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.
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…
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…
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!
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 
Next up, I free the paper from the shackles of the masking tape! This gives me the option to rotate the paper as I ink to reach the most comfortable position for drawing each line and curve. This is even more important when I use a brush to ink as oppose to pens (which I’ve done a few Lucy strips requiring a different style, as well as lots of other work).
Before I get on to the real art, I draw out the speech bubbles in a 0.5 line.
That little arrow I draw is to remind me to fix the mistake with the speech bubble after I scan the work into my Mac (ready to colour on Photoshop). It’s quicker to do this than to use tippex or opaque white paint on the actual paper.
On to inking the actual drawing. Sometimes I do this panel by panel. More usually I approach the strip as a whole and work from the thickest pens down the to the finest. This saves a bit of time by not stopping to change pens so often.
A good rule of thumb is draw things in the foreground in a thicker line than things behind in a picture. That’s why I tackle Mrs Faridani in 0.8 line and will do the passengers behind her with a thinner pen.
I also use the thicker line of the 0.8 pen to give the feeling of weight under elements such as the underside of the monster in Panel 2 and the handle in Panel 4. 
I finish with the 0.8 pen and start with the 0.5.
I continue to work on the first 3 panels…
…until the 0.5 line work is done.
I switch to the 0.3 pen to work on finer lines, including characters further towards the background.
Finally I use 0.2 and 0.1 pens for the finest details, like the tiny passengers in Panels 2 & 5 and the characters in the deepest depths of the background of Panel 1.
The drawing part of the process is complete!
