House for sale

Now Johnny getting bigger, is a master crawler, and on the cusp of the brink of walking, our house has become very small of a sudden. So, with much regret we have put it on the market. When we moved here almost 3 years ago it was quite a jump from the city centre - bullfinches, nuthatches and badgers instead of violent drunks, and barges instead of buses. Now we can't imagine living anywhere else, so we certainly won't be moving far. 4 doors down if all goes to plan.
This is why it's so amazing:

• no through traffic - on a dead end rough track off a private cobbled road.
  
• Peak Forest Canal right at the back - one of the networks prettiest. Towpath newly upgraded as a national wheelchair route.
• Quiet - apart from the odd goose honk.
• 2 minutes walk from Furness Vale station, from where you are 20 minutes from Buxton and about 40 from Manchester.
• 20 minute walk to Whaley Bridge (The Shepherds, Memories of India, Tescos) or New Mills (High St Books, Bryans butchers, Potts Bakers and the Swizzells Matlow sweet factory).
• Within 15/20 minutes drive- the Goyt Valley, Chapel en-le Frith, Chinley, Glossop, Disley, Lyme Park, Macclesfield, Hayfield and all the beautiful High Peak.
  
• Furness itself has a little shop, Post Office, brand new chippy, social club, Soldier Dick (for sale) and The Crossings - excellent community pub.
• animals I've seen since being here - ducks, moorhens, geese, herons, kingfishers, nuthatches, bullfinches, wrens, goldfinches, blue tits, coal tits, woodpeckers, jays, rabbits, foxes, badgers, llamas, alpacas, frogs, toads, sheep cows, horses, ponies, bats...
• 2 beds, loft conversion where Crab Lane Crew was created, garden (with veg patch) at front, shed with deck (on top) at the back, and this-
  

view directly at the back of the house

It's on with Rowcliffes of Whaley Bridge at £135,000. Search for 7 Lake View, or 2 bedrooms in furness Vale. Why not book a viewing?
Here it is on Google Earth - look for the end of Calico Lane.

Me interviewed -

- alongside Adam Cadwell, who also came along to observe a day comicing in school last week. The interview is by the very super Matt Badham - here.

Survival of the bestest

A couple of samples I did in a bid for illustrating the panels accompanying a forthcoming Darwinism exhibition at Bolton Museum and Art Gallery. Someone else got the job though - hey ho.

Survival of the fittest


Artificial selection

Power Pak

Apologies if you keep coming here wanting posts on art, comics or teaching. But as it's the bank holiday weekend I feel no guilt about this one - my 1950's Power Pak cyclemotor is now up and running.

The bike itself, a 1960's Triumph was £30 off eBay. This is a very mediocre frame indeed, and certainly nothing to do with the proper Triumph company.


I scraped all the ugly stickers off the frame, removed the mudguards and swapped the tyres for a new set of Schwalbe creme delta cruiser lovelies -


The engine fitting wasn't something I was capable of attempting myself, so I forced it on the magical Mel Cranmer ( - once when I told him I'd been cleaning all morning he retorted "but you don't have a motorbike do you?!"). A couple of hours later, and we've got a working cyclemotor. Which I was dead chuffed with, as I didn't really expect a 1950's piece of kit to actually still function at all (the Power Pak was one of the new products featured in the Festival of Britain back in '55). At 49cc it's not exactly powerful, but there's enough to make it fun, and it sounds wonderful. not been far on it yet, just round the block and along the towpath a bit as it's not exactly road legal - though can be once I've got it registered and certified. Though it's not a motorbike, but a bike with motor assisted pedalling.


You should get one, or one like it. It's better than comics. We could race and everything.

Motivational posters

Facing me whenever I look up from my desk. 'free stuff' doesn't mean what kind people might send me, but more a reminder to pursue paid work before unpaid.
These posters are for sale - made to order, with a picture of a cat on the back. £10 to you.

Mural at St Matthews RC High

Just got a disc in the post from the very kind Mr Tamburro, containing his great photos of the finished school mural - thanks Sir!
See how many scenes of Moston past and present you can identify -




-and here it in in it's entirety as seen from the assembly/lunch hall below -


I must thank Joanne Davies at Manchester Art Gallery for organising the whole project, Carmel Hardy for looking after me so nicely, Mr Pirelli for the coffees, Mr Tamburro for the pictures, and all the students who gave their time (during Science, Maths, RE, English...) to help complete the mural - a very nice bunch of young people to work with.
I should also credit Fr Brian Seale's The Moston Story and Central Libraries brilliant Manchester Image Collection, where I found almost all the original images to work from.

I'm going to be a pop star -

- well not really, but I might be in the charts. Mika's new EP comes with a delicious 68 page book featuring all sorts of artists and illustrators, plus your very own cat drawerer Jim.
I reckon it's going to be a very nice package, but most excitingly I'm in there alongside Huck Scarry which makes me one degree of separation away from my all-time favourite children's author and illustrator Richard Scarry.


I'm not going to post my contribution - you have to buy it yourself. Out June 8th, or preorder of Mika's website.

7 - Comic Interviews

Now I wouldn't necessarily do this activity straight after number 6 (Speech and Thought), but I might as well mention it now as it's a good way of putting the speech and thought skills into practice. I'm also tagging this as a 'teachers follow-up', something I can point staff towards after I've been in and started them all off with the basic methods.
It's a very simple idea, using comic interviews to provoke responses from participants. I've used it as a research method with several community groups, and once or twice as an evaluation at the end of a session. There's all sorts of possibilities, and I'm sure I'm not the first to do this.

Basically, I give everyone an A4 photocopy with a picture of me in the corner asking a question. I keep my bit small to allow as much room as possible for their responses. In this example, I wanted to really get some meaty information out of the kids, so I eased them into it with a light opener -

I'm then able to proceed with the interview, using simple open questions, here "what are the good things about living in this area"-

Sometimes kids will just write (and I'm not going to stop them), rather than composing speech bubbles.
I ask the opposing question about bad things in their area-


Now just because he's not bothered drawing a bubble around the words and it's more a list than anything else, we've got a brilliant response AND a face that expresses a fair amount too. These interviews allow everyone to respond differently - words, drawings and combinations of the two. An individual might not want to write about there being too much dog poo in their local park, but might find it easier expressing this in a drawing, even if they're not amazing at either.



One thing I hadn't anticipated was this response, where the lad says out loud 'neva seen [bad things in the area]', but reveals his actual thoughts -

I found this really powerful, and it seems like one of the best arguments for the possibilities of using comics to engage with a group or individual - I can't see how you could do this so simply, clearly and economically in any other medium.

Depending on the participants enthusiasm and available time, the interviews can be passed around and turned into group interviews or debates, and everyone can have a go at being the interviewer too -






It could even turn into roleplaying - here 2 different kids have tried to see things from the perspectives of a badboy gang member and a little elderly man -



Another variation, one which called for a lot of work on my behalf but also allowed a small group of kids to draw themselves voicing their opinions and experiences - my six page interview with Sherko, Tipu and Junaid in a Rochdale School.
I took this even further with the Sugar Group - there was no way I was going to get them drawing, so had to do it all myself (under their direction), illustrating a taped discussion. This took a long time, and I'm unlikely to leap at doing this again, though we were all really pleased with the results.

Recent finds

One of the perks of looking after Johnny a couple of days a week is that we get to tour the secondhand bookshops of the High Peak.
From George St Books in Glossop, excellent condition, and a pound each!-


-I think maybe they'd just not been priced up yet and the chap on the till probably got in trouble for this giveaway.
and from Scriveners a few weeks ago - full of scribbles but complete -


-again just £1. Turns out I'd already got this one (note to self - take your list next time), but Davy Law's Dennis is such a pleasure and still so fresh and funny now.
The great thing about finding such bargains is that you become fully justified in spending a bit more on other treats -


I've done posts on these Pere Castor animal books before (this one from Oxfam Books on eBay for a fiver or so), so won't go on about how beautiful they are again - I'll just post one of the illustrations that makes me go ahhh -


And here's a beaut from George St Books. £7.50 first edition (1936) though some do-badder has sliced out the colour title plate.



The endpapers give an idea of the story and quality of illustrations-



A quick search for Kurt Weise reveals he illustrated absolutely loads of kids books from the 30's onwards, Ping the Duck and The Five Chinese Brothers being the two I recognise and still own.
I expect you Americans are much more familiar with his work and he's widely celebrated, but to me he feels like a real discovery and it makes me want to make it my mission to collect them all. I'm certainly going to seek out a copy with the title page still intact.
And I'm going to learn to draw like that too.

Just to prove I'm not just staring at boats all day.

a sketch for a commission from a particular pop star who is putting a little booklet together to go with their new album. I'll tell you who when it comes out, as I'm not sure how secret it is.

The Handsomest Boat on the Cut

This 1963 beauty 'Tamburo' had been in the nearby dry dock all week having it's underbelly fettled so you couldn't really see it in all it's glory. Which is why I was glad to catch in heading home yesterday evening.
Doesn't it make you want to quit your job and just head off with a bloody mary and some deck shoes?