Greetings etc

The festivities are almost behind us, the guests have departed, the house is quiet once more...

Regroup Re-energize

Having failed to take any decent pictures at Leeds, I give you a blurry one of the giant who came by our midget table. The weekend went smoothly with my excellent companions Sally Anne and Paul, despite a freezing cold and dimly lit hall. The party took place in a sort of shopping mall and felt oddly soulless— but maybe that was just me.

Sean gave us a pep talk and reorganised our table, alas too late to make much difference but we are determined to be more focused come Angouleme. A midweek walk through the park with Heather Johns to the Dulwich Picture gallery and the Whistler exhibition fired me up to do a spot of lino printing. Saturday saw Sally Anne and I at the lovely Jeffrey Brown's workshop at Orbital. He showed us how to draw Star Wars characters — you never know when that may come in useful.

Bubbling away

Next weekend I shall be at Thought Bubble in Leeds, hopefully crashing at the boy's pad. I will have a couple of new things on the table – about bloody time, you might say. I will be sharing space again with my lovely fellow Dessinator Sally Anne Hickman and according to the plan we will be canal side in the new Allied London Hall. The event seems to have grown exponentially so we won't even be in the same building as another Dessinator, Sean Azzopardi... See you there!

Comiket coming up

The Dessinators are back this time with a second helping of selected comics from myself, Sally Anne Hickman and Sean Azzopardi, and will be found at St Martin's College of Art in King's Cross at Comiket on Saturday 2 November. Having been firing off in all different directions over the last few months , we are coming together once more, with renewed perspective and inspiration. While I have mostly been attending to family business, Sean seems to have been popping up at events all over the globe, while Sally Anne is embarking on a M.A. in illustration at Camberwell.

However, being faced with the necessity to produce material, I managed to pull something out of the bag and seem to be back on track for now.

Lets hand it to some top performers

On Wednesday night after our Jaime Hernandez encounter, Sally Anne and I headed on to the Phoenix for Comica Social Club. There I bumped into Alex Potts who happened to be touting his latest Lost Shoe comic, Hand. I am an admirer of the gentleman's work, and this does not disappoint. Thursday Nick and I took in the Bowie exhibit which was well worth the effort — a great use of sound and vision, covering all aspects of his creativity. The songs stand the test of time, and retain the old excitement in the gallery dedicated to his live performance (or maybe I'm just showing my age). Eat your heart out, Madonna. Yesterday, Gary Northfield launched Teenytinosaurs with cake and booze. His whacky little creations frolic exhuberantly in the land before time bringing joy to any age group. If anyone is going to steal Quentin Blake's crown, I put my money on Gary.

From Superheroes to Heroes

Last weekend, Sally Anne and I (wo)manned our table at MCM, having decided to brave the event again. It was not as gruelling as the last time – no drummers or sweltering heat – but still pretty exhausting. We had a great neighbour in the lovely Howard Hardiman, and there was a fair amount of space behind the stalls so it was not as uncomfortable an experience as previously. Check out Sally Anne's blog for more extensive coverage and Sean Azzopardi's for many more photos, but here is our table. And my favourite cosplayer with the bestest costume of the whole weekend... Wednesday evening was mucho fun: I got to (sort of) meet the incredibly amazing Jaime Hernandez at Gosh – well, stand quite close and sketch him anyhoo... and followed that high with winning a prize in the Comica Social Club raffle! Result!

New arrivals

Look what arrived today! I may not have any new goodies ready yet, but having sold out of this old perennial I've decided to reprint a second edition – complete with barcode – so I can reach a wider audience. And the table plan for Comiket has finally been posted. I will be seated with Sean and Sally Anne, with all their exciting new wares, on table 5 tomorrow in the Studio Theatre at Central St Martins. Come and say hi!

Springfest

Spring is here at last. At least I think so. Saturday I will be joining my fellow Dessinators Sally Anne and Sean at a table at Comiket, this time relocated to Central St Martins behind King's Cross. For more information about exhibitors click HERE through to the page Liz Lunney has cleverly set up on facebook.

Springing back into action

OK. I'm back. First more Angouleme report: before it all evaporates, I will mention some more highlights. Comes, master of black and white compositions and tales of witchcraft in rural Ardennes, was celebrated with an exhibition and saluted with a standing ovation at the closing ceremony. But as I check the Angouleme website for a link to his artwork, I find that we have just lost another great. There was a fascinating lecture from Jean Pierre Dionnet about mysterious italian fumetto artist Devi, a chance to catch Vuillemin in the flesh being quizzed about press cartooning , lovely nibbles and drinks at the opening of Brecht Evens'La Boite a Gand exhibition, and much hilarity at the polling booth when exercising our right to vote. Disappointments included the Spirou documentary and the Uderzo exhibition ( not enough original artwork among the blow-ups of pages and giant fibreglass models). And I never found my sketchbook. However I will move on. And draw more sketches. Like this. I will be appearing at Comiket next month, and have applied for table space at MCM London, along with my good friends The Dessinators.

Sketchless

A terrible thing happened on the way back from Angouleme. Somehow my sketchbook went missing. I have not entirely given up hope but it is fading fast and I have no sketches to post. This year had been particularly magical as I got the chance to cast my vote for one of my all-time heroes of the pen to be the next President of the Jury, the incredible Willem. And not only had I had the chance to shake his hand, and subsequently have a few beers in his company, he had drawn in said sketchbook, examined it, and I had made several sketches of him. However he won the prize (Hallelujah!) and so he will be back next year. Though in his capacity as King of the Festival he may not be as free to mingle anonymously again.

Apart from this upsetting hiccup, the festival was as usual a joyous five days of exhibitions, talks, meeting old chums and new, with a lot of sketching and a bit of selling. And Hugo finally made the trip and joined me for two and a half days of boulimie BD. I will report in more detail in my next post.

Dessinators are go

It's been a while – I won't go in to the events of the last few months, suffice to say, Angouleme is upon us, and we are once again heading to foreign parts to spread the word of the London comics. We are now The Dessinators, a name which I believe will stick. Sean, Sally Ann, Dan, Oliver and I will be manning the table as usual. This year we will be flanked by none other than Paul Gravett, Peter Stanbury and the Comica Festival gang on one side, and the lovely Italians of Passenger Press on the other. Come and pay us all a visit in the Alternative Press tent. I have been preparing for the trip, as my kitchen bears witness.