More snippets of fantastic drawings from the recent Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox anthology on the theme of positive change.
The contributors also suggested a positive idea in keeping with the theme of the anthology… LISA WOYNARSKI&MIKE MEDAGLIA
Previous works include:
Lisa – Performance + Ecology Mike – One Year Wiser, Wu Wei, Last Days of Nobodies
Positive Idea: “Our positive idea is of a collective awareness across the planet of our ecological connectedness where people face the effects of climate change head-on and have the courage to make a change in a big and meaningful way.”
Art sample from their Tempo Lush tale: The Death of the Familiar (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tanoox)SALLY-ANNE HICKMAN
Previous works include:Bang! Crash! Whizz!, Black Diamonds and Blue Scars
Positive Idea: “The Margins Project based in the Union Chapel provides a range of vital support services to people facing homelessness, they offer a kitchen training programme to develop skills that can lead to employment. They also provide a winter night shelter followed by a hearty breakfast in the winter months. www.unionchapel.org.uk”
Art sample from the Tempo Lush tale: Bugleberry TreeTAMMY TAYLOR
Previous works include:Bon Appetit, 18 This Summer
Positive Idea: “I think a good charity to support would be Springboard for Children as they provide one-to-one support to improve reading and writing for children who are in danger of being left behind in the education system www.springboard.org.uk”
Art sample from the Tempo Lush tale: Bugleberry Tree You can get hold of the book online here, or at Gosh Comics or if you’re heading to any comic festivals this year you can find me and Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox at… The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (Kendal, Saturday 17 – Sunday 18 October 2015) MCM London Comic Con (Excel London, Friday 23 – Sunday 25 October 2015) Thought Bubble (Leeds, Saturday 14 – Sunday 15 November 2015)
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.
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 Tanooxcontributor), Chantel Beaven and Lauren Louise Murphy. On the left below, you can see my amazing co-host, Penny Blackfeathercreator and Alidade contributor Francesca Dare.Below: On the far left is comic creator and director Andy Poyiadgiwho 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 Tanooxstory 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’Connellwho contributes the first story in Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox, Flat E…And there’s two good friends (and Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanooxcontributors) 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 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!
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 Treealongside 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 theTempo Lush Etsy shop!
Phew!
The fantastic Lisa Woynarski is taking part in the intriguing Trans-Plantable Living Roomas part of the Green Stage Project.
Trans-Plantable Living Room is a living, edible performance space, grown by community gardeners, which will host interactive performances during September 2013 in Cardiff and London.
I drew this this illustration for the performance book.
I had a fantastic weekend at the Caption Festivalin Oxford. It’s an amazing annual comic convention (the UK’s longest running) with a focus on creators talking on panels and running workshops. Lovers of the comic medium and creators alike mingle freely, without hour long queues for book signings or paying to get an autograph from your favourite 1980’s TV star. I enjoy huge shows like MCM Expo and Thought Bubble too, but it’s good to get a picture of the whole spectrum of comic conventions out there!
I’ve been to Caption a few times before (including my first one five years ago, when I had to rush back from Oxford after my wife’s waters broke) but I think this has been my favourite. There was a good mix of smooth running panels, I knew lots of the lovely attendees plus I got to meet for the first time some amazingly talented people…
Some of the casts of panels on editing and Myriad Editions
Above you can see my doodling done during a panel entitled Shedding Light on the Dark Art of Editing Comics. It was great to hear perspectives on editing – a side to comics which is often overlooked by fans and publishers. The panel included Woodrow Phoenix, Corinne Pearlman, John Anderson and Hannah Berry, held together by one of hard working Caption organisers David O’Connell.
This was followed by another great panel on publisher Corinne Pearlman’s Myriad Editions. This included creators who have had their books released by Myriad: Nicola Streeten,Darryl Cunningham and back for more panel fun, Woodrow Phoenix.
Lovers of the comic medium and creators alike mingle freely…
Caption organiser and Journalist Alex Fitch reading the new Almost Naked Animals magazine which I wrote a comic for
Day Two of the show started in a delightfully social way with some familiar friendly faces from the usually London based Comic Gosh!p Book Club, a fantastic graphic novel reading group run by Mike Medaglia and Mark Haylock. In this session we were discussing Maus (Art Spiegelman) and My Cardboard Life (Philippa Rice). The general consensus was they’re both a bit good!
Other Gosh!pers included David O’Connell, Selina Locke & Jay Eales (former Caption organisers who stepped in to help out this year too), Lisa Woynarski and Elliot Baggott.
Gosh!pers try to find stuff to say about Maus and My Cardboard Life
Next up, I was on a panel myself alongside some amazingly skilled creators: Playing in Someone Else’s Sandbox (Self-published vs licensed characters) featuring creators who have done incredible work on their own characters as well as other people’s… The line up featured David Baillie (via Satellite), Charles Cutting (creator of a webcomic based on characters and situations by H. P. Lovecraft entitled The Dream Quest of Randolph Carter), Al Davison (artist for Dr Who comics) and Robin Etherington (who has written for… pretty well everything, including Star Wars, Wallace & Gromit and Transformers).
It was so nice to hear about the process and struggles that other creators go through in working on licensed characters. I talked about capturing animated characters in comic form and the difference between the two mediums, so Wallace & Gromit and Almost Naked Animals came up a lot!
Robin Etherington watches David Baillie discuss his writing work on 2000 AD and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Al Davison, me, Charles Cutting and Robin Etherington
Next up was a panel from creators of the fabulous Phoenix Comic. Great to hear the magic involved in putting that together. Seems like everyone is really having fun working for it! Great to get to meet and chat to these talented folk!
Doodles of some fine Phoenix Comic creators.
The line up featured (as below) Adam Murphy (Corpse Talk), Robin Etherington (writes Long Gone Don), Patrice Aggs (creator of Blimpville), Neill Cameron (artist on Pirates of the Pangaea and Daniel Hartwell(writer on Pirates of the Pangaea).
Real Phoenix Comic creators, and mediator David O’Connell
The final panel of the event was entitled America is not the Only Fruit which discussed looking outside Anglo / American comics for inspiration, with manga creators Rebecca Burgess, Sarah Burgess, Joe Morgan and Jade Sarson, and bandes-desinées-inspired David O’Connell (Tozo) and Garen Ewing (The Rainbow Orchid). All were kept in line by Caption organiser and Comics Journalist, Alex Fitch.
Creators inspired by a world of comics
So well done Caption! Another great year.
Looking forward to hearing some of the panels being broadcast on the Panel Borders Radio Show and podcast over the next few months.
SALLY-ANNE HICKMAN
TAMMY TAYLOR
On the left below, you can see my amazing co-host, Penny Blackfeather creator and Alidade contributor Francesca Dare.
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 
