Here we go with the first of a series of samples of amazing artwork from the recent Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox.
I also asked each contributor for a positive idea in keeping with the theme of the anthology…
Previous works include:Go! Go! Metro!, Manga Cupcakes, MangaQuake, Howl!, Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud
Positive Idea: “Ichinichi Ichizen is a Japanese saying means One good thing a day, to encourage you to do anything good (as small as making a cup of tea for someone). No pressure to do anything big or a lot, just one in a day! How about going to One Click Donations? By clicking company adverts there once a day, the company will donate to various charities instead of you! It’s a very simple and easy way of making a positive move! www.thenonprofits.com”
Art sample from her Tempo Lush tale: Tanuko JOHN MIERS
Previous works include:Score & Script, How to Train your Robot
Positive Ideas: “(1) “Mimesis as Make-Believe”, which is American philosopher Kendall Walton’s theory of how representational art works. Basically he says that works of art “function as props in games of make-believe”. So enjoying a fiction is a more developed version of what a kid does when it imagines that a stick is a horse, or its bed is the sea. I think it’s a lovely idea. (2) Whatever happens with the Labour leadership election, the whole “Jez We Can” thing seems to provide good evidence that if a coherent anti-austerity position gets a decent platform, it can enthuse a wide range of people, including plenty who don’t normally vote. That feels like a much-needed sliver of hope in contemporary politics.”
Art sample from the Tempo Lush tale: Bugleberry Tree RACHAEL SMITH
Previous works include:The Rabbit, House Party, Flimsy the Kitten, Dr Who
Positive Idea: “I’m a big supporter of the Alzheimer’s Society. My Grandad sadly passed away a few years ago after suffering from Alzheimer’s for many years. He was the nicest man in the world and I’d love for more support to go to this charity so they can care for people with this illness and make sure they still get the most out of life.” www.alzheimers.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!
Holy Schmoly! Check out the line up of creators involved in the upcoming anthology from Tempo Lush… Brand new comic book stories on the theme of positive transformation from… Nas Bee(Paper Houses) & Angela Wraight (Circuit Breaker, Yoshitoki is Making Waves, Paper Houses) Francesca Dare (Penny Blackfeather) Emmeline Pui Ling Dobson (Knights of Eve, Wu Wei) James Hickman(Score & Script) Amber Hsu(The Sardine and Gherkin – A True Love Story – and other One Pound Poems, Tiny Pencil) Inko(Go! Go! Metro!, Manga Cupcakes, MangaQuake, Howl!, Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud) Chie Kutsuwada (Go! Go! Metro!, The Story of Lee, Hagakure: Code of the Samurai, Rosie and Jacinda: Demon Cloud, Manga Shakespeare: As You Like It) David O’Connell (Jampires, Monster & Chips, Tozo, The Public Servant) Keara Stewart (On The Escalator, A Bit of Undigested Potato)
and Dr Lisa Woynarski(Performance + Ecology) & Mike Medaglia (One Year Wiser, Wu Wei, Last Days of Nobodies)
Plus a jam comic featuring the drawing talents of… Matt Boyer (Running) Chonto (Acclaimed Japanese Artist) Kim Clements (The Great Cat Mystery) Francesca Dare Anna Dowsland(Don’t Feed the Pigeons) Sally-Anne Hickman (Bang! Crash! Whizz!, Black Diamonds and Blue Scars) Jessica Martin(It Girl, Elsie Harris Picture Palace) John Miers(Score & Script, How to Train your Robot) Chibi Shibby (Stories about Me and You) Paul Shinn (March of the Penguins) Rachael Smith(The Rabbit, House Party, Flimsy the Kitten) Tammy Taylor (Bon Appetit, 18 This Summer)
If that wasn’t enough, there’s a foreword by Laydeez Do Comics founders and award winning comic creators Sarah Lightman(Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women) and Nicola Streeten(Billy Me and You, Becoming of Age).
It’s an embarrassment of riches and I’m thrilled and in disbelief that they’ve all agreed to take part!
Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox is a follow up to last year’s Tempo Lush Tales (see reviews on the Big Comic Page and Broken Frontier). Again I will be collaborating with some amazing artists, but this time round I’ll generally be handing over the writing duties to other creators. It’s going to be a wonderful mix!
There is a definite theme to this collection too. At times it’s hard to see out world moving forward and getting better so I thought it would be good to ask the creators to focus on the idea of positive transformation. Obviously this can be interpreted in numerous ways and it looks like each writer has their own distinct spin on the idea.
It’s all coming together nicely ready for a launch at Gosh Comics in London on Friday September 18th. Save the date – and see the Facebook event page here!
I’ve been having so much fun sitting back and seeing the amazing comic collaborations from WASP (Webcomic Artist Swap Project) flow in over the past week.
2015 is the third year for WASP. I conceived the idea to spread awareness of different webcomics and have a fun and creative challenge for comic makers. After a couple of years at the helm I was happy to be able to leave the project in the capable and telented hands of the new co-ordinators and editors,Sarah Turner (Folklore) and Francesca Dare (Penny Blackfeather, Rosie and Jacinda).
Banner by Paul Shinn, Francesca Dare and Sarah Turner Go! Go! Metro! – Written and created byInko and Chie Kutsuwada. Art by me! Lucy the Octopus – Written and created by me! Art by Midori Harako. Now I’m thrilled, not only that Sarah and Francesca did a wonderful job pulling the comics together this year, but also that they’re going to continue the project next year – Onwards and upwards!
Here’s my finished pin-up effort… And here’s the colours planned out before adding texture and tone. And here’s the inks before I coloured it. And here’s the pencils from before I inked it. So there.
I’m so thrilled at how all the work’s turned out for this year’s Webcomic Artist Swap Project.
Amazing creators involved!
Also, I was chuffed at having the chance to work with Nicola Streeten and Rachael Smith. See the resulting comics below and visit tempolush.com/wasp for more WASP comics to appear over the weekend!
A Year at 50 – Written by Nicola Streeten. Art by me!
JOHN MIERS
RACHAEL SMITH
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 
Lucy the Octopus
