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Lucy the Octopus Hardback Collection

By Tempo Lush April 19, 2018 April 19, 2018 Books, Comics, Lucy the Octopus

Okay, so Lucy the Octopus has been a big part of my life for many years now. She popped into my head while doodling around twelve years ago and her personality took shape in a mini-comic Tempo Lush brought out in 2007.

Eventually Lucy became a constant companion as I wrote and drew 212 of her weekly strips starting in 2012 (just noticed the serendipity of that), appearing online and collected in five comic-books over four years. I’ve had an amazing response from readers around the world, relating to Lucy’s struggles and enjoying her story. I’ve also had the pleasure of talking about Lucy at many events for adults, as well as to thousands of children and teenagers in dozens of schools, libraries and hospitals around the U.K.

So, of course, the idea of a printed collection of the whole Lucy story is something I’ve been dreaming of for a long time. Jessica Kingsley Publishers had published my children’s picture book You Make Your Parents Super Happy! and, through it’s imprint Singing Dragon, also released my graphic novel When Are You Going to Get a Proper Job?! I was thrilled when they agreed to publish a beautifully produced hardback collection of the strip, complete with new material.

Giving extra value to the collection are special online activity sheets for PSHE and creativity focusing on some of the themes of Lucy’s story: bullying and prejudice, available through a special code found in the book.

Here’s what Jessica Kingsley Publishers say about Lucy the Octopus…

Lucy is an incurably uncool teen, and an octopus. For no reason at all (other than that she isn’t very “girly”), she is very unpopular, and even her parents don’t like her! The only friend who will hang out with her in public is Puffy, her pet puffer fish. But Lucy’s haters don’t know that she is secretly an awesome guitarist, and she has been picked to join everyone’s favourite local band, Lamington Fuzz. While Lucy rocks at doing her own thing, her classmates realise that spending time with the “cool kids” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…

Richy K. Chandler’s latest graphic novel is a celebration of being who you are, and a story about why it pays to be kind. Bubbling with fun and wit, it will buoy up the self-esteem of children aged 9+, and is a delight to read for big kids of any age.

The book is available to buy now, through the coolest book shops, as well as online at these lovely sites…

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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.

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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…

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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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Fixing mistakes as I go along! Mermaid Painting Process

By Tempo Lush January 22, 2016 January 22, 2016 Artwork, Lucy the Octopus

Okay, this was a really enjoyable commission I did at the end of last year. I know it’s not always possible, but it’s great when a client gives you free range to do what you want. Even more so when you can trust they aren’t going to ask you to change the final thing!

The client was after a painting somewhat along the lines of this Alphonse Mucha style Lucy the Octopus strip…
… but it needed to be an A2 size picture in watercolour and ink rather than ink and then Photoshop colour of the Lucy strip.

I didn’t have too long to get the painting done, due to other commitments, so just dived in with some quick ideas in my sketchbook…
Next I was on to the pencils… Then inking with a brush… Then I got out the old sharpie and marked out frame borders on my drawing board. Easy as… OH €£@*! I’VE DRAWN A LINE RIGHT THROUGH THE MERMAID’S HAIR!!!!
This is a DISASTER! I can’t click undo like on Photoshop, and I can’t tippex over it as that will mess up the watercolour when I lay that down! AAARRRRGGGGHHH!Fortunately, I’ve done the painting on nice thick watercolour paper, which means with a stanley knife I can scrape off the top layer of paper … … and get rid of the black line!
It certainly leaves a dent but hopefully, by the time I add watercolour no one will notice!
So back to the inking, mainly with a brush but also with a bit of drawing pen… Time to erase the pencils… Add a quick plaster to my finger which has a blister from so much inking… A few final details with a fine pen…Then I lay down the watercolours…I’m using some new liquid watercolours, and everything’s going fine. Right?All going swimmingly (no pun intended)… Yep. No problems here!OH €£@*! Who am I kidding? I’ve done the blue borders way too dark!
It’s a general rule of thumb with watercolour to build up the lighter tones first, then work up in layers to the stronger richer tones, BUT I’VE LEFT MYSELF WITH NOWHERE TO GO!
Drastic action is required!
I take an army of wet Q-tips and try to remove the blue…It barely makes a difference… I carry on adding other colours in denial. But in the end, I get out the gouache paint! Unlike the translucent watercolours, gouache is opaque so I can go over the blue frames with a paler greyer blue tone.
It takes a couple of hours but worth it to save the painting! The eye is now drawn away from the frame to the more important stuff in the picture!
HOORAY! JOB DONE! Now I try a new trick! Using masking tape I make little star shapes to mask the next layer of watercolour.After it’s dry, I carefully peel off the tape to reveal lovely little stars below. It works pretty well…But OH €£@*! The tape has ripped some of the painting. PROBLEM NUMBER THREE! But a quick touch up with drawing pen and watercolour and all is well! All done, and the client will never know all the issues I had attempting to bring this thing to life (unless I write them all out in a blog).

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Gender in Comics and other stuff…

By Tempo Lush January 12, 2016 January 12, 2016 Comics, Lucy the Octopus

Towards the end of last year I was asked a few questions about my involvement with the amazing series of events / movement that is Laydeez Do Comics, as well as the role gender plays as a comic creator. The related article looks unlikely to be published now but Guardian journalist Tola Onanuga‘s questions raised some interesting points so I thought I would put the Q&A up here…

Tola: How did you get involved with Laydeez do Comics?
Richy: I first went along to see my friend, the manga artist Inko, talk back in 2011 when Laydeez Do Comics took place off Brick Lane. I was a little nervous of how men would be received in the group but it turned out to be one of the most welcoming comic events I’d been to. Soon afterwards I was asked to create one of their monthly graphic blogs ( see here! ) and later to give a presentation of my own work. I’ve enjoyed attending most of the monthly meetings in London since then, and recently the creators of Laydeez, Nicola and Sarah, wrote about the positive impact of Laydeez Do Comics as a foreword to my comics anthology Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox. Tola: Why do you think events like Laydeez do Comics are important?
Richy: While the readership of comics and graphic novels is diverse, the public perception of the medium seems to still be that it is largely almost solely male orientated. There need to be events which make an effort to welcome women into discussions of comics culture.
Laydeez Do Comics goes beyond creating a comfortable space for different genders to feel included. It involves contributors from a wide range of backgrounds and ages working in different genres. It even lets first time creators discuss their work alongside comics veterans.

Tola: Where do you find inspiration for your art?
Richy: I grew up making comics, my world immersed in Peanuts strips, Disney films and Hannah-Barbara cartoons. Its natural to me to express my thoughts and frustrations through creative means. I think more and more people are turning to comics as a form of cathartic self-therapy. Right now, parenthood is influencing my work, and while the giants of comics and cartoons still inspire me, local creators like Amber Hsu (Tiny Pencil) and Simone Lia (Fluffy) also have a huge impact.

Tola: What role, if any, do you think gender plays in a comic artist’s chance of success?
Richy: You wouldn’t think it was an issue sitting amongst the open minded folk at Laydeez Do Comics, or visiting the artist alley at virtually any comic convention where you’ll find no lack of talented female creators. However, if you compare the high percentage of women who have an interest in comics with the much smaller number who get their work published there’s clearly a discrepancy.

Tola: Where did the inspiration for your heroine Lucy the Octopus come from?
Richy: The Lucy the Octopus strip allows me to look back at times of feeling bullied and ostracised at school. By making the protagonist both an octopus and a girl I avoid any self-conciousness that would come from a more direct autobiography. I wanted to make Lucy a traditional “everyman” figure who happened to be a girl, but is relatable to everyone. Young boys growing up need female role models as well as male ones. Tola: What has been your favourite piece of work so far?
Richy: Working on Lucy the Octopus for three years had been incredibly satisfying and it will be be bittersweet when I finish off her story next year. It’s also been really enjoyable collaborating with dozens of artists from the small press comics scene in my Tempo Lush Tales contemporary comics anthologies.

Tola: And finally, what are you currently working on?
Richy: I’m developing a graphic novel focussing of the pressure to fulfil societal gender roles from a male perspective. It’s about a lumberjack raising a son while keeping his passion for cake baking suppressed!

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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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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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For Part 1 of this series of blogs, The Foundations of Writing, click here!
For Part 2: Script, Lettering & Layout, click here!
For Part 3: Pencils, click here!
For Part 4: Inks, click here!
For Part 5: Erasing, Scanning & Cleaning Up click here!

Category: Lucy the Octopus

Lucy the Octopus Hardback Collection

Small Press Live Show

Fixing mistakes as I go along! Mermaid Painting Process

Gender in Comics and other stuff…

MCM London Comic Con October 2015

Square McBear and his tummy full of comics!

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

Lucy the Octopus to reach 150 strips this Summer….

Made a new font today…

HOW TO MAKE A COMIC STRIP (or more accurately How to make the 93rd installment of Lucy the Octopus): VIDEO!!!

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