After show

Took my Lexi exhibition down this weekend. How time flies!

Somehow got sidetracked and didn't get round to blogging these past weeks, and now it's over. The work looked great in the venue, such a lovely space, and I got very positive feedback. Such a good turn out at the launch – that night was really special. And thank you to all who made it to Kensal Rise at any time! It was a really fun experience. Might do it again if asked.

Exhibition

I will be making a show of myself as of next Wednesday 18 February at the fabulous Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise, with prints, artwork and even paintings. More on facebook.

Found art

While trawling through old files I found this...

The trouble with facebook

Cooking

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.

Sketches from the frontline

I made it home with my sketchbook this time. Unfortunately I managed to leave my copy of Jennifer Hayden's excellent Underwire on the train. You win some, you lose some...

Angouleme was a treat comme d'habitude. Great exhibitions, such as Dreams in Comics, which features plenty of Windsor McKay of course, but 70 other artists are on show. Quite a few strips involve sexual fantasies and neuroses of all sorts (Guido Crepax anyone?) with the odd one covered to shield it from the innocents' gaze. It is always a joy to peruse gorgeous artwork from Hugo Pratt, Fred, Moebius, etc etc – the list is endless. I particularly enjoyed the anxiety dream from JC Menu where president Mitterand comes to visit and he can't find anything to show him. He ends up having to give the first lady one of his rare vintage American comics.

The Willem exhibit was particularly fascinating, I emerged after an hour and a half having only read and examined half of it.

The Dutch contingent who designed and screenprinted posters over the four days were a brilliant idea led by Joost Swarte. I did not regret getting up extra early to catch his joint talk with Willem.

While I was in revelling in the Willemness of it all, Sally Anne was having a Dash Shaw fest with a talk, book signing, and generally spotting him around the place. The social aspect is also important, as we met old friends and acquaintances and made new ones. My fellow Dessinators Sean, Sally Anne and Oliver were once again perfect travelling companions, and my brother Hugo joined our gang for a while.

And to compensate for last year's sad loss, I managed to capture Willem afresh while he drew me an fabulous personalised dedicace.

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.

E by gum

TMNTITW is now available through Amazon as a Kindle download... How very 21st century!



The 'Look inside' feature apparently takes a bit longer to activate – hopefully it will be up and running soon.
We shall see whether there is any interest in comic books in this format, as the choice on offer appears to be a fairly limited so far. Being black and white and mostly simple line work, this book seems eminently suitable for the medium.
If the reaction is encouraging, now we have cracked the technology, I will no doubt upload some more of my back catalogue.
The digital revolution marches on. I personally prefer good old-fashioned paper and ink, physical tomes with smells to breathe in and textures to fondle. But why ignore a whole world of people who experience their reading in a different way and don't need to clog their lives with objects. All power to them I say.
And I swear I can hear a million trees breathing sighs of relief .

Christmas goodies

Hey folks, do not despair! The Duckie Christmas market will solve all your Christmas shopping dilemnas — or some of them anyhows — and Sean Azzopardi and my good self will be plying our wares there in the foyer of the Barbican this Saturday and Sunday 17 and 18 December from 2-9.30pm. There are rumoured to be other comics folk there too.

Comics are for kids

YEAH, RIGHT!

Go East, young man

Dan Lester has left the building.
On Friday, after two and a half years in Harlesden, Dan has packed up his belongings and headed for the Far East in search of new adventures.
What seemed like a month-long farewell party culminated last Thursday June 30th in his final goodbye to the comics fraternity at the launch of David B's latest oeuvre, the Self Made Hero published Black Paths. I have so far only dipped in to my copy, a thing of beauty, the usually stark black and white line work complemented by gorgeous colour. I will savour it slowly to make the pleasure last.

Dan could barely contain his joy at his awesome leaving card.

A month of events kicked off for me with David O'Connell's very jolly Queen Mum Workshop at Orbital, part of the International Alternative Press Fair, on June 9th. The 16th saw the London Print Studio play host to a private view for the Imagined Cities exhibition. Dan's official farewell barbecue took place on a rainy Saturday 18th (Sarah McIntyre wrote a report here). Next up was the Comix Reader launch on 22nd June – get yourselves a copy already, it's only a pound for chrissakes!
July 1st we celebrated We Are Words and Pictures displaying their work at Bookartbookshop and last night we popped by the incredibly talented Julia Scheele's birthday drinks in Camden.

















Latest news is that Dan arrived safely in Korea and has started making friends.

Angouleme Comics 2011

My second visit to Angouleme was a more relaxed experience than the first.
For starters I knew now that spending six days with my chosen companions would not ruin our friendship. This year, Dan Lester, Sean Azzopardi, Oliver Lambden and myself were joined by Sally-Anne Hickman and Rob Jackson. Though quite a large crowd to squeeze behind a table, we rubbed along fine, wandering off at will to check out the rest of the festival. Our spacious lodgings meant we could chill out by the fire and play pool when we had tired of the frenetic bar-hopping and party-seeking. Having scoped out the layout and the town previously made it easier to plan my sorties and hone in on the bits I fancied seeing. And not being so overwhelmed by the whole hugeness of it all made it easier to take in.
There were familiar faces – it was lovely to catch up with Abby Denson, Tim Fish and Xavier Lancel back again on the LGBT stand. Sally Anne and I popped over to the theatre where they appeared on a panel alongside Fred Harper and Charlie Adlard.
This time I checked out the permanent collection at the museum as well as the excellent Parodies exhibit, while Baru's wall of artwork was pretty humbling.

We made the effort to get to the Castro Building on Saturday morning where Dash Shaw, Marc Bell and John Pham gave a most entertaining and informative talk.
There were more brits than last year: the Nobrow group and Pittville Press were also exhibiting, Karrie Fransman brought a delegation from the London Print Studio and Dan Berry was teaching at the Maison des Auteurs. Let's not forget Ellen Lindner, gamely touting the Comix Reader, who could be found recovering in Le Chat Noir alongside Stephen Betts, Cliodnah Lyons, Tanya Meditzsky , Patrice and John Aggs and Gary Northfield. We even bumped into Alex Potts of Turd Party fame.
We had some fantastic neighbours in the tent. Adriano Barone and Christian Marra of Passenger Press were unfailingly warm and their sense of humour was as off-colour as ours.
Now home and suffering from a mysterious virus, I am working my way through my bunch of swag. Wednesday's official Comix Reader launch party helped to alleviate the withdrawal from 24hr comic immersion, and most cheering was a favourable mention of my contribution in this review of Solipsistic Pop 3

Piles of bastards

Due to a surfeit of obligations, blogging has taken a backseat of late.
Boxes of Bastards 2 now sit in my hallway, awaiting distribution to said Bastards.
The finished article is a thing of wonder, a real fat proper BOOK!
Last week Ellen Lindner organised a mass Whores of Mensa comicsigning at her pad, a rather jolly affair with booze and cake.
I discovered that Richard Cowdry has moved into our neighbourhood, upping the concentration of comicfolk in NW10.
Applications have been sent off for the upcoming french comicfest and I am attempting to complete my other assignments with looming deadlines while still overseeing the rehabilitation and relocation of my mother.
All in all, busy busy times...

Whores and bastards

After a long hiatus in my blogging, here is some news.
Last week saw the launch of Whores of Mensa 5 at a spiffing party organised by Ellen Lindner, who also happens to be editor of said publication. The comic is a brilliant collection of party-themed pieces, containing works by the likes of Patrice Aggs, Sarah Macintyre, Ellen, Jeremy Day, moi, and a host of others. Click here for a full list and more details.
As a contributor, I was of course was invited to the event in Maartje Shalkx's envy-inducing loft/studio in Kingsland Road. The comic cognoscenti enjoyed booze and cake and were regaled by the spinnings of one Reginald Frothy. Nick noted that we were in the heart of Vietnamese restaurant heaven and we swore to return to these parts...

Meanwhile The long awaited B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S 2 is ready and in the capable hands of the printers! With contributions from such talents as Dan Lester, Paul Rainey, Rob Jackson, Oliver Lambden, David Baillie, Sean Azzopardi, Phil Spence, our favourite Norwegian, and on the girl's team Sally-Anne Hickman and my good self, you are in for a treat. Coming in at a whopping 208 pages, I can barely contain my excitement!

And another thing I forgot to post: My friend Jim Medway has created "Comical Animal" a new online comic about funny animals. It features an amazing line-up of artists , none more so than the brilliant Gary "Smoking Ducks" Northfield. I did a cartoon for it based on a fifties Tiny Tots strip called 'Jumbo Jim and his brother Tim'. Here's the preview issue. Why don't you subscribe and get on the mailing list? It's free (I think).

Coming soon

Why I've been so quiet of late.
Well, part of the reason anyway.

Cartoonists do coffee

Look who was in my garden yesterday? The lovely and talented Sarah McIntyre trekked all the way from Sarf London to have a cosy chat in the sunshine among the apple blossom and the washing. It's good to hang out with the comics sisterhood, draw pictures and talk about life, cartooning and pens. I found out Sarah lived in Moscow for two years!
I am now blushing as she has posted a full report of the encounter with pics and everything. It makes my house sound interesting as opposed to just messy.

Free comics up for grabs

Richard Bruton has kindly posted a review of Striptacular 2 on Forbidden Planet.
You can read it HERE







And don't forget Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Matt Sheret and We are Words + Pictures will be handing out a free newspaper featuring a veritable smorgasbord of the best of British independent comics with work by Sean Azzopardi, Tom Humberstone, yours truly, Joe Decie, Lizz Lunney, Mark Ellerby, Jamie McElvie and countless others at Orbital. More information HERE
Tonight I will be heading over to Kings Cross for the launch of Solipsistic Pop 2 at the Cross Kings. This one looks to be even more awesome than the first issue!

Comic artists London bash

How many cartoonists can you fit in a police station? And how do you round up a flock of comics folk? Booze and cake will do the trick. Assorted comicarati gathered Saturday night at the Fleece station, graciously welcomed by hosts Sarah Macintyre, Ellen Lindner, Gary Northfield and Lauren O'Farrell, and had a jolly old time, popping into the cells intermittently to relieve themselves. Darryl Cunningham's birthday was celebrated with a splendidly decorated cake, and I believe any disordely conduct whilst under the influence was in the main safely avoided.
We returned home to find our house full of teenagers but remembered to go and hide discreetly in our quarters, and not cause offence by our presence. After a day of rest, Monday was a beautiful day to drive to the seaside, the empty sky a bonus. We passed the airports, both closed, and traffic was blissfully light. Having dropped son off with daughter, treated them to a spot of lunch and stopped in the comic shop, we pootled along the coast to catch up with the Dawgtastic team for the night. Valerie's range of felt goodies now includes these dashing accoutrements.

Back home again and gearing up for Unicon this Saturday in Hatfield – printer don't fail me now!

Stirring stuff

Back from our travels to find that the cats have survived, as has Dan, possibly on a restricted diet, judging by the packets littering the kitchen.
Plenty to get on with, what with school starting tomorrow, anthologies to be organised, competitions to be entered, wine to be drunk...
With all our strenuous sporting activities, the swimming, the karting and the canoeing, I can't think why we haven't returned toned, tanned and rippling.
Surely the occasional soupçon of foie gras and confit is permitted...