Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke

“The Unkindness of Ravens” by Glen Mehn

Last year I was very excited (and honoured) to be asked to contribute illustrations to Jurassic London‘s Pandemonium: Stories Of The Smoke, a short story anthology, inspired by Charles Dickens and his legacy and published to celebrate Charles Dickens bicentennial. Edited by those awesome dudes over at Pornokitsch, Jared Shurin and Anne Perry, it is a fascinating and brilliant collection of stories, whereby the authors took on the subject of London and gave it their own mind-boggling, fantastical twists, from the “Past, present and (very far) future” (to quote from the website).

“Uncle Smoke” by Archie Black

Stories of the Smoke features some of the best up and coming young writers in speculative fiction, including Jonathan Green, Lavie Tidhar, Adam Roberts, Esther Saxey and many more (check the list here).

I must confess, having had my head stuck in comics for many years now, I was completely unfamiliar with modern literary short story-telling, so I grabbed at the chance to work on something wholly different from my usual fare and loved every second of it! I got the chance to draw the Walrus from the Horniman Museum, (how could I pass up that opportunity?!) AND I drew the rotting head of Oliver Cromwell. Good times!

“The Collection” by Esther Saxey

I was well into my stride with using a good old-fashioned dip pen at that point and the editors and I felt it was the natural medium for scribbling the Dickens-esque illustrations that were needed. Scattered throughout this blogpost are all six of my drawings for the book (plus the one for a companion e-book Pandemonium: Fire).

“The Pickwick Syndrome” by Kaaron Warren

Stories Of The Smoke sold out of it’s hard back run very early on, but has been available for Kindle and Kobo for nearly a year now. By the end of this month, April 2013,  you won’t even be able to download it from those places, having come to the end of it’s one year shelf life.

“Martin Citywit” by Adam Roberts

So, if you have an e-reader, then I’d recommend you go download yourself a copy sharpish!

Kindle (US / Int’l): $4.99 (Amazon)
Kindle (UK): £3.99 (Amazon)
Kobo: £3.99 (Kobo)

“A Brief History of the Great Pubs of London” by Lavie Tidhar

A small portion of the proceeds from Stories of The Smoke is donated to English PEN, who “work to defend and promote free expression, and to remove barriers to literature”, so a cause very worthy of your support.

And don’t forget the companion e-book Pandemonium: Fire, with my jolly picture of a cow on the front cover! Kindle (US / UK) | Kobo

Sketches by Zob by Osgood Vance

Chompy!

I had the pleasure of being let loose on the cover of brilliant children’s comic, The Phoenix this week, something I haven’t done for a while. I’ve been quite keen to focus on some of my main characters in Gary’s Garden, as I was afraid that it was all becoming a bit of a confused world, what with 10 billion different dudes popping in and out each week. So who better than Chompy, Caterpillar Supreme, to finally have his chance to shine and to shout out something stupid to all the world!

Chompy, how we love him. The mad fruitloop.

But what stupid thing could he be shouting? You’ve got to get these covers right, as you’re carrying the rest of your comic brethren on your shoulders and you want the comic to stand out on the crowded shelf…

It was to be the Easter issue I was told, so obviously, I thought, it also had to include a big colourful egg, with bold, bright colours. That went without saying.

Then, one evening, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I had a deranged vision of Chompy perched upon a big Easter Egg, declaring quite loudly, that he’d laid a massive egg! Bleary-eyed, I quickly wrote a note in my iphone before I forgot, otherwise, if I didn’t, this epiphany would’ve be lost for all time, along with all my other brilliant ideas that were lost to the ether.

Siri, I’ve laid an egg!

The next morning,  I scribbled a rough version in my sketchbook. A big, bold design, with just the three elements of Chompy, egg and speechbubble, with rays of Easter sunshine emanating from behind (ok, that’s four elements. Whatever).

Scribble scribble!

I originally had it a bit more centred and straight, but my ever helpful Fleece Station studio-mate, Sarah McIntyre, suggested a more angled approach. She was totally right. I bought her a can of Diet Coke as recompense.

I then scribbled this design out onto a big A3 sheet of paper (with a note to myself, at the top of the page, to slightly twist the dialogue to, “I’ve gone and laid an egg!”, to give it that nice colloquial edge.) I also added extra glee to Chompy’s already manic expression.

A masterpiece comes together.

Using a big charcoal pencil, I knocked out a tidier version; a version worthy (and legible) enough for the editor to peruse.

Wot? ANOTHER rough?! SUCH a perfectionist. Sigh.

Off it went via the medium of FTP and within the hour a much pleased editor, Will Fickling, gave the big thumbs up, cheerfully describing how Paul the art editor had let out some “laughing snorts” as soon as he caught a glimpse. I was onto a winner! He also hoped that the story to accompany it would be just as nutty. I too hoped this! (I hadn’t even written it yet. Eep!)

I inked it up with a Faber Castell brush pen. Not my usual weapon of choice (that would be a Deleter G pen nib), but I wanted a big thick line so it would stand out.

inky!

All I had to do now was colour it in! Woohoo!

So many billion of colours to choose from.

Hm. But figuring out the big bright colours of the egg, so that they would sit comfortably with Chompy and the rays of sunshine wasn’t going to be an easy task…

Yellow and purple…?

I think I might throw up.

Nope. Maybe red and yellow with blue spots, then?

I threw up.

Aaaiieee! Too much yellow! Bring back the purple! And change the red to pink!

Bingo!

Ah. That’s betterer. You can’t go wrong with purple and pink, I say.

Now, at this point, I zone into what I call “Method Illustration”, and I summon up all my deep memories of holding and eating a big lovely Easter Egg. The textures, the shinyness!  (I mean, obviously I could’ve just gone to the shops and bought one and studied it, like a proper artist. But I was on a diet and I would’ve scoffed it, then I would’ve been miserable and depressed at my deep, human failings, and nobody wants that).

I can taste the chocolate from here…

Yeah! That’s the stuff! Just like a proper Easter Egg!

And here’s my final artwork all shaded, texturised and lettered:

It’s so beautiful, I think I might cry. Sob.

Whoop! More big, happy thumbs up from the Phoenix office. Yay!

Now, all I had to do was think of a stupid story to go with it, no pressure…

Here’s a jolly picture of the comic hot off the press a few weeks later from the Phoenix twitter account. Don’t it look grand?

Cor! Thousands of ‘em ready to take over the world!

So, if you want to see what nonsense I came up with inside (it totally involves a scene with Chompy wearing a bikini), plus all the other brilliant strips that feature every week, then get yourself a subscription, or check out one of many book stores dotted around the country that stock it!

Burp! – Score and Script

Back in December I took part in John Miers very fun exhibition Score and Script. The unconventional premise was to base a comicstrip either on a visual, or written breakdown of a comic strip John had previously written and drawn. John describes the whole process in this excellent interview with Paul Gravett.

The breakdowns for each “Score” or “Script” were pretty bare and fairly abstract, particularly the Score (visual) breakdown. Boy the teeth-gnashing that filtered through for that one! I was lucky enough to dodge that crazy bullet, eventually plumping for the Script choice.

I took the bare-boned words and fashioned a jolly little story involving a couple of my favourite foils, Burp and Snake. I think I stuck to every cue and resolved any hanging plot holes that revealed themselves in the process.

Anyway,  you be the judge! (I’ve put the script underneath so you can contrast and compare)

(Click to enlarge)

Here’s the script:

A has the flesh of a fruit which [he/she/it] begins to eat.

B has the seeds, which [he/she/it] plants.

A realises that [he/she/it] will have no source of food after eating the fruit.

B begins to starve while waiting for a tree to grow.

The remainder of the fruit will sustain A and B until a tree grows.

And here are a few more examples I found dotted around the net of people’s marvellous strips from the exhibition:

Dan Berry 

John Cei Douglas

David O’Connell

John Riordan

(If there are anymore out there, I’d happily link to them!)

Goodbye Ben… a stupid comic strip (Possibly NSFW).

So, you may have heard, our esteemed editor Ben Sharpe has left The Phoenix. Much sadness all round, as Ben is a marvellous chap and knows his onions when it comes to editing a weekly comic (not a job for the faint-hearted I would hazard). The equally marvellous Will Fickling has picked up the reins and will undoubtedly steer the comic just as steadily.

So…

Many of us Phoenix creators contributed to a one off Phoenix comic dedicated to Ben. Masterfully organised by story-telling genius Dave Shelton (Thanks Dave! xxxx <- real kisses), some people came up with lovely new full page images tearfully waving goodbye to our departing Captain, others drew jolly little comicstrips. It was an amazing effort, especially considering how busy people were and truly showed the real love we all have for Ben. Sarah McIntyre wrote more eloquently at length about the whole shebang here.

I did a comicstrip about one of my jolly characters from Gary’s Garden, Larry Ladybird, Lord of the Jungle…and um.. it was a little bit rude. Not massively offensive, but maybe not something you want to show to your 6 year old Phoenix fan.

So look away now if you are slightly offended by little winkies…

 

>>>>>>>>>

 

Here it comes!!!!  BEWARE!!! RUDE THINGS!!!!

 

(Click to enlarge. Ooer)

*Awaits pitchforks and torches outside front door*

The Dandy’s dead – But Don’t write off Children’s comics

So, last week was a very strange week, a week when the spotlight fell onto British comics with the news of the demise of The Dandy, the weekly children’s comic which has been part of the fabric of British culture for 75 years.

In a slightly surreal and thoroughly unexpected twist, I was asked to offer my opinions on the matter on Sky News, alongside journalist, curator and all-encompassing comics expert, Paul Gravett.

Now, I haven’t worked for DC Thomson, home of the Dandy and it’s sister comic, The Beano, for little over a year now. My comic creation, Derek the Sheep, ran in the Beano and BeanoMax for 7 years and I drew Pinky’s Crackpot Circus for The Dandy for a few months back in 2008. But, I have been creating kids comics professionally for nearly 10 years now and currently I write and draw comics for the brilliant new children’s weekly comic, The Phoenix, as well as a monthly strip for National Geographic Kids AND I’ve just finished writing and drawing an epic 80 page book of children’s comics for Walker Children’s books, called Teenytinysaurs. So I was very keen to take part and champion what I see as a very crucial time for Children’s comics in this country, bigging up the success story of The Phoenix and kids books in general and try to dispel any myths about children rejecting reading in favour of video games; a tired argument trotted out any time there’s a slight seismic shift in comic plate tectonics.

The Phoenix – weekly comics in safe hands!

For the two or three hours before I went on air, I wrote down many notes listing what I viewed to be the problems, the solutions, the misconceptions and the past, present and future of British comics. I memorised them as best I could, and blustered my way through what was essentially not enough time to blurt out everything I wanted to say.

Check out the video link here.

Serious discussion, lovely shirts. Photo © Sarah McIntyre

On the back of this TV interview, Radio 5Live invited me to chat about the subject in the evening, then Radio 2 and Vanessa Feltz beckoned the next day, where I was given a little more time to evangelise my opinions on the state of children’s comics, the public’s awareness and perception of comics and their future. And live draw a very bad cartoon of Vanessa being held aloft by a cheeky squirrel. Eep! no pressure…

I think I was happier with the results than Vanessa was. Photo © Lauren O’Farrell

I was also asked to write 300 words on the subject for a National newspaper, which unfortunately, I don’t think made the cut, but it sums up my views on the state of comics and kids reading as I see it in this country, and so I’ll post them here (slightly tweaked):

After 75 years, perhaps The Dandy is dead, but does it ring the death knell of British comics? Are Xboxes and the internet killing off print comics? Have kids really given up reading for good?

A resounding “NO” I say! Kids love reading! Just see how excited they get when a new Diary of A Wimpy Kid, or Captain Underpants book hits the shelves. And just try to prise their Harry Potter books out of their vice-like grips. No time for reading? Not likely! Give them a comic to read and you won’t see or hear them for a good half an hour.

The Dandy may be faltering, but other fantastic comics, like The Phoenix are keeping the flame alive, enthralling young readers with wild and crazy adventures and loopy new cartoon creations for the next generation. Where big stores like WHSmith are pricing children’s comics off the crowded and messy shelves, with their big cut of the comic’s profits, The Phoenix is navigating it’s own path through subscription and by selling through independent bookshops and comics champion Waitrose, who cultivate and love the product, giving it pride of place near the till for all to see.

Likewise, Walker Children’s books see the value in beautifully told children’s comics alongside their famous catalogue of picture books, encouraging creators like Andi Watson and Viviane Schwarz to run wild with their imaginations, thus getting comics onto the prominent shelves of retail bookshops across the country.

Even outside children’s comics, into the realms of teenage and mature comics, with SelfMadeHero and Blank Slate printing Graphic Novels of international renown, British comics have rarely witnessed such a burgeoning, explosive scene. Are British Comic dead? Far from it. They’re evolving into something very exciting for a new generation.

Will Andi Watson’s Gum Girl save British comics?

——————————————————-

During this crazy 24 hour period, other cartoonists, including Anita O’Brien curator of the Cartoon Museum in London and the estimable Jamie Smart, writer and artist on The Dandy and at the vanguard of it’s recent valiant re-launch, were proffering their own well thought out opinions on the future of British children’s comics on TV and radio and in the National Press, some more optimistic than others, all hoping that the Dandy would live to fight another day (ably summed up on the Fleece Station Blog by Lauren O’Farrell).

Jamie Smart’s Desperate Dan; always guaranteed genuine lols.

Unfortunately, it was all for nothing, as DC Thomson announced the end of the printed version of the Dandy and it’s release as a digital comic, come its 75th birthday. Sadly, there’s no word on whether this means continuing work for the current Dandy creators, or if it will just showcase old material from it’s very large archive.

The fascinating result of seeing and hearing all the various opinions in the news and elsewhere, is how it has stoked up the fires and passions of comic creators and observers all over the internet, from blog posts figuring out the next big step for British comics by fellow studio mates Sarah McIntyre and Jamie Smart, to debates right across twitter and facebook. To the point where I think in a few months down the road I truly believe something exciting and tangible will burst forth into the great chasm left by the Dandy, to fight the good children’s comics fight alongside the likes of The Phoenix, The Beano and Walker Children’s books.

Gary’s Garden!

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave or locked in an airing cupboard or something, you’ll no doubt be aware of the amazingly fab weekly children’s comic The Phoenix! Rising from the ashes of the dear, departed DFC comic and running weekly since early January, The Phoenix is stuffed to the gills with gorgeous art, crazy stories, nutjob characters and some of the finest children’s comic creators these fine isles have to offer; including Neill Cameron, Jamie Smart, Patrice Aggs, James Turner, Simone Lia, Adam Murphy, Ethrington Bros, Kate Brown, Matt Baxter, Ricardo Tangle, Jamie Littler, Paul Duffield, Chris Riddell, Dave Shelton, Rob Davis, Garen Ewing, Daniel Harwell and plenty more to come (I’m looking at you Jim Medway, Sarah McIntyre, Nick Abadzis and Philip Reeve).

And little ol’ me! Yes, I have a jolly strip in there too; Gary’s Garden! Part autobiography, part made-up nonsense (well, mainly completely made-up nonsense to be fair), Gary’s Garden delves into my favourite thing ever – me spying on the comings and goings of all the little dudes and dudettes who dwell in my garden.

Amongst my various backgarden observations so far, we’ve had:

A spider with his tiny insect orchestra…

Apple worms getting on each others nerves…

A daredevil, rather obtuse caterpillar…

Lord of the jungle, Larry Ladybird…

A loopy squirrel hoarding his nuts…

and, out this very week, a menagerie of  looting critters emptying my kitchen cupboards (complete with groovy front cover…)

Photo ©Sarah McIntyre

And there’s more to come! Oh yes, June through to September/October will be crammed with more Gary’s Garden: we’ll have shed spiders, tadpoles, leaf bugs, hedgehogs, foxes and much, much more. There’s a whole world of loony toons living in my garden, and I’ve got my beady eye on ‘em…

I’m having an absolute ball working on the Phoenix, so a big thanks to Ben and the team for giving me this opportunity to create my nonsense!

Don’t miss out on all the fun and get yourself a subscription or pick up a copy from Waitrose (or the growing list of selected independent bookshops/comicshops)!

Thank you!

New direction for National Geographic Kids strip!

As many of you may know, I’ve been writing and drawing comic strips for one of Britain’s top-selling children’s magazines, National Geographic Kids, for nearly four years now.

Every month my jolly comic strips tell the stories of famous people and places throughout history: from the life and times of Suffragette Emeline Pankhurst…

Emmeline Pankhurst stands up for her rights!

To the achievements of Emperor Qin and his stunning Terracotta Army; to the archaeological wonder of Machu Picchu and to the brutal, but colourful history of our own British Isles…

Robert the Bruce tangles with a spider.

Helping us along the way during the last couple of years, guiding us through the tricky facts and figures, we have our very own wily (and cheeky!) explorer, Max the Mouse!

A dragon takes Max on a ride through Chinese history!

Max has survived the rough and tumble of the Norman invasion of 1066, wrestled with Vikings Gods and unravelled the complexities of inventions such as televisions, phones and computers…

Max inadvertently starts a riot during the Industrial Revolution.

And now, in our exciting new feature, Max and I will be telling the stories of Animal Heroes and Celebrities! I’ve been pushing for us to tell stories about animals for a while now, because I loves drawing animals so much and this new strip is a perfect vehicle to work on.

Our first star is Laika, the first dog (and first Earthling!) in space!

The handsome, and very brave, Laika.

Along the way we have plans for daring dolphins, parachuting dogs,  and a whole menagerie of other gallant critters. So do please do buy a copy for yourself or your kids to uncover what shenanigans I’m up to every month in NGKids Magazine!

Thank you!