Category: Events

Rumble! Reviewed On Broken Frontier!!

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For those of you that don’t know it, Broken Frontier is a comics and community site that offers some ace interviews, reviews and general info on the world of comics, be it the big stuff or the indie kids like me. It’s an awesome hub of comics information and a great place to discover anything and everything graphic. It is, as you may have gathered, really pretty great.

This fact (because that’s what it is. Indisputable.) is not soley based on the fact that they gave me a kick ass review (see here) a few months back, BUT IT SURE DOES HELP! And they have, once more, upped their position in my self indulgence related “websites I think are ace” stakes by ONLY BLOODY DOING IT AGAIN!

The oh-so-very complimentary fellas over at BF have been having a flick throught the pages of Rumble and, as a result, have decided to go all-out anthropomorphism-lovin’ in Andy Oliver’s small press column here.

I’m literally stunned at the extent of their praise, and so dang happy, I’ve only gone and blogged about this twice. Once on the website, and again now for you blog-lovers.

Seriously, give that website a big ol’ browse. I can guarantee you’ll find something enjoyable if you’re, even remotely, excited by cool artwork and wicked narratives.

And if you’re not, just read my review BECAUSE IT’S SO DAMN COOL 😀

International Alternative Press Festival are GOOOOOO!

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So yes, the Olympics are happening and yes, this does mean you could be sitting at home on your bums watching a myriad of attractively sweaty examples of humanity perform exceptionally impressive feats of athletic discipline and skill while you revel in their glory without the hassle of all that physical exhaustion.

Or, if you’re luckily enough to be fighting with the Tubes in London this summer, you could even see said examples of sweaty, muscular perfection in the comfort of a multi million pound stadium where they will perform infront of your own very eyes and you sit, content with your popcorn without the hassle of all that physical exhaustion. And with Air conditioning.

Snippet from my zine, Rumble! The closest thing I have to anything Olympics related. It will be on sale at the IAPF along with my other books, zines, prints and sock animals!

OR, you could COME HANG OUT WITH ME AND OTHER SMALL PRESS NERDS in a crowded, hot and totally awesome room in Conway Hall bursting with alternative talent from all over the world of illustrative narrative!

Yes, the weekend of August 4th-5th is going to be a total blast in London as the Second EVER International Alternative Press Festival is taking place. Spanning over 2 days there’s going to be a fantatsic line up of workshops, talks from all kinds of graphical talents and zine fairs from all over the UK and Europe.

It’s going to be a real display of anything and everything visual and I can assure you, without a doubt that there will be something for everyone. For a start, I’LL BE THERE! Selling my wares, books, zines, prints, sock creatures, the lot! And you know you don’t want to miss that.

So take a break from all that exhausting looking at sport and come look at beautiful things with us!

Image

Two of the Best Stores in London: And I’m WELL IN THERE

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Calling all you London Dwellers!

Be it because you live there, be it for funsies, be it for the Olympics or just because you couldn’t escape in time for the Olympics, if you’re kicking you heels anywhere near Leicester Square sometime soon, pop into Orbital on Great Newport St or Gosh!, found on the corner of Berwick St.

Seriously, do it. They’re two of the best examples of comic and zine stores in this country, crammed full of awesome and, as of this week, my work’s also apart of it.

HellzYeah! I’m stocked in London. Boom. Baby.

For a full analysis of this story, kindly refer your little internet hungry eyes here, where the News section of my Website will tell you all you need to know, with a few more bright and shiny photos for good measure.

…

Oh alright, you can have one more here too.

Orbital 8 Great Newport Street

So yellow.

B

Speed Graphics: Why the combination of Ambition and Birthdays will one day kill me.

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Okay, it’s confession time. My recent disappearance from the blogosphere has not been simply down to preparation for the 1912 exhibition. You may have guessed that by the lack of work I’ve been able to produce in connection with it. That was a bit of a (rather lousy) cover up. The real reason I’ve been a bit slow with the updates, is that I was working on a super-secret mission of great importance alongside the whole 1912 thing. Seriously, secret agent for the CIA kind of deal.

Okay no, not really. I have morals.

Alright so, if you’re at all familiar with the Bagley collection of zines and books, you might have noticed that on…well, pretty much all of them there’s a recurring name that keeps popping up in the little dedications. A certain Matthew to be precise whose involvement in both my career and my life has been of the up most importance for the past 3 years now.

Basically, he’s a bit spesh and has recently evolved to his next level. His 25th level to be exact. After years of training, he’s defeated the gym trainer of…quarter…century Town and has….gained more XP…oh bugger the pokemon metaphor. It wasn’t that funny anyway and we all know that Ash would have got a lot further a lot quicker if he’d just gone “actually, screw these creatures. Their best moves are to throw leaves at their opponent and from what I know of basic combat, that’s probably not that effective. I think I’m going to use my initiative, utilise my size advantage and hit this little rat with a big stick.”

But I digress, so Matthew hit the quarter century mark, which I kind of see as a bit of a big deal. I mean that’s like, MID twenties. That’s like…grown up. Your quadranscentennial year on this planet! Your first quarter of a century!

And so I wanted to present him something special on his birthday, something that really meant something to him, both on an emotional level and would, hopefully, be a gift he could really use in some manner in his life. A gift that might inspire him to push forward and ensure he achieves all the wonderful goals and dreams that have, over the years, grown from his incomprehensible passion for learning and people and all the other things he deems so important.

So Comic Book it is then yeah?

And thus I started the planning stages for Matthew’s very own graphic novel. An amalgamation of this own thoughts and dreams, presented in my words and images in a way that would evoke pro-activity from the fires of his own passions that I see in him everyday. An inspiring piece that may help him tick off those frustrating plans that have a habit of falling into the depths of “I wanted to do that, but…”

Oh yeah, I also only had three weeks to go before the big day, and a week of that had to be set aside to getting the artwork to the printer, printing and then returning. Oh and, did I mention I had to move house in amongst all this?

Thus began my SECOND completely-over-ambitious-oh-why-the-balls-have-you-decided-to-do-this-with-so-little-time-left-until-deadline-don’t-you-remember-how-important-sleep-actually-is-project of the past few months.

Pretty much inspired by the first really, and how much I realised I could achieve in just one night. I mean two pages in one night, imaging what  you could do in 2 weeks! Well, turns out, you can write, edit, script, storyboard, draw, redraw, ink (redrawing blind A LOT of the pencil drawings), scan, photoshop and print a 22 page narrative WHILE working on a frustrating screen printing based exhibit for Uni. I mean yeah, you do have to make some compromises with your lifestyle, cut out a few things, you know, like sleep or cooking or socialising or really doing anything that isn’t any of the above, but you can definitely do it.

As it’s quite a personal kind of story, I’ll only put a few examples on here to show you how it went, but I am very pleased to say that he really did appreciate the result.

I feel like he saw the effort I put in and – not to  get soppy, but – the faith in him and love that had been responsible for the growth of it. And also just the sheer amazement at how much had been achieved.

Which was exactly the intention. I wanted him to see what people can do when they really want to, and I hope that that fact, coupled with the realisation that 25 is something of a milestone in a young persons life, is going to push him to make his mark on the world the way he’s always talked about. He has an incredible mind and phenomenal potential that far outweigh a simple graphic novel, but my belief in him is just as strong and I hope, when he reads this, as I know he will, he takes his copy of XXV, either physically or metaphorically and really makes it count.

So one last time, Happy birthday Matt.

And just so you know, I will not be able to beat this one next year, so don’t even ask.

B

xxxx

Enough Grumbling, it’s time for Elation! It’s the 1912 Celebration!

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So, having had a good ol’ rant at the state of my print that was my exhibition piece, let’s now focus on how great our Exhibition actually was.

A gigantic congratulations to everyone who just completed Year One of Graphic Communication at Bathspa University! As the exhibition wasn’t graded, not everyone felt it was necessary to submit any work, but for those of us that did I think it was a brilliant compendium of different approaches that boasted, not only a lot of talent, but a lot of ideas and conceptual wealth.

As the brief was SO very open (1912…that’s it) there was naturally a very large selection of works on display. Everything from publications to prints to animations to textiles. And the varying ways in which people chose to take the brief was also wonderfully broad. I’ll document here now some of my favourite works as well as some of the less crap photos I managed to take with my very limited photography skills. This is far from everything that was on show, but I’ll try to use what I’ve got to communicate quite what an enormous range of work was on display.

Prints

Arthur Webb: ScreenPrint about the Piltdown Man Hoax

Obviously, a lot of people chose to make use of the print rooms once the third year rush had ended. But to my surprise this didn’t just manifest itself in screen printing, which tends to be the most popular. There was a whole lot of linocuts too, all on different topics and with different strengths. It made for a really great display of variation, as well as assuring me that I’m not the only one with a fondess for printmaking!

I’m also relieved to say that, while it definitely wasn’t up to my standard, people still seemed interested in my Bram Stoker print. It received very nice comments from one or two onlookers too, and while I still was disappointed by the result, hearing nice words did pick me up a lot I must confess!

Kirsty Stanley: Linocut Prints about the first parachute jump by Albert Berry.
David Gordon: One event from each of the 100 years between 1912 and now.

There was also a lot to be said for the ways in which people were using the printmaking. David’s piece was a real stroke of time-consuming ingenuity, in which he screen printed his photographic images in CYMK. This produced a full spectrum of colour, in the same way it does through your inkjet printer, but done via  screen printing. It’s turned out looking completely amazing, although I will say, he nearly killed himself doing it. The boy has real dedication to his art and I can’t express my respect for him highly enough. He never would have stood for a shitty print like mine, let me tell you!

David Gordon: Screen Print using CYMK colours!

Digital Prints

Ah the digital print, or Giclee as they’re known to those who want lots of money for it, but don’t want to have to put in the same level of effort required of you in direct contact printmaking. Don’t let that sound like a put down though, there were some beautiful images made and printed in the exhibition, and I and many others would be proud to own them, and would be even prouder to have done them!

Elhora Powell: Illustrated narrative of the 1912 collapse of the Quing Dynasty.
Bea Baranowska: Handmade Scout badge board

Textiles

There’s a common misconception that in order to be considered graphics, something must have been made via the computer. Allow my classmates to put this one to rest.

Bea Baranowska: The Scouts began in 1912.
Emily Hunter: Screenprint onto canvass documenting the 1912 introduction of the chilli heat scale.

Publications

My favourite. The books and zines. This is only the tiniest example of what was on show, they ranged from professionally printed newspapers and information packs about pig racing, to hand bound print collections, narratives about personal responses to the brief and themed dot to dot books. It was quite an impressive array!

The Publication Table
Thomas Goldsworthy: Olympic Games 1912 Newspaper
Thomas Goldsworthy: Olympic Games 1912 Newspaper
Matt Stewart -Tribe: Scotts Expedition LinoPrint book
Lucy Harper: Hand drawn story of her Great Grandparents
Lucy Harper: Hand drawn story of her Great Grandparents

Animations

And Macs. All Art schools have them, and like a pair of perky boobs on spring break, they love getting them out. This exhibition was no exception, it was Macs galore, and all bursting with newly created animations, films and videos.

…

Nipples.

Macs set up with all the animations people made. Because it’s just not an art-uni without Macs.
Rhianne Farrell: Handmade stop-start animation about key events of 1912
Carl Godfrey: Animation about the Japanese gift of 1000 Cherry Blossom Trees to America

Flogging Stuff!

Well you know me, I love a good stall. And I made sure I wheedled one into this exhibition too! Luckily, everyone else got involved too and brought along prints and books and anything else they’d made in the year. All together, it made for a pretty impressive display of work. Well done us!

Selling work from the past year.
Beer+awesome drawing=:D
Prints,zines,books,Tick…

So yeah, all in all a great event really that received some really complimentary comments from those that went. I would like to say a huge thank you to three people in particular: Tom Goldsworthy, Carl Godfrey and Ciara Caldwell-Cleave who were in charge of all the publicity and organising of the event. They completely made it what it was, went out of their way to make display animations, organise free beer, made cakes and 1912 ice cubes (made sense at the time) as well as compiling little free compilations of all of the work on display for us to take home, which really was a lovely little touch. Yeah okay, their cheekiness may have got us in trouble with the second years a little bit, but hey, what’s a bit of casual rivalry amongst years eh? Antics like that is totally what this institutionalised education is all about, and the long and short of it is that they made the event.

Free catalogues of everyone’s work!

Cheers guys, I hope since then you’ve had a good old relax, put your feet up and cracked open a cold one.

B

x

The Wish Magazine Is Out!

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Quick note to say that the Wish magazine that I did a little work for is well and truly launched. If you’re into all that fashion stuff (and fancy seeing some of my work, alongside many others, in a lovely glossy print) hit up the shop here and grab yourself a copy.

Here’s a picture of the finished article. The front illustration isn’t mine but gives you a great insight into the World of Wish. Mine are hidden among the pages. Along with a lot of pink.

To read all about the trials and tribulations the girls went through in the creation of this beauty, see their blogs here and here.

B

x

Hey look, more cool stuff!

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Do you know what you should do today?

I think you should go and spend all your money on the internet.

“But that’s what I do every week!” I hear you cry.

Well yes, the internet is one big beautiful black hole in the wallet. But Now it’s even more excellenter-er!

Now you can give ME your money! And then, I’ll send you a present. What do you say?

Visit my brand-spankin’-new-totally-awesome online shop and make your life better. (Fact.)

Also, I’ve been in the print rooms again. Be warned. Pictures and whatnot coming soon.

B

x

Can’t think. Can barely see. Seems like a Good time for a Blog Post!

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Okay so, at time of writing it’s 12:38 on Wednesday.

I’ve now been up since 8.30am Tuesday morning and I’m starting to feel the effects.

Basically, it’s all my tutors fault. Being the good student I am, I was sifting through the pages of university related crap that tend to accumulate in my inbox, when I found something of interest hiding in between the incessant barrage of SU updates (the beauty of this being that we don’t even have an SU office at my campus.)

It was the details for this competition. The prize is a bit tasty (because who doesn’t like holidays and comics?) but that’s not really why I wanted to enter. It sounds like a cop-out, but genuinely the winning wasn’t what I wanted out of it. I just really liked the idea of being set a comic book brief to respond to, that wasn’t simply self-initiated fun times. Plus second and third prize are free tickets to the festival, and I reckon any comics festival seems like a good thing to get involved in, given the success of the last one.

So here’s the catch. The email was sent yesterday. The deadline is tomorrow. And it’s mail only entry. So, I have spent the past…well god knows how many hours scripting, illustrating, photoshopping and indesigning a two page comic that I have now, I’m delighted to say, popped in the post.

So long as it arrives by tomorrow, the website says they’ll exhibit all of the entrants (so either they have a hench exhibition space, or they’re not expecting a whole lot of entries…) so regardless of if they like it or not, it won’t have been wasted. And yeah, okay so I have now missed a lecture and a seminar as a result, and won’t be able to spend the afternoon in the print rooms as planned due to an excessive amount of sleeping that needs to be done, BUT, while it may be a thumbs down on the school front, I reckon I deserve a fricking gold star for dedication to the craft! Or one for stupidity, haven’t decided which yet.

Here’s the original artwork for it, created by my own fair hands at a horrible time in the morning.

It’s a bit of a mental one, but that is what you get from trying to script a whole project in ten hours. It’s actually not my original idea, I jumped ship halfway through so this one didn’t really get started until about 9pm.

I stuck with a standard layout: double page spread. Yeah okay, I’m sure I could have really explored the brief and done something clever with the two pages, but when time’s against you, I like to focus more on the artwork and text than faffing about with potential novelties, as nice as they can be.

And of course, it goes without saying that there’s A LOT wrong with it. For a start due to my excessive tiredness at time of conception, it’s a bit too batshit mad to really be as directly communicative as I’d usually like (and the text doesn’t actually help much with that either, funnily enough.)

It’s a shame in a way. I think had I had more time to perfect it all, it could have been quite nice. The text needs an overhaul (both the script and I’m not overly happy with the font or placing of it in the final copy) and there’s a lot of work needed on the arrangement of cells. But hey, for a 10 hour comic I guess it could be worse.

Great practice as well. I’d like to get into the habit of knocking out short work on a regular basis, and while this wasn’t really finished to a standard I’d usually expect it to be at, I think i’s acceptable given the MAJOR handicap I was working with.

NOT that I really want to turn this all nighter business into a regular occurence. But it has been quite fun.

Fingers crossed eh?

 

Perhaps I’ll turn  it into a mini zine or something. Thanks to the time, effort and cunning knowledge of a very Special person named Matt, the bagleybooks store is well underway, so all books and zines will soon be available over the magic of the web.

Needless to say, everything I am now producing, I’m seeing dollar signs all over, and this is absolutely no exception.

Keep an eye on the website for more information!

Okay, I’m pretty definite it’s bedtime now. Over and OUT.

B

x

Wanna See Comiket?

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I’ve been a very naughty blogger. Not only did I fail MISERABLY at bringing you lovely lot the buildup to Comiket (ironically because I was a bit too busy actually doing it) but THEN I also waited a whole week before even bringing the tales to the internet. BAD FORM!

Well, if you pop along to the NEWS section of my website, you’ll see a few little bits, but there are a few more photos so I thought they could live here.

In short, it was an awesome event. Unfortunately I can’t actually bring you the goods in terms of new names to watch out for, as I was pretty much stationary for the whole thing so was very limited in terms of the work I saw. There was no doubt though, that the range of work on offer was unbelievable! It’s the reason I regard Comiket with quite such high esteem; absolutely everybody is welcome. Yeah it’s about comics, but there is so much more to the notion of comic books and graphic novels then just men in tights and capes. Comiket is one of those events that really allows you to explore what graphics mean to you, and what attributes all kinds of illustration can really supply in the arts market. I think that’s such an important realisation when we’re so highly exposed to trends and labels, in every regard, under ordinary circumstances.

And this year was no exception, you just have to look at the mixed bag that is the contributors list. Literally, from the small pressers like me, through to professionals, right along to big business like Walker Books. All with different kinds of work to sell, and all of it worth looking at.

It’s probably a good thing I couldn’t get a gander round actually. I only would have spent any money I made on yet more books and zines to add to my already groaning book shelf. For a start, I know that NoBrow, Tom Gould, Phillipa Rice, Louis Roskosch, Accent UK, Orangutancomics, Twisted Dark and Markosia all had tables there, all of which are very cool people of whom I am a fan or have proved to have done cool stuff in the past. So I KNOW for a FACT that there was definitely a lot of gooood shit there. So unless the possibility of being exposed to just a little bit too much awesome is too much for you, you’ve really no excuse not to go check some more contributors out. And I highly recommend that you do.

And while I was a bit of a Sad Winston and chained to my table for those most part, I was certainly kept busy with the sheer number of people that turned up! It was pretty much manic, and I’m pleased to say a very decent success for a li’l small press guy like me. Yeah okay, giving away free stuff might have helped a little bit, but what can I say, I’m a giver. And besides, as I’ve said on numerous occasions, why not make the most of the *ahem* free photocopiers at Uni?…you know, the ones I pay for with studio fee . Those free photocopiers.

But I’m just kidding, the free zines went down okay, but the real attention seemed to be mainly on Tick and my BRAND NEW ZINE, Bears: Don’t like ’em. I was getting rid of those by the bucket load! Strangely enough, to a lot of people wearing bear t-shirts. I think they may have missed the point a bit but hey, I have their money now! HA!

I also did get rid of a few of the prints I’d been doing in the building weeks which is fantastic. It’s so nice when your time is rewarded, and obviously I don’t for a second just mean with money. There is no greater feeling than knowing something you have created has brought someone joy. And especially at an event like this, where people can, and do, chat to you about what you’ve done that they do like and what they don’t like and it’s all such honest feedback because they don’t for a second have to give it to you.

I met so many different kinds of people last Saturday and I had some incredible conversations with them about such a magnitude of topics. It was just yet more proof to me that the real meaning of the word comic is far broader than the stereotypes could ever allow you to imagine. Old, young, teenage, middle age, fat, thin, male, female, camp and alternative; I swear the entire spectrum of human variation was walking through those doors and browsing the length and breadth of the isles.

Having been to a few small press deals in the past, I knew this was often the case though. It’s one of the reason’s I’m so keen to take part in them over the big, overwhelming cons, and I tried really hard to make sure my table reflected as such.

I think I succeeded, judging by the number of times people asked astonished “did you do ALL of this? It’s all so different!” which is one of those lines that makes you grin like a maniac on the inside when you hear it. And I guess it’s true, my table was some what schizophrenic. All four of my publications were pretty different in a number of ways: from the very artsy, painterly styles of Tick, through to heavily line based Bears, screen printed The Day I Met a Fatty right on over to the very graphic Rumble; I’ve tried to give each of them an identity of their own that was suitable to their purpose. And then of course there were the wild-card, batshit sandwich that was the sock creatures. But they were really just there for fun :P.

I have a few of those left actually, I’ll be sure to get them up on here at some point soon so you can have a giggle at the things I spend my life doing. Most people go out with mates. I stuff Socks. It takes all sorts.

Anyway, for fear of getting even more self-indulgent, I’ll wrap this post up. I would just like to put out a huge, huge thank you to Paul Gravett and everyone who helped to set up the event and make it as enjoyable as it was. I would like to say a MASSIVE thanks to this woman, who literally saved my bacon on Saturday by being my skivvy for the first few hours and keeping me well caffeinated. FYI, she’s also a creative type and has done some truly phenomenal bits of ART (you know, as in fine art. That real life, gallery stuff. Not just robots and ting) and often writes about very interesting thingies and bits here, so definitely have a look if you’re feeling especially cultured.

And also would just like to say how much I appreciated the appearance of the very lovely Patricia, Hugh and Tegwen. All of whom popped over to show their support which was truly lovely of them all. I hope all three of you enjoyed the event and found something exciting buried in those isles of illustrative magic.

Okay, do you know what? I think I’ll stop going on like I’ve just won some kind of Academy Award now. Unless maybe it was the award for going on like a gushing tosser, feel free to get in touch to hear the full speech for that one.

To summarise, Comiket was awesome, people are talented, I like robots and we can all go home happy.

Peace OUT.

B

x

Hope your Easter Monday was EGGselent!

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Ah Easter.

That brilliant time of year where you either get a potential 4 days off work, or you all get confused about what day does and doesn’t count as some form of bank holiday. Or which ones hold some kind of Religious significance or not. Like, Which day did Jesus die again? Or is it about now he was coming back? And what does the egg mean again?

…and where do rabbits come into all this?

This is the problem with basing your life around archaic texts that keep contradicting themselves, it’s very hard to keep track of things (BOOM).

But, in all seriousness, Easter is a very confusing time for me. I don’t hold a great deal of significance around it, given that I’m quite happily atheist and I don’t really eat chocolate and I just find cream eggs that little bit too sickly. I guess, for me, it’s all a bit of a non event.

This year is no (egg)ception to this. While my flatmates have all gone to their respective families, I’ve been a bit of a Sad Winston here and have instead spent the weekend hand washing my clothes, with Indesign as my only friend.

The Joy of being a student.

So, last night, in an attempt to get into the mood and out of my cynical rut, I sat down and did a good old fashioned drawing for Easter.

Biro + photoshop x loneliness = err...messed up

Ah. Hmm, well okay, on second viewing it’s not QUITE as successful at celebrating the holiday as I perhaps would have hoped. Still, there’s always Christmas right?

Hopefully you’ve all had chirpier weekends than I. Go eat an egg or something.

B

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