NEW START, NEW YEAR

A spirit-boosting visit yesterday from my sparkling friend Steven Appleby cartoonist par-excellence. I painted his portrait in 2019 then pandemic etc. intervened. But meanwhile DRAGMAN, his sincerely terrific graphic novel, was published and has been attracting success like a magnet, deservedly, because it combines a wicked sense of humour and touching self-analysis within an inventive, multi-dimensional plot featuring endearing characters drawn with apparently effortless ease and delectable colour. I love my copy of this book even more now that Steven spontaneously decorated its front page just for me! Great start to the New Year and I'm feeling encouraged to go full puff-puffing steam ahead with my graphic novel Double Entendre Go go Eilatan!

I just realised that I probably should have written 'she' instead of 'he' when speaking of Steven. But you know what? Steven doesn't go by the rules and neither do I.

My portrait of Steven Appleby,2019