'RhiZome 4' Covers

Here's Kyle Baddely-Read's front cover and my back cover for 'RhiZome 4' all cleaned up now. Now to put the stories in order...

1000th Blog Post

It's my 1000th blog post! That's a lot isn't it, so I thought I'd write out some thoughts and news.

News
I've finished drawing 'Ragnar the Cheesemonger' now, it's 52 pages long. I'm going to start scanning and cleaning the pages today, then I'll send it to the printers. 'RhiZome 4' is almost finished too. It will be the final issue, I think four is enough, and I want to try some different anthologies. Once all the scanning and cleaning is done I want to draw the fourth and final part of 'Flying Sausage Academy'.

It doesn't look like I'll be going to any more comic shows this year. I've tried for a few and not got a table, and the other shows aren't worth doing for me. If some great show turns up that I haven't heard of, I'd go to it though. If you are waiting to see me somewhere to buy my comics why not buy them online instead.

I've missed not getting any reviews this year. It's sad that Richard Bruton gave up reviewing. He didn't always love my comics but he always said interesting things, and some he liked a lot. Rob Clough has started reviewing again so maybe I'll get some reviews from him soon. No one else will review my work, if you'd like to get in touch. What happened to random people giving me bad reviews? I miss them too.

I'll never give up doing comics. I'm looking forward to drawing some new stories which I have no ideas about yet. What will they be about? Maybe I'll do a new ice cream comic about my business.


Also I've had a read through the posts and made a time line. It'll be handy for me anyhow to remember what year things happened.

I started this blog in May 2008 just before going to the big Bristol Comics Show again. I was living in my old tiny wonky house then, here's my old drawing desk set up...  and here's my new set up. My new set up is really nice, its got a lot of light.

In 2008 I brought out '8 Stories' (see here), now sold out. I went to Bristol and Birmingham comic shows.

In 2009 I brought out 'Bog Wizards 2', 'The Pasty Anthology', 'Great Deeds Against the Dead - 1' 'Great Deeds Against the Dead - 2' and went to Leeds Thoughtbubble and the Birmingham Comic Show.

In 2010 I brought out the 'Gin Palace 1' anthology (I really like that anthology, it sold out a couple of years ago) and went to the UK Web and Minicomix Thing and Schmurgencon. Then in May I went to TCAF, that was very exciting. I brought out 'Goblin Hall' and 'Gin Palace - 2'. I quit my day job this year and started my business making and selling ice cream, black peas and soup on markets and being a cheesemonger.

In 2011 I brought out 'The Gods Must be Bastards', I went to Angouleme, I brought out 'Flying Leaf Creature', and 'It's a Man's Life in the Ice Cream Business' I went to Bristol and Sheffield Zine fairs.

In 2012 I brought out 'Segway' (now out of print), 'California 1' and spent a lot of time drawing 'The Storytellers'.

In 2013 I brought out 'The Storytellers' (finally), 'California 2', 'California 3', 'California 4', 'RhiZome 1' and 'A Handful of Groats', I went to Bristol Comics and Zine Fest and Thoughtbubble.

In 2014 I drew 'Bradley the Tree leaf' as an online comic and the 'Slaves of the Megapode' trilogy. 'RhiZome 2' came out.

In 2015 I brought out 'Flying Sausage Academy 1' and 'RhiZome 3' and my second book 'Corporation Pop'.

'RhiZome' Anthology Sale

I want to get the next issue of me and Kyle's 'RhiZome Anthology' printed so I am having a sale on the first three issues. Thety are all on sale at just £2.50 each on my Comicsy site, with free postage in the UK.  Why not try an issue and see if you would like to get the fourth issue when it comes out in a couple of months. They don't follow on from each other so you could buy any one you fancy. If you would like any issues and live abroad it would be £2.50 an issue plus an extra £2 postage, please contact me.

I'm going to run this sale till the end of May.

Issue One- 

This is co-edited by me and Kyle Baddeley-Read. Its a 48 page science-fiction / fantasy anthology. Halfway between A4 and A5 in size, black and white with colour covers.
It features work by Max Mose, me, Kyle Baddeley-Read, John Robbins and Pete Batchelor. Here’s a preview of the comic, and here’s the RhiZome tumblr.
Here’s a review from Optical Sloth-

I can’t help it, it’s just been beaten into me over the years: I get nervous whenever somebody puts the first part of a continuing story in an anthology. I’ve been proven wrong to be nervous about this before, but I’ve also been proven right plenty of times. Which is to say that Rob Jackson has a fascinating first part of a story in here, and I’d really rather the rest of the story wasn’t lost forever because there was never a second issue of this series. Eh, don’t mind me, I’m working on being less pessimistic in the new year. The other stories are all self-contained, so no worries there. These other stories include Max Mose’s tale of a civilization wandering the stars in search of more of the nuclear weapons that destroyed their homeworld, Kyle Baddeley-Read and his piece on the benefits of child slavery (to the children), John Robbins with his story of a man who discovers a giant hole in his stomach and his conversations with his therapist about it, and Pete Batchelor’s tale of a man who thought that he had outsmarted the apocalypse by freezing himself and thawing himself out in 2130. Pretty great stuff all around, and it all added up to a really odd and fantastic vibe for the book as a whole. Oh, and Rob’s story, as I mentioned, won me over completely. It’s all about a man who’s annoyed at getting his new job while also happy because he desperately needed the money. Which wouldn’t be that odd of a story, but this man goes into his first day and finds another man there who has his name and who kind of looks like him. This is more than just a simple coincidence or there’d be no story here, obviously, but the direction that it seems to be taking has me really curious to see what happens next. So check it out, is what I’m saying. Even if future parts of Rob’s story disappear completely (and he has a pretty good track record of finishing his stories so far), then this works perfectly well all by itself.

Issue Two-

Contains new stories by-
S Tyler Stafford
Kyle Baddeley-Read
Rob Jackson
John Robbins
Dave Huxley
Nick Soucek
and an interview with Tony Husband

Issue Three-

Science fiction and fantasy anthology edited by Rob Jackson and Kyle Baddeley-Read. 28 pages, halfway between A5 and A4 in size. Black and white with colour covers.
Contains stories by – William Cardini, Kyle Baddeley-Read, Rob Jackson and Nick Soucek.

Here's a review from the Forbidden Planet blog. 

Thanks! Any money I make in the sale will help for the printing of issue 4. 

This sale is now over, thanks everyone!

'Ragnar the Cheesemonger' Front and Back Covers

Here's the front and back covers for 'Ragnar the Cheesemonger', I've not cleaned them up yet. I just need to make some money selling ice cream and then I can send these to the printers. The comic will be 52 pages long.

Sheffield Zine Fest Report

Sheffield Zine Fest was good again this year, I really enjoyed it. It had moved to a new venue, the Hubs, where the student union things are. It was a nice big space and still very near to the train station. It was a little quieter than other years, maybe because it was the bank holiday weekend with a lot of other stuff going on, but the people who came were very interested and bought lots of my comics. In the end I broke even on the day, with travel and table costs, so I'm always happy to do that. Thanks everyone who looked at my stuff or bought anything and thanks to the organisers for another very well run event!

It was great to catch up with Simon Moreton and Nick Soucek who had booked tables. I did lots of swaps and bought some zines too, here they are below...

I got Simon Moreton's 'Minor Leagues #1' which is Simon's new zines / comic project, Nick Soucek's 'The Writing on My Shoes' which I have read now and is very good, 'The Downfall' by Brunez, 'Sex with Animals' by Jacob Louis Beaney, 'Adventures in Menstrating #7' by Chella Quint, 'About a Girl #1' by Sam Duffy and 'You are Not the Worst' by Doug Jensen. I'm going to read the rest of them soon once I recover from the weekend. I had markets on Sunday and Monday after the zine fest so I'm knackered now.