My entry to the wonderful Covered blog (curated by the equally wonderful Robert Goodin) has gone up on the site today. I drew this back in late June which is an indication of the number of submissions Robert is getting. If you haven’t encountered Covered before treat yourself to a look through the archives as there are a LOT of great covers from some really good artists, far too many to mention here.
I had a lot of fun drawing this, I purposely chose something very different to the work I usually do and I’ve always liked this bizarre, 1957 Jack Kirby cover. I very rarely get chance to draw giant monster arms in my autobio comics.
Click the image to see the Covered post with my cover alongside the original.
With my webcomic The Everyday ending today, I thought it would a good time to reveal the 7 page preview of my next comic project ‘Blood Blokes’, a slacker vampire story set in Manchester that I intend to be a 6 issue series. I hope you like it.
(Click image for bigger version of double page spread)
These are the 7 pages from the print copy of the preview I debuted at the TCAF comic show in Toronto back in May. Please note the pages are designed for print and so the text may be a teeny bit small to read on screen, sorry ’bout that, luckily there’s not much speech in the intro.
Look out for more Blood Blokes news very soon on this blog.
At the very end of June, a day after returning from the scorching Glastonbury Festival, I did two Comics & Drawing workshops over two days with children at BBC Manchester for Higher Futures 4U to show them the possible creative careers open to them. I’ve blogged before about the great work this organisation does and these sessions were the 4th time I’ve worked with them.
I thought it would be good to write about the drawing examples I use in these workshops but as it is a long and image heavy post, I have put it behind a cut.
I was asked by Alex Fitch of Electric Sheep Magazine to create a review of the film ‘Martin’ in the form of a comic. They’ve had a good number of comic reviews so far by such UK talent as Hannah Berry, Julia Scheele and my pal Chris Doherty so I knew I’d be in good company. Also the film was about a teenage vampire directed by George A. Romero from the 70′s, which I had never even heard of, so I was keen to watch it. You may have noticed by now I’m interested in the vampire genre.
I really enjoyed tackling a comic from a different perspective, arranging it so that it backed up the opinions of the review rather than re-telling the story of the film. It’s something I’d like to try again, perhaps on a semi-regular basis, so if there’s any film magazine editors reading…
As for if I enjoyed the film or not, you’ll have to read the review, either at Electric Sheep or in the gallery section of my website.
When I applied to attend this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival I wasn’t really expecting to be selected. The organisers had the choice from the wealth of talent in a city famed for producing great comics plus the rest of Canada’s fertile scene and some of the best American artists working today. So being a little known British webcomic artist I was highly surprised when I was invited. I feel privileged to have been given the chance to exhibit there and to be considered on par with everyone else there.
Before I tell tales of what I did and who I met, I should explain how TCAF works so you’ll see why it had such an effect on me:
Firstly, TCAF is a curated event meaning that anyone can apply to attend but only 200 exhibitors are chosen. This meant that the quality of work on show was staggeringly impressive. Not one pitiful, amateur superhero comic in sight. This approach may take more time for the organisers, for them to look over every submission, but when compared to a first come, first served system, the result is surely more fair for the audience.
Secondly, the show is held in the Toronto Reference Library in the centre of the city. A public building that is free to enter. People who are interested in reading things go there anyway. People pass by there daily and already know where it is. People know it is free to get in to and don’t have to pay to go and buy things. It also happens to be a spacious and well designed space with rooms for events, free wifi and public computers. Suddenly, unknown, out of town convention centres with high rental fees seems a perplexing choice.
Lastly, TCAF is organised by staff from The Beguiling, Canada’s, nay, North America’s premiere comic shop. Not only do these guys know good comics they are in touch with a wide network of comic fans that they managed to convince to work the show for free. There were a small army of volunteers in TCAF t-shirts there to fetch us exhibitors water and juice boxes, provide us with change and watch our tables while we spoke on panels or filled our faces. After the show was done, The Beguiling even bought left over books, meaning bonus sales and less weight to take home for exhibitors, and an influx of international self published work for the comic readers of Toronto.
I fully enjoyed both days of the show. The audience were diverse, interested, smart and, as pointed out to me by Cameron Stewart, socially adjusted. I didn’t once have to politely nod while wishing for someone to move along and stop talking at me. There was a palatable enthusiasm as audience and fellow exhibitors alike surveyed the room and discovered new comics, creators and ideas. I’ve been inspired by seeing so many different approaches to the medium in the same space, and encouraged to try new techniques and avenues.
However, my highlights of the show were the events that surrounded it.
To kick off the festival on the Friday evening to a backdrop of a raging storm at dusk, Dan Clowes presented his new book, Wilson, in a two hour talk and Q&A. Led by culture critic for the National Post Marc Medley who had clearly done his research, Clowes’ entire career was covered and featured some of his most obscure work, a Ramones music video and an OK Cola can design for The Coca-Cola Company. Clowes himself was witty, open and charmingly disgruntled. His opinion of the the iPad is that artists will the last to benefit from it and the first to be screwed over. I name Clowes as one of my three big artistic influences, so to hear him openly discuss his work and views on comics, to ask him a question (which I had to repeat a few times, due to a mixture of nerves and my accent) and chat to him briefly while he signed my book, it was for me a rare delight.
I was asked to speak on a panel called The Perils of Autobiography on the Saturday. It was the first panel I’ve been asked to speak on so I was excited and a touch nervous too. Luckily my good friend and convention buddy Marc Ellerby was on the panel too so I knew at least one person had read my work. We were joined by Erika Moen, Tory Woollcott and Doug Wright nominee Adam Bourett. Greg Means, the editor of the fantastic anthology comic Papercutter, was called in to lead the talk and he did a great job. Any nerves I had quickly fled. We started by discussing the benefits of doing autobio and how friends react to being in it, or how they plead when they’re not. We joked about the fire alarm that went off half was through. The panel agreed that we all stretch the truth to serve the story sometimes, a point I was about to disagree with when Marc mentioned Little Adam, the pixie version of myself that appears in The Everyday occasionally. And I humbly listened as the others talked about very personal things that they’ve show in their work, from sexual confusion, schizophrenia, self harm and childhood abuse. Despite those topics the talk was great fun, everyone seemed to enjoy it and the were lots of laughs. I hope any more panels I do in the future are as enjoyable.
The Doug Wright Awards annually celebrate achievements in Canadian comic past and present. This year they were held on the Saturday evening and were free to attend. Having never been to a comics award show before and eager to take in as much of TCAF as I could I went along with Kayla and was really glad I did. It was presented by actor Peter Outerbridge who had the smoothest announcer voice you could imagine and started the show with a few anecdotes and an animation of him inviting the characters for nominated books to the awards. On to the awards, The Best Emerging Talent award put me on to some great comics that I bought from the creators the day after. Winner Michael Deforge‘s Lose #1 and the work of John Martz especially. The Giants of the North (or Hall of Fame) award commemorated the work of late, avant garde artist Martin Vaughn-James with a detailed discussion of his work by a slightly nervous Kate Beaton. Some of the examples shown on the screen absolutely perplexed me.
Lastly, the Best Book Award was won by Seth for George Sprott: (1894-1975) . Seth is one of the founder’s of the Doug Wright Awards, a fact he pointed out may seem like nepotism in his eloquent acceptance speech. It was this speech that made attending the awards more than worth it, as he went on to discuss the current climate of the comics industry. He spoke about how when he began he just did what he liked as he didn’t ever think anyone would publish or read it. With the success of the medium over the last decade, young creators can get carried away with aspirations of publishing deals and current trends. He encouraged all young artists not to think of themselves as professionals, “You’re not professionals,” he said “you’re artists”. This closing statement rang in my mind for the rest of the weekend.
Though these events made TCAF such a joy to attend it was also a pleasure to meet a lot of the people in the Toronto comics scene. I treated myself to a two and a half week holiday to Toronto around the comic show and unlike anyone in town for the weekend I experienced the city when the weather was nice, gorgeously sunny in fact. Staying with my girlfriend Kayla, a former employee of The Beguiling, I was fortunate enough to meet a few people before the show. On my first day there we attended a Jeffrey Brown talk about his working method which featured a lively slide show comic and reading from Brown. There I met TCAF organisers Christopher Butcher and Peter Birkemoe, whose gruelling work ethics resulted in the splendour that was TCAF. It was a pleasure to meet them both and I thank them for inviting me to their show.
In those first sunny weeks of my trip I also paid a visit to The Beguiling itself for Free Comic Book Day. There, we bumped into Andrew Wheeler, a Englishman himself now living in Toronto. After grabbing a few free books, we enjoyed a pint in The Victory Cafe down the street. At lunchtime at the show on Saturday this generous man brought us all home-made sandwiches. On Sunday the show started at 11am giving all of us who stayed up for karaoke some blessed sleep. All of us except Wheeler it seems, who after bellowing pop songs all evening, somehow got up early enough to bake breakfast rolls, a kind of bacon, egg, pastry twist, as well as chocolate caramel muffins for us all. Thank you Wheeler, you are an angel.
On the Wednesday before the show I was invited by Michael Cho to come along to “Comics Lunch” a weekly meeting of Toronto’s comic artists. I met most of the TX Comics crew there like Arthur Dela Cruz, Eric Kim, Brian MaLachlan and Ramon Perez, but meeting Michael was great as I’ve been following his work and chatting to him online for years. He’s a joyful character and good conversation and I’m glad I kept bumping into him at the many TCAF related parties.
Speaking of parties there was so many. Book launches on the Thursday, a launch party on Friday after the Dan Clowes talk and a webcomics house party uptown, an official after party on the Saturday followed by the TCAF tradition of Karaoke and a closing shindig on the Sunday. After a long day at the show everyone still seemed up for drinking and socialising and it really felt like the whole weekend was one long celebration.
The Karaoke was especially hilarious. I’d never been to a private room Karaoke place before and at first the underground venue in Korea Town seemed a little dingy, and well it was, but we had a great time regardless. Jim Zubkavich was a wailing troubadour all night long, Wheeler showed his love for girly pop music and Kayla put everyone to shame but it was Chip Zdarsky who wins. Chip’s rendition of Careless Whisper had me streaming warm tears from both eyes. Spellbinding, funny and so, so wrong all at the same time. As for me I lent my vocal talents to Don’t Stop Believing, Killer Queen and, chosen by Jamie McKelvie, Du Hast. It was a great end to a tremendous day.
I met so many other new people and I liked an awful lot of them but I won’t write a big list as I’ll forget someone or spell someone’s name wrong.
I feel really energised by TCAF, a sentiment Marc shares in his write up of the show. It’s the perfect comic show. The almost overwhelming variety of comics there have me thinking about fresh ways to do what I do. The Everyday is ending shortly and Blood Blokes is soon to arrive, so it’s a great time to look at the the way I work anew and thanks to TCAF I’m brimming with confidence about the future. Let’s hope it last, at least ’til TCAF next year.
(Marc and me, with Kayla peeking from behind. Photo by Abe aka ab81.)
P.S. I’ve posted a bunch of photos from my whole trip to Flickr. Go and laugh at my dorky poses.
I’ve been talking about my slacker vampire comic for a number of years now and at last I can show it, well a bit of it at least. I’ll be debuting a 7 page preview of issue #1 of Blood Blokes this coming weekend at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2010. I’ve posted more information about appearing at the show over on The Everyday blog.
Blood Blokes is a six issue series about Vince, a 20 something slacker who becomes a vampire and is taken into a nest (grubby student house) of 20 something slacker vampires. But as he discovers the nocturnal world of Manchester and the ways of modern vampires he wonders if an eternity of shirking responsibilities and casual drinking (pre-bought blood) is what he really wants.
The name Blood Blokes comes from a jokey moniker given to the the comic by The Great Man John Allison which I adopted as a working title. It’s become much more memorable than the original title so I’ve gone with it. I even used John’s original scrawl as a makeshift logo for the preview. Thanks John!
If you’re at the show come by and pick up your exclusive copy of the preview. I’ll be posting more news and pages from the comic after the show.
For this year’s Free Comic Book Day on May 1st, We Are Words + Pictures put together a brand new Paper Science comic. Like the first issue, given away for free at Thought Bubble ’09, I have contributed a page. You can pick up your copy of Paper Science 2 for free of course at Orbital Comics in London.
“Saturday May 1st is Free Comic Book Day, and to celebrate We Are Words + Pictures will be once again releasing the talents of UK comics press on you all with a new edition of Paper Science.
Sporting a brand new cover by Philippa Rice, we’ll be setting ourselves up in London’s Orbital Comics, with 500 free copies to distribute to anyone who comes in. We’ll also be running a Drop In + Draw day there, featuring Tom Humberstone and Mark Oliver as well as the Mobile Library.
This new edition of Paper Science has been created with the generous assistance of Newspaper Club. They’re printing us a 16page, full-colour edition of 500 in time for the event. We’ll also be offering a print-ready PDF of the paper on this site on Saturday under a Creative Commons license, for you to read onscreen or to take to a printer. You can knock up a run wherever you are, just let us know.
What does that word mean? It means that anybody interested in comics from the best, new UK artists should start getting very excited.
The first volume of Solipsistic Pop, or Solpop, or Sloppy Pops, was debuted at last year’s Thought Bubble festival in November and received glowing critical acclaim from The Guardian, The Independent, The Comics Journal and Forbidden Planet International. The second much anticipated volume is released this month, on Wednesday 28th April. More info about the launch party and where to buy it below.
I was invited to contribute to the first book, but for reasons I forget I didn’t submit anything. After seeing how well it turned out though, I was falling over myself to be part of the second book and editor Tom Humberstone was happy to include me. My story is a 6 page tale called ‘The Tears of Tommy Cooper’ and here’s a look at the title page:
If you’re a fan of my webcomic, The Everyday, or short autobio stories in general, then I think you’ll enjoy this.
You’ll first be able to get your hands on a copy at the launch night in London on the 28th. There’ll be bands, comedy, DJs and live drawing. Also, booze. Plenty of booze. See the flyer below and the SP site for more details.
I’ve seen the full gatefold cover design and a pdf of the whole book, and I can tell you it’s going to be a beautiful thing. The main book is 64 pages, B&W with a blue Pantone spot colour, and it comes with a full colour, 12 page newspaper insert and a tote bag. I can’t wait to get a copy myself, and I’d be just as excited even if I wasn’t in it.
Simply put, I can’t foresee a better comic anthology coming out this year, UK or otherwise (unless volume 3 is released in November) and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
At the very start of the year I wrote about my favourite webcomics of ‘08 on my old LiveJournal and to end it I’d like to tell you my Top 5 for 2009. I ended up writing quite a lot so I’m splitting it into five posts. I’ll post a comic a day counting down from 5. Feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts.
Nothing in my Google Reader delights me more than the crisp, colourful artwork of John Allison. For four days a week it’s the first thing I read when I open up my browser. Often before I’ve even showered. Was that too much info?
Allison’s ambitious and highly successful webcomic Scary Go Round concluded in September after 7 and a half years of weird and witty tales. The final story was simply titled ‘Goodbye’ and sent the cast into their futures with a heartfelt “So long”. Never one to revel in sentimentality, Allison set all this against a story of Michael Jackson and his bald son Poh moving to Tackleford (the comic’s setting of a small Yorkshire town). Poh turns out to be a master of blackmail and the bane of two of his classmate’s lives, Shauna and Lottie. Also, all the postmen go missing. Like all the best endings, every character was included with their own sub plots and concluded in the kind of satisfying way that you can imagine their stories continuing off panel.
After SGR, Allison introduced his next comic venture on his blog in a highly enjoyable and ridiculous 3 part comic entitled The Electrifying Conclusion in which he consulted his peers the world over (including me!) about what to do next. The result was Bad Machinery, set 3 years after SGR in the same town, it loosely follows the adventures of 2 groups of mystery solving kids.
To start afresh after attracting hundreds of thousands of readers is a risky thing to do, especially if your comic is your sole income. While Allison did report a drop in readers, he is not yet selling lighters (3 for a £1) in the local pubs just yet. It’s clear from reading Bad Machinery that Allison needed a change of pace. After 7 and a bit years of frivolous fun and sexy times in SGR, BM focuses on more intimate phenomenons; the worries of starting a new school, making and losing friends, playing the role of an adult, the conflict between marriage and beards. The end of the first chapter introduces some spooky happenings familiar to any SGR reader, but it’s in the background of the story so far. The cast of 11 year old characters hog the limelight and are a pleasure to watch, still at the age where they’re discovering truths but still making things up.
Allison’s work is consistently funny, wonderful and unique. I really can’t recommend it enough.
At the very start of the year I wrote about my favourite webcomics of ‘08 on my old LiveJournal and to end it I’d like to tell you my Top 5 for 2009. I ended up writing quite a lot so I’m splitting it into five posts. I’ll post a comic a day counting down from 5. Feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts.
I can’t imagine there being a braver comic out there right now than Ellerbisms.
This year Ellerby has honed his funny muscles and deftly endeared us to himself, his loving girlfriend Anna and his wide eyed world view. As well as being funny and very well observed, part of it’s charm has been achieved by being unflinchingly honest in regards to some of the deep and dark parts of his relationship. A comic back in June stunned a lot of his readers with a sudden confrontion with Anna’s self harming. His approach with this strip was gentle and truthful, focusing on how we take in the unexpected and horrific. The impact came through the strong bond the readers already had with the character of Anna. It’s a testament to his work that so many people cared. It was also very strong of Anna to have let Marc reveal such a personal moment and shows that the comic is an important part of both of their lives. The strip in question is here, but I would never suggest this as an ideal place to start reading.
Ellerbisms grew in other ways this year. Reoccuring events in Marc’s life become themes of the comic as a whole, such as the responsibilities of teaching, balancing work and what you do for love, exhibiting around the world, and, through visits to Sweden with Anna (who’s Swedish), experiencing a new culture. All this plus the continuing exploration of love and living together makes for a far denser comic than a couple of gag strips might have you believe.
Ellerby has also been extraordinarily prolific. October saw the LRB 200 celebrations where Ellerby invited artist friends and readers to contribute comics, drawing, photos and stories to the site to commemorate reaching comic number 2oo (100 of which were posted this year alone). It was a wonderful week of tribute comics and illustrations by some of the world’s most prominent webcomic artists and enthusiastic fan art. It concluded with Anna writing on the site for the first time, explaining what it was like from her point of view and highlighting her favourite panels.
The art too seems to improve monthly, including more detailed drawings of the surrounding world and then balancing such detail with clear storytelling and cartooning. Also, I’m in Ellerbisms quite often as Northern comedy relief, which of course would make it worth reading just for that.
Ellerbisms is more than a comic I love reading, it’s a comic I actually care about.
Adam Cadwell is a Comic Artist and Illustrator based in Manchester, UK. It's rainy there but don't worry, he has an umbrella. He also works as a Freelance Storyboard Artist and Visualiser. He loves Vimto. More Adam Facts, rates and contact details can be found on the Info page.
(Photo by Chris Butcher from 
(Image taken from 
(Marc and me, with Kayla peeking from behind. Photo by Abe aka 
If you’re a fan of my webcomic, 
