WTF is Dinlos and Skilldos?!

I'll be using this blog as an attempt to shame myself into completing some of my ongoing projects and also to give me opportunity to wax lyrical about things I love. The blog is named after my biggest ongoing project a... (nope, sorry I hate the term Graphic Novel, it's not a Graphic Novel!) Dinlos and Skilldos is a big story with lots of characters told as a comic strip because that is the only medium capable of telling it the way I want it told.

Etymology: Dinlo (or dinilo) is the Romany word for fool or idiot and was much in use in the playground when i was a kid; Skilldo is pure playground argot. Evil Knievel was a Skilldo, the kid who wore his shoes on the wrong feet was a Dinlo. Easy.

Anyway, this image (above) is one of the numerous aborted cover ideas I've had for Dinlos. This one, as my friend Sean Longcroft pointed out, is just too nice (despite the fact it features children smoking!). It's just a rough done in photoshop. I nicked the design from a 1968 road saftey book, so it's the wrong period as well. Dinlos is set in the mid to late 70s.