Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone. Here's Pedro with his little tree. Now to teach him the true meaning of Christmas.

Comic Recommendations - Simon Moreton's 'Plans We Made'

Here's the last of my comic recommendations from Leeds Thoughtbubble, Simon Moreton's 'Plans We Made'. It's a memoir about teenage years spent in Marlow with his childhood friends, some from when he was twelve, and then getting older when he's about sixteen or so. It's drawn in his very minimal style, with very few words and panels. I really liked it. At first the kids just wander about happily and Simon remembers lots of little moments, sneaking out at night and wandering around in the woods. Later they start thinking about things a lot, so I guess the book is about growing up and losing your childhood feelings / wanting to move away. I especially liked a section where they get really drunk, in the special way you get when young, and he remembers the way they eventually get home. Highly recommended. Here's a proper review of it.

'So, The Headmaster Was Wondering...'

Another row of panels from 'Flying Sausage Academy 3'. I'm on page sixteen now, so two thirds done.

Comic Recommendations- Lydia Wysocki's 'Un Pear Able' and 'Andalusia'

 Lydia Wysocki's  'Andalusia' is a really good holiday sketchbook from July 2015. It's very fancy as if you have a smart phone and download an app for it, you can point the phone camera at the drawings and it shows you Lydia's photos from the same place. The drawings are really nice, as is the book design. I really like the inside covers where the drawings are placed on photos of floors and walls from the holiday. The only places in the book I've been to are the Alcazabar fortress in Malaga, and Malaga airport. 

'Un Pear Able' is a collection of puns about pears. There are a pear of books here too. I like both puns and pears so I liked these. The two books are sewn together in different ways, one fancy with stitching and letterpress hand done lettering, and one not so fancy, with string, but they both look very cool.

'Where Did it Come From?'

Another row of panels from 'Flying Sausage Academy 3'.

Comic Recommendations - William Cardini 'Vortex'

I didn't get this book at Thoughtbubble, I traded for it a month before, but I'm doing little reviews of all the books I liked this year. More Thoughtbubble comics to come in the rest of this month.

William Cardini's 'Vortex' is a very cool book. It starts with the Miizzzard, a powerful space sorceror, flying in his space ship to a new planet that is giving off curious readings. On the surface he meets and fights a weird alien race, who turn out to be sentient weapons created for some ancient and forgotten war. Have a look at the double page spread I've scanned above. The artwork is very interesting, and all done with computer textures which gives it a really strange otherworldly feel. The planet, and the long battle between the characters, come off as very alien things indeed. Highly recommended.

'How Was School, Son?'

Here's a row of panels from page six of 'Flying Sausage Academy 3'.

Comic Recommendations- Sean Azzopardi 'Tracks' & Nick Soucek 'Anthropocene'

 'Tracks' by Sean Azzopardi 
This is a very good comic about travelling, comic shows and remembering things. I think it's about living in the present and not dwelling too much on past adventures, however fun they were. It's got Sean travelling to SPX and remembering / retelling a drunken story from Leeds a few years earlier. Then he travels more, in America and Italy, meeting other old friends and thinking about their shared memories. There's a lot of very interesting drawing, trying loads of different ways to show the past and thoughts.

'Anthropocene- The Age of Man' by Nick Soucek. 
Another very interesting comic. This one has 23 images of cities and the countryside, in the Anthropocene, which is the age of the earth in which we live now, where man has the biggest effect on the environment. They are really nice grey toned drawings. I especially like the pylons and the oil wells.

Row of Panels from 'Flying Sausage Academy 3'

Here's a row of panels from page two of 'Flying Sausage Academy 3'.

Comic Recommendations- Rob Brown 'Killjoy #4' & Martin Flink 'The Troll'

I'm writing little review things for the comics I got from Thoughtbubble this year. Here's the first two, I haven't got round to reading a lot of them yet. After Thoughtbubble I had to have a week without any comics at all, but now I have started drawing again and feel better about comics. I have even had a new idea, but it needs some work yet. I only have one idea so far and I like to have four or five and then squish them all together.

 Rob Brown's 'Killjoy #4' was great. It's the fourth in this series telling stories from his childhood. I think the issues are coming out faster now, which is good. There are six stories of different lengths. My favourite was 'After School...' where he and his brother are round his grandparents house and pretend to be asleep in order to get carried home by his mum. There's a nightmare story too which gives him the chance to draw lots of motorbikes in a much looser way. The drawing there reminds me of seventies action manga.

Martin Flink's 'The Troll'. This is a silent comic published by Accent UK. The drawing is really good. It's the story of a little boy staying on holiday with his parents, in a cabin in the woods. He wanders off to play and finds a troll. It's short but beautiful, and all in colour too, with very nice Scandinavian landscapes.

'New Worry Dream'

Here's some photos of my three page story 'New Worry Dream'. My worry dreams are very cliched.

Leeds Thoughtbubble Report

I got quite a lot of stuff at Thoughtbubble this year, here's a picture of it all. I haven't read any yet but I'll put something on here about them all when I do.

I got 'Un Pearable', 'Andalusia', 'Spineless' and 'True War Stories' from Lydia Wysocki. I got 'Anthropocene - The Age of Man' from Nick Soucek. I got 'Tracks' from Sean Azzopardi. I got 'The Troll' by Martin Flink from the Accent UK table. I got 'Killjoy 4' from Rob Brown. And I got 'Plans We Made' from Simon Moreton.

Getting to and from Leeds this year was a right pain. It's not far to Leeds is it, but all the travelling was bad. There were points failures, floods, cancelled trains and lots and lots of delays. I had a quiet sort of show, I did alright Saturday morning and then nothing Saturday afternoon (which is the opposite of normal). Sunday went pretty well, I did some good trades and then sold some comics at the end of the show. I didn't sell many comics to people I don't know, so that was disappointing. I did sell a 'Corporation Pop' to a woman dressed as a giant yellow carrot so that was cool. I won't have a stall next year, I'll just come along on the Sunday as a punter and see everyone.

Thanks everyone who bought or traded something! Also thanks to Russell Stearman for cheering me up from the next table and listening to all my jabberings.
If you didn't get the chance to get to my stall everything is available at my online shop.

Leeds Thoughtbubble

I'll be at Leeds Thoughtbubble this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. I'll be at table 187a in New Dock Hall. 
I haven't been to a comic festival for ages so it should be great to catch up with everyone, come and say hello. I'm not staying over so I won't be around in the evenings, I'll see how that works out.

I've got my new graphic novel / long comic 'Corporation Pop' at its festival debut. It will be priced at £8. Here's the first review of it from Richard Bruton at Forbidden Planet.

I'll also have the other two comics I've brought out this year, 'Flying Sausage Academy 1' and 'RhiZome 3', and I'll have some new copies of my Roman detective story 'Slaves of the Megapode'. See you there!

New Worry Dream

I've started drawing again. The first thing I am drawing is a very strange worry dream I had a few months ago. It was so strange it woke me up so I wrote it down. It'll get me going again.

New Desk Set Up

I've moved house now and got my old desk set up again a new place (it's in the front room). Time to get back to drawing after months and months of decorating.

Old 'Random Journeys' Advert

While moving my shelves I found this old advert I made and handed out, at a Bristol Comics Expo a long time ago. I still like 'Random Journeys' (except for some of the drawings). Photocopying was so cheap back when I had these comics made, I could even afford colour photocopied covers.

Moving House Sale on Comicsy

I'm moving house in two weeks so until then I'm having a sale on some of my older comics at my Comicsy page.    Why not have a look? I am selling three different packs of comics on the cheap.

  All three (so far) issues of RhiZome Anthology for £7, with free postage in the UK.

Goblin Hall and four minicomics for £5, with free postage in the UK.

'Gods Must be Bastards', 'Goblin Hall' and three other comics for £7, with free postage in the UK.

Due to the price of postage abroad these deals are only for people in the UK. Thanks!

UPDATE_ The sale is over now, thanks everyone who tweeted about it, had a look or bought something! Thanks!

'Run, You Curs, Run'

Here's a row of panels from near the end of  'Flying Sausage Academy 2'.

News

I've just come back from a little holiday in the Jura which was very nice.

I liked these cathedral pillars, I'll try and use them in a comic. We saw a lot of waterfalls and ate a lot of cheese.

My comics shop is open again now, here's the three new comics I've brought out this year. Why not have a look? I've been having a break from drawing for a while, but I'll get going again in a week or so. The next issue of 'Flying Sausage Academy' is all drawn and ready to send to the printer when I have some money, and I want to start a new comic too once I get a new idea.

'Pusan' Comic - Part Three

Here's the last part of the 'Pusan' story and my three page canoeing story 'Blood and White Water'.

'Pusan' Comic - Part Two

Here's part two of the 'Pusan' Story. I'll put the last part up tomorrow.

'Pusan' Comic - Part One

This is the first part of a comic I did for the 'Bastards 2' anthology. Click on the images to make them bigger. I'll put the rest up this week.

Review of 'Corporation Pop'

Here's the first review of 'Corporation Pop' from Richard Bruton, at the Forbidden Planet blog. Thanks Richard!

All my comics are on sale at my website and at my Comicsy page.  

Covers for 'Flying Sausage Academy 2'

Here's the front and back covers for 'Flying Sausage Academy 2'. These scans aren't very good, the actual colours are much nicer. The comics all finished, I'll bring it out in the Autumn or Winter once I make some more money.