A trip to Land's End
Comics about a holiday in the English countryside
Happy new year everyone! I’m back to share another story from my old sketchbook, The Drawing Book. This little adventure is one of my favourites. In 1997, my friend and I were setting out on a hiking trip to Cornwall in the southwest corner of England. It was the eve of departure…
After arriving in London (and having lunch in a crypt at the edge of Trafalgar Square), we set out for the Cornish countryside…
It was rainy. It was muddy. We didn’t really have the best equipment. But the trip was great!
The Elvish writing says, “A little bit muddy, don’t you think?” “Only a few miles to go and the sun’s coming out, I think!”
What is a fogou? Wikipedia says it’s “an underground, dry-stone structure found on Iron Age or Romano-British-defended settlement sites in Cornwall. The original purpose of a fogou is uncertain today.” It was dark and damp and felt so, so old.
On this next page, the Elvish writing says: “Could we possibly be more splendid?” “No.”
The man I was dreaming of seeing again, turned out to be a real scoundrel… you can read about my broken heart in this episode of Bob Dylan Comics.
We travelled out to Land’s End, the most westerly point in England, where I sat and looked out at the ocean… a magical view.
I sure had Bob Dylan on my mind at this time. It was during this trip, that I drew the comic strip of the Dylan song “Canadee-I-O.”
The Cornish coastline inspired me to draw my own imaginary landscape, set in an invented country I can tell you about, another time:
But soon we were back in Canada, and the voyage was over. That was long ago, but I still have good memories (and some souvenirs that are still in my house today, like this ceramic fish that’s mounted on my bathroom door).
On that trip, I also bought these postcards of paintings by an artist called Philip Lyons. They’re photo prints that have been cut out and glued onto white cards. They’re still hanging on my wall. I loved these images because I love geometric landscape paintings. These ones remind me of the work of my favourite artist, Expressionist painter Lyonel Feininger (who I wrote about here, in one of my first Substack posts), and they remind me a bit of the work of Dutch painter Ton Schulten - that’s also artwork I really love.
Maybe I should send Philip Lyons a note, to let him know how much I still love his paintings after all these years! I just looked up his website. Thanks Philip!
Thanks for joining me on the remembered voyage! I hope 2024 is off to a good start for you!