Creatrix evening

It's been a while but I'm back. Walking again, drawing again. Friday night I met Sally Anne at the House of Illustration in Kings Cross where the fabulous Aline Kominsky was being interviewed by Sarah Lightman - a most inspiring and enjoyable event, well worth the trek. I also took in the Comix Creatrix exhibition featuring work by 100 women artists – too many to list here but it includes Claire Bretecher, Tove Jansson, Posy Simmonds, Julie Doucet, Kate Beaton, Donya Todd and Isabel Greenberg... What a delight to see a page from the amazing Lynda Barry's 1980's Girls and Boys, examine Aline K's tiny artwork, discover Brigid Deacon's Burns-eque Coma Deep and find a fetish comic from the 1950s that looks so ahead of its time... Surprisingly few familiar faces and a fair amount of guys at the talk but Corinne Pearlman, Lee Kennedy and Wallis Eates helped make it more of a Ladeez night.

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.

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.

The revolution starts here

Last night, we gathered in a fantastic house close to the British Museum for the launch of Nicola Streeten's graphic memoir, Billy, Me and You, a frank reflection on the aftermath of losing her two year old son. Her unflinching examination of her and her partner's ways of dealing with this terrible tragedy, from suicidal thoughts to angry judgement of others' inadequate responses, may sound like a harrowing read but Streeten's honesty at revealing some of her less generous thoughts, along with her sense of humour, manage to keep this sensitive material far from grim, while remaining extremely moving. In the words of The Guardian, it is quite a feat.
And that is another reason to rejoice at the success of this project. Despite much recent progress in the way comics are perceived in the UK, we still have a long way to go. Like the music business in the late seventies, the mainstream press and publishing world still seem stuck on the idea that the virtuoso artistry of the package outweighs its content. It took punk rock, much of which has stood the test of time and has gone on to be a huge influence, to explode that myth. I see this book in the same revolutionary vein, its artwork not seeking to soothe the reader with beautiful images, but rewarding with its raw emotion, and an ultimately uplifting message, those who can look beyond esthetic orthodoxy . Bands like The Ramones and The Clash were denigrated as poor musicians by the establishment, but their legacy still carries more power and energy than anything any supergoup ever produced.
This is brave step in the right direction, helping to bring about a shift in attitude. UK readers and publishers will eventually understand that Sequential Art is more than a series of illustrations arranged pleasingly on a page, but words and pictures combined to convey stories, ideas or feelings, that transcend the sum of their parts.

Comics are more than pretty pictures!

ladee done comics

I have contributed some artefacts to the St Albans Punk and New Wave exhibition that kicks off next week, details here. Heather and I headed out there to drop the stuff off, we hadn't been back for over twenty years. Strangely, the town doesn't seem to have changed that much... By the way, if you're in South London and a lover of the vintage, check out ChiChiRaRa, her shop in East Dulwich, you won't be disappointed.


In a fit of self-indulgence and vanity, I am posting a rare thing – a not hideous current picture of me. Taken by Oliver Lambden at his birthday drinks do the other night. There.
I like it.

The following night, Monday that was, I managed to speak for a whole fifteen minutes at Ladeez Do Comics. It was a very good evening, the other speakers being my lovely and talented fellow B.A.S.T.A.R.D Sean Azzopardi, Karrie Fransman and her posse from London Print Studio presenting their impressions of Angouleme, and the cerebral John Miers explaining his experimentations with language.
My thanks to Sarah Lightman and Nicola Streeten, the Ladeez in question, whose warmth and generosity help draw out any recalcitrant participants. The after show curry was much needed and helped thaw us out, the heating at the Rag factory leaving somewhat to be desired.

Next upcoming event will be the London Small Press Expo at Goldsmiths on March 12th. Rob Jackson has kindly offered to share his table with me. And I will have a new comic.

Warm and fuzzy

The Christmas season kicked off with our very own Annual Empoverished Cartoonists Xmas Party on Sunday. Dan and I duly set off on the Oxford tube and swelled the attendance numbers by 100%. A most pleasant day was spent in the excellent company of Paul Rainey and Pete Clack, while we hatched our plan to take the comic world by storm and consumed many pints of ale. And onion rings, made with real onion no less.
Fired up with enthusiasm for social contact, I dragged Dan over to Brick Lane last night, only to find I had misread the email and Ladeez Do Comics is scheduled for NEXT Monday... I made amends with a pint of stout.
The last month has flown by with a trip to Paris to pack up Ma's belongings, Thought Bubble, the move, organising the work on the flat, and even a fair few days of proper work.
Thought Bubble didn't disappoint, definitely the best con in England for small pressers, and the bestest party afterwards. The next day I mumbled pathetically through a short presentation to the Ladeez (some of them were men) – I hope to give a better performance some time in the future if they ever ask me again.