Tag: Karen Rubins

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

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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…m01 m02 m03 m04So nice to see many friendly faces join us for the evening, some regulars and some new to the world of comic shops… m05Below (left to right): Friends of Gosh Comics, Paul Shinn (Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox contributor), Chantel Beaven and Lauren Louise Murphy. m06On the left below, you can see my amazing co-host, Penny Blackfeather creator and Alidade contributor Francesca Dare.m07Below:  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.m08It was great seeing comic related images projected nice and big in the shop…m09…such as this wonderful panel by Francesa Dare, taken from her Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox story Undertow…
 m10And there’s Francesca again signing a comic for a fan!m11It was great having the shop full, creating a brilliant buzz…m12It 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…m13And 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…m14I 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…m15Speaking of music, here’s three great performers, newly-weds Paul and Sally-Anne Hickman chatting to my old band mate Miss E (Enoma Igiehon). m16And 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…m17 m18Aw!  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)
m49-kearaThat’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. m19Miss E, Sally-Anne Hickman and myself downstairs in the shop after a bit of tuning up… m20And upstairs – Five minutes to curtain!m21Right!  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…m22 m23Next up I start plucking away on Imani (my guitar) as we prepare for a special satellite link-up with the undersea town of Stoneydip…m24 m25…and Lucy the Octopus!

Lucy’s shy at first but does a good job introducing the evening, despite some trouble. m26 m27You 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…m28…and Miss E, who as Lucy pointed out, bears a striking resemblance to someone who appears in Lucy strips like this one! m29We three performed a little guitar instrumental I wrote a few years back, which still doesn’t have a name…m30(Photo by Karen Rubins) m31-Kaz m31 m32

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…m33 m34Left to right: Francesca Dare, Paul Shinn, Steve Walsh and Lauren Louise Murphy.m35Left to right: Saul Taylor and Ramsey Hassan. m36 m37

The crowd lapped up the culture, including Andy Oliver and contributor to two Tempo Lush Tales collections Matt Boyer…m38Now for the serious business of creator shout outs…m39Musicians strum while Francesca Dare leads the role call of talent involved in the evening’s new comic offerings…m40…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…m41…and Saul Taylor who won last year’s Complete the Lucy the Octopus strip contest!m42 m43 m44

Now it was time to reveal the secret project!  Francesca called to the stage our collaborators on the book…m45…and the crowd saw the 5 artists who made Alidade!  (Left to right) Me, Mike Medaglia, Tim Hassan, Karen Rubins and Francesca herself!m46Mike 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…m47

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)
m48-keara

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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Tempo Lush Launch Night at Gosh: Photos, Videos and Report

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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… 01Always important to compare a printers proof of your book with your cat…03Other 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.02THE 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!
04One 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…
06 07 08 10I 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…

11CHATTING 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!12 13Pic below by David O’Connell…14ROSIE 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)
15So proud to have worked with this lot!

Inkos’ cover looked amazing projected as a backdrop to the party!16Inko (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!17Award winning creator, Jade made it to the event all the way from Milton Keynes.
28Here’s Francesca chilling with our good friend and Limehouse Comics associate Chantel Beaven.18Was touched that Francesca had painted me a lovely pic of the Pumfles (introduced in the new comic), to mark the event.  So cute!19BANG! CRASH! WHIZZ!

Also launched was my first creator-owned kids comic, Bang! Crash! Whizz! as drawn by the amazing Sally-Anne Hickman.
20Sally-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.21 22 23 24 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!   26TEMPO 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…27 The talented Matt Boyer…29Portrait artist  Keara Stewart… 30The cheery smile of Steve Walsh, writer of many fine things including the Tempo Lush Tales foreword…31 Martin Eden chatting with comic creator Tammy Taylor and fellow Tempo Lush Tales artist Karen Rubins… 32Keara and her fella checking out the anthology…33Matt and Paul soaking in the launch party vibe.
There’s comic maker Anna Dowsland on the left!34Signing a copy of the book…35For 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.37

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.38What 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 Stewart39Keara 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…
40LUCY THE OCTOPUS: ANY LESS THE FREAK

Fun to see my artwork from the third volume of Lucy the Octopus projected in Gosh...42So the line up of creators working on the final comic released on the night is… just me!41 Excellent then that someone else had been up to something Lucy related.
Why it’s cake maker and blogger, Jess Cave!
43Jess made a big and delicious batch of Lucy the Octopus cakes!
Dr Pepper flavour no less!44 45Photo above by Paul Shinn.
The cakes made for a perfect combination with comics and music – my kind of night!
46SO 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
47You can buy any of the four comics plus other Tempo Lush stuff here!
Bang-Crash-Whizz-CoverCover-for-PromoR&J2-cover-for-promoLucy3Cover8updateI’ll leave you with one final Lucy cake that made it home.48Peace!

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Tempo Lush Tales out soon!

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Time to make it official!

The new collection of comic book stories written by me is almost ready to go to print, to be on sale October 2014!

Here’s a sneaky-peak at the cover by designer, Darker Chi Lynch…
Cover-for-PromoHere’s the full line-up of amazing artists involved.
I’ll even tease you with the names of the stories they’ll be working on…

Matt Boyer – The Great Feast
Francesca Cassavetti – In the Bedroom
Martin Eden – The Dig
Tim Hassan – Peacemaker John
Steve Horry – Smoky Digital Seahorse
Inko & Chie Kutsuwada – Two Sons
Mike Medaglia – Save Night-Time for my Dreams
Aaron Murphy – Zardok Infiltration
Van Nim – Amy’s Hat
Karen Rubins – Not Going to Wondoznia
Paul Shinn – President of West Tibia

Keara Stewart will be providing special portraits and there’s even a foreword by Steven Walsh.

For those who don’t know, there’s a launch party in London on Friday October 3rd, for Tempo Lush Tales along with three other new Tempo Lush Publications, Rosie and Jacinda #2, Bang! Crash! Whizz! and a new Lucy the Octopus comic.
Join many of the creators involved, ready to sign copies of comics and be friendly and charming at the wonderful Gosh Comics (1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR) October 3rd 2014, 7pm-9pm!
See the Facebook Event Page here!

It’s going to be special!

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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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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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Purley Manga Club – Comics Writing Workshop

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I had a great time on Saturday, meeting kids at the Manga Club in Purley Library and running a workshop there on writing comics.

I’d heard good things about the club as my friends Chie Kutsuwada, Inko and Karen Rubins have all run workshops there before.  It’s enthusiastically run by Jayson Arago.  He’s created a perfect fun environment for kids to meet and talk about their passion for Manga, Anime, Cosplay and gaming.

Here’s the space ready to go….

Purley-Manga-01

How many libraries offer folders full of Manga reference material, eh?!

Purley-Manga-02

I wanted to talk about developing original ideas for stories.  The kids had fun using their skills to write six different endings for the same newspaper strip.

There were a lot of Pokemon references (no bad thing in my book)…

Purley-Manga-05 Purley-Manga-04 Purley-Manga-03

The pic below illustrated the obstacles characters must face in their stories, and how finding solutions makes the story!
One boy in the group added the Health Points bars – nice touch!

Purley-Manga-06

To end the workshop, the children all made their own comic pages.  The stories were based on their own Saturday mornings, often with a few fantasy elements thrown in…
They had a really good grasp of visual language.  I love the tummy rumbling here, an effective way to show the character’s wants and needs.

Purley-Manga-07

This story below was a beautiful poetic take on not having enough time to get things done…

Purley-Manga-08

There were some great Mangaka in the group…

Purley-Manga-09

Thanks Purley Manga Club!  Stop on by at my table when I’m at a con some time!

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MKomix write up

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It’s been a long time since I’ve sold my wares with a table at a comic show and the MKomix event last night was a lovely one to return to.  There was a friendly and chilled vibe in the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes as I joined some familiar and some new to me indie comic creators, including organiser Paul Rainey plus David Baillie, Jay Eales & Selina Lock, Sean Azzopardi, Karen Rubins, Jon Scrivens, Dan Lester, Jade Sarson and Amy Letts.

I had the pleasure of meeting Laura Watton for the first time in person and realising I’d bought a Sweatdrop collection she’d worked on many years earlier.  Was also great meeting my table mates and fellow Londoners, Avery Hill Publishing.

All in all, a good evening.  Thanks to all who came and asked me about my work and those who bought some of it!  My new Lucy the Octopus Tasty Taster Comic was my best seller of the evening!

The night was rounded off by driving home with Alex Fitch, David Baillie and Dan Lester, failing to find a Little Chef so opting for a Chinese take away eaten in the open air in Dunstable.  If anyone passing through Dunstable, pops into the China Express, I recommend No 74.

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MKomix 19 July 2012 6-9pm

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I’m very pleased to announce that I will be exhibiting and selling my work at the MKomix event in the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes on Thursday 19 July 2012, 6-9pm.

The event has been pulled together by the very talented Paul Rainey and features many greats of the Small Press scene including David Ballie, Jay Eales & Selina Lock, Sean Azzopardi, Karen Rubins, Jon Scrivens and Dan Lester,  plus Jade Sarson who I could tell drew the excellent flyer below even before spotting her credit!

MKomix Flyer Drawn by Jade Sarson

 

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Goodbye Monsterville and Hello & Goodbye Illuminate!

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I had a fun filled weekend visiting two exciting illustration / comic events, cultured kind of guy that I am.

Friday evening found me hitting the library, which was not as studious as it sounds.  The inside of the British Library was almost unrecognisable as for one night only it was transferred into Illuminate! A celebration of Illustration.  With music provided by Mr. Scruff, there was excellent and eclectic company as work of Quentin Blake hung next to the drawings of Jamie Hewlett and a host of other amazing artists.

It was good to see many of my buds from the London comic scene rubbing shoulders, including the very talented Karen Rubins  who I’m currently working on a short but exciting comic project with.   It was great to see her work displayed in such a fantastic venue.

Ink drawing from Tales by Ghost Light by Karen Rubins

My photo doesn’t do her line work justice so best to check out Karen’s online portfolio here!

Death Do Us Part

Death Do Us Part: Comic Sculpture by Karrie Fransman

Likewise, the picture above taken on my iPhone fails to capture how cool Karrie Fransman’s work is.  As well as displaying her comic art, Karrie ran one of the many workshops that was taking place on the night.  In her case this was a popular 3D Narrative Life Drawing workshop which included Karrie dressing up as a horse for the benefit of the surrounding artists who all grabbed the chance to draw live Medieval characters.  Here’s my own efforts…

3D Narrative Life Drawing Sketches

On Sunday I headed to a rare event that appealed to my 4 year old son as much as me.  Illustrators Sarah McIntyre and Ed Vere not only gave readings of their fantastic children’s books Morris the Mankiest Monster and Bedtime for Monsters, but had a nail-biting monster drawing showdown too! You can see more on the event on Sarah’s own blog here.

Ed Vere and Sarah McIntyre drawing in books at Monsterville

Sarah McIntyre and fan with "Vern & Lettuce" and Ed Vere's "The Getaway"

It was brilliant for me and my son to meet and chat with these illustration greats! It’s only a shame that the event was marking the final weekend of Monsterville after 6 months at the Children’s Story Centre in Stratford.  The planned Comics / Superheroes event there looks like it should be good too though!