Publishing news, Paris and a party in a pub

Listen up all you good people in blogland: my collected edition of TMNTITW is at the printers as we speak and will be available shortly!!! I will be updating my website as it is no longer available in its original format as four comics as I have completely sold out.
Having safely despatched the files to the printers, I skipped over to Paris again for a few days last week to attend to some family business and catch up with an old friend. My friend unfortunately had been taken seriously ill so I ended up catching up with him in intensive care (I have since my return received some more optimistic news).

Along with some other more serious activities, I fitted in a visit to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in the Jardin des Plantes with my brother and nieces, a wonderfully old fashioned collection of dinosaur skeletons, pickled organs and two headed piglets in jars, all crammed into a quaint late nineteenth century building and refreshingly un-jazzed up. The larger dinosaurs hadn't been dusted for so long they appeared snow-capped.


HOMOEROTIC HIGH JINKS

I returned in time to head straight to a pub in Euston where London Underground Comics were celebrating a year of success and good times with their usual exhuberance. Lots of testicle grabbing and a good time was had by all.

Planes, trains and communication

Getting to and from Paris by air was a bit of a pig, involving a lot of sitting around in Terminals. Good for sketching but Eurostar gets you there so much quicker!
Check out this fantastic review of Most Natural Thing on Forbidden Planet. And only a couple of weeks ago Rob Jackson posted this about Nasty Habit on his excellent blog.
It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that people out there are reading my comics and getting them.

No, I didn't pay them and they're not even related to me or nothing...




Oh and look at this picture of ME. So young and already so talented.

Emotional rescue

This year has indeed been extraordinary. As a key player in my life left the building, another I thought lost forever reappeared. My trip to Paris turned into a different kind of journey as ancient wounds were reopened and examined and long buried feelings reawakened.

Coming soon

I am now Dan Lester's bitch having done the artwork for a 3 page story which should appear in the next anthology, hopefully ready in time for Birmingham.
Here are a couple of preliminary sketches.


I shall be attempting to reach Paris once again this weekend, this time by air...

Fire in the hole

A truck bursting into flames inside the Eurotunnel has made it impossible to get over the channel so I'm still here. That's the third time in the last nine months that fire has touched my life in some capacity.

Once again I deny any involvement, but does this all mean something?
Have I developed uncontrollable superpowers like in Heroes, and one day I will learn to harness them and take over the world, MWAH HA HA HA!

Er... got a bit carried away there.
It's coincidence. Definitely.
Either way I'm not really much cop at this superpower lark or I would be in Paris now.

Once more into the breach

Hello my brethren! I'm back on top of things as I'm busy beavering away on my entry for this year's Observer competition. It's a good feeling after a summer of being blocked. Admittedly there were extenuating circumstances but I always feel that bit more alive when I'm creating something new. It may be shit but it's MY shit. And here's a sneak preview.

There has been some pretty disturbing stirring up of ancient history of late which has been occupying a lot of space in my little brain, hence the creative block, but I seem to have got to a place where I can compartmentalise.
I'm back off to Paris for ongoing family business and catching up with some more of my past.

A quick word to express how much I enjoyed The Dan Lester Mysteries "Marked for Death". That man can certainly tell a tale, and if even half of it is true I will keep my kids well away from him, after all he is sleazy Dan Lester and has been known to bandy words like balls about. The cover is gorgeous and the lovely Oliver has done a stirling job of the artwork.

Low Energy Day

Another brilliant day out with all the London Underground collective and all those other fab creators who made it to Camden on Saturday. A bit lighter on punters than the last one, no doubt due to the very warm weather (phew what a scorcher), so consequently not so lucrative. Not having any new product to push may have had some bearing on the matter too...
CLICK HERE to see more pics of the event.


Just finished part 7 of Paul Rainey's There's No Time Like the Present, a dystopian fantasy set in a Milton Keynes not a million miles from now, where time travel exists and the future is accessible online via the ultranet. Not normally a great fan of science fiction , I find this tale utterly gripping, as the story is just as much about two average blokes dealing with their frustration in an ordinary world and their inadequacy communicating with the opposite sex as it is about time travel. The characters and dialogue are written with a deadpan wit and Mr Rainey's beautifully clear drawings make it a pleasure to read.
Also got my hands on the new Bedsit Journal Issue 3 hot off the press, as well as the Dan Lester Mysteries.