Hi-Ex 2012 etc

HELLO!

Sorry it's been quite a while since I last updated - for reasons that are best left unexplained because they are fairly simple (I'm lazy). So - what's happened since March 19th?

HI-EX 2012
I flew up to Inverness with James Feist to sell my wares at the sort-of-annual Highlands Comic Expo. It was a hell of a lark and we managed to shed a fair amount of Dr WTFs (head on down the page to see our set-up and to hear tardis tales). The brilliant thing about Hi-Ex, and what made it entirely different to any other con I've been to, is that it possesses a genuinely personal air - being run by Richmond Clements and Vicky Stonebridge - two very fine creators in their own right who were rushing about the whole weekend being charming (and in Vicky's case croaky). A nice summary can be seen below with the pair narrating throughout and featuring a rather fidgety few appearances from me. What possessed the editor to have a shot of me adjusting my trousers I'll never know.

The 2000ad forum crew were up there in force and were friendly to the point of horror. For those not in the know, the legendary John Burdis (seen below in his standard Con garb) runs a "Hell-Trek" from the South of England to Inverness that ferries forumers up to those wild and wonderful lands. The plane is quick, but you miss out on quality twooth banter that way.

I have been resisting Cinebooks for a while, knowing what a money-vacuum they are - but this year I just caved and bought myself three volumes of pirate capery in the form of Long John Silver. 

I mean... just look at that. French comic creators make everyone else look shite. We live forever in their shadows. Also - I did possibly my favourite convention sketch ever for a little girl - 

Another purchase made was Phillip Vaughan's Anthology One - a collection of student's work from Duncan of Jordanstone's comics module. An inspiring read with a Colin MacNeil cover (more of him later) that makes me as green with envy. ...maybe I should have gone to art college :S 

It's always amazing walking around cons and talking to people - nestled next to Vaughan was the amazing Nigel Dobbyn, both of them across from Alex Moore (collaborator with Richmond Clements on the ridiculously good Turning Tiger) who herself was behind Jamie Smart - tantalisingly not selling his preview issues of the unparalleled kid's comic The Pheonix! It's chock-full of interesting bastards and Hi-Ex was so bloody lovely that you'd have to bury me in concrete to prevent me from going to the next one. 

THE PSYCHEDELIC JOURNAL OF TIME TRAVEL

This is my new comic. Next year I'm ditching the Doctor and travelling the timestreams alone. It's going to be three times as big, eight times as weird and four times as ridiculous.

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN

I'm looking for one-to-four pages. Must contain time travel, must be odd. No Doctors, no fanfic, just glorious glorious oddness. All scripts to psychedelic.submissions@gmail.com

I've had quite a few already and am getting rather excited. Please like our Facebook page - !

FIRST BRISTOL COMIC CREATORS EVENT

So - we had the first ever meeting of the Bristol Comic Creators group this past Tuesday. It was rather grand - situated in the glorious downstairs room of the Golden Guinea. The next is on the eighth of May in the same location - more details can be found on the official event page. There will also soon be a sequence of features on our Wordpress page about our members. Who, and I don't want to overstate this, ARE ALL RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING.

MIXCLOUD ROCK PODCASTS

I've done a few of these since - of varying degrees of pure funkitude - do give them a listen!

HOLEM VAV

An in-progress novel being written by the gloriously glorious Geoffery Crescent with whom I'm somewhat acquainted. I'll be doing illustrations for this when it's finished and it'll be on sale by lummee. http://geofferycrescentsholemvav.weebly.com/index.html <-- see it there!

JIKAN - BOOK TWO

Dave Candlish's child - a time-travelling demon-fighting ninja of glory - has it's second volume out and there's some lettering and I believe a page of my art in there. Chock full of Dr WTF regulars and a bit of a lark - it doesn't get better than this! ORDER IT HERE

WEBCOMICS: JAMELLA/FLAUBERT

All written by the unparalleled Jasmine

MISC ARTWORK

This is a tequila worm - drawn as the logo for the glorious El Bigote by Matt McLaughlin, El Chivo, Matt Soffe and Bolt-01. Visit them on Facebook - it's going to be the best free comic of 2012!

Here's Lou Scannon - as Drawn by Trystan Mitchell and coloured by me - it's not official, more an audition piece on my behalf. Safe to say, this isn't the last collaboration you'll see between us ;)

This is me fannying about for the 2000ad art competition, which ridiculously, I won. Apologies to all creators work wot I bastardised. The new one is running now - and even if you've got a passing interest - I recommend you enter. I mean, if I can win, what's stopping you? It's 1975 and you are being asked to design a vintage thrill for the first issue of 2000ad...

Bit of a curmudgeonly cornish Tharg for TAB whose theme was a general 2000ad one in honour of it's 35th birthday this year. I was trying something different with this one but I didn't quite pull it off. 

The other thing I drew for the jam is this minimalistic Manny - protagonist of the greatest game ever made; Grim Fandango. I suggest you type "Grim Fandango longplay" into youtube and let your hours slip away into a world of engaging characters and hilarious lines. Lucasarts were the king of adventure games...

Here's the Brighton-based punk band Screama Ballerina with some chance cards I designed for their latest single video "Papercuts" I'll put the full images up when the video comes out. In the meantime go and put your ears to them on Facebook. They are glorious.

Here's some colouring for the ever-lovely Grant Perkins - it's the bloody Ghostbusters innit?!

Here's us (photo courtesy of Down the Tubes.net) flogging our wares (with the Jelly baby TARDIS in the foreground). We did rather marvellously and there WILL be a similar arrangement at Bristol this year. Do come along and DO have a jelly baby why don't you?

Here's the glorious Terry Pratch--- I mean, Colin MacNeil with the inks for our cover. Which will adorn my wall for millennia. The nicest man in existence?! I think so! The absolute highlight of the entire weekend for me was talking about Hitchhiker's with him over a strong perry. Hurray!

The final cover looks like that by the way. Crikey :D

Finally - a teaser for Matt Herbert & Shaun Avery's strip called "The Stranger's Story" it's WELL WICKED. 

O