Err, how is it nearly September?

Hello everyone,

I can’t be the only one who feels like 2020 was a bad dream and it should be May 2021 or something? How is it nearly September? So many questions.

Well, since my last update in October, a fair bit has happened. I moved house, Sam and I adopted a beautiful greyhound called Malibu, I took way too many pictures of said dog, we at Good Comics successfully funded our Kickstarter campaign and released five new books because of it, I did an alumni talk at my old University, built a bed, self-published my weekly comics into a new book Eta Carinae, designed more postcards for my friend’s business, got Covid, got over Covid, did a charity run and all the while continued working on my next big comics project.

I feel a bit dizzy listing all of that. So, where to begin?

Since last year I’ve been working on a larger project than I’m used to – a comic, which at the moment, all I can share with you is that it’s about whales. Now, everyone loves whales, right? I’ve been doing a lot of research, reading whale-related books and reading around the subject into other areas such as craft, mythology and poetry. I even read Moby Dick, which was a very long ordeal…

Above: The fold-out whale book I created with trimmed-down cartridge paper, pencil, ink and gouache along with mountboard and hand-dyed muslin covers, using shibori techniques in grey dye

Above: A gallery featuring work from my whales sketchbook, including playing around with inks, textures and researching stitches.

Fun, huh? This is a purely self-motivated project, so it’s great to be able to find new avenues of research and things I’d like to encompass in the story. On the flip side, having no real deadlines or timelines means this has a way of getting put to the bottom of my pile. Between work, kids and Good Comics it’s tough to have my own time. Or to allow me time to work on this.

I think that’s part of the reason I’m writing this now. No, not because I’m procrastinating(!), but to share this kind of weird, purgatory feeling of wanting to dive into a project but having a lot of other responsibilities that tend to come first. But hey, I’m working on my priorities and making a conscious effort to not let my own personal work fall to the bottom of the list.

In other news, I helped my dear friend Bisi with some more marketing materials earlier this year, for her homemade French-inspired foods brand Recettes Sucrées 1859. I’ve created more illustrative work for her before, but this was a lot more simplistic and in the style of some of her own packaging she’s using now. Check it out!

Bisi is always such a passionate person to work with, and her cakes and confisures are incredible. Check out her products here.

Finally, I’m running a short bank holiday weekend sale on my Etsy store. 15% off, no minimum spend, and no code needed. Just go to this link and check it out. If you haven’t already got one, you can pick up a copy of my latest comic Eta Carinae for just £3.40 in the sale, plus P&P.

Until next time!

Rozi x

Good morning everybody!

It’s here! Moon has launched on Kickstarter, and since Wednesday is nearly 50% funded – wow! Thank you all so much!! If you don’t follow my escapades on social media, then let’s start again…

Let me introduce to you Moon: the comic, the Kickstarter, the newspaper.

Moon is an ethereal and enchanting original comic story about childhood, curiosity and love. In the usual Hathaway style, this comic is very light on words, with it aiming to be a comic more of tender experience than heavy literature. If successfully funded, Moon will be printed as a 24-page, full-colour newspaper comic, in a limited run of 200 copies, staple bound. The mini-tabloid newspapers are printed through Glasgow-based The Newspaper Club (check them out – really cool!), printed on 55gsm newsprint (super touchy-feely). It’ll also be bigger than my usual comics, at 160x280mm. Click here to check out the campaign on Kickstarter!

I came up with the idea from one of many conversations with my partner’s four-year-old son when we saw a large disc inside a storage container on a building site and he told me it looked a lot like the moon. As we all know, childhood fascination and discovery are something I will always enjoy making stories about, and this is no exception! It’s definitely been a fast-moving production as I spent weeks perfecting the story, then spending all-hours drawing up the roughs and artwork for the pages. But we all know I like a challenge.

It’s been just over two years since my Kickstarter for Njalla and it’s been a nerve-wracking experience to try and launch a new campaign. A lot has changed in two years, and the support from the comics community isn’t what it used to be. Although it’s somewhat terrifying to consider whether this project will still succeed or not, it’s also incredibly empowering to see how well it’s done up to now. And this is helped so much by everyone who has supported Moon – so thank you! You all are making this happen!

Here are some snippets below:

You can find the Kickstarter campaign here, along with details of all the rewards. I really really REALLY wanted to include temporary tattoos of moons and storage units in each pledge, but I’ve had to put it as a stretch goal as sadly, I can’t afford to do it otherwise. So.. let’s aim for £1000 and we can all have the matching temporary tattoos, yeah‽

I decided to create this story because I think we all need some child-like fascination and magic in our lives. My wish is for someone to pick up Moon and be transported away from his/her/their troubles and become lost in a dream. There is always time to worry about school, work, money or relationships, and we all deserve to escape – and sometimes just looking at the moon in the night sky does that – but sometimes it takes a story too. If you believe that too, then you know what to do.

Recettes Sucrées 1859 – Illustrated postcards

In other exciting and unrelated news, my good friend and client Recettes Sucréees 1859 is off to the Hampton Court Palace Food Festivals this bank holiday weekend, with her fresh two gold stars from Good Food Awards and her illustrated postcards! More on this next time – but if you’re in the area or visiting the festival, be sure to check them out at stand R15 (and pick up a drunken squirrel brownie if you can – it’s delicious).

And that just about rounds it up! Until next time!

Rozi Hathaway

Comics & Illustration

Recettes Sucrees

Err, how is it nearly September?

Moon Launch!