i can see your monkey

I'm talking at the Cartoon Museum + other events!

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:56:08 GMT

Hello.

It has been a long time since I last blogged hasn't it? Sorry. There's been a proper bumload of things to get done, and we moved house in the middle of it all. I now have a lovely studio of my own, where I can eat pudding and drop it on my work all by myself. I'll show you pictures of it sometime, the room, not the pudding.

I'll try and blog more, there really is a load of things to say, pics to show you, and ill-informed opinions to share, i'm just struggling to find the time to put them down. HOWEVER, I am doing some public events over the next few weeks, and if you'd like to come and say hello, that would be really cool I think.

Sunday 21st October - Cartoon Museum, London

Firstly I was beyond honoured to be asked to give a talk at the Cartoon Museum in London on Sunday 21st October. My own talk. Flipping heck. I'll be honest, I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to say, it may just be 5 minutes of spinning around quickly and then 55 minutes of me crashing into chairs. But hopefully it won't be like that. Instead I'll be talking about my work, going through the characters I've drawn and explaining some of the thinking behind them. The details are on the Cartoon Museum website (click 'Events', top-right) but if you can't be bothered to look, this is what it says.

So do come along! It's an all-ages event, so bring your kids, or just act like one. I'm hoping I'll be drawing and y'know all that stuff, but yet to work the details out yet. I WILL, however, be proper nervous. So, y'know.

It's tied into a great exhibition the Cartoon Museum are putting on about The Dandy, showcasing a load of original art from its 75 year history. It sounds really brilliant, and I should have a few pieces in there too, so even if you can't make my talk then do pop along to the exhibition the week after.

Tuesday November 13th - Society Of Authors, London

ALSO, my good friend Sarah McIntyre invited me to be part of a panel for the Society Of Authors, where myself and a handful of great souls will be discussing the future of publishing, particularly comics and cartoons. It's on Tuesday November 13th, in London. You may have noticed I'm a bit opinionated about this, so it should be a great discussion, and what a prestigious place to do it! Sarah has detailed the event far better than I could HERE, and also provided this beautiful little ad for it.

And that's me lot for now. I'm not big on going out in public generally, let alone parading around on a stage trying to impress people, so next year I'm probably not going to leave the house. It's safer for everyone that way.

A New Comic.

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:25:43 GMT

Losing the print version of The Dandy, which was announced this week, presents a real hole in the market, and one which may well get wider. What The Dandy did, and did very well, was be silly. Gloriously, ridiculously, silly, a real mixed bag of the absurd. And while we still have The Beano, it always felt like The Dandy was its ever-so-slightly childish younger sibling (despite being older), bounding around, stomping on what few rules The Beano had. Especially since the relaunch, it was making an art out of anarchy.

The support for The Dandy, since we're losing it, has been quite overwhelming. I've lost count of the number of people who've told me they're going to buy one (or more) copies, that it's a tragedy, that they kind of forgot it existed. National media coverage stirred not only a nostalgia, but a real need for that childish surrealism we all took for granted when we were kids, but lose sight of a little bit when we grow up. There was a palpable need to reconnect with it again, and a very real fear of losing it.

So.

Every cartoonist has their own ideas what a comic should be. I think when something this culturally important happens though, it's important we step to one side and take a look at what went wrong, and where we can go from here. Since this is comics we're talking about, there's a great swell of enthusiasm from creators and readers alike to push the art forward, to do SOMETHING to support comics. And while we'd all love to start up our own comics, the very real and very large problems of money, printing, distribution, all stomp those dreams into the ground.

Here's what I think comics can do. These are just my opinions, but I believe them very firmly, and would invite any discussions/ideas on the subject.

I'd like comics to claim back the sense of anarchy. The very deranged ethic of Oink! comic, swerving dangerously all over the place, linking stories in with each other, mashing ideas together, creating whatever seems to work at the time without any fear or caution. At the same time, I'd like us to learn a lot from American models. The Adventure Time comic is a great example, it looks beautiful, it's fun and crazy, and the style is something kids really attach to. Even looking at the world of Marvel, with their range of superheroes, each with their own stories to tell.

And this, I think, is key. Stories. Really strong, well rounded stories, led by really strong characters. Silly, daft, ridiculous characters, but strong in their design. A roster, or a family, a line-up even of instantly identifiable characters, to follow every week and get completely lost in their worlds. If you ever come up with an idea for a cartoon show on TV, do you know how long it takes? Years and years (trust me on this), even just to get through development. And in that time, characters and motivations are really thought about, worked through, tried and dropped. At the end, if you have a TV show that works, it's because of all the love and effort that's gone into it. So how do you get that same love and effort for a comic?

Simple. Creator owned content. 99% of the time, comics and magazines don't allow creator owned content. At all. As a result, if you pitch your idea and it's taken on, you either give away the rights and earn a living, or you don't. And while we in the comics industry all work hard, and love the work we produce, there must be something to be said for working on a character you have very real personal investment in. The work would be better. Even if only in tiny, subtle ways, your character would come through that little bit stronger. In allowing this, a publication would have a happier, more productive workforce, creating better ideas, looking around for other ways to exploit these ideas (perhaps TV), and bringing a share of any potential revenue back to the publication, as a thanks for being the first to host these delirious ideas. That, to me, sounds like a very mutually beneficial arrangement.

Because it's a mistake to think viewing characters as 'properties' is a bad thing, is a sell-out. 'Properties', to me, are the ideas which sparked off because they were good, and found a variety of mediums to explore. New ways to play with the characters. In no way could that be a bad thing, just the same as exposing your idea to as many people as possible can not be viewed as a bad thing. It's like raising a weird, boggly-eyed creature from birth, then setting it free in the woods. You don't know what's going to happen, but hopefully it'll make some people laugh and others shriek and cry.

The emphasis of all this, as I said, would be silly. Gloriously, wonderfully, silly. The kind of stories children would make up themselves. And lets involve them in it, teach them how to draw the characters, put cartooning tutorials online, show their work off in the comic. Make ourselves a community, to reward the readers.

Doing this all online would be the cheapest and easiest way. But if you'll humour me for a second, I'm going to explore print instead.

I love printed comics. I love online comics too, but i tend to flick through them without really paying attention, and they can easily get lost in amongst the competition. With a printed comic, it requires a certain type of concentration, and a certain affection on the part of the reader. A US comicbook size comic. With a beautiful cover every issue, a different character to showcase. It would sell at supermarket checkouts for a cheap price, the perfect impulse buy, there for adults and children alike to flick through, laugh at, and add to the foodshop. We would print sampler issues and include them with newspapers, give them away at underground tube stations just like they do with free papers, something to read on the way home. Give samplers away every month in schools. We would flyer, oh the flyering, and internet campaign our little socks off.

Oh the internet, we would use that too. We could use crowdfunding to raise the money for issue one, the more we make, the more the artists get paid. Every funder above a certain level gets the comic, a goody bag (man i don't care how old you are, 'goody' and 'bag' are still two of the most exciting words in the universe), and a page of original artwork from the comic! A piece of history. Something really special. The website itself, with integrated apps and whatever else you need, featuring extra exclusive content, constantly changing reasons to come back to. A support act for the main event, the comic book.

Is this feasible? It's far from easy. We would need a publisher to take us on, or a sponsor, or a rich benefactor who just wants to see people laughing again. Someone to take charge would be good (hey I'm passionate about this, but time spent organising is time not spent drawing, and i know from experience that can be frustrating). Someone who knows their marketing would be great too. The problem we've heard about existing comics is not the content, people love the content when they get to see it. The problem is getting it under their noses in the first place. One of the reasons the big licensed comics like Simpsons, Moshi Monsters etc sell so many is because they have the almighty weight of hugely successful TV shows/toys behind them. That is something ordinary comics don't have, and they suffer massively for it.

So that's the dream. Character-led comics. Creator owned properties. A mutual love of comics. And above all, the silliest, most gloriously stupid thing you've ever read.

Anyone?

The Dandy to close?

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 07:54:20 GMT

Guardian: UK's Oldest Comic The Dandy faces Closure

Well this doesn’t look so good, no. The Dandy, Britain’s oldest comic clocking in at 75 years, is on the verge of closing.

I’m not going to write about The Dandy’s incredible history or remarkable roster of artists, I’m sure other artists/bloggers will detail that far more succinctly than I could. Instead I’m going to talk about my experience with The Dandy, if you’re interested, and then end with a request of you.

I started working for them back in about 2003/2004, when they were doing a kind of relaunch, and wanted to use My Own Genie, which I’d sent in as a pitch perhaps a year or two earlier. From then on I was drawing My Own Genie every week for a good few years. I then drew a short spell of Space Raoul, did a try out on a strip called Thingummyblob, and then in 2007 did a ‘how-to-draw’ for Desperate Dan. I was pretty nervous, I wondered if it was some sort of trial to see how I drew him, and for such an iconic figure I wanted to get him right. I tried real hard to draw him in the style of those who’d come before me but eventually realised it would work better if I relaxed, and drew him how I wanted him to look. I did, I got the job, and ended up drawing Dan every week for the next five years. Free reign to write and draw what I wanted, which was a great responsibility, and I hope I stepped up to it.

When The Dandy relaunched a couple of years ago, what it did was phenomenal. It had previously tried to go a bit more ‘magaziney’, but now it was turning full circle and defiantly stating no, we are a comic, and we are proud of it. The last two years of The Dandy have been an absolute triumph for British comics, a confident love of sillyness, slapstick and mess. A great wave of ridiculous characters and stories, an unashamed love of all things absurd.

It also ushered in a host of new artists, fresh talent, being given their first break in the industry. It wanted to try new ideas, new things, giving us free reign to be as silly as we wanted. It was a playground.

For my part, I was very keen to be involved in the relaunch. I drew a style bible of sorts, including the header fonts, page borders, and an enormous pile of random pigs, blobs and half-eaten sandwiches to litter around the pages. I drew The Dandy logo on the front of every issue (THAT was an honour, let me tell you), and inside contributed a fair handful of comics. Alongside Desperate Dan, I did Arena Of Awesome, Mega-Lomaniacs, Pre-Skool Prime Minister, My Dad’s A Doofus, a pile of puzzle pages and oh well I forget, I think there were more but I can’t think of them right now.

So, to see this news emerging, it’s pretty crushing. It’s no exaggeration to say The Dandy is a British institution, and a pillar for British comics. It has been essential to our culture. As the artists involved towards what may be its final days, we are INCREDIBLY proud and honoured to work on such a comic, to be given the opportunity to entertain children. We believe we have delivered real quality comics, and that The Dandy has been a shining light in what is a shrinking industry.

So here’s what you can do. Go and buy The Dandy. Go and buy The Dandy every week. Every week until the end they’re forecasting. Grab a copy for your kids, grab a copy for yourself, or hey just grab a copy as a possible collector’s editions if you want. Just buy The Dandy. Chances are many people haven’t seen it since they were kids, so have a look and see what we’ve been doing. See how much heart we’ve been putting in.

Go and buy The Dandy, read it and enjoy it. A little bit of silliness in an otherwise somewhat overwhelming world. A custard-pie-in-the-face back to childhood, away from whatever being an adult is supposed to be. A smile and a laugh. A comic. A great comic.

And maybe, just maybe, we can show everyone involved how important comics still are to, and how much we want The Dandy to stay.

Please go and buy The Dandy.

Whubble returns!

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:26:57 GMT

WHUBBLE returns today, and every Wednesday, at least for the next five weeks. That's how many I have in store, although if it goes well maybe I can find a way to keep him going regularly. I always love drawing Whubbles, its just finding the time that's proved difficult lately. But the positive response he gets keeps on bringing me back, it means a lot to know people are enjoying him, thank you!

Fun fact: Whubble's been taken on by two different syndication companies over the years, in following that dream of seeing him in print. Neither came to anything, obvs. It would be lovely to see him in a daily newspaper one day, if you happen to have any contacts, do send them this way. No, I'm not too proud to ask, clearly.

Whubble

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:46:41 GMT

Live Comics Festival!

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 11:54:22 GMT

Hey! So! If you have kids who like drawing comics and want to come hang out with us, come to the Pop Up Festival in London (nearest station Kings Cross) next saturday (30th June). Pop Up is a free festival celebrating stories for children, teenagers and families.

A handful of top UK comics creators (and me) will be hiding in the 'Comics Big Top Of Awesome', where we'll be doing live drawing tutorials, reviewing portfolios, having great big comic battles on stage and playing cartoon consequences. By the end of the day, some of us will be crying, and at least one of us will be in space.

This is all actually happening! I'd write out more details here but to be honest Sarah McIntyre, one of the amazing artists who has hauled this all together, says it all far better than I ever could, so please check out her blog post HERE and then come along! Bring your family!

Corporate Skull Book One

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:50:43 GMT

Click the image above to read the entire book from the start. If you've been waiting to read it complete then now's a good time, no plans for a print version just yet (one day) so you might wanna sit back and enjoy the story online before book two begins.

Corporate Skull is the story of a man who hates his life and his job, but is transformed when he loses his face in a horrific photocopier accident. He becomes CORPORATE SKULL, hero of the workplace, a drunk, rude and violent success, leaving a trail of destruction and body fluids in his wake. But Skull's initial enthusiasm for his job is tested when questions about his employers emerge, questions involving dark conspiracies, incredible secrets, and rather huge quantities of blood.

Corporate Skull contains offensive humour and violence. So ENJOY!

Japan and the boom of the bland.

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:17:10 GMT

Japan was famously reticent to embrace the western world until about a hundred years ago, and to be honest if they could’ve seen what we were going to do to their character design they’d probably have resisted a little bit longer. Put up bigger barricades, turn off the lights, and convince western noseybonks that no one’s in, because otherwise we’re popping round and taking all your stuff.

These days, just saying something is Japanese or Looks Japanese is enough to make it suddenly interesting. As if ‘Japanese’ meant the same as ‘flecked in unicorn heads’ or ‘a mirror to your very soul’, it’s now a lazy adjective to make you think something is new and exciting. Fact is, there’s plenty of terrible Japanese art same as there is plenty of terrible EveryOtherCountry art, it’s just we’re still in the honeymoon period with Japan so it can fart, burp, and not flush properly, and we won’t mind.

If you’ve been to Japan, you’ll know much of this is actually well deserved. It’s a beautiful place and a wonderful culture, alien and new, yet friendly and familiar at the same time. You’d have to be a stone cold-hearted bastard not to love it. What annoys me is the constant fascination with a thing, anything, JUST because ‘It’s Japanese’, it’s at the expense of discerning opinion, and a little too trendy as a statement to be taken seriously.

Worse though, is what we in the west (are we still calling ourselves that?) have learned from Japan, and flung through our uniquely moribund shit-filters. Much of the Japanese pop aesthetic, from products to services, is about anthropomorphising things, putting a face on it, making it smile and having our bitter insides bubble with the cute. When we realised Japan TM could be a whole new way of doing things, we latched onto the idea with gusto, wrenching their cute faces off and stapling them to our own drab existence. In the last 10 years in particular, our artists and designers have put a smiley face on everything, written some Kanji underneath it, and told us to piss off and enjoy it.

While making the world a happier place isn’t necessssarily a bad thing, the licence it has given lazy bullshit artists is. It is now exceptionally easy to create a character on your software of choice, cutting and pasting big eyes and gormless mouths onto ice creams, apples, roadkill, whatever the hell you want. No need to explore the character, learn its shape, get a feel for who it is. Now you can use more than two line thicknesses, call it kawaii and tile it across your merchandise of choice. A steady stream of idiotic, dead-eyed bastards, dancing and smiling and puking all over your material goods.

If character designers really wanted to learn from Japan, they could learn how to create CHARM, not zeitgeist. Look at some of the most iconic Japanese characters to emerge over the years - Pikachu, AstroBoy, Domokun, Totoro, all very different but all lovingly crafted, learnt and grown by hand. You can see who they are, what they think, where they come from, and often this is by looking in their eyes. Irrelevant of what style of eyes a character has, from blinking dots to huge expressive bulging eyeballs, you can see a character’s soul in their eyes just as you can a human’s.

What we have here, instead of charm, is photoshop. Since something being Japanese is still automatically grade-A cool, there’s no shortage of cynical component-building by committee. A factory line of characters with interchangeable eyes, MAW-mouths and those BASTARD two finger salutes. Everyone from big design companies to individual illustrators are flattening our already grim world under lifeless, soulless and inane disposable NEW FRIENDS, telling us they’re awesome BECAUSE THEY’RE JAPANEEEZZZ.

While it’s fine as an artist to be influenced by another country, it’s rather imperative you make what you’re doing your own, otherwise what’s the point in doing it? In the UK (since I live here) we have an absolute wealth of talented character designers, all crafting their own creations. From Aardman to Burgerman, from Jonathan Edwards and Feltmistress to Nick Edwards, and SO many artists besides, we’re rich in style, talent and charm. I’d urge anyone to check out the Pictoplasma site (since the conference’s on at the moment) as an example of the variety available to a character designer.

I love cute. As you may well see from my own work, I adore and embrace cute loveable characters and do my very best to create them (I’ve had the ‘japanesey’ label thrown at me a lot, and I don’t mind so much since there’s obviously an influence there). So this is in no way a diatribe at the form or the style. Indeed there are a host of illustrators working in very cute styles (both hand-drawn and vector), obviously heavily influenced by Japanese art, who are producing some fantastic creations. My issue is with the whitewash of terrible cute characters for the sake of it, put together on a laptop by dissecting parts of each other, and shipped under the promotional tag of ‘Japanese’. It’s lazy, it’s ugly, and it’s insulting. Characters need life in them, personalities, motives, not just the same indentikit faces. They need to be sculpted and nurtured, built by hand, not by keyboard shortcut.

If designers and illustrators could stop being so damn lazy, maybe we could stop calling our art ‘Japanesey’, and start calling it ‘ours’.

Doctor Who Monster Invasion is OUT NOW!

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:52:44 GMT

Wow, I didn't think I'd actually get here. Today I finished my final Doctor Who picture search for Monster Invasion magazine. After producing a total of 54 of them over the last year and a half, I'm finally at the end, and it feels weird. It's been such a huge part of my life for that time, producing one every ten days was a tough schedule but I'm so ridiculously honoured to have been a part of it, and to have the opportunity to enter the Doctor Who world even in the slightest way.

DWMI have kindly said I can show some of my favourites printed so far, you'll find them below. But while I may have finished drawing them there are still plenty yet to appear in the magazine over the rest of this year. So be sure to buy it from the shops, or subscribe HERE

(they're only lo-res versions, but click them to see slightly larger)

Gangers

The Curse Of The Black Spot

Smilers

Cybermen Factory

Sardicktown

The Pandorica (Underhenge)

And of course, don't forget a bundle of them were collected into their own book, available wherever you buy good books ( i would link to the usual amazon etc, but i think everyone gets their books from different places as per country)

Finally, I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone on the DWMI team who were just the greatest to work for. Being involved in Doctor Who also brought me in touch with loads of Doctor Who fans who have all been so nice. Thank you for being so welcoming!

MEGALOMANIACS crash into The Dandy!

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:25:25 GMT

Arriving in The Dandy this week is my brand new comic strip, MEGALOMANIACS. Little meteorites crash-land into Earth, each containing a different alien/monster/robot/pile-o-goo, each of whom want to take over/destroy/eat Earth! Every week a new alien will attempt a nefarious scheme to seize control of our poor planet, and it's only plucky young hero Rory who knows about it!

I started work on this idea last Autumn, sketching out a ton of aliens and ideas to get it right. And I'm honoured The Dandy wanted to run it (though I do wonder if they know what they've let themselves in for). So go to your local newsagent, supermarket, or subscribe online, it all kicks off this week in a special Megalomaniacs bagged cover!

(Not to mention, of course, The Dandy is tirelessly and consistently producing a whole host of hilarious comics by a roster of some of the UK's biggest talents right now, you should be reading it anyway!)

PS. as an added bonus, here are some of the original Megalomaniac sketches, all of them to appear in future issues!

ACTION BEAVER!

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 10:43:43 GMT

Today sees the triumphant arrival of Action Beaver to the world, at least in this incarnation (Bear readers may remember his random appearances some years ago). He joins the increasing number of woodland animals scrapping in Bunny Vs Monkey, my weekly strip in the Phoenix Comic. Action Beaver raises the ridiculous meter through the roof, as he crashes, bangs and squarks his way in and out of adventure on the hunt for an adrenaline rush.
Also in this week's issue, I did a special double page Bunny Vs Monkey puzzle spread, a preview of which you can see below. It was an absolute blast to do, hiding each BVM animal around the woods and building puzzles and a story around them all. And of course there's this week's BVM strip itself!

NOT TO MENTION the exceptional roster of artists, writers and storytellers involved with the Phoenix as a whole, YOU SHOULD BE GETTING IT! It's available on subscription here (or just click one of the pictures), or from Waitrose and some comic stores (I know Gosh in london is a strong supporter, anymore stores anyone know of?)

Plushiiiiies

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:00:26 GMT

Apologies, meant to blog about this a coupla weeks ago but really excited that Topatoco have got in a whole load of Bear and Loosh plushes, even the big Loosh! Grab 'em while you can!

Everything's Exciting And Nothing Hurts

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:52:59 GMT

Sometimes I get asked advice about drawing comics. The benefits you’ll get from asking are akin to shouting your own name into a bin, in so much that it’s probably not going to change anything about your current lifechoices. I can give you all the advice in the world but it’s not going to give you the heart and fire you’ll need to already have. Dancers act like they have all this passion burning through their veins which they just gotta express, but it’s no different for illustrators (granted, less dancing involved). We don’t draw this stuff because it kills time, we do it because it makes up such a large part of who we are and how we’re defined in the world. And it’s not pretentious to declare that either – if you want to do this, you better believe the HECK out of what you're doing.

So if that applies to you, and you can say ‘it defines who I am in the world’ without sounding like a proper tit (I can’t), then read on.

None. Not one. It always surprises me when people ask this, as if school has been telling them “yeah, well, if you wanna be one of them ‘artists’, you better make hella sure you have Chemistry and Spanish under your belt”. I have never, ever been asked what grades I got at school or college, and why would I? An editor/publisher won’t ask for your school record, and won’t care that you rescued an old man in a motorised wheelchair from a river for your Duke Of Edinburgh Award. All they care about is seeing what you’re showing them there and then, whether it’s your portfolio or your pitch, and if they like it they’ll take you on.

If you’re still at school and reading that, be sure to read this too. You do still need to study hard, and this is for two reasons. One, drawing comics probably isn’t going to make you rich, and even if you do earn a living out of it, it could take a decade or two before you get to that stage (no, really), so chances are you’re going to need an actual proper job to support yourself. So make sure you get the grades to find a nice one.

Two, you need the smarts. Drawing comics isn’t, contrary to idiot belief, an easy job for people who don’t know how theyr brayn wurks. If you want to draw comics well, you need an intelligence behind you, a certain level of awareness. When you’re at school, learning irrelevant minutiae does seem pointless, but when you leave you realise it was all to raise your general smarts. The best artists are the ones who have as good a brain as they do a drawing hand. I tend to use Kate Beaton as a good example of this, but really it applies to (probably) most of your favourites.

Point is, don’t be stupid. Stupid people make stupid comics, and they might end up making stupid TV shows which aren’t very good but hit the demographics, and they make the viewers stupid, and if you’re the person responsible for this then you are the worst sort of degenerate who shouldn’t be allowed to sleep at night.

A lot of the concerns I hear are from people worried about making their work public for fear of criticism. The ‘what if people don’t like it?’ self-doubt which scrapes its way across your subconscious nerves like a rusty nail and suddenly you’re face-down on the floor rather than risking the wrath of your detractors.

The only possible advice I can give to this is who gives a toss? There are billions of people in this world, and unless you invent Spongebob again and convince everyone you did it first, most of them are never going to see your work. And of those that do, only some will like it. Of those that don’t, most will just move on and find something else they enjoy instead. The rest, the tiny proportional slither left, the very few who’ve seen your work, and dislike it, and don’t want to move on, THEY will comment on it, because they seem to believe their opinion is very important. And they, are stupid. Because art, by its very nature, is subjective. It would be impossible to create art everyone enjoys, and why would you want to? Surely it’s better to create something personal and heartfelt, and risk a few vocal detractors. At least you’ve evoked a response in them, an emotion. Better that than finding an audience and just flat-lining them with boredom.

So what I tend to say to people is, if someone doesn’t like your work, then they’re wrong. And it sounds arrogant to say out loud, but it’s more self-preservation, and it’s an attitude you’ll need to adopt if you want to forge a career doing this stuff. If your work begins to attract even an iota of attention, especially with this new-fangled internet floating around, you’re going to get people criticising you. And it’s never constructive. It will proudly say it is, but it isn’t. It’s just someone you don’t know casting judgement on something they (literally) don’t understand. If you’re going to let that knock you down every time it happens, you’re never going to be able to stand up. You’re doing what you do because it means something, and no one else has the right to take that away.

Right yeah I know, confusing innit. I’m saying one thing then the other, but this is a very important point. I said the attitude above ‘sounds’ arrogant, but it isn’t. It’s confidence and pride. Arrogance is something else entirely, and it’s very very ugly.

Most artists are the humblest breed you could hope to meet, often shy, easily startled creatures who wear glasses and tweet about tea. Some are a bit more outlandish, usually the americans, but they’re still lovely. Very few successful artists (whether they be comic artists, webcomic artists, cartoonists, whatever) are outright pricks. And the reason for this is that they’ve worked long and hard to get where they are, they’ve taken the knocks and the kicks to the crotch (oh yeah, that’s a part of this job, you’ll find out), and they’ve earned their successes. They’re probably not rich (success does not equal rich, for the love of god please stop thinking comic artists are rich), they probably have a sweet little life getting to do something they love. They’re appreciative, grateful for their lot in life, friendly. They like that you like them. That’s pretty cool of you.

There’s a very small percentage who believe their own hype and are grade-A fatballs, but lets ignore them.

Now, since the internet happened (what was that like in the 20s or something?), a lot more people have been showing their work around, whether online or print-on-demand-ing their own books, etc. And that’s brilliant, a new medium for us all to share our little corners of the world. Unfortunately it has also brought with it a species of self-entitled runt, who thinks because they have a couple of comics on deviantart, they’re top of the tits now. They’re cocky and, yeah why not, arrogant. Worst of all, they think the world owes them all the attentions.

Now I hasten to add here, again, it’s a very small percentage. Most artists online are humble and friendly however long they’ve been here, and thank god for that. This is more just a warning about that attitude, about getting too far ahead of yourself. It’s really ugly, and it’s a surefire way to bury yourself. Now the internet’s full of artists trying to show their work, it’s harder and harder to be seen, so we don’t need these big wobbly bags of ego flopping their way to the front.

Best approach? Be cool, be nice, be appreciative. Chat to your favourite artists, learn from them, support fellow artists, form your own little personal community. And most important of all, spend time on your craft. Getting a domain name doesn’t mean you’re an artist, you need to put the hours, days, months, and years in. You need to earn it.

If you get hired to do your arts all over someone’s comic, or whatever the opportunity, remind yourself why this is happening. It’s because someone wants what you’re doing, specifically your view on the world. That makes this all very personal and rewarding. As such, it’s imperative that you stick to your guns.

By that, I don’t mean be difficult. I mean learn to recognise what you’re doing, what your brain is trying to create, and follow it. Don’t get nudged one way or the other, don’t lose track of what’s at the very core of your work, what makes it so essentially you. I’ve been a full-time illustrator for 13 years (cripes), and my work always has the same essence running through it. Even though I look back and think much of my older work is pretty terrible, it is still essentially me, and it’s fascinating to watch how that’s evolved and become more distinct.

That process never ends. You’ll die and never reach the pinnacle of what you’re trying to do, but that’s irrelevant. There’s no such thing as an end point with art, you’re going to keep going and growing and that’s the fun of it. But while your art’s core should never change, remember that the world around you will. And it’s so, SO important that you keep your eyes open on this. So important I could weep while punching myself in the bum. Just, please.

You can’t sit around hoping lady luck will poink you on the head and give you a comic strip gig. You have to go looking for them, and you have to put in the legwork. Not necessarily literally, I know a lot of artists go to show their portfolios and their faces at cons and that’s how they get known, but equally the bulk of my efforts have been stuffing photocopies into envelopes and sending them to everyone I could bother. There is no right way of doing it. But the onus is a lot more on you now, the opportunities for you to create your OWN career are unimaginably bigger than they were even a few years ago, and they keep going.

In my opinion, you need to build a rich arsenal of work around you, and jump on the chances you see to develop it even/especially if that's just for your own amusement. A bit like tying a mattress around you and pouncing on a lion. If you hear of a new way to publish e-books, run at that with something. If you hear of a new twatty social networking site to connect with artists, fling yourself at it. If you have a great idea for a webcomic about elves in binbags, go away and make it because it seemed like a good idea at the time. If you hear of a TV company looking for new ideas, ROLL DOWN THE ROAD IN YOUR MATTRESS COCOON AND SHOW THEM WHAT YOU GOT. Enjoy the thrill of the chase, the chance to find new avenues, the glory of a new technology making your shiznit 79% cooler. Any opportunity that happens to you could easily take years to come to fruition (seriously) so take the reigns yourself and keep creating and creating and building your little world up IRRELEVANT OF WHY YOU’RE DOING IT OR WHO YOU’RE DOING IT FOR.

Because you’re doing it because you love it, and you’re doing it for yourself. You didn’t earn grades to do it, you didn’t listen to idiots, you stayed friendly, and you did it because it was fun, which is genuinely the only thing that will ever matter.

And we’re as lucky as you are that you’re doing it.

Hey, that's my work!

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:42:52 GMT

(click the comic to view it bigger)

They did change their logo in the end. In hindsight yeah, I was way too soft on them, but i believed them to be stupid rather than malicious. Their attitude from there just went beyond ridiculous into the comical, as if I should be grateful to them for their theft. Point is, if someone steals your work they may as well be kicking you in the jingles, and they'll throw all these cliche excuses at you but in the end it's still theft, and you should fight to get the respect you deserve. Not get so frustrated you explode blood from every hole.

Corporate Skull 4

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:24:02 GMT

Thank you for your patience, Corporate Skull issue 4 finally begins TODAY. NOW. I'll write a bit more about what's in store for this issue at a later date, but I'm hoping this issue will kick it out of the park.
Click this cover thumbnail to read issue 4 from the start. Enjoy! (contains swears and offensive humour)

Bunny Vs Monkey scenes 2 of 8 - Monkey

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:25:44 GMT

(click for bigger)

Bunny Vs Monkey scenes 1 of 8 - Bunny

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:04:53 GMT

(click for bigger)

You may recall me mentioning that in January my comic strip BUNNY VERSUS MONKEY begins in the new UK children's comic The Phoenix (which you can check out/subscribe to HERE). I was real excited to be involved, and BVM itself has a very special place in my heart (as to why, perhaps one day we can share) so I wanted to get it absolutely right. The story revolves around a woodland, and the trouble caused when a monkey crash-lands in the middle of it. Soon every animal in the woods is taking sides, and some rather remarkable weapons come into play.

That's the concept. The animals are cute, the fights exciting and the humour silly (or that's the plan AMIRIGHT?). But with BVM I have an opportunity to do something a little bit special, to make the woods as much a part of the story as the characters. I wanted the woods to look beautiful, and to ebb and flow through the seasons AS THE COMIC DOES. So if you're reading a Bunny Versus Monkey comic in february, the woods will look far colder then they would in a summer strip. The woods are as much the animals' homes as their battlegrounds, and provides really unlimited room for variety and change.

This idea really excited me, though I knew I was a little limited. My backgrounds are hardly very detailed, I tend to begrudge having to draw them, so I needed to force myself to work on that. I looked through all the backgrounds that inspired me, in particular many of the Disney backgrounds as mentioned in the previous post (though of course, there are a wealth of other talented studios who produced beautiful woodlands, Ghibli being perhaps the best example), and found as much reference as I could. Now, obviously I can't just paint to these levels, it's too highly-skilled and if anything wouldn't fit in with my rather more simplistic style. I just wanted to absorb.

So I set to work on eight scenes to get myself in practice. Each scene shows a different side of the woods, and one of the characters playing around in it. They served to get me into the right mindset and really convey an important part of Bunny Versus Monkey, something I haven't consciously worked on before. It's about the feel of the place I'm asking you to step into, the unspoken atmosphere.

I'll be posting up a new scene every day until The Phoenix launch date on January 7th. They are all a little rough round the edges, they were never intended to be finished art, just glorified sketches. Today's was the first I did, showing our main hero Bunny in reflective mood.

Tomorrow, I'll post up Monkey. Thanks for looking!

Disney Layout And Background

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:35:37 GMT

One of the unavoidable tragedies of animated films, I think, is how much incredible artwork whizzes past your eye without you even needing to think about it. None more so than in background art, where studio artists will labour for days on exquisite scenery, only for it to be a pretty two-second support act to the action in the foreground. I know, that's what it's there for, but considering how talented the artists involved are, I'd love for more attention to be paid to their contribution.
Thank mouse jesus then for this Disney Layout and Background book which I got for christmas, but you can pick up for only THIRTY QUID at amazon right now (clicky!). And it is a weighty tome, a big beautiful chunk of a book, filled with some of the most exquisite background art to be seen. Disney always were masters at this kind of thing, and the passion shows in every piece. It's also fascinating to see the different styles they adopted, and how art went from pencil to paint.
Please excuse the terrible photos below, they do no justice to the artwork, I just wanted to get across to you some of the work inside, in the hope you might go and buy the book too.

This year in particular I got a little obsessed with background art, I'm going to start detailing the reasons why on this blog tomorrow, and then every day for the next week. See you tomorrow.

2011 comic

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:32:21 GMT

(click to view bigger)

I did a round-up of my year kinda comic last year and it was fun so I thought I'd do another one. This one's a little more about some of the things i've done work-wise, and about what I want to get done next year. It's interesting looking back at these and seeing if i've done what I meant to, I'm sure plenty unexpected stuff will arise next year (it always does) but this, at least, is what i can plan at the moment.
I took four days off over Christmas and it was flipping lovely, but I tend to find time off just gives me time to think, and I start getting myself excited about projects I'm working on. So I spent most of my relaxing time completely reworking, structuring and nailing down one of my things (the 'FL' mentioned in the comic), and I've scheduled myself this week off from paid work to work on my own projects, so I can't wait to get my teeth into it. I'll be taking a few days out to work on Skull too, but there's no feeling like the thrill of a fresh new idea swimming about in your brain.
So happy new year everyone! It's going to be a fun one!

I got my own Hobbes!

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:03:15 GMT

HEY SO I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas. Mine was pretty sweet, and best of all was this gift from Sarah, my very own Hobbes. Now since Calvin And Hobbes was the biggest influence on me when I was growing up, and they don't make any merchandise, she made it herself from scratch. You can see the rest of the amazing things she's made here http://nuigurumi-sarah.tumblr.com/
Oh hell, wanna see these two?

Three Yodas! (adapted from an existing pattern)

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (from scratch)

Happy Christmas from Looshkin!

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:16:13 GMT

So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Well, quite a flipping lot actually. This year has been insanely busy, but next year looks even busier. And best of all, we’re finally starting work on our Looshkin game. So here’s a little season’s beatings from Looshkin himself (head over to our blog at looshkin.com for a few words), and have a great festive period!

Win a Chaffy for Christmas!

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:57:21 GMT

Here's a quick competition! We have three Chaffy toys to give away, and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one is draw a christmas card wishing Chaffy a happy christmas! It can be whatever you want, just as long as it shows a Chaffy or Chaffies, and is all christmassy. However good you are, wherever you're from, however old you are, everyone's welcome! Send your entries to findchaffy@yahoo.com, to be received no later than THIS FRIDAY (that's friday 16th December) at 5pm UK time. The winning three will be given pride of place on the Find Chaffy blog and a Chaffy will turn up on their doorstep just in time for Christmas!* All other entries will also be collected together and shown on the FIND CHAFFY blog.

Here's to a Chaffy Christmas! Good luck!

*Chaffy toys will be posted on the saturday, so while they should arrive in time, we obviously can't guarantee the post or international delivery.

Winners will be announced on the FIND CHAFFY blog. and on the Find Chaffy twitter. Decision is final. A Chaffy is for life, not just for Christmas!

Canada, apps, Dandy, Skull

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:48:41 GMT

HI! A lot to mention here (sorry for neglecting the bloggering of late), so lets get on with it.

CANADA

I was sent to Toronto earlier this week, just for a few days. I have two TV shows in development at the moment, one you may know about, but this other one is a preschool show we've been quietly working on in the background for a couple of years now. Our trip to Toronto was to meet some writers and bash out some ideas and I have to say, it's looking pretty darn good now. Fingers x-d this goes ahead, and I can start showing some of the art for it, it'll cute-out your eyeballs. Anyway it was a great trip, bit brief but I was looked after royally, and keen to go back soon!
(I used a 360 app on my phone to take the photo above, click on it to look around it properly)

KITTEN

I was honoured to draw one Kamikaze Kitten, queen of the London Rollergirls, for her range of T-shirts and whatever else may follow. The T-shirts came out looking awesome, so whether you love Roller Derby, or just want a top-tits t-shirt, click the image above to visit her store and buy one!

APPS

Couple of apps need mentioning. First is the Arthur And Charles app, by the excellent Moopf (whom I will be spending much of next year working with on the Looshkin app). It's not only brilliant for kids of all ages, not only updated with extra wintery goodies, but now it's FREE too! Click the image to check it out on the apple store, or grab it direct to your phone. GO. It's FREE. FREEEEEE.

Also something I've been meaning to shout about forevvver, is The Dandy's entry into the app market as you can now read Dandys and Beanos direct to your phone. So if you want to see what the fuss is all about, or just enjoy pages and pages of cartoony gold, go downloady! Click the image!

DANDY XMAS

On the subject of The Dandy, check out the X-mas bumper issue, out this week. Featuring a rather tasty Desperate Dan cover bag, it's filled to the brim with xmas-tinged comics and mashed-up christmas pudding (not literally). And if you like my gumf, I've done Desperate Dan, Space Raoul, a fiendish HAMSTER puzzle page and there's a 4-page My Own Genie christmas special which, if I might be so bold, made me laugh because it's been a while and I forgot what it was about. IT'S PRETTY GOOD.

SKULL GUEST COMICS

Laaaastly, you may have noticed last week we ran Corporate Skull Guest Artist Week, where seven artists gave their own take on Skull and flipping heck it got sweary, violent and sodding brilliant. Well now all those guest comics are collected on their own page, which you can check out by clicking the image above. Seriously, the work was astounding, and I was honoured to have such great artists involved. (And issue four start date is announced - january 9th!)

Phewwww. Right that's the lot.

Things you could buy, or ask for. HOT DANG!

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:35:21 GMT

Those links - for my books Find Chaffy, Find Chaffy Now or Where's The Doctor, best try amazon or even better, Book Depository does free shipping overseas > http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/
For my T-Shirts, Prints, perhaps even my toys if they get back in stock quick enough, visit my topatoco store here > http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=BOH (AND DON'T FORGET, EVERY ORDER GETS A FREE 32-PAGE COMIC!)

Grab The Phoenix issue 0!

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:05:45 GMT

We're finally getting our first look at the brand new UK kids comic THE PHOENIX, with the launch of their new website yesterday. CLICK HERE to have a look around. Not only that, but before the official comic launch in January, they're offering an exclusive ISSUE 0 comic, free for anyone who picks up the Waitrose Weekend newspaper and enters the secret code (although the code's probably floating round the internet by now). The Weekend newspaper is free and usually by the tills in any Waitrose branch, this week's also has a great two page pull-out featuring info about The Phoenix.
So yeah, do that, grab a free copy of issue 0, which is filled with exclusive comic strips, setting you up all ready for The Phoenix. Or hell, just grab a subscription to it now on their website, it's going to be a pretty incredible comic.
Issue 0 also shows the first looks at my strip Bunny Vs Monkey, as it features a 2-page prologue to the story. ARGH! HOORAY!