Paddy Johnston - Ballgame #1

This is a nice little comic by Paddy Johnston. It's almost a sports comic, I wonder if the second issue will show some games, but this one is more of an autobiographical comic. Paddy grows up trying to like football to fit in, but he never really gets into it. He goes to try out for the football team but plays really badly and doesn't like all the swearing. He is very into Peanuts and so has a romantic view of baseball but the one game of softball he gets to play at school ends in disaster. The final page shows him as the captain of the Hawks Softball Team, as they practice for a game in London, so issue two will have to show how he ended up there.

I went watching a game of baseball once in Korea and it was very boring, I bet it's a lot more fun to play than to watch. Also you probably have to support one of the teams to get into it, and have some idea of what is going on. There were a lot of flashing lights and noises from the scoreboard, like I'd imagined there would be.

'Santa Express'

Here's another long panel from my new comic. It seems very weird to be drawing pictures of Christmas in March.

RobotCon Sheffield Report

It was RobotCon on Saturday so I had a half table next to Nick Soucek. It was a lovely sunny day which hurt the numbers at the show, I think, a lot of people had gone for a day out in the sun instead. It was a bit quiet and I had very poor sales early on and got quite depressed. Luckily it picked up after two o'clock  so I did ok in the end. It was very nice to meet up with all the cartoonists again and catch up. Thanks everyone who came along to my stall and looked at stuff or bought something! It was a nicely set up show again, in a good room, with some actual windows so we could see the sunshine.

'Flying Sausage Academy' Reviews

Optical Sloth is reviewing all the rest of my 'Flying Sausage Academy' series.

Here's a new review of 'Flying Sausage Academy 2' from Optical Sloth. Thanks Kevin!

Here's a new review of 'Flying Sausage Academy 3'. 

Here's a new review of 'Flying Sausage Academy 4' 

I'll have all the issues for sale at Sheffield RobotCon on Saturday or you can buy the whole series from my website.

RobotCon Sheffield on Saturday

I'll be at RobotCon in Sheffield on Saturday at the Millenium Gallery in the city centre. I'll have lots of comics with me, such as 'Ragnar the Cheesemonger', all four issues of 'Flying Sausage Academy', 'RhiZome' and my new 'Japan' sketchbook. Why not come along if you live nearby, it was a really good show last year.

Nekojiro - Nekojiro Udon 1

This is the last of the manga books I bought on holiday. I remembered Nekojiro from 'Secret Comics Japan' or 'Sake Jock', one of those early books of underground Japanese comics. Do you remember when that was the only way to see any weird manga? This collection has the story from there, the one where they hold a court to judge insects in their backyard. The other stories are all different types, a lot are dark, weird or philosophical. The stories usually star the brother and sister cats. They can be cruel, but they are cats after all.

Here's a double page from a story about priests trying to convert the cats, but they are not keen.

Talking on the Train

There's a lot of talking in my new comic.

Matsumoto Taiyou - No. 5 Volume 1

 This is a very fancy manga from Matsumoto Taiyou. It has lots of colour dustjackets and fold out paintings. It's about a group of global security masters who are protecting the world. One of them goes rogue so the others decide whether to kill them or what else to do. It's a lovely looking book so well worth buying for the artwork, as always with Matsumoto. This was the hardest of my manga purchases to follow so I didn't understand the story properly, the first two came out in English but they never finished the series which is a shame.

 It is full of drawings of animals, nearly every page has at least a few.

 There's a lot of violent fights in some sections as the masters try to kill each other with assassins or by battling in the thick dark forests.

There is a very fancy colour fold out painting at the back of the book, with a lot more animals.

Illustrations

I've been drawing a load of illustrations for my Dad's new longer allotment story. Here's half of them. I hope he likes them.

Wagon and Signal Box

Another panel from my new comic.

Atsushi Kaneko - Bambi and Her Pink Gun Vol 2 - 1

 This is a fun manga I picked up. I'd heard of Bambi somewhere so it caught my eye. Bambi is driving her tiny car (with eyes painted on) through the post apocalyptic landscape. She has kidnapped a child who is always starving to eat as much junk food as possible. There's a massive reward on the child's return so all the gangs of bikers, bandits, crazed truckers, Mexican wrestlers and psychopaths are out to kill her. It's very Mad Max. She kills a lot of people with her gun.

It's got a very nice print job with lots of different colours of printing for different chapters, tinted pages and ends up all red in a massive explosion.

Night Trains

A panel I like from my new comic. I am back drawing it again now after a break.