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!

Grey Fug: Review!

I have a review!

Temminck's Stint Episode Seven

Temminck's Stint Episode Six

Temminck's Stint Episode Five

Temminck's Stint Part Four

Temminck's Stint Part Three

Temminck's Stint Part Two

Temminck's Stint Part One

 

Mr Pepper...

Well this time I've got the plot all sorted out, so let's hope when I say I'm intending to finish "The Eyes of Mr Pepper" I mean it

 

apologies for radio silence - i've been working on this, easily the toughest issue i've created as it's less of the usual silly names and faces nonsense and more an attempt to get to grips with the depression i've struggled with for several years

it'll be going online in my shop later this week. and i'm even sending out review copies which for me is... unusual to say the least

Film Diary!

Here's the start of a new project: for the last year, I've been recording an image from every film I've seen - and considering I saw about 400 last year there's quite a few of these that I have drawn/ am drawing. I want to put the best of these into a book for Scribblecon 2017 so here are a few of the best for starters... enjoy!

(From the top: "Crimes of the Black Cat" (1972); "Death Walks at Midnight" (1972); "Don't Talk to Strange Men" (1962)"; "Terminus" (1961))