The joy of gardening.

It was by far the finest example of a Charybdis Dionaea Sarlaccus that had ever been grown in an urban garden and Bert Chucker was rightly proud.

 
Needing regular watering and feeding itself on small rodents, garden pests and neighbourhood cats, this also unfortunately depicts the last image in existence of Bert's rather clumsy daughter Maisy before her "accident!"

 I had the urge to try ignoring colour for a while and get back to black and white "inked" work.  Inspired and influenced by Mike Mignola's use of heavy blacks and shadows and the lack of cross-hatching reminiscent of some 17th century woodcuts. I quite enjoyed the mixing of the neo-gothic with the sometimes all too "cosy" depictions of middle class post war Britain to try to ellicit a bizarre sense of unease. I think it worked reasonably successfully.