Capes

Been doing some commissions recently to make ends meet. This is one of them. Intended as a poster for a superhero themed event, the text and information/pricing etc. is to feature on the cape. Fun to do.

A friend from work is teaching me to color my stuff this week so many frustrating hours and fried attempts are sure to follow...

INDIO 'My Maker & I' pin-up Sneak Peek

Andy Bloor 'My Maker & I' Pin-up Sneak Peek

Fly on, Kypto

Molly died today. We grew up in Smallville, Cumbria together for 18 years.

She was my tour guide on jungle expeditions, my alien companion in shuttle runs to Jupiter, my wrestling opponent on hunting voyages to dinosaur island, my trusty steed during highway robberies. We had our bad days. She got fleas, I got head lice. She got abandoned at the kennels on holidays abroad, I had to rid her of ticks. She got clipped, I got dumped.

I was not there at the end, because I went off to college for solo adventures. Now she's on one of her own.

Like all the best bandit teams, I'm not sure either of us realized how important those capers were.

RIP Molly, my Krypto.

'They're coming to get you, Barbara!'

Been working on my strip for Zombies 2 for Accent UK this week. I've never illustrated my own writing before so I'm treating it like a grand experiment. Wish me luck! It could all turn out horribly wrong...

Going Orbital!

Space, and all that implies, seems to be the focus of this month...

I took my final masters class last week, leaving the huge empty space that is the summer holidays to finish my dissertation. I'm excited, because I'm having fun writing it.

This week also saw the Neil Gaiman Doctor Who episode, which was suitably thrilling...okay so it was one of the best episodes I've ever seen. Just brilliant writing. I also met up with Idris at Bristol comic expo, where the police box was just parked in the lobby of the hotel. As you do.

Although I only stayed for the first day, I had long chats with Andy Bloor, Tony Hitchman, Ben Dickson and Andrew Cheverton about various schemes and plots we plan to enact together. It was a lot of fun. The real joy of the day was discovering Orbital, a comic drawn by French creator Serge Pelle.



After chatting to him for a while (via his translator, the awesome Guillaume Rater), I bought volume one of the series, and got a sketch inside! The quality and production of these European comics is astounding, and I look forward to collecting more in the future.

Re-fuel

'Why is it that whenever I go home I know exactly what to do?'

I read this line in a recent issue of New York Five and couldn't get it out of my head for an hour. Recently I had been working pretty hard on just paying the bills, taking on a paid commission, which meant that my writing took a dive. Work on comics was slowing down and Easter break hit my classes at college for two weeks. In light of this I decided to take a week off and go home to my parent's house, mainly to rest. It was a good decision and, although I missed people, I got the time-out that was needed.

I've had a few fun ideas for short stories in the past weeks (not like me at all), so I read Kiss, Kiss by Roahl Dahl to remind myself how funny, scary and wonderful his stories were and inspire some of my own. After finishing The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie - which was fantastic for very different reasons - it was nice to read something shorter. After visiting a great bookshop in Carlisle I decided it was time to delve back into children's fiction again, so I bought Momo by Michael Ende (I adored the Neverending Story) and Holes by Louis Sachar which, unbelievably, I've never got round to reading.

I picked up far too many comic books from Imagination Station, and may review the more interesting ones at a later date.

I also went to Motor-Cross with my mother. Anyone who knows the first thing about me knows I didn't attend for the sport but because I wanted to take photos and find myself fascinated by the excitement of it all...that and I secretly want to be Evel Knievel...



I'm now excited about getting back to work, about creating more things, about seeing people I've missed....and I guess that was what I was missing before I left. Excitement.

Summer is my favourite time of the year. This year it hit Oxford early, and I can't wait to get back.