Stickers, stickers and more stickers!

I've got two big comic cons approaching so it's that time again, when I sit down and cu out hundreds of stickers...

What the dickens am I doing?

I feel bad for neglecting my blog a bit since my trip to the US but things have been insane busy here; I'm currently working on 2 activity books and the deadlines are fast approaching. They're pretty fun though and my art director is brilliant - that always makes a BIG difference working on a project! I have a few exciting secret projects in the works too which I can't talk about quite yet, but hopefully will be able to reveal a few bits over the next month or so!

 

I was very lucky to have been asked to take part in an amazing science comic for kids called Asteroid Belter, which teams up scientists and artists to create awesome educational comics. My brief was "A Day In The Life Of A Poo" - hopefully I can post my comic soon but the actual printed comic is free and available in Newcastle!

 

 

I have a couple of cons coming up - MCM and Thought Bubble - and have been trying to get new stuff sorted for those. I'm working on a very special and exciting collaboration with someone for Thought Bubble that hopefully should be pretty awesome; I'll reveal more when I can! :D

I'm also going to running another giveaway over on my Facebook page very soon so please check it out for updates and news!

I Heart Comic Cons!



Last weekend was MCM Expo - my favourite of all the cons I attend every year. Here's how my table looked! Awesome little Cthulhu was made by the Omni-talented KaniKaniza!

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Comic Cons!

I've got a few comic cons left for this year and I should also have a few new books for them too.

Bristol Comic and Zine Fair - a small one day zine fair on the 23rd of September. I've never done this one before so hopefully it'll be a nice little fair!

MCM Expo - I'll be in the Comic Village again this October for more fun and frolics!

Thought Bubble - There's an awesome line-up of creators at TB this year - I cannot wait!

Hope to see you all at one of these!

Self Publishing is Addictive!

I didn't realise how many Small Press books I've self published over the last year; I think it's safe to say I've got the bug! Although I started to self publish my own comic when I worked in a comic shop back in 2004-2007, it's only really been in the last year or so that I've gotten back into it and started to realise the potential in printing books myself. One thing I love about self publishing is having complete control over what I write and draw; if I have an idea for an activity book or a comic, I can do whatever I want because I know I'm the one paying for printing costs and I have to push myself to sell it. There's also a huge amount of satisfaction (and mild terror) when you receive a box of books from the printers and see them in the flesh for the first time! Somebody recently commented on how much they liked the overall look of my books and how I have my own creative brand going on. Although I feel a lot of my book covers look a bit samey (I'm not the world's best designer) I do like how they all tie together. This is also what I like about a lot of my friends that self publish too; they all have a very distinct and unique look to all of their books (I'll be doing a blog post about some of my favourite small pressers soon!). I've been a part of the UK Small Press scene for a while now and have made some awesome friends through it, all of them very talented.

With the exception of Brains Etc, all of my books have been printed through Inky Little Fingers. I cannot recommend these guys enough; they're fast, easy to print through and the quality, especially colour stuff, is outstanding. They are also extremely reasonable price-wise. Although I only have an electronic proof to check before my books go to print (you can get hard copies but they cost extra) I've come to trust that unless I mess something up on my end, they always do a good job.

Hopefully in a few weeks time I'd have printed my Rather Odd Alphabet and I've made a start on another book, this one with a little bit more narrative that I'm hoping will be really fun!

Wolverine Variant Cover!

A few cons ago, I was asked by someone to draw on their Wolverine variant cover. After the initial panic of ruining their comic passed, I gave it a go! I think I might try a few more of these and possibly sell them as prints!

Cons, Kid's books and Coconuts (may not actually contain coconuts).

The last couple of weeks have been a maelstrom of work, work and more work. Thought Bubble was a very pleasant con; great to catch up with lots of peeps and spent a wee bit too much on small press books! XD I'm also on the home stretch for the kid's books - the diggers book is next on the list to complete and then it's just the dinos. I've been having a great time drawing the dinosaur book!

In crapper news, I've been made redundant at my part-time job which sucks, but hopefully will lead to something else. I have until February as I got a decent redundancy package so at least I'm not stranded for xmas!

I've been sending off work to more publishers (sample from my portfolio above) and have had some positive responses, so hopefully 2012 will bring some more exciting book work!

More zombie goodies!

It's been quite a while since I made any comics to sell at conventions, so I thought I'd do a zombie zine for this year's shows. But as well as that, I'll be making a whole bunch of stickers and key rings to sell alongside it! I think I'll pop a full colour zombie print in with the zines too as a free gift. The zine itself will be black and white with a colour cover. Now to get drawing!

Thought Bubble!

Holy moly, Thought Bubble was bloody awesome! After much hassle deciding on whether to go, it was well worth it; I sold an amazing amount for a one day con, met some brilliant people and generally just had a fantastic time. TB is very Small Press based in terms of stalls but has a lot of big comic names to draw in a range of people and you could definitely see that yesterday. The place was rammed all day and the atmosphere was great. Rumour has it that next year will be two days and if that's the case, this will become another regular con for me! I was mainly selling the bits I had left from BICS and MCM but that didn't stop people from buying! It's made me come up with some exciting new things to have ready in time for all the cons I have planned for next year...