The Villains in my Home Town. part 1.

I just had my the old videotape of my courtroom sketch- stories from 1997, ten years ago, converted to disc, thanks to Michael Evans. Thus I can now make jpegs and get a few blog stories out of it. I told the anecdote in After the Snooter of how My pal Pete Mullins got me involved in doing the court sketching for Channel Ten News here in Brisbane (Ten was trying to poach him fron Seven for whom he was occasionally doing it). That first one was a humdinger, with five villains on trial all at once, and somehow I failed to record it from the television that evening. The ringleader had a word tattoed on his forehead and I couldn't get close enough to read it and every time I tried he gave me an evil eyeful. I was called upon perhaps twenty five more times over an 18 month period and I found it all quite educational. We 'graphic novelists' don't get out of the house all that often, so these excursions gave me a healthy dose of reality with which to temper my fictional inventions. I don't have all of the cases recorded, only around eighteen, and I didn't go up to the station to get any of the artwork back, but there should be enough here to work with, and I think you'll be surprised by some of it. I started the work a little hesitantly as you can imagine, but before long the villains in my home town were starting to look like comic book baddies.



This smouldering hulk was out of jail for a counselling session. He missed that and instead separately abducted and raped two women. He’s back in for thirty years now. Well, twenty remaining. Ten's camera zooms...



This school teacher had sex with an underage pupil. His wife dobbed him in, as they say here in Australia (dictionary of Australian slang: dob). In my sketch he looks like he wouldn’t be out of place in the Batman animated tv show. Except I draw better shirt collars than those dudes.



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I was sitting on this to see if it connected up with some other things, but my brain is heading off in another direction, so I'll menton it here at the foot of this post.
On the subject of Copyright once again, thanks to Ben Smith for the heads-up. John Lanchester covers the whole history of copyright in one sweep of the hand, takes a disparaging look at eager litigation in the USA and assesses the possibilities of Google Book Search. This article is a must-read.
It's a steal
The Guardian --Saturday April 7, 2007
"Many of us take it for granted that we can download films or music without paying. Now, new projects such as Google Book Search will make millions of books available too. What will this mean for authors and the publishing industry? John Lanchester asks who owns what in the digital age
Google never gives out figures about anything, but I was told that the Book Search programme already includes more than a million books; and the number is growing daily. Only the world's very biggest libraries are bigger than that. Ovenden said: "I think in the 21st century Google Book Search will be regarded as one of the great historical enterprises. It's not the only one, but it's up there."

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If you have ever heard me talk, you know that I have a Scottish accent. It presents no impediment to communication whatsoever unless you have previously plied me with alcohol, after which all the sounds become exaggerated in their distinctive colourings. An 'E' becomes excessively E-ish and the same for all the other sounds, and such clarity is usually more than the human ear can withstand. While googling myself this morning I followed a link to a transcript of a talk I once gave where I am introducing 'The History of Ron Howard". I can only presume it was the History of Fom Hell. Given that Howard doesn't show up again for the rest of the duration one would have expected the transcriber to have questioned it. On the other hand, i was indeed improvising, which is why ah canna stand to read it all throo to see if wee Howie does turrn up agen or no.

pour me another sherry, maude.