Collecting together five articles on palm reading from 1899, originally printed in Hobbies, the 24-page zine brings Victorian palm reading to the 21st century.
As a kid, I grew up on a farm not far from the former Hobbies factories. Indeed, in 1908 (long before my time, naturally) my great grandfather burned the factories down my mistake, causing a couple of million pounds worth of damage.
Whoops.
I was always a bit obsessed by their weekly magazine, which was published almost every week for 70 years and was a bit of a phenomenon in its time. I even made my own version - Will's Weekly - but the publication schedule on that one seemed to be either seven issues in a single day or nothing for a year. As a grown up, I've been slowly collecting the back issues of the magazine (around three and a half thousand of them, God help me), and the early issues in particular are filled with quirky things like Lessons in Palmistry, which I've really enjoyed reading and think there must be a wider audience for.
Hence the zine! I've been pottering on this for a few months in my spare moments, and I'm finally ready to launch it out into the world! It's a 24-page zine, filled with wonderfully evocative Victiran views on things. I'm especially fond of the bit where they describe a particular line you might hypothetically find on someone's palm, but reason that most of their readers are unlikely to ever see one, as it only appears on criminals so you'd only find said line in a jail.
There's also a weird obsession with which characteristics of the hand might indicate you'd be better suited as a writer or a scientist, and a lovely bit where they suggest you be careful with some symbols of the hand, as the bearer is interested in sex alone and nothing more.
We're also making some enamel pins to go along with the zine - another new area for me...! - based on one of the original illustrations (specifically Figure 3). The standard edition of the pin is black and gold, and there's a limited edition 'pink glitter' version which my partner insisted I include.
Please do take a look if this sounds like something you might enjoy, or share the link with people you think might be interested. It's a bit of a venture into the unknown for me, this one, so I've not idea how well (or otherwise...!) it might do. We've got a pretty small target, just enough to cover production, and we've tried to keep the prices as reasonable as possible, right down to free UK postage.
Last Call on The Time Team Unearthed!
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Dec 28, 2024 at 01:17:57 AM
Hey everyone!
Just wanted to remind you that there's only about 36 hours left on my new Kickstarter, collecting together Adrian Salmon's artwork for The Time Team into a single volume, with brand new illustrations added in to create a complete run of classic Doctor Who in Ade's style.
Very pleased to say that the book is completely funded already and we've unlocked the first couple of Stretch Goals, adding on some nice printed elements to house the postcards and prints available at certain tiers, and to add some of Adrian's previous Who commissions into the book too.
At the time of writing, we're about £750 away from being able to commission Adrian to do an additional three new illustrations, covering Shada, Slipback and Doctor Who and the Pescatons. I'm desperate to get these ones added to the book, so if you've been thinking about backing please do help push us over that line!
I hope you've all had a wonderful 2024, and wish you all the best for the year ahead - thanks as ever for your support!
The Time Team Unearthed!
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Dec 07, 2024 at 02:49:27 AM
Hey all! I can't believe we're coming around to another Christmas already - I swear the years keep getting shorter and shorter...
A quick update form me today to let you all know that I've just launched a new Kickstarter campaign to put together a book I've wanted to do for about 15 years. I've been very lucky to work over the last few months with the incredible Adrian Salmon to create a new art book due out next spring and now running on Kickstarter.
The Time Team Unearthed - a collection of Adrian Salmon’s iconic illustrations for The Time Team.
A fan-favourite feature in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine for a decade, The Time Team followed four fans as they made their way through the entire back-catalogue of Doctor Who from the very beginning. Initially presented as a single-page, the feature's popularity soon saw it expanded to a regular three pages, appearing in more than 100 issues between 1999 - 2009.
Every edition of The Time Team was illustrated with striking new artwork from comics legend ADRIAN SALMON, already known to readers of DWM from his work on the comic strip, most notably The Cybermen, which ran as a regular feature from 1994 - 1996.
In total, Salmon created more than 150 illustrations for The Time Team's original run, before returning in 2011 to continue his work throughout the feature's second incarnation, as it ventured into the revival series covering episodes from 2005 onwards. Regularly described as the 'fifth member' of the team, Salmon's art is synonymous with the feature.
The Time Team Unearthed collects together, for the first time, all of Salmon's artwork for the original Time Team feature, an includes more than 20 brand-new illustrations, allowing the book to cover the entire run of 20th Century Doctor Who, from An Unearthly Child through the 1996 TV Movie.
Alongside the artwork, treasures from Adrian's archive highlight the way the pieces come together, through preparatory sketches and notes, thumbnails, original pencils, inks, and alternate colour tests. Seeing the artwork during its evolution highlights so many little details and adds a whole new level of appreciation to these classic designs.
An all-new commentary from Adrian discusses his memories of working on the feature, alongside input from key DWM creatives and members of the original Time Team.
'What Adrian did so brilliantly,' recalls DWM editor Gary Gillatt, 'was illustrate the feeling of watching Doctor Who for the first time. He has the ability to look at a scene, get in there and capture the shot the TV show was aiming for but couldn't afford to do, or technology wouldn't allow them to do.’
On putting the book together, Adrian says ‘I’m amazed that we’ve managed to get them all together. When I first started out, I was just sending in the original artwork, on watercolour paper, to Doctor Who Magazine! Even when I started going digital, they were saved on CDs… it’s been a case of blowing the dust off those discs and trying to access them all these years later. That in itself has been a bit of a challenge, but we got there!’
‘Any artist will tell you: an art book of your work is something you want to happen. To get the Time Teams together seems like a masterstroke. You can see the body of work, and over a period of time, you can see that changes that took place in me as an artist and how I was thinking about art at the time. I’m always thinking “well maybe if I try this…”, or “maybe I could try that…”, “Would this work, would it not?” Having an actual book that shows all these illustrations together is fantastic.’
All Rewards Have Been Shipped!
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jul 08, 2024 at 03:36:33 AM
Hey everyone,
Just dropping in to let you know that the last batch of books have just gone to the post office, so if your book hasn't arrived yet then it should be with you very shortly!
To that end; backers in the UK, if you've not received your book by the end of next week (July 21st) please drop me a message on here and I'll have a look into it. Overseas shipping will naturally take a little longer, so if backers outside the UK haven't received their books by the end of the month let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Thank you, as ever, for the support. I'm beyond thrilled that there's been such a huge reaction to the project, and it's truly gratifying to be able to collect my work together like this.
I've a new Kickstarter project coming up in a few months - something a bit different - and I'll update here when that's ready to roll, in the hope that it might interest some of you!
All the best,
Will
Digital Copies Are On Their Way!
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 11:23:50 PM
Happy Saturday!
Feels strange to wake up without a new episode of Doctor Who to watch, doesn't it?!
Pleased to say that PDF copies of the book have been sent out this morning, so you should be receiving an email from BackerKit with a link to download. If you don't have one, check the junk folder (Backer Kit sometimes gets swept up as spam!) and if still nothing please shoot me a message on here and I'll have another copy sent across!
There's a handful of people who've not filled in the survey yet, and I think the download only sends after you've done that, so if you need a new link to that please give me a shout.
I've also had an email from DPD to say that they've collected the books from the printers, so they should be with me over the weekend or early next week! As such, BackerKit has begun charging cards for postage, and as soon as they arrive I'll be getting them packed up and on their way to you! The Post Office love it when I start rocking up with lots of lovely parcels for them...
As ever, I'll post when I've a new update to share.
