Month: July 2015

The Final Countdown

| rozihath

Goood afternoon ladies and gentlemen!

So, I haven’t gone mad. Well, I may have done, but this specific reasoning for having not gone mad comes from a midday blog effort. “Oooh”, I hear you all say, as you munch your lunchtime sarnie trying to avoid getting crumbs in the keyboard. Which always happens anyway. Yes! I decided a change was in order this week, before I busy my head in more comics for the remainder of the afternoon.

It’s been a busy week, in fact each week has been becoming steadily busier in the run up to my two-week Scandi adventures; so I have three more afternoons of work to get everything done as much as physically possible so that I can enjoy my fortnight in the fjords. As I revealed last week, my new collaborative zine Sneaky Business has been completed! I received the final artwork, finished the covers up and tomorrow I shall be scurrying along to the local printers to throw my USB their way. HOW EXCITING! Now that it’s all beautifully laid out, I can give you a proper introduction…

Sneaky Business - A collaborative comics zine full of sneaky.. well.. business.
Sneaky Business – A collaborative comics zine full of sneaky.. well.. business, really.

Sneaky Business is a comics zine of my creation, featuring two page and one page comics. After producing a one-page comic for Keara Stewart earlier in the year for her comics anthology A Bit of Undigested Potato, I felt deeply inspired to have a go myself! Though, not with quite so many comics as an anthology, as I think my brain would fall out from the stress of doing that amount of organising on top of everything else. Shortly after TAKEOVER back in May, the idea was born and I started contacting friends in the business. Another reason I wanted to do something like this, as I told the other artists involved, is because the majority of my work is quite dark, emotive and serious. How is everybody supposed to know how hilariously funny I am, without me showing them? Thus, Sneaky Business was born.. From the talented hands of (from top-bottom of the image above);

Rozi Hathaway – hello! -waves-
Pete Hindle – http://petehindle.com/
Samuel C Williams – http://cargocollective.com/samuelcwilliams
Alex Hahn – http://www.alexhahnillustrator.com/
and…
Peter James Norman – http://www.aplacetoputthings.co.uk/

Now for more exciting news! Sneaky Business is being launched on Saturday 29th August 2015 at MancsterCon, so if you’re in the area please do come and say hi and pick up your shiny new copy of Sneaky Business. I will be hosting an internet pre-launch on Monday 24th August, so if you’re unable to get to Manchester (cuh, you’ll be missing out) then I shall make sure you get your copy featuring these wonderful sneaky comic artists for the weekend. A big thanks to my creators Sam, Pete, Alex and Peter, and to anyone who has has helped me out; a special mention to Keara for being an inspiration and Ricky Miller from Avery Hill Publishing for giving me his words of wisdom when I was mid-crisis. So, keep your eyes peeled and be sure to order a copy when it’s released! Because it’s awesome.

In other news, I’ve been clocking up the hours at the ol’ desk producing this Top Secret project that’s due in September, which I mentioned last week. As all you wonderful people asked so nicely, (you didn’t, but I’m guessing you really wanted to..) here are some more snippets of what’s being taking all my time and energy!

Top Secret Project, a 10 page comic reached completion in August, more details announced soon..
Top Secret Project, a 10 page comic reached completion in August, more details announced soon..
Pencil roughs - complete!
Pencil roughs – complete!

I’m really really really really hoping to have all the pages inked by Friday evening, so when I return two-stone heavier from the lands of Danish pastries I can relax and focus on preparing for the colouring aspect, ready for deadline. Yesterday I managed to draw and ink up two in 5 hours, so by that logic I won’t quite get it done.. But I’m going to try my hardest! Page one was a bit of a pain, the rest should be easier. I hope. And pray.

So, yes! Hopefully all this visual stimulation invigorates you all ready for your afternoons, just think of me cramped over my desk drawing pages after pages of comics, and think about how much simpler a desk-job is. I will be back in three weeks time with a full update of my travels, so I hope everybody has a wonderful couple of weeks, and think of me on a boat somewhere between the islands surrounding Oslo.. Or in Stockholm having fika.. Or in Denmark practising my Danish on real, Danish people whilst playing with Lego and eating wienerbrød. Until then – over and out.

x

Sneaky Business

| rozihath

Good evening folks and folkettes,

So, it’s that time again! It’s been another busy week, with a gap finally opening up for me to continue working on my top secret project previously mentioned here. This, holiday planning and other serious but boring grown-up things are making time disappear at the moment, and the race is on to get a decent amount of work done before I jet off on my adventures around Scandinavia, to eat my bodyweight romkugler and wienerbrøder!

This particular project, an eight-page comic for print, I’d started work on back in late May to early June time (I think..!). It was actually really useful for me to pause the project so early in it’s development to create ‘quick’ pieces like Rejsen, the Nepal Home piece and the rest, as it gave me the opportunity to really push this story to the best it can be. I’ve always been honest in the fact that The Red Road was created in eight weeks (from conception of the idea to completion), and although I don’t think it suffered particularly I’m enjoying the extra time to really push this story into a complex and more detailed world for viewing. This time I’m also creating the story completely wordless, which feels like a natural yet challenging step for me. With the third year of University on the horizon I’m really glad I have the chance to hone my storytelling skills once more before I start to sculpt the ideas in my noggin for my Final Major Project.

 

Although I don’t normally like to give too much away, I’m concious that recently I’ve been one big human-shaped bag of secrets – and it’s no fun if I can’t share anything! Plus it also makes pretty boring reading for you all, I imagine.. So above are some sketchbook images of my development from my mock-up book (which in itself has sketches of the entire story set out how it will appear). In a rare, proud moment I thrust my sketchy mock-up book in my partner’s face hoping for some instant flattery, but apparently my vision isn’t too clear OR impressive when accompanies with scrawled notes and finger smudges (cuh, right?), so I thought it best to work on it all some more. My deadline for this project is only six weeks away – panic! And two of those weeks I’m on holiday — double panic! But, alas, I’m trundling away and I’m more than confident that I’ll be ready to move onto the final pages by next week. Huzzah! Keep an eye out for more progress on this next week..

 

In other news, as promised I am delighting you all with a grand reveal… A new publication!

SNEAKY BUSINESS is a comic filled zine of my own creation, featuring some specially picked comics and arts friends; Pete Hindle, Samuel C Williams, Peter Norman, Alex Hahn, and of course, yours truly. The above sneeze is brought to you by my comic, with each of us creating a two-page spread aside from Peter, the ex-Baird of Northampton who decided to be special and only create one page. More news on Sneaky Business will be revealed next week, as I’m still waiting on one or two things to fall into place before I announce any more.. But yes! Expect this to be out soooooon…. Ooh errr.

Finally, last week saw my ‘Inside Look’ article published on Broken Frontier! Small Press Inside Look – Rozi Hathaway Discusses Her Work on ‘The Red Road’, ‘HOAX Psychosis Blues’ and More is something I wrote up a week or so prior, especially for Andy Oliver’s Small Pressganged section on Broken Frontier. You can read some insider gossip on my work to date, and probably hear some things I’d never said out loud before. If you’re interested, head on over and have a look! Unless of course, by the time you’ve read this you’re sick of hearing  me waffle on. I don’t blame you, living with my inner monologue is a tiring experience..

So, that’s it for now! The rest of this week will be spent in my cave drawing up from roughs for this eight-page comic, and trying to stay awake on willpower and coffee alone. Have a good week everyone, and as every, see you next week! Over and out.

 

x

 

The Secret Plans Continue..

| rozihath

Good evening faithful readers!

So, another week has vanished and August is ebbing closer. Words cannot express how much of a dire need I am in for a holiday, and in just under three weeks my wish will be granted. Up until that point I’ll be extra busy on my final two top secret projects…

In an excellent turn of events, great news has come my way! My two-page comic Rejsen, mentioned previously in my blog here, has been accepted to appear in Dirty Rotten Comics‘ Summer Anthology! I am absolutely THRILLED to be included, which will be released around mid-August. Happy days! Work hard and good things will come… in short, sporadic bursts, that make this job all the more worthwhile.

So! Back to the hard work malarkey; work has continued on the sneaky and interesting project I mentioned here last week. As I mentioned before, this project has some friendly faces involved, and I’m thrilled to give you a sneak peek of some work! Last week was a preview of my work and also Alex Hahn’s, this week I bring you an exciting snapshot from Samuel C Williams and Peter James Norman!

Samuel C Williams
Samuel C Williams
Peter James Norman
Peter James Norman

This is one secret that will be revealed on next week’s blog.. So, keep your eyes open, it’s something to look forward to! Well, maybe not, but pretend it is, yeah?

Another super thing is that us Ladies of the Zine are in the process of creating issue #2 of Down to Your Skivvies! How exciting, right?! Our first issue is still on sale, so be sure to pick up a copy if you haven’t already. It’s great. And I’m not biased. Honest.

Finally, good news everyone! MancsterCon‘s early bird tickets are available until the end of this month! By purchasing an early ticket you get the extra discount and a free goodie bag! Plus, you get to see my face, which will either help the situation or put you off immensely. Either way, pop on over and pick your ticket up from here for the BEST indie comic-con in the North West, in the lovely Manchester on the Saturday 29th August. Don’t forget I’ll be on the “So you want to get into Comics?” panel with Tom Ward, Chris Welsh, Andrew Tunney, and Debbie Jenkinson where you can watch me pretending to know what I’m talking about. What could be better?

I think that’s it for now, my weekly Wednesday early start looms, so I’d best get into bed and listen to the soothing sounds of children playing and people having fun whilst I try and sleep. Over and out!

x

Comics Galore

| rozihath

Good evening happy campers,

So, another week bites the dust and more things are crossed off my ever-growing list. Just a short update today, as my time since Rejsen has largely been spent in front of a computer. Joy! Last week I finished up an application to the Arts Council England after the gruelling hours (and hours.. and hours) filling out the various forms online. As another top secret thing under my hat, that’s all I’m saying for now.. But, if you could all keep your fingers crossed and send some good luck vibes over I’d be very appreciative!

In other news, this past week I’ve been working on another short comic for something else sneaky and interesting, of which I’ll be able to reveal properly in the coming weeks. This one is another two-page edition which will be definitely going into some form of print alongside some other friendly faces.

Bless You!

One of those friendly faces involved happens to be Alex Hahn! I met Alex at Alternative Press TAKEOVER which I talked about back in May, where we spoke about all things business whilst waiting for the delayed tables to arrive for set-up. He’s an excellent illustrator, and I get the odd tinge of jealousy every time I see some of his work on his Instagram! Anyway, Alex put up a sneaky peek of his comic work for our collaboration earlier today, so I jumped at the opportunity to show you all too!

Alex Hahn’s sneaky-peek of his comic collaboration!

More details and sneaky peeks of this particular project (I know, there’s a few to keep track of.. It’s even a challenge for me!) will continue to next week, before the grand reveal later in the month. Which will nicely tide us all over until I depart on my adventures at the beginning of August! Phew, so many plans to remember.

Finally, I’m still waiting patiently to hear back from Dirty Rotten Comics and Art Aid Nepal regarding my submissions for each anthology. Lots hanging in the balance right now, but hopefully 2015 continues to be a successful year! For now though, it’s time to digest my dinner and unwind. Over and out!

x