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.

LOSER

It's that time of year.
When I don't win the Observer Graphic Short Story prize again.
I've only just started checking out a few of the other entries as they start to appear online, but I can't understand why Jim Medway's didn't win. Although I understand Schmurgen Jonerhaffs was in the running...

Here's my entry:

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)