Category: Events

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Comiket at the British Library August 2014

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Yesterday I had a great day at this year’s Comiket.  It’s always a nice event and a chance to sell my wares and catch up with creator friends.  This time round the event took place in the amazing building of the British Library.

My table neighbours were fabulous artists and buds Anna Dowsland (middle) and Francesca Dare (right).  Francesca was rightly proud of her new Penny Blackfeather banner and her new collected edition of Penny Blackfeather available through Sloth Comics.Comiket-2014-1Across a small divide were two collaborators for Tempo Lush Tales, Spandex creator Martin Eden (middle) and a very tired but still awesome Van Nim (right)!Comiket-2014-2 Next up you can see how another Tempo Lush Tales contributor, Keara Stewart made her way into many of my photos…Comiket-2014-3Clearly Keara and Karen Rubins were having an amazing time.
Keara is sporting a Lucy the Octopus badge.
Karen, talented comic creator (another Tempo Lush Tales artist) and Phoenix contributor is sporting a weird frown.Comiket-2014-4Finally, Keara’s weird face pulling is joined by Broken Frontier writer Andy Oliver and Myriad Editions editor Corinne Pearlman…Comiket-2014-5I was determined not to buy anything myself, but couldn’t resist the new children’s book Jampires.  It’s a collaboration between Sarah McIntyre and David O’Connell. Both extremely talented writer artists by themselves, their combined creative power has produced something very special or silly or both!Comiket-2014-6One of the unique features of Comiket is the drawing parade.  Here different artists draw live to a soundtrack of music chosen by themselves.
Here, the wonderful Jade Sarson doodles away.  Watch out for Jade’s art contributions to the upcoming Rosie and Jacinda comic!Comiket-2014-7One last look at my Comiket table before I focus on getting four new Tempo Lush comics ready for release in October!Comiket-2014-8

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London Film and Comic Con July 2014

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Right!  I’ve just about recovered from a hectic time at the London Film and Comic Con in Earl’s Court London this past weekend.  I ended up doing more commissions and portraits than any other con I’ve attended.  This kept me very busy but I’m very grateful to everyone who wanted me to draw for them!

Also thrilled to meet there, people who are already reading Lucy or who started by buying one of the comics!LFCC2014General01Also relieved that this little pencil+screw+bottle top+superglue device worked in replacing the clip holding up my Lucy the Octopus standing banner!LFCC2014General02Finally, big thanks to my amazing table mate Van Nim, who put up with long periods of time when my drawing stopped me being able to talk with her!  She also kept me supplied with carrots and mini donuts.

Van is a wonderful artist (see www.vannim.me.uk ) who is contributing to my upcoming Tempo Lush Tales collection as well a small cameo drawing in the second Rosie and Jacinda comic.

As you can see, she couldn’t get enough of me taking photos of her…LFCC2014General03 LFCC2014General04I had fun doing some Lucy the Octopus versions of one of my favourite characters ever, Buffy the Vampire Slayer…
LFCC2014Pics01 LFCC2014Pics02 LFCC2014Pics03 LFCC2014Pics04Plus a Lucy style Batman – a first for me!
LFCC2014Pics05 LFCC2014Pics06Then there were the amazing attendees that wanted to have themselves drawn Lucy style…
LFCC2014Portraits01LFCC2014Portraits02LFCC2014Portraits03 LFCC2014Portraits04LFCC2014Portraits09 LFCC2014Portraits10 LFCC2014Portraits11 LFCC2014Portraits12LFCC2014Portraits07LFCC2014Portraits08Took a long time to get the details of the gun right for this next one, but the guy was a Firefly fan, so I wanted to add Jayne’s beloved Vera…LFCC2014Portraits13LFCC2014Portraits14One of the youngest people I’ve ever drawn Lucy style…LFCC2014Portraits15LFCC2014Portraits16LFCC2014Portraits17LFCC2014Portraits18 LFCC2014Portraits19LFCC2014Portraits20It’s also an extra bit of fun drawing people in cosplay, such as this very nice Dr Who…LFCC2014Portraits05 LFCC2014Portraits06Discovered that this visitor and me had very similar looking cats.  This pic features her cat Poppy, as a catfish of course…LFCC2014Portraits21She also travelled with a gang of expert Cosplayers!  Supergirl, Wednesday Adams and Storm of the X-Men…LFCC2014Portraits22I managed to take a few photos of some of my favourite cosplayers at the show, who made the atmosphere amazing! 

Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon…
LFCC2014Cosplay02Another Astrid along with Hiccup!LFCC2014Cosplay03American McGee’s Alice… probably my favourite video gameLFCC2014Cosplay05An amazing old school Maleficent…
LFCC2014Cosplay01And  finally T’Challa AKA the Black Panther and his royal guard!  These two made me and Van laugh a lot by being super friendly and chatty, then instantly getting into character and becoming intimidating for the picture!  Expert cosplaying!LFCC2014Cosplay04So a good weekend for me!

Now I’m looking forward to more shows this year…

Comiket
The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
Saturday 16 August 2014

Thought Bubble
Leeds
Saturday 15 – Sunday 16 November 2014

Hope to see you at one of those!

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Hanging at my table at May MCM London 2014

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I’ve done a half dozen or so MCM Comic Cons now and still enjoy them.

Always nice to see old friends, meet new folk and draw portraits, plus I’m still touched that anyone wants to buy my comics and prints!  The most gratifying thing is when people have already bought something at a previous show and liked it enough to come back and buy something else!

Here’s some pics, starting with with my table spread…
mcmmay14-01It was bigger than in previous years – no wonder some people come for 3 days…mcmmay14-02My lovely table buds Francesca Dare (check the feathers) and Van Nim…mcmmay14-03 mcmmay14-04 mcmmay14-05 mcmmay14-06Van surprised me with a lovely sketch of Grace Park as Sharon from Battlestar Galactica…mcmmay14-07My comic creator friend Karen Rubins treated me to these beautiful things…
 mcmmay14-08Amazing how quick the weekend goes but I made the most of my table and found time to work on upcoming Lucy the Octopus strips…mcmmay14-09Speaking of Lucy I’ll leave you with some of the Lucy the Octopus style portraits I was commissioned to do over the weekend…mcmmay14-10 mcmmay14-11 mcmmay14-12 mcmmay14-13 mcmmay14-14This next one is my friend and soon to be collaborator, Manga artist Chie Kutsuwada…mcmmay14-15 mcmmay14-16 mcmmay14-17 mcmmay14-18Looking forward to my next con…
London Film and Comic Con 2014
Earls Court 2, Old Brompton Road SW5 9TA
Friday 11 – Sunday 13 July 2014

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Pin-up for Rachael Smith’s House Party!

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A number of groovy artist types have contributed pin-ups for Rachael Smith‘s upcoming House Party Graphic Novel published by Great Beast Comics, including Paul Shinn (see his here) and John Cei Douglas (check his out here).

If anyone’s around London on Friday 13 June 2014, I’ll be at the House Party official launch at Orbital Comics!

Here’s my finished pin-up effort…
Richy-House-Party-Pin-UpAnd here’s the colours planned out before adding texture and tone.
Colour-Map And here’s the inks before I coloured it.Ink-Scan And here’s the pencils from before I inked it.
Pencil-ScanSo there.

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Secret Agent Fun at Discover Children’s Story Centre

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I had such a great day on Saturday taking part in a comic making workshop as part of the Secret Agent Themed Season at Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford, East London on Saturday.

Sunday would see the skills of Sarah McIntyre, Gary Northfield and Alex Milway assisting any kids up to the mission of making fantastic comics and characters.  Saturday however, the crack team of agents consisted of (left – right) myself, David O’Connell (who organised the day perfectly and created some brilliant worksheets), Laura Ellen Anderson and Jamie Littler.Discover01Discover02David (above) drew a fantastically evil scientist (below).  My secret agent was called upon to sort him out! Discover03 Here’s Laura wowing kids with her drawing talents…
Discover04 This was definitely a highlight of the day for me – Laura and David having an improptu Tadpole Attack Squad draw off.  It was a fierce battle!
Discover05 When I heard that Laura had an octopus character in her Phoenix comic strip Evil Emperor Penguin, we had to have an Octopus draw off too!  Was amazed at Laura’s unplanned linework – so good!
Discover06 Some more Secret Agent themed art by Laura, myself and visitors to Discover…
Discover07 Jamie did a mind-blowingly good take on the evil inventor including a Laser Shark!
Discover08 Discover09 Hmmm… Well, you try drawing Scooby-Doo without any reference then!  I had to explain to the girl who asked for this who Scrappy-Doo is.  Kids today, eh?!
Discover10 Finally here’s a secret message, written using David O’Connell’s secret code!
Discover11So good to work with David, Laura and Jamie and especially at such a special place as Discover!

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Christmas Comic Workshop in Blackheath

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I was up 5am this morning to head out into the frost and make my way to Blackheath.  A chai latte and pecan muffin woke me up in Greenwich and I was ready to roll, running two comic workshops at Blackheath Bluecoat Secondary School.

I was met by the school’s fantastic librarian Caroline Fielding who helped me guide the school’s Year 9 through a speedy two hour workshop on making comics.

We looked at…

  • Idea development
  • How even the simplest drawings can communicate ideas
  • How placing an image in a different context can change its meaning
  • Editing stories and picking key moments to depict in comic panels
  • Creating characters based on ourselves, but not necessarily looking like us

Despite some of the kids’ insistence that they couldn’t draw, everyone did some wonderful comic work…

After group-developing some Christmas themed ideas, each participant drew their own series of images, creating a fabulous Christmas atmosphere on the page…

XmasComic01 XmasComic02 XmasComic03 XmasComic04

For the record, the image above does not show Lucy the Octopus but instead shows a derpy squid.

Next up, the talented Year Niners developed their own narratives based on what they think they might be doing on Christmas morning.

Some great work here.  You can tell which kids have a Manga influence…

XmasComic05 XmasComic06 XmasComic07 XmasComic08 XmasComic09 XmasComic10 XmasComic11 XmasComic12

It was a fascinating insight into the psychology of each of the students, seeing how they chose to depict themselves, from stick people to animals to floating eyeballs with tentacles and a bow!

After the workshop, Caroline created a fantastic display of some of the amazing work done…
XmasComic13Thanks very much Blackheath Bluecoat Secondary School – you did some excellent comics!