The second convention that Dr WTF showed up at this year - and it went spiffingly. Despite the cost for a single day's selling me and co-seller Jazz (pictured below - flogging tons more copies than have ever been sold) did alright!
King of the small press, Mr Dave Evans occasional acts as my Dr Cox-style mentor into the wondrous world of small press. I cannot recommend any other anthologies higher for sheer variety and over-the-wall out-the-shed through-the-garden over-the-other-wall silliness. Everyone I love are in 'em - including (but not limited to) my Bristol tablemate Dave Thomson - the ever-lovin' James Feist - "The Nicest Man That's Dave Frankum" Dave Frankum - with covers by Alex Ronald and Neil Ford. BUY IT
The incredible 7 String (a musical epic) and the CONSTANT Cat & Meringue are products of the glorious Nich Angell. A man who so doggedly conventions it I can barely conceive of the material that powers him. Awkwardly positioned opposite the queue for Dave Gibbons at Brum this year but with A LOVELY BANNER and doodling Cat & Meringue live. I recommend passing him a visit and buying his stuff and TOUCHING HIS FACE.
My absolute hero - the LIVING GOD OF SPACE (ALSO COMICS). Mr Matt Brooker was sharing a table with the fabulous Ian Edginton (who is gloriously mixing all of his stories running in 2000ad into one massive continuity cake which I hugely approve of). I'd never met him before so I spent an embarrassing amount of time near him trying to grab his face - I also purchased SVK (a comic with a UV torch and hidden speech bubbles and a collection of early works called Timularo). He also did a sketch for Dr WTF. Oh yes.
A chap I met on the train up from Bristol who rather embodied the spirit of the convention for me. Enthusiastic friendly and talented as the working day is long. I recommend you check him out and I look forward to his contribution to Dr WTF 2012 ;)
Dr WTF will only be at Thought Bubble in a limited capacity, although I will be there with my portfolio and business cards and I WILL STICK THEM DOWN YOUR FACE. SERIOUSLY. EAT IT.
Bespin. That city wot occasionally clouds it. Possibly one of the most evocative designs in the Star Wars universe. Along with the unseen cavern cities of Alderaan. Sweet.
Syndrome. Central baddie from "The Incredibles" which is MY FAVOURITE FILM POSSIBLY OF ALL TIME. Brad Bird ain't fakin'.
Sketches for Digital Dr WTF buyers Lanie, Dgym & Matt - cheers you sexy bunch. First is a leprechaun under pursuit (doesn't look much like a leprechaun whoops) second is the Doctor asride his TARDIS lassooing a dragon (doesn't look much like that whoops) and the final is Matt as a sort of loveable Twindie Doctor ;)
Birthday gift for my main man Chris Nolan-Rennie, illustrator of Dr WTF 2011's "From One God to Another" - This is a continuation of the story in the sense that the kryptonite Dalek is getting whupped.
Crabcake IV
Sadly I've decided to partially abandon dear Crabcake for the wild abandons of other projects. Sob - I do love it but I have no time to love it y'dig?
Challenged by the superlative Emperor after a request for sketch ideas on Tumblr went awry and it became apparent that I'd invited requests for nude hobos. Dirty Frank is from "Low Life" which is currently drawn by my favourite artist in the history of the world.
This is another clutch of digital doodles for digital purchasers of Dr WTF?! The image in the centre is "Stringer Bell at the Earth's Core" an idea that still causes me vast happiness by Ben Clark. You can still buy digitals or reserve physicals but there's no more appropriate method than contacting me personally at this point. SORRY. Also there's big news regarding my haphazard anthology - see below!
Remastered version of an old image that I'm quite fond of for TAB. But it does raise a VERY IMPORTANT question. Did the Red Baron travel in time?
No. It's not likely.
Pete Townshend. Who's songwriting skill, energy and vast capacity for pretentiousness is unsurpassed.
Batman floating in Nega Space. Another shameless rehashing of a years-old image that I've always liked. He looks fucking ridiculous. Silly Batman.
Here's a bit of a thing - image for Weston Super-Mare based alternative studios "Kewsound" ran by Jack, what a nice chap. The image was my thought and (again - god I've got no imagination) is based on a much older idea.
Finally here's a bit of a GROVELLING TRIBUTE to my fellow small-presser and bit-of-a-legend Nich Angell - it was a drunken idea and the joke was meant to be much funnier. It just didn't come out that way LOL. You can find Cat & Meringue over here.
Glastonbury
Just a few words on this year's festival - which was possibly the most exhausting experience of my miniature life. I went in with no plans and got what I deserved. Knackered. Although it was my lady Jazz's first visit and I'd hope that she enjoyed it. Even though a lot of it was staring at a crumpled fat person sweltering in the heat. There was also a hell of a lot of japery including (and not limited to)
I still actually have to decipher many anecdotes and experiences from a web of tired hallucinations and fevered dreams that I had whilst on site. So stay tuned for more.
Remastered Crabcake
Oh yes I've remastered all parts of Crabcake. Which basically involved making sure everything was the same size and the lettering was at least vaguely correct, and MAJORLY REWRITING sections so that it made more sense and doesn't sound so bloody stupid. This is all gearing up to attempting to flog it for tuppence at Birmingham/Leeds. See them (receiving a rapturous reception) here
Dr WTF Submissions
Yes it's that time again - Submissions are open for Dr WTF! Get your thinking caps on, send me some stuff - !
- - Guidelines - -
"It must be about Doctor Who.
But not as you know it. A one-off adventure for an alternate Doctor - no canon, no arcs, no melodrama, no familiar faces - as surreal and as a curious as you can make it. Returning writers must come up with a new Doctor - NO ARCS I SAY!
Writers: One to five pagers - with a summary included. Deadline ISN'T the first of September but that IS when I'll be sending stuff off to artists, so aim for that. I shouldn't imagine I'll be taking stuff beyond October.
Artists: Register your interest with me, I'll send you scripts that suit you. Or I won't, I might just LAUGH AT YOU AHAHAHAHAHAHA*
*this isn't likely.
If you want to work with someone in particular then run it past me first, I'm not reluctant to put people in the same teams they were last issue but I must stress we won't be going with the same Doctors. "
Well no, it is rather a bruised and battered day for your scrumpy-loving author. It turns out balance is the first thing to go when full of cider - who knew? Anyhow - it's been a relatively active fortnight - the major thing being a journey up to London courtesy of the miraculous Jazz where we observed:
- a three-hour Stewart Lee live marathon
- a duck
- jars full of foetuses next to a gift shop - real-life ACTUAL mods
- a talking plastic tree
- extreme coincidence
Anyway - on with the art!
"Peak Fighters" a thing I did for TAB describing the noble art of battlin' up the top of stuff. Entirely digital and with some sneaky sneaky textures in there TO EMPHASIZE STUFF. Moon was originally going to be yellow but I think I thought the weird peaks and the yellow moon looked a little too much like an image from Nightmare Before Christmas. So I redified it.
Drawn by the fantastic Lorenzo Fiorini and coloured by me. There's still a touch of the 'gaudy' about it (the colouring that is) and I'm really not happy about the hair. Sigh. I'm doing another for him shortly - here's hoping I can improve on the things I'm not 100 percent about. Colouring is fun.
Digital sketches done for the various buyers of the digital version of my cosmic anthology, Dr WTF. If you're interested in a PDFtacular roam through time and space give me a shout and some pounds (two) and I'll also do you a doodle of your choice. Sound good? TO ME IT SOUNDS AMAZING.
Finally something done for Laurelio and the Sheffield anarchists. Neat. Although not my idea. Nor are the book covers my own. AND I DIDN'T CONSTRUCT THAT FONT. I'm a fraud!
Next fortnight you'll probably finding me moving to Bristol and preparing for (or coming back from) Glastonbury festival. Glorious.
First, let's just catch up with what my orrible hands and mind have been collaborating on, NORMALLY WITHOUT ME NOTICING.
This is, clearly, Dredd in the guise of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman. For the 2000ad art competition of May which involves interpretations of 2000ad characters as children's books. You can check the rest of the entries here - WARNING: The majority are better than this.
Here is something for phenomenal cat and extraordinary teacher of piano Richard "The Jenk" Jenkins - who recorded a new song with reputable man-about-town Dan Shandy ....
By the way, it should be noted that the idea of a keyboard zebra or Zeyboardebra (?) was thought up by my girlfriend Jasmine, who literally comes up with everything interesting.
More from the Jenk, who is the nicest man in Glastonbury - him and the extraordinarily effervescent Amie Pendarves have a jazz group goin' on and I recommend it for those not afraid of joyous soul, funk and jazzy boogie.
Little wild west image for the immutable TAB. Constructed entirely digitally and with a cheeky texture flung in there to make it look INTERESTING.
Crabcake... returning... MY DOK. What do you mean you've never read Crabcake, ARE YOU MAD?! I can't help you with your growing insanity but I can fill in your Crabcake needs.
Here, the partial fruits of my Spring Slog - page one of MAMMOTH JACK for Van Dom's Vanguard anthology. Look out for that showing up in the future. Click on those words to find the full image of the thing. Gorgeous. The script that is.
Finally - the cover of my portfolio that sat gamely on my table at the Bristol comic con.....
Here is Dave Thomson & I - flogging our wares and looking extremely sceptical. Bristol was my first comic event as a seller (his too) and I was entirely terrified. My travelling companion was Chris Nolan-Rennie, an artist in Dr WTF and a thoroughly excellent man. This weekend was entirely about slotting myself awkwardly into a glorious scene that I've been on the outskirts of for a billion years. The last time I went to a convention (and it was Bristol) it was 2001 and I was fourteen. Ten years later, I was there with my comic under my arm and a tardis full of jelly babies...
FRIDAY
I bumped straight into Dr WTF contributor Mike Bunt (artist of "The Secret of Comedy") and his extraordinary posse - and I proceeded to sit there and babble away as if I was watching the end of the world through a telescope. Overawed but powerless. The lettering machine Jim Campbell was the first to approach and say hello - seeing his bluntness on the forum made me anticipate severe grumpiness but he was extraordinarily chatty and had much to say on the hot topic of the "Crossbar I" in lettering. I'd never had an involved discussion about lettering comics before. This was a brave new world. A brave new world and a bar more expensive than Dubai. Seriously, each round seemed to cost about eighty percent more than I anticipated. I hate you Ramada. It was then I spied Richmond Clements and decided to run up to him excitedly (because a man who's flown down from Scotland needs noobs all up in his face). He introduced me to his chatting companions - Michael Carroll and John Higgins. URG. Michael Carroll, who designed the Dr WTF logo (as well as writing a recent run on Judge Dredd and a series of excellent books - seriously, click on his name back there), was charming and disarmingly interested in my tiny little small press anthology. Mr Higgins was involved in a conversation with Mr Clements about some such but I was so incredibly in the deep end of starting to feel quite overawed that I slunk (?) away to the bar to buy another seven billion pound drink. So overawed was I then that I instantly forgot my pin number and near locked my card. Out to the smoking area with me, where I had an animated discussion with NatWest. A familiar man watched me throughout as I explained "I had forgotten my pin number out of excitement". Only when the mess had been sorted and I wandered aimlessly back to Bunt and co did I realise it was Henry Flint. Balls. The night wore on - and the long-travelled Mr Thomson and his companion arrived (from SCOTLAND). I believe I met ... Dandontdare - ? I think - it became a slight blur. The final unfortunate comic thought (before taxi, garlic bread, and a hell of a lot of pin-number guessing ensued) was willing myself to talking to Bryan Talbot at the bar. I was under the impression I would wing it and it would work - however my mouth produced ultragash and all I said was that he was very good - and then proceeded to list everything I owned by him - followed by a reinstatement that he was very good. Gracious he was, although terrified was I.
Saturday
After a brisk start my companion & I made our way to the con and sheepishly put together our table - cue alternate view - !
It was... amazing, to say the least. Rooms stuffed with artists, writers, floggers - all vying for attention, appreciation and sales. Costume'd gadabouts trawled the walkways - in all manner of guises -
Who goes that far and doesn't bother wearing a wig? That's a level of non-commitment I'm not even willing to think about. We sold a lot of Dr WTFs that day - thanks to the astounding level of artwork and the extraordinary loveliness of 2000ad forum folk. The most interesting purchase was to Johnny "I'm David Knight" Alpha (Writer of Dr WTF's "Quarry Planet") ...
Those aforementioned boarders mostly congregated around a table hosted by these lovely folk -
My two mentors - Mr Dave Evans & Mr Richmond Clements - editors of Dogbreath, Futurequake & Zarjaz - the premier British small press anthologies. Mr Evans was the man who gave me my first constructive criticism - and commissioned me to appear in Futurequake way back in...
*works it out*
the past. Don't click on that!!! Needless to say, he's the reason I was sat at the table down the way and flogging my own stuff. A glass raised to the man - as long as it's within his limit!
The sketches I got that day were from Kev Crossley - a supremely underrated bod who's portfolio brimmed with all manner of glorious physical goodness. I mean, the WHOLE THING was hand-drawn.
After the show, Chris & I took our ill-gotten gains into Bristol - seeking cider! We supped mightily at The Apple and The Orchard - finding many excellent apple-tinted beverages. Also we bumped into an extraordinary bistro, some fantastic houseboats and Aardman animation studios - before raggedly returning to the Ramada bar close to midnight. A lot of the big names had depleted after Azerbaijan's now-famous victory and only the dedicated remained. Bunt and a reduced posse, a slightly-squiffy but still-terrifying Bryan Talbot, a knackered Clements & Evans - The wonder group of that evening were LIZ & CONOR BOYLE, KERRIN and THE EMPEROR. Liz and Conor are extraordinarily lovely folk and contributors to Dr WTF (Liz wrote 'Canine' Conor drew 'Berlin') - Kerrin is a hilarious boardman who looks like an amazing mix between Eddie Izzard and Oliver Reed - The Emperor (Dr WTF writer of "The Secret of Comedy") stood as sober witness to the dregs of an evening where many MANY a man was presumed to be Charlie Adlard and I backed out of an impromptu meeting of great writing minds (Cornell, Ewing & Williams) I MUST DASH. More pizza, more taxi and a tiny bit of Doctor Who before sleep took poor Chris & I.
Sunday
Apart from this sight, Sunday was a slow and sober affair. Barely any Dr WTFs were sold and browsers were pensive or uninterested. Such as it was - I spent most my time harvesting sketches of Doctor (s) from fellow panellers - you can see the results over on the Doctor WTF Facebook group . My eternal regret is that I didn't get a Doctor from Sean Phillips who WAS JUST OVER THERE - and from Nich Angell who was super lovely and basically a bit of a con beast. Coneast?
Right. That's Bristol over with. If you weren't someone that I met or weren't involved, and you stuck with the whole thing, I'm bloody grateful that you read it. It took ages to write but it's basically been the pinnacle of my comic life so far - it deserves that kind of report really.
Also, it was my birthday on Tuesday. My endlessly excellent lady Jazz got me tickets to see a Stewart Lee stand-up marathon in London next weekend which should be EXTRAORDINARILY BRILLIANT if not clever, cynical and endearing. I love that man. He shouldn't pile his website with negative reviews though, eh? Silly sod. My main man Chris bought me Michael Palin's Around the World in Eighty Days and I spent the afternoon doodling and watching his adventures. Which is possibly the most calming bit of television ever recorded - a world were everyone is a bit silly and very human AKA the world we live in. Reassuring.
Other lovely men bought me quantities of cider and I have been slowly ingesting them and writing EXTREMELY lengthy blogs.
Sigh. Finally - I have put together the last ever Owen in Rock - with the now-familiar Richard Jenkins inputting a jazz corner - GIVE IT A LISTEN BY CLICKING ON THESE CAPITAL LETTERS HERE - thank you for all the requests and listens you beautiful bunch -
There'll be LESS in a fortnight. Thank you so much for reading it all if you have. Have a coconut.
