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Small Press Live Show

By Tempo Lush October 13, 2016 October 13, 2016 Artwork, Comics, Events, Lucy the Octopus

Okay, so a few weeks ago I finished creating the Lucy the Octopus comic strip which I’ve been working on since 2012.

I planned to have a bit of a send off at my favourite comic shop Gosh Comics in Soho, London. I timed the final strip to go online the same day that the last print issue, Just the Dregs, would be released… Thursday 6 Oct 2016.

Parties are always more fun with more people involved and two of my good friends, both immensely talented creators, were kind enough to offer to share celebrations with me. Francesca Dare was launching her latest Penny Blackfeather comic…

And Amber Hsu of One Pound Poems created a special poetry zine in time for the event, The Moon and the Eye…

The good people of Gosh Comics helped prepare, including Nora Goldberg-Fourrel who pulled together a great poster when we barely had any art ready for it…

And soon it was the night of the Small Press Live Show!
Here’s all our new material ready for the party goers to look at and purchase…

Francesca with fellow comic creator Cherish York…

Trying to keep our launches interactive and fun, we asked attendees to write insults for Lucy, as well as some compliments. These would come into play during the musical section of the evening later on…
Box drawings by Francesca…

Writer and cake baker extraordinaire, Nas Bee made some delicious Pear & Chocolate cake for the event…

And we were off! Francesca introduced the night…

…before Amber delighted the crowds with the first of four poems taken from her new collection…

Then Francesca gave us a little insight into the making of Penny Blackfeather (as well as panda romance)…

We’d asked the party goers for some spontaneous questions for Francesca to answer. Some were comic related. Some were way off topic!

Amber treated us to to a beautiful poem on a difficult subject…

Then it was time for the Lucy the Octopus Musical (of sorts), which I’d been writing for a few months. I was glad to have frequent collaborators and musical friends alongside me (from left to right) Miki Mangione on ukulele / vocals, Miss E (Enoma Igiehon) on guitar / vocals (both from my old band Kablooie) and comic creator Sally-Anne Hickman on percussion and vocals.

launch-16-by-cherish
Best selling illustrator Mike Medaglia was kind enough to jump in and control the imagery in the background of the musical…

And the audience did an amazing job learning words and singing along when needed!

The unmistakable silhouette of Andy Oliver of Broken Frontier…

I already knew Amber Hsu is multi-talented but was blown away at how easily and well she handled being narrator. We’d not had a chance to rehearse altogether before, but the first performance was great fun and I’m very proud of my musical troupe…

The evening rolled on with more entertainment! Another poem from Amber, The Poet…

Francesca said a few thank yous…

…and Amber did her final poetry reading of the night…
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Then to round off the entertainment, Miss E and I had a bit of a musical battle (which she clearly won – amazing guitarist that she is) and we all went on to play a surprise cover tune, where Francesca and Amber joined in on maracas…

launch-24-by-cherish

I was very grateful for the amazing contributors who lent their talents to the night and everyone who came along to join in the fun, including my old friend and amazing musician / singer Piney Gir…

From left to right: Writer / cake baker Nas Bee, Francesca Dare, Me, Amber Hsu and talented musician and composer Garo Nahoulakian…

It was a great evening! Cheers all!
Thanks to Nas Bee, Pete Bunzl, Amber Hsu, Tibah Hussain and Cherish York for photos and videos!

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The No Panic Book of Not Panicking

By Tempo Lush June 28, 2016 June 27, 2016 Artwork, Books, Events, Uncategorized

No Panic (Sutton and Merton) is a group of people who meet every week to provide mutual support for their experiences of anxiety. Founded by an incredible woman named Jean Bevan, the group has helped people cope and recover since 1997.

Over the past few months I’ve been proudly working on an extremely worthy project through the fantastic Apples & Snakes Performance Poetry organisation. Apples & Snakes’ amazing Daniela Paolucci asked if I could design and illustrate a book that No Panic (Sutton and Merton) was developing. It would feature poetry and prose plus creative writing activities helmed by the uber-talent, author and performer, Sally Pomme Clayton. Sally Pomme also brought out the writing skills of the group members, and helped develop their abilities to produce some incredible work for the book entitled The No Panic Book of Not Panicking (well-being through creative writing).

Here’s a piece of writing by Robin Bevan in an Online Exclusive page that was developed but not included in the final draft of the book…

And here are some of my illustrations from the finished collection…

The project has shown how taking a valuable goal of creating understanding of a serious mental health issue and fusing it with the creativity of writing prose and poetry has a double win.
Firstly the act of creation itself has clearly been a helpful constructive process for all the writers involved who suffer from anxiety. Secondly the final result has already been appreciated by many readers, breaking down the stigma of mental illness and spreading understanding.

I felt very proud to play a part in what is a significant piece of work, and through the act of collaboration I am proudly bonded with the writers of the book.

On Thursday 16 June, the official launch of the book took place at Sutton Central Library. It was compèred by Sally Pomme, and featured talks and readings by Daniela and many of the contributors to the book, including myself…

There were even official introductions to the event by the head of the local council, Simon Wales, and the deputy mayor of Sutton Nali Patel (far right below, alongside myself, book contributor Lawrence Ashenden and book editor Sally Pomme Clayton…)

The book is a fantastic read to learn more about anxiety, or to directly help anyone suffering themselves. You can pick up a hard copy of the book from any of the Apples & Snakes offices (see branches here and maybe phone to double check first!) or download a PDF version here!

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MIND Comic Creators Exhibit at the Cartoon Museum

By Tempo Lush April 8, 2016 April 7, 2016 Artwork, Comics, Events, Uncategorized, Workshops

Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to get to run a series of workshops organised by Steve Marchant for the Cartoon Museum’s Comic Creators Project, partnered with Mind In Harrow. Alongside Mind’s Emily Danby we developed a series of comic creating workshops for adults experiencing stress, anxiety or low mood.

Right now you can see work from the group on display at the Cartoon Museum in London. It’s makes me very happy to look back at this work and see what the group achieved during and after the 8 weekly workshops.

Nice to see the participants tackle lettering, story structure and facial expressions. I started off easing the participants into the world of creating comics by having them add their own elements to one of my own comics pages. Great to see their own individual styles and ideas shining through… A mix of emotions in cake!Some of the resulting complete strips were so funny……others were touching and powerful……and all were impressive and inventive… It was really gratifying to read these comments from some of the participants:

“We are a group of creative people who, with the support of Mind in Harrow, have been exploring the power of cartoon art as a tool of self expression. We all have lived experience of anxiety, depression and other related issues and we also share a talent for art, which this course has helped us to use as an outlet to manage conflicting emotions.

The Comic Creators course has opened up our minds to a new perspective on comic art and graphic novels. We find ourselves to be more expressive… through art, giving us an individual aspect of ourselves in our artwork. This helps break down the prejudice, stigma, and discrimination of people with mental health issues, taking away the conventional ideas that you cannot be creative or talented with mental health issues. It overcomes our self-doubt and fills us with the confidence to create art in our own style.

We came together and learned so much more than we expected to know about comics. Through the course, we also learned that we are not alone in our ideas of life, humour, and a good story narrative. This brings back our confidence and feelings of being connected to society.”

“The comic creators course opened a new world to me. I used to love comics for their story and art, but now I see how it helps people express themselves, to relax and think about what we hear, see, feel on certain things.”

“The course helped me tap into my creative energies.”

“What did I think of the course? Wow! Loved it! Enlightening and cool.”

“I never had much interest in comics as a child, and I wondered whether the course would be for me. I’m so glad I joined! An excellent course and tutor. It was exciting expressing the surge of images, ideas and comic concepts which came swirling in my mind, and putting them into visual form. I’ve really caught the comic bug!”

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MCM London Comic Con October 2015

By Tempo Lush November 3, 2015 November 3, 2015 Comics, Events, Lucy the Octopus

Had a lovely time at MCM London Comic Con last month and here’s the photographic evidence to prove it…Always good to have the best table buddies, including Inko, Chie Kutsuwada, Van Nim and Zarina Liew… Some awesome cosplayers…
An interesting commission…Some portraits I did… And finally an amazing portrait of me and Lucy by Inko…

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Square McBear and his tummy full of comics!

By Tempo Lush October 21, 2015 October 22, 2015 Comics, Events, Lucy the Octopus

It’s been a 6 years since I first started producing my Tempo Lush Mini Comics Box Set available here on Etsy as well as MCM London Comic Con this weekend and Thought Bubble in November.

Here’s some nice words from Small Press News Room about the set back in the day!

Thing is, even though I wrote and drew the ten mini comics back in 2009, I’m still hand making the grizzly bears that they fit in. His name’s Square McBear for those who don’t know and he stars in the last comic in the set.

First I print off a batch of the A4 comics and fold them into squares…Having printed off the flat bear box parts, I add double sided sticky tape to parts of the body and head, then with a guillotine and scissors I cut out each body, head, ears, arms, feet and tail…I fold the bodies and heads and glue on the ears…Then, removing the peely bit from the double sided tape I stick the bodies in place and add a bit of glue to the arms…Once the arms are stuck on I add some glue to the feet. You can see I’ve squidged it about a bit…The feet and tails are glued on and I place the heads on top with the double-sided tape…These grizzlies are ready for the comics to be placed inside…Then each bear goes for a snooze in its own box, comfortably resting amongst packing peanuts…All boxed up and ready to head to the cons, while the Tempo Lush CEO checks it’s all been done properly…
Finally, here’s an old video from when the boxes first appeared on the scene…

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The Lakes International Comic Festival 2015

By Tempo Lush October 20, 2015 October 20, 2015 Comics, Events

I had a wonderful time visiting Kendal in the Lake District this past weekend for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.
You can see the Clock Tower on the left of the pic above where I had a table displaying all my Tempo Lush goodies, next to by talented bud, Mike Medaglia, whose new book One Year Wiser was selling by the bucket load! It was fabulous to see the whole town getting involved, with banners everywhere and wonderful posters including Mike’s…
A highlight for me was taking part in the Windows on Comic Art Trail where I created this comic to hang in the window of the Thuline Studio Gallery. It features various sites and events around Kendal, and it was fun drawing small coloured pencil drawings knowing how big they would be blown up on the image… Thanks Lakes! Hope to be back one day!

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Round up of the Tempo Lush Penny Blackfeather Launch Night at Gosh Comics!

By Tempo Lush September 30, 2015 October 2, 2015 Comics, Events, Lucy the Octopus

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. m06 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… m13 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! m44

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!

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What is Alidade?

By Tempo Lush September 17, 2015 September 17, 2015 Comics, Events

All will be revealed at the Tempo Lush Penny Blackfeather launch party at Gosh Comics Friday 18th September 2015!

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Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox

By Tempo Lush July 31, 2015 September 15, 2015 Comics, Events, Uncategorized

Holy Schmoly! Check out the line up of creators involved in the upcoming anthology from Tempo Lush…
Brand new comic book stories on the theme of positive transformation from…
Nas Bee (Paper Houses) & Angela Wraight (Circuit Breaker, Yoshitoki is Making Waves, Paper Houses)
Francesca Dare (Penny Blackfeather)
Emmeline Pui Ling Dobson (Knights of Eve, Wu Wei)
James Hickman (Score & Script)
Amber Hsu (The Sardine and Gherkin – A True Love Story – and other One Pound Poems, Tiny Pencil)
Inko (Go! Go! Metro!, Manga Cupcakes, MangaQuake, Howl!, Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud)
Chie Kutsuwada (Go! Go! Metro!, The Story of Lee, Hagakure: Code of the Samurai, Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud, Manga Shakespeare: As You Like It)
David O’Connell (Jampires, Monster & Chips, Tozo, The Public Servant)
Keara Stewart (On The Escalator, A Bit of Undigested Potato)
and Dr Lisa Woynarski (Performance + Ecology) & Mike Medaglia (One Year Wiser, Wu Wei, Last Days of Nobodies)

Plus a jam comic featuring the drawing talents of…
Matt Boyer (Running)
Chonto (Acclaimed Japanese Artist)
Kim Clements (The Great Cat Mystery)
Francesca Dare
Anna Dowsland (Don’t Feed the Pigeons)
Sally-Anne Hickman (Bang! Crash! Whizz!, Black Diamonds and Blue Scars)
Jessica Martin (It Girl, Elsie Harris Picture Palace)
John Miers (Score & Script, How to Train your Robot)
Chibi Shibby (Stories about Me and You)
Paul Shinn (March of the Penguins)
Rachael Smith (The Rabbit, House Party, Flimsy the Kitten)
Tammy Taylor (Bon Appetit, 18 This Summer)

If that wasn’t enough, there’s a foreword by Laydeez Do Comics founders and award winning comic creators Sarah Lightman (Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women) and Nicola Streeten (Billy Me and You, Becoming of Age).

It’s an embarrassment of riches and I’m thrilled and in disbelief that they’ve all agreed to take part!

Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox is a follow up to last year’s Tempo Lush Tales (see reviews on the Big Comic Page and Broken Frontier). Again I will be collaborating with some amazing artists, but this time round I’ll generally be handing over the writing duties to other creators. It’s going to be a wonderful mix!

There is a definite theme to this collection too. At times it’s hard to see out world moving forward and getting better so I thought it would be good to ask the creators to focus on the idea of positive transformation. Obviously this can be interpreted in numerous ways and it looks like each writer has their own distinct spin on the idea.

It’s all coming together nicely ready for a launch at Gosh Comics in London on Friday September 18th. Save the date – and see the Facebook event page here!

The book is available to order online here on Etsy!

That leaves just one question… What is the Tanoox?

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WASP 2015: The Webcomic Artist Swap Project rolls on…

By Tempo Lush March 9, 2015 March 9, 2015 Artwork, Comics, Events, Lucy the Octopus

I’ve been having so much fun sitting back and seeing the amazing comic collaborations from WASP (Webcomic Artist Swap Project) flow in over the past week.

2015 is the third year for WASP. I conceived the idea to spread awareness of different webcomics and have a fun and creative challenge for comic makers. After a couple of years at the helm I was happy to be able to leave the project in the capable and telented hands of the new co-ordinators and editors, Sarah Turner (Folklore) and Francesca Dare (Penny Blackfeather, Rosie and Jacinda).

See more details and resulting comics at tempolush.com/wasp.

Here’s a round up of the WASP strips I’ve worked on over the last three years…

2013
Promo image by me!

Cafe Suada written and created by Jade Sarson. Drawn by me!
Lucy the Octopus – Written and created by me! Art by David O’ConnellLucy the Octopus – Written and created by me! Art by Zarina Liew 2014
Banner WASP painting by Francesca Dare

Becoming of Age – Written and created by Nicola Streeten. Art by me!
Lucy the Octopus – Written and created by me! Art by Rachael Smith2015

Banner by Paul Shinn, Francesca Dare and Sarah Turner
Go! Go! Metro! – Written and created by Inko and Chie Kutsuwada. Art by me!
Lucy the Octopus – Written and created by me! Art by Midori Harako. Now I’m thrilled, not only that Sarah and Francesca did a wonderful job pulling the comics together this year, but also that they’re going to continue the project next year – Onwards and upwards!

Category: Events

Small Press Live Show

The No Panic Book of Not Panicking

MIND Comic Creators Exhibit at the Cartoon Museum

MCM London Comic Con October 2015

Square McBear and his tummy full of comics!

The Lakes International Comic Festival 2015

Round up of the Tempo Lush Penny Blackfeather Launch Night at Gosh Comics!

What is Alidade?

Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox

WASP 2015: The Webcomic Artist Swap Project rolls on…

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