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November 26th, 2008
02:15 pm - Comics on sale!
Buffalo Roots
Self published, Card cover, 16 pages, 6 x 8, printed in full colour
£4.00 plus p+p (and I'll throw some treats in too!)
INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE
If you live outside the UK please add this to your basket before you check out.
The blurb from the back cover: "A curious relationship between a young painter, Riley, and an aspiring writer named Emmé soon begins after a chance meeting in their hometown of Buffalo.
What follows is a a fragmented recollection of their naivety, pretensions, impossible expectations and need for acceptance. Conventional narrative and structure give way to a greater emphasis on single moments and emotions.
And the sense that Emmé may not quite turn out to be the fantasy figure some people paint her as..."
There is a little product preview here.
It is quite a fine little item if I say so myself, one I'm quite proud of and well worth some of your ownings. As somebody once described it to me "It's like a brain adventure!", which is definitely my favourite ever description of the comic as a whole.
If you can't do paypal then please feel free to e-mail me at john (at) shotformeat.com and we can work something out from there.
Also, my comics are currently available from Page 45, Gosh!, Ok Comics, Etsy, Dave's comics and Quimbys.
More products available soon.
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June 4th, 2008
01:34 pm - Things!
Illustration in Plan B
New illo in Plan B out this week! I still don't like it!
Comics Haul
All the comics I got in Bristol! Belatedly!
Elephant Sketch
Some Elephants! In Africa!
Current Music: Cristina - Ticket to the Tropics / Africa Raps
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May 13th, 2008
10:50 am - Bristol Comic Expo 2008
Sigh. Click through here for a little set of Phoebe's snaps!
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May 9th, 2008
09:08 am - Bristol
Hullo,
Phoebe and I are off to Bristol for a bit of a holiday weekend, where we hope to visit the apparently excellent zoo, among other things.
Oh, and apparently there's also there's some comic thingy going on. I'll be sharing a table with the infamous Marcel Lerby and some guys called Kieron and Jamie, whoever they are. Should be good!
See you there?
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May 2nd, 2008
02:38 pm - New Review / Interview
There is a new review of this comic called "Buffalo Roots" that maybe you've heard of over at the Forbidden Planet blog, as well as an interview with me in which I countered not knowing what to say by saying far too much.
Also here is a sketch of Orson Welles because whatever.
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April 28th, 2008
02:31 pm - Plan B / Monorail Playlist
My illustration in the April issue of Plan B.
For the playlist from Monorail Music, the Glasgow record emporium run by one Stephen Pastel. Especially inspired by the lovely Ai Aso album "Chamomile Pool" selected in said playlist. And badgers.
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02:12 pm - Rinky Dink - Link and the Moomins
A while back I drew a couple of pictures that happened through the combination of playing through the Wind Waker again (why don't more games have art design this good? It's probably my personal favourite game ever) and reading Moomin books. Both feel very similar to me, in making me happy like a small boy while retaining a sense of eerie mystery along with such incredible charm and joy. The results are quite fun, I think!
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April 1st, 2008
12:55 pm - Shadow of a Doubt
This is my interpretation of Sonic Youth's Shadow of a Doubt (there's a bigger version of it on my flickr too, if this one is too small). It's a piece for the forthcoming "Another Soda" anthology, a collection of illustrations and art inspired by song lyrics, which is bound to very excellent - especially if there are more submissions like this from the excellent Nelson Evergreen again.
The deadline for submissions isn't until June now, so there's plenty of time to get involved! Which you should obviously do. Highly recommended.
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March 22nd, 2008
12:05 pm - Snow Badgers / Some Deer
Yes, more badgers! At the time I drew this and when I posted it on flickr yesterday I kept thinking it was kind of seasonally inappropriate. But now it's actually snowing, so you know, whatever! I drew this picture and put it in a nice frame to give to my Mum for her birthday, anyway.
Also I went to Bradgate Park a while back and saw a shitload of deer! Seriously, they were all over the place. The stags were awesome, and actually kind of intimidating what with their huge antlers and trying to stare you out and all. Phoebe took all the deer photos in the set I linked.
Phoebe also made me this awesome t-shirt with painted guppies all over it for my birthday, which unfortunately you can only see in this photo of me being a moron right now and which really deserves to have a much better photo taken of it at some point! It's pretty great though.
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February 27th, 2008
09:56 pm - Badgers
It's really rare for me to draw something just using pens because I like using brushes so much, but this was really a lot of fun. Also quite relaxing in a repetitive way, and nice to do something different.
Badger's are well good. Did anyone see the badger episode of Natural World the other week?
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February 19th, 2008
04:10 pm - It's My Birthday
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February 18th, 2008
01:30 pm - Gorillas!
I drew some gorillas for Phoebe a while back because, well, she likes gorillas! It's really big (well, in terms of being able to scan it at least, it's just A2) and as such is best viewed as big as possible! Click through for the biggest size.
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February 17th, 2008
08:37 am - Pig Greetings
This here is my studio door. Still gradually getting everything set up and constantly finding new little things to get/set up and so on, but it's going well and I'm getting there...
Also I got a most exciting new drawing board, kindly donated by Phoebe's parents, who brought it up and helped to set it up. It's seriously awesome. My old one looks piddly in comparison!
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February 5th, 2008
03:18 pm - Studio / Moving
I moved in to my new studio yesterday! Holy shit, right?
It's no longer as empty as it is in this picture, anyway. It's more like this. But yes, this is my studio! So I'm now located at the LCB Depot. It's all set up for (Leicester) creative businesses and there looks to be lots of cool stuff going on here. If you click "explore" on the site, I'm up on the third floor of "Building A" in A303, in the left corner. And no, it hasn't been updated yet! It's a really lovely building - converted from the old bus depot - full of little quirks and stuff like how all the studio doors are chalkboards to leave messages/pictures on!
It's in an area of Leicester that's actually being done up at the moment, there's all sorts of lovely multi-coloured street lights (that I found out yesterday are designed by one of the people in the other building) that apparently change colour according to the colour of the car that goes past, and there's a new theater that's almost finished just across the road that I've got a nice view of. It's actually really, really nice.
I've made a couple of ongoing sets on flickr, one of the studio itself, and one to keep track of all the clearing out and bits and bobs I came across while doing so - lots of which I should probably finish/discard/remember to do properly - and a bit of moving in too, just to document the whole thing. I mean, this is actually the first thing I've ever moved in to, so it's pretty exciting. There'll be more as I go, I keep coming across awesome new things here.
I was a bit scared to mention it until I actually, y'know, had physically put my stuff in the room (just try and make me leave NOW!), but now I'm really looking forward to getting lots done. Well ok, as soon everything is set up. I've got my own Post Box and phone, just let me work out what they actually are... and get some tea and biscuits in. If you're ever in the area feel free to pop by for some tea and biscuits! I'll make a proper post with all the relevant info when everything is finished up...
Having said which, I better go and finish building me a desk...
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January 31st, 2008
05:28 pm - Sketchy Business
I feel I must show off this lovely sketch I received the other day from the magnificent ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) _bedhead, and ensure you look at the man's work which clearly deserves all of your attention. I have no idea how he does it. Go look! C'est bon!
This in turn inspired me to go off on my own sketching adventures - because it looked a lot of fun to splash some ink around in a similar fashion.
In fact, I've been sketching a lot of absolute tosh regardless lately, but in the good and noble sense of pursuing proper, fun, just fucking around to see what happens, sketching. Working stuff out rather than going out of my way to make a proper drawing then calling it a sketch, and it's all been very enjoyable playing around.
Anyway, here is a sketch of a pleasant deer, which is oddly where I ended up by the end of this sketching jaunt.
I've uploaded to flickr a small amount of stuff I had lying around too... at least all the ones I thought could stand up to public viewing. Also I skipped lots of stuff because I couldn't be bothered to scan it. I'm clearing things up at present, and there's a lot more lying around than I thought! - all manner of unfinished sketches and ideas and stuff. Still, I'm sure I'll get round to doing something with all it sometime in the future.
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January 21st, 2008
12:28 pm - Indeed / Sketch
Quick sketch of Omar from the Wire.
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December 21st, 2007
01:00 pm - Christmas Greetings / Second Batch
No prizes for guessing what I've been watching recently!
Also, seeing as the first batch of comics sold out - here comes print run number 2! Which, thankfully enough, look much the same as the others. Which doesn't make for particularly different pictures than before, but still!
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November 28th, 2007
11:52 am - Comic Update
27 copies left! I'll have to think about getting a second run printed up soon, I reckon.
And just in case you missed it -
Buffalo Roots
Self published, Card cover, 16 pages, 6 x 8, printed in full colour
£4.00 plus p+p (and I'll throw some treats in too!)
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November 21st, 2007
11:07 pm - Finally! Comics are here again!
I got my comics printed up! I'm holding them! They are actual things that exist! I got 100 copies to start with. As it's printed in full colour it was quite expensive to get done, but I think the outcome is worth it. It's been cool to see people being impressed and pleased with it, but it did come out pretty well. By Monday night I'd offloaded 23 copies already, and I only got them on Friday evening.
Plus I played Mario all weekend.
They are on sale right now at (the lovely, friendly) Page 45, with more shops to follow! I popped down so I could hand them over personally, and say a quick hello. And I was very glad to do so! I don't get over there nearly often enough.
You'll be able to get them directly from me very soon, I just need to get a few things set up properly. It will be very much worth your while, 100% guaranteed! I'll ensure everyone who orders from me gets a nice little package.
So, start saving your pennies! I'm sorry, but I'm quite excited. It's been a while!
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October 17th, 2007
12:01 pm - The Never Ending Graphic Story (Competition)
Ok, now links are popping up everywhere to people's entries to the Observer graphic short competition, discussion and whatnot, it's almost getting a bit hard to keep track of. But it seems prudent to get things around as far and wide as possible because positive things seem to be coming out of this. And not to diminish those who won at all - because well done to them all! - there just seems to be more to this in a pleasant and productive way.
In these efforts for everyone's work to get seen (and seen it should certainly be) it seems that all the comic artists are getting to know each other as one big great community, and to carry on doing so until everyone has linked to somebody else and linked back again until we're all connected together like some sort of awesome comic-making chain link fence.
And because it's quite exciting to suddenly become aware of all these other people who seem to spend a large proportion of their time making comics. And good ones, too. And perhaps through all this we can finally come to have some collection of everyone's work that everyone else can see. And enjoy.
So, to keep track -
Flickr Group - for people to add their entries to the pool so we can collect them all up together. Mainly because I'd noticed a lot of people already had their work posted on flickr so, why not really? Not much there just yet, but if the word can be spread... Seems like a good idea to me.
Barbelith topic with links to everyone so far, and also comments and discussion from stupidly talented artists who, of course, forgot to enter because they were too busy in their own special worlds.
Chat and links over at the Manchester Comix collective.
Draw Anyway - Links and discussion over at mockduck's site.
And, the now infamous Guardian blog post. Actually slightly less irritating than what was printed in the Observer! I'm sure a poll could be made of the most objectionable writings.
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