Johnny Kickfoot is here!

Apologies for prolonged radio silence - I've been in a lovely job with a horrible four hours of travelling every day so haven't been as able to egage with the blog as much as I'd like. I've been working on a thing though...

I never liked football. Playing it involved getting sweaty and dirty, two of my least favourite things ever. I am also either deeply uncompetitive or have successfully managed to crush what I always think is a horrible human trait to the extent that I now no longer have a competitive bone in my body. I also do not have the attention span to watch men kick balls and run around a lot - that is time better spent watching films or reading or drawing or drinking tea or playing with my cats

That said, when I got a job at a football club - I won't go into details about the job because it went sour in the end - I found myself surrounded by lovely sorts who loved this nonsense and slowly began to shift my opinion of the game. I still think it's a nonsense, but I definitely feel lucky to have spent four years at a place like Turf Moor which feels at least like it’s at the right end of decades of football culture. It’s part of the community and not too big and flashy and anonymous. I ended up moving from direct annoyance to amused apathy

Johnny Kickfoot comes from that world. I will never enjoy the sport but am tickled by the ephemera and the years where players were allowed to be ugly and greasy and live with their mams. I am amused by the silliness of it all. My dad would be proud if a little baffled by it all, quite frankly. It's basically what happens if Roy of the Rovers was written by a man who has no idea of how any of the kicking game works and I'm proud of the nonsense I've come up with. I've also made a series of Trading Cards, like the ones back in the day, to go with the issue. There are 32 all told and they come in packs of complete cards or packs of eight for swapping with your mates. Go on. Treat yourself

Next up? I wouldn't like to say. That never ends well as I usually end up working on something completely different. But I do have a Sea of Faces to mention to you in a few days time.

Until then, enjoy the international sportsballing!

New Issues

New Issues of the Common Swings: available now, in the side bar etc

   

The Common Swings Book of Murder

Almost finished AND hopefully available next week in case anyone wants a stocking filler...

NEW THINGS!

i'm currently working on a full issue for my football hero johnny kickfoot (written from the perspective of someone ignorant/ disdainful of the kicking game) and as such here's a few cigarette cards of some of his team mates at north town united

Thought Bubble 2017

So I wanted to write a few words about Thought Bubble.

The weekend has just finished, the stock has returned home and needs putting away and the biggest comics’ event of my year has finished until next autumn. It’s always fun, but it’s also… a lot more than that to me. Thought Bubble was when I first decided to try and do comics again back in 2010. It’s where I first did a show. It’s always the one big event I do because, frankly, dragging all my stuff  from Todmorden to Leeds is exhausting enough without adding my fear of, say, London into the mix.

It’s always a hard work weekend for me, not just because of how busy it is and how many people come by my table. I’m not a sociable person you see. It’s not just that I’m shy, although I am, I also have Asperger’s syndrome and as such gauging customer interest, doing chit chat and promoting myself comes with all manner of extra stresses: am I boring this person? Am I hard or soft selling? Should I eye contact? Am I over sharing? Is this person just being polite? All these are concerns I have on a day to day basis, let alone at a show like Thought Bubble. They are just amplified on a stage like this show.

This year I’ve had the added stress of anxiety at high levels. My cat was shot a few weeks ago, and although she’s doing fine, I’m not always doing so well especially as she stars in a couple of my comics which kind of hammers home how horrible a thing the shooting was. My wife came with me this year to support me, but she has MS so she found it exhausting as well. It’s been a tiring weekend.

But… but… I’m so glad I made and make the effort. Thought Bubble can be bloody hard work but it’s also the only show where that hard work is worth it because of the huge range of people who come in and show off their stuff and those who come in to buy it. It’s a broad, beautiful church and it’s one that made me think that I may have something to say and a way to say it. It fills me with enthusiasm and ideas and possibilities. I’d love to be able to do this stuff for a living, but that’s a long way off… but every time I do Thought Bubble I feel I get better , I make more connections (seriously, the amount of people who came in to thank me for Grey Fug would have made me cry on a normal day which, thankfully, Thought Bubble very much isn’t) and feel a little closer to my goal.

So yeah. It’s been a weekend and a half (at least) but by God it’s been worth it.

Thought Bubble!

sorry for having been rubbish updating the blog: i went on holiday for a blissful week in norway back in august, and then on the weekend that i came back my cat got shot by an utter (and still unknown) bastard. she's slowly getting back to health but my anxiety has been all over the place...

still. thought bubble is coming up this weekend, 23rd and 24th september, and me and my long suffering and ever patient wife, are going to be there selling my wares. i'll be at the millennium square/ comixology marquee on table 212b. come! see us! say hello! buy things! i'll have this peculiar new item ready to buy... as well as the usual rubbish

Temminck's Stint Episode Eight

Two pages today!