VOLUME in Birmingham - panel talk!

I'll be taking part in a panel talk! In Birmingham, first week of December, as part of the Art, Book and Print Fair VOLUME.

The live panel will happen in the fabulous Central Library, on 3pm Saturday 7th December. The speakers are:

Dan Berry – an illustrator, designer, cartoonist and lecturer will talk to other makers about the tools and techniques of comic artists and how emerging artists can promote and distribute what they do.
Also includes
Philippa Rice – creator of the webcomic My Cardboard Life, Recyclost, Looking Out and many other titles.
Vivane Schwarz – creator of a number of books for children including There Are Cats In This Book, There Are No Cats In This Book and Welcome To Your Awesome Robot.
Lisa Wood – director of the Thought Bubble festival in Leeds
Martin Steenton – Blank Slate Books.
Presented by Birmingham Zine Festival

Book tickets HERE


I might also borrow a sliver of space from the table of Lizz Lunney to sell some more Rabbit Stew zines... It'll be great!!

Anteater Comics Jam with Sarah

Another comics jam with Sarah McIntyre ^_^

Fan Mail ^_^

Thought Bubble.

THOUGHT BUBBLE WAS AMAZING. I can't quite believe what a tornado of niceness it was. It's all a blur of drawing, laughing, dancing, people going "VIV!!! OVER HERE!!!" and an all-through fuzzy feeling of love for comics and the awesome people who make them.

So here are a few pictures that happened:

Some of the wonderful things I bought and swapped. The books I set out to get were "Carry Me" by Dan Berry and "Kochi Wanaba" by Jamie Smart, and I got them, and MANY MORE. Still am reading.

 My mini-comic which I made for the occasion and sold/swapped. I lazily nabbed this photo from Sarah's Festival Report which is of course a lot more detailed than mine. I'll make some more copies to shift at events. If you are really keen to get a copy, email me and I can post one for a fiver when I've made some more (soon).

I shared a hotel room with Sarah McIntyre, and we hid away for the first evening to draw silly comics. Here is an improvised tale about THE NORTH, from the perspective of a German and an American, so v. accurate.

 There was much more fun... awards, friends old and new, and DANCING. Here is the dancing:

Crikey. I shall do my best to get a table at Thought Bubble next year. COMICS ARE AWESOME.
Lots of love to all involved ^_^ and some extra to the world because, dunno, I am happy.

Photos from The House Of Illustration Fundraiser

I nabbed them from their website.

So that was fun.

STREET GAME ASSEMBLY KIT

Do you like:

GAMES

RUNNING

SCREAMING

If you do, check out the STREET GAME ASSEMBLY KIT from Fire Hazard Games.

I ILLUSTRATED IT!
It's awesome.
It's also FREE if you just download the, because we want you to make games and have fun :) Or you can order a shiny printed copy. Your call.

The secret to happiness

I just found this in my notes. Seems like something I wrote quite late at night.

THE SECRET TO HAPPINESS

The secret to happiness is thinking things through.

You know, when you wax your legs and it really hurts, and then the hair grows back worse? Like you tore your follicles right open and now they are all WAAAAH! And they make weird new damaged curly emergency replacement hairs, and you tear them back out and it just gets worse.

Then you think that maybe you’re like a hedge and when you cut off a bit it sprouts two new ones. Maybe you’re fractal, like a tree. And you’ll have loads of tiny fractal legs growing out of your main legs. Then when you sit around you could suddenly shuffle away sideways, on your thousands of tiny legs, like ants carrying a gazelle. Then you get all excited about that because it would be awesome. And then when it doesn’t happen, you say to yourself: well actually, thinking about it, that’s probably a good thing. Thank goodness.

And then you are happy.

Think about that.

Making a zine

I'm colouring the RABBIT STEW comic in to make a zine... I'll take them along to Thought Bubble in Leeds next week to see if anyone wants to swap. Yay excitement! ^_^

24 hour comic: RABBIT STEW

I spent the last couple of days in Plymouth, taking part in a drawing event for their book festival.
The challenge was to draw a 24 page comic in 24 hours - twice 12, to be precise, drawing from nine to nine. The starting point was an object from any of the collections of Plymouth Museum.

This is my story.
WARNING: it is not a children's story.
It contains scenes you might find disturbing.
It contains the sort of drawing you get if you have no reference and draw for 12 hours straight anyway.

Enjoy.