It’s October! How did that happen? It’s suddenly very rainy and gloomy in my part of the world, and although it’s not quite the weather for thermals yet, I feel vaguely prepared for it to arrive.
It’s been a little longer since my last blog than I’d planned, but that’s due to being INCREDIBLY busy getting ready for…
The Good Comics Kickstarter!
For the past few months, we three of Good Comics have been preparing like mad for our first-ever Kickstarter, and it’s all coming together nicely. The campaign is due to launch on Monday 6th October, featuring brand new books from RAMZEE, Natasha Natarajan, Emre Altındağ and Niki Bañados, as well as a new Good Comics Reader vol.2 featuring some of our Good friends we’ve published or distributed over the years.
Having run a couple of Kickstarters before for Njálla and Moon, I’ve gone into it knowing it’s a lot of work, but launching one for 5 books has been pretty intense! Thankfully Paddy, Sam and I have an excellent working relationship/huge supply of inside jokes, so we’re totally rocking it.
The campaign preview page should be up in a couple of days, so keep your eyes peeled!
In other news, between work and the Good Kickstarter I’ve been working on getting my weekly comics ready for print. Although it’s been a ridonculously busy month, adding in a little panel painting here and there is easy to fit in, and the book itself 90% finished now.
It’s also really satisfying to see it come together. I’m really excited to be able to share it with you all soon! Here’s a sneak peek of what an early spread looks like.
The only obstacle I have left is the release, as it’d be difficult to launch anytime soon without being overshadowed by the Good Comics Kickstarter. So, unfortunately, I will be pushing back the schedule slightly, but I will keep you all updated with when it will be coming out.
Finally, I’m excited to have had my latest paper delivery to start on the Autumn-Winter 2020 sketchbooks! Can you believe it’s that time of the year already?
Spring-Summer 2020 sketchbooks are still on sale on my Etsy store, and you can pick one up here.
I think that’s it for now! Make sure you’re following Good Comics via Twitter, Instagram or our newsletter to get first-hand info on the launch of the Kickstarter campaign, and I’ll be back with news soon!
We’ve made it. We’re 349’650 days into lockdown and I am struggling to know what day it is. I have however, set up a structure for me to go for a run every 3 days as it coincides with needing to wash my hair, so that’s something.
I’m still having a lot of fun with these comics, and I genuinely am so glad I started them. With another 3 week’s pages planned until the finale, I will then be looking at printing the final collection in a small run for sale later this year. Sound good? Excellent.
This season’s colour scheme is green and gold, with a nice neutral paper throughout scattered with some low-opacity paper, lightweight speckled paper and a beautiful glistening paper. As with AW19, I’ve designed and hand-carved a stamp for the books, modelled on my monstera plant.
Sketchbooks will be going up for sale tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to see when you can grab a copy. These are a very limited run, so if you’d like one, be quick!
The second issue is already sold out online, but you can still pick up the first issue for half off. Rest assured Issue 2 will be available from a couple of shops including Palomino very soon and there will be a small re-print soon. Watch this space!
And that’s about it for now! Head over to the Good Comics blog for some fun Quarantine Q&A interviews with our creators Claire Spiller and Gareth A Hopkins, as well as a handful of other things to keep you occupied. Until next time!
We made it to May! I hope everyone is safe and well despite the obvious coronavirus-shaped elephant in the room. The longer our lockdown goes on, the harder it is to have anything new or positive to say. Nevertheless, remember to look after yourselves the best way you can, whether that’s marathoning box sets on tv or training for a marathon.
I’m still maintaining my goal of one comic a week, which I’m glad for! This last week I finished it a few days earlier (harder than it sounds…) and released it through the Good Comics blog. and shared all the comics in order this far.
Here are week’s 4 and 5 below, to get you up to speed:
Week 4
Week 5
After week 4, I decided to make a dumb poll on Twitter to see what everyone wanted to see included next. Thankfully the people voted for clearly the best option!
I’m starting to get into a good routine with these weekly comics, and I have the rest of the ‘story’ mostly mapped out. It’s still a useful challenge for me, and I’m looking forward to showing you all week 6 (when it’s done). Watch this space!
In other news, I’m very happy to announce that as last year’s Rocks is very nearly sold out, I have donated 50% of the profits made to Bournemouth’s Natural Science Society.
Rocks was very much a project of discovery and realisation about the way I make comics. Between finishing Moon and starting Rocks (note to self: consider more than just one-word titles for future books) I’d hit a wall with creating, and pushing myself through to the end of Rocks was tough yet rewarding. I’m very grateful for the information I gained from the BNSS, and Rocks will always be the one which helped me learn to pick up a pen again and restart my journey, releasing some of that pain I was feeling in Sparenting.
Lastly, you’ll be glad to know that I’ve started work on my next seasonal sketchbook! The remaining autumn/winter books have now fully sold out, and I will be finishing up spring/summer in the coming week or so.
Welcome back! The calendar has ticked over to April and we’re in the midst of a worldwide pandemic (in case you weren’t already aware). I hope you’re all safe and well wherever you are.
Now we’re all settling to a new normal of being inside, it’s really time for me to get back into writing. So here it goes! Here’s what I have for you today:
Start of spring sketchbooks
Quarantine drawing challenge & free comics
Good newsletter
Recent projects
1. Spring sketchbooks
Remember a few months ago I made some autumn-winter sketchbooks? Well, they’re soon to be back with the next season: Spring-Summer 2020! Back in late-February, I picked up some new papers from the magical Shepherds fine papers in London especially for the next set of sketchbooks. My new prized papers have been sitting quietly waiting to be collated, and it’s on my list to do.
It goes without saying that it’s a really stressful and scary time for everyone. However, one of the most heartwarming side effects of the COVID crisis has been people’s response to opening up their skills and creativity for all.
At Good Comics, we decided to release a bundle of free comics to encourage everyone to take government advice and stay home. This bundle includes the first edition of my 2017 release Cosmos & Other Stories, as well as Stealing Home: Rookie Season by Paddy Johnston (including a comic by yours truly). You can read about the bundle on the Good Blog, or take a direct link to the bundle by clicking here.
Good Sam has also announced the quarantine drawing challenge of designing your own old-timey baseball player! It all started with a ‘find your 1800’s baseball player name and evolved into something more:
As Pee-Wee “Hoss” McGraw, I’ve started designing mine up already. We’ll post a gallery of as many as possible over on the Good Comics website. Here are some tips/guidelines!
Try and make the designs to 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.
Baseball has a long and rich history including some amazing women and people of colour players, so be creative!
If you don’t like your ‘name’ from the challenge above, feel free to make up your own.
If 1800’s America unnerves you (i.e. the slave trade) , feel free to make it a modern-day vintage style card.
In February we launched the brand-spankin’ new Good Comics newsletter. It’s monthly at this point, but we also send out random news as and when we can, like about our upcoming release from Claire Spiller! (more on that below)
I’ve been pretty lax towards keeping my site up to date, so I have a couple of more recent projects to share with you! Firstly, earlier this year I was commissioned to create another back cover for Star Jaws issue 31!
As it was the February issue I went for a valentine’s theme, with a love letter from Senator Bail Organa to his wife Breha Organa – the adoptive parents of Princess Leia before Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed being enthralled in the Star Wars universe. Yes, I researched a lot about Alderaan’s most iconic landmarks and foliage. No regrets. Click here to see the full back cover in action!
Secondly, I also worked on a submission for Two Set Mag: ‘a zine focused on writing, with a healthy dose of art and photography – all by skateboarders‘, as described on their site.
I’ve also been busy with the Good Comics team preparing for our latest release, Raze by Claire Spiller. Claire’s work is beautiful and she’s well rehersed in printing comics so she’s been an absolute dream to work with – check out her latest work and pre-order your copy of Raze today. If you like my comics, this will be up your street! Treat yo’self.
And that just about rounds it up for now! A few other things have happened, like turning 30, having my feet tattooed, having an incredible pre-birthday celebration with Sam in London and learning how to homeschool a 10-year-old. But hey, better save something for the next blog!
It seems to be fully-loaded cold and flu season in my neck of the woods, and everyone is sniffling and coughing near constantly. Including me. I’m not sure whether mine is down to autumnal hayfever, a low-lying cold that’s waiting to emerge or my entire head being taken over by a goop monster. Who knows?
Anyway, it’s a busy time of year in the run-up to that yet-to-be-mentioned gift-giving holiday that occurs at the end of the year. I’m finishing up a web-comic, launching a top-secret community-based project and tending to general life tasks which now also include catering for my three new gerbil assistants: Peach, Nugget and White-Knuckle Rog (more on them another time). But still, I have things to show you all!
Firstly, the autumn-winter sketchbooks I announced a couple of weeks ago are selling fast! There aren’t many left, so if you’d like to join the club of seasonal strugglers, you can pick up your sketchbook here. Each order is lovingly wrapped in brown wrapping paper and posted in a card envelope so it reaches you safely and can be recycled easily.
If yours arrives and you want to share some of your autumn doodles, please do email me as I’m planning on setting up a gallery to share our autumnal feelings. You can contact me here.
I’ve also put up some risograph prints on my store that I printed with Assembly Press earlier this year. They’re in very limited supply, so pick one up quick! Available in two colours – fluoro pink/orange, and fluoro orange/yellow.
And, that’s about it for now. Keep your eyes peeled next week as I’m planning to finally announce what I’ve spent the past few months working on. I’m equally excited and nervous, so watch this space!
Summer to Autumn – best shared skimming stones and with freezing toes
Afternoon all,
It’s been a while! The last few months have flown by in a blur, and somehow it’s October. Autumn has a way of catching me off-guard every year, and somehow the days have become suddenly chillier without me noticing until I’ve already set foot out of the door.
So, what have I been up to since my last post aside from being cold? Primarily a new web-format comic about family. But that’s been a difficult, emotional piece to work on as it’s really close to my heart. It’s not too far off from completion, but I’m taking some mental space from it for a few weeks so I’m able to do it justice. Secretive, I know! All will be clear soon.
However, I’ve also been working on a new, exciting project I get to share with you all today!
Some background: It’s the changing of the seasons. And, I struggle.
Don’t get me wrong; the leaves changing is beautiful, the sound of rain is serene, but feeling sleep deprived and having cold extremities is awful. It’s depressing, and it can feel never-ending.
So, I wanted to make something that inspires creativity during the wetter, shorter days but doesn’t have the same pressure as 160 plain white pages of a new store-bought sketchbook, or any organised drawing challenges you find online.
I hand collated and stitched these little books using GF Smith Colorplan 135g paper (citrine and vellum), kraft offcuts, semi-translucent and natural papers. The sketchbooks are just 16 pages long so there’s no pressure of many pages to fill. They’re roughly A6 size to fit in your pocket or bag, and each sketchbook is hand-printed with the specially designed autumn/winter logo on the front, ready to customize.
I’ve made a limited stock of these sketchbooks, so if you’d like one you can grab it for £4 + free UK shipping (Or £6 incl. shipping everywhere else in the world). Check it out on my store here.
What do you all think? Could you use some relaxing autumnal drawing time? Share your doodles with me and I’ll set up a gallery so we can all see each other’s work and conquer the season together.
And that’s it for now! Until next time, keep dry and toasty.
