On Friday September 18th 2015, a crowd of lovely people shuffled into the amazing shop known as Gosh Comics to help celebrate the launch of four new comics.
That would be the fourth Lucy the Octopus print collection: Too Cool for the Likes of You, the first issue in the second volume of Francesca Dare’s Penny Blackfeather, High Spirits#1, the anthology of positive change Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox (see Andy Oliver’s review on Broken Frontier here), plus we revealed the special project (top secret up until the announcement on the night), Alidade, a 20 page comic made from scratch over one weekend.
All photos are by the amazing photographer Mauricio Molizane de Souza (except where indicated).
There on the left is contributor to two of the night’s comics, Mike Medaglia, helping lay out the goods…
So nice to see many friendly faces join us for the evening, some regulars and some new to the world of comic shops… 
Below (left to right): Friends of Gosh Comics, Paul Shinn (Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox contributor), Chantel Beaven and Lauren Louise Murphy. 
On the left below, you can see my amazing co-host, Penny Blackfeather creator and Alidade contributor Francesca Dare.
Below: On the far left is comic creator and director Andy Poyiadgi who kindly filmed much of the evening’s activities for us, on his own phone.
Taking a swig of beer is Alidade collaborator Tim Hassan, next to Paul Shinn and with the amazing pink hair is Paul’s fellow Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox contributor Anna Dowsland.
It was great seeing comic related images projected nice and big in the shop…
…such as this wonderful panel by Francesa Dare, taken from her Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox story Undertow…
And there’s Francesca again signing a comic for a fan!
It was great having the shop full, creating a brilliant buzz…
It was a busy night but I was glad to catch moments to chat to star creators such as David O’Connell who contributes the first story in Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox, Flat E…
And there’s two good friends (and Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox contributors) who I barely got to chat to at all, even after they traveled to the event from Brighton, the amazing Inko and Chie Kutsuwada…
I have a big grin on my face here but I think it masks my nervousness as I’m about to perform some music in a few minutes…
Speaking of music, here’s three great performers, newly-weds Paul and Sally-Anne Hickman chatting to my old band mate Miss E (Enoma Igiehon). 
And two more contributors who created the Tempo Lush Tale Give It a Go, Angela Wraight (back, in glasses) and Nas Bee (front left) who surprised me with some incredible homemade cake to feed the masses…
Aw! Such a nice bunch of folk including (left to right) comics academic and creator John Miers (who did a fantastic page of Bugleberry Tree in the anthology), Graphic Novelist S J Harris and Broken Frontier top guy Andy Oliver.
(Photo by fellow Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox contributor Keara Stewart)
That’s James Hickman holding a beer! James created the four page epic for Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox, Colossi, next to Lisa Woynarski.
Lisa used her theatre direction skills to great effect, timing the image changes during the evening’s performances on top of writing her first comic story for the Tanoox anthology: The Death of the Familiar. 
Miss E, Sally-Anne Hickman and myself downstairs in the shop after a bit of tuning up… 
And upstairs – Five minutes to curtain!
Right! Things are really about to kick off as Steve Walsh, writer, podcaster and Gosh Comics superstar introduces his niece Aimee to get things rolling with a penny-whistle performance…
Next up I start plucking away on Imani (my guitar) as we prepare for a special satellite link-up with the undersea town of Stoneydip…
…and Lucy the Octopus!
Lucy’s shy at first but does a good job introducing the evening, despite some trouble. 
You can see screen grabs of the satellite link up here and a video below…
Lucy welcomed to the stage my two musical collaborators for the night, Sally-Anne Hickman…
…and Miss E, who as Lucy pointed out, bears a striking resemblance to someone who appears in Lucy strips like this one! 
We three performed a little guitar instrumental I wrote a few years back, which still doesn’t have a name…
(Photo by Karen Rubins) 
Next it was the turn of the Francesca Dare Theatrical Players to perform a scene from the new Penny Blackfeather comic with style and panache…
Left to right: Francesca Dare, Paul Shinn, Steve Walsh and Lauren Louise Murphy.
Left to right: Saul Taylor and Ramsey Hassan. 
The crowd lapped up the culture, including Andy Oliver and contributor to two Tempo Lush Tales collections Matt Boyer…
Now for the serious business of creator shout outs…
Musicians strum while Francesca Dare leads the role call of talent involved in the evening’s new comic offerings…
…such as Graphic Novelist, singer and actress Jessica Martin who produced an amazing page for the Bugleberry Tree section of Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox…
…and Saul Taylor who won last year’s Complete the Lucy the Octopus strip contest!
Now it was time to reveal the secret project! Francesca called to the stage our collaborators on the book…
…and the crowd saw the 5 artists who made Alidade! (Left to right) Me, Mike Medaglia, Tim Hassan, Karen Rubins and Francesca herself!
Mike explained how we created the 20 page comic from scratch over one weekend in August, how fun it was, how stressful it got and what a great experience it turned out to be…
Finally I said a few thank-yous before launching into the song Bugleberry Tree alongside Miss E, Sally-Anne and the whole crowd in the shop.
It was great to display artwork interpreting the song for the Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox collection, such as the panels seen in the background below drawn by Rachael Smith.
(Photo by Keara Stewart)
It was a very special night for me – Thanks to all the friends and collaborators who turned up and made it rock monkeys!
All of my new books are available to buy in Gosh Comics and the Tempo Lush Etsy shop!
Phew!
Another workshop organised by the Cartoon Museum found me in St Thomas’s School in Fulham.
Finally, here’s some of my on the spot doodles explaining various points to the groups.
