Regroup Re-energize

Having failed to take any decent pictures at Leeds, I give you a blurry one of the giant who came by our midget table. The weekend went smoothly with my excellent companions Sally Anne and Paul, despite a freezing cold and dimly lit hall. The party took place in a sort of shopping mall and felt oddly soulless— but maybe that was just me.

Sean gave us a pep talk and reorganised our table, alas too late to make much difference but we are determined to be more focused come Angouleme. A midweek walk through the park with Heather Johns to the Dulwich Picture gallery and the Whistler exhibition fired me up to do a spot of lino printing. Saturday saw Sally Anne and I at the lovely Jeffrey Brown's workshop at Orbital. He showed us how to draw Star Wars characters — you never know when that may come in useful.

Bubbling away

Next weekend I shall be at Thought Bubble in Leeds, hopefully crashing at the boy's pad. I will have a couple of new things on the table – about bloody time, you might say. I will be sharing space again with my lovely fellow Dessinator Sally Anne Hickman and according to the plan we will be canal side in the new Allied London Hall. The event seems to have grown exponentially so we won't even be in the same building as another Dessinator, Sean Azzopardi... See you there!

Comiket coming up

The Dessinators are back this time with a second helping of selected comics from myself, Sally Anne Hickman and Sean Azzopardi, and will be found at St Martin's College of Art in King's Cross at Comiket on Saturday 2 November. Having been firing off in all different directions over the last few months , we are coming together once more, with renewed perspective and inspiration. While I have mostly been attending to family business, Sean seems to have been popping up at events all over the globe, while Sally Anne is embarking on a M.A. in illustration at Camberwell.

However, being faced with the necessity to produce material, I managed to pull something out of the bag and seem to be back on track for now.

Lets hand it to some top performers

On Wednesday night after our Jaime Hernandez encounter, Sally Anne and I headed on to the Phoenix for Comica Social Club. There I bumped into Alex Potts who happened to be touting his latest Lost Shoe comic, Hand. I am an admirer of the gentleman's work, and this does not disappoint. Thursday Nick and I took in the Bowie exhibit which was well worth the effort — a great use of sound and vision, covering all aspects of his creativity. The songs stand the test of time, and retain the old excitement in the gallery dedicated to his live performance (or maybe I'm just showing my age). Eat your heart out, Madonna. Yesterday, Gary Northfield launched Teenytinosaurs with cake and booze. His whacky little creations frolic exhuberantly in the land before time bringing joy to any age group. If anyone is going to steal Quentin Blake's crown, I put my money on Gary.

From Superheroes to Heroes

Last weekend, Sally Anne and I (wo)manned our table at MCM, having decided to brave the event again. It was not as gruelling as the last time – no drummers or sweltering heat – but still pretty exhausting. We had a great neighbour in the lovely Howard Hardiman, and there was a fair amount of space behind the stalls so it was not as uncomfortable an experience as previously. Check out Sally Anne's blog for more extensive coverage and Sean Azzopardi's for many more photos, but here is our table. And my favourite cosplayer with the bestest costume of the whole weekend... Wednesday evening was mucho fun: I got to (sort of) meet the incredibly amazing Jaime Hernandez at Gosh – well, stand quite close and sketch him anyhoo... and followed that high with winning a prize in the Comica Social Club raffle! Result!

New arrivals

Look what arrived today! I may not have any new goodies ready yet, but having sold out of this old perennial I've decided to reprint a second edition – complete with barcode – so I can reach a wider audience. And the table plan for Comiket has finally been posted. I will be seated with Sean and Sally Anne, with all their exciting new wares, on table 5 tomorrow in the Studio Theatre at Central St Martins. Come and say hi!

Springfest

Spring is here at last. At least I think so. Saturday I will be joining my fellow Dessinators Sally Anne and Sean at a table at Comiket, this time relocated to Central St Martins behind King's Cross. For more information about exhibitors click HERE through to the page Liz Lunney has cleverly set up on facebook.