Thursday, November 26, 2009


Sorry for the long pause between blogs, but we have been busy with regular life, and KJ needed his annual hospital surprise to keep things interesting. We won't bore you with the details, and will only say that he is happy to be home and looking forward to the healing process. He promises to update the blog with something fun, very soon. Have you stopped by the galleries to see the new work that was posted? Enjoy!

In the meantime, we hope you will be content to view the image above, which was shot from KJ's hospital bed, the morning that he was released from the clutches of his white-uniformed captors.


KJ & DDM

Monday, August 03, 2009

The comparison...


Freunden,

We have received a couple of emails asking if our Aly (aka Alain, Scruffs) was modeled after the young Dutch singer, Tom Klijbroek. So, we looked up the little scamp to see what the fuss was all about, and we were rather surprised to see that the lad did look a little like our Scruffs, or is it the other way around? Anyway, we thought we should clear the air and say that although we feel that Tom is a very talented young man, and great things will be coming his way, our Scruffs is unique, and not modeled after Tom. We would also believe that Tom is in no way modeled after Scruffs, since we created Scruffs a few years after Tom was born and it is doubtful that the universe works that way - although that, too, would be an interesting discussion. So, we give you the talented Master Klijbroek, and we highly recommend that you all take a listen to his music. He's rather good.

KJ & DDM

Monday, July 13, 2009

Summertime...

and the livin' is cool, rainy and what the blazes happened to summer in middle Europe? We've had a few warm days, but it is July, and we are in rainy and cool, which is not seasonal. Ah, yes, global warming - yet it's cool. Hmmmm....

In the midst of several projects, we are working on the rebuild of our comic, after the surprising new laws enacted in Germany, about which we informed everyone in our last blog. It goes to show you that there are no accidents in the universe, and had we printed and offered up our first issue, there might have been a reason for them to spank us...or not. As we mentioned, though, we had created this story with several directions available, so the outline was already in place. Now, we just have to redo a few sections and we'll be back on track.

KJ is still busy with writing and working on two other projects and trying to build the strength back up in his legs. So far, the long walks in the countryside are doing the job. Let's hope improvement continues. If you would like to have a look at KJ's first book, which is now available, stop by his other site - Kristophe.com - and have a look. You'll get a chance to see David Paris' lovely visage on the cover, if you do. You can also keep abreast of his activities (KJ's, not David's) on KJ's MySpace page, as well. Y'all know about Kristophe's MySpace page, of course. Stop by and have a look around, if you like.

DDM has his toy back for the summer, a vintage Peugeot convertible, just in time for the rain. And, he just bought a nifty original side mirror for it, too. Bugger. Let's hope the weather changes before we head back to France in August. One must have sunshine in France, non?

Thank you, one and all, for your notes and emails, and we hope everyone is having a great summer (or winter, for our Aussie friends)!

DDM & KJ

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Censorship is alive and well, in Deutschland and the European Union...



Friends,


Many of you have been anticipating the arrival of our first issue of The Boys of St. Precocious Academy, as have we. We have spent many long hours on its creation and we had hoped to have it finished very soon. However, we have just been thrown a rather substantial curve.

Our studio is located in the southern part of Germany, and we anticipated printing the comic in Germany, as well. While we have been busy, the European Union set up new guidelines for pron that encompass the younger years, and parts of it are rather distressing, and a bit over the top. Germany has decided (as of November, 2008) to employ the most Draconian of measures to fall into step with the EU's requirements. Even the members of other EU states have expressed surprise, although the UK is following suit with its own craziness.The German law (and the forthcoming British one) not only disallows any cartoon or drawing of teenaged boys engaged in any sexual activity, they will also disallow any image wherein anyone might ASSUME the character is not over 18 years of age. In other words, the character must be unambiguously viewed as over 18. In the vernacular, this means that Kristie would have to grow a beard.

Manga and Yaoi are no longer legal in Germany, and will not be legal in the European Union, shortly. Although we never intended that our younger characters would engage in such activity, we had assumed - by current European laws - that the older boys could have a bit of fun. This is no longer the case, and the penalties are severe. We cannot imagine how we can make Alain, Kristie, Ethan, Nicky and many others appear to be over 18 to ALL people, and the courts are already arbitrary enough without this kind of freedom to play with people's lives. Did we mention that this is unconstitutional, in Germany? It is, but who has the money to fight this idiocy? Well, there is one guy, and who would guess that it would be Larry Flynt who would come along and sue the German government for this new law? I didn't, and god bless him for doing so. Now, we wait to see what happens, although his suit does not address drawn images.

There is another, equally disturbing aspect to this law which is even more bizarre, and that is the prohibition of any writing which describes the sexual activity of any person under the age of 18, whether real or fictional. (When you get done shaking your head in disbelief, remember to bring your lower jaw back up to meet your upper.) Yes, they have now banned any literature, comic
or printed material of any kind which has any description of such an activity. Hmmmmm...a few biographies just got thrown off the bookshelves in most libraries. We'll put them on the pile of rubble with the pottery, sculpture, paintings and drawings that we just removed from museums in Berlin , Hamburg, Munich and many other cities in Germany. One of KJ's books will also have to be added to this pile, if he tried to print it in Germany or the UK. He won't, of course. Who knew that censorship of this magnitude would ever surface again? This aspect of the new law is also in direct conflict with the German constitution. Freedom of thought and word is a right, here, as it should be anywhere.

To see if this law has affected businesses in Germany, we searched on Amazon.de and other sites, and noticed that books in violation of this new law are still being offered. We have also seen that Manga and Yaoi are still available, as well. This is not surprising, since there was no fanfare about the new law. And, one has to keep in mind that LEA never go after the big boys when they want to set a precendent in law, for it is much easier to squash a mosquito than an eagle. Hence, our desire not to place ourselves in the position of being the mosquito. This is not to say we wouldn't fight such ignorance. It is astonishing that folks have already forgotten the history of seventy years ago, in Europe.

We are currently redesigning the first issue to comply with the new law, and we will keep a watchful eye on the bureaucrats to see how this all develops. In the UK comic artists and illustrators have formed a group and are pushing for a hearing on the upcoming changes. We wish them good luck, and we wonder where the German artists and illustrators are on this, since we haven't heard a peep out of them, yet.

We'll keep you posted.

KJ & DDM

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A new year, and an update on our progress...


Friends,

Yes, I (KJ) am back at the studio, although my movements are still a bit restricted. I have faith that things will improve, as time goes on, and I thank everyone for their emails and notes. I will answer all of them, as soon as I can.


Although I have been a bit handicapped, of late, we have been putting the comic together, and what we have so far looks great - in our estimation. Of course, it will be y'all who will make the final determination, but we are still having fun with it, and we think it will work out the way we want, now. There is an incredible amount of detail going into each image, and when one thinks about how there are sometimes more than twelve-twenty images on a comic page, one can get an idea of why this is taking us a bit longer than we had hoped. We have included a portion of one image at the top of this blog, to show everyone how detailed the pics will be, and this is just a pencil image, enhanced in Photoshop, so you will be able to get an idea of what we are doing. Add this visual to our colour images that you have seen and you will now have a clear sense of what our task entails. Yep, it's a bugger, but it's also great fun. We are committed to publishing the completed work, this year, and after seeing the first part put together, we are even more excited about what we are doing, so I think we will be able to keep this commitment we have made to ourselves. We'll keep you posted.



KJ & DDM