PAW QUALITY COMICS available ONLINE

Thanks to a very nice David Greene, both TeenWitch and Garden Funnies are now available for purchase on his site SAMU, alongside other small press publications.

Why not treat a loved one?

The Silent Traveller

Another find in Scriveners secondhand books of Buxton - The Silent Traveller in Oxford by Chiang Lee, from sometime in the 50's. Also in the series are The Yorkshire Dales (which I'd love to see) and a zoo one for kids which I found a copy of but was very disappointed by.
I've not read any of the text, but the illustrations make it quite clear what it's about - a Chinese artist exploring Oxford in drawings and observations. Some of the spot illustrations look as if they might accompany any typical Chinese poem, story or text-
- but then browsing through we start to see all the specifically English and Oxfordian characters and scenes -


One even serves to demonstrate to the reader how he is often mistaken for cinema's famous Chinese dectective (or more likely pointed and stared at). He graciously acknowledges a passing resemblance whilst pointing out clear differences -
The book would be delightful enough with just these black and white drawings dotted every 5 or 6 pages, but then turning the page you find the most amazing sumptuous scenes, all unarguably English but rendered in his intricate and delicate Chinese style, skewed perspectives and all -

UK Web & Minicomics Thing 2008

Had a very nice Saturday playing shopkeeper - check out my wares -

I wasn't particularly organised, as though I started off noting down what I sold, at some point I just stopped. Subtracting what I have left from what I took down with me, I got rid of -
8 x Shorty Loves Wing Wong
12 x TeenWitch
10 x Garden Funnies
0 yes 0 x PQC pennants (though did give a couple away and swapsies). Will do a proper photo of these as I picked them up the day before heading down there and they are fantastic!
1 x tattoo sheet, again gave a few out as treats
0 x posters (the philistines)

(at some point I will sort out a working online shop, with all this clutter available for all to buy)

Sold a good handful of Alex Pott's Lost Shoe comics, and Oliver East's Trains are Mint went down very well (a massive £53 winging it's way to him).

All in all I broke even and covered my costs. Until we all went to the pub, and I forgot to remember that trains stop at midnight which cost me £45 in a taxi back to my dads. Easy come easy go.
I knew I wouldn't be returning home with an empty bag and bulging wallet, and actually the most rewarding thing about the Thing was meeting Mr's Tillotson and Tingley, both Garden Funnies contributors. Many other fantastic folks, too many to list.
did return home with a nice pile of people's stuff, which I may post a little of here at some point, once I've got a bit of proper work done. I will mention the incredible 'Muppet Maybes' by Roger Langridge - strips originally produced for a Disney magazine which got cancelled. Made me all warm inside.

Interview with me!

Hey folks, Matthew Badham has posted the interview he did with me on his excellent Overspill blog - go read it here now.
It's like being a proper artist that people are interested in!

Secret Weapons

These'll show 'em at the UK Web & Minicomics Thing this Saturday- who can resist when there is point-of-sale clutter like this? Today I'm picking up some more goodies, so will have TeenWitch, Garden Funnies, Shorty Loves Wing Wong (proper book) and Shorty T-shirts, PQC TATTOOS and PQC SPORTS PENNANTS! All this alongside kids quicktips posters, and a couple of display files full of other comics and my examples of my teaching work.

Also on my stall, Alex Potts's Lost Shoe and Oliver East's Trains.

Star Pupil!

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I love it when kids show me stuff they've drawn in their own time, especially when it's so flattering! There's more from this star pupil, that I'll be posting in the Gallery of my Kidz Klub, on my proper site.

The Foxes are Coming

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I think is is my first attempt at sequential art, date unknown (but I'll ask my mum). You can make out the reused computer paper it was drawn on - the stuff that was all in one huge perforated concertina folded ream, with the printer sprocket holes down each side and gobbledegook printed on one side, which my dad would bring home from work every now and then.
I've broken the one rule that I insist on when I'm getting kids to create their own stories - no weapons and no death. You should see the faces on 90% of the boys just drop as all of a sudden they have to use their imaginations.

Weekend Leisurely

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By popular demand, here's some more archive material. All evidence suggests this was made one afternoon in 1998, so I'll have been about 23 (so no excuse really). Inspired by that weekend's Sunday supplements.
Original copies of this are out there somewhere, though the British Library has no record.

Barleycup the Goat

Been sorting out the loft at home. Plans are to put a floor down then a velux window, and make a comics den/make some space for when little Popeye arrives. Stumbled upon these Barleycup strips which I did in 1992, so will have been 17 or 18. Haven't a clue what inspired the one above, but I think the story below is one that I lifted from some kind of 'Big Book of Cons and Hoaxes' or some such thing.

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I do remember drawing these, in bed, a half hour at a time. Other than making a couple of photocopies I never did anything with these, until NOW when the whole of the online world can put off getting on with anything by reading them.

There are plenty of other finds (including one or two short comic stories) which I may post in the future. Or I might not.

Our Teacher's a Giraffe!

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My contribution to the giraffe-themed brochure accompanying the forthcoming UK Web and Minicomics Thing on the 22nd March in London. As well as the full range of 2 comics, I'll be stocking some Rolling Stock Press and Lost Shoe Comics. I'm also working on some highly impressive display stands AND hopefully will be unveiling the new PQC logo!

Illustration course

Got loads of drawing I need to get on with in the next few days, so I thought I'd post something first.
Ran an 'introduction to illustration' course on Saturday at the Lowry. Eleven 11 to 16 year olds gave up their whole day - 10 til 5, though all seemed to get something out of it. We started by doing a bit on structuring the human figure, and constructing a well-proportioned wire skeleton stick man to flesh out. Once we'd had a go at getting the basic structure right, I did a few poses for them to draw from. They had a minute to draw the skeleton, then had to flesh me out from that -

One fantastic lad let me keep this in return for one of mine.

We also covered lettering (getting it centred, creating 3D and drop shadows etc), foreground and background, use of black and white contrast, and had a go at Steve Bissette's 3 Card Characters which I use all the time. I won't go into it now, but maybe I should do a set of posts describing the different games and exercises I do in these sessions.

We did something that I'd not tried before, and I must credit Lee Ford with the idea (one he's used with some Huddersfield students) - pluck horses names from the racing pages and illustrate them. The group loved it - partly because there was a smile of recognition from everyone at how they've always been mystified at the weirdness of these names but have never discussed it, and also the fun of such a ridiculous task - Count Kristo, Mr Fluffy, Hidden Bounty, and so on. Will do it again

As well as showing them TeenWitch and a load of my other drawings (including how I use my sketchbook), we finished with an illustration brief. I divided up Little Red Riding Hood so that everyone had a chunk to illustrate, allocated at random. Despite being the end of a very long day drawing, they all got stuck in and did a great job. Those finishing early were encouraged to come up with a cover design.


Same artist again, swapped for one of my demonstrations. I only got this B&W photocopy, so you have to imagine the red lettering and bloodshot eyes!