Cosmos and Other Stories

Spring Has Sprung

| rozihath

Good afternoon folks!

So, it’s Spring. The season that leaves everyone reaching for the duster and me reaching for my antihistamines.. What a glorious time to be alive! As long it’s a case of being alive, inside, with the windows shut, away from tree pollen. Magical.

Now that Cosmos & Other Stories is finished up and out in the world, AND I’ve moved home just over a week ago, it’s been a time of catching up on comics I’ve promised for submissions. First up, I’ve been working on a four-page comic for this year’s Broken Frontier Small Press Yearbook! Last year’s Yearbook was a platform for the Broken Frontier’s 2015 ‘Six to Watch’ artists to be published as a focal point whilst still sat next to more established artists. Danny Noble, Emma Raby, Jess Milton, Alice Urbino, Adam Vian and myself all contributed to the Yearbook, with my comic Afloat gaining praise in reviews from Page 45, The Quietus and more. This year, the Broken Frontier Small Press Yearbook 2017 is focusing on the 2016 ‘Six to Watch’ creators Rebecca Bagley, Kim Clements, Brigid Deacon, Emily Rose Lambert, Jey Levang and Ellice Weaver – with myself and others creating shorter back-up stories to support these fabulous six comics ladies.

Sketchbook work.
They see me crawlin’..
‘Owl’s it going?

As you can see from above, I’m currently up to the inking stage of my four-page comic for the book. Next, I need to figure out what I’m doing with the colours, and get it all painted and scanned in the coming weeks – so keep an eye out for some previews/peeks of the final comic!

In other news, I’ve also been working on a special comic for those nice gents at Dirty Rotten Comics for their special anniversary issue 10. I’m really excited to have been asked to contribute, and I’m working away on a short two-pager for the issue with the deadline fast approaching.. For now, here’s a small peek of my pencil sketches!

Whalin’ around in DRC10!

At the end of the month when I’m slightly less deadline-oriented, I have the pleasure of heading over to Liverpool for the Craft Comic Festival at the Craft Taproom, which is part of Smithdown Festival! If you’re in or around Liverpool on the Bank Holiday weekend you should pop down on Saturday 29th from 10-4pm to check it out. And it’s free! For all the details, head over to their designated Facebook Event Page.

Finally, in some more glorious news, I’m absolutely over the moon to be included in the upcoming The Inking Woman: An exhibition of British women cartoon and comic artists at The Cartoon Museum in central London. The exhibition will run from 26th April to 24 July 2017 and will feature work from creators such as Hannah Berry, Emma Vieceli, Karrie Fransman, Edie OP, Danny Noble and more. And me! More confirmed artists are popping up all the time, so be sure to follow The Cartoon Museum on Twitter with the hashtag #InkingWoman to see who will be there.

And that’s about it for now! The rest of this week will be spent maniacally finishing up some comics and then eating my entire body-weight in chocolate this weekend. Maybe some cake, too. Until next time!

 

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Leamington & The Launch!

| rozihath

Good afternoon folks!

So, it’s done! Cosmos & Other Stories has been released out into the world in spectacular style at Leamington Comic Con this past weekend, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. And yes, I think I need a long lie-down. Or a holiday. Or both?

Several of the post-con reviews earmarked Leam Comic Con as a friendly event with a great atmosphere, (Broken Frontier, Pipedream Comics and Awesome Comics Podcast to name a few..) which is a wholly accurate way to describe the day! Located in the Royal Spa Centre adjacent to the town centre, the coffee was strong and the weather was great. I had an excellent time as always tabling next to my Cosmos publishers Samuel C. Williams and Dr Paddy Johnston of Good Comics (yes we had a cheese board for snacking purposes, and yes it was as wonderful as it sounds), and the room was full to the brim of comics fans young and old! Thanks so much to Dan and Lisa for being excellent hosts!

Cosmos & Other Stories had a great reception on the day, and now has collected up a nice little collection of reviews and coverage, from Pipedream Comics’ Indie Comics Round-Up: Leamington Comic Con 2017 Special:

..Cosmos is a wonderful collection of work that we genuinely wish had more in it because what is there is really rather wonderful.

.. and, as mentioned on my blog last week, Tony Esmond’s wonderful review which has since gone up on Down the Tubes:

Good art rents a room in your consciousness. Really good art plants roots in your subconscious. Cosmos & Other Stories is a piece of art does this – and also enables you to step out of your rush, rush, dopamine-fueled day and rest happy in a second of time.

Plus, Andy Oliver at Broken Frontier weighed in with an analytic look at Cosmos – with the added bonus of having insight on my work from the very beginning:

A collection of a handful of comics shorts, it’s Hathaway at her economical but profound best; a book that displays that remarkable ability she has to bring us so fully into the lives of her characters with a recognisable emotional resonance.

I also talked about it a bit at Leamington with Tony, now featured on the Awesome Comics Podcast, Episode 91 – Comics and Convention Talk (around 50 minutes in, just after Sam and Paddy)!

You’ll be glad to know that Cosmos & Other Stories is available to purchase from the Good Comics online store, and also from Gosh! Comics and Orbital Comics in London. It’ll also be available from my Etsy store in the next month, so keep an eye out for that! In their attempts of slowly taking over the world, Good Comics announced it’s next 2017 launch yesterday with Josh Hicks‘ new collection of short stories, Human Garbage, released on 17th June at ELCAF. Between this and their soon-to-be-confirmed publishing ventures of the year it’s looking to be an excellent 2017 for the guys, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.

Josh Hicks’ Human Garbage – Released 17th June

What’s next? Well.. My blog will be on another short break for two weeks now as I move house and finish up a few submissions, for starters. I’ve been working on comics/illustrations for three different anthologies, developing on-and-off whilst I was completing Cosmos – so those are a priority to get finished up and send off in the next few weeks. Aside from that, my general answer for has been to start developing a longer-form story. But, as ever, there are a whole bundle of smaller projects I have on the back-burner and would love to get stuck into.. And of course, I plan on helping Good Comics take over the world. On that note, I’ll see you all in a fortnight! Until next time..

 

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The Launch is Nigh

| rozihath

Good afternoon folks!

So, it’s nearly launch time! That’s right, the long, hard evenings and weekends of working away lovingly on this collection are done, and the final editing (when you think it’ll take half a day and it actually takes a whole Sunday and two more evenings..) is complete, and the book has been printed. Now all that’s left is a few sleepless nights worrying over whether anyone’s actually going to like it or not.. Y’know, those sensible thoughts that come into the front of your mind just as you turn out the light. Helpful stuff.

It’s just three days now until Leamington Comic Con 2017, held in the Royal Spa Centre in Leamington Spa, and those Good Comics gents and I are flocking from our various corners of the country to come together and launch Cosmos & Other Stories.

Aside from joking (totally not joking..) about the nerves, I am really excited to bring Cosmos into the world. It’s been a largely whirlwind ordeal, given that I started talking to the Good Comics guys about potentially releasing a collection of short stories with them when I was their table neighbour at Thought Bubble Festival back in November. It then took approximately a week to start writing.. Meaning it’s taken me four months to make this collection of six short stories, whilst working full time, and dealing with a whole load of other life things. FOUR MONTHS! Not even I can believe it.. what a workaholic, am I right? Jeez, take a day off already! -maniacal laugh-

Lisa, co-organiser and co-owner of Leamington Comic Con and Spa Town Comics pop-up store was kind enough to say nice things and interview me about Cosmos & Other Stories! You can read the full interview on the Spa Town Blog! And see the nice things Lisa had to say..

I’m personally very excited to meet Rozi and see her work. I’m probably a little late to Rozi Hathaway fan club, given she won last year’s Broken Frontier Breakout Talent Award, but, as soon as I saw her uniquely expressive and dreamy paintwork I knew my bank balance was in trouble.

– Lisa-Marie Nelson, “A not so lonely launch at Leam Comic Con” – Spa Town Comics Blog

Good Comics

For those coming along or thinking of coming along to Leamington, there’s a full schedule of guests including Mark Laming and the Awesome Comics Podcast folks, and you can also find a full list of the exhibitors here. Leamington Comic Con is open for advance ticket holders from 10:30am, with on-the-day tickets being sold on the door with entry from 11:30am. Tickets are still available online, £10 for adults and kids get in free! To find out more and buy your tickets online, click here. There’s also a whole load of activities happening at the con, with a full breakdown available here (if you can’t find me at 3pm, I’ll be having my face painted in the style of Munch’s The Scream…)

Cosmos & Other Stories has also had it’s first review this morning from Tony Esmond of Awesome Comics Podcast and Down the Tubes fame. I’ve been totally blown away by this review, and here’s a snippet that absolutely made my day:

It’s not often that a piece of art touches you in in such a profound way. I speak as a cynical forty something who up until March the 21st this year hadn’t really found a gem in the small press and was worried that it was sitting back in it’s collective armchair ready for retirement. This comic changed my mind and did so with grace and a gentle whisper.

– Tony Ez Esmond, “A Little Review of ‘Cosmos & Other Stories’ and I find out it’s a lonely place”

You can read the full review here! And please do! And don’t forget you can still pre-order your copy of Cosmos on the Good Comics Shop until Friday with a bonus print from the book, with the comic being on general sale from Saturday.

In other similar news, Cosmos & Other Stories is Broken Frontier‘s Staff Pick of the Week! Here’s what Andy Oliver has to say..

I’ve had the benefit of a preview copy and can assure our audience that, without a doubt, it’s some of Hathaway’s strongest work to date. Simultaneously subtle yet potent, fragile but resonant, it’s a compilation that speaks to the reader with the profoundest empathetic connection.

– Andy Oliver – Staff Picks for March 22, 2017 – Cosmos & Other Stories, Underwinter, The Interview, Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story and More!

And that’s about it! If you’re in or around Leamington Spa on Saturday then please do come along and say hello to us at the Hathaway/Good Comics tables. If you can’t make it, be sure to follow me, Good Comics and Leamington Comic Con on Twitter for regular updates on the day – and also the event hashtag #LCC2017. AND, read all about it on the blog next week! Until then..

 

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The Re-Emerge

| rozihath

Good afternoon all!

I’m back!

That’s right; just like Leo in The Revenant or Michael Myers in Halloween, I have returned. Though luckily for me I haven’t been mauled by a bear or shanked by a rather upset Ripley… though sometimes the morning commute sometimes feels like a combination of the two. It’s been a while since my last post, and although unintentional, sometimes life just gets in the way and something has to give. And, seeming as my blog doesn’t have a deadline attached, this is the one thing that had to go to the bottom of the pile for a while. Alas, I’m back with you for the long run with a lot of exciting news, so without further ado..

Last time I was filling you all in on my upcoming plans with Cheltenham True Believers Festival, risograph printing and writing the rest of my short stories. Well, a lot has happened since then, and in the interests of efficiency I’m going to break it down, as otherwise this will turn into a thesis-length blog which no-one will want to read. Woo, efficiency! Here it goes.

THOSE COMIC FESTIVALS:

Five-and-a-half long weeks ago was the fairly fresh-faced OK True Believers Comic Con held in my old stomping ground of Cheltenham, at the infamous Cheltenham Racecourse. It was the first con of the year and I had the pleasure of squeezing on the end of the Good Comics table with Dr Paddy Johnston and Samuel C. Williams; although it was a fairly quiet day trade-wise, it was great to have a weekend away and spend a load of time with some comics people. And.. we got to play with a risograph printer on Sunday which was pretty excellent. And when I say we, I mean Paddy and I stood watching whilst Sam and his buddy Mike did all the work. Thanks guys!

I also joined in the fun at Sheffield Zine Fest on Saturday 25th February on the Good Comics table with Paddy, because.. why not? Sheffield Zine Fest was held in the Students Union and had a really nice down-to-earth and homemade feel to the event, suiting the Good Comics releases and my kinda work a lot more to the ground than the more commercial-based events like Cheltenham True Believers and the MCM events. It was also great to hang out and push other people’s work rather than my own, and there was burritos involved which always makes for an excellent day.

Next up on the festival calendar is the eagerly awaited Leamington Comic Con, held at the Royal Spa Centre on Saturday 25th March. It’s going to be a fantastic day, and with tickets still on sale online you should definitely come hang out and say hello! I’ll have my own full table situated next to the Good Comics gentlemen, which is handy because 25th March is also the release of…

ANNOUNCING: COSMOS AND OTHER STORIES

That’s right! My comics collection I’ve been working on since November is finished and off to print, ready for launch in a week and a half. Cosmos and Other Stories is a collection of short stories exploring humanity and loneliness; packaged up into a lovely 36-page face-strokingly-soft matte laminate product of love, Cosmos tells the stories of different people dealing with the different ways we all feel lonely in this big ol’ world. The book was formally announced on the 24th February via the Good Comics press release;

Good Comics is delighted to announce that we will be publishing a new collection of short stories by award-winning cartoonist and illustrator Rozi Hathaway, winner of the Broken Frontier Breakout Talent Award for 2016 and author of The Red Road, Njálla and Ø.

Cosmos and Other Stories examines themes of loneliness and longing, with Hathaway’s uniquely expressive and dreamy paintwork taking the reader on a journey through various cities, towns, bedrooms and celestial realms. If you’ve ever been lost in a crowd, stayed up all night to talk to someone long distance, or felt the ache of an absent love, then this collection will speak to you.

Cosmos and Other Stories will debut at Leamington Comic Con on Saturday 25th March 2017, and is available to pre-order from the Good Comics online store now!

You can read the full press release here! It’s been a whirlwind four months of writing and drawing up this collection, and although I always put everything I have into my stories, this one is particularly close to my heart. Plus, Sam from Good Comics has been an excellent and supportive yet critical editor, and really pushed me to make the best work I possibly could.. So with all that in mind, I really hope it goes down well otherwise I might just crawl into bed for a while to recover. Pre-order Cosmos and Other Stories here, and even more exciting, every pre-order gets an A5 print of artwork from the book with their order.. So act quickly and get that pre-order in!

A5 Print from Cosmos & Other Stories, now for sale on Etsy.

 

I quite literally have just finished up the book, with the files being sent off to Rich at Comic Printing UK on Monday night before I crawled into bed. Tuesday evening was (am) spent writing this gem of blogging genius for you, so I am finally going to celebrate finishing this book by drinking a large glass of wine and collapsing in a corner (I’m lying, I started the wine before I even started typing. YOLO!). I will be back in the normal swing of things next week with the pre-con post about Leamington and everything it has to offer, so keep an eye out for that! And until next time.. have a good week all, and thanks for being patient!

 

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Cosmos & Other Stories

| rozihath

COSMOS & OTHER STORIES

Available now from Good Comics
Also available on my Etsy Store!

Launched on Saturday 25th March 2017 at Leamington Comic Con
Published by Good Comics

Praise for Cosmos & Other Stories…

..Cosmos is a wonderful collection of work that we genuinely wish had more in it because what is there is really rather wonderful.

– Alex Thomas, Pipedream Comics – Indie Comics Round-Up: Leamington Comic Con 2017 Special

Good art rents a room in your consciousness. Really good art plants roots in your subconscious. Cosmos & Other Stories is a piece of art does this – and also enables you to step out of your rush, rush, dopamine-fueled day and rest happy in a second of time.

– Tony Esmond, Down the Tubes – In Review: Cosmos & Other Stories

A collection of a handful of comics shorts, it’s Hathaway at her economical but profound best; a book that displays that remarkable ability she has to bring us so fully into the lives of her characters with a recognisable emotional resonance.

– Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier – Cosmos & Other Stories – Rozi Hathaway Explores Loneliness and Isolation in a Fragile and Beautiful Collection from Good Comics

Press release:

Good Comics is delighted to announce that we will be publishing a new collection of short stories by award-winning cartoonist and illustrator Rozi Hathaway, winner of the Broken Frontier Breakout Talent Award for 2016 and author of The Red Road, Njálla and Ø. Cosmos and Other Stories examines themes of loneliness and longing, with Hathaway’s uniquely expressive and dreamy paintwork taking the reader on a journey through various cities, towns, bedrooms and celestial realms. If you’ve ever been lost in a crowd, stayed up all night to talk to someonelong distance, or felt the ache of an absent love, then this collection will speak to you. Cosmos and Other Stories will debut at Leamington Comic Con on Saturday 25th March 2017, and is available to pre-order from the Good Comics online store (http://goodshop.bigcartel.com) now!

Out 25th March 2017 | 36 pages | Perfect Bound | A5 | £6

Download a copy of the full press release here

Pipedream Comics Interview – ““Colour gives far more of a feel to the story than my words ever could.” Rozi Hathaway talks Cosmos, Njalla and more!”