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.

Pubs, performances and revivals

I have been such a bad blogger. There are mitigating circumstances but I won't bore you.
I missed mentioning last month that the incredible Mr Nick Tesco performed on a stage with the Members for the first time in several years and was fabulous as always. We can but hope that the love he was rewarded with by all and sundry will spur him on to repeat the experience.
Last Sunday was Comiket in Russell Square. A most positive day, though the punters consisted mainly of trainspottery collectors ( "I only buy comics that have cricket or Fred Basset in them" was one riveting exchange). Easy to get to, convivial company, and the drawing performance thingy on the screen was a good initiative.
There have been mutterings of a pubdraw revival, your chance to sit in a pub and draw cocks in other people's sketchbooks. Or even get on with some work – watch this space.

Off to Paris today to pack up Ma's appartment as the move is imminent – should give me a couple of hours drawing time on the train.

Of sheep and monsters

Two soirees unfortunately clashed on Thursday evening. However, with some skillful time management, we managed to attend both. First up we hot-footed down to Waterloo for Sarah McIntyre's Vern and Lettuce launch at the Stamford Arms. The place was packed with sheep-knitting yarnstormers, there was champagne and cake, and great company from the comics and illustration fraternity. Clutching our signed copy, we rushed back to the London Print Studio to catch the last gasp of the launch of That's Novel, an exhibition of graphic novels on the Harrow Road featuring our good friend and fellow bastard Paul Rainey with some brand new images.
Meanwhile, back at the drawing board, with the realisation that everything I have produced of late is destined to appear in other people's collections, I am attempting to create something new in time for Comiket which will soon be upon us.

Comic health issues

The lovely Ian Williams has done me the honour of including TMNTITW and Sole Searching on his Graphic Medicine website dedicated to promoting comics associated with all aspects of medicine. Along with highlighting such classics as Harvey Pekar's Our Cancer Year, David B's Epileptic and Charles Burns' Black Hole, it features the work of Thom Ferrier whose strips give us an insight into the doctor-patient relationship from a GP's perspective. Disrepute is a beautifully handbound collection of probably autobiographical stories while Fear of Failure is also a cracking story that you can follow online.
I have been having plenty of NHS dealings recently, mostly positive, what with getting my mother back into the system after a more than forty-year absence from this country. Nick had a fall resulting in another trip to A&E and yet another fetching scar on my darling hubby, only accentuating his Oliver Reedness – I'm not complaining. My own mishap involved a tiny invisible bump on my face that I decided should get checked out. I was sent to the melanoma clinic, just in case, where the attending doctor told me it was benign and proceeded to blast it with liquid nitrogen. I attended my nephew's beautiful bucolic wedding sporting an enormous crusty burn on on my chin, giving me the appearance of someone in the tertiary stages of syphillis. After four weeks it is finally clearing up...

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.

Piles of bastards

Due to a surfeit of obligations, blogging has taken a backseat of late.
Boxes of Bastards 2 now sit in my hallway, awaiting distribution to said Bastards.
The finished article is a thing of wonder, a real fat proper BOOK!
Last week Ellen Lindner organised a mass Whores of Mensa comicsigning at her pad, a rather jolly affair with booze and cake.
I discovered that Richard Cowdry has moved into our neighbourhood, upping the concentration of comicfolk in NW10.
Applications have been sent off for the upcoming french comicfest and I am attempting to complete my other assignments with looming deadlines while still overseeing the rehabilitation and relocation of my mother.
All in all, busy busy times...

A comic for all ages

Okay, so it looks like Solipsistic Pop 3 will soon be unveiled, so here's a peak at Marc Ellerby's cover.
As a contributor to this august publication, I will allow myself to express immense pride at being part of such a gorgeous thing. That's enough of that, I am a miserable worm, I am not worthy, etc...
Find out more at solipsisticpop.com