PEZZ

Thought Bubble comic festival is next week.

I put an entry in for the event's competition and it's up at the website. A comic called "Pezz".
Have a look here.

I'm pleased to say it's in an exhibition at Leeds Central Library too.

I'm getting excited for the trip to Leeds now. See you at the con, if you're going!

THAT COMIC SMELL 4: HORROR

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online.

Have a listen at Soundcloud here and YouTube here.

From the website:

"Welcome to this month's Spook-tacular episode of That Comic Smell.

We are one host short this time around. Not to worry, Giuseppe will be back. In the mean time the remaining 3 hosts talk Horror.
With Halloween upon us, we went for the scary theme. The conversation takes a very "comics at the time" route when we speak about Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. David discusses a little about how he came up with a Horror story of his own and there is all the latest news (Worth speaking about) to wrap us up.
All of this and more on the newest episode of "That Comic Smell"
These are some of the comics we spoke about:
Saga of the Swamp Thing (Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben)
Black Hole (Charles Burns)
The Walking Dead (Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard)
Death Rattle (Story: ill Bred) (Charles Burns)
The Hive, X'ed Out, Sugar Skull (Charles Burns Trilogy)
Tales From The Crypt (William Gaines, Al Feldstein)
Mr Monsters Weird: The Brain Bats Of Venus (Basil Wolverton)
The Demon (Jack Kirby)
Black Magic (Joe Simon, Jack Kirby)
Creepy Worlds (Alan Class Comics)
Sinister Tales (Alan Class Comics)
Trashed (Derf)
ABC Warriors: The Black Hole (Pat Mills, Simon Bisley)
American Vampire (Scott Snyder, Stephen King, Rafael Albuquerque)
Batman: Black Mirror (Scott Snyder, Jock, Francesco Francavilla)
Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection - Field Notes from Dr. Robert Twombly [Illustrated Novel] (Don Roff, Chris Lane)
Recorded Zombie Attacks (Max Brooks, Ibraim Roberson)
Quality Comics: Halls of Horror (Hammer House of Horror Special) [Dez Skinn]
2000AD's 2000th issue
From Hell (Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell)
Outcast (Robert Kirkman, Paul Azaceta)
Locke & Key (Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodríguez)
Crossed (Garth Ennis, Jacen Burrows)
The City [Online Serial] (Derf Backderf)
Velvet (Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser)
Treehouse (Dundee Comics Collective)"

IAN KENNEDY MASTERCLASS

What a good day it was today.

I was at Ian Kennedy's live drawing session this afternoon. I've known Ian for years, and been a huge fan of his work for decades before I ever met him.

I've interviewed him, commissioned him and had some nice chats with him and his wife.

But one thing I've never done is actually watch him work. How does he draw those beautiful comic layouts and paint all those wonderful colours?

What a thrill to watch him apply the brush to a picture of the Mekon he'd previously drawn in his own distinctive style.

He's doing another masterclass this Saturday at Dundee Comics Creative Space. If you are interested in comics, or painting in general, I'd seriously recommend going along to that. Details can be found here.

BERSERKOTRON returns!

I've put together a complete collection of my first self-published comics Berserkotron 1 & 2.

It's a 56 page story with a new 10 page "behind the scenes" making of section, which was fun to put together.

A lot of material in here that made me cringe. I was tempted to "fix" the most obvious howlers, but in the end I didn't change anything. It is what it is!

I wanted it finished in time for this year's Thought Bubble convention, and here it is.

Hopefully see you there!

INK & PIXELS

Poster by Elliot Balson.

Yesterday was the opening of the Ink & Pixels exhibition of comics produced in Dundee, which I am very pleased to be included in. Curated by Louise Quirion, it is a fun and impressive collection of artworks.

Photo from the Dundee Comics Creative Space Facebook page.

The show has all four pages of my story 'Silently Falling' from Zero Sum Bubblegum, my wraparound cover for Treehouse issue 7, and another wraparound cover for the new collected edition of Berserkotron, which I will say more about tomorrow.

Go along to see the free show if you can, as it is very inspiring. Runs until 27th November.

NANDO: Page 3 pencils and inks

There's a new update on the production blog.

 Have a read here.

NANDO: Facebook PM chat

I've done another update on the production blog.

 Have a read here.

NANDO page 2 pencils and inks

I've posted the latest update on progress working on my new twelve page comic for the MLitt course at University of Dundee.

Page 2 has been pencilled and inked.

Have a look here.

NANDO: CREATING COMICS continues

More work has just gone up detailing my progress on a new 12 page story for the Creating Comics module of the MLitt course I am doing.

Have a look here.

THAT COMIC SMELL 3: EISNER AWARDS

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online.

Have a listen at Soundcloud here or YouTube here.

From the website:

"This month, the folks at "That Comic Smell" discuss the Eisner Awards 2016 that were held at San Diego Comic Con in July of this year. We cover all the nominations and the winners. We are all very shocked at how little we know about the vast array of nominations and how our reading lists will now grow.

There is also mention of when the folks first learned how to ride a bike and a brief word about another fine comics podcast.

Plus there is a brief chat about what we have all been reading this past month.

All this on the brand new episode of That Comic Smell.

[These are some of the titles we discuss on the Pod]

La guerra civil española [Novela gráfica] (Paul Preston & José Pablo García)
Wrinkles (Paco Roca)
El invierno del dibujante (Paco Roca)
I dreamt we got back together (Tim Kelly)
Superfuckers Forever (James Kochalka)
Commando [1989 & 1990 Annuals]
Love & Rockets [Amor Y Cohetes, Human Diastrophism & Heartbreak Soup] (Gilbert Hernandez)
{NOTE: There are 11 volumes, so far, in total}
Superman Man of Steel #70-#79 (Louise Simonson, Scot Eaton, Dennis Janke)
Lieutenant Blueberry (Jean-Michel Charlier, Jean "Mœbius" Giraud)
Elstree 1976 [Star Wars Documentary Film] (Jon Spira)
Image+ Magazine
Lantern City (Matthew Daley, Paul Jenkins, Mairghread Scott, Carlos Magno)
Batman: Serenata Nocturna - El origen del caballero oscuro {Night Serenade - The Origin of The Dark Knight} (David Hernando)
Banana Sunday (Colleen Coover, Root Nibot)"

ZERO SUM BUBBLEGUM and DUMP at SPLANK!

Peter Duncan has written on my comics Zero Sum Bubblegum and Dump over at Splank!

Have a read here.

"David Robertson of Fred Egg comics has been kind enough to send me copies of a couple of his most recent collections of strips, ""Zero Sum Bubblegum" and "Dump 3".   David's specialises in slice of life stories and a kind of 'mundane fantasy' that includes things like Princess Leia musing on her relationships with men or a story where a time machine is built for the puspose of stealing a specific model of early coffee maker.

Many of the strips depict what are little more than incidents, thoughts or ideas put down on paper rather than complete stories but many of these are poignant or moving.   Some, I'll be honest, left me scratching my head wondering what exactly he had been getting at, but all were, at the very least, interesting.  About half of each collection showcases David's own art, with the rest consisting of collaborations with other artists.

David's art style is functional, naive.  He isn't going to be working for Marvel or DC or any of the other big publishers.  This is what I think of as 'zine art'.  What used to, way back in the eighties, be referred to as mini-comics or more recently as comix.  Comics for everyone, a sort of punk-rock "who cares how good you are, just do it" style.

Some of the collaborations are more polished artwise but David's work is effective.  Most notably in a three page strip called "Silently Falling" where a whole backstory can be inferred from a very few words and some simple images.

David understands story-telling and communication, but he makes the reader work.  Nothing is laid out on a platter for you.  He presents you with incidents and the story or idea is contained within.  I will admit to not quite knowing what I was looking at when I first looked at the books.   I was prepared for something that was pretentious or just plain dull.  In the end I found myself enjoying them and certainly understanding why he'd done them.

These comics are not for fans of superhero books.   They are not about alien invasions or supernatural evils.  They are about late library books, or swear words on a scrabble board.  Nobody is going to want to take individual panels and turn them into posters and a lot of people will just look at them and decide they are not for them.  I get that, if David hadn't sent them to me I would ever have read them.   But I'm glad I did and I really enjoyed them.  I'm not sure I'm qualified to pass judgement or review them, but I think I know a few readers of Splank! who would appreciate them and guys, I'm willing to learn.

In addition to the Fred Egg web-site there is a also a blog well worth checking out for David's writings about comics.  The most recent post (as I write) is a Bash Street Kids inspired strip - well worth looking out for."

BASH STREET KIDS

Here's a page I drew recently as part of an assignment on the Comics MLitt course.

The task was to do a presentation talk on an aspect of The Beano. I did a creative element too. The starting point came from course leader Chris Murray who suggested, "The Bash Street Kids taking the comics masters".

It was a good challenge to research the different art styles down the decades, find relevant panels and try to ape them. This Bash Street Kids comic is also designed to mirror the changing format of the Beano through the decades.

24 HOUR COMICS DAY REDUX

I took part in 24 Hour Comics Day at the weekend. 10am Saturday – 10am Sunday, at the Dundee Comics Creative Space.

I've done it before. I was jokingly telling people that it took me 7 years to get over the previous go round, but there may have been a hint of truth in it.

I went into the event with a few lessons learned. Last time I did six panel pages throughout, and I decided to go between 1 and 3 this time. I also had a more square format page in mind rather than an A4. I was thinking of a comic like James Kochalka's Quit Your Job.

The best decision I made was to write and layout the whole story before I started drawing any pages. That really changed the feel of the entire day. Instead of blindly forging on, hoping it was all gonna come out okay, I already had my solid ground to work on.

As I worked through the day and night, I posted photos on Facebook and Twitter. Here's what I put up:

1.13pm: 2 pages done. 22 to go. Time for lunch.

4.11pm: Hey! 3 more pages. Coffee time.

6.58pm: Pages 6-10. Pizza has been ordered. 24 Hour Comic Day continues.

10.27pm: Here's pages 11-14.

12.49am: Pages 15 and 16. It's still 24 hour comic day even though it's tomorrow now.

3.20am: Here's pages 17-20. I'm still at it for 24 hour comics day. In body anyway, not sure where my brain's wandered off to.

5.20: Finished! My pages for 24 hour comic day, under the protective eye of a promo poster for DKIII: The Master Race.

Rebecca at the Dundee Comics Creative Space was also tweeting pictures of the event throughout. Here are a couple:

This event was attended by comics students and artists from the local area, and there was a lot of serious talent on show. The Dundee scene is truly booming and very inspirational at the moment.