Crouchfest and confessions

It's been a busy old week or two, starting with CECAF, for which Sean and I spent a Sunday painting backdrops we never used ...

followed by the day itself which was a rip roaring success: a wonderfully lo-fi fest of good vibes and great small press comics in a friendly venue with a BAR. Click for review.

Tuesday evening saw Sally Anne and myself heading to Kennington for a special tour of Sarah Lightman's Graphic Details exhibition of comics by women with some of the artists represented. We got to meet Diane Noomin and Miriam Katin!

Do try and get down there before December 13 – you will be rewarded by some amazing work in a fabulous gallery. And it's FREE.

CECAF is NOW

Tomorrow the very first CECAF will be taking place in Crouch End from 11am to 6pm. The brilliant Sean Azzopardi has assembled a bunch of comic creators to stage an event and cheer us all up in these dark wintry days. Such talents as Gary Northfield, Gareth Brookes, Oliver Lambden, Paul Rainey, Sally Anne Hickman will be joining Sean and myself along with many others. Check out the website or CECAF'S facebook page and find out who else will be there and how to get there. Oh and it's FREE. Do pop down – we'd love to see you.

Lost dog found

Look what just came in the post. I loved this book when I was little and Bettina's loose illustration style was one of my many inspirations. My copy of Pantaloni got lost many years ago, so thank you interweb and Marchhousebooks.

I have tried and I know I don't yet come close to her use of colour, but now I will persevere and push through the laziness.

Punks in Paris

We girls are off to Paree again soon. Here we are in my contribution to Julia Scheele's forthcoming Anthology of all things Punk and female! It's called Double Dare Ya and you can still contribute to the project if ya like. And it's not too late to vote for ChiChiRaRa as best shop in East Dulwich either. I thank you.

Punk Power

Finished and sent off my contribution to the uber-talented Julia Scheele's crowd-funded Double Dare Ya! Rrrrrriot Grrrl project. You can still contribute via Indiegogo to make it an even bigger better book! My strip also features a guest appearance by my old mucker from the punk days, the equally amazing Heather Johns whose ChiChiRaRa vintage emporium has just been nominated for the Time Out Love London Awards as one of the best shops in East Dulwich.

Found art

While trawling through old files I found this...

Saturation celebration

A soggy Bank Holiday didn't dampen our fun as we celebrated the blessed Lucy and attended a poochy beauty pageant. 24 years ago Lucy made her appearance in a Carnival heatwave, but this time only Ned braved the relentless rain and got soaked to soca, while we chose the shelter of Spitalfields Market to coo over furry fashionistas - my personal favourite being Goldilocks and her three tiny bears for concept and cuteness. Now we all want a dog...

I have been back at the drawing board , having designed a logo for Sean Azzopardi's upcoming festival CECAF, while getting on with my Strumpet submission.

Dig that vibe

I'm back from parts foreign where, as you can see here, I have been working hard... and not just on my tan.

Flexing my comic muscles again, I will be appearing with my fellow Dessinators this Saturday 16 August at Comica Comiket at the British Library.

And while I am posting it turns out I should have been at the Ladeez do Comics curator's tour of the Comics Unmasked exhibition. Sorry, Nicola. I am such an arse.

Doctor's orders

Last week saw the launch of Ian Williams' much anticipated excellent graphic novel The Bad Doctor in the Oh so appropriate setting of Barts Pathology Museum. Wine was imbibed, speeches were spoken and readings read among jars of weird and wonderful body parts. Get well soon, Corinne!

I have been doing the occasional shift at our local independent cinema for several weeks now – gets me out of the house. The bijou Lexi in Kensal Rise is the perfect place to enjoy a glass of wine, goat cheese popcorn and a movie. And it's all for a good cause!

Processing

A couple of sketchbook pages. This is how some stuff seeps out of my mind...

For more about Friday's happenings check out Andy Oliver's Broken Frontier report. Recently I have been doing shifts at the brilliant Lexi Cinema. Bijou, independent and local (to me), all its profits go to charity and they show my kind of movies in a chilled setting – although the Postman Pat crowd yesterday afternoon drew a pretty hardcore audience.

Myriad Prize announcement

The announcement of the winner was wonderful event. All the finalists, Henny Beaumont, Wallis Eates, Jessica Martin, Jade Sarson, Rob Great Balls of Fire Wells and myself were introduced by Corinne Pearlman after a reading by previous winner Gareth Brookes. We each got to talk about our work to the judges and feel special – Nicola Streeten, Woodrow Phoenix, Meg Rosoff and Andy Oliver were on the panel along with Corinne. Afterwards we toasted Jade with a glass of bubbly. I may not have won the award but what an honour to be featured in such brilliant company. I'm still buzzing from all the good vibes and love. Thank you to everyone for the support and encouragement.

Revelation

I am gearing up for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Award Announcement on May 23. If anyone feels like coming along to cheer/commiserate/laugh, whatever, it will be much appreciated.

Join the club

Or not.

Momentous News

It appears I have been shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Prize! Wow. Bravo! Well done to me, my friend Rob Wells and the other four shortlistees to have got this far. Check out the announcement on Broken Frontier for a full list of names. And good luck to us all!

Going old-school

I have been reading Fiona McCarthy's biographies of Burne-Jones and William Morris and feel shamed and inspired by the productivity of the Pre Raphaelites and Arts and Crafts guys. I woudn't in any way compare my work to theirs, but to not even find the time to get on with my poor scribbles... They achieved such a body of work in such a variety of media AND kept a wide circle of friends, raised families and traveled abroad long before the advent of phones, cars, air travel, let alone the interwebs... All this technology that is supposed to facilitate communication, education and contact, maybe it just makes us lazier. Spoilt by such a wealth of easily accessible entertainment and information, are we becoming spectators – witnessing but not truly engaging? I certainly feel the need to clear my head, as my brain becomes crowded with more trivia and I constantly compare myself unfavourably with my perception of other people's dynamism. To top it all, not content with turning out huge canvasses, illustrated volumes of poetry, designs for stained glass and tapestries, furniture and tiles, the aforementioned would knock off a prodigious amount of letters, often adorned with cartoons and caricatures I would be proud to show off. Some like this example are even actual comic strips.

Edward Burne-Jones, 'The Artist Attempting to Join the World of Art with Disastrous Results', 1880s, British Museum

Gone girl

I have left facebook. Let's see how that works out.

The trouble with facebook

Weekend friends

The last few days have been super comic-y, starting with Friday night's Gosh event at which Woodrow Phoenix quizzed Darryl Cunningham, Joe Decie and Lizz Lunney about their working processes. I'd arranged to meet fellow cartoonist Jennifer Hayden and family there on a visit from the States. Nick came down and we all repaired for a pint or two down Portobello. How gratifying that Jennifer swears as much as I do.

Saturday saw a long overdue reunion of most of the old LUC gang at Oliver Lambden's groovy gaff. Too long, guys, must do better!

I managed to produce a typical English roast on Sunday to restore Jennifer, Steve and the lovely Charlotte after a gruelling day of sightseeing and dealing with the buggered tube system. Hope they've forgiven me my rudeness about Downton Abbey and Princess Di...

Cooking

Bluebells and body parts

A lovely spring outing to the Watts Gallery and Chapel in Compton.

Blinded by the light

Wow. As I was busy cooking Sunday lunch yesterday, unbeknownst to me, I had been spotlighted in the British Comic Month column on the Gosh website!

Instantly lifting my mood from this

to this. Thus proving my craven desperation for attention while cremating the Sunday roast. I feel totally honoured and amazed. I do try to keep up with this blog but haven't updated my actual website for some time. Maybe this will shame me into doing so.

Badass puss and poodle wuss

Took in Gustave Doré at the Musee d'Orsay last week – still has to be the coolest, baddest Puss in Boots ever!

Going through photos at Hugo's, a faded print with an oddly prohibition-era gangster vibe. Waiting for the bus to Montelimar with Zola - 1974.

Tomorrow

Yay

Autopraise

Comics trips and comic strips

Last night saw me venture to the West End to this month's Ladeez do Comics and bump into my old pal David Baillie.

Cliodna Lyons was giving an account of her six month round the world trip with slides aplenty and notebooks full of sketches. Taking in 25 countries – St Helena, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, China, Mongolia and Russia to list a few – she travelled as much as possible via train or boat. One hell of an experience that will no doubt engender a wealth of projects for the intrepid traveller. A presentation by A. Dee of his 3D character work was followed by an all too brief tour of the work, background and mind of a cartoonist whose loose linework has delighted me for almost thirty years.

The brilliantly inquisitive and wonderfully glamorous Steven Appleby is as charming as his art, and he very graciously signed a copy of his Guide to Life for me.

Midget vs midget

Sketching it as it comes out