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1
Oct 12

Manchester Exhibitionist

Next week sees the launch of an exhibition I’m taking part in called Top Bunk! which starts on Friday 12th October in Manchester’s Cornerhouse. I will have a limited run of 10 prints of ‘Blunderbuss’, my Jack White illustration, as well as 4 original black and white ink drawings. All the art in the exhibition is for sale at under £100 so come along and patronise some local artists. You know what I mean.

The exhibition starts on the same day as the Sketch-O-Matic event, where you can sit in a photobooth and get an original portrait for as little as £1. Both events are part of the Manchester Weekender, a long weekend of eclectic art and culture events.

Then on the Sunday 14th October I will be attending the HotchPotch 1st Birthday Party where I will be selling my comics and some original art and having some cake and booze. There’s set to be a whole load of artists, musicians, comedians and short films throughout the night, so keep an eye on the Facebook event for more info.

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7
Sep 12

Decompressed

Love & Rockets Hair

Late last month I recorded an interview with the famous comics writer and long time pal Kieron Gillen for his podcast DECOMPRESSED in which he talks with creators in great detail about a single issue of their comic. Kieron asked me to talk about Blood Blokes #2 and by golly I did. You can listen to the whole 50 minute examination of practical sleeping arrangements for vampires, student house squalor, Love & Rockets hair, the beloved 9 panel grid and early 21st century VHS collections over on Kieron’s blog.

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10
May 12

The Month of May

As you may have noticed it is May. For you that might mean the promise of better weather (ha!) and taking days off around Bank Holidays so you get a whole week off work. For me it means comics comics comics! Here is a rundown of all the appearances I’ll be making this month:

First up is the Bristol Comic Expo, this very weekend, 12th and 13th May! The two day show is back in the grand warehouse next to Temple Meads Train Station and I will be sharing a table, as always, with my Great Beast partner in crime Marc Ellerby.

The following Friday 18th May I will be at Travelling Man Manchester from 5pm signing copies of Blood Blokes and Nelson in support of Anthony Johnston on his ‘All The Coldest Cities Tour‘ for his new graphic novel ‘The Coldest City’ which by all accounts in incredible slice of noir. We’ll be joined by 2000AD artist and cheeky chappy Leigh Gallagher all the way from Liverpool. It’s free so come along, have a chat and get some great comics signed.

After the signing I’ll be scooting to London for the Kapow! Comic Convention the next day, Saturday 19th and also Sunday 20th May in the Business Design Centre, Islington. I’ll be there with Marc again. I haven’t been to this show before so I’m hoping Blood Blokes can reach a new audience of Kick Ass fans and the many people there drawn in by the big name guests like Jonathan Ross and Nick Frost.

Then I’ll be back in London the week after in some capacity for the MCM Expo in Victoria Docks, 25th – 27th May. Blood Blokes #1 is nominated for the ‘Favourite British Comicbook: Black and White’ award at the Eagle Awards held on Saturday 26th, so I’ll find out then if it wins. I still need to confirm if I’ll have a new comic back from the printers (what could it be I wonder?). I’ll edit this post as soon as I have news.

I will no longer be attending MCM Expo this month. Due to the fact Blood Blokes #2 won’t be released in time and also to save money after a very expensive month of traveling. I’ll announce when BB2 will be released very soon. Apologies to anyone who may have been planning to see me at MCM but I will be in London the week before for Kapow. Someone will let me know who wins the Eagle Award, right? Right?

Hope to see you at one of these events!

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26
Apr 12

Leeds & Manchester shows this weekend.

This Saturday 28th April I will be in Leeds for my 3rd appearance at the Leeds Alternative Comics Fair.

It’s on at the spacious Nation of Shopkeepers pub from 12-5pm. I will be selling the Great Beast editions of Blood Blokes #1, Paper Science and probably doing some sketches too. This a FREE event so come along and pick up some great comics and prints from the likes of John Allison, Kristyna Baczynski, Dan Berry and more as well as organisers Hugh Raine and Steve Tillotson.

The following day, Sunday 29th April, I will be at the Manchester Print Fair.

I’ll be selling the same comics and maybe doing sketches again if my hand hasn’t fallen off. I’m most excited about selling Blood Blokes in the bar which features prominently in Blood Blokes, Night & Day Cafe! I’m joined again by Kristyna Baczynski and all the names above. It will be a more varied show than LACF, so if you’re into zines and screen-printing things, come on down too because again, it’s FREE!

I’m having a shave now, I’ll see you at the weekend.

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20
Apr 12

Release the Beast!

Yesterday, Forbidden Planet International broke the news about a new UK publishing group for independent comics and graphic novels set up by myself and my comics wife Marc Ellerby, and thus the Great Beast was unleashed upon the world.

With this new imprint, Marc and I intend to get our self published comics into as many hands as possible, which means big print runs, wider distribution and fully embracing digital comics. We want to bring fun, poppy, heartfelt comics to anyone who may enjoy them. We also aim to publish more comics for children and teenagers too. There’s more about what Great Beast is all about in our first blog post which outlines a Great Beast manifesto, the Beast’s battle cry if you will.

Our first titles are Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter by Marc and Blood Blokes by me. Both have been in print for a while but have been re-released as Great Beast editions and every new issue will be released digitally the same day. In fact, you can buy Blood Blokes #1 digitally for just 99p RIGHT NOW! 99p!

Later in the year we will both be releasing book collections of our previous web-comic work. Marc will release the Ellerbisms book (the beautiful cover has been revealed here) and I will finally collect all 200 comics strips from The Everyday into a nice, hardback book. Here’s the cover:

The response yesterday was overwhelmingly positive. Twitter went nuts and the Great Beast twitter account, @GreatBeastUK, got 100 followers in a matter of hours. Marc has also set up a nifty Facebook page where you can even buy items from our store directly! Check it out and click Like to follow us and keep up to date.

We’ve got a lot of plans for Great Beast which we will reveal in time. For now I can tell you we aim to add a few more creators to the roster before the end of the year and Blood Blokes #2 will be released in May, both in print and digitally of course.

To say it’s a relief that Great Beast is now up and running and out there in the world would be a huge understatement. Marc and I have been talking about this since the end of July last year. We could have had an actual human baby in that time (biology permitting)! It’s been a long road, and at times incredibly frustrating, mostly because we wanted to do everything right (choosing the name took months, oh god, the Google+ chats we had! *shudder*), but we got there and I couldn’t be more proud of our little Beast.

If you haven’t already, please take a look at the website and have a browse around the sexy lookin’ store and we hope you find something you like.

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In related news, Marc and I will both be exhibiting at Comiket in London’s Bishopsgate Institute this Saturday (tomorrow!).

It’s going be a great show, it’s FREE entry for a start, there’s a ton of great cartoonists there like John Allison, Kristyna Baczynski , Tom Gauld, Joe Decie, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell and more, live drawing (that’s going to be fun), reading rooms, a bar, a coffee shop and most importantly an after party. ALL FOR FREE! Get down there!

Marc’s written a blog post about what he’ll be selling including original art (Muppets! He-Man! Turtles!) and a new Chloe Noonan tote bag. I’ll be fully stocked up with the Great Beast editions of Blood Blokes #1. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. I hope to see some of you there.

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8
Mar 12

HotchPotch

This Sunday I will be holding a short talk and Q&A about my comic and illustration work at an event called HotchPotch in Manchester. I will have a small exhibition of work on the walls and I’ll be selling comics during the rest of the event too.

HotchPotch is held at The Thirsty Scholar & The Attic on Oxford Road from 4pm to 1am. My talk will be between 6:00 and 6:30pm. There’s a lot of other stuff going on too, a talk from street/graffiti artist ‘Irek Tankpetrol’, a sewing workshop, short films, 3 bands and a DJ. And it’s all FREE!

I hope you can make it.

More info can be found on the Facebook event page and on the poster below.

And yes, somewhere along the line my description of Cartoonist became ‘Cartoons’. I don’t know why.

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14
Nov 11

Thought Bubble 2011

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!

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14
Nov 11

The King of Things Pez!

I had to share this on my blog because it is beyond amazing. For my 30th birthday my friend Dan Baxter, who always make me excellent cards, made me a The King of Things Pez dispenser complete with it’s own packaging!!! I could not believe it. Seriously, how cool is this? I cannot thank Dan enough. There’s a few more photos on my Flickr too.

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3
Nov 11

Nelson

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.

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2
Nov 11

LEGO Shortlist

Back in January I was thrilled to have my Lego Mad Men featured on Shortlist Magazine’s website. Not long after, the guys there told me the feature had gone down really well and they’d like to commission me to see what else I could do with my minifigure collection. Perhaps recreate some of their covers in Lego? Okay!

I’ve recreated 7 of their past covers using only official Lego minifigures featuring the “uncanny” likenesses of Simon Pegg, Richard Branson, John Hamm, Martin Scorsese, Christian Bale, Paul McCartney and (the one I’m most pleased with) Jimi Hendrix.

See them all over on Shortlist.com, where they say very nice things about me (cheers, guys!) and there’s some extra photos in this Flickr set too.