Wednesday 30 November 2011

I've gone back to college...

...it's like one of those episodes of Neighbours where someone's Mum goes back to school and really embarrasses the kids. Well, it's a bit like that, I should have waited until I had offspring.

Anyway, as opposed to the first time round, I am not, thus far, spending all of my time drinking myself into a slough of depsond, I'm actually making work!

Here are highlights so far: twenty faces on a sheet of A1 paper, followed by another sheet of A1, concentrating on one face. Faces are my thing so this was right up my street, so I decided to muck about with some new techniques, loosening up my drawing/inking style and having a right laugh with some really basic printing techniques. The kitchen looked like I'd murdered the cat*

















I'm in there, with current Movember lip slug, and there's the obligatory reference to William Blake in the form of his Ghost of a Flea, top right. The big face turned out like a particularly angry Aleister Crowley, not sure what happened there. We put our A1's up in the corridors of Camberwell on the day that a bunch of prospective students were visiting, so I hope I didn't scare any off!

This Monday, Chloe Cheese took us through some more established forms of those printing technigues, in the form of mono printing. Brilliant fun! It was like primary school art class all over again. Potato printing for the artistically ambitious! Hoorah!

Here's the culmination of my day's experimentation, Hitsville UK's Gwillum, in process and finished version.


I'm really enjoying trying out these new techniques, and I'm really keen on incorporating some of them into my big project (which I am writing the proposal for now, I am I am honest!) 
I get to try out etching tomorrow, hope William is watching over my shoulder.

*I did not murder the cat.

Thursday 24 November 2011

Mo-town 'tachebusters vol. 1

John has been bullied into taking part in Movember and, not to be outdone, Ruthie from The Carrie Nation's Revenge has followed suit. 

That's Feminism in action!





















If you can spare a few quids/dollars/euros/yen please donate at http://mobro.co/johnriordan

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Thoughts on the bubble

Thought Bubble was ace, and bloody knackering. It was straight back into college stuff when I returned so I'm still collecting my thoughts.
























I've not been to Thought Bubble before, and I have heard literally not a bad word about it, so I was convinced that I was going to ruin it! 
"D'you remember that comics convention in Leeds?" 
"Oh yeah, it was really good for the first four years, then that big-headed twat with the crap 'tache came along..." etc.

I am pleased to report that I did not manage to hex the Bubble. It was the first time they've done it as a two-dayer and opinion was divided as to whether they'll do it that way again. It was certainly quieter (and foggier!) on the Sunday but it was nice to actually be able to wander and talk to people, without feeling like it was totally hectic.

We were sharing a table with our good friends Underfire Comics (that's Dan on the edge of the picture above), and stationed in the smaller of the two halls, part of the amazing Royal Armouries (it's actually full of armour, who knew?) 

Here's the view from the stand!


















Mike and Mark conducted a video interview with Keiron Gillen for a forthcoming Comic Gosh!p sesh (discussing Phonogram and Hitsville UK) and rumour has it that Gwillum may have got in on the act. We'll get back to you with evidence on that when we see it.

Oh yeah, the comics, eh? So much good stuff on sale, waaaay too much to take in. Here's my haul.













God knows when I'm going to find time to read all of these... Nelson alone looks like it's going to demand some serious (and rewarding) rumination. Still, that's a rather nice problem to have, isn't it, and if that's not a good indication of the wealth of talent in comics in our poor, austere isle at the moment, then I don't know what is!

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Face to (lack of) face

I like to think I don't really do hero worship but you'll have to excuse my gushing a little bit because the other evening I got to to meet Peter Blegvad.

Peter wrote the amazing comic strip Leviathan, about a faceless and philosophically inclined baby that ran in the Indy on Sunday from 1992 to 1999, when I was but an impressionable teenager.

Leviathan was an oblique but definite influence on William Blake, Taxi Driver, and the inquisitive and playful nature of the strip has been an influence on me as a human (I hope) as much as a comic artist.

Here's what my meeting with Peter might have looked like.






















(He didn't really have milk, but he is very tall).

If you have no idea what I'm on about I urge you in the strongest possible terms to check out Leviathan over here.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Les Petit Prints

Here are the Hitsville prints that I've been working on. Hoping to add one of Jack Spatz yet, but I've run out of time for Thought Bubble and my MA is quite rightly demanding that I actually do my work.














These are A4, printed on lovely, posh paper (somerset enhanced, 100 per cent cotton) and signed by yours truly.
We'll have them on sale at Thought Bubble this weekend (19 -20 November) for £3.50 or £6 with a copy of Hitsville UK #1. We'll put them up on the Hitsville shop next week but they'll be a bit pricier to buy this way so snap 'em up if you're at Thought Bubble.

Thursday 10 November 2011

BADGES!

So, let's be honest, making comics and being in a band is just an excuse to do the really good bit, which is...
MAKING BADGES!
These little fellas will be on sale (or, I dare say, free with a copy of Hitsville UK) at the Comica Comiket this Saturday at the Bishopsgate Institute. Click HERE for full details.






















I'll be selling limited edition Hitsville prints as well. I'll get some pics up tomorrow.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

CHE!

This is going to be on the t shirt of a Hitsville character.

It relates to probably my favourite lyric, from The Super Furry Animals' 'Hermann Loves Pauline'.

"They call him MC Squared because he raps like no other,
An asthma sufferer like Ernesto Guevara".