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!

Heading oop North

I have just taken delivery of some brand new comics hot off the press for your delectation.
Tomorrow morning we will be winging our way up the M1 to Leeds for the Bubblé Fest. Hurrah! See you there!

It's a paper and it's a comic

Hey everybody, rejoice!
Your new favourite comic newspaper is ready, featuring contributions from Sean Azzopardi, Tom Humberstone, Kristyna Baczynski, myself and many more. Click here for details.
Paper Science 6 will be on sale at MCM Expo this weekend and is available from the Words and Pictures website as of now.
Or you can wait a few weeks and pick up your copy at Comica in London or Leeds Thought Bubble.

Bubbling with excitement

Yay! I am looking forward to going to Caption in August and have got round to booking a table at Leeds Thought Bubble in November.

Now to produce some new work...

Bastards, Gin and Science

Well all the copies of Bastards 2 have been distributed to the various contributors. Last Friday, Paul Rainey was up in town to check out the London Print Studio Gallery where he will be exhibiting in a couple of weeks as part of this year's Comica festival. We took the opportunity to get together with as many of the gang as could be mustered in Portobello Road, to hand out copies and drink beer.
In between the usual domestic duties, and some not so usual, somehow contributions to Solipsistic Pop 3, Paper Science 3, Gin Palace 2 and the Observer Competition got finished and delivered.

A lot of these publications will be launched at Leeds Thought Bubble next month where I will be exhibiting. For anyone impatient to get their hands on the new B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S 2 I will also be appearing at Comiket Independent Comics Fair in London on November 7th, although other contributors will be at Birmingham next week and at MCM Expo at the end of October.

Epic soundtracks

Despite the distractions of the last couple of weeks, I'm back in harness on the Members epic tale, slowly growing, page by page...
London Expo is looming and Leeds will soon be upon us, so the printer will be put through its paces over the next few days.


Meanwhile other projects are bubbling under.

Of mice and matter

Last night we went to the Soho Revue bar to catch the splendidly tuneful and musically eclectic
Oh Atoms whose catchily poppy Sugar Mouse should be huge.
And I finally got round to reading Matter from Philip Barrett.
I swapped a couple of mine for issues 1 and 7 with him at Leeds, both very accomplished in terms of storytelling and art. Issue seven has a Daniel Clowes vibe, a kind of Twilight zone story, creepy with a twist, and brilliantly drawn.
I have now produced four canvasses for LUC's Christmas do at the Alphabet Bar.

Leeds Thought Bubble

Leeds was fun. I shared a table with Jake, Oli and Emma. On Friday night I had been to the Royal Academy with Jackie and taken in both the Byzantium and the Magritte/Braque/Giacometti shows but stayed mercifully sober as I had to be up at 6am Saturday morning. Nick was a hero and drove Richy, Dan and myself the 200 miles up North.
Didn't sell much but enjoyed the company and the atmosphere, watched the usual convention weirdos in costume waft around, and did a few swaps. I traded a copy of my new one for rather a lot of stuff from Rob Jackson including the excellent Bog Wizards, with its accompanying booklet deconstructing the ducktastic adventure, and Train to Shanghai, another warm and funny slice of Rob's travels in the far east, full of the bewildered observations of a westerner in an alien society.

We bought a Green lantern comic for Ned and after a few drinks at the Novotel with some of the gang we set off back down the M1 to London, the journey unremarkable but for a strange encounter at a motorway service station. On seeing a young woman flagging down cars, and worrying for her safety at such a late hour, we slowed down on approaching her only to be vehemently shooed away with some choice words. She wasn't hitchhiking and we were apparently obstructing business...
Oh and I didn't win the Observer competition AGAIN.
My submission is above (2 pages this year)

Titillating tomes and monkey business

Last week I was in Paris yet again, where I visited the very strange but brilliant Musee de la Nature et de la Chasse, choc full of dead things, weird installations and talking trophies. In this country there would no doubt be a bunch of animal rights protesters stationed outside.
Across the road from the hospital where I was visiting my friend, for a few euros, I picked a copy of Tijuana Bibles, a compendium of racy mini comics from the 30's and 40's. Popular characters, movie stars and cultural icons like Aunt Jemima get down and dirty in these tiny eight page porno strips.

Since my return, the Tesco household has been graced by the presence of a fellow cartoonist, currently between residences.


And, no, this is not Dan Lester waiting for his turn in the bathroom at my house but the aforementioned museum...

We're off to Leeds tomorrow, so look out for my new tome if you're there...