Mugwhump the Great

Announcements!

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!

The Show Goes On

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...

... 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!

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.)

The Return

Mugwhumpery

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.

All this to look forward to

One week until Mugwhump is back on your computer screens! I'm really looking forward to doing something non-corporate for a change - the Muppets are great fun, but they'll never be mine-all-mine. Here's a teaser - pencil art for the first installment, which will essentially be a recap since I've been away from it for so long.


This morning I had my next couple of Muppet plots given the go-ahead from Boom!, though there's still Disney to hear back from - but, all things being equal, you'll soon be seeing human guest stars (at least for a few issues) and the return of some characters who haven't appeared in the comic up until now. Yes, I'm teasing you. Tee hee.

Please Me, Tease Me

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

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

Aaand... relax.

You may notice this week that Mugwhump the Great is taking a short break. I'm planning on not making it longer than a couple of months -- I value the strip highly as my only non-corporate outlet at the moment -- but a break was necessary before I completely burn out and forget what my kids look like. Once I've caught up with my Muppets schedule a bit, I'll be jumping right back in there with both boots. In the meantime I'll continue posting new content of some description here at the Hotel Fred, even if it's just a bunch of old sketches, and continue with the weekly blog posts. Got to keep you coming back, now, don't I?

Couple of bits of news, though: first, Slave Labor is going to be publishing the third Strange Eggs anthology at long last. Chris Reilly and I did a short story in there, the title of which I'm not going to reveal as it will spoil the whole thing, but it involves a character called Hal Monty, sleazy thespian and general slimeball, who was a hoot to work on. Also, there's a short interview with me at Wonderchroma on Muppet things. End of plugorama.

Gimme an "M"!

The first issue of The Muppet Show should be out on Wednesday - there's a preview at Comic Book Resources for those who can't wait. I saw a PDF version of the finished book last week and I'm very happy with how it's come out -- let's see if anyone else agrees... Below is a frame from the pencils to issue #3, the Gonzo issue. (Just to give you something to look forward to -- or to avoid, according to personal preference.)


If all goes smoothly, I should have a minicomic version of the first chapter of Mugwhump the Great available at The UK Web and Mini-Comix Thing this weekend. (I still need to do a bit of work on it, but it's getting there.) If you're in London (or willing to make the journey), please stop by and say hello -- I'll be there all day sketching, selling comics and artwork and generally making an appalling nuisance of myself as usual.

Preee-sentinggg... MUGWHUMP THE GREAT!

Today I'm beginning a brand-new web strip, and if you're wondering why all you can see on my website is Fred the Clown, that's because the new strip is making its debut at Act-i-Vate.com. It's called Mugwhump the Great, and for the handful of you who have come to rely upon the Hotel Fred's WebComicsNation-powered RSS feeds and syndication features (whatever they are -- speaking as somebody who doesn't have a mobile phone and fondly remembers the old wooden computers), fret not! For Mugwhump will appear at the HotelFred.com with a one-week delay starting September 9th, a contrivance developed to satisfy Act-i-Vate's requirement for exclusive content (although you can already read the older Mugwhump material here). The black-and-white approach is the result of a conscious decision on my part to separate my personal work from my work-for-hire stuff, which these days is invariably computer-coloured. I thought it was time to draw a line in the sand somewhere and, for aesthetic, economic and scheduling reasons, colour seemed as good a place as any.

In other words, I'm expecting never to make any money from this and to have to print the damn thing myself eventually. Just like old times!

For a short engagement...

Fred the Clown is back with all-new content on the Hotel Fred website. Strictly a temporary arrangement, a four-week posting while I get the new strip, Mugwhump the Great, ready to go on Act-i-Vate.com... but hopefully a welcome return for those who have been requesting the big doofus nonetheless. It feels good to be back in the saddle.

And what is this Mugwhump the Great of which you speak, I hear you cry? Well, it's sort of a continuation of a story I did about a decade ago, which recently saw print for the first time in the Comics Journal (and which you can read for free online here). There'll be a slow start with a few gag strips before we launch into a longer plotline about a mysterious new manager taking over the Palace of Varieties and introducing his own macabre artistes. What's it all about? And what does Billy Woodentop have to do with it? All will be revealed, once I've actually finished plotting the damn thing. It's coming together, but plotting is a process I'm not yet entirely at home with. It's like giving birth to a watermelon at the moment.