Questions for John Stokes?

[Peter Gray]

I showed it to various people and one lady who works in art suggested the sky looked a bit flat and in two halves..also she said it needed some yellow in the sunset and dark ground..so I normally take advice very seriously and decided she was right..now I've done her suggestions it works..
So this picture is finally finished..

[Peter Gray]

Someone has left a not very helpful comment on my blog.will not publish it..But I'll show it here..I don't want more commnets from him when they are very cold and not giving any reason for the dislike..also it hurts me..and I can take critism I have a Mum that does that;0)

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Snowy Owl retouched..the last 1 hour and half":

you have a basic talent, but your art is still fairly primitive. Long way to go before you can be regarded as anything other than a dabbler

Peter

I'll doubt his name is Peter..my view is that my art appeals to the public rather than artists that do photographic art..I've not been measuring up and getting everything in propotion..I've charactered it..Tigers don't smile like I've done..the Snowy Owls wings would be longer and thiner..But i wanted to make the face the feature..there is room in art for all types..thankfully showing people I've got many good responses..and I do sell a lot of animal cards/prints.

[Digifiend]

If people are buying the prints, then obviously people do like your work. Ignore that jerk.

[MikeC]

While the internet gives many people the ability to publish their thoughts and hobbies/passions, it also unfortunately accords the same luxury to those of a meaner disposition.

It's a shame that the ability to be heard (or read) brings out the worst in people, rather than the best. My mum always used to say to me, " If you can't say something nice, better say nothing at all." I think the internet would be a nicer place if people tried this, and didn't use it so aggressively to ease their own unhappiness at others' expense.

Don't take it to heart, Peter.

Brad Bird penned this fine piece in the script for Ratatouille:

In many ways the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But, the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things... the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something... and that is in the discovery and defense of the new.

[philcom55]

I doubt if anyone today would even remember the name of John Gibson Lockhart if he hadn't gone down in history for an astonishingly misjudged review of John Keats in which he urged the young poet to go back to his former profession as a lowly chemist:

"Whether Mr. John had been sent home with a diuretic or composing draught to some patient far gone in the poetical mania, we have not heard. This much is certain, that he has caught the infection. . . . For some time we were in hopes that he might get off with a violent fit or two, but of late the symptoms are terrible. The frenzy of the Poems was bad enough in its way; but it did not alarm us half so seriously as the calm, settled, imperturbable drivelling idiocy of Endymion. . . . It is a better and easier thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; go back to the shop, Mr. John, back to `plasters, pills and ointment boxes.'"

...To slightly misquote George Bernard Shaw "Those who can do, those who can't become critics!"

- Phil Rushton

[John Stokes]

Absolutely right, digifriend, MikeC and Philcom55! The compulsion nonentities have to criticise those who do what they can't is boundless. Take no notice, Peter. You will never please everybody. For my part, I am most impressed by the work that you and Muffy have posted on this site, and would love to see more of it. Keep up the good work.

[Lew Stringer]

I agree. Your wildlife artwork is improving all the time Peter. Ignore the sneering critic. If it's the same "Anonymous" who trolled my blog he's a bitter type who's best avoided.

[Peter Gray]

Thanks everyone.. .felt a bit low at that moment..its funny how comments like this can really hit you..
I agree Lew it must be the same troll...




This shows I've improved in drawing a tiger..those two i don't use for cards and prints anymore..the new tiger one I've done smiling will work well..

[AndyB]

I think your wildlife artwork is excellent. It flows from your hand rather nicely, and actually it suits you better than your cartooning work.

Keep at it and forget the ignoramuses. We're not going to tell you you're good if you're not

[Peter Gray]

Thanks Andy..my wife feels the same..concentrate on the animal art..

the annymouse person has left another stupid message..I've spammed it..

[John Stokes]

Going back a couple of pages, I think I have misled Raven. He mentioned 'Lenny the Loner' in connection with one page stories in 'Buster', and I said that I never drew any, but, looking through Buster's web pages I came across a title banner for 'Lenny the Loner' that is undoubtedly by me. I recognise the kid in the wooly hat with a pet raven depicted in the title, but I don't remember a thing about the story. Have you got any info about it, Raven? You obviously are familiar with the story. Have you any copies of it to jog my failing memory? It must have come after 'Fishboy' and Marney', both of which I remember well. Maybe it was because it was only one page that has made it so unmemorable for me. Any help would be appreciated.
John.

[Peter Gray]

I had some good news today I sold the original art for the fox..made £70..
this is the most I've been paid for my animal art so far..
also met my old art teacher who was pleased that I'm drawing and learning about art..

[Raven]

Going back a couple of pages, I think I have misled Raven. He mentioned 'Lenny the Loner' in connection with one page stories in 'Buster', and I said that I never drew any, but, looking through Buster's web pages I came across a title banner for 'Lenny the Loner' that is undoubtedly by me. I recognise the kid in the wooly hat with a pet raven depicted in the title, but I don't remember a thing about the story. Have you got any info about it, Raven? You obviously are familiar with the story. Have you any copies of it to jog my failing memory? It must have come after 'Fishboy' and Marney', both of which I remember well.
John.

I thought it was yours, John, but didn't want to contradict you if you said it wasn't!

It ran from December 1978 to mid-April 1979 and was about sensitive orphan urchin Lennie Daniels, who was a runaway, living alone in Bowman's Wood, where he would befriend animals - a stray dog or infected badger ("Lennie understood animals ... and they understood him.") The humans he encounters tend to be unkind to animals, including a couple of "local toughs" shooting birds with air rifles and tying tin cans to a cat's tail. In one story he helps a stray Alsation dog accused of turning sheep-killer: "You're not really vicious, are you? Just a lonely outcast like me!")

As you can tell, it sounds in some ways a little more like a girls' weekly adventure serial than typical Buster boys' fare. (A rather similar boy-fending-for-himself one-page-per-week serial, Yorky Grit was running in the title at the same time. There were still two three page adventure serials running, though, both great: The Byrds of Paradise Isle and The Leopard from Lime Street, but these one-pager serials were on the increase.)

You are also credited online with another one-page-a-week serial running in Buster at the same time, John: Keen and Mustard, about a terrible school football team captained by young Kevin Keen, who take on an excellent girl player, Danielle Mustard.

[John Stokes]

Thanks, Raven, that is fascinating. Your description of both those stories ring faint bells, but for the life of me, I can't really visualize either of these jobs, in the way I can still see in my mind pages from way back in the early sixties. Strange, isn't it? I can only think that, as I must have been working on character and costume designs for 'The Black Knight' and starting on the first episodes during that time ( The first 'Hulk' comic was published on 7th March 1979 ) and I might still have been drawing 'Hook Jaw' at the time ( I'm not sure when it finished) the strong meat in both those stories wiped out this gentler stuff from my memory. Thank you so much for that information. I will have to look out for old copies of 'Buster' and check up on them.

And Peter, Well done on selling the fox picture for a record fee! Onward and Upward!
J.

[Niblet]

First episode from Buster 02 December 1978

Kudos to original scanner - I found this lying around the internet...ahem...