Shigeru Mizuki - Nonnonba

I got this book for Christmas off my brother and wasn't disapointed. I have also read his 'Onwards Towards our Noble Deaths' but the translation in this one was a lot better. It took me a few chapters to get into the book but then it all made perfect sense. The other book had so many characters that it was difficult to follow but this one only has a few, and they are a lot more distinctive.

Its the story of Shigeru as a young child growing up in the 1930's in rural Japan, and his elderly neighbour who he calls Nonnonba. She is always telling him stories about the yokai, which are ghosts and spirits. Its a pretty harsh world as kids are always dying from disease, and even being sold by impoverished parents. Shigeru is always drawing the yokai and trying to work out what they really look like so he can draw them better. His family are really well drawn, like his mother who is forever on about how her family used to be rich and have three storehouses, and his dad who was the first in the area to go to University and is a bit of a dreamer who wants to run a cinema. The kids fight all the time against neighbouring gangs in their 'kid army'. Its a really good read and is funny and sad. Highly recommended.

My Best of The Year List 2012

Here's my best of the year list from the Forbidden Planet Blog.

Here's the Cover for 'California - Part Two'

Here's the cover for 'California - Part Two'. It's all finished now. I'll bring it out in January.

A Row of Panels from Page Twenty Six of 'California 2'

Here's a row of panels from page twenty six of 'California 2'. Only a page and a hlaf to go now... I can't show a more exciting bit as I don't want to give the story away.

A Review of my Ice Cream

Here's a review of my ice cream from Matt Badham at the Forbidden Planet Blog. It's the first review of my ice cream! Once again though I have given out the wrong flavour, I must be more careful as this happens quite often...

A Bit from Page Eighteen of 'California - Part Two'

Here's a row of panels from page eighteen of 'California - part two'.

Comics in Shops

Last week I took some copies of 'California - part one', 'Segway' and 'It's a Man's Life in the Ice Cream Business - part one' to Travelling Man, Manchester if anyone wants to buy any.

'California - part two' is coming along. I'm up to page twenty so I'll draw some more next week and then do a bit of editing, there's a few things I want to change.

Reviews of 'California' and 'Segway'

Here's a great review of 'California - part one' and 'Segway' from Rob Clough at his High-Low blog. Thanks Rob!

I've got copies of these comics for sale in my website shop.

'California - Part One' Review

Here's a nice review of 'California - part one' from the Forbidden Planet Blog.

'Fleshtone 4'

 I've got a page in this excellent looking French Anthology, 'Fleshtone 4'. Here's the website for it. Also in the anthology are Vincent Vanoli, Lorna Miller and lots more. My story is the only one not in French, I hope it is still funny. I just got my contributors copies so I'm off to read it now.

I like my little artist bio thing in French, "fait de la soupe qu'il vend sur les marches du cote de Manchester".

A Panel from 'California 2'

Here's a panel of the town from page fourteen of 'California 2'.

A Row of Panels I Like From 'California 2'

I am happy with this row of panels from page thirteen of 'California - part two'.

Leeds Thoughtbubble Report 2012

 Here's the obligatory boring photo of my table at Leeds.

I got up very early as usual and got the train to Leeds on the Saturday morning. The Saturday was very slow for sales for some reason so I got a bit worried, but luckily the Sunday went great and I sold more than twice as many comics as on the Saturday. In the end I had the best sales of any Leeds Thoughtbubble I've been too. So that was great and I'll definately be back next year with more comics. Thanks to everyone who visited my table!

 It was great meeting everyone again as it's only the second convention I went to this year. Hopefully next year I'll get to do a few more.

I got some really great comics this year. Here's a photo of my haul. I'll write more about them later once I finish reading them all. They are 'The Complete Rainbow Orchid' by Garen Ewing which is a beautiful looking book. I'll read it very soon as I've only read the first two books in the past.  'The Un-Manned Manned Craft' by Nick Soucek. 'Same Day Return' by Sean Azzopardi, which I really enjoyed. 'Insurrection no. 1 and no.2' by Russell Stearman. 'A Corner of Paradise' by David O'Connell which is really good. 'Smoo Comics no.6 ' by Simon Moreton. 'Pyramid Scheme and Other Stories' by Lando.

Review of 'Segway'

Here's a nice little review of 'Segway' from the Forbidden Planet Blog. It's for sale in my shop.

Leeds Thoughtbubble report coming tomorrow, I've got to go and make some custard today as I've totally ran out of vanilla ice cream.

Leeds Thoughtbubble this Weekend

Hello. I'll be at Leeds Thoughtbubble this weekend. Here's a map of the tables, I'm at table 6 near the front of New Dock Hall.

I'll have lots of copies of my two new comics, 'Segway' and 'California - Part One', and plenty of all my older comics too. Why not come and say hello.

Paintings for Leeds Thoughtbubble

Here's a couple of little paintings I've done to brighten up my stall for Leeds Thoughtbubble. They are panels from my latest comic 'California'.

A Bit of Page Five from 'California 2'

Here's a bit of page five from 'California 2'. Its a spooky house. I'm up to just starting page eight today so it's going well. I plan to bring it out in January.

A Row of Panels from Page Five of 'California - Part Two'

Here's a row of panels from page five of 'California - Part Two'. I had a week off after finishing part one and then got going on this. I'm glad its not all at night anymore as I got tired of colouring everything in black.

My New Comic - 'California' Now On Sale

My new comic 'California' is now on sale in my website shop. Its 24 pages, black and white and A5 sixed. It's £2 with free postage in the UK, please add £1 shipping to the rest of the world.

This is the first part of a new horror story I've been drawing.

My Comicsy Shop

I've put most of my comics up for sale on the Comicsy website. It is easy to use and free, so well worth a go. I had a bunch of sales in the first week. Here's a link to my shop there. It's a good idea to have lots of small press comics for sale in the one place.

A Bit from page Twenty Three of my New Comic

Here's a bit from page twenty three of my new comic. I just finished it this morning. Its called 'California' and is the part one of a horror comic. I'll do the cover on Monday so hopefully it'll be out soon.

New Comic - 'Segway' Now on Sale

My new comic 'Segway' is now on sale at my website shop. Its priced at £2.70 with free postage to the UK, the rest of the world please add a pound using the button in the shop.

This is a 24 page black and white A5 comic with colour covers and is a collection of short stories.
Thanks!

A Bit from Page Fifteen of my New Comic

Here's a row of panels from page fifteen of my new comic.

Allotments Scarecrow Festival

Here's all the scarecrows from this years allotment show sat in the shed. They were awesome this year.

A Bit From Page Nine of My New Comic

Here's a row of panels from page nine of my new comic.

A Bit From Page Four of my New Comic

Here's a row of panels from page four of my new comic. I'm up to page six today.

First Panel of a New Comic

Here's the first panel of another new comic that I've just started. I have some new ideas for it so I'm happy about that.

Paul Rainey - Thunder Brother : Soap Division - Part Two

Last week I got the second of Paul Rainey's Thunder Brother comics. In this issue Sally and Thunder Brother have to go and rescue a soap character who has found out he is being filmed for our entertainment. The continuing story is great and I really liked the science fiction style back up story, 'The Jelly'. Its a bit like the Matrix, but good. Buy it from Paul's website here.

Back Cover of New Comic

And here's the back cover of my new comic with it's 'Coming Soon..' advert for 'The Storytellers'. Still needs a lot of cleaning up...

New Comic Cover

This will be the cover for my new comic which I am calling 'Segway' at the moment. Its going to be a short story collection. I've got enough stories for it now but I'll see if I can write any new ones in the next month or so to add in and make it longer. I'll have it for sale at Leeds Thoughtbubble. I drew this cover a year or so ago and now I get to use it which is good.

My eighty page family stories comic (which I am now calling 'The Storytellers') probably won't be ready for Leeds but I'm sure it'll be out by the new year. Once it's out I'll go to some comic shows with it.

Time Travel Story Finished

Yay, I've finished my time travel story. It's thirteen pages long. Here's a couple of panels from the last page before they are cleaned up. I'll bring it out as part of my new comic of short stories in time for Leeds Thoughtbubble in November. Now I just need a few more short stories, if I can think of any. 

Detail from my New Time Travel Story

Here's some detail from page ten of my new time travel story. Just a couple more pages of this to do now.

A Bit More of My Time Travel Comic

Here's a little bit more of my time travel story. I think it will end up about ten pages long.

Yoshihiro Tatsumi - Fallen Words

I enjoyed this new collection of short stories from Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Its very different from 'A Drfiting Life' or his older short story collections. These eight short stories are all from the very old Japanese tradition of storytelling called rakugo. I'd never heard of that before. The main difference is that the stories are much more comedic than his other work, some of the stories are shaggy dog style tales and some build up to great big puns at the end. They are all set in Edo era Japan with lots of brothels, inn keepers and temples. The first two stories were a bit confusing but after them I started enjoying all the others a lot. Here's a proper review of the book from Rob Clough.

Desert Island Comics

I picked my desert island comics for the Forbidden Planet blog here. I went for mainly really long books thinking they would last me a long time.

Time Travel Page

Here's a page of time travelling from the new comic story I'm drawing at the moment. I'm trying out a sort of cross hatching instead of using grey wash, for a change.

New Giant Ice Cream Sign

Me and my dad have made the biggest ice cream sign yet on a big yellow banner. My lettering has gone a bit wonky on the ice cream, but I'm happy with it. Here it is on the ice cream stall at the Harpers Lane Allotments Open Day yesterday.

'The Interpretation of Dreams'

Here's the first half page of the three page story I managed to finish last week.

101 Failed Comics Projects

Recently I've been having a lot of trouble thinking of anything I want to draw, here's some of my many failed projects which I've given up on.
This was a story I started drawing about 'Stabby Joe', who is a lot like the Scarlet Pimpernel, but I got bored of it. I did eight pages or so. Here's a couple more pages..

 This was a story I started drawing about my Professor character riding round on a segway on an alien world, but I instantly went off the idea. 

I redrew this page in black and white as part of the only three page story I have managed to finish recently. It's called 'The Interpretation of Dreams'.

Comics I Got at Milton Keynes Comic Fair

Here's a photo of the comics I bought and traded at the Milton Keynes Comics Fair.
They are (from the top) 'The Lion and the Unicorn - Volume 0' by Ash Pure. This is a very fancy comic all in colour with nice printing, about an alternate reality Britain with lots of psychic powers.
'Too Much Sex and Violence - Issue 3' by Rol Hirst and many artists. This is my favourite issue yet of this series, its getting better as the stories build and I really like the cover.
'Monkeys Might Puke - Volume 2 Issue 1' by Dan Lester. More 'Monkeys Might Puke'! I really like the shitty leprechaun story.
'The Whale House - part 1' by Andrew Cheverton and Chris Doherty. This is a great start to a new series, it's very intriguing. A man called Diggory finds out he was adopted and then ends up at a strange house where everyone seems to know him, but think he is someone else. I'll be very interested to see where this goes next and Chris' drawing is great.
'Thunder Brother: Soap Division - 1 The Apprentice' by Paul Rainey. I like this a lot and even though I've read it all on the internet it's great to have it on paper as it's much more fun to read. I do like things on paper better. The back up stories are good too.

Kyle Baddeley - Silent V Part 6

Here's the penultimate issue of Kyle Baddeley's 'Silent V' series. I'm glad to see that he's starting to wrap things up and explain things instead of adding more new characters. There are lots of weird twists and turns still.  The drawing is as good as the last issue where he had improved a lot. I'm looking forward to the final issue and then I'll be able to re-read the whole series. There's another back up strip in here as well called 'Maggot Lump' which is fun. Here's a link to his blog.

Comical Animal

There's a new Comical Animal out now with a four page story I drew. Why not go and have a look?

Milton Keynes Comics Show Report

I had a very good time at the Milton Keynes Comics Show. It was in the Milton Keynes Art Gallery where they had a very interesting exhibition of work by Pushwagner. He's a Norwegian artist who I had never heard of before. Its very good stuff.
I sold a decent number of comics and made lots of good swops, I'll write about the comics I got in another post. The show was nice and busy and it was great to catch up with all the cartoonists. Thanks to everyone who bought anything and Paul Rainey for organising the show!