Sketch-O-Matic at Cornerhouse, Manchester

Tomorrow (November 30th) I'll be taking part in the Sketch-O-Matic project at Cornerhouse in Manchester (more details HERE). I'll be producing sketches similar to the ones I did for the Selfridges press day back in July 2010 (see below). £1 a sketch! Bargain. I'll be there from 12-1pm then stick around and get drawn again by esteemed web comic pioneer and bon vivant Mr John Allison. See you there.

Illostribute - Albert Dorne

As I've probably said on this blog before, I love Illostribute. This month's subject was Albert Dorne. An incredible (and incredibly prolific) illustrator working mostly in the '40s and '50s. This was a great subject for me as it's a style almost completely different to my own. Previous subjects have been an influence on my work (especially Hirschfeld and Mary Blair) so it felt harder to make my mark whereas Dorne's work, despite the fact that I love it, has only ever been an influence in the sense that he made me want to be a better illustrator.

The process for this one was a bit more convoluted. I only had a day spare to do the entire thing so I spent the morning sketching the individual characters over and over again until I could make them my own. Once I had drawings I liked I scanned them into Photoshop and recreated the composition on screen and then printed the entire thing out ready to lightbox (image below). I think you can still see the sellotape that I used to stick the two pages together (very high tech!). The finished result is at the top of the page along with Dorne's wonderful original. Have a look at the Illostribute blog to see some incredible reinterpretations including (the consistently brilliant) Steffi Schütze's take on the same illustration. Roll on the next one and long live Illostribute!

New Cumulus Print

A new Inspector Cumulus print "Cloudy with a chance of.. Murder!" is now available in my online store. I'll also be at Thought Bubble in Leeds this weekend selling this print (along with a few others) and copies of "Konichiwa, Japan!" and "Sketchbook Vol 1". See you there!

"Konichiwa, Japan" book

Our "Konichiwa, Japan!" book is now available from my online shop. It's a 32 page, full colour, A5 book collecting the work I did with Felt Mistress as part of our 5 weeks residency in Japan. Makes an ideal Christmas present! Ad break over.

"Nelson" is out!

Here's a couple of panels from my chapter of Nelson (I was given 1985). If you don't know what Nelson is then let Blank Slate explain -

"Nelson is a 250-page collaboration between 54 of the UK’s most exciting comic creators. It is an unprecedented experiment to create one complete story – a collective graphic novel.

London, 1968. A daughter is born to Jim and Rita Baker. Her name is Nel. This is her story, told in yearly snapshots. Each chapter records the events of a single day, weaving one continuous ribbon of pictures and text that takes us on a 43- year journey from Nel Baker’s birth to 2011.

Based on an original idea by Rob Davis and co-edited by Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, Nelson celebrates the incredible diversity of talent in British comics today. Creators known for their editorial and national newspaper strips unite with those from humour comics such as the Beano, The Dandy, and MAD Magazine joining a wealth of talent from children’s books, indie publishing and webcomics, with the science fiction and superhero worlds of 2000AD, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

Part exquisite corpse and part relay race, Nelson spans decades of British history and a myriad of stylistic approaches in telling the story of one woman’s life by 54 creators, in 54 episodes, detailing 54 days. The result is a surprising and compellingly readable book that is sad, funny, moving, poignant, ridiculous, heartfelt, and real. This is a story like none you have seen before."

It includes a wealth of incredible UK comics talent. An intimidating line-up to work alongside!

Buy it now online or from one of the many Nelson events coming up over the next couple of weeks. I'll be at Thought Bubble in Leeds and the Gosh! launch event signing my contribution. See you there!