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27
Oct 11

MCM Expo again and other news

It’s time once again for the MCM Expo.

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.

Spider-Man Redesign

Project: Rooftop is a blog which focuses on comic book costumes and fashion and runs regular redesign contests. Back in 2008 I entered the Vampirella ReVamp contest because, as you may know, I’m quite fond of vampires. I put a lot of time into it and was glad to see my entry was chosen as one of the runners up, placing 13th overall. Since then P:R has run many redesign contests for Batman, Wolverine, Captain America etc. though not being a huge superhero fan I was never compelled to take part. However, when they announced the Spider-Man: Webhead 2.0 contest I knew I wanted to join in. Spider-Man has been my favourite superhero since childhood so I considered if I had enough time to do something, I didn’t really, but I went straight to the drawing board anyway.

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.

comics / illustration / news — 1 Comment
13
Sep 11

London Exhibitionist

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?

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3
Aug 11

Manchester MCM Expo report

The first MCM Expo in Manchester last Saturday was a surprising, humbling and thoughtful day but most of all a really great time.

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.

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28
Jul 11

HF4U Comic Competition

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.

comics / news — 2 Comments
25
Jul 11

Manchester MCM Expo

This Saturday I will be attending the first Manchester MCM Expo at Manchester Central. It’s a much smaller event than the gigantic London Expo’s so I’m not sure what to expect, but I hope Manchester’s comic fans will turn up and perhaps some of my mates who finally have the chance to see me at a show in our hometown (hint). There’ll be comics, movie stuff, anime and manga, plenty of sci-fi nerdy stuff, merchandise old and new all over the place and a few famous names doing signings and things, including WARWICK DAVIS! So if you can’t be bothered to get the tram across town for me then at least make an effort for Griphook/Willow/Leprechaun!

I’ll have the usual comics including Paper Science 4 and 5 featuring my comic The King of Things & The Shrunken Giant Penny, The Everyday Collections 3 and 4, the few remaining Glastonbury postcard books and I’ll be prepared to do some Little Portraits if it’s quiet.

I’m also excited for the show and the whole weekend as slinky hips Marc Ellerby is coming to stay with me! He’ll be at the show too, so if me and Professor Flitwick still aren’t enough, come for Marc’s chiseled cheekbones for cryin’ out loud!

After the show, as founder of the Manchester Comix Collective, I’m planning on nominating a venue for the comic crowds to all go along to.

Then the day after the show myself and Marc will be at the (award winning!) MCC Drink ‘n’ Draw, because I organise it though this month it’s hosted by Sandbar’s Dom Harbot, so I can kick back, relax and eat the free pizza.

I hope to see friends and fans alike at either the show, the after party or the Drink ‘n’ Draw! It’s a good weekend to be a comic fan in Manchester for once, make the most of it!

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18
Jul 11

Old Art: Ghostbuster Melancholy

(Click for larger image)

I don’t often post bits of my old artwork on this blog but after Mr. Chris Doherty tweeted his splendid version of the cover for The Real Ghostbusters #2 which he’d done for the Covered blog but wasn’t happy enough with it to send it in, I said if he blogged it then I’d blog this blast from my comic past too. But really any excuse to look at some old Ghostbuster comics.

It must have been sometime in 2003 because I was still at Uni when I drew a comic called ‘Ghostbuster Melancholy’ (a title I’m still fond of) about my trips to the local newsagents with my Slimer rucksack to buy The Real Ghostbusters comic. The rest of the comic is way too embarrassing to show you, I hadn’t discovered brush pens by then or even levels in Photoshop, so here’s the panel with my imitation of the issue 6 cover alongside the original.

Needless to say I loved everything Ghostbusters at the time, I even thought the cartoon came before the films probably because of the ‘Real’ in the title (there was another kids book series called The Ghostbusters, you see), but of all the comics and magazines I read at the time (The Beano, Look In etc) The Real Ghostbusters comics were the best. I enjoyed the ever inventive ghost designs the most. I still have some annuals today and for the most part they still hold up and I still enjoy reading them. I’ve even flirted with the idea of redrawing a whole story; if only I had the time.

And just for larks, here’s one more panel from Ghostbuster Melancholy of a very creepy looking 7 year old Cadwell buying his favourite comic with his spending money.

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8
Jul 11

Paper Science 5 & Birmingham Zine Fair!

Hello you lot! This weekend, tomorrow in fact, I will be setting off for Birmingham to attend the second annual Birmingham Zine Festival. I’ll be at the Zine Fair (which is probably more comics than zines tbh) from 12pm -6pm on Saturday which is completely FREE (so you’ve no excuses if you live nearby) and it’s followed by a BBQ, a party (£1.50 in) and there’s even a picnic on the Sunday! Really, what’s not to like? Check the site for more details, I’ll be seeing you there!

I even did a highly amusing mini-interview with them for their site. I’ll be selling the usual comics but sadly not Blood Blokes as the first short print run has sold out already(!). I will have plenty of The Everyday Collections, maybe some original art and lots of Paper Science 4 and…

Paper Science 5 arrived just in time for the show and contains Part 2 of ‘The King of Things & the Shrunken Giant Penny‘!

I just had a sit down to read issue 5 and there’s not a story in there I didn’t smile at, they’re all gems. If you haven’t checked out Paper Science yet, get over to the We Are Words + Pictures shop RIGHT NOW and subscribe to get issues 4-7 so you can read not only the whole King of Things story but also superb stories from some of the UK’s brightest talents AND you’ll get them weeks before the shops do. I’d say it was a tremendous and exciting comic even if I wasn’t in it!

Hope to see you at the Zine Fair, I’ll race you to the BBQ. Bagsies on the spicy chicken legs!

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25
May 11

Another MCM Expo!

This weekend I will once again be attending the MCM EXPO at the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands. It will be my fourth time there and possibly my last for a while.

It will also be the UK DEBUT OF BLOOD BLOKES #1!!! So if you’ve been eager to get your hands on a copy this is your first chance to get one. I will have Blood Blokes badges too and original art for viewing only. I’ll also have copies of Paper Science 4 for sale, the Stiffs/The Pride preview comic, The Everyday Collections 3 and 4, Everyday badges and all the remaining original art for The Everyday for sale. So pretty much what I had at TCAF.

It’s been advertised that I will be sharing my table with Kayla but unfortunately she has had to pull out for various reasons so I’ll have a big ol’ table to myself, right next to Mister Marc Ellerby (who will have some GORGEOUS prints and T-shirts for sale!) for another installment of The Cadwellerby Show. We will be at tables F6 and F7, and you can download a table plan from the top of this page ‘ere.

I won’t be doing Little Portraits for £5 this time and not sure whether I’ll be doing sketches yet, I’ll have to see what the crowds are like; if it’s busy then no, if it’s dead then sure, why not

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I’ll also be on the Writers Vs. Artists Quiz at 3pm on the Comics Stage on Sunday. The idea is we play one round of Pictionary and one round of Taboo (a word game) to see which creative side of comics is superior. The Writers have an unbeaten record of 3 wins to nothing, so I hope to change that with my inclusion in the Artists team this time. It should be fun.

So come on by and be among the first in the country to read Blood Blokes! See you there!

(The above image is a quick warm up sketch I did of Arianna from Blood Blokes. Readers won’t meet her properly ’til issue 2 however.)

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16
May 11

TCAF 2011 report

This year’s Toronto Comics Art Festival was by all accounts the best TCAF yet. This was only my second ever time at the show (I exhibited last year too) but from everyone I spoke to, the excited attendees, the exhibitors who were shifting comics like hotcakes and the organisers who were thrilled with the special guests, line-up and pre-show hype (TCAF was trending on Twitter 2 days before the show!) it seems like the festival has really outdone itself this year.

Me at TCAF 2011

Me at TCAF 2011 (photo by Jamie Coville)

Kayla and I landed in Toronto on the Thursday and just had time to change before heading to the Toronto Reference Library for Kayla’s part in the evening’s talks. After a Q&A session with featured guest Mawil, Kayla expertly introduced Canadian comic fans to Blank Slate Books. She took us through their German translations such as work by Mawil, their books from other European countries, their existing UK titles and the 4 new books debuting at the show. Then Kayla announced Nelson, a hugely ambitious project with over 50 UK artists telling the story of one woman’s life from 1968 to the present day. More info about Nelson can be found on the Blank Slate website.

I am very happy to say that I am one of the artists working on Nelson and will be tackling the chapter of Nel’s life set in 1994. That’s about all I can divulge right now but there will be more news about this very exciting project nearer it’s release date in November, just in time for Thought Bubble.

On Friday night we went to the Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine, Seth and Chester Brown talk which was, as you would expect from four giants of cartooning, an incredibly insightful and entertaining few hours. Apart from jokes about Chester’s new book, one stand out moment for me was in reply to the inevitable question about print vs digital. Ware said while describing his approach to designing his books that he thinks of a book as a person. To paraphrase Ware, he said they have a spine and a face, they’re bigger on the inside than on the outside, they can lie to you, they can keep secrets. In short the design of a book gives it a personality as much the content does, and as Seth noted, that design can contradict or undermine the content and change how readers approach it.

Saturday was easily the busiest I, or it seems anyone, had ever seen TCAF. It was bustling all day long and the show was laid out and organised so well that sales for everyone seemed to soar. Many books I wanted sold out before the end of the first day.

TCAF 2011 table

I was expecting Blood Blokes to sell well and my other work to sell a little less, but everything sold at an even pace. In truth I think a US comic sized, genre fiction comic like Blood Blokes isn’t what the TCAF audience usually comes for which may explain why The Everyday, my observational comic strip, sold just as well. Kayla’s Galavant for example, a 100 page travel diary for just $10, sold out easily. Paper Science 4 sold a nifty 20 copies too, introducing Canadian readers to some of the best UK talents working right now and my children’s story The King of Things & The Shrunken Giant Penny (which, by the way, received a good review from Forbidden Planet International).

Kayla at TCAF 2011

After the show on Saturday we attended the Doug Wright Awards at the Art Gallery of Ontario. This really is a near perfect way to do a national comics awards. There’s only 4 categories: Best Emerging Talent, Best Book, Best Experimental Comic and the Hall of Fame. This gives the ceremony room to breath, have fun and really showcase all the nominees. The all-Canadian titles are picked by a panel and then judged by a committee. All the nominated books are on sale afterwards and the winning artists stay around to sign their books, complete with Doug Wright Award Winner stickers. In Britain we have the Eagle Awards, which I have to say, with it’s numerous and unnecessary categories, it’s skewed “public” voting system and it’s inclusion of international artists and books, is disappointingly extraneous. It doesn’t hold any esteem here in the UK and it doesn’t do any justice to the exciting work and thriving talents coming from the country right now. We could do much worse than to follow the example led by the organisers of the Doug Wrights. </rant>

After the traditional Saturday night Karaoke, I was surprisingly alert on Sunday morning which was fortunate because I had to appear on a panel about the UK comics scene called Her Majesty’s Comics moderated by Box Brown (a daring artist and an extremely friendly guy). I didn’t actually get to say much, there was quite a few of us behind the table, but you can watch the full discussion at the link above.

At some point on Sunday, Kayla and I were interviewed by Jimmy Aquino for the Comic News Insider podcast, along with many other talented folk. You can listen to that here and our interview is about two thirds in.

(Photo by our table neighbour Tom Scioli)

Sunday itself was a much slower day but sales remained steady and I got a chance to have a small look around. In fact I could only cover the ground floor, I simply didn’t have time to explore the immense talent stashed away upstairs in an equally large area. I picked up quite a few goodies for both myself and Marc (who had sent me a ~~list of demands~~ shopping list) from the excellent Koyama Press table. And I even got to meet the often praised Annie Koyama herself.

One of my favourite things about comic shows is discovering new artists. I had heard of the name Dylan Meconis but couldn’t have conjured any images to attach to it. A flyer of hers for an upcoming book she’s appearing in called Bordertown caught my eye and we soon got chatting about Jaime Hernandez, vampires and the gothic reading room of the John Ryland’s Library in Manchester which she used as reference for a page in her book, Family Man Volume 1, which I quickly bought. It’s an attractively drawn, deeply researched and intriguing story set in 18th century Germany of young Luther Levy, a dismissed religious lecturer finding a new job in a distant and mysterious University. It’s surprisingly slow paced for a comic and largely conversational to the extent that this first volume feels like the first two chapters of a novel, but a witty and interesting novel that I look forward to reading more of. You can buy it or read it online at www.lutherlevy.com.

Once the show had wrapped up on Sunday I was happy with the amount I sold, even though I didn’t sell out of anything which happened more at TCAF this year than any show I’ve been too. Kayla and I then went to see Jeffrey Lewis play at the Dakota Tavern. Jeffrey was at the show too as a comic artist, his Fuff comics are skillfully drawn, well composed and sadly overlooked by most indie comic fans, but he also found time to play a solo show which was a lot of fun.

Then we made our way through the warm night to the official after party for guests, exhibitors, organisers and volunteers. This is another thing TCAF does that no other show does, a relaxed gathering after everyone’s packed up to publicly thank each and every person involved in putting the show together. And of course to drink, chat and end the weekend on a pleasant, friendly and exhausted high.

I come away from TCAF this year just as enthused about comics as I’ve ever been and somewhat impatient. I can’t wait to sell Blood Blokes in the UK and to get to work on issue 2. I can’t wait to write and draw more kids comics like The King of Things. I can’t wait to finish my pages for Nelson and see the book released. And mostly, I can’t wait to see the UK comics scene grow and develop even more this year and to be a part of that, and if we can create anything near the positive attitude towards comics that TCAF does, then we’ll all be better for it.

Oh, and I met Thor.

Thor