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Tobias and Jube Euphonious Companion — illustrations and lyric videos

By

On October 21, 2018

In Illustration, Music, Video

Hey, remember last year, I released a new Tobias and Jube comic and an album of songs to go with that comic? Of course you do! It’s the last thing I posted about. Hello again!

After making that comic, and the album about the comic, I then made illustrations for each of the songs! And then I made lyric videos for the songs, using the illustrations as backgrounds. The first two are even a little bit animated. Just a tiny bit. Pretty cool!

[ And here is the playlist page on youtube. ]

Watch and sing along! What fun! WHAT FUN.

I also used the illustrations to make these little ‘promo squares’ for each of the songs, to promote them on social media, since social media just loves squares these days.

What’s that? You haven’t heard and/or purchased Tobias and Jube and the Something Hat Mystery: The Euphonious Companion yet?? I’m so sorry; I didn’t realise. You can listen to it on bandcamp and also search for it on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and every other place digital music can be found.

Tobias and Jube and the Something Hat Mystery — comics and music!

By

On September 28, 2017

In Illustration, Music

Hello everyone, did I mention my new Tobias and Jube comic? I can’t recall. Anyway, it’s called Tobias and Jube and the Something Hat Mystery and the first chapter is up on the Stela app right now! It’ll run for five weeks; one chapter per week. It’s basically 50-something print pages, in total — a little book, like an Asterix book! It is also, would you believe, suitable for all ages. And ‘all ages’ doesn’t mean ‘children’, it means ALL AGES — I’m looking at you, Granddad! You think I can’t see you curled up on the floor behind the recliner? Granddad? Oh, the old silent treatment, eh? The old silent and motionless except for sporadic twitching treatment, is that it, old man? Pathetic.

I’m exceptionally proud of Tobias and Jube and the Something Hat Mystery and excited for you all to enjoy it. It’s not free — you do have to buy it (god, I know) — but at least you can buy it without leaving your house! FRESH LAUGHTER AND NATURAL HUMAN DELIGHTS, EVERY WEEK. And phwoar, look at those gorgeous colours by Lin Visel. Pages of that good stuff. Get into it.

BUT WAIT. Did you think that was all? “Oh, he’s made the funniest comic in the history of the medium, surely that’s enough for one man” — was that you just now?

[shakes head sadly while throwing head backwards in flamboyant laughter]

  • “I don’t think I’ve smiled this much listening to an album… ever? Ever.”
  • “I would say this feels like the soundtrack to a mysterious, quirk-laden Japanese PS2 game, but it’s the soundtrack to a wonderful comic!”
  • “I almost choked on my own snot listening to this. Patrick you are wonderful. My new anthem here.”
  • “This unironically owns.”
  • “That record is like some evil corrupt maniac formed the second coming of the Bonzos just to corrupt the minds of children.”
  • “That was brilliant! … What an inventive track, nice to hear something different.”
  • “Holy shit! This is hilarious and great!”
  • “The most fun you can have without burning down a church.”

— Comments already received from authentic fellow humans

Yes, Tobias and Jube and the Something Hat Mystery is also a 30-minute album of amazing songs, subtitled The Euphonious Companion, which makes quite a long and grandiose title altogether, but I promise it’s not prog, IT’S NOT PROG. It is a POP album but WEIRD POP and oh my goodness, remember how the comic is the #1 and sole greatest thing I’ve ever done? Well the album is also the #1 and sole greatest thing I’ve ever done! How is this possible? It’s not. It’s a miracle.

Bandcamp! iTunes and Apple Music! Spotify! Google Play! Soundcloud! And Amazon and Deezer and even Saavn, and other places too — just search for the album. And you can even Shazam all of these songs, which is really cool. If you play my songs at a party, people can go, “Siri, what is this stream of pure, rainbow-flavoured delight? I must know!”

It is a DELIGHTFUL album; that is the word I keep using. You will be delighted. It’s only a short album — go to Bandcamp and have a listen. You will feel delight, I promise. This isn’t cartoonist music, this is cartoonist AND musician music. You’ve been waiting for it, bored with everything else, and now, here it is.

“Patrick I bought the album and subscribed to the comic, I am into this Tobias and Jube thing, help me!”

Tobias and Jube prints and goods at redbubble! Tobias and Jube stamps for Line messenger! Old-school Tobias and Jube comics that I’d hoped to have rescanned and recoloured by now, oh well! You want more?? Tell me about it! No, actually tell me about it. Thanks.

Thanks for enjoying my work, and thanks in advance for telling your friends and social networks about it! It makes a big difference; you have no idea.

tl;dr: Lots of new Tobias and Jube stuff! Here and here. Hooray!

Tobias and Jube and the Something Hat Mystery — September 25th

By

On August 30, 2017

In Illustration

An all-new, all-ages, all-colour, all-nonsense Tobias and Jube caper! Five chapters over five weeks, from September 25th, only on the Stela app. By the actual Patrick Alexander, with true colours by Lin Visel.

Blobby besties Tobias and Jube find a hat one day, and naturally want answers. Whose is it? What does it do? What’s the proper term for this specific type of headwear? Their square-jawed, glinty-eyed investigation causes setbacks for no less than three local businesses. Meanwhile, a slug and a spider search for the lost wallet of a high-profile client. Also featuring magic, chickens and ice cream, but not at the same time.

I am very proud of this comic; it’s the best thing I’ve ever made! I’m excited for you all to read and enjoy it. Amazing facts about Tobias and Jube and the Something Hat Mystery:

  • It’s appropriate for all ages. Your beautiful and special and precocious children will love it. You, also, will.
  • Tobias and Jube began in Australia’s Mania magazine in 2002, making 2017 the comic’s 15th birthday.
  • It is very funny and silly and it also has themes, but secret themes that only the brightest intellectuals will recognise and enjoy.
  • It will be accompanied by a short album of songs. Whaaat! Yes, really.

I’m happy to be interviewed about this project by anyone; please get in touch (email, twitter).

The illustration above is available as a print and on assorted products at redbubble.

GET HYPE, GET HYPE, LAY THAT HYPE PIPE

SET THAT HYPE TYPE

OH MULTIPLE CRIPE! IT’S TIME TO GET HYPE

Tobias and Jube and fish

By

On July 22, 2017

In Illustration

Just a fun Tobias and Jube illustration with a colour palette that takes no prisoners.

You can wear this whole picture as a t-shirt, which is cool. I think it would make a good poster, too. Plus there are notebooks, phone cases, pillows, and all sorts of things, at my marvellous new redbubble shop. But yeah I think this one is especially suited to clothing; I would love to see someone rocking a bold pink-and-green outfit with this illustration as the centrepiece. Send me photos if that someone is you!

Oh and it’s a print at society6 too, if that’s where you prefer to get your prints.

Tobias and Jube – Autumn 2017

By

On July 22, 2017

In Illustration

FIVE WEEKS. FIVE CHAPTERS. SOME JOKES.

Yes, as promised, an all-new Tobias and Jube comic will be delivered to you soon, via Stela! There’s a little more info over on my tumblr. Short version: EXCITEMENT TIME IS HERE, ALL AROUND US.

In the meantime, you can LAY SOME HYPE PIPE by putting this illustration on your wall, wearing it on your body, or your lower body, or hiding your own shameful drawings inside it, or gripping it with your gross sweaty fingers as you text that special someone. Or any number of rituals of devotion only made possible by my new redbubble shop, where wonder and delight await you. (Also, you can get prints at society6 too, in text-free and textful versions.)

Crane bros. and coffee

By

On July 22, 2017

In Illustration

Furrowed brows and pouting lips
Analysing tiny sips
Consternation and dismay
The brew is somehow off today

A recent commission. Or rather, an old commission that I finally got around to doing recently. You can buy prints of this, as well as bags, pencil cases, decorative chunks of plastic, miniskirts, and all kinds of nonsense, at my marvellous new redbubble shop. And prints are available at society6 too. What a great day for you!

Oh, and of course you can have this on a coffee mug too. That’s only appropriate.

Lesson materials for English teachers in Japan

By

On February 24, 2017

In Illustration

This Die Hard lesson is really, really popular

I never got around to posting about this, here on my main website!

For two years, from 2013 to 2015, I worked as an ALT (assistant language teacher) at a senior high school in Utsunomiya, Japan. During that time, I put a lot of extra hours into creating illustrated worksheets, games, and other lesson materials for my classes. I shared some with other teachers and got some enthusiastic feedback, so I started compiling and formatting the materials into PDFs, with full instructions so that any teacher could download and use them.

Those PDFs can be found here, at Patrick-sensei’s gumroad store!

(At the time of writing, there are still some materials yet to be formatted and uploaded. I’ve been busy!)

These lesson materials represent two years of my work as a cartoonist and creator, and include some of the best and most worthwhile illustration I’ve ever done. I even made a board game! So even though it’s not comics, I’d encourage you to take a look, if you follow my work. I feel like this is my humble equivalent of Will Eisner’s army manuals — those actually useful things he made, in between The Spirit and helping to invent the graphic novel.

And along with creating lesson materials, it was also a part of my job to do… The Morning Speech. (Again: Volume 2 yet to come!)

Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius

By

On February 24, 2017

In Writing

From February 2016, I worked for one year with Square Enix as the English localisation editor for Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, one of those smartphone gacha RPGs. How about that!

The game is continuing — the story is serialised, and there are regular events, etc. — but I’ve finished working on it as of the end of January 2017.

My job was, basically, to take the initial English translation and make it prettier. The work ranged from straight proofreading to heavy rewriting, depending on the needs (and priority) of the material. Unfortunately, due to technical and organisational issues beyond my control, not all of the game text was even seen by me, let alone edited, so if you play the game, you’ll find that the text, in places, switches back and forth between professional quality and, uh, less-than-professional quality, with no apparent pattern — a fact that will always nag at me, but oh well. The parts I worked on, I improved, and I’m proud of that.

With a tiny few exceptions, I didn’t have the foresight to take screenshots of Patrick’s Greatest Edits as I played through the game. Happily, however, some players were so pleased with the dialogue in the game that they did. So I’ve gathered some bits and pieces from social media, reassembled complete conversations where possible, and plopped them into a gallery for you here. I don’t know how representative it is, but anyway, it’s a taste. Naturally, I’ve only included text that I edited heavily enough that I feel I can reasonably take some credit (or blame) for it, but remember that all of it is the product of a kind of assembly-line collaboration, from the writers, to the translators, to me.

I did my best to give the characters strong, recognisable voices, and to make the dramatic bits more memorable and affecting, but naturally it’s the bits where I enhanced the humour of a scene, or just straight-up added jokes to boring conversations, that are popular with the internet’s assorted screenshot-takers, AND RIGHTLY SO. Thank you, screenshot-takers!

(More) Tobias and Jube illustrations

By

On February 23, 2017

In Illustration

*blows dust off website*

*cough cough*

I had an extremely busy 2016, and a quite productive one — just not obviously productive; a lot of it was taken up with a new Tobias and Jube comic that I can’t show you yet (among other projects). But I did manage to squeeze in these two lovely illustrations…

Print available. Tobias and Jube come across a garden of eyes whose attention seems to be anywhere else.

I used a pencil for ‘inking’, here, for the first time, which is something I’d wanted to try. It matches the watercolours and feels comfortable to me. (In fact, no actual pencils or paints were involved — both of these illustrations were done entirely on my ipad pro, in Procreate.)

Print available.

On the whole I take my Christmas thoroughly Anglo, with as many pre-Christian rituals and ornaments as possible bleeding through, but of course also with proper carols, joyful and mysterious, about magic baby God, born to be sacrificed to himself, or, alternatively and ideally, about Wenceslas, a nice king with hot feet. No Santy Claus, no holly jolly jingle dingle, no crooners, no divas. But these are mostly aesthetic preferences; religion and spirituality have something but not so very much to do with it — consequently I’m happy to incorportate whatever ideas and symbols and activities happen to catch my fancy into my personal concept and practice of Yuletide, which is really the only way to do it nowadays, isn’t it?

So what have we got here. We’ve got some carolers who are a bit Peanuts and a bit Dickens. We’ve got some Japanese-style winter illuminations. We’ve got some holly wrapped around an old-as-fuck stone monument of the kind that dot the landscape of Tobias and Jube’s little world. What does it mean? Does anyone remember? And perhaps candles always burn with blue flame at Christmas, which is why no-one’s FREAKED OUT about that. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the Ghost of Christmas Present, or Father Christmas, or whoever it is, lurking in the background there, inspecting the scene with what we should hope is an approving eye. (Or maybe Leroy, the wizard, did it.) The ginkgo tree, like the ones here in Tokyo, is nearly bare at just this time of year. And I wonder if El Bobba, down the front there, is on his way to plop that yuzu into a hot bath, in line with the Japanese winter solstice tradition.

The new Tobias and Jube comic I mentioned earlier? You can meet all the carolers pictured above in that comic. Stay tuned.

Tobias and Jube’s Quality Assortment

By

On January 19, 2016

In Illustration

On Sale Now 2x4_01 2x4_02 2x4_03 2x4_04 2x4_05

LINE STORE: Tobias and Jube’s Quality Assortment

オーマイガー！！ Moderately beloved cartoon double act Tobias and Jube have arrived on Line Messenger! WOW your acquaintances and very professional business contacts with this odd, colourful sticker set, featuring a fun mix of English and Japanese.

オーストラリアから漫画のキャラのトバイアスとジューブ（トバジュー）を紹介！かわいくておかしい生き物だ。永遠な友情を目撃してください。英語と日本語が混在される。

Click right here, or search for ‘Tobias and Jube’ or 「トバジュー」 in the Line Store. おねがいしまーす！

There will be more Tobias and Jube news coming very soon.

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