Our glorious leader

Back to business at last as Oli, finally freed from the tyranny of exams, reconvened the weekly pubdraw.
It was a select gathering and, along with the good doctor, topics such as 176 and comics were discussed...
Read Oli's interview about LUC conventions here.

LUC Christmas party

This Saturday will be the culmination of an extraordinary year for comics in London and the Camden crew along with many other creators and their friends will be exhibiting art (click for full listing), selling comics, partying and generally having a good time all day in this central location.
Come on down and start celebrating Christmas in a sequential art stylee and rub shoulders with the likes of Oli Smith, Dan Lester, Sean Azzopardi and Oliver Lambden!
They might draw a picture! And let you buy it! How cool is that?
Or you could simply have a few drinks and enjoy the scintillating company at the LONDON UNDERGROUND COMICS CHRISTMAS EVENT.

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)

Oli Rocks!

Did you have to eat that kebab, Oliver?
NO BARCODES was a resounding success. Between forty and fifty exhibitors showed up and mingled happily in an atmosphere of bonhommie and camaraderie, meeting old friends and new faces, checking out each others work, and even selling comics to passers by. I shared a table with the charming Marc Ellerby and sparkly Sally Anne Hickman who did very well with her very tactile productions - fur, flock and glitter certainly draw the punters in, there's a lesson for all of us here... Sean and Oli were on our table too but spent the day being mine hosts, introducing people, recording the event and running the regular stall round the corner.
Due to being stuck in the middle of a row, I had to squeeze past Jake H quite a few times as he beavered away inking his magnum opus. He never complained once and put us all to shame with his cheerful industriousness.
I met Paul Rainey whose excellent No Time Like The Present I had picked up in Bristol, I bought a copy of Tom Humberstone's My Fellow Americans, and sweet Mikey made me sing on camera (view the shame here) .

The very low table price meant there was minimal pressure and I imagine everyone will have recouped their costs,and made a profit, unless they travelled a very long way. The weather was clement and the rain held off and we all wandered round to the pub and downed pints by the canal feeling all warm and fuzzy from the good vibes.
And Ned finally got to meet Gary Northfield.

Neither shipshape nor Bristol fashion

Feeling a bit bummed as Bristol is looming and I had hoped to have a new mini comic for it and instead I keep having to do WORK!
Still shouldn't complain. After all I do like sleeping in a house, eating decent food, wearing clothes and stuff like that but why oh why must the pesky details of real life like paying mortgages and bills and shit have to interfere with the joyous business of comic making.

Although if truth be told I mostly like my paying work - it's just there's never enough TIME!

Anyway, Sean has done a splendid job and produced a poster for The Camden Con and Oli dazzled us with his brilliance on Radio 4 yesterday (you can hear it here).

Bristol is only ten days away and it's pissing down with rain.

Spring is sprung

Tulips appearing in my garden and a little ray of sunshine to make everyone more cheerful. So far have been fortunate enough to have avoided the bug that has been striking people down left right and centre.
Been catching up with old friends and sorting out work as well as thinking about contributions to publications.
Camden again on Saturday. Spent some time on the stall in the afternoon then back to Chalk Farm in the evening for a few drinks with the Egan clan ending in slightly disgraceful behaviour (i.e. dancing) with Maire "Eileen" Fahey and Anne Witchard.

A few pics from the stall at various times:

Sean's new gloves


And the award goes to...








Dan the man









More fun and games last night with the aforementioned Egans plus Heva and the chichiraras.