NARC ILLUSTRATION (DECEMBER 09)

I took a break from illustrating for NARC last month, as I was in the midst of trying to get Coupledom finished.  However, that's done with now, so I've done an illustration for the December issue.

 

The 'Opinion' page this month is about how 2009 has very much been the 'Year Of Death' for music fans (Jackson, Gately, Swayze, etc.), so I tried to lighten it up by playing with the iconography of the Grim Reaper a bit.  I am particularly pleased with the hot pink iPod - I think it adds a nice bit of colour to the otherwise dull grey picture.

Anyway, I'm informed this issue is in shops and venues up and down the north east as I write, so get to it!

BBC COMEDY EXTRA

I was down at the Live Theatre today, as one of 15 writers invited to pitch to BBC Comedy Extra, the Beeb's online comedy set-up.  Apparently I'm one of the "writers to watch" in the region, which is hugely flattering.  I'm obviously on a mailing list somewhere - probably as a result of the Northern Laughs scheme I was involved in earlier in the year.

The thing went okay.  We were put into a room upstairs and listened to a very informative talk by various producers and BBC types about commissioning and online comedy.  Then we were invited to pitch (or more to the point just chat about our ideas) for an online comedy clip to one of the experts.

My ideas didn't go down too well (one was too similar to something that had just been on The Armstrong And Miller Show, while the other one didn't really suit the format), but considering I learned most of what I know about online comedy in the 20 minutes before I pitched, that's to be expected.

I did manage to interest one of the experts in Coupledom (which I was using as a reference for one of the ideas) and he took the copy away with him.  Hope he enjoys it.  Taking all their advice on board I'm to write something up properly and send it off by first thing next year.  At least one idea will be selected from the fifteen and made into a clip, so it's a good incentive.  Plus, I chatted with some fellow comedy writers from elsewhere in the region, which was nice, as writing is such a solitary pursuit.

Not sure in what direction I'm going to go in for my submission, but I know a little more about the format now, so I'm sure I'll think of something.  Wish me luck!

THOUGHT BUBBLE 09 (AFTERMATH)

So my first Thought Bubble (and first comics convention to be more specific) is over.  By the time I'd got home on Saturday night I was ready to crash out with exhaustion.  However, prior to that I was "bounding around" (as Gary put it) in a state of pure joy and enthusiasm.  I really, really enjoyed it!

I sold a ton of comics, but unfortunately neither of the paintings I did for the event.  From this (and from some nice chats with Ian Mayor and Stacey Whittle) I learned that people at these events aren't really in the market for £30 paintings, regardless of how good they are (or not, depending on your taste).  All most of them want is comics priced £3 or less.  They did help to draw people into the stall, I feel.  Plus, Em didn't mind as she wanted both of them for herself.  Won't pay for them though - cheap bitch.  My comics, however, sold very well, especially when I introduced a 'buy two, get Blether free' incentive to lure in indecisive types.

I met and chatted with lots of new people who do comics too.  General rule of thumb seems to be that the more well known they are the less they want to talk to you, but I braved the occaisional bad attitude and awkward small talk to share conversations with some of my small press idols.  In fact, we were positioned directly opposite a whole row of them, so a lot of the time it was less talking to them and more accidentally catching their eye with a blank stare in between sales!  I also took the opportunity to force copies of Coupledom into the hands of various admired/legendary types, including Paul Gravett and Bryan Talbot, which was shameless I know, but for the greater good.

I also had a great time and some lovely bonding with people I already know.  As well as sharing a train journey and a table with the ever-wonderful Messers Bainbridge and Thompson, I was sat next to (and frequently minded the table of) young Jack Fallows.  As I mentioned before, I had several lovely chats with Stacey and Ian (plus Stacey's other half, the elusive Alexi Conman).  Daniel and Lily were frequent visitors to the stall, having a laugh and making us look popular, as was local legend Terry Wiley who very kindly introduced me to Selina of The Girly Comic and recommended my work to her.

A special mention has to go to everyone's favourite small press icon Ben Clark, who's inebriation and subsequent hyperactivity had me in stitches for most of the day.  Bless you sir!

To sum up...

Good points:

• comics comics comics!  So much amazing work.
• bonding with friends and friends-of-friends and getting introduced to some nice people (hello to the lovely Magda).
• putting some faces to so many online names, especially the fantastic Douglas Noble who wrote one of my first reviews of Melanchomic years ago and thereby helped me out a lot in my days of small press naivety.
• amusing cosplayers dressed up as people my ancient brain will never recognise.  Gave the convention colour and variety in a sea of checked shirts and (admittedly sexy) beards.

Bad points:

• not being able to buy everyone's comics and thereby having nice chats with people before being forced to make apologies and promises to come back to buy later.  I never got the chance with most of them.  My apologies if any of you read this!
  
• awkward small talk.  More often than not it's a two-way street.  It's strange how you can have a lovely chat with a complete stranger then a horrible stilted one with someone you've spoken to online before.  Disappointing.
  
• the cliquey nature of some types who are clearly only there to sell their own stuff and aren't interested in meeting people or checking out up-and-comers and their work.  Seemed kind of mean and was hugely dispiriting.
  
• but mostly it was the shortness of the day and having to get the train back, meaning I missed out on further fun and networking.  I had Ian Mayor offering to introduce me to the Manchester Comics lot after we closed up, which was an opportunity I was sad to miss.
  
  

Things learned:

• Do smaller, cheaper paintings.  No-one wants/can spend £30 on a painting at one of these things.
• Get another table.  We were perhaps too densely packed with comics at this event and could do with spreading our wares out in a more attractive, accessible fashion.
•  Take cards around when I'm looking at tables.  I must have said "if you get a chance, check out our table..." to a dozen people and I think only a couple actually made it, especially the bigger names.

And that's about it.  After the stress I inflicted on myself in the run up to this event I'm pleased to be able to relax back into drawing now.  Still lots of projects to work on, but now I can do them at a slower pace.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION 8

The first review of my latest comic Coupledom (outside of this blog) has been posted and surprisingly, it's a favourable one!

The lovely Stacey Whittle has given Coupledom some glowing praise on her Small Press Big Mouth podcast.  Thank you very much Stacey!

There is also a glowing review of the latest Paper Jam anthology Space Monkey, where Stacey makes reference to liking the little gag strips that pepper the comic - it's 50/50 whether she's referring to mine or Gary's, but I'll take those odds.

You can listen to it here.

PRE THOUGHT BUBBLE RAMBLE

In case you didn't know, the prestigious Leeds comics convention Thought Bubble is this weekend and I'll be selling my wares at a Paper Jam Comics table with my good friends Gary Bainbridge and Paul Thompson (plus young Jack Fallows if we are successfully placed next to his stall).

Seeing as this is my first comic convention, I've been trying to make an effort and so, come Saturday I should be armed with the following:

Comics - including new release Coupledom and the Thought Bubble exclusive Blether.

My illustration postcards.

 

I've even done a couple of paintings to sell (if anyone wants to buy them)!  The first one's called Robot Dancing, while the second is a version of my favourite illustration of Jarvis Cocker.

Finally, I've used the convention as an excuse to get myself some minicards to advertise my work and (ahem) services.  They look lovely (if I do say so myself).  Best £15 I've ever spent.

Unfortunately, due to time pressures, what you won't be seeing is the showcase anthology comic I'd been planning with Gary (and others), but my 7-page strip is primed and ready to go when it eventually sees the light of day (probably some time early next year).

So that's me.  Now all I need is some willing punters!  If you read this blog and are going, please drop by the stall and say hello - especially if I haven't met you before.  I'll be the beardy Scotsman trying to look nonchalant.

BLETHER

I've compiled a little 'exclusive' comic for Thought Bubble called Blether and sent it off to get printed today.

It's a kind of companion piece to Coupledom, in that it consists of a lot unpublished strips that I did around the same time, most of which were originally going to form a half-autobiographical/half-fiction comic with the early Coupledom strips, called, funnily enough, Blether.

As I've mentioned before, this project stalled and eventually spawned the fully-autobiographical tome Coupledom.  The project was just sitting there on my computer, half-finished, with a cover complete and everything, so I thought I'd put it together and let people buy it if they want. There's only one autobiographical strip in there - the rest are mostly profane two-page strips about superheroes, zombies and It Girls.  For fans of my 24-minute comics, it's right up their street.

I'm getting 30 copies done, which I'll try and flog at Thought Bubble, then sell the rest on my Online Shop.  Unless something strange happens and it takes off, I doubt I'll reprint it.  It's less my next proper comic and more of limited collector's item - a conscious effort on my part to draw a line under my sporadic work of the last four years or so and look ahead to new work.

Time for me to stop living in the past and get my arse in gear.

NEW PROJECT

For those of you wondering where I go from the 'highs' or lows of Coupledom, here is a tiny sample of the project I've been working on for a couple of weeks now.

Rather than continue with one-page gag strips or autobiographic comics, I've been keen for a while now to develop and stretch my story-telling muscles a bit.  So I've set my sights on doing some self-contained short stories, with a little more depth and content to them.  My first attempt is a yet-to-be-titled seven-page story about an old woman and a ghost.  Below is a scan of a couple of panels to give you a sneak-peak of what's to come.

This is by no means finished artwork - I'm still to clean it up and perhaps give it some black and white shading.

I showed the completed pages to the guys at the Paper Jam meeting last Thursday and the response was very good, so it looks like my efforts have not been in vain.  Even if it hadn't been well received, I've enjoyed doing this so much that I would still have continued.  I'm alreadly plotting another story, so it has certainly got my creative juices going.

This strip will hopefully see print in a showcase anthology I'm planning for Thought Bubble with Gary Bainbridge (amongst others) and will probably form the first part of my next published comic which I'm thinking might be a regular quarterly title rather than the one-offs I'm used to doing (every decade or so).  But we'll see.

Keep checking back for details.

RECORDED FOR TRAINING PURPOSES

I found out yesterday that both sketches I submitted for the latest series of Recorded For Training Purposes, Radio 4's successful  modern communication-based comedy series, have made it through the initial sift.  It's gone from 900 people submitting to 250 shortlisted.

Still a long way to go, but it's encouraging.  I've been given some great feedback on them and an indication as to how they'd like them changed (and all the suggestions are spot-on).  So, I'll have to get my writer's cap on and get them improved sharpish if I want to make the next cut.

I managed to get a sketch through to the cast read-through for the last series back in January, so fingers crossed I get further with these ones.  Even if I don't it's still a nice boost to my confidence to be shortlisted.