Had fun over the last few weeks finishing what started as a doodle behind the Tempo Lush table at the MCM Comic Con in London…
Pencils…
Inks…
Scanned and tidied up in Photoshop…
Added a textured background and started laying out colour.
All done!
Time for a quick visual look at fun times at the past weekend’s Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds.
Up early and mentally preparing my brain for the day by analysing my stocks and shares…
New stuff on sale – hoorah!
My table neighbour Van Nim‘s wonderful array of work…
Just beyond Van was the great Sally-Jane Thompson…
The always lovely to chat to and impeccably dressed David O’Connell and Sarah McIntyre were showing loads of kids the fun to be had making comics and also selling their new Jampires book (and jam comic) along with their other fantastic works…
Amazing that despite his serious comic making skills and numerous appearances at conventions over the last few years this was Paul Shinn‘s first comic con with his own table…
As always I keep an eye out for cool Disney cosplay – here was a great Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 
Always lovely to be asked to do Lucy the Octopus style portraits of con visitors…
Got home to have Suki Kabuki check over my stash of quality comics and books by Ned Hartley, Barry Spiers, David O’Connell, Sarah McIntyre and Paul Shinn…
And that ends convention season for the year!
Cheers to all the lovely folk who visited the Tempo Lush table at MCM London Comic Con this past weekend. Great meeting new people and having folk who had read my work before come back for more!
Really pleased that all my new comics were selling. Had to rearrange my table a bit to make space!
I tend to keep some work on the go to make use of downtime. That’s some panel borders for upcoming Lucy the Octopus strips…
MCM wouldn’t be the same without my table neighbour Van Nim to share carrots and chocolate with!
On my other side, Francesca Dare of Penny Blackfeather fame and Karim Flint of Limehouse Comics.
The mighty Sloth Comics table…
While I’m usually happy behind my table for the three day event I sometimes can’t resist dashing out to grab a photo if I see some cool cosplay. Here’s a great Belle from Disney’s Beauty & the Beast…
And here’s an awesome Mable and Dipper from Gravity Falls…
As usual I got a chance to do some Lucy the Octopus style commissions like this David Tennant as Dr Who as an octopus…
…as requested by the Cheshire Cat!
And finally three ladies who insisted on pulling some excellent silly faces…
Thanks to everyone who stopped by.
Next stop… Thought Bubble!
Thanks to everyone who came along to the Tempo Lush launch night at Gosh Comics last Friday. There was an amazing turnout which made for a fantastic evening (for me anyway)!
GETTING READY FOR THE LAUNCH
So glad I was working with Rich Hardiman of Comic Printing UK who got all four of the new titles ready and delivered in time for the big day… 
Always important to compare a printers proof of your book with your cat…
Other things that needed to be done included practicing the musical section of the party with Bang! Crash! Whizz! artist Sally-Anne Hickman! Much of this went down in Hyde Park.
THE LAUNCH NIGHT
So arriving at Gosh I knew I was in good hands as Hannah, Andrew and Steve, part of Gosh’s crack team helped get everything just right. Nice to see the new books laid out on display!
One thing I’d forgotten to organise was someone to take some nice event photos, so I was delighted and relieved that amazing photographer Mauricio Molizane De Souza was on hand taking some wonderful pics. Unless otherwise stated, all the photos of the night in this post were skillfully taken by Mauricio!
The shop soon had a busy and friendly buzz inside…
I was thrilled that so many contributors to the new comics turned up for the occasion. For those who couldn’t make it, we displayed their portraits, as drawn wonderfully by Keara Stewart (see below) so Francesca Cassavetti, Tim Hassan, Mike Medaglia and Aaron Murphy were certainly there in spirit!
After some fun mingling, Steve Walsh Of Gosh and South London Hardcore fame got the crowd’s attention…
CHATTING WITH ALEX FITCH
Alex Fitch made me feel very comfortable chatting through the new releases as we stood on a make shift stage made up of two benches!
Nice to hear the people’s cheers as each artist’s work was displayed on the screen to our right.
Alex is such a skilled interviewer and comics and film journalist he makes it very easy to chat to him even in front of a crowd!
Pic below by David O’Connell…
ROSIE AND JACINDA: DEMON CLOUD
Here’s the amazing team behind one of the books launched on the night, the second volume of teenage fairytale Manga, Rosie and Jacinda.
Top row left to right: Jade Sarson (For the Love of God Marie!, Cafe Suada), Francesca Dare (Penny Blackfeather), Chie Kutsuwada (King of a Miniature Garden, Self Made Hero’s As You Like It), Van Nim and me
Far right: Zarina Liew (The Art of Sleep, Le Mime)
Bottom middle: Inko (Ketsueki (Markosia), Rachel Moves To Brighton)
So proud to have worked with this lot!
Inkos’ cover looked amazing projected as a backdrop to the party!
Inko (left) and Chie travelled up from Brighton for the evening, with Inko cosplaying as one of the Rosie and Jacinda characters, Aaron!
That’s the first time anyone’s cosplayed as a character I’d co-created. So cool!
Award winning creator, Jade made it to the event all the way from Milton Keynes.
Here’s Francesca chilling with our good friend and Limehouse Comics associate Chantel Beaven.
Was touched that Francesca had painted me a lovely pic of the Pumfles (introduced in the new comic), to mark the event. So cute!
BANG! CRASH! WHIZZ!
Also launched was my first creator-owned kids comic, Bang! Crash! Whizz! as drawn by the amazing Sally-Anne Hickman.
Sally-Anne and me had great fun performing a musical version of the story, to a visual display of the illustrations. Engineered with great skill by Richard Carter.
Photo above by David O’Connell.
So nice that crowd seemed to enjoy it, no guitar strings broke, we remembered most of the words and we didn’t fall off the benches! 
TEMPO LUSH TALES
The biggest book launched on the night was Tempo Lush Tales, an anthology of stuff I’d written with no less than thirteen artists handling drawing duties!
Here’s good bud and artist Paul Shinn…
The talented Matt Boyer…
Portrait artist Keara Stewart… 
The cheery smile of Steve Walsh, writer of many fine things including the Tempo Lush Tales foreword…
Martin Eden chatting with comic creator Tammy Taylor and fellow Tempo Lush Tales artist Karen Rubins… 
Keara and her fella checking out the anthology…
Matt and Paul soaking in the launch party vibe.
There’s comic maker Anna Dowsland on the left!
Signing a copy of the book…
For the second musical performance of the night Sally-Anne and I were joined by musician and Tempo Lush Tales artist Steve Horry. We only had two run-throughs (in the Gosh offices!) with Steve who had learned the song on the day, but being the smooth professional he is, he sounded fantastic.
Pic below by Inko.
We performed the song Save Night-Time for my Dreams which Mike Medaglia had visually interpreted for the collection. You can see one of Mike’s pictures in Keara Stewart’s photo below.
What an honour to have all these talented artists work with me!
Top row left to right: Chie Kutsuwada, Karen Rubins, Paul Shinn, Matt Boyer, Steve Horry, Martin Eden and Steve Walsh
Bottom row left to right: Inko, Van Nim, me and Keara Stewart
Keara was kind enough to give all the contributors framed original drawings of the portraits she’d done.
My one is now hanging in my studio…
LUCY THE OCTOPUS: ANY LESS THE FREAK
Fun to see my artwork from the third volume of Lucy the Octopus projected in Gosh...
So the line up of creators working on the final comic released on the night is… just me!
Excellent then that someone else had been up to something Lucy related.
Why it’s cake maker and blogger, Jess Cave!
Jess made a big and delicious batch of Lucy the Octopus cakes!
Dr Pepper flavour no less!
Photo above by Paul Shinn.
The cakes made for a perfect combination with comics and music – my kind of night!
SO THERE YOU GO!
Thanks to all the amazing people who were involved with the comics and the party!
Back row left to right: Karen Rubins, Paul Shinn, Matt Boyer, Martin Eden
Next row left to right: Zarina Liew, Chie Kutsuwada, Sally-Anne Hickman, Francesca Dare, Jess Cave, Steve Walsh
Next row left to right: Jade Sarson, Inko, Van Nim, Keara Stewart
Me in the centre
Richard Carter at the bottom
You can buy any of the four comics plus other Tempo Lush stuff here!
I’ll leave you with one final Lucy cake that made it home.
Peace!
So the final preview of Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud is by the likes of me!
It’s an honour to have my art in a comic alongside the amazing talents of Zarina Liew (The Art of Sleep, Le Mime), Francesca Dare (Penny Blackfeather), Inko (Ketsueki, Rachel Moves To Brighton), Chie Kutsuwada (King of a Miniature Garden, Self Made Hero’s As You Like It) and Jade Sarson (For the Love of God Marie!, Cafe Suada).
My friend and co-creator of Rosie and Jacinda, Zarina Liew, turned in some lovely pages for Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud. Here’s a glimpse…
It was so nice getting to collaborate with my bud Francesca Dare, creator of the great Penny Blackfeather for Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud.
Seeing the way Francesca worked to bring a page together was fascinating and the end result is a hilarious joy! Here’s a sample…
It was hard to find a panel of Inko‘s to show before Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Clouds comes out. Of course every single one of her images in the story look amazing, it’s just I gave Inko the finale of the story to draw and there are so many spoilers there I have to be very careful!
Here’s a tiny hint at her wonderful art in the comic…
I guess we can see the full glory of her stunning cover though!
It’s been great collaborating with my talented Brighton based friend Chie Kutsuwada this Summer, not only on a story for Tempo Lush Tales (preview soon!) but also on pages of the upcoming Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud.
Chie is an amazing visual story teller and draws the Rosie and Jacinda characters flawlessly…
