Cracking Toast, Kermit!

I received some copies of Science Fiction Classics in the mail this week, which I take as a sign that it's now available. My contribution to the anthology is a Professor Challenger story called The Disintegration Machine (adapted by Rod Lott from the story by Arthur Conan Doyle). It's the first time they've attempted full colour, and right fancy it is too.

Here's a little curiosity from the vaults. Many moons ago I was asked to do a couple of sample pages for a Wallace and Gromit comic. The gig ended up going to another artist, but I was always quite pleased with the pages I came up with. So here they are. Mmm... bit of Wensleydale. Lovely.



Apart from that, my work life at the moment more or less revolves around the Muppet Show comics, which doesn't leave much room for other projects I can make exciting announcements about. I can recommend a few podcasts I listen to when I'm inking, when I need to feed some interesting content into my brain so I don't become a total vegetable: there's Art and Story, which is about the creative process as it specifically relates to comics; Big Illustration Party Time, which is more of the same but from an illustrator's point-of-view; Seqalab, the podcast of the Savannah College of Art and Design, always fun; Indie Spinner Rack, which probably needs no introduction; Webcomics Weekly, which hardly relates to what I do at all but which I find really entertaining; and a bunch of Radio 4 podcasts, including The News Quiz, Start the Week, A Point of View, The Today Programme and In Our Time. I've been meaning to plug those shows for a while now, so there we go.

Please Me, Tease Me

Running a bit behind this week, so this entry is a get-in, get-out-as-fast-as-I-can one. Here's a teaser image from an upcoming Mugwhump story for something called the Act-i-Vate Primer, which is pretty much what the title says it is - a print introduction to the work of various Act-i-Vate cartoonists. One for the Mugwhump fans who might be getting itchy during the hiatus. My story consists of six densely-packed (twelve-panel) pages showing events before the current strip began.

I got an e-mail this morning informing me that The Muppet Show Comic Book #1 is going for some larcenous price on Amazon right now. Please wait for the book collection, folks! The whole collectors' market is a cesspool of poisonous idiocy and I would encourage people not to spend stupid amounts of money on something you'll be able to pick up in book form in a couple of months. I don't draw these things to be put in bags and ignored. They're there to be read. Sorry to get all cross and irritable, but really.

Krazy, Daisy

The Small Press Expo is over and went very well, despite a few teething problems - my drawing workshop was cancelled at the last minute due to a room being double-booked - but it had a good vibe and sales were healthy. Looking forward to the next one, especially if it can be joined to the main Bristol show a bit more seamlessly. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and thanks to Mal Smith and her colleagues for all their hard work.

There's a radio interview with me (which was conducted at the UK Web and Mini-Comix Thing a month or so back) up online now, part of Resonance FM's "Strip" feature. You can listen to it here.

This week's picture is kind of a commission, although I was paid in books rather than cash - Ulrich Merkl is one of the editors of Sunday Press's frankly wonderful Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend collection, which he sent me a copy of in exchange for a Krazy Kat drawing. I finally forced myself to stop drawing pigs in wigs for five minutes and get the thing done, so here it is. The flow is a bit wonky between panels 4 and 5, alas - I couldn't make that work and still keep the design, so the design ended up winning.

A Hasty and Ill-Mannered Update

Couple of things I should mention that won't wait: The Fin Fang Four Returns, a collection of Fin Fang Four short stories which have previously appeared on Marvel Digital, hit the stores today. This has only just come to my attention. The nearest date I had until now was "sometime this year". So there's that.

The other thing is that it turns out I will have a table for the Saturday-only Small Press Expo (the indy show affiliated with this year's Bristol Comics Expo), which is good news, as I get to flog my wares and still wander around on Sunday in a happy fog looking for old issues of Kamandi. Best of both worlds! So look out for me at Table 3 at the Mercure Holland House, between Renegade Arts Entertainment and Al Davison.

(From the map I have here it looks like my table is in the Orchard Suite, whatever that is - it looks like you have to walk past the entrance to the Orchard Suite to get to the bar. Mmm... bar.)

Conventional

Conventions are upon us! This weekend I'll be a guest at the Bristol Comic Expo and its sister event, the Small Press Expo, at which I'll be doing a workshop for the under-12s (which I've yet to prepare -- eek!) and signing and sketching. This will be the first show I've been to for many a long year where I'm not an exhibitor, so I won't have a table for a change -- so check the schedule if you want to track me down (at this writing no official timetable is on the website, but there should be something at the actual event).

And, continuing our convention theme, this week's illustration is one I did for Heroes Con's convention booklet. The original art for this will be auctioned there to help defray the expense of hauling my arse out there in the first place.

Got a look this week at the beautiful artwork Jeff Parker is doing for my incredibly stupid Uncanny X-Men: First Class two-pager. It's the gorgeousest!

Last but not least, there's a short interview with me at ToughPigs.com on all things related to The Muppet Show Comic #2, which critics are already calling "not as good as #1".