A grand day out in Bishopsgate

After five years of attending Comica's Comikets, the event has finally come of age.
Though previously held in some wonderful locations such as the ICA and the Pump House in Battersea Park, this the first time that the combination of venue and location has worked so well to bring in the kind of footfall that I'm sure made every exhibitor's day worthwhile. With plenty of passing trade, free entry and a magnificent continuous large-screen live drawing display kept visitors in the hall. A parade of talents, including such luminaries as Posy Simmonds, Woodrow Phoenix, Sarah Macintyre or the rockstar-like Brecht Evens, below, enthralled the punters and inspired them to purchase product.

Well done Paul and Peter and all the team!
And thanks for being such wonderful table companions, Sean, Sally Ann and Joe Decie.
Then we went to the pub.

Check out lots more pics HERE.

Next week Leeds Thought Bubble...

Radio days

On Tuesday night Eileen and I appeared on a special edition of Alex Fitch's Panel Borders on Resonance FM informing people about the goings on this weekend at the Imperial War Museum. Click HERE to listen to the programme.
Check Paul Gravett's blog for a full report and information about the event.

The story so far

The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity after years of furtively drawing my comics on my own with little or no feedback.
Having fortuitously met Gary Northfield at an Indesign course, he encouraged me to put my comics in Gosh! and Orbital where they were picked up by Paul Gravett who invited me to take part in the 24 hour comic event at the ICA.

This summer I also created a strip for the Observer Graphic Short Story competition. I didn't win but was pleased with my effort and the standard of entries was so high that I didn't feel embarrassed

( although slightly baffled by the winning entry).


You can check out some of the other entries here.

















The 24 hour comic thing was a complete blast – very little sleep, warm coca cola and a fantastic bunch of very talented other participants including Sean Azzopardi (Twelve Hour Shift), Takayo Akiyama (Siamese Twins), Richy Chandler (Tempolush), Tom Humberstone(Vented Spleen) and Alex Potts (Lost Shoe Comics) to name a few.

You can read it here

A couple of weeks later I took part in the ICA Comiket small press comic fair. I made up my 24 hour effort into a mini comic to sell along with my other efforts. Again a brilliant day (not from a commercial point of view- spent more on comics and beer than I made).
Not only caught up with Richy and Sean and got a chance to talk to some of my other fellow 24hrers like Richard Peel and Oliver East but met even more great people and did loads of good swaps.
Having finally worked my way through my big pile of swag, I'm still chuckling over the wit and wisdom of Richard's Fights and Wizards, loved Oliver's beautifully observed Trains are...mint 1-3 and the raw miserabilism of Bedsit journal is hilariously drawn by Richard Cowdry (an awful lot of cartoonists seem to be called Richard...)