It is finally here, Paper Science 7! It contains the fourth and final part of my children’s comic The King of Things & The Shrunken Giant Penny. Part 1 was published way back in April 2011 so if you’ve been wondering how it all ends you can buy it right now and find out. I’m really pleased with how this story turned out and it was a lot of fun to write and draw. A thank you is owed to Mr. Matthew Sheret for allowing The King and I to run rampant within the pages of his publication. There will be more King of Things stories on the way, don’t you worry about that.

Editor Sheret has put together another wonderful issue, there’s some gems in there from new faces and familiar names alike. This is also the last in the current run of Paper Science so if you haven’t read any of the previous issues now is an excellent time to buy issues 4-7 containing the complete The King of Things story and 50 pages of full colour, oversize comic goodness for a mere £8.

I also drew the cover for this issue and am honoured to be in the fine company of Luke Pearson, Kristyna Baczynski and Joe List. Here’s the artwork without all those pesky words on it.

All photos courtesy of Matt Sheret.

It’s time once again for the best comic convention in the UK, it’s Thought Bubble, this coming weekend in Leeds! This year’s show is a 2 day event across 2 huge halls on Saturday and Sunday and I will be there selling my comics for the full two days. No panels, no workshops, no commissions, just me at a table talking to you guys all weekend.

I’ll be selling Blood Blokes #1, The Everyday Collections and Paper Science 4-6 featuring The King of Things. Stocks of Paper Science 4 are very low so if you’d like all 3 come early! We Are Words + Pictures (publishers of Paper Science) have a table too, so they may have some if I run out. Blank Slate Books will be there as well with their huge UK anthology Nelson (which I blogged about here) so if you a pick up a copy from them I’d be happy to sign it for you.

I’m also doing this:

The comics you can win are The Everyday Collection 3, Glastonbury: A Postcard Book and either Paper Science 5 or 6 (while stocks last). PLUS you’ll win a print of my Graphic Short Story Prize entry ‘Spilt Soda’ (included in the Best Of eBook) AND a Blood Blokes badge AND an Everyday badge! That’s 3 comics, a print and 2 badges for free!

I haven’t even told the creators I’m making Lego versions of about this yet. They’ll know if they are 1 of the chosen 10 on Saturday morning.

Thought Bubble attracts the definitive who’s who of British comics talent and legendary creators from overseas. Have a good look around the Thought Bubble website for all the info and you can see the full exhibitor list for the hall I’m in here.

Just check out out the talent in my aisle, dubbed “Troublemaker Row” by convention organiser Clark. I’m next to Marc Ellerby (I wouldn’t show up otherwise) and Andrew Tunney who are both amazing and I’ll be sharing with the lovely Kayla Marie Hillier. Here’s where you can find me:

Subtle, eh?

I look forward to this show every year, I can’t wait to see you there!

On Sunday, Jonathan Cape released ‘Shorties!’ their free eBook of the best of the Graphic Short Story Prize, an annual contest in which the winning entry is published in The Observer and the creator receives £1000. The collection contains the winning entries from the first 5 years of the prize and a selection of other entries chosen by none other than Bryan Talbot. I was very pleased when they asked to include my 2007 entry ‘Spilt Soda’ in the book. I can’t tell you how surprised, pleased, thrilled and honoured I was when they asked me if I would design and illustrate the cover. I have to thank editor Alex Bowler for taking such an interest in my work.

You can read ‘Shorties!’ online, download an iBooks version for your lovely tablet or print out the whole thing HERE.
Alternatively, you can read it all on The Guardian’s website here.

I told you November would be a busy month!

As a bonus, here are my roughs for the three ideas I sent to the editors:

Click for larger image.

Nelson OUT NOW!

Nelson is undoubtedly the comics anthology of the year. 54 British creators telling one story of the life of Nel Baker. Each creator taking a single day in each year of her life. From her birth in 1968 to the present day, each creator takes the story so far and adds to it in their own way. It’s a unique idea dreamed up by editor Rob Davis and it’s sure to be one of the most talked about books of the year. I mean, just look at the talent involved:

Paul Grist, Rob Davis, Woodrow Phoenix, Ellen Lindner, Jamie Smart, Gary Northfield, Sarah McIntyre, Suzy Varty, Sean Longcroft, Warwick Johnson–Cadwell, Luke Pearson, Paul Harrison–Davies, Katie Green, Paul Peart–Smith, Glyn Dillon, I.N.J.Culbard, John Allison, Philip Bond, D’Israeli, Simone Lia, Darryl Cunningham, Jonathan Edwards, Ade Salmon, Kate Charlesworth, Warren Pleece, Kristyna Baczynski, Harvey James, Rian Hughes, Sean Phillips & Pete Doree, Kate Brown, Simon Gane, Jon McNaught, Adam Cadwell, Faz Choudhury, JAKe, Jeremy Day, Dan McDaid, Roger Langridge, Will Morris, Dave Shelton, Carol Swain, Hunt Emerson, Duncan Fegredo, Philippa Rice, Josceline Fenton, Garen Ewing, Tom Humberstone , Dan Berry, Alice Duke, Posy Simmonds, Laura Howell, Andi Watson, and Dave Taylor.

I am very happy and humbled to say I am one of the creators involved. I have a 5 page chapter in the middle of the book set in 1994 (right at the start of Britpop) when Nel is 26. That’s all I can say, anymore would spoil the whole story, so you’ll have to read the book to find out more.

The book is edited by Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix and is being published by Blank Slate Books. All the profits go to the housing charity Shelter. I feel I have to mentioned the involvement of Kayla Marie Hillier who, when she worked for Blank Slate earlier this year, was responsible for the daunting and never-before-done task of co-ordinating 54 artists, all working for free with busy schedules, on one single narrative project. Hats off to Kayla!

Nelson is available to buy NOW from the Blank Slate website (recently redesigned by my good self). The book will be on sale at Thought Bubble on 19th-20th November in Leeds and there’s a bunch of signings and events happening in the week after that, summarised in the flyer below. My guess is that Nelson will be in most comic and book shops by late November, early December. Just in time for Christmas.

I’ll leave you with the first page of my chapter in the hopes it piques your interest. Enjoy.

I shall be there this weekend in the Comic Village next to Marc Ellerby as always (and forever). Blood Blokes #1 is back in print and will available to buy from me there as well as The Everyday Collections and the newest Paper Science, issue 6!

There’s more preview photos of PS6 and a few glimpses of the third part of my serialised children’s story The King of Things over on the We Are Words + Pictures blog.

Meanwhile, work on Blood Blokes #2 is well underway. Page 7 sits on my drawing board as I type this. Proof:

I’m really enjoying bringing the vampire characters to life on the page. It’s typical that I’m getting into the swing of working on this just as there’s two huge comic shows coming up. Pfft tut etc.

Speaking of Thought Bubble (this November), I will be there of course, and keep an eye on this blog for news about my involvement with Nelson from Blank Slate Books and EVEN MORE exciting news!!!

That’s all for now, if you’re at the MCM Expo this weekend, please come by and say hello. Halloween candies appreciated.

This is my entry and it made it into the 24 Honorable Mentions/Runners Up! I was never expecting it to win, I knew the casual approach wouldn’t enthrall the full panel of judges, but I was very pleased to see it place so highly, joint 3rd in the runners up, making it joint 6th overall!

The first judge Vito got it right away “A teenager could very easily make this one. It’s fluid and freemoving (is that a word?) and looks…well, comfortable! I like this one a lot!” While the second judge Rachel said “The web-patterned socks are kind of adorable, and I kind of want a pair. The pants, however, are completely unacceptable.” Which led to a discussion about whether they were jeans, sweat pants or “yoga pants”. For the record I saw them as slim, not skinny, stretchy jeans, the type with lycra in the cotton. Maybe America hasn’t got them yet? The next two judges liked it too, getting the broke kid from Queens angle and one judge, Ron, gave it a 10 stating “Hands down my favorite… it feels very New York-y to me, in the best possible way.” Whether the judges loved it or not, they all seemed to see the humour in it and appreciated my modern take on the New York teenage superhero. Thanks for all the kind words, folks!

Process

Steve Ditko’s costume design is so bizarre and yet familiar it has become as iconic as any other. It was a real challenge to invent a new costume while still keeping it recognisable as Spider-Man and changing it enough from the original so it wasn’t simply a tweak of Ditko’s design.

I scribbled down as many ideas as I could. I wanted to keep the fun, friendly character rather than making him more like a spider or making him “edgy” so I chose the bright blue of the ’60s Spider-Man and a slightly magenta red to compliment it. I coloured my ideas with markers as I drew them. I’d mentioned on Twitter that I was taking part in redesigning Spider-Man and received a request, nay, a dare from Joe List to draw Spider-Man with cowboy boots, a tiny stetson, cufflinks, a fox tail and a bluetooth headset. I obliged.

Looking over my sketches I was torn between the casual, baseball jersey idea (New Yorkers love their baseball) and the full-on, spandex superhero costume with the black gloves and webbed armpits. I decided that the latter design was still quite close to Ditko’s and many other entrants would probably go that route, so I opted for the casual, hipster Spider-Man. I think the science nerd Peter Parker would dress in cooler, more fashionable clothes for his smart talking, fearless alter ego.

Click for larger image.

I tried a few colour ways which gave me the idea of including an alternate design with a hoody for the amusing Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider costume. For the final image I threw in an ’80s black and white suit version too. I also took some time to tweak the traditional webbing pattern, having it emanate out from his wrists and chose the organic web shooter method over the mechanical. I dropped the loose, v-shaped belt aspect at this point and the DNA strand inspired Spider logo.

For the pose I wanted something very athletic but also very Spidey that clearly said ‘Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’. For the final image I chose one of Andrew C Mace‘s fantastic photographs of NYC for the background, as I really didn’t have the time to draw a NY cityscape. And here it is, the main redesign. I expect I’ll get a call from Stan Lee any day now…

Friendly Neighbourhood Spidey! Click for larger image.

The above is a detail of a something I drew up for this:

I think the poster is pretty self explanatory but you can click the image to have a nosey around Orbital’s website or say “I’ll be there” on the Facebook event page. I’m really hoping to make it down at some point during it’s run to see other approaches to self portraits from all those talented folk mentioned above.

And not content with being in one London exhibition I’ve sent some work along to this:

Yep, as well an exhibition in a comic shop there’s one in a record shop too! It’s been put together by We Are Words + Pictures and Sean Azzopardi. The other exhibitors are none other than Marc Ellerby, Jamie McKelvie, Tom Humberstone, Sean Azzopardi, Kristyna Baczynski, Francesca Cassavetti and John Cei Douglas. I have 8 pieces of music related artwork in the show, 7 comics and one illustration.

So, if you’re around London in the month of September and you like comics or music you have a very good chance of seeing some of my original work. And one’s a big drawing of my head! Who wouldn’t like that?

I think it’s safe to say no-one, even the organisers, could have expected how busy it would be. I hadn’t planned to bring a lot of comics with me, I didn’t have anything new, I hadn’t reprinted Blood Blokes in time for the show, or even thought to do so. I considered bringing card to draw Little Portraits on but it slipped my mind and I didn’t even consider bringing flyers for the Manchester Drink ‘n’ Draw that I organise until the morning of the show, by which point it was too late to get hold of some. But none of that bothered me that morning because I fully expected it to be a quiet show, being the first time the MCM Expo had come to Manchester. The late promotion of the event didn’t encourage any of the artists attending either. I wasn’t alone in thinking we’d be twiddling our thumbs for the Early Bird entry time between 9:30 and 11am and then it might get a touch busier later if we were lucky. I couldn’t have been more wrong about how the day turned out.

It got me thinking about what brought about this uncharacteristic pessimism. Part of it is from my role as founder of the Manchester Comix Collective. Aside from the BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw last month which went brilliantly with a great turn out and even won an award as part of the Not Part Festival, most of the things I promote and try to organise through the MCC are met with almost silent response. You’d think in a large city with a lack of comic shows and events, comic fans would be eager for any news or chance to participate in something but over the last year or so I’m not seeing much enthusiasm outside of the small circle of creators, comic shop folk and DnD attendees. So my expectations of the turn out for the MCM Expo were low.

Just the week before I was asked by Alex Fitch of the Panel Borders radio show to round up Manchester comic creators for a group interview about the local scene and how it influenced our work. I managed to rope in John Allison, Joe List and Chris Doherty and over the course of the discussion we touched on the apathy of the public and other creative scenes towards comics in Manchester. We touched on the lack of female creators in the city and the lack of any younger talent coming through. The MCM Expo was brought up and none of us had high expectations for an enthusiastic crowd. As Joe said to me after the Expo “If only we’d recorded an interview about the local scene a week after the show.”

As myself and Marc Ellerby entered the swanky new Manchester Central (previously the G-Mex) that Saturday morning we maneuvered our way around a costumed queue of easily 2000 people who surged into the somewhat undersized hall as soon as the doors opened at 9:30. Our mouths may have been agape. Slightly late we set up as soon as we could and the aisles were packed from the get go. Thousands of cosplayers had turned up in force, with all the gusto and imagination of the London MCM Expo crowds. To my right Marc was shifting comics and t-shirts right from the off and Leigh Gallagher to my left had an ever present queue for sketches that often eclipsed my table. He managed 20+ sketches before breaking for lunch sometime after 12. I instantly regretting not bringing my pad and Little Portraits sign. As the event opened to general entry at 11am, more and more families arrived taking advantage of the free entry for children and low £5 entry fee for adults. They were joined by older comic fans there to see guys like Marc, Leigh, Anthony Johnston and John McCrea. I was shaking my head that I hadn’t brought a stack of Drink ‘n’ Draw flyers, teasingly sat in the Sandbar’s flyer rack not a mile away.

I popped outside around midday to grab some food and to meet Kayla who had kindly brought Marc’s pad of paper from home for me to use for sketches. It was a gloriously hot day and I was stunned to see another thousand or so people queuing in the heat to get into the show, entertained by the now obligatory Darth Vader, Boba Fett and Stormtroopers along with hundreds of brightly coloured cosplayers.

The show remained super busy and crowded until about 4pm. Marc sold out of comics, Leigh got a sore back and I got my act together and did Little Portraits for people. There’s photos of 6 of them in the slideshow below.

In the end I had a great show. I probably made more money than at any other show because I didn’t have to pay for the table, transport or a hotel, so every sale was profit! I’d also like to thank Gary from the Comic Village team for making sure we were okay throughout the day, from introducing himself right at the start to seeing how our day went at the end.

The rest of the evening was a great night too as I’d booked a large table at a chinese for a big group of us and then Gareth at the Lass O’Gowrie had kindly ensured the Snug Room was reserved for us too. Cheers Gareth! Everyone seemed to be having a good time and I’d like to think that everyone left with a good impression of Manchester too.

Marc mentioned that he’d noticed I’d gotten a touch lazy when it came to shows, just coming along and seeing how I’d sell, and he’s right; I’ve been more interesting in seeing my pals than wowing the crowds, at least until I start the big push for Blood Blokes. I was pessimistic about the first big show to come to Manchester in a long time when, as Mr. MCC, I should have been the one person making the very best of it and encouraging others to embrace it too (I did publicise it on the MCC blog and Twitter to little response). Sure, the large amount of cosplayers aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but you can’t deny the positivity, effort and money they bring to such events. Marc noted that these Expos wouldn’t exist without the dedication of the teenagers who dress up and come out to every single show. We’re guests at their show, not the other way around.

I let the apathy towards comics that I and others in the “scene” sensed from the wider populace of the city affect me and influence my own approach to what turned out to be a superb day for comics in Manchester. I am very glad that I was proven wrong. I’d much prefer to try too much and fail than to not bother and be proven right. Next year I’ll be making the Manchester MCM Expo a key event in my schedule of appearances.

To end, here’s a slideshow of my photos from the day including 6 people awkwardly holding the Little Portraits they got from me. Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table, said nice things about The Everyday and picked up Paper Science for The King of Things.

I often teach short cartooning workshops for primary school kids at the World of Work events organised by Higher Futures 4U and they always seem to go down well with the children and teachers alike. So Ana at HF4U had the idea of running a Comic Competition with schools in the North West and asked me if I’d like to be involved. I agreed of course and drew up a 4 page tips sheet on how to draw comics featuring the HF4U mascot, Sam, to be sent out to schools. I was shocked when Ana told me they’d received over 500 entries in return! Ana and her team whittled them down to a top 25 and Ana and I picked 15 winners and runners up, all of which you can see here. The prize for 1st place was a set of art supplies, a print making set for the school and the winning entry re-drawn by me. Out of 500+ entries the most entertaining, funny, well written and  imaginatively drawn entry was ‘The Dream Catcher and the Tomatoes’ by Anvay Sudame, age 11!

Here’s Anvay’s winning entry followed by my version of it.

I had a great time interpreting Anvay’s comic, I kept as close as possible to his original layout and colour choices. I love Anvay’s character designs for the aliens and the Police chief (check out all the pouches!) and the little details like the Alien Leader having four voices. The tomato gun was great fun to draw too. It’s really a good comic I think, his writing goes further than the ‘Sam gets back to Earth okay’ point, which a lot of other entries ended on, and his art is very consistent and detailed. He also knows how to use a good special effect too!

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the assembly on Anvay’s last day of school at Abbott Community Primary School in Manchester. There Ana and I presented him with his grand prize of his framed original comic, a framed print of my version, my original artwork and a copy of Paper Science 4 and 5. Anvay was quiet but clearly pleased and his Mum, who was there with all the other parents of the leaving students, was super proud and took photos of us both. Ana took the photo on the left, which I grabbed from a write up on the HF4U blog written by the star of the comic, Sam himself.

Congratulations again to Anvay and all the other winners and runners up, and thank you to Ana and Higher Futures 4U for asking me to take part in this. And if you’re a comic artist reading this, I invite you to blow Anvay’s mind and draw some fan art for him.