The Hotel Fred

Popeye!

2012-01-18T20:05:00.000Z

So the news has finally been officially announced - I'm writing Popeye for IDW. (There's a piece at CBR about it here.) First issue will be out in April, apparently. I blab on enough about it in the article, so I'll spare you too much of that here; suffice to say I've wanted to work on the character since I was 10. Quite, quite giddy with delight.

Bit of a Ramble

2011-12-17T11:26:00.000Z

Bit of a ramble. Apologies in advance.

Been working flat-out, so little niceties like maintaining a blog (or any kind of internet presence) have fallen by the wayside. I've been writing something for IDW that I don't think I'm supposed to talk about yet, in addition to my ongoing work on Snarked! - but I wrapped up the IDW job last week and I'm planning on focusing exclusively on Snarked for a couple of months in order to get the conclusion to the initial year-long story juuust right. I'm turning down some jobs to make this story the best it can be - I think it will pay off for me in the long run, and also I quite like seeing my family occasionally.

So! What's been going on? Well, the latest issue of Snarked!, #3, is in stores now - as is the Jim Henson's Storyteller anthology, and the graphic novel Nelson, both of which I contributed to. I recommend them all highly - and there's the added benefit with Nelson that all profits go to the charity Shelter. Worth your money this Christmas, I think. I've also contributed a two-pager to Nate Cosby and Chris Eliopoulos' Cow Boy book from Archaia, which I think is doing the rounds in digital form at the moment before being released as a book next year.

I've got a giclee print available from ACME of my first Muppet Show Comic Book cover - it's pricey but gorgeous, available on canvas as well as other, cheaper media. (If you're in the UK, try here or here.)

There are a couple of recent interviews with me floating around - there's this one at Words Away,

this one at Robot 6, and one I flagged previously at Heroes Online, but Heroes are always worth a second mention.

Recent stuff I've seen and want to shout about: Andy Hirsch's great new series Varmints - currently available digitally; I'm sure the book collection will be only a matter of time. Self-Made Hero's Lovecraft anthology, particularly the pieces by Ian Culbard and Mark Stafford. (I've heard tell that Mr. Stafford is working on something big for them next year - excellent news.) Shaenon Garrity's Narbonic: The Perfect Collection arrived in the post the other day and it's a joyous thing to behold. Rob Davis' blindingly great Don Quixote Volume 1 - mature, confident, spontaneous cartooning, and hilarious to boot. Fantagraphics' FloydGottfredson's Mickey Mouse Volume 2 - yow. Really starts to get good in this one.

I could go on but I've got some eye-watering crosshatching to finish. Have yourselves a glorious Christmas and we'll see you anon.

Thought Bubble

2011-11-15T09:50:00.000Z

Very busy here in Langridge Towers, but I did want to take a moment or two to mention this weekend's Though Bubble convention in Leeds, where I'll be sketching, signing and selling books and artwork. I've not been to Thought Bubble before, but this year sounds like a good 'un.

Also, a quick linkypoo to the Heroes Online site, where I've done an interview with Seth Peagler, for those of you with too much time on your hands.

Right - back to work! These brushes don't move around the page all by themselves!

Nelson

2011-10-11T10:07:00.001+01:00

So - I did a chapter in an anthology called Nelson, coming out this November from Blank Slate Books (Amazon US link here; Amazon UK link here). It's an amazing idea - to tell the story of one person's life, chapter by chapter, year by year, with a different cartoonist handling each year - and hoping like mad it all hangs together. Masterminded by the amazing Rob Davis (whose Don Quixote from Self-Made-Hero you should all read, it's a hoot!) and Woodrow Phoenix (the man, the legend!), it was a unique challenge, but quite a thrill to be involved with - my name jostling with so many other great UK-based cartoonists, as we all tried not to derail the story, but build on what had gone before.

I've only read up to my chapter - I'm waiting until I have the thing in my hands before I read the ending, I want to experience it in its completed form - but up to that point, which was over three quarters of the way through, it was holding together amazingly well. In fact, it was more than just holding together, it was beautiful, funny, moving and delightful. It's going to be a terrific read.

There'll be some events around the time of the launch, not the least of which will be a massive signing schedule at the Thought Bubble festival in Leeds next month (I'll be there!), so do come along and get a book scribbled on if you get a chance. It's arguably the UK's comic publishing event of the year. I'm very, very proud to have been involved with it.

Snarked, Sealed and Delivered

2011-10-04T06:45:00.000+01:00

Now, I'm not especially clued-up on release dates, but I believe I'm right in saying that Snarked! #1 hits the comic book stores tomorrow - there are a few covers to choose from, as is so often the way of things these days, so look out for one of the following:

That one on the right is by my old mucker from Thor: The Mighty Avenger, the lovely and talented Mister Chris Samnee himself - many thanks to him for helping me kick off the new series in style (and, lest I forget, all three covers are coloured by Thor: TMA's colourist extraordinaire, Matt Wilson). The insides are all written and drawn by me, with glorious colours by Rachelle Rosenberg making my inky daubings look as good as they're ever likely to. Adventure, laughs and a whole lot of heart - monthly from me to you, starting tomorrow!

That Ealing Feeling

2011-09-16T05:48:00.000+01:00

Just a quick reminder that I'll be at the one-day Comics Expo at the Ramada London Ealing, Ealing Common, this Sunday from 11am to 4:30pm - I'll have my books, artwork and sketchpad there, so if you're in London this weekend and at a loose end, do pop by and say hello. More details here!

From Mars to Bethesda

2011-09-14T06:40:00.000+01:00

First things first: the first issue of John Carter: A Princess of Mars comes out today. Thrills! Romance! Martians! I honestly don't know what else you could want in a comic book. Written by me, drawn by Filipe Andrade, published by Marvel - you know you want to. And unless I'm very much mistaken, my new 200-page book of older material from Boom Town, The Show Must Go On, will be out any day now as well. Two reasons to get down to your local comic shop that have nothing whatesoever to do with the number 52!

So. Just got back from SPX yesterday and have been pretty much catching up on sleep ever since. My thanks the SPX crew and to Boom! Studios for arranging for me to attend; my congratulations to the Ignatz winners and nominees; my condolences to friends of Dylan Williams, whom I knew a little but wish I'd known better. And thanks to everyone who stopped by the table and bought something, or even just said hello.

Some abiding memories:

• Being detained by US Customs on entering the country and spending an hour and a half in a little room full of crying Chinese people while somebody grilled me about why I was coming to the USA and how I earn my living (had to explain how royalties work, which involved explaining how publishing works all round, which I'm only barely able to understand myself). Off to the side, in another room, a customs official was yelling at some poor guy that in America, the government loves everybody. It was like being in a Kafka novel. I'm cutting them some slack here because it was the lead-up to the anniversary of 9-11, but even so. What a start!

• Seeing a bunch of people I know and like, and meeting some new ones. Big shout out to Adam Staffaroni, Chip Mosher, Lawrence Derks, Carol Thompson, Tom Neely, Jerzy & Ann Drozd, Nick Abadzis, Jim Dougan, Julia Wertz, Craig Thompson, Kasey Van Hise, Mike Dawson, Alex Robinson, Jim Rugg, Robyn Chapman, Alec Longstreth, Greg Means, Phil Jackson, Sara Turner, Rick Parker, Dustin Harbin, Craig Yoe, Gary Groth, Kim Thompson, plenty of others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

• A good conversation on Saturday night with Nick Abadzis and Tom Neely which I'm really glad we had.

• Being able to see my Harvey Awards at last when they were kindly handed over to me, as I was unable to attend the award ceremony last month. (They're now on the mantelpiece.)

• Having my new book, The Show Must Go On, in my hands at last!

• Meeting an art collector, Richard Greene, who was kind enough to show me and Rick Parker his dog-themed collection of original art. There were some fantastic pieces in there, including some original work by TAD Dorgan and Basil Wolverton. Quite amazing.

I brought my camera, and even remembered to take a photo or two, although ninety per cent of the time I forgot I had the darn thing. Here, though, are the pictures I remembered to take:

The Boom! Table - editor Adam Staffaroni and interns Carol Thompson and Lawrence Derks

Dinner on Sunday night - always a pleasure to catch up with the Drozds.

A Basil Wolverton original (top) and a Pete the Tramp daily.

All around, this was one of the most enjoyable SPXes I've attended, and I've been to a bunch of 'em. Time to start planning for 2012!

Upcoming Appearances

2011-09-04T12:15:00.000+01:00

Yow! The next couple of weeks are going to be very, very busy - as I crawl out from under my usual rock and (gasp) meet the public!

First up is SPX in Bethesda, Maryland on September 10th & 11th! I'll be at the Boom! Studios booth throughout the show, signing my new book, The Show Must Go On, as well as the preview issue ("Issue Zero") of Snarked!, which I'm assured will be there in ample quantities. No doubt sketching will occur as well - it has a nasty habit of doing that. And I'll be on a panel on Sunday at 1:30pm called "Navigating the Contemporary Publishing Landscape", with myself, Mike Dawson, Julia Wertz, Meredith Gran and Domitille Collardey being grilled by Johanna Draper Carlson on that topic.

Then, on Sunday September 18th, there's Comic Expo Ealing, in London (follow the link for details) - a one-day event where I'll have a table and will be flogging my wares alongside the likes of Mike Carey, David Hine, John Higgins, Rian Hughes, Sally Hurst, Mike Conroy, Paul Cornell, Brett Ewins and David Leach. Should be fun.

A bit further down the line, but worth mentioning here for completeness' sake, is the Thought Bubble convention in Leeds on 19th-20th November. I'm looking forward to this one, as I've heard great things about it but I've never attended before. Sounds fabulous, though.

So that's me, out of the studio for five whole days this year. Surely a record?

Mister Eye

2011-08-26T14:10:00.000+01:00

I picked up Manga Studio recently for cheap, during their San Diego Comic Con sale - and threw this together while I was mucking about with it. Line art in MS, colours in Photoshop. For no reason whatsoever.

Harveys, Robots and more...

2011-08-24T08:46:00.000+01:00

Hello! I'm interrupting a holiday here to bring you news, so I'll be brief - but I thought it was worth mentioning that I glommed a couple of Harvey Awards over the weekend, one for "Special Award for Humor" for The Muppet Show Comic Book (that's the one in the picture, being held by Boom! Studios' head honcho Ross Richie), and one for 'Best Writer" (!) for Thor: The Mighty Avenger. (Delighted to see my Thor collaborator Chris Samnee get a gong for his contribution as well.) So there's that. It's all anticlimax from here on in, folks!

Also worth sharing: Sonny Liew's Malinky Robot is out later today. Apart from just being a terrific book, it's got a pinup by me in it, which was great fun to do.

And last but very far from least, I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that Dylan Williams, publisher of Sparkplug Comics, is having health issues and needs some cash to deal with them. Please consider going to Sparkplug Comics' website and picking up some books. Your support could make a hell of a difference.

Shoes, Ships and Sealing-Wax

2011-08-02T07:46:00.000+01:00

Snarked! #0 is out in stores tomorrow! Launching concurrently with the new series, may I direct your attention to SnarkIsland.com, which for the duration of the series will be dedicated to all things Snarked! - the site is up and running at the moment, but you can expect more content to be rolled out as the series progresses.

Anything big regarding the series will continue to be announced here at the Hotel Fred; SnarkIsland.com is more of a portal to Snarked-specific content, like character descriptions and themed desktops and so forth, as well as a way for people to send mail to the comic. It's sort of like a complement to the letters page which will appear in the print version.

Anyway - all very exciting. Lock up your oysters - The Walrus is IN!

Stuff and Nonsense

2011-07-30T18:25:00.000+01:00

A few things to report! Firstly, there's an interview I did with Graphic Eye about my comics, and comedy generally, here. My thanks to Gavin for an interview that went places other interviews don't reach.

Then, there's the Marvel edition of Meet the Muppets, my first Muppet Show Comic Book collection, which came out this week - in stores now, as they say.

And last but not least, Snarked! #0 is out this Wednesday - only $1, so you have no excuse. None, I tell you! It's a stand-alone teaser to give you a taste of what's coming this October, when the series starts in earnest. Tell your friends - and, if you don't have any friends, for heaven's sake go out and find one!

CBLDF Auction at San Diego Comic Con

2011-07-14T06:57:00.001+01:00

So, I won't be at San Diego Comic Con this year - I'll be in France instead with my family, staying with my mother-in-law, drawing Snarked! in her garage, eating camembert and drinking good wine, very possibly getting locked in. It's a regular summer thing.

I can't honestly say I'll miss SDCC - it's a bit of a zoo and I'm well out of it. However - I will be there in spirit, as I've contributed a sketch card to the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund's annual art auction! There's a bit more about that here - and you can see my sketch card below. The original is a super-tight pencilled page which I knocked myself out on, so please consider bidding on it, or any of the other lovely pieces kindly donated by other cartoonists, to support the CBLDF's worthy aims.

Harvey Awards

2011-07-05T10:10:00.001+01:00

Rather excited to discover last night that I've been nominated for three Harvey Awards this year, two for Thor: The Mighty Avenger ("Best New Series" and "Best Writer") and one for the Muppet Show Comic Book ("Special Award for Humor"). Thor: TMA in particular has done very well, picking up another couple of nominations for Chris Samnee ("Best Artist" and, bizarrely, "Most Promising New Talent" - he's been around a few years, folks!) as well. Big thanks to everyone who nominated us, and congratulations to all the other nominees.

Snarked!

2011-06-28T06:01:00.001+01:00

There are just a couple more days now to get your pre-orders in for Snarked! #0, the preview issue that comes out in August with an eight-page, self-contained teaser strip and a bunch of special features. It's just one dollar, so I feel ridiculously confident in recommending it on its value-for-money basis alone. (Apart from that, I'm pretty proud of it!) I've been getting a gratifying amount of press about the series - a few of the choicer tidbits are linked below (sorry if I've missed anyone, they're proving hard to keep up with!). The series proper starts in October. Most exciting.

MTV Geek Advance Review

MTV Geek Interview

Comic Book Resources Advance Review

Comic Book Resources Interview

Comics Alliance Interview

Things From Another World Interview
Comics Bulletin Advance Review

Announcements!

2011-06-09T06:49:00.002+01:00

Well, hello! First, I just wanted to say what an excellent time I had at Heroes Con and how much I enjoyed myself, as always. I will hopefully have more to say about it in a few days; right now, I only have time to say "thank you" to Shelton Drum and his team for having me. So thank you.

Coupla things! First, my next major project, Snarked!, has now been well and truly announced! There's four pages' worth of preview material here - please check it out and ask your local comic shop to save you a copy. The preview issue hits the shelves this August.

Next, just a couple of days ago Marvel announced that I'll be writing a new adaptation of the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter novels, A Princess of Mars, for Marvel, drawn by Filipe Andrade. More on that here - that one will be out in September.

Also in September, over two hundred pages of Langridge - enough to break the arm of a child. Yes, there's to be a collection of old and new material from across my career, up to and including the Mugwhump the Great serial that's just concluded on ACT-I-VATE. Called The Show Must Go On, that will be out for SPX, under the Boom! Town imprint.

Sleep is for losers. Losers, I say!

But I'm All Better Now

2011-05-24T06:52:00.000+01:00

I've had a busy week or two! Firstly, there was the Bristol Small Press Comics Expo - which was great, even if I didn't make much money (the princely sum of £30 after expenses!). I partly put this down to being positioned in what my fellow exhibitors and I called "The Tumbleweed Room". Next year it's going to be back in the Commonwealth Museum, where everybody happily exhibited under one roof for a number of years in the past - no more ghettoes! - which I'm confident will make a difference. Big "Hello" to everyone I caught up with there - good to see you all.

Anyway, there was that. Then I got ill - some sort of horrible stomach virus which my son brought home from school from one of his dirty, dirty little friends - which knocked me flat for a couple of days (when I wasn't leaning over a toilet bowl), making me scramble to catch up ever since. I'm just about back to a manageable schedule now - almost in time for Heroes Con on June 3-5 to knock it into a cocked hat all over again. In the nicest possible way, of course.

There have been interviews, and work on book production matters, and writing outlines, and other such things that I am frustratingly not supposed to talk about yet. I am reasonably confident that I will soon be able to lift the veil of secrecy on at least some of this stuff. When that happens, you, my faithful blog reader - yes, you - will be the first to know.

In the meantime, here are a few sketches I was unable to give away - yes, you heard me, unable to give away - in Bristol. I'm confident the next convention I attend will not present me with this problem. Charlotte - don't let me down.

Bristol

2011-05-10T06:18:00.000+01:00

Bristol! (Not the drawing paper, the English town.) Now here's a thing - I will be in Bristol this weekend, at the Bristol Small Press Expo. As is my custom at these events, I will be sketching, selling my comics and artwork, and generally trying to engage with my public in as entertaining and friendly a manner as it is possible for an antisocial curmudgeon like myself to do.

There will definitely be a new minicomic. This is guaranteed.

There may also be other new goodies if all goes well. A fancy-pants £10 A3-sized print if I have my druthers. Waiting on those at the moment. I've never done anything like that before so I'm keen to see how it goes.

I also draw! Like a monkey! The way it works is, you ask me to draw stuff, I draw it. It beguiles the hours like nobody's business.

So that's the Mercure Holland Hotel in Bristol, this Saturday and Sunday, May 14th and 15th. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

The Mighty Fighting Avengers!

2011-05-07T08:51:00.000+01:00

Today is Free Comic Book Day, the day where we celebrate the time when the baby Jesus was given a comic book. Or something. Anyway, one of my efforts is available to comic book shop patrons this fine day, absolutely free: Captain America and Thor, the Mighty Fighting Avengers! I'm not responsible for the jaw-breaking title, but the rest of the words are mine; the pictures are by the marvellous Chris Samnee and Matthew Wilson. Basically, it's the Thor: The Mighty Avenger team reunited one more time. I honestly don't know if FCBD is observed outside the USA and Canada, but if you're fortunate enough to live near a participating store, why not head out and pick one up - and spend a few dollars while you're there, why don'tcha?

Little Neuro

2011-05-04T05:54:00.000+01:00

Thought people might like to see a strip I drew for the Team Cul de Sac anthology, the Parkinson's Disease research fundraising benefit book themed around Richard Thompson's strip. I did a predictable thing, which those of you who know my track record would probably have seen coming a mile away, and did my own version of Petey's favourite comic, Little Neuro, in a style vaguely evocative of Winsor McCay (though not very - mainly, I copied his title lettering and rounded-off panel borders and put a flying bed in it). Anyway, it's here if you want to take a look. Great fun to do, and probably the closest I'll ever get to working on a newspaper strip. My thanks to Richard for letting me play with his toys.

Thor vs Fin Fang Foom!

2011-05-03T06:12:00.001+01:00

I'm looking forward to attending Heroes Con in a month or so in lovely Charlotte, North Carolina. They've been wonderful hosts to me for a few years now, and it's always a hugely enjoyable experience. Every year they ask their guests to donate a piece of artwork which they can auction off to defray expenses, so here's my contribution for this year - a recreation of Chris Samnee's fabulous cover for Thor: The Mighty Avenger #6. Got out my paints and did it all nice. I trust it will find a good home.

Oh, and a little update: it looks like Thor: The Mighty Avenger has been nominated for an American Library Award for Great Graphic Novels for Teens! Details here, I believe.

Bill Blackbeard

2011-04-26T06:58:00.000+01:00

Very sad to hear of the passing of Bill Blackbeard recently. If that name doesn't ring any bells with you, Blackbeard was the archivist and historian who, almost single-handedly, saved the old newspaper comic strips of the early 20th Century from crumbling into dust. The vast majority of strip reprint projects from that era have used papers from Blackbeard's collection.

Among the 200 or so books he was involved with, there were a couple that literally changed my life. One was All in Color For a Dime, the chapter of which on E.C. Segar's Thimble Theatre, written by Blackbeard, turned me into a Segar fanatic at the age of 12 and opened my eyes to the greatness of those early strips. The other one is arguably one of the most influential books on comics of all time - The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics - which actually allowed me, and a generation, to see these old strips, and read them, and (to those of us who eventually became cartoonists, which seems to be most of us from what I can make out) to learn from them.

Best of all was his name, though - like a Mickey Mouse villain from a Gottfredson adventure continuity. I feel blessed to grow up in a world where the premier comics historian on the first half of the Twentieth Century was called Bill Blackbeard.

PING! Mother Box PING!

2011-04-19T05:54:00.000+01:00

May I draw your attention to a recent interview I did with the Ping! MotherBox Ping! blog - quite a decent-sized one as these things go. There's a bit of history plus some ill-conceived ranting! All good fun. Thanks to Brett Williams for the juicy questions.

Postpourri

2011-04-12T06:16:00.000+01:00

A few random things to cover this time.

First, and I'm as surprised as anybody about this because I only found out about it by reading about it on the internet, it looks like Marvel will be re-issuing my old Muppet Show comics in some form or other. There you go - now you know as much as I do.

Second, there's an all-new, all-digital, all free issue of Tripwire available, including a nice fat piece on Boom! Studios and three, count 'em, three pages of comics by Yours Truly. So that might be worth a look.

Last but not least, I did a bit of logo design a few days ago. I'm quite pleased with it.

The Storyteller

2011-04-05T10:32:00.000+01:00

This weekend, at long last, the Jim Henson's Storyteller anthology from Archaia Press was announced - and I'm delighted to report I'm contributing a seven-page story to it, based on a Scandinavian folk tale called "Old Nick and the Pedlar". I've also done an illustration for the cover, which I guess it's okay to reveal here. (This is actually an early version - the published one will have a few differences, as it's bounced back and forth between me, editor Nate Cosby and the Henson company a few times.)

While I've got your attention, I'd like to say a heartfelt thank you to everybody who took the time to look at my recent eBay auctions - especially-specially to the fan in Canada (you know who you are!) who picked up a whopping 25 pieces. The money raised should keep things ticking over until regular funds start coming in again. Very, very grateful to all of you.

eBay Bonanza!

2011-03-27T20:31:00.002+01:00

Hello, you. Yes, you. That's right - the one with the immaculate good taste and a love of fine comic art and - Oh! It looks like you're visiting... my blog! Could it be that you're looking to buy some examples of hand-crafted comic book art by... moi?

Well, I commend you on your impeccable timing! For I have just posted upon the eBays a huge amount of said artwork for an amazing, one-price-fits-all £35 apiece (that's about $55 US) - truly a bargain! It's all work-for-hire stuff that I can't imagine ever needing again - work from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Bizarro, Doctor Who Magazine, Fin Fang Four, Star Wars Tales, Judge Dredd the Megazine and such like - the kind that connoisseurs like yourself can't keep their hands off. (Oh yes. I've heard all about you.)

For readers in the United Kingdom, perhaps this link will be more to your taste...?

I thank you.

(Full disclosure: things are a little tight financially right now - I've got work on the desk, but nothing I'm likely to see a cheque from for at least another month or two - and if I manage to shift a couple of these it will make the next few weeks a whole lot easier. Thanks for looking!)

Not Only Can He Draw, He's Articulate Too!

2011-03-22T14:40:00.000Z

Nice wee interview here with Chris Samnee about our Free Comic Book Day Thor/Captain America issue. He says some nice things about working with me, which I'd like to give right back at him with knobs on.

Chris "Reuben" Samnee!

2011-03-17T10:12:00.000Z

Well, the National Cartoonist Society Division Award nominations are out, and it looks like Chris Samnee is up for a Reuben in the Comic Book category for his sterling work on Thor: The Mighty Avenger! Congratulations to Chris, and richly deserved. For my money, this is the most prestigious award in comics - only three comic books get nominated every year - and I'm typing this with my fingers crossed.

Die Muppet Show

2011-03-16T06:15:00.001Z

Hey, now here's a bit of excitingness (for me, anyway) - my Muppet Show comics are going to be published in Germany! They've been picked up by Egmont, Europe's main Disney licensee. Of course I don't see a penny from any of this, but it's nice to know they're out there.

And it gives me a little bit of hope that maybe they might be widely available in the UK one day... the country they were actually drawn in. One can dream, one can dream...

And it's got a pig in it

2011-03-15T06:33:00.001Z

So, if you haven't heard, it looks like the venerable Doctor Who Magazine is up for an Eagle Award this year, for work published during 2010 (which, among other fine comic strip adventures, includes the Eleventh Doctor adventure Planet Bollywood by myself and Jonathan Morris). So there's that. Well done, chaps!

This week, I did some cover roughs for a book that I'm rather looking forward to holding in my hands at some point this year. I'm keeping that under my hat for now, though I'm including a detail from one of the roughs that didn't make the cut with this post, just because I'm an awful tease.

This week's major struggle has been between working fast and working well. I thought I'd have a go at trying to throw a one-pager together very quickly. I'd been talking to someone about possibly taking on some more work, so I thought I should have a trial run before committing to anything, just to see if I could work fast enough not to jeopardise any other work I've got on and still come up with something that reads well and looks good.

Turns out I can't. It looks fine, it's funny, but it's taken me ages - and since the whole point of the exercise was to see what I could do quickly, I'd have to consider the experiment a failure. Still, I've got a nice one-pager out of it which I'm sure will turn up somewhere, one way or another.

And it's got a pig in it. You can't go wrong with pigs.

Thor Points

2011-03-10T06:03:00.000Z

Couple of bits of Thor: The Mighty Avenger-related news.

First, the second volume of Thor: TMA is now available. Hooray! Please buy early and often.

Second, there's a short preview on the interwebs of the Free Comic Book Day Captain America/Thor special Chris Samnee and I did - a little something to whet your appetite. The story is a big, daft romp through the world of King Arthur, with dragons, mysticism, Loki, and a couple of goofballs in tights. Something of a last hoorah for us.

In other news - nothing! I have no other news.

I did a bit of a chat to a couple of classes at my daughter's school this week in support of a "Book Week" they're doing (I did a quick Google to see if this is a wider initiative, but apparently not). That was fun. Scrambling to get back on schedule ever since, though... maybe I could get a couple of the kids to help me.

Then they can clean my chimney. Yeah.

8,000 pounds of comics

2011-03-08T19:51:00.001Z

Last call! Last call!
I've blogged about this already, but I note that it's only 23 hours to go until the Kickstarter project closes down and they're still $400 short at this writing. The earlier post explains it all pretty well, but if you've got any cash burning a hole in your pocket and you'd like to read all these strips one day online FOR FREE, then please consider pledging a few dollars. So close!
Thanks.

(Update: A couple of hours later, the goal has been hit. Yow! Thanks everybody! We're all in for some good reading in the months ahead.)

Whatever Happened To...

2011-03-08T06:16:00.000Z

So by now I expect everyone who's got a horse in this race knows that Marvel will be publishing the Pixar books that Boom used to do from now on. So far, so groovy - they have the technology, the expertise and the resources to do a great job... if they want to.

So where does that leave the Muppet comics?

To be honest, I have no idea. As far as I understand it, the unpublished work I've done for Boom isn't technically Disney's until it's published, and obviously Boom can't publish it without a license. So it's in a kind of limbo right now. In the best of all possible worlds, I'd like to think that Boom and Marvel can come to some kind of arrangement whereby Marvel can eventually release the work. I'm only a cartoonist, real business stuff makes my brain hurt, so I'm not sure how that would work - I guess Disney/Marvel buys the rights from Boom or something. Or maybe they have to go out into the woods at midnight and bury Kermit in effigy with some chives in order to break the curse. Something like that. However it happens, I would very much like for it to see the light of day eventually.

Until that happy day, which I look forward to with a smile on my face and a song in my heart, I guess it can't hurt to share some of the pages here. This arc would have been called The Four Seasons, hence the seasonal theme - these few pages would have been from the Winter/Christmas issue. (Appropriate for pages that are in cold storage for now.)

Roll on Spring...

Snarked

2011-03-02T15:17:00.001Z

Blog visitors may have noticed a reference to "Snarked" in the sidebar recently. There's a bit more about it here. (Though not much more.) My lips are sealed for the moment...

Twitted

2011-03-01T06:10:00.000Z

First things first. There's a Mugwhump update today at ACT-I-VATE - please check it out.

Done that? Grand.

So I had a drink with Faz Choudhury last week. And he made a persuasive case for Twitter, which I'd previously gone to great lengths to avoid. And I thought I'd maybe create an account and just stand at the back of the room and watch how it worked for a while... give it a fair chance, kind of thing.

What happened was more like an ambush. I mean, honestly, you people terrify me. It's overwhelming, completely overwhelming. I basically shut my computer down for the rest of the day, hardly went near the thing unless I had to. Because every time I turned it on it was just a wall of noise. How can anybody actually think in that environment? I eventually figured out how to switch off notifications when someone follows you and that calmed things down a bit. But still.

Now what?

I admit I signed up partly for cynical reasons. I have an upcoming project that I want to give every promotional opportunity possible (soon, grasshopper, soon!).

Also, I've become reeeally out-of-touch with the UK cartooning scene over the last couple of years, and I thought Twitter was probably the place to find out what's going on, what the UK conventions are now that people are most excited about, that sort of thing. (I've avoided going to any local conventions lately because I was drawing a book you couldn't actually buy in the country in which it was drawn, due to Disney regional licensing arcania - seemed a bit pointless trying to promote it).

So I'm hanging in there. For now. There are things about it that bother me (not least the word "followers", which just makes the follow-ee seem too grandiose for words - you're not friends, you're not fans, you're "followers". What?!).

Still.

I'm doing a lot of actual, physical, get-your-fingers-dirty drawing right now, so I'm not near the computer a whole lot anyway - probably a good time to acclimatise nice and slowly.

You still terrify me, though.

Party Time

2011-02-23T10:55:00.000Z

Hey! Looks like the Big Illustration Party Time podcast is back! That thing's been gone a year. Welcome back, chaps. If you're not familiar with it, it's a show for freelance illustrators, cartoonists and the like, hosted by Kevin Cross and Joshua Kemble - experienced pen-wranglers who know whereof they speak.

They interviewed me way back when (such gentle hands!) and I've been a regular listener ever since - or I was until it disappeared. Nice to have something to listen to while I'm inking away on these cold, cold nights.

The Show Goes On

2011-02-22T05:46:00.000Z

Aaand we're back.

The final chapter of "The Show Must Go On" is now pencilled and I'm pretty pleased with how it all hangs together, considering that I was making it all up as I went along for the first two chapters (I was working within a very loose outline, but essentially I was busking - in the grand tradition of Mugwhump the Great, come to think of it). Now I've just got to ink the darn thing.

Oh, and colour it. Did I mention we're in colour now?

Kindly Take Your Seats...

2011-02-15T05:59:00.001Z

... for the return of Mugwhump the Great at ACT-I-VATE has begun! The current episode is just a little recap for you, the fun starts in earnest next week, but I'm happier than a pig in muck to have Muggsy and Billy back in my life.

Lickety-Splat!

2011-02-12T11:49:00.001Z

Thought I'd tease you with some pencils for an upcoming Mugwhump installment.

(Did I mention I'm having fun with this? I'm having fun with this.)

Better By the Pound

2011-02-10T10:07:00.001Z

Some of you know that, when I'm not drawing funnybooks for a long-suffering audience (that's you), I like to scan ancient, crumbling newspaper strip cuttings and share them with like-minded enthusiasts, with the intention of preserving this old, out-of-print and sometimes brilliant work for future generations before it turns completely to dust. I'm far from alone in this; there is a small, dedicated network of strip enthusiasts who are doing the same, trying to keep the great newspaper strips of the 1920s and 30s from being lost forever.

So I'd like to draw your attention to a project that one of my fellow archivists, Steve Cottle, Jr., is currently undertaking. He is attempting to buy a collection of old newspaper comics with the intention of scanning them and putting them online for readers, academics and anybody who cares about the history of the comics medium to enjoy - for free - at ilovecomixarchive.com. The collection is staggeringly huge - so large that the only estimate of its size we have is by weight (8000 lbs!) - and the current owner is looking to get rid of it by any means possible. Steve has negotiated a knock-down bargain price for this material, but even this is beyond his own private means, so he's started up a Kickstarter Project to try and raise the necessary funds to purchase, transport, scan and preserve the work. I urge you to contribute something if the history of the comics medium is something you care about. If this material is preserved, we all benefit from it.

There's a link on the right-hand side of the blog - look, just over there! - which will explain all the details. (Or just click here if you're reading this in an RSS feed or something.) Thanks for your consideration.

The All-New, Minty-Fresh Hotel Fred

2011-02-08T05:16:00.000Z

Couple of things.

First, you may notice that we've done some spring-cleaning here at the Hotel Fred - well overdue. I've long wanted to squish the blog and the comics site together; I was maintaining them separately was because I couldn't work out how to get a blog feed onto the site where I was storing the comic files. It finally occurred to me that I could approach the problem from the other direction and tweak the HTML on the blog to incorporate the comic strip feed function, so at last it's working the way I'd always intended. (Or it will when the strip starts up again.)

If you've got your bookmarks set to the old WebComicsNation page, please reset them to go to www.hotelfred.com from here on in. I'll still be using WebComicsNation to store the files and do the automatic updates and syndicating and all that other technical stuff I can't work out how to do on my own, but I won't be updating the homepage from this point onwards.

I said a couple of things, didn't I? Yes I did. So: second thing - I believe the most recent Muppet Show Comic Book collection, Muppet Mash, is now available. Why not buy one for the glove-puppet obsessive in your life?

That is all.

The Return

2011-02-02T09:08:00.001Z

Mugwhumpery

2011-01-25T09:15:00.003Z

After a quiet few weeks, I finally have a bit of news to report. Firstly, I am now working on the final chapter of Mugwhump the Great - the web strip on ACT-I-VATE that those of you with long memories may remember. I've got one more chapter to go, and I'm scripting it at the moment; negotiations are under way for a print collection once it's done. But more about that another day. For now, rest assured - it's coming.

Secondly, I may have a small Jim Henson-related project coming up. I'm waiting for a yea or nay on something, then I'll be able to spill a few more beans. Meanwhile, enjoy the suspense.

Lastly, I'm working on a brand-new mini-comic for the first time in YONKS - and it feels great! I've had a fun time working for the Diamond crowd over the past couple of years, but it feels nice to be doing a proper comic again. Here's the cover.

That's all the news I can share right now. I wish I could tell you more, but then I would have to kill you with my bare hands.

Rattle Do Nicely

2011-01-12T05:29:00.003Z

I found these sketches rattling around my hard drive. I thought I'd share that rattle with you.

2011, You're A Sweet Young Thing

2011-01-04T06:08:00.003Z

I'm on the home stretch of my final Muppet Show issue now. About one-third of the way through inking... so I guess it's time to think about what's next. (A bit of thinking out loud, really, so don't feel obliged to read through the whole thing - if you get something out of what follows, great, but this one's really for me, not for you so much.)

If we're talking about resolutions, and I guess I am, I'm resolved not to take on quite the workload I had in 2010. I never really got a chance to come up for air all year, and I need to keep a bit of flexibility in my schedule this year. So there's that.

I'm also quite keen to make time to work on my own stuff - as rewarding as this year has been in many ways, I've been concentrating almost exclusively on properties owned by Disney in one way or another, and that doesn't really do it for me as a long-term creative journey. "A refreshing detour" is how I've been thinking of it. More power to those creators who can find fulfilment working on a dead man's ideas for the bulk of their careers, I'm not judging them - but I'm not one of them.

Over the last few weeks a few people have expressed interest in having me do work for them post-Muppets and post-Thor, which is great. I'm leaning heavily towards the idea that the work-for-hire side of things should concentrate exclusively on scripting, keeping my drawing time for myself alone, for working on things I own - keeping that side of things pure, at least in terms of comics (illustration work might be another matter). If that's economically sustainable, of course. I do have a family to support, so that's always going to be a consideration.

So - what? Right now I don't know what I'll be doing this year at all. Various approaches are all at the "let's see if we can work something out" stage - for all I know, everything might fall through. The only things I know for sure I'll definitely be working on in 2011 are finishing the Muppet Show comic (counting the days!), doing a short piece for an anthology that I've committed to, and creating at least one mini-comic (that's a proper New Year's resolution, that one).

Oh, and finishing Mugwhump the Great. That will happen.

2011 - a year of infinite possibilities and uncertain terror. Works for me.

Gowaaan gowan gowan gowan gowan

2010-12-28T05:53:00.004Z

Almost done with 2010, everybody? Grand.

Here's a recent commissioned sketch I did - I don't do a lot of commissions because they chew into time I could be spending on, you know, meeting deadlines, but every so often I buckle and weaken. This one was of one of my very favourite sitcoms ever, Father Ted, so I couldn't resist. Having lived in the UK for close to 20 years now, there's one thing I'm very, very proud of about my adopted country, and that's the generally high quality - and often surreal, absurdist, Carrollian imaginativeness - of their comedy. Father Ted, produced for Britain's Channel 4 in the 1990s, is the best of the best in that regard. The commission also included some dialogue, but I've Photoshopped that out of this post because it's none of your business, you nosy, nosy people.

The Up! Auction

2010-12-14T18:49:00.004Z

We're at that time of year when people buy presents for their nearest and dearest. In that spirit, I'd like to draw your attention to the Up! Fair Art Auction - artwork donated by friends, attendees and supporters of the Up! Fair, the cartoonists' conference held a few weeks ago in Kentucky. Proceeds from the auction will go towards setting the Fair up as a non-profit organisation, with the intention of continuing the great, community-building work started this year, so not only will you be getting a great piece of art to give to someone as a gift, you'll be contributing to a worthy cause. There's a piece pencilled by me and inked by Kevin Cross in there, and lots of other great pieces besides. End of plug!

Buy Early, Buy Often

2010-12-07T15:15:00.003Z

First item: Thor the Mighty Avenger Volume 1: The God Who Fell to Earth is out this week, collecting the first four issues of the comic written by me and drawn by the phenomenal Chris Samnee. I'd just like to remind people one more time that decent sales on this item could have an effect on whether or not Chris and I will get an opportunity to finish our originally-planned 12-issue story arc (the series' cancellation seems unavoidable, but we're crossing our fingers that a final four-issue mini-series might not be out of the question), so please consider picking this up if you've been waiting for the collection. And, if you already have the individual issues (thank you!), maybe consider giving one as a gift this Christmas to someone in your life who likes a good romance story. Or a fight.

Second item: Thank you to everyone who has expressed their good wishes after last week's announcement that I'll be moving on from the Muppet Show Comic Book. I've been genuinely overwhelmed. You're the best.

Goodbye Mister Henson

2010-11-30T06:50:00.000Z

I've got some things going on right now. Not very fun things that most grown-ups have to deal with at some point in their lives. This is probably not the place to discuss the details, but it's certainly the place to address the fallout, so...

I've chosen to step down from the Muppet Show Comic Book. The story I'm currently drawing, "The Four Seasons," will be held back a few months, to be released next year sometime; Boom! Studios have been super-helpful and supportive at what is turning out to be a difficult time for me, and I thank them for that from the bottom of my heart. I thank them for a lot of stuff, actually. It's been an amazing couple of years. I hope to be working with them again when things have settled down.

Though probably not on the Muppets. Thing is, I was ready to move on - this personal situation made me jump when I did, but I was looking for an appropriate time to jump anyway. I feel like I've done about as much as I can with the Muppet characters - really, I'd rather move on while it's still fun than carry on grinding away long past the point where I'm enjoying it.

As I say, I'm not quite gone yet - "The Four Seasons" is supposed to appear some time next year, and I'm still working on that until the end of 2010, albeit not as quickly as I normally would. But eagle-eyed Muppet-watchers will probably have noticed by now that The Muppet Show Comic Book didn't come out this month, and I felt some kind of explanation was in order. So now you know what's going on. My particular and heartfelt thanks to all the readers out there for your amazing support over the book's run. Hearing from you, meeting you at shows, has been an absolute highlight of my time with the Muppets.

More on Thor

2010-11-20T13:15:00.003Z

Bit of an update on Thor stuff. Firstly, can I just say the last 48 hours or so have been insane? In a good way, I mean. I'm blown away by the affection for our little funnybook that appears to exist out there. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And you. And you.

There's an interview with me about the whole business, and Thor: TMA in general, over at iFanboy right now.

There's a "Save Thor the Mighty Avenger" Facebook page.

And Chris Samnee has quite sensibly pointed out over on his blog that the best, most useful, most productive thing you can do if you want to see the story continue is to buy the darn thing. If you've been waiting for the collection, please consider pre-ordering it. If you know somebody else who might like it, why not get one for them as a Christmas present. And there's three more issues to go before the doors close - your comic shop is waiting to take your money. Marvel is, after all, a business, and that's the sort of thing that can make a difference.

Again - thank you, everyone. You've made an old man very happy.

Thor the Cancelled Avenger

2010-11-17T05:39:00.006Z

It's been officially announced now, apparently, so I can mention here at last that Thor: The Mighty Avenger has been cancelled - issue #8 will be the last one. Thanks to everyone who bought the book - it's been such a great experience working with Chris Samnee on this thing; his artwork consistently exceeded my expectations. He and colourist Matt Wilson made that book the best-looking one on the stands.

Chris and I were four issues shy of wrapping up the mega-subplot we'd been setting up since issue #1 - if we'd reached issue #12 a lot of questions would have been answered and the series would have been tied up with a nice little bow - so if you're Twitter-enabled and you'd like Marvel to publish those last four issues at some stage, let them know.

Update: Some commentary from around the internet...

iFanboy: A Note for my Boyfriend Thor
The Comics Reporter
Newsarama
Digital Spy
Bleeding Cool
Comics Alliance
Robot 6/CBR

And perhaps most intriguingly...

Malinky!

2010-11-15T22:27:00.005Z

I recently had the pleasure of doing a pin-up for the phenomenal Sonny Liew to go in his Malinky Robot collection, the English language edition of which will be out soon from Image Comics (though it's been out elsewhere in the world for a while). We worked together on a Spider-Man backup a couple of years back, and I was blown away by how much he brought to the story. It was a great privilege to be invited to contribute something to his own project.

I thought I was out...

2010-11-09T05:45:00.003Z

This week, I thought I'd share a spot illustration I did recently for Doctor Who Magazine - it's for their soap-opera-themed issue, #427, out later this month. They're taking advantage of the fact that I used to do these kinds of illustrations for Inside Soap magazine and DWM, y'see... anyway, it was nice to be back in the saddle again, however briefly. That's the thing about Doctor Who... it's a bit like the mafia. You think you're out, but they pull you back in...

Comica Comiket

2010-11-02T06:43:00.004Z

People around the London area might like to know that I'll be making an appearance at this Sunday's Comica Comiket, sketching and signing along with a number of other fine cartoonists, among them Charlie Adlard, Darryl Cunningham, Hunt Emerson, Garen Ewing, Paul Grist, Ellen Lindner, Gary Northfield, Woodrow Phoenix and the legendary Ed Pinsent. So that's a hell of a line-up. We'll all be there from noon till 5pm - details below.

Axe Me No Questions

2010-10-26T06:05:00.003+01:00

There's a thread going on at the moment on the message boards of the rather wonderful Art & Story podcast about sharing your early work, so in the spirit of that, here's something I did more than 20 years ago, around the time I was just starting to get published in student rags and fanzines. Script is by my brother Andrew. I seem to recall that "Axe of the Apostles" was meant to be a catch-all title for an occasional series of short pieces, but in the end we only did two. Only one of which was ever accepted for publication. By a magazine which was immediately cancelled.

A little microcosm of the following two decades, had I but known it at the time.

Nate Go Bye Bye

2010-10-19T09:25:00.005+01:00

This week, I lost another editor. Not content to burn out three of them on the Muppet Show books, I appear to have also chased away Nate Cosby, the fine gentleman who offered me Thor: The Mighty Avenger a year or so back. So I'll just take this moment to wish Nate good luck in his future writing endeavours, and to say a heartfelt thanks.

Many Happy Returns of Fin Fang Foom

2010-10-12T05:55:00.003+01:00

Last Saturday, my friend and colleague Scott Gray, he of Doctor Who and Fin Fang Four fame, got married. It was a fantastic day - a beautiful ceremony in the woods, great food, great company, a Tardis on the lawn and at least one person wearing a fez (who that was, I couldn't possibly comment). Anyway, this is the card I cobbled together for the happy couple, using the original Kirby/Ayers splash page as a starting point.

Have a great life together, you crazy kids!

Feiffer Fail

2010-09-28T06:57:00.002+01:00

Currently drawing the first issue of the next big Muppet Show story arc, The Four Seasons, while writing the third at the same time. So I'm trying to keep straight in my head whether I'm doing summer or winter. Not really thinking at my clearest right now for various reasons, and this really isn't helping.

For no obvious reason, apart from the fact that it's there and I don't do any illustration jobs these days since I jumped on the comic book scripting bandwagon, here's an old sketch that never came to anything. I did a cover for Jules Feiffer's Harry, the Rat with Women a couple of years ago, and was asked to submit some ideas for another Feiffer cover a few months later, this time for Ackroyd. Nothing ever came of this one, though. I got the impression that Feiffer wasn't thrilled with my stuff. Still, the sketches remain on my hard drive... and now they're on yours.

Smaaalll Presss Expoooo!

2010-09-07T06:43:00.002+01:00

All right, so it's SPX this weekend. But you all knew that already, right? So I'll be there sketching and what-have-you. I'll be at Table F15, right between the Center for Cartoon Studies and Mark Sahagian. Looking forward to catching up with some friends there and hopefully making some new ones. I'll also be doing a panel on Sunday at 12.30 in the White Flint Amphitheater on the subject of "Telling Stories" (a process-oriented discussion with Meredith Gran and Jon Lewis on how you turn ideas and experiences into a comic), and I'll also be presenting the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series on Saturday night! That's quite an honour, and probably the nearest I'll ever get to one of those bricks. (Although I will have to practice pronouncing Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi.)

Harvey!

2010-08-30T10:48:00.003+01:00

I am delighted to report that the Muppet Show Comic Book won a Harvey Award for "Best Publication for Younger Readers" on Saturday night. Thank you to everyone who voted, everyone who has supported the book, and especially to all the talented people I've had the pleasure of working with.

Double Rainbow

2010-08-24T06:17:00.003+01:00

Muppet-watchers: there's a short interview with me over at ToughPigs.com about the most recent story arc, "Family Reunion". Thanks as usual go to Joe Hennes for his patience!

Thor fans: in a nutty development, it appears that the first two issues of Thor: The Mighty Avenger are completely sold out! Wow. If you missed them, though, fear not! Because Marvel is re-issuing both issues under one spanking-new, gorgeous Chris Samnee/Matt Wilson cover with the fancy title "Double Rainbow".

As usual, I direct you over to Samnee for the details - he knows what's going on much better than I do. He's also younger and better-looking than me, and may one day visit me in a home.

Up for Air

2010-08-17T09:20:00.003+01:00

A couple of things to which I would like to direct your attention, if I may: first, Thor: The Mighty Avenger #3 would appear to be out already. The initial, frenetic issue-every-two-weeks schedule should settle down a little from here on in, and we'll be putting the thing out once a month like normal people. Chris Samnee will get a good night's sleep for the first time in several months! On the subject of Thor, there's a very nice review on NPR's website here, singling out Mr Samnee for its most particular praise - and quite right, too.

Getting close to SPX now, ain't it? There'll be very little on my table that's even slightly new, I'm afraid (although I've re-ordered some more copies of the fancy, repackaged Doctor Sputnik collection, so there'll at least be a minty-fresh cover on the table) - but I'll have the usual suspects (Fred the Clown, Knuckles) and a pile of minicomics, and I will of course be sketching the whole two days. I haven't been to SPX for a year or three, and I'm really looking forward to it - always such an energising, inspirational show. If I can cobble together a new minicomic before then, I will - though I'd avoid holding my breath for that if I were you.

Something to look forward to

The Thing in the Garage

2010-08-03T06:46:00.002+01:00

I'm currently visiting my wife's mother in France, working in her garage while the rest of the family head off to the beach. This cartooning life - it's all glamour, I tell you.

But, hey - Thor: The Mighty Avenger #2 is out! Fortunately, Chris Samnee keeps a closer eye on the release dates than I do, so his blog alerted me to it. Thank you, Chris! Just saw some of his inks for #4 and they look stunning. You're in for a treat.

On the subject of inks, I'm on the home stretch of inking Muppet Show #10 - a little late due to the San Diego Comic Con, but well in hand. (Speaking of SDCC, I recommend checking out Amy Mebberson's con roundup for (a) a slew of Doctor Who/Muppet mash-up sketches, and (b) a picture of me with Gonzo, which I'm totally stealing to show to my friends.) Those who enjoyed her run on the Muppet Show comic recently will be pleased to hear that we're talking about doing more work together. Still working out the details, but stay tuned!

And, hey - isn't this thing adorable?

San Diego Comic-Con 2010

2010-07-27T13:57:00.009+01:00

Wednesday

Okay... so I'm here again, despite my best efforts to weasel out of it. It started well (smell the irony!) - my flight from the UK to America was supposed to have been booked with a vegetarian meal, but wasn't; I had to work my way around a dish of Beef Stroganoff as gingerly as possible, filling up on tasteless rice, carrots and broccoli, boiled to within an inch of its life. Yum yum.

ANYWAY. I was supposed to make a connecting flight in Dallas, but due to the excruciating length of time it took to clear Customs I was late. I missed the damn thing by a whisker; it left at 3:40pm, I arrived at the gate at 3:41, panting, wheezing and sweating. Arse! The lady at the counter was very helpful and put me on standby for the next flight; I was able to get on that one, managed to sleep for maybe half an hour on the flight, and arrived in San Diego not quite fresh as a daisy, but only slightly wilted. I ended up going straight to the convention centre as I was already late - first of all, I had to find someone who could let Boom! know I was there so I could actually enter the building, because they had my badge. While I was sorting that out I ran into Tom Spurgeon and Dave Lanphear, both of whom had issues that needed sorting out and so were waiting in the same queue as me. I'm always amazed how many familiar faces I happen to bump into by chance when I'm wandering around among 120,000 strangers, or however many it is.

So! Inside the hall at last. As usual, the Boom! crew were super-nice and welcoming. Amy Mebberson, my Muppet Show collaborator on the Family Reunion story arc, and Travis Hill, the Toy Story artist, were already swamped with sketch requests. Travis was going to have a particularly busy time of it over the next few days - definitely the man of the hour.

I don't actually remember a whole lot about Wednesday night. I know I was super-tired, which probably explains it. I know I did 11 sketches - they were operating a sketch list that night, which was abandoned on subsequent days in favour of a first-come-first-served system when they saw how snowed-under Travis was getting. Stuff happened! People came! My apologies if I can't remember anybody. In any case, today was really just a warm-up - the real show would start tomorrow. Eventually I trudge back to the Hilton, where I'm staying, and finally check in - I'm sharing with Peter Krause, the artist of Irredeemable, who says he might be up early to go for a run. Good luck, I say - and zzzzz.

Thursday

My body-clock, still on London time, gives me an early-morning wake-up call and I'm up and out on the street by 6:30am, while Peter's still snoozing away. The convention crowds are already out in force. I make my way to Ralph's, the supermarket, and get some carrots and apples for the sake of having something vaguely healthy to eat later on. For breakfast, though, I weaken and get a croissant. Bad Roger. Bad, bad Roger.

I get back to the hotel. Peter is now out of bed and probably off running somewhere - I take the opportunity to Skype my family and say hello to everyone. Peter comes back in after his run (brave devil that he is) and we compare notes about our respective families - his sons are all more or less grown up. Apparently they all get along really well, which gives me a ray of hope I'll cling to when my own little darlings' wilfil behaviour gets a bit overwhelming.

Off to the convention centre! It's probably the only chance I'll get all day to wander around and take a few pictures before the crowds swarm in, so I take advantage of it. Lots of properties represented which I don't recognise - of course I don't, I spend eleven months of the year in an attic staring at a piece of paper - and lots more I'm vaguely aware of that don't seem to have even the slightest connection to the comics medium, which raises an argument that's been done to death. Let's just say I get why they're there - there are probably only 50,000 regular comic readers in the entire English-speaking world, if that, and their numbers are dwindling all the time; they have to get those crowds in for something - but I think it's kind of sad that the medium after which the entire show is named is treated like some sort of ugly cousin who smells of wee. But maybe that's just me. (Not smelling of wee, I mean. Oh, let's move on.)

The show begins - and the sketches. Looking back after the show, it'll be clear to me that today is my busiest day sketch-wise, but in the middle of it, I'm just kind of zoning out - drawing is what I do all day anyway, after all. Some familiar faces stop by - Mister Phil, Andrew Farago, Zach Bosteel. Zach asks me along to a drink-and-draw event that night, which sounds like fun - it's only after he leaves that I remember the official Boom! Drink-Up is later on tonight and I should really be there instead. I finally get to meet my original editor on the Muppets, Paul Morrissey, who's working on the Fraggle Rock books these days. Fellow Act-I-Vater Jim Dougan stops by just as I'm getting ready to leave at the end of the day and asks if I have dinner plans - I don't, so we get a meal at an Indian restaurant and trade stories about our in-laws. His seem really nice. I tell Jim about how my mother-in-law routinely locks me in the garage whenever I come and visit, and about how she has the TV unplugged and facing the wall because "the newsreaders are saying rude things about her". And I'm off for another visit two days after I get back from San Diego! I love my life.

Dinner done, we move on to the Hilton for the Boom! Studios "Drink-Up" (what we call a Piss-Up where I come from) and Jim kindly gets the first round in. He goes ashen-faced when he hears the price. I'm jet-lagged out of my brain and by this stage I'm just about falling over, but I resolve to stick around at least long enough to buy Jim one in return. We end up talking a bit about my Barney Google obsession - I reckon I'll have 95% of Billy DeBeck's run on the strip scanned by the end of the year - and the current newspaper strip reprint boom in general. It's good times for someone like me right now. Jim has a penchant for some of the later realistically-drawn soap-opera strips, the Stan Drake-type stuff. Strange to think that once upon a time, if you had serious ambitions as a cartoonist, newspapers were the place to be. Thanks to the web, the daily format has had a resurgence in recent years. Daily increments of great cartoonists - the perfect delivery system. By 10:30pm I'm ready to call it a night; by 11:15 I'm snoring.

Friday

I'm up early again, though not quite as early as yesterday. Just in time to grab a coffee and another naughty croissant. It's the Eisner Awards tonight - I know I'm not going to win before I start, but even so, I mentally rehearse what I might say if I'm actually called up there. Which I won't be. I've been convinced since the nominations were first announced that the award would be going to John Stanley, because he's, you know, JOHN STANLEY.

More sketching - Amy's taking up some of Travis' overload on the Toy Story sketches today, as she's done some covers on the books and is thus eminently qualified. This manages to keep some sort of lid on the length of Travis' queue, which is pretty preposterous by now. More familiar faces stop by the table (Robert Goodin and Paul Maybury among them) and I finally get to meet my second Muppet Show editor, Aaron Sparrow. He tells me a drawing I did for him last year, a Muppet/Alice in Wonderland mash-up, is is responsible for the relationship he's currently in. Good lord. Apparently it won the fair lady's heart.

The One Wot Won It

During my lunch break I manage to pick up a few gaudy trinkets for the family back home. For the kids, some miniature Simpsons figurines and some Nightmare Before Christmas peppermints; for Sylvie, a set of Jordan Crane postcards (she's a big fan of Mr Crane). I bump into Joshua Leto behind a booth; he gave me some money at SDCC last year for some artwork which he was going to choose at a later date, and here we are a year later and we still haven't sorted it out - so we agree to fix that at the earliest opportunity. The artist he's with is amazing - unfortunately, his name completely escapes me for the moment, but I picked up one of his postcards with the intention of ordering some books when I get home.

On my way back to the booth I bump into Andrew Farago again, working the Cartoon Art Museum table. He points out where his wife Shaenon Garrity is stationed - it's great to see her again; it's been five years! Blimey. Dinner plans for Saturday are discussed. I very much want to see more of them before I go home.

Amy and I meet Darth Gonzo

Back at the Boom! booth, I'm given instructions on what's happening tonight at the Eisners. Everyone is to scrub up and look presentable. There's going to be food laid on for VIPs and award nominees - grand. The afternoon whizzes by - by the end of the day I've done 43 sketches; my running total for the show so far is an exact 100 sketches. Time to put my hand in a bucket of cold water.

Eisners! Peter Krause is up for a few as well, so we clean up, put on our fancy duds and head down to the hall where the ceremony is to be held. We're early, but Peter sees Kurt Busiek in a corner and offers to introduce us. Peter and Kurt have obviously known one another a while; they have one of those relationships where they insult one another mercilessly with big smiles on their faces. I mention that I sem to be digging a niche for myself as a writer of comics for people who don't usually read comics, something I'm quite proud of; Kurt says he used to have something of that reputation, but he got tired of it because those books receive very little support from their publishers as a rule. It's a sobering thought and one I'll have to sleep on.

Peter Krause and I in our Fancy Duds

In the Eisner hall we meet Tony Parker, also up for a gong for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Other Boomers start to trickle in; before long there are three tables full of us. To cut a long story short, none of us won a blessed thing; my category lost to Scott Pilgrim, which in retrospect I really should have seen coming - that property is pretty unassailable at Comic-Con this year. My hotel has an ad for the film on the side of it several stories high, for crying out loud - and, bizarrely, three of the award categories are presented by the entire cast of the film, which, if that wasn't a bit of paid advertising, sure as hell looked like it was. Actually, I expect the film itself will be great - it's directed by Edgar Wright, who has yet to deliver a dud. Spaced is still one of the top sitcoms of the nineties (Father Ted being the only other serious contender off the top of my head).

After the show I see Charlie Adlard, who picked up an award for The Walking Dead, and we chat for a bit. He's joined by Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips and Shelley Bond, and I wallow in the familiar accents as we pass some time. Then, some drinks at the bar as we drown our sorrows, although to be honest, I'm not that bothered; even if I'd won, I'd essentially be accepting the award on behalf of Jim Henson, who is the guy everyone really would have been voting for. I see a few people I know - Frazer Irving, Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), Stephen Notley (also known as "the Bob the Angry Flower guy"), Bryce Carlson from Boom! and his lovely girlfriend Lindsey, who's just arrived. Then I'm out of there, acutely feeling the length of the day.

Saturday

Gonna whiz through this one, as I failed to make notes at the time so I'm already forgetting most of it. Early start, as usual; I drop by the Marvel both with the intention of introducing myself (they've got a huge Thor throne set up there and are giving away Thor the Mighty Avenger #1, which I wrote), but I can't get anybody's attention apart from one guy who has no idea who I am, but is friendly and apologetic that he's no-one important. Well, you were nice to me, that's important enough. Off to the Boom! booth - lots of sketching, lots of meeting people. At one point a guy comes up who tells me he was part of the team who created Doctor Teeth under Michael Frith. I don't know enough of the trivia to know if his story checks out, but I've got no reason not to believe him - I gratefully shake his hand.

Thirty-eight sketches today.

Show over, I head towards Andrew Farago and Shaenon Garrity for our dinner appointment. We're joined by Comics Journal editor Kristy Valenti, who at first I don't recognise - it's been years since or last fleeting introduction, and her hair was a different colour then - and some other people I haven't seen in forever, Dirk Tiede and Jason Thompson among them.

Dinner is at a different Indian restaurant from the one I went to on Thursday, and is excellent. Shaenon mentions she's been doing some teaching lately and finds it terrifying - I have the same feeling about doing the occasional workshop at events like Kids Read Comics, although it turns out we're both terrified for completely different reasons. Anyway, it's really nice to catch up with them. My tired brain has trouble holding up my side of the conversation - by the time we're done I'm ready to call it a night. Shaenon, Andrew and Kristy walk me back to the hotel and I collapse into bed.

Kristy, Andrew and Shaenon

Sunday

My flight is an afternoon one today, so I'm only at the con for the morning. I have a panel at 10am conducted by Mark Waid, who I've barely seen throughout the show - the only times I've seen him he's been accompanied by an impossibly glamorous-looking lady friend, and he gets me to do a sketch for her while we get started. The panel goes well, Mark making it easy, as he does - one guy in the audience has an idea for a plotline which I initially am resistant towards, then I start to consider ways it might work, and by the time I get back downstairs I think I've got four issues out of it. Mark promises him free swag if he drops by the booth, which I certainly hope he did. Soon it's time to say goodbye - I can't get out of there fast enough by this stage, but I put the brakes on long enough to say goodbye properly to the Boom! gang, staff and fellow artists, who have been 100% friendly, kind, helpful and supportive throughout the whole thing. Good people.

Soon I'm on the plane and on my way home. I find it easy to sleep for a change - not really surprising, I suppose. I'm glad it's over for another year. Hopefully forever - I'd love to avoid it from now on - but I doubt that's possible. Every time I think I've done my last Comic-Con, like the mafia, they pull me back in. As long as I don't wake up with Stan Lee's head in my bed I supose that's a cross I can live with.

By the Hoary Hosts of Harvey!

2010-07-13T09:53:00.003+01:00

Good lord. I appear to have scored a bunch of Harvey Award nominations. (What is the collective noun for award nominations, anyway? A "gaggle"? A "plethora"? Given that there will be more losers than winners, perhaps it should be a "disappointment".) Anyway, I'm up for Best Cartoonist (!), Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers (for The Muppet Show Comic Book), and Special Award for Humor in Comics (as well as technically being included in the ACT-I-VATE nomination for Best Anthology).

I have a feeling that a lot of the goodwill I'm getting for the Muppet comics is because I'm fortunate enough to be standing on Jim Henson's enormous shoulders, but I'm grateful nonetheless. Thanks to everyone who put my name in the hat.

Thorsday!

2010-07-07T16:40:00.002+01:00

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #1 is hitting the comic book stores this week! I urge you to run down to your comic outlet of choice and ask -- nay, demand! -- that said periodical be placed in your hot little hands. Wonder at the sophisticated brush stylings of Chris Samnee! Ogle the chromatic enhancements applied by Matthew Wilson! And there's words in it, too!

Putting Out Fires

2010-06-22T06:18:00.004+01:00

Okay, so I'm back from my travels for now. Falling into place over the last couple of weeks are details of my next foregn sojourn - to the almighty San Diego Comic Con - which I'd been expecting to avoid this year, but Boom! Studios wouldn't take "no" for an answer, bless 'em. Now it looks like I'll be there at the Boom! booth for five days straight (time to grow a small beard!). I'll be drawing $20 "sketch covers" during that time... so I've got a month to find some drawing media that works on comic book covers. My sketches are traditionally on something with a bit more tooth to it - the few times I've sketched on anything that glossy have been, let's say, challenging - so that's something to sort out before I go.

(Thanks to Derrick Cantrell for the scan!)

Meanwhile, I've essentially just been scrambling to get back on schedule since I got home. My Doctor Who ten-pager is in the can, and I'm right now writing issue #5 of Thor the Mighty Avenger (just seen Chris Samnee's cover to that one - glorious!) and drawing Muppet Show #9, both of which are going to take a few late nights to get done on time. But I'm on top of it, like the grizzled pro with no social life that I am.

Kids Read Comics Report (with preamble)

2010-06-17T06:21:00.007+01:00

Wednesday

I manage to get a bit of work done at last, inking this ten-pager for Doctor Who Magazine. Today I've arranged to have dinner with Jerzy Drozd, so that at least is taken care of. I put in several hours inking, finishing a page and starting another one, then Jerzy swings by to pick me up - we get burritos (which are excellent!) then head over to his place - "The Art and Story Studios" - to eat them and record a couple of podcasts. I get to chat with show co-hosts Mark and Kevin over Skype, Jerzy and I swap comics, and we have some whiskey - all very pleasant. Jerzy is nervous about showing signs of enjoying tobacco, alcohol or swearing in case I react badly - this is alien behaviour to me (my mother ticks all three boxes), but I do my best to reassure him that all is well. The evening ends with us sitting on his porch talking about writing. Looking forward to the show.

Thursday

Anoher day of working in the hotel room - I feel better getting something done. I'm missing home. Jim Ottaviani has offered to show me around Ann Arbor a little bit before having me over for dinner - he comes by at 3pm and we go and see a wave-sculpture at the university by Maya Lin, a fabulous delicatessen called Zingerman's, the glorious turn-of-the-century splendour of the Michigan movie theatre (at which I take lots of photos - Muppet Show reference!) and other bits of local interest around the university (historic reading rooms, antiquarian books and other such turn-ons for the cartoonist/paper-fetishist side of me).

There are unique smells associated with each sight - the buttered popcorn of the Michigan, the heady aroma of cheeses at the deli, and of course the intoxicating smell of ancient paper. Then it's back to Jim's place where I meet his wife Kat - she makes a splendid pesto, and the evening passes by in a haze of good food, wine and entertaining conversation. I ogle at Jim's original artwork treasures on the wall - there's a huge George Herriman Krazy Kat original that gets me really excited. I think I did a little wee in my pants. At the end of the evening we take a pleasant walk to "the dairy" - which is an ice-cream parlour - and get ourselves ice-creams. Mine is a kiddy-size, which is plenty, and delicious. Then it's back to the hotel to do some more inking. I listen to some BBC Radio 4 podcasts on my laptop and think of home.

Friday

Jerzy is good enough to drop me off at the convention hotel - I arrive three hours before check-in, but they're good enough to find a room for me anyway and I see about getting some work done. I still have to prepare my workshop for Kids Read Comics - I find I am still spectacularly underprepared. I make a few more notes and try to find a way in - eventually I decide to start with the assumption that everybody there will have some comedic talent to begin with and to approach it from the angle of refining what is already there, rather than trying to make lead into gold, which I only now realise is the assumption I'd been operating on without even being aware of it. Great - the whole enterprise suddenly feels a lot less intimidating. Still needs work, though.

I hit a wall with the workshop prep and do a bit of inking for a change of pace, to the accompaniment of Charlie Brooker ranting out of my laptop - I occasionally have to stop because I'm laughing too hard. The hour of the Kids Read Comics opening party at Green Brain Comics approaches - I Google the route, see it's only a couple of miles and decide to walk it. As it turns out I allow more time than I need, but I overshoot the store by a couple of blocks and have to turn around, which conveniently makes me Mister Punctuality. I'm introduced to Dan Mishkin, one of the organisers and co-creator of Amethyst (he wrote the early, good ones) and Blue Devil, who is terrific company and takes very little effort to talk to, which is good, because after a week and a half of conventioning and travelling I find I'm a little burned out on human contact and am fighting the urge to shut my brain off completely. As the evening rolls on it gets a little easier, as I finally get to meet a lot of names who have up until now only been voices on my computer, or names in books and on websites - Kevin Cross (and his smart, funny wife Laura), Mark Rudolph, Diana Nock, Ryan Estrada, Krishna Sadasivam, Sara Turner and others I'm sure I'm blanking on right now. Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier come in later, as do a lot of other people - the place is filling up. At one point a few of us sneak out for a quick beer - weirdly, every bar we see is closed, despite it being Friday night. We eventually find one, a really rowdy joint where conversation is difficult. I find this a relief, to be honest - I feel the pressure's off. Back to Green Brain for food (houmous, pita bread, vegetables and dips) and the fund-raising art auction which concludes the evening. My piece goes for $150, I think, and I pick up a Raina Telgemeier for $30 (a small one I can take home in my luggage without it getting bent to hell). Mark Rudolph drops me off at the hotel and I work an hour or so on tomorrow's workshop. Feeling a bit better about it now, I sleep at last.

Kids Read Comics Day 1 - Saturday

Wake up nice 'n' early, with an eye towards prepping my workshop one last time before the show - I'm proud of the thought I've put into this; I think I have some sound, teachable strategies worked out for generating comic-strip humour, based on some solid comedy principles. Breakfasted and (more or less) prepared, I put together my wheelie suitcase full of guff and head out to the Henry Ford Centennial Library where the convention is to be held. The mighty Google assures me it's just a short walk away. It is - kind of. What Google doesn't tell you is that there's a significant stretch of the route without any pavement - I'm forced to drag the suitcase along the grass verge. What larks. I get to the library covered in a fine coating of sweat and lawn clippings, ready to face the convention-going public in the manner to which they have no doubt become accustomed.

The show itself is great, if a little slow. Not in a bad way - it's steady, manageable business. Sketches are going well. Books, less so - it looks like I've overstocked and will have to ship a bunch of things home before my plane leaves on Monday, so I'm not totally off the baggage-weight scale. At lunchtime there is food laid on for the exhibitors, courtesy of Art & Story - I have a falafel wrap, which is excellent, and I thank the guys for laying it on. Towards 1pm I'm dragooned into an extra bit of programming, a Quick-Draw event, due to Matt Feazell having to leave for a family emergency. This turns out to be great fun, possibly one of the highlights of the show. Three cartoonists (me, Diana Nock and Mike Bocianowski) are given a challenge made up of suggestions from the audience which they have to draw against a strict time limit, the winner being judged by the volume of audience cheering. Half a dozen challenges later I'm an honorable runner-up. I forget the winner - I think it was Mike - but Diana knocks it out every time with sheer crazy inventiveness. My efforts are more traditional gags, like bad New Yorker cartoons. The kids seemed to like 'em, though.

Back to the table for an hour, then the dreaded workshop. I'm nervous, my notes all laid out in front of me as a visible crutch to get me through. Five seconds in, it's obvious that I've put in a lot of work for nothing, as what essentially happens is a bunch of five-to-ten year olds ask me to draw fart jokes for an hour. I go with the flow - I offer a figleaf of analysis at the end of each bit, once I've drawn the strips we work out together as a group, but this is essentially a sideshow for the kids, with Uncle Roger as their ink gimp. Once I've accepted that, I find it's actually pretty good fun. I make an executive decision at one point and steer a strip away from bodily function humour, because we've already been down that road for a while by this stage, but otherwise my input is more in the way of herding cats.

Back at the table and I'm trading books with loads of people now. This for me is the best part of doing shows in far-flung corners of the world - I get to see a ton of small-scale, small print run books that never get wide comic-shop distribution; everything is utterly unique and this show is the only chance I'll ever get to see most of it. The level of talent around the floor is for the most part really high, probably even more so than at the UK Web and Mini-Comix Thing, which it resembles in terms of scale (and that show's pretty good).

The show wraps up around 6 - I've been invited to a barbecue at Mark Rudolph's place and Zach Bosteel (amazing name!) has offered me a ride there, so after dropping off my artwork at the hotel we head out. It's a hell of a long drive - I think we'd been expecting it to be a half-hour or so, but it takes us over an hour. At one point we get lost and drive miles past our turnoff. Eventually we get there and the beer and conversation is flowing freely. I just have the one drink because I'm pretty tired and another one will have me snoring. There are grilled mushrooms for the vegetarians, and salads and dips and other good things. I sit on the back porch swatting bugs most of the night, enjoying what are essentially hugely entertaining rants by the other guests, particularly Kevin Cross, prodding them once in a while with the occasional question to keep things moving. Zach offers to take me back around midnight - we spend another hour in the car finding the hotel. Zach is good company, an interesting guy with an interesting mind. I resolve to check out his work. Around 1:30am I finally get to bed. I'm getting too old for this...

Kids Read Comics Day 2 - Sunday

Despite my tiredness, I wake up ridiculously early, which is par for the course for me these days. Aargh. Still not early enough to catch Sylvie and the kids, who will be out for the whole day at the annual school fair (Sylvie being one of the chief organisers, she's there hours before everyone else). I write for a while, then I breakfast, shower and brave the grass verges once more. No suitcase this time, fortunately - that, and my books, remain at the library. It's a slow start - someone mentions that everybody's probably still at church, which seems obvious, but living in a country where even the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to have his doubts about the existence of God, it surprises me. People still do that? The only churchgoers I know back home do it just to get their kids into good schools.

My workshop rolls around - at noon this time, so I'm getting it out of the way early. It takes much the same form as yesterday's session, only this time Matt Feazell is in the audience, which momentarily paralyses me - I know full well that he could be standing up there instead of me and running rings around my shabby performance. I soldier on, and everybody seems to have fun - those that stay, anyway. A few leave early, for reasons unknown. I'd like to believe it's because they were wanting some of the theory I'd prepared, but I expect it's more likely to be because the thing was an utter shambles. At one point during one of our improvised four-panel strips, desperate for a punchline, I shamelessly recycle a Goon Show joke. If Matt Feazell spotted it, he was kind enough not to mention it. Once we got onto the hands-on stuff, where the kids made their own strips, there was one boy up the front who had the most amazing ideas. I don't know whether it's because my blather about anticipating the obvious and doing the opposite for comic effect had sunk in or whether he just had funny bones, but his stuff was genuinely funny. All the kids were really original - none of them used the characters we'd worked up together, they all made up their own. I felt a warm little glow.

Back at the table, another falafel wrap was waiting for me courtesy of the Falafel Fairy (Jerzy won't like me calling him that). Lunch over, it's back to work. Traffic is slower today, and I get to walk around a bit during longeurs and pick up a few books. Aware that I'm accumulating paper like a madman, I calculate that I'll have enough time to go to the post office on Monday morning before I fly home and ship a ton of it back separately, which seems like the only sane course at this stage. It'll be worth it - I can read my own books anytime, but this stuff needs to be grabbed when I see it.

I got to meet William Messner-Loebs, who told me he's writing for Boom! as well (I told him I read Journey back when it was first coming out, which seemed genuinely to surprise him - maybe I don't look as old as I think). Actually, I met a lot of people and reacquainted myself with a lot of others, and many of the names aren't coming to mind right away, to my shame - I'm pretty awful with names at the best of times, but the last couple of weeks have been a challenge all round. I remember Joe Foo, Paul Storrie, Thom (blanking on surname), Michelangelo something-or other... oh, I'll shut up now, I'm just embarrassing myself. Forgive me, people!

By six o'clock everyone's pretty eager to get out of the joint - it's been a long, slow afternoon, and most of the general public went home an hour ago. Dinner arrangements are made - the plan seems to be to meet in the hotel lobby and head on somewhere from there, so I prevail upon Zach one more time to take me and my heavy suitcase back to the hotel. Soon, gear dumped, I head downstairs, and pretty soon the place is filling up with exhibitors. The plan now seems to be to order pizza to be delivered here - there is beer available at reception in a little fridge you could miss if you blink, so we get in some drinks and the chatter begins. Kevin and I compare notes o the New Zealand punk scene - he's got a smattering of knowledge, but it's all of bands I've never heard of, and I thought I'd at least heard of most 1970s New Zealand bands. I promise to send him some Exploding Budgies and Toy Love and whatnot. Kevin asks me if I've ever been in a band - I mention my only claim to fame in that regard, the mighty "Gondaliers of my Black and Blue Love Canal", in which I perform as Knuckles the Malevolent Nun. He and Mark Rudolph are intrigued by this and make me promise to send them MP3s presently.

(Left to right: Kevin Cross, Laura Cross, Zach Bosteel)

The company is great - really, the company is hysterical - but I feel ever more exhausted and I still need to pack. It's time to say goodbye. I go around the room thanking everybody and slink upstairs to do what needs to be done. It feels like an ending in a way - and I guess it is, as far as this report is concerned - but I feel like I've made some friends.

Greyhound Madness

2010-06-17T06:04:00.005+01:00

(Here's a short account of my travels between Heroes Con and Kids Read Comics - full KRC report to follow shortly.)

Time to leave Charlotte and make my way to Michigan for the Kids Read Comics show. Not having anywhere else to go once I leave my hotel, and having put off the moment of departure as long as I dared, I find myself at the Greyhound bus station waaaay too early. Fortunately, I have a book - Mad World, a highly entertaining biography of Evelyn Waugh by Paula Byrne - which sees me through the hours I have to wait. I attempt to find something vegetarian in the cafeteria that isn't disgusting - I fail miserably, and end up with what is possibly the worst cheese sandwich I have ever eaten. Next time I hear an American say the British can't do sandwiches, I will be prepared.

I buy a phone card and (after trying two phones that don't work) I phone home. Sylvie is giving the children dinner - Thomas is throwing his food around in an uncharacteristic tantrum when I call, and has just been told off. Thomas and I exchange a few incomprehensible words through his floods of tears and snot and I feel keenly that my absence makes me a terrible father.

More waiting, more reading. At last 6pm rolls around and we board the bus. I'm sat next to an enormous woman whose bulk makes the entire bus tilt to our side when she sits down. She and her two male friends - one to our side and one in front of us - talk loudly and raucously between themselves, the guy in front doing a repetitive hour-long riff on Scooby Doo and Shaggy being potheads, like he's the only guy who's ever thought of it. Eventually I manage to sleep, briefly. I awaken in the middle of a sentence by the guy on our right: "... solitary. I mean, they put me in solitary confinement just for that, man." I reflect that I may have some trouble going to sleep again.

We stop to refuel - both us and the bus, it seems - at around 9pm. It looks like the only option is a McDonalds, presented to us as if it's some sort of treat. I've managed to avoid giving any of their horrible establishments any of my hard-earned money for close to twenty years - not for ideological reasons or anything, I just think the food tastes like garbage - but I need something in my stomach. This seems to be the trip for breaking the habits of a lifetime. I order a Caesar Salad - the poor cow at the till asks me "Crispy of Grilled?" about six times before I realise it comes with chicken. I make involuntary horrified noises - one twenty-year habit I have no intention of breaking on this trip is my vegetarianism - and am duly presented with something that resembles a Caesar Salad not a jot. It's basically just a green salad. What the hell, thinks I - down it goes.

Back on the bus. I manage to sleep without half trying this time - Heroes Con has wiped me out somewhat. But it feels like I've hardly been asleep five minutes before we stop and we're all told to get off the bus while it's "serviced". I am to discover over the next few hours that this is to be a pattern - sleep, rude awakening, off the bus, sit in a station terminal, back on the bus. My only previous experience travelling by bus has been in Europe, where you just, you know, get on the bus and sleep until you get there. Alas, this is not to be.

Many long, weary hours pass. Many layovers in many places. I am occasionally gripped by an irrational terror that I have got on the wrong bus and am on a one-way trip to Nowheresville, but by the following afternoon I finally end up in Ann Arbor. Helpfully, the bus station has a big sign in the window giving half a dozen phone numbers for local taxi services. Unhelpfully, there are no telephones, just a telephone directory on a small shelf - a big space on the wall above it with a couple of wires sticking out where the telephone used to be. I head out to the footpath (sorry, sidewalk) and start walking, dragging my suitcase behind me, in the blind hope that I will see a public phone, a taxi or, failing that, the street in which my hotel is situated. At one point I stop at a Borders to buy a map - I mention the street I'm looking for and the guy tells me I'm practically on it. That's the good news. The bad news is that, once I get onto it, the hotel is about thirty blocks away. I start walking, confident in the knowledge that the worst-case scenario is that I'll get there eventually. Fortune smiles upon me - I see two taxis. I jump in one and (apart from one moment when I almost give the taxi driver a hernia with my suitcase full of books) all is well. I reach the hotel, unpack, send a couple of e-mails, phone home, shower, get some dinner (another salad from a burger restaurant, all that's available after dodging traffic on a pedestrian-unfriendly stretch of road) and sleep. Oh yes. Hitting that pillow is without a doubt the highlight of my day.

I've Got the Pods

2010-06-11T19:02:00.005+01:00

Here's a sketch of Barney Google I did for Mike Rhode at Heroes Con. Eye candy for all the octogenarians in the audience! My thanks to Mike for the scan.

May I draw your attention to a couple of recent podcast appearances? A Heroes Con panel I was on, Craft and Process in Comics, is up at the Dollar Bin website - one for the cartoonists there, I imagine. Also for the cartoonists is a guest appearance on Art and Story, the podcast about the craft of making comics - actually sitting in in person this time, as I'm in Michigan for Kids Read Comics. Thanks to Jerzy Drozd for making me welcome and for sharing his bourbon!

Heroes Con Wrap-Up

2010-06-09T13:42:00.005+01:00

(Scan courtesy Tim O'Shea - thanks, Tim!)

Heroes Con Day 0 (Thursday)

For once I've had the foresight to bring my laptop with me to a convention, so I might actually be able to get a report out. Even remembered my camera! Go me.

Okay, so I arrived on Thursday afternoon, only slightly late, and got the shuttle in from the airport to the hotel with none other than Brian Bolland, who I'd never met before - we must have been on the same flight, but I didn't recognise him. What a nice man! This is a good start. Our driver is Billy Reed (not "Billy", "Billy Reed") - an old friend of Shelton Drumm's, he says - and his wonderful accent is already relaxing me.

I check in to my hotel and get to my room - five seconds after I sit down there's a knock at my door and a frantic lady comes in looking for her telephone charger, wondering if it's still here - this had been her room until she switched it, and she left it here. No sign of it. I sit down again, phone home just in time to say goodnight to the kids (Ahh, Skype! You save me many hotel phone bills), and there's another knock at the door - this is getting on my nerves now, as all I really want is a shower. It's one of the hotel staff asking if everything's all right. I tell him yes - off he goes. I have my shower - and now I know why the lady switched rooms. There's no cold water. Both taps run hot. I decide I'll live with it and take a shower jumping in and out of the boiling cascade.

Refreshed and slightly pink, I go and get my guest badge. I run into some of the Boom! Studios crew as I leave, so we go and get some pizza. This will be dinner - I'm trying to lose a few pounds at the moment, so I eat lightly, but the food is good and it sticks to my ribs. Speaking of ribs, Boom! head honcho Ross Richie gives me a bear hug, presumably in appreciation of the Eisner nomination, and it feels like he cracks a couple. (He's a big guy.) I go and set up my table afterwards, walking funny.

So far I've run in to a few familiar faces: Paul Maybury, MK Reed, Alec Longstreth and David Malki off the top of my head. Con organiser (and brilliant cartoonist) Dustin Harbin is running around like a chicken with no head, but he makes time to look at my Heroes Con Art Auction contribution and makes all the right noises. I'm relieved. My painting skills are really rusty and there were several occasions when I thought I'd ruined it.

The mobile phone I bought at the airport, swallowing back a lifetime of antipathy towards the damn things in order to make my presence here in the USA less of an inconvenience for others, appears not to work. It's entirely possible I'm just doing it wrong - I've never even looked at one of them up close before - but even so, I'm less than happy about it. I'd hate to think I threw away my principles for no reason. Always have a reason for throwing away your principles, I say.

End of Thursday - I try to watch a video on my laptop and fall asleep in the middle of it. So much for dropping in on the hotel bar later. That will have to wait until Friday.

Heroes Con Day 1 (Friday)

Awake ridiculously early - I'm still on London time. I manage to kill an hour or two writing before I go and get some breakfast (and technically lunch as well, as what I'm about to eat has to last me until dinner). At breakfast I see Irwin Hasen smooth-talking the waitress, the sly old dog. He doesn't look a day over ninety. The convention kicks off at 11 - I'm there at 9:30 to have a look around and say hello to a few people, buy some sketch pads and so forth, but I've barely had time to introduce myself to Muppet Show's "Family Reunion" artist Amy Mebberson (at last we meet!) before I'm getting sketch requests, and that's pretty much it for the rest of the day - I've got a list going before the doors open to the public.

Which doesn't mean I don't get to see a few people, as I'm pretty easy to find. Off the top of my head, I see Mr Phil of Indie Spinner Rack, Evan Dorkin, Andy Mansell, Jamie Cosley, Steve Leiber (fleetingly as I rushed past his table), Mike Maihack, Chris Schweizer, Richard Thompson, Mike Rhode, Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier. At the table next to me, lo and behold, it's the lady who switched rooms with mine yesterday, who as it turns out is Jill Thompson. Well I never.

At 4:30 there's a panel conducted by Dustin Harbin with me, Jim Rugg and Drew Weing talking about The Craft of Making Comics. Dustin freely admits this is entirely for his own benefit, it wasn't really put together with an audience in mind; despite this, we get a respectable crowd by my (admittedly very low) standards, as the last panel I did at TCAF was attended by, like, five people. It's an interesting talk, albeit a bit of an esoteric one. A fair bit of thinking out loud on my part, I know that. I often wasn't sure what I was going to say until I'd already said it. I kind of liked that, though.

Back to the table - as I pass the Boom! booth, I'm told I have a dinner invitation from Ross Richie. I gratefully accept, put in another 90 minutes at the sketches, and am delighted to see I'm only a few away from the end of the list.

Waiting in the hotel lobby for my dining companions, I see Tom Spurgeon at the bar talking to a few cartoonists, among them Jim Rugg and Sammy Harkham. We chat about Thor, of all things, and about New Zealand (Sammy lived there at one time). Then Mark Waid grabs me and I'm off.

Dinner is great. Apart from the Richies, we're accompanied by Mike (Boom! staffer), Mark Waid and Peter Krause. The wine flows and an enjoyable evening filled with scurrilous comic industry tales passes by. We then head back to the hotel - I intend to have a drink and socialise at the bar, but I don't see anybody I recognise. I decide to go back to my room and catch 30 winks, then come down later. At 2am I wake up in my clothes with a headache and write that idea off for another night.

Note to self: Bring Camera Tomorrow.

Heroes Con Day 2 (Saturday)

Okay, I forgot my camera again.

Busy day sketch-wise, and I sold some artwork, too, which means the trip is officially now paid for - everything else from here on in is a bonus. I had a sketch list going most of the day which I just caught up on as the show was closing. I finally got to meet Chris Samnee (there with his wife Laura). What a nice man! Nice and TALENTED - he gave me one of his convention sketchbooks which is amazing. Saw a few more faces today who I'd missed yesterday, including Craig Fischer, Greg Means, Johanna Draper Carlson, Paul Tobin, and at this point I know I'm going to slight someone I left out, so let me just cut my losses and apologise in advance. The business of the day means, paradoxically, that I have a whole lot less to report - as it was just a case of drawing my socks off all day. I sold out of some books, both ones I expected to (I only brought a few Fred the Clown, Art d'Ecco and Knuckles collections due to baggage weight restrictions) and ones I didn't (Mugwhump minicomics are gone?!). All good in terms of what I can take home with me - I don't want to be paying excess baggage rates, after all - but it leaves me a bit underprepared for Sunday, not to mention Kids Read Comics next week, though I'll have Muppet books to fill the gap for that.

Show over, I join Mr. Phil, Alec Longstreth, Greg Means and MK Reed for dinner. I wisely take the salad option tonight. Then back to the hotel for the art auction, where my piece gets a respectable $400 - I ogle at the art a bit (and not at the ladies dressed as fishnet-era Zatanna who are showing it off, oh no), then chat and sip beers with Tom Spurgeon, Chris Pitzer, Evan Dorkin, Craig Fischer, Greg, MK, David Malki, Dustin and various other bods for the rest of the night.

At about 1 am I turn in, surprised I made it that far.

Heroes Con Day 3 (Sunday)

Bit of a lie-in - another Skype call home - and then it's off to work once more. Sunday is much slower than Saturday for me, although still pretty respectable. I shift some more books, some artwork, some sketches (no list today) and managed to say hello to a couple more people (Robert Goodin being the only one I can remember right now). Robert asks me to contribute to his Covered project - I say I've been wanting to for months but haven't been able to find the time. I pick up a print of his version of an issue of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories which cracks me up every time I see it. Forgot my camera again.

Managed to earn enough to officially call the trip a success from a financial standpoint, at least - though my suitcase doesn't feel any lighter because it's full of stuff people gave me (or which, in a few cases, I actually bought). Just as importantly, I had a good time; it's an amazingly friendly show, everyone's super-nice.

The traditional after-show party was great, as always. This year the food that was laid on wasn't pizza, it was actual dinner-type food - though vegetarians like me were pretty much left with coleslaw and houmous. Oh, and beer. Let's not forget the beer.

Managed to get some quality chatting time in with Jeff Parker, Steve Leiber, Evan Dorkin, Ed Piskor, Guy Davis, Rosemary Van Deuren, Chris Schweizer, Heidi MacDonald, Mr Phil, Robert Goodin, a brief outside-the-lavatory-door chat with Liz Baillie, and some conversations with friendly strangers. I buy a couple of Dustin's mini-comics and a Laura Park mini I haven't seen before. Catch the second-to-last shuttle back to the hotel, crash, happy ZZZs.

Tomorrow I catch a Greyhound bus to my next stop on this two-stop tour, Kids Read Comics in Dearborn, Michigan. But that's a story for another day. (And oh, what a story.)

Frog of Thunder!

2010-06-02T15:02:00.003+01:00

Just finished this piece for the Heroes Con Art Auction and I thought I'd fling it up here for people to have a look at. The paint's barely dry!

I'll be on a couple of panels at Heroes: the first is "Craft and Process in Comics" on Friday at 4:30pm, and the other one is called "Family Friendly Comics" on Sunday at 12pm. And that table number again is 518 -- I'll be there whenever I'm not at a panel, signing, sketching and selling my wares. Hope to see you there!

Heaving on a Jet Plane

2010-06-01T06:21:00.003+01:00

Two days until I board the plane to Heroes Con and there's still a ton to do. I'm currently working on a Doctor Who story, a ten-pager for Doctor Who Magazine, the inking of which I'll be finishing on the road by the look of it. Here's a sneak look at some of the pencils.

It's called Planet Bollywood, which pretty much tells you all you need to know - script by Jonathan Morris, who wrote the last one of these I worked on, Death to the Doctor, a couple of years ago. Great fun.

Anyway - Heroes Con. If you're going, look out for me at Table 518 (looks like they've moved me out of Indie Island - I'm in the block of tables around Boom! Studios instead, so I should be really easy to find). Indie status notwithstanding, I will have my own self-published books there with me, including my new Doctor Sputnik collection. So if you're after a sketch or you want to get a Muppet Show book defaced in a personalised way, please feel free to stop for a chat and a browse. I seldom bite - hardly ever, really.

How Conventional!

2010-05-27T05:52:00.009+01:00

Been a bit slack on the blog lately, I'm afraid, though I have an excellent excuse: I'm gearing up for a two-week trip to the USA to attend not one, but two conventions. Yes! Such madness sounds impossible, but I assure you it's true!

First there's Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC on June 4th-6th; then I climb aboard a bus and schlep my way to Dearborn, MI for Kids Read Comics on the 12th & 13th.

Looking forward to both for different reasons - at Heroes Con, for example, among the many fine people I expect to run into, I'll have the opportunity to meet my collaborator on Thor, the Mighty Avenger, Chris Samnee, for the first time. We seem to be getting along great so far - hopefully meeting me in person won't spoil the magic for him.

And then, at Kids Read Comics - apart from the fact that it's you know, a comic book show actually targetted at an all-ages readership, which is to say my audience - I'll get to meet the hosts of the always thought-provoking Art and Story, the creative podcast which whiles away many an hour at the drawing board and which has been a near-constant companion for me for a couple of years now.

Did I mention I'm going to be hosting a workshop at Kids Read Comics? I'm going to be hosting a workshop at Kids Read Comics. It's called "Making Funny Comics" and you can sign up for it by going here and registering. It's free, and you may get the opportunity to see me make a complete twerp of myself in front of a live audience. Smell my fear!

Ridiculous!

2010-05-05T16:48:00.002+01:00

I'm back from New Zealand as of a couple of days ago, though I've barely got time to touch the ground before I'm off to Canada for TCAF. This month and the next are going to be ridiculously busy! But that's not what I want to talk about today, oh no. Today I want to tell everybody that my collection of Doctor Sputnik stories is available to order online from IndyPlanet.com - just follow the link.

This image isn't from the comic - it's from a Doctor Sputnik story I began once and abandoned after six panels. But they were a nice six panels.

Toronto and the Lone Stranger

2010-04-28T09:17:00.003+01:00

In a whirlwind development that's just come together over the last day or two, it looks like I'll be a guest at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival on May 8th and 9th. In addition to signings at the Boom! Studios booth, I'll be chatting to Tom Spurgeon about my work and possibly popping up on other panels as well (at this stage I honestly have no idea). Anyway - should be crazy fun.

Thor!

2010-04-17T20:34:00.004+01:00

I've been sitting on this news for a while, so I'm thrilled that I can finally reveal the new book I'm going to be working on with the amazingly talented Chris Samnee for Marvel. It's called Thor, the Mighty Avenger and you can read all about it here and here. I'm now officially a two-books-a-month guy!

Those Pigs Are Tough

2010-04-16T06:17:00.003+01:00

Quick heads-up about an interview on ToughPigs.com about some of my recent Muppets work.

And here's a Doctor Sputnik sketch, for no reason at all - because it's there, I suppose. Which is as good a reason as any.

Up For a Gong

2010-04-08T21:49:00.003+01:00

Well, a bit of news today. It appears my first Muppet Show book, Meet the Muppets, has been nominated for an Eisner Award. I'm not holding my breath about actually winning the thing - I'm up against John Stanley, for crying out loud - but it's a great feeling to be on the list. Thanks to the Eisner committee for the nomination, and to all the talented people who facilitate the process and make my work look as nice as it does.

Sputnik!!

2010-03-30T06:15:00.007+01:00

Couple of things this week. First of all, I recently made an appearance on the Art and Story Extreme!! Podcast, where I talked briefly about my upcoming trip to the USA in June, as well as a bunch of other stuff (it was that sort of conversation). You can check that out here.

Secondly, but related to firstly, I've put together a 32-page collection of my Doctor Sputnik stories for that very trip, so I'll have something brand spanking new (and yet very, very old) for folks to pick up when I'm there. It's nothing you couldn't already read online, although the print edition will be cleaned up a little (content-wise) to be kid-friendly, but even so, it should make a nice wee package, if I do say so myself. I'm trying out the services of Ka-Blam, the print-on-demand printers, for this one - a colour card-stock cover and black-and-white interiors. The cover was done in Adobe Illustrator, partly because I was in a hurry, partly because I liked the look. Out in June! (And it should be available online from that time as well.)

Lastly, I should mention that I had a grand old time at the UK Web and Mini-Comix Thing last Saturday. It's my only local show these days, and I don't think I've missed one yet. I probably won't be doing any report on the show because I'm off to New Zealand in a couple of days and I'm running out of time for that sort of thing, but I'm guessing there'll be other attendees with comprehensive accounts who are only a Google away.

Now, Here's the Thing...

2010-03-23T06:29:00.003Z

I spent yesterday getting ready for the UK Web and Mini-Comix Thing this weekend - London's finest (and possibly only) small-press comics show. Oh, such treats! As well as printing up another batch of my usual old mini-comics, I'll have a brand new mini-edition of Mugwhump the Great collecting the web strip to date which will be making its debut at the show. This one clocks in at a stonking FORTY! PAGES! - and that's only Chapters 2 and 3; Chapter One is in a separate mini which I put together this time last year (also at the show this Saturday - so you can get the whole thing if you want). Terrifying in its own small way.

If you've seen the latest Mugwhump strip, you'll be aware that I'm taking a short break from the strip. Still a bit vague about when I'll be picking it up again, but I'm thinking it'll be a couple of months. During the gap, I'll still be updating the blog, so do keep checking in, won't you?

Here's an oldie. My brother Andrew and I did a comic called Zoot! for a couple of years in the early 90s. Zoot! #7 is a comic that never happened - most of what was intended to go into it was eventually collected in Zoot Suite, and I used a re-done version of the cover as the back cover to that book, but this actual version of the cover has never been published. I've often considered starting up Zoot! again as an online project, releasing it as a PDF every so often or something, right before looking at my schedule, falling off my chair and laughing.

Sketchy Neighbourhood

2010-03-16T05:45:00.004Z

Over at ACT-I-VATE, the current chapter of Mugwhump the Great wraps up this week... leaving just the final chapter to deal with once I catch up with everything else. Most of the story is just about in place in my head now, bar a few dangling things I need to loop back in somehow. Should keep me on my toes, however it happens. Also running there at the moment is a story I did with Jim Dougan, Machismo Monitor. A fun little thing from a couple of years ago.

Heaven help me, I'm actually going to be drawing today for the first time in a while. I'm getting used to the writing life, to the point where that white paper is feeling mighty intimidating sitting there on my drawing board. I'm doing the covers (they do two per issue - crazy!) to Muppet Show #8 - here are a couple of rough sketches I submitted, only one of which will be making its way on to an actual comic.

Which one will they actually be using? Aha! You'll just have to wait and see.

Hulk Pants

2010-03-09T06:15:00.004Z

Langridge-watchers (all four of you) may like to check out a brief interview with me at Comic Book Resources, where I talk mainly about Muppets, but also about a few other bits and pieces. Here's the linkypoo.

Just finished writing Muppet Show #8, which will be the start of a new four-issue story arc. I'll be back at the drawing board from here on in for a while, so I'm taking the opportunity afforded me by Amy Mebberson's fabulous work on the Family Reunion story to get a good head start.

Do ya like the Hulk? Do ya? Well, do ya?? I drew this as part of a short burst of daily sketches which petered out after three days. Pooh. I may take another run at it. I haven't done much drawing over the last couple of months - it's all been writing - and I think I need to get limbered up a bit before jumping in to a new four-issue story.

Breathe in... aaannd relax.

Thinking Out Loud

2010-03-02T06:04:00.002Z

I get asked from time to time about my web strip Mugwhump the Great - whether it's all written in advance, whether I have plans to publish it at some point, that sort of thing. The assumption behind these questions seems to be that I actually know what I'm doing; that I have some grand strategy or master plan. I'd love to be able to tell you that that's the case. I really would. But the truth is more that Mugwhump is a reaction to everything else I'm doing, and it's enough for me to know that I'm doing it. What happens when I finish it, assuming I ever do, hasn't really crossed my mind.

The thing is, Mugwhump exists on a week-by-week basis and, despite the ongoing narrative that's nominally weaving its way through the strip, it's usually thrown together at the last minute. I do kind of have an overall end point in mind (although it changes all the time), and I have a couple of nifty set-pieces I'm meandering towards (ditto), but essentially I'm busking.

That thing about it being a reaction to whatever else I'm doing? Right now, that means a couple of things. The biggie, the one that takes most of my waking hours, is the Muppet Show Comic Book. The big thing about that is that it's owned and controlled by Disney, which means that every step in the process is scrupulously controlled, overseen, filed, catalogued, approved, altered, scrapped, rewritten and generally dicked around with. And that's fine, and entirely to be expected on anything Disney own - they've got millions of dollars tied up in these properties, and to let some yahoo like me come along and do whatever he damn well pleases would be corporate negligence of the highest order. I knew the deal when I took the gig, and if anything it's been a much easier ride than I ever expected. But the fact is, it's something I have to work out way in advance and submit my thought processes every step of the way, or the system breaks down. And on my day off, I don't want to do things that way.

Hence Mugwhump. The strip where I jump off a bridge every week, flap my arms like mad and hope I land on something soft. Now that I'm approaching the final chapter, I see that what I'm doing is pretty much what the newspaper strip cartoonists of old did on a daily basis.

I read an interview with writer and Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat recently where he talked about how he never writes outlines - he just jumps in and finds the story moment by moment. His defence of that approach was along the lines of, well, you can't be writing something in a script that's there purely to get you from point A to point B, you can't be putting stuff in there that's only worth putting in for what it eventually builds up to. Every moment in a script has to work in its own right, every moment should be compelling on its own. Not knowing where the story's going ensures that you make every beat in your story as good as it can be. And, if you're lucky, talented and ingenious enough, you just might be able to pull it all together by the end.

That seems to me to be pretty much what Frank King, or Chester Gould, or E.C. Segar did every day of their working lives. It actually seems to be an approach that's tailor-made for the strip format, as opposed to the comic book or graphic novel formats. And darned if I'm not realising that that's where my heart's been all along. So I'm thinking my next web project once Mugwhump concludes should be something much more newspaper-strippish, something open-ended. And something I can do quickly. Four panels a day with a stopwatch, before my work day starts properly. During the break from Mugwhump that's coming up, I may attempt something along those lines, just to get my feet wet. Not making any promises just yet, mind, but it's lurking at the back of my brain.

Who knows? It's so crazy it just might work.

G'day, Mate!

2010-02-23T07:27:00.002Z

Okay, so this week I made a decision - Mugwhump the Great will take another short hiatus once the current chapter is finished, which will be in about a month. I've got a trip to New Zealand coming up - I'll be there for most of April - and trying to get ahead enough before I left was proving too much for even my considerable powers. Best to worry about it after I get back from the Old Country. I'm determined that there will be content updating at the Hotel Fred of some kind or another during its absence - so stay tuned as I work out what that actually is.

Anyway. Having made that decision, I've had to get cracking on some scripts that are due. I'm currently scripting, tag-style, Muppet Show #8 (which I'll be back to drawing full-time after Amy Mebberson's wonderful run concludes) and, er, something else. Sorry to be a tease, but I saw the cover for the first issue yesterday and I just about wet myself. It should be something wonderful.

Kids Read Comics!

2010-02-17T08:45:00.002Z

They've announced it on their website, so it's time I made some noise about it here: I will be attending the Kids Read Comics convention in Dearborn, Michigan on June 12th & 13th - one week after attending Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, actually, so it's going to be a busy old time for a couple of weeks there. I'm excited about both events, but Kids Read Comics is kind of unique in that, as the name implies, the focus is on child-friendly and all-ages comics. Which is the end of the comic industry where I'm spending pretty much all my time these days. In addition to the opportunity to meet a lot of younger readers I might not otherwise get a chance to see, there'll be a whole bunch of great cartoonists there who I'm really looking forward to meeting as well. So - a good place to go and a good time to go there.

According to Graham Linehan's blog, he's actively looking for "cool stuff" to spread around the set of the new series of The IT Crowd, currently a strong contender for Britain's Best Sitcom in my humble opinion. By "cool stuff" he means all kinds of things, but particularly comic-related things - in previous series he's had Jim Woodring posters, Daniel Clowes books and, oh yes, Fred the Clown comics. It helps if you own the rights to the things you send him, but it's not essential. So if you think you can help, head on over.

In other news, I just clocked up another year on this dirtball we call Earth. My birthday presents reflected my rapidly-advancing age - a box of licorice, no doubt intended to ease my bowel movements; a David Sedaris audiobook, to aid me with my failing eyesight; and some Art Jazz by Bill Frisell, because I'm not into all that hippety-hoppety stuff they do nowadays.

Pass the toffees.

Police Box

2010-02-09T06:00:00.003Z

Doctor Who fans, epecially fans of Doctors past, might like to know that there's a publication focusing on the history of the comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine to which I contributed a part of the cover and a short interview about my days as DWM's regular caricaturist. It's called Vworp Vworp! (after the sound the TARDIS makes in the strip - no, I don't know why it does that either) and you can get it here.

Here's a closeup of my bit on the cover, a "jam" featuring a veritable Who's That of Who artists past and present. The full spread is glorious to behold. And there are free transfers by Paul Grist of the Eleventh Doctor attached to the cover, which makes me happy in a way I can't tell you.

Bastards!

2010-02-02T06:07:00.002Z

I've been noticing this thing turning into a sketch blog lately. This may be a welcome development. Here's one I did for someone which they then kindly posted on the internet so I could steal it back.

I've recently discovered the work of a guy called Chris Samnee, who I understand is big shakes in the world of superhero comics. He's bloody great! Like the bastard child of Alex Toth. And what drew my attention to this fine fellow, I hear you ask?

Ah, now. Well. Patience, grasshopper. Patience.

Spïjnåch

2010-01-26T05:59:00.004Z

This is an old thing, but it's only just been posted to the web - I did a sketch for Hey, Oscar Wilde - It's Clobberin' Time! It's all about cartoonists drawing characters (or their authors) from literature. Well worth browsing through the rest of the site while you're there.

It's been all scripting this week, apart from a couple of covers which if I showed them to you would SPOIL EVERYTHING so I'm not going to. Nyah. I can tell you that Muppet Show #5 will contain the words Brobdignagia, Trunticled and Spïjnåch.

The Comic Supplement

2010-01-19T09:27:00.003Z

Lots of writing at the moment as I get caught up. So - not a lot of pretty pictures to share with you... you'll have to settle for my manky old sketches. Meanwhile, a crust of inky shellac forms on the rim of the inkpot, welding the lid onto it like cement...

Been reading a rather good biography of W.C. Fields lately. There's a lot of interesting stuff about a revue he appeared in when he was a Broadway star called The Comic Supplement, in which the acts represented "strips" in a conceptual Sunday Funnies section, and it struck me that I'm far from the first person to combine vaudeville and comics. Genuine vaudevilleans beat me to it by about 80 years.

Doing the Hokey Kokey

2010-01-12T06:10:00.003Z

Okay, Muppeteers -- the next story arc situation is sorted out, and basically it means things have been switched around and a later story arc has been moved forward. And in a funny kind of way, it's worked out for the best -- because there's a big surprise coming up for long-time Muppet fans, and it's one we've managed to avoid foreshadowing in Previews and online publicity thanks to the switch... so when you see it, it'll really be a surprise. I'll say no more.

Last week I finished writing a Hulk one-shot for Marvel, which was great fun to do. I'm talking about doing more work for them, but only after I've caught up on my Muppet commitments... which I'm running kind of late with at the moment. Time to get to that keyboard. Fly, little fingers... fly like the wind!

Man vs Mouse

2010-01-05T06:35:00.002Z

Not the greatest week for Muppet-related matters, as I've just been told that my next two plotlines have some sort of issue as far Disney are concerned... but they haven't told me what. And there are no obvious problem areas as far as I can see. So everything's on hold there until I hear something. In the meantime I'm getting some work done for Marvel and hoping my schedule won't be a complete train wreck by the time Disney finally tell me what I can and can't do. I suppose I can't complain too much, I've had a good run. I believe this happens all the time to anybody working on a Disney property. I've just been phenomenally lucky in avoiding it up until now.

Anyway, I hope everybody had a great New Year's celebration. Here's what would have been one of the covers to issue 5 (and may still be yet -- fingers crossed). Have a great 2010, won't you?

New Year's Revulsions

2009-12-30T06:41:00.003Z

What about that 2009, eh? What about that?! Yeah, me neither. Actually, my 2009 has been all right, so I'm counting my blessings, really. I know it's been rough for a lot of people.

New Year's Resolutions:
(1) To try and get a collection of my old mini-comics and scattered one-off short stories together, probably as a print-on-demand affair for selling at conventions and through the ol' website.
(2) To produce a comic through entirely digital means that looks as much like my hand-drawn comics as possible, just to prove to myself it can be done. So far my attempts at digital artwork have been very digital-looking, and that's not what I want. So yeah, learn some skills.
(3) To get more sleep. Of the three, that's the least likely to happen.

Here's a picture I did as a commission - Waiting for Godot as performed by Laurel and Hardy, which I'd love to do one day - a straight adaptation, with the entire original text unaltered, just with Stan and Ollie as Vladimir and Estragon. It's a book waiting to happen.

Well, Ho Ho Ho to you too

2009-12-22T06:41:00.004Z

It's actually starting to feel like the end of the year now - people are getting reflective all of a sudden. There's a short interview with me on ToughPigs right now where I talk a bit about The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson - check it out here. Also very flattered to be mentioned as part of Rich Kreiner's Best of 2009 roundup over at the all-new Comics Journal website - and especially pleased for Fin Fang Four collaborator Scott Gray, who's getting some much-deserved attention lately.

Here's a Christmas present for you all - Kevin Cross starts his new webcomic, Monkey Mod, today. Yow! Been looking forward to this for a while. If you haven't seen the trailer, go now. Now, I say! Fly like the wind!

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Pet Avengers Assemble

2009-12-15T06:08:00.006Z

I was recently asked to do a cover for the Marvel comic Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers. Here's a step-by-step snapshot of the various stages, because I've recently been asked about such things.

First I did a couple of roughs...

The one selected for developing into a fully-rendered cover was the second one, so I then drew it in pencil on a piece of letter-sized paper.

Finally, I scanned the pencils and blew them up to finished art size, printed them out as a blueline (light blue lines which can be inked without reproducing, so only the inked lines are visible), and inked everything with a No 2 sable brush and a Hunt 102 dip pen.

Ta-dah! Wyatt Wingfoot's your uncle.

The Googlemeister Is In

2009-12-08T10:53:00.005Z

I have been just a teensy bit obsessed with Billy DeBeck's great newspaper strip, Barney Google, lately - not so much the later Snuffy Smith-centred material, more the Early Funny Ones. Here's my one attempt to do a Billy DeBeck style, at which I think I totally failed.

The problem is that DeBeck was such a good artist - his cartooning decisions were 100% conscious and deliberate, based on a rock-solid underlying drawing ability (this is a guy who started out forging Charles Dana Gibson drawings for a living!). So his fluidity is really hard to imitate if you have a more awkward, laboured relationship with the pen and brush.

Here's an example of the real deal.

More Barney Google in print - that's what I want for Christmas.

Rhapsody in Brown

2009-12-01T06:18:00.005Z

Here's a Fred the Clown strip I did for Tripwire a couple of years ago - I think enough time has passed now for me to post it here without getting anybody annoyed.

Art and Story Extreme!! had a short appearance by me last week - just a fun cameo on a call-in show, and nothing there for the ages particularly, but it was a pretty funny show once I got out of the way.

Ooh, I think that's about it. Ever so slightly behind on stuff right now (that's code for AAAARGGH) so it's a short one this week. See you in the funny pages.

Happy Daddy

2009-11-24T06:37:00.003Z

I'm a very proud daddy this week. My seven-year-old daughter asked if she could watch a DVD "for grownups". Once my heart had started again, I showed her Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr -- and she loved it. And my four-year-old son has been getting me to make pencil sketches for him to trace over for the past few days, essentially so he can practise inking; he calls it "tracing", but that's effectively what he's doing. So, yay kids! I've posted this picture once before, but I thought it deserved a return engagement.

And the winner for most boring post is...

2009-11-17T06:11:00.003Z

Bit of Sam the Eagle for ya. These are the pencils for one of the covers for Muppet Show #4.

Just a short post this week - I'm running behind schedule due to some domestic crises that needed dealing with. All right, the cat was ill. He's a weird old fella who we recently adopted from an animal shelter, found as a stray originally, and it turns out he's got this terrible catalogue of ailments. So he's turning out to be quite high-maintenance. Behold the mighty Sylvester...

I have just posted a picture of my cat to my blog. My life is now complete and I can die happy.

Skin

2009-11-10T06:10:00.003Z

I designed a tattoo! My artwork is now a permanent part of someone's body. How about that.

I believe the final issue of Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson is out this Wednesday. I think I managed to pull everything together at the end (by the skin of my teeth), but from here on in there'll be a lot more of a self-contained quality to each issue. That whole series was quite the learning experience.

Looks like I'll be drawing a Doctor Who story next year for the Who Mag! It'll be a ten-page short story with the Eleventh Doctor, written by Jonathan Morris, and without giving the concept away, let's just say it sounds like the research will be a lot of fun.

Finished the script for the first issue of the Muppet Show: Guest Stars story arc this week, featuring Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. There's also a brief appearance by Galileo which should make Mike Dawson very happy.