of the aftermath.

Suns out so hounds gotta strut

Looking your best when the sun comes out.

Suns out and we’re all enjoying a bit more freedom, but it doesn’t take some people/dogs long before it all gets outta hound.

Maisy has been loving the new weekend routine in which we all nip out to Nana Bs for a walk and a cheeky burger at the new burger van on the square.

She has also got a new bestie. Her and new best friend Polly havent got that much in common, Polly is tall, slender, physically fit and sporty and Maisy gets tired just watching her. But sometimes its not how much you have in common that matters, its the fun you have together and these two have become fast friends in no time flat.

Heres to the friends we make on the journey of life.

Team Phillips – EasterEggHunt- 2021

We had another blast with our now traditional easter egg hunt.

Beware of the dog

Evelyn thought we needed a warning sign for the fearsome man slobbering Maisy fat hound.

I dont think anything that can lay in that kinda position while at rest could even begin to instill fear, but maybe shes just trying to draw you in to a false sense of security…

Maybe not she just farted and snorted at the same time and then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Watch “Totally Accurate Battle Simulator – Tabs – JPs’ World” on YouTube

Josh is doing game play videos and this one is his second atempt at it.

Hope you like it.

JP’s World – First Animation

Josh has been into Animation for ages, from Lego stop motion to puppetry. But his recent dip into it has taken him a little longer to get to grips with because animating a short cartoon animation takes the right software, patients and a drive to finish what you’ve started.

Which he has proven to me he has but I’m not fully sure he wants to keep going with anymore for the near future, he says he’d rather enjoy his childhood.

Monet art class from home

My wonderful wife bought some oil pastels the other day so that the kiddos could created some new amazing art pieces with them.

Wifey is a bit of an art aficionado and a brilliant teacher so set the kids up with a project of completing a Monet painting, she cut a Monet print out into and stuck it on a new clean a4 sheet of paper. Then you just use the oil pastels to complete the picture.

Pausing for a Portrait

Well today has been one of those days for portraits, as you can see from the images below. The one above is one of my own creation (completely by accident but its gotta be said it has a likeness to Jack Skeleton. 

Evs home schooling project was to do a self portrait in the style of Pablo Picasso (who liked to pull some serious shapes), which I think you’ll agree with me that she smashed it.

Josh has the same project but in the style of Gustav Arcimboldo (the fruit and veg sales man who found a new market to sell his wears in).

I love this character because it looks so confident, even when his hands are made of sausages and people call him carrot top.

And the final image is one that I’ve done for my wifey because she needed an avatar for her YouTube account. I really enjoyed doing this for her, it was nice to see her so peacefully even if it was a drawing.

Maisy Bee

I’ve heard of a Mayfly but not a Maisy Bee. The kids were even more shocked than I was to see it moping around in our back garden looking right fed up and miserable. She looked like she’d gotten into the tele pods from the fly with a fat bubble bee.

Wifey definitely had a brilliant idea on how to brighten up the kiddos day with a little buzzing fun.

It sometimes doesn’t take much to make people around you smile and it really is worth any effort.

Epic Drawings

My Son this weekend has just rekindled his love of AnrgyBirds or should I say more accurately the bad piggies.
When he was younger we used to play all of the different video games and collect the soft plushies to an extreme (see pic below) which we’ve kept, he even has a giant mighty eagle.

Anyway I just wanted to say how proud I was of how well his art work has come along, it shows how brilliant he is (proud dad moment).

Eggstravagant Easter Egg Hunt

Easter 2020 has been and gone and both Evs and Josh have had a great time of it. They’ve received a new map to follow, called Enchiridion Chartis – Volume 3. Which was trickier and more complicated than ever before with Musical Keys, Roman Numerals, The Greek Alphabet, the use of a compass and even seeking out the Mystic Mum to give them tarot readings and fortune clues on there egg hunt journey.

I think that next year I’m going to have to take it a little bit easier on myself because coming up with a map, the cryptography’s and all the clues last minute kept me up until after 2 am Sunday morning (not to mention many days prior) before the kids expected it later that same morning. Well I’ve had a bit more time on my hands this year so sod it I think it was well worth it and the kids do to, I’ll keep this tradition going as long as I can keep them interested in it which isn’t hard when theirs chocolate involved.

Hope everyone has had plenty of treats and fun these past days and tried to maybe enjoy there time without to much worrying about the world and troubles around us all.

A good walk a day…

Most dogs probably go for a least two walks a day, but our Maz isnt most dogs and you may think one good walk a day with her best friends Josh and Evs would be something to wag her tail about…

Well not a Bassett, when I look in to her droopy eyes I know that she was mostly happy to have us home until we decided to extend her normal walk, to the one good walk a day (extended version) and it’s giving her pause for thought about the whole situation and I reckon she cant wait till shes got the house all to herself again with her slow paced saunter life style.

Home Cinema Time

After having a run around with the kids in the backyard, we decided to watch a movie and the other night I’d noticed one we’d meant to see at the cinema but had missed catching it at the time.

The movie we’d missed was of-course was “Horrible Historys, Rotten Romans” and there was a part in it when Boudica was stood on a stage with a crowd in-front of her that reminded me of my old post from 2008ish.

When you’re struggling to find something new to watch with the kids theres nothing like a good streaming service to come to our rescue when you need to cuddle up with the family.

Buying off a Virus

In a world of inequality and greed I always find it interesting that when a trouble comes along in which money can’t buy you a way out of it, like a virus with no cure (it may only need time and resources to solve and treat but in the interim), everybody is on the same level playing field without any advantages and the wealthy can get it like everyone else and no amount of cash will stop you being vulnerable.

So in a situation like this both classes (there are only two classes the rich and everyone else) have there own advantages and disadvantages.

The super-rich on one hand may have large clean mansions to hide-in away from the 99%, but they avoid un-cleanly situation which can help their immune system keep active and develop new resistances. Also who cleans these castle of wealth, I’ll tell you who the lesser fortunate individual who cook and clean for them which brings interaction with possible harbingers of doom.

I have a solution for them, all they need to do is become complete shut-ins and avoid every poor person including family, this will then develop in to a complete paranoia about the outside world so we never have to see their smug greedy faces…

For the rest of us on the other hand, the less fortunate have no choice but to keep calm and carry on (maybe just washing our hands a little more, so that if we do mingle with “a wealthy” it won’t spread to there dark inner circle) ignoring the fact’s that there’s a bug out there that is spreading fast and aiming at our economy not to mention the elderly and infirmed. But which I’m told the vast majority wont even notice against the trudge of the everyday as anything more than the hot sweats and a dry cough (#cough).

Now most people will have someone that they deeply care about who has an under lying health issue or has just over ripened which means they’ll do what it takes to protect them. But don’t be fooled you are doing it for their benefit not old reclusive billionaire’s who only love there economy and that if you sneezed to closely to them, they might just have their butler put you down…

I think I’ve taken too many cold and flu pills and fallen down the rabbit hole again to where I found my soap box to stand on because I’ve completely lost track of the point of this post which is if you are getting stroppy about being told to wash your hands, then you haven’t been doing it properly from the start. #Wash your damn hands

The last star wars

Comic 6 – Cloud City

Josh and I have just been to see the new and last star wars movie in the original series and we were both blown away by how huge, fast paced and epic it was. There seemed to be so much fit into it that it’ll take at least another watch to digest it all (but I’ll wait for that so I can view it at home on my comfy sofa) without feeling like I’m missing some of the sub plots.

It definitely feels like it wraps up alot which is kinda what most people want, especially around the holidays with all the presents.

Anyway we both loved it and it made it even more enjoyable seeing it with my boy and watching his reaction to it.

Merry Christmas, with love from Evs

Earlier today Evs watched her Mother drawing some arty chrimbo images for her blog at https://www.rachelswirl.co.uk/ and thought that she should give it a whirl to so she drew some stockings and a little snowman.

Both Rach and I thought that she had given up on it and just gone to her room for a little play with her toys after tea but low and behold she hadn’t finished with her marvellous art and she surprised us all with the colourful pic above.

What a fantastic artist.

My Little Movie Maker

J has been able to scratch his cinematography itch recently, because over the past few days he’s final gotten his hands on iMovie on his iPad even if its the old version (that took a bit of fiddling with to get working on an old Apple device).

Anyway the videos he’s created are brilliant and I’m so proud of how invested he is in this creative avenue, it really shows off his intelligence and drive. Well enough of me bragging about my star son just watch the vids below and enjoy.

ShortViews on youtube

Grunt Works

The idea of Grunt work came from people just doing every day jobs not really knowing why they’re working or what there working for but just trying to get by without a direction. The only difference is that all the Gods that people make up to get them through the daily grind are actually all floating around and employing them. Lets see how they get on.

Enchiridion Chartis

Our own spin on an Easter egg hunt.

Reading the map and using the grease proof secret decoder

The Kiddo’s in the sun having treasure map fun

Figuring out the Chests Combination Code

The (Sugary) Riches at the end of the hunt

Evelyn’s Mermaid Scene

Every now and then we as a family like to sit down and just doodle, when Eves saw my old little mermaid Mona picture she decided to get her coloured crayons and stickers out and have a crack at the her own version. I love all the bright colours in her under sea land, but I’m not sure how the bunnies are gonna feel living under water, maybe they’ll adapt like Sandy on Sponge bob and just wear fish balls for hats.

Hans Christian Andersen – B-Day

It’s Hans Christian Andersen birthday today as well as my own and I’d just found in the old archives of my comic works the Molly and Mona little mermaid front cover art.

“Just look at the world around you,
Right here on the ocean floor.
Such wonderful things around you.
What more is you lookin’ for?”
– Sebastian, The Little Mermaid – Movie

“mermaids have no tears, and therefore they suffer more.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid – Book

The Movie seems to be a little bit chirpier than the book but sometimes you need the dark side with the bright to help make a clear choice on your own.

Land of Blanketoveryeh

The kids and doggo have travelled long and far to arrive in the strange land of Blanketoveryeh (get it blanket over you, I surprise even myself). Its a harsh place where only the comfest can surrive the turbulent weather of a nicely heated lounge. I think I’m gonna be in trouble when I tell the they can’t sleep there tonight, but I’ll have fun pretending to raid the den when I have to get them all to bed, “Arh!”

The only issue is I’ve just found out that used socks seem to be their currency… so more like “erh” than “arh!”

Bassett hound mic drop

Mc Maz in the hizouse, ready to drop some bad (breath) licks and howel out the crazy cats in the neighbourhood dog. Bone breaking forever!

Feeling sorry for herself

I didn’t think a Bassett hound could look anymore miserable. Poor little princess pooch having to wear her lamp shade.

I think she’d of preferred it in pink instead of blue.

No Shade

Popped bulb

My Twirling Princess

My little lady is doing so well in the world at large, shes top of the class (in my heart at least). Both her and her big bother are just awesome mini people to spend all of my free time with and they help make my humdrum existence a little more special. All the conversations that we have about there ideas and views help me realise that anything which feels overbearing and oppressive in the daily grind has no place in this space.

Back to the twirling princess its been a while since I’ve done anything on my site (I guess the holidays kinda filled up my timetable). So now that I’ve had two minutes in finishing it I’ve concluded that its been inspired by watching my personal princess at her dance recital just before my schedule filling up.

Birthday Blowout

Recently I’ve been to a birthday party unlike any-other I’ve attended in my life time because the party wasn’t going to be at a swimming pool or feature a bouncy castle or even have a nerf war going on like most I seem to get dragged along to these days. Also it wasn’t filled with hundreds of small sugared up little kiddielings (there were some), Oh no the special someone who’s party it was wasn’t celebrating a single digit birthday or even a double digit birthday, she was celebrating a triple digit birthday.

My Nana Margret is a very special lady to me. I remember when I was a little sprog and didn’t eat me school dins, she had an idea for how to feed me her home made grub. The school was only a stone’s throw away from her flat (which was above my parent’s shop) she’d make me dinner every day as long as I walked to the shop without messing around (different time kids could walk the streets home without some news story screaming of neglectful parents or schools).

This changed things for me because my nans cooking was and still is legendary especially her meat and tattie pie that she’d make for her grand kids which would be tailor made for their individual tastes with their initials on top. I always thought I was keeping her company but she, it seems was always looking out for me. Her flat was great for my dinners, I could eat my lovely meals in peace and when I finished I could just in so see the playing field from her veranda. This gave me the heads up on (spying on) my mates because I could see if they’d finish their dinners then I could see them and walk back around to play (great times), but other times if I’d had a rough morning (or it was raining) I could just sit with her and feel looked after.

Anyway this party that she had, gathered all her family together to reminisce about all the good times that we’ve all had with her, all the first meetings, Sunday dinners, little tuts when you’ve changes your hair style or gotten an ear piercing and all the warm hugs that she gave out. Everyone had only good things to say about her and the hundred years she has been leaving her mark on the world and the people in her life.

I love the women who helped bring me up, she was always around to talk too and helping look after us, because my parents had a busy life with the shop open 7 days a week. She was the one around helping my mum and dad out with keeping an eye on my brothers and me while other helped them in the shop. Anyway, she is one hell of a hundred-year-old woman.

Take two… or three… maybe more?

Starting again with my arty stuff because of outsider influences (namely my son Josh) not in a bad way its more wanting to better myself so that I can help out my children and be a more positive role-model for them. So I’ve been watching loads of other cartoonists showing off there tricks and tips on youtube, tumblr and other net forums. Helping guiding other wanna be’s like me with cheat sheets and methods, I’m hoping for something like an old game cheat code that I could just type in to my digital art package (like up, down, left, right, A, B, Start – it hasn’t worked yet, nope not even an extra 1up) which would help me out.
What I did learn from all that content is that every one of those artists may have their own take on what’s important, but have lots of over lapping idea’s, with a lot of hours put in making a firm foundation in their chosen areas. All that skill makes it look natural and simple when watching but frustrating as heck in practice.
But don’t give up if you wanna succeed, there isn’t a lot worth doing in this world that doesn’t involved a bit of hard work, but the feeling you get after putting in that effort lasts longer and your skill sets grow stronger with the struggle.
This brought me to the realisation, take what you need from others tuition, listen to everyone’s thinking/views and give new methods ago. It may be contradicting opinion’s but if you don’t try you’ll never truly expand you understanding, don’t just clam up and mumble in your own head or even leave slaggy comments like some flabby, broken, decrepit, nocturnal, sweaty, media troll that believes their voices is the only one that matters (don’t trump others dreams) and doesn’t want others to succeed because they wont try.
No matter what your age everyone can learn something new.

Mr Men full of emotions…

The kiddie wink’s have been enthralled when listening to me reading them Mr Men books and little Miss books of a night time before they get tucked in and hopefully drift off peacefully to the land of nod. click to read more…

A Walk in the …

Parks are a terrific place for kids to release pent up energy. Josh, Eves, Maisy and I had a drive out to ours after Sunday lunch at my folks. click to read more…

What time is it…

It’s creativity time, as Adventure time comes to a close and to me it’s both a crying shame but also has a feeling of finality like it deserves a fitting conclusion click to read more…

Thought’s by the fire…

The family has just been out for a nice car ride, Wifey and I went for a shopping day (presents for both Wifey and Eve’s birthdays) while the kids went to the in-laws to spend some quality time with Nan and Grandad B. click to read more…

Hand me down ideas…

I don’t know where Maisy gets her bad influences from now that our big old girl Molly is no longer with us, click to read more…

Sick day…

Evelyn’s ear infection became to intense for her to get over without medical care so after Wifey made an appointment I took her to the the Doc’s click to read more…

Bright Ideas…

My son Josh has new and brilliant ideas every day. His brain is like a bubbling pot every day something new floats to the top. Yesterday Josh was watching Spiderman…

and the idea that came to him was that if you could make Doc Oc’s tentacles automated automatons they could become handy helper travelling around on their own and I bet Doc Oc might win once without even lifting a single appendage.

Josh always seems to gravitate towards the villains of comic books, it’s got to be something to do with the fact that they seem to be more interesting and have more fun in their roles. It could also be that most evil doers don’t need/have magic powers to make them super they just use their grey matter.

Or it might just be that he found Maisy chewing on he’s toys again and he thinks of her as being the heroin to all of the kids’ games, which would make him have to be the felonious villain coming up with all the story arcs.

A new start to my blogging…

After a hard day at work I came home to my loving family.
The Wifey, trying to hold the house together, Evelyn with her sore ear (which she got from all the swimming she’d been doing on her hol’s and Josh my big lad who may not be as old as he thinks he is. I found this out when I made the mistake if showing him the movie trailer for Venom (he is a big fan of the cartoon character) this was a bit to realistic and I’ve probably scared him for life.
After the kids went to bed that same night, Rach and I had a gas about our childhood movie experiences and which movies scared us. Mine were films like I.T. and Chucky but apparently E.T. freaked out Wifey. When looking at images on google of him to refresh my memory he does look like an old body part that’s been in a warm bath (of bleach) to long.

A painting of Moe

I decided to paint a little pic of our late Moe with help from my daughter Evelyn.

Good Night My Princess Pooch.

To people who do not have pets or allow themselves to connect emotionally with another creature, for the short space of time we have on this spinning rock that is hurtling through eternity.
This post is not for you.
It is just a short message saying that even though you are not walking by my side anymore, you will always be in my heart.
I may have hung your lead and collar up for the last time, but the walks we have taken over the many years of your life will never leave me.
It was not always easy having a smelly, stubborn, moody, noise but loving best friend like you, but we will always make exceptions for love and happiness, which you brought into my life every day.
You arrived shortly after the beginning of my relationship with my wife, you came to my wedding as a brides maid, you were there when I brought home my son into the pack, you were there when we moved house, you were there when I brought home my daughter as well and you were there when we got Maizy someone who helped give you a new (if not short lived) lease of life.
Now that you are not here with us, it has left an emptiness that I am sure our family will fill with happiness and love in the future, but there will always be a part of my heart taken way with you on your next walk through eternity…

New arrival to the House

This is just a post about showing off my new puppy Maisy (Maz), with her big old pal Moe.

My Little Snow Princess

Thought since I’d done a pic for Josh I would have to do one for my little princess too.

Joshy The Ink Boy

Thought up by Josh and drawn by Josh and myself, this is a character which my sons starting to create his own comics about which is brilliant can’t wait for more.

Bendy’s Revenge – Josh’s First Animation

Josh love’s telling stories and he’s asked to borrow my camera so that he can try to animate his ideas. This is his first shot at it. He should be proud of this one, I wish that I could have been so capable a 8 years old.

Not one to talk

This blog thing linked into my little website isn’t really something that comes natural to me. I’m not one to talk about anything and nothing and make it entertaining, so that’s kinda the reason why the blog area of this website is a little dry.

I always found that if its not worth talking about I don’t talk…

I believe I’m more of an observer, the one at the party who keeps to himself and treats the antics of other like an unscripted
TV show(translation for the youth: anything on YouTube). I can’t complain about it those doing this allows me to create content for my little comic.

Working on a new comic

It was last year that I had the bright idea to create this new comic web site for my little hobby and I haven’t really followed it up with much other than adding old comics and a couple of blog posts.

But now hopefully I’ve given myself a new goal which is the short-toons comic that’s going to be based around my family kind of with a new character who will help the kids get up to all kinds of mischief.

I’m not wanting to give to much away as of yet because its still early days with the idea.

It’s coming together

The new comic page layout is finally taking shape. When I started out trying to come up with a new web comic theme I under estimated how much goes into it these days. But after lots of trials and errors it all seems clearer.

Testing the blog

This is just to test the blog area see if it can blog, if it can then you’ll see this message

Work in progress

This comic website is still being build.

It seems to take ages to build a website from scratch these days, either I’ve no spare time or there’s more stuff to figure out.