POCKET THOUGHTS ANNUAL #8

The latest Pocket Thoughts Annual is out now!

Edited by Ryan Ewing, and featuring a/y, Shelly Marie Bee, Sierra DeCarmen, Eleisha, Julie Elefante, Dolly Gosh, Nicole Gruszecki, BluRaven C.Houvener, Irime, Randy Kai, Kali Kambouroglos, Heather Knowles, Megan Lotts, Michael, Nyx, Edie Quinn, Victoria Simonson, Alexis Snikt, Mack Sproates, and Fawndolyn Valentine. I'm in there too. Here's a preview of my comic:

For more details, go to the Pocket Thoughts etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/pocketthoughts/?etsrc=sdt

WHAT DAY IS IT? inks

Final drawing stage on the latest comic. Next is scanning and what I call "tidying up".

WHAT DAY IS IT? Pencils

Here are pencils of the one-pager I'm doing for a US zine, deadline 15th January.

WHAT DAY IS IT?

I signed up to be in a new anthology zine a couple of days ago, and wrote down my story idea today. The deadline is 15th January.

FRED EGG COMICS REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2025

I knew at the start of 2025 that I was going to do more comics work than ever before, and because of that I was going to put out less work to the public in terms of contributing to anthologies.

The work I concentrated on was a book concerned with my love of music through the years. I was going to draw all of it myself, no guest artists this time around. I aimed to have this completed by the end of the year, so had to concentrate. Between 2nd January and 2nd February, I wrote and laid out every idea I could think of related to music, as they came to me. I would sort out the running order of the pages once they were completed. I had 24 pages to do, and I planned to make sure I complete a page every weekend. I would get to go to sleep on Sunday night when I’d completed it. Although I had no guest artists, I wanted to included stories from my immediate family, so that was a further 7 pages. I also knew I’d have more ideas as I went along, and indeed I did. As the months went by a further 11 ideas presented themselves to me.

So I had 43 pages to complete, alongside front and back covers. Doable, but I couldn’t sit around waiting to begin, as I’d used up January now and had to leave room at the end for production. As I went through the year doing the work, I decided to post updates of Work in progress online. Layouts, pencils, and inks were posted on this blog, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, X, and over at the Awesome Comics Podcast substack. While this took up the majority of my time, I took part in some other comics related activities.

In February I had a comic in Ryan Ewing’s Pocket Thoughts Annual #7.

In March, That Comic Smell podcast had an episode on Science Fiction comics. Incidentally, our third comic is still in production and will hopefully be completed next year.

In April, I had a comic in Bob Corby’s Contains No MSG or AI.

In May, I appeared on Marvel Star Wars Explorers podcast, discussing Indiana Jones comics #29 and 30.

In August, I wrote about AI in comics as part of the Broken Frontier article Raging Against the Machine. As I explained, I successfully did the entire For the Record comic in one year. Now I aim to try to fund it on Kickstarter. I haven’t done this since 2021, when I published The Tay Bridge Disaster comic. A lot’s changed since then, so I’ll see how it goes. As an incentive, I have an idea for a compilation zine of Fred Egg Music comics from throughout the years. Thanks for all your interest, feedback, and comments throughout the year. It’s much appreciated. Have a great 2026!

POCKET THOUGHTS ANNUAL #7

The latest Pocket Thoughts Annual is out now!

Edited by Ryan Ewing, and featuring Randy Kai, Midnightzines, AOMM, Landon Foster, Jaden Stars, Eleisha, Vicky S., Ness, Doug Chapel, Fawndolyn Valentine, Franziska Beck, Nicole Gruszecki, Dayna Moth, BluRaven, C. Houvener, Kali Kambouroglos, Ryan Ewing, Jason EVIL, and Sierra DeCarmen

I'm in there too. Here's a preview of my comic:

For more details, go to the Pocket Thoughts etsy shop here.

FRED EGG COMICS REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2024

This has been another year greatly enhanced by taking time and making an effort to work on comics as much as possible. It’s not the easiest or most comfortable thing to do, but I’m glad to look back and see I’ve achieved what I have. 

I started off 2024 with an appearance in Pocket Thoughts Annual #6. This US zine from Ryan Ewing has become a regular project for me over the years, and is always a pleasure. This latest effort portrayed a real event where I was witness to a child’s genuine excitement about fruit being educated out of them by their parent.

This story was added to others I wrote and drew specifically for my comic book You Get What You Get. I also wrote stories for 26 guest artists to illustrate. They were: Emre Altındağ, Claire Brown, Clio Ding, Zu Dominiak, Joan Edam, Helena Edwardson, Fraser Geesin, Andy Hanks, Rozi Hathaway, Olivia Hicks, Rebecca Horner, Iain Cranford Hunter, Tim Kelly, Marc KZ, Francesca Mancuso, Nando, Paterson, Iestyn Pettigrew, Alex Potts, Ludi Price, Neil Scott, Mike Sedakat, Tom Stewart, Sam Stovold, Andy Strachan, and Cherish York. Thanks again to all of them for their sterling work. 

The comic launched at Dundee Zine Fest in November. I have wondered about the effectiveness of Zine oriented events as opposed to comic centric ones, but found to my surprise that the DZF was successful for me. Perhaps the sheer variety of topics covered and formats included in zine culture meant they were open to the comics I make? In any case, and whatever the reason, I had more sales there than I’ve had at any other comic con. 

Something else that came from that event was that a few weeks after, one of the people who bought my books contacted me to ask me questions regarding making comics. Turns out they were a student, and looking for quotes for their latest essay. Have a read of the Q&A session here.

Now, That Comic Smell. After our episode on comics available in local shops, you may have seen Tom’s video announcement that the podcast has ended. While this is true, there’s a little more to be said. Firstly, we are still meeting up regularly, just not recording the chats, so I sometimes forget we’ve “stopped”. Also, there are many episodes still in the can that will be put online (as Tom mentioned in his statement). And, we do plan to record further podcasts on a particular recurring topic we’ve been covering over the years. Lastly, we are still working on a third edition of our That Comic Smell Comic. So, although we’ve finished, there’s still more to look out for from That Comic Smell.

Towards the end of the year, it was a delight to guest once again on the Marvel Star Wars Explorers podcast. Their enthusiasm for Star Wars / Lucasfilm / Marvel / Disney keeps the show going past them having covered all the original Marvel Star Wars comics. At this point they are on to The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 1980s comics, while also discussing the 1990s TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the current Star Wars Skeleton Crew TV series. The podcast is always an enjoyable listen.

Next year I am going to be concentrating on a couple of longer stories. The first is provisionally planned to be between 18-24 pages, and I aim to have it published this year. The other is around 60 pages and I’ll work away on that until it’s finished. In the meantime, I’ve done another page for the next Pocket Thoughts Annual, so hopefully that will be out soon.

Thanks for your interest. Wishing you all the best for 2025!

POCKET THOUGHTS ANNUAL #6

The latest Pocket Thoughts Annual is out now!

Edited by Ryan Ewing, and featuring Lady Butter, Ed Tillman, Heather Knowles, Kate Dunn, Ilaria Brunetti, Nicole Gruszecki, AK, Julie Elefrante, Graham Cooling, Mack J. Sproates, Lindsay Baker, Sean Hamling, BluRaven, C. Houvener, Kali Kambouroglos, Peta Tron, Nyx, Cooklin Comics, Rich, Ryleigh, Latibule, Amelie Paquet, Ryan Ewing, Jason "EVIL" Covelli, Sierra DeCarmen, Brian Crofton, and Aesthetic Workshop

I'm in there too. Here's a preview of my comic:

For more details, go to the Pocket Thoughts etsy shop here.

THAT COMIC SMELL: This Year's Intention Fails, Favourite Reads & Christmas Gift Show Off

The latest episode is now online!

From the website:

"On this episode we get together to discuss our “Intention Fails” and whether we managed to get through our 3 for this year and what we chose for the year ahead.

For those who weren’t there for the first time ‘Intention Fails’ are comics that we bought with every intention of reading but have then sat on the shelf for some time, unread. So we take this time to pick 3 particular titles and attempt to read them in the year. We have done it for roughly 3-4 years now.

Nando, on the other hand, reads his comics as soon as he gets them. SO for him, he was sharing his top reads of 2022. The rest of the gang did this also.

Just as an added extra, we all brought along some comics that we got as gifts over the Christmas period. This was just a chance to show off. They say that “No one likes a show off” Well we love one in this case.

This and all the usual comics chat on…

That Comic Smell!

The Incredible Hulk (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby)

Millar & Pinchin (Leopold Maurer)

Autobiographix (Various Dark Horse Creators)

Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham)

Middlewest (Skottie Young, Jorge Corona)

Now (Fantagraphics)

Mome (Fantagraphics)

The Work of Lewis Trondheim

We Told You So: Comics as Art (Tom Spurgeon, Michael Dean)

Minimum Wage (Bob Fingerman)

London's Dark (James Robinson, Paul Johnson)

Alec (Eddie Campbell)

Lobo (Alan Grant, Simon Bisley)

Pogo (Walt Kelly)

Manga Theatre (Akira Toriyama)

Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes (Carl Barks)

Deathlock (Rich Buckler, Doug Moench)

Karl the Viking (Don Lawrence, Ted Cowan)

Garfield (Jim Davis)

Captain Harlock (Levi Matsumoto)

Fists of the North Star (Buronson, Tetsuo Hara)

Blacksad (Juanjo Guarnido, Juan Díaz Canales)

Fantastic Four: Full Circle (Alex Ross)

Emotional World Tour (Paco Roca, Miguel Gallardo)

Xenozoic (Mark Schultz)

Lobo: Convention Special (Alan Grant, Kevin O'neil, Keith Giffen)

Mort Cinder (Alberto Breccia, Héctor Germán Oesterheld)

Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex (Michael Fleisher, JOhn Albano, Jose Garcia Lopez)

Pocket Thoughts (Anthology)

Liget (Anthology)

Dejects (Jay Stephens)

Crashpad (Gary Panter)

Mechaboys (James Kochalka)

Star Trek: Death Before Dishonour (Peter David, James W. Fry)

Marvel Masters of Suspense (Steve Ditko, Stan Lee)

One More Year (Simon Hanselmann)

Megahex (Simon Hanselmann)

Megg & Mogg in Amsterdam (Simon Hanselmann)

Bad Gateway (Simon Hanselmann)

Seeds and Stems (Simon Hanselmann)

Below Ambition (Simon Hanselmann)

Maison Ikkoku (Ruiko Takahashi)

All The Marvels (Douglas Wolk)

Eightball (Daniel Clowes)

Creepy Creations (Ken Reid)

Dynamite Diva: One Eyed Wild Ride (Jasper Jubenville)

Cosmic Slop #1 (Jordan Barry-Browne)

Blammo #9 (Noah Van Sciver)

Jungleland (Adam Falp)

Calvin and Hobbes: Tenth Anniversary Book (Bill Watterson)"

Have a listen here.

POCKET THOUGHTS ANNUAL #5

The new Pocket Thoughts Annual #5 is available now from Ryan Ewing.

It features ElderFlower, Laura Feeney, S. Flores, Hillside Comics, Kali Kambouroglos, Jordan Lee-Tung, Sean McMillan, MJS, Amélie Paquet, Crash Reynolds, Captain Johnny Sausage, Screaming Monkeys, and Nina Zina.

I also have a cartoon in there, called "Moral Panics".

More details at the website here.

POCKET THOUGHTS ANNUAL #4

The latest Pocket Thoughts Annual is out now!

Edited by Ryan Ewing, and featuring Craig Atkinson, Tohm Bakelas, Baby Ballou, Salem Black, Drew Campbell of Vlasinda Productions, Jason"Evil"Covelli, Paige Daniel, Kate Dunn, Dawn Felicia (Nota Bene Zine), Granny Anarchy, Gurn, JR the Pin Witch, Kali Kambouroglos, Kensiek, Jessica L, Sarah M, Kaiju Maddy, Maira/Long Arm Stapler, MJS, New Hearts New Bones, Sammy Orlowski, Amélie Paquet, and Ryan himself.

I'm in there too, with a comic called "Every Friggin' Stop". Here's a preview:

For more details, go to the Pocket Thoughts etsy shop here.

POCKET THOUGHTS ANNUAL #3

The latest edition of Pocket Thoughts Annual is out now!

Featuring Alex from Punks Around, Salem Black, Bloomurder, Brendon Bracewell, Nanette Cloud, Ryan Ewing from Pocket Thoughts, Jillian Fleck, Isa Flo from Yucky Zines, Annie Flores, Dolly Gosh Art, Gurn, Chloe Henderson, Joe and Holly from Caw and Paw, Kali Kambouroglos, Kensiek, Richard Larios from Feral Publication, Jessica Maybury, Solansh Moya from Weirdo Brigade, Nyx from Sea Green Zines, Ominousbird, Amélie Paquet, Aqeel Parvez, Allie Rae from Warglitter Zines, Crash Reynolds, Sheinicorn, Sheri Roloff, and Vlasinda Productions.

I'm in there too, with a comic called "My Political Insight". Here's a preview:

For more details, go here.