Phoenix Complete-Your-Own Cover Contest! GO.

 

Hitting shops nationwide and doormats of our beloved subscribers tomorrow is this week's issue of The Phoenix, which features an Exciting Ultra-Exclusive Variant Cover; variant in that EVERY SINGLE COPY of it is unique. Because you have to draw it! My esteemed colleagues Professor Panels and Art Monkey - and a few of their friends - are running for their lives from... something. But what? It's up to you! Grab some felt tips and get drawing!

This is not JUST an excuse to deface a comic in fun ways, it is also an EXCITING COMPETITION in which you can win some FABULOUS PRIZES. Check out the Phoenix website for full details, rules and even a downloadable version of the cover if for some reason you are the sort of person who does not enjoy drawing all over their comics. 

And hey: if you do have a go, be sure to send your entries in to the Phoenix address but by all means please tweet them at me, too - I'm @neillcameron on twitter - as I'd just absolutely love to see 'em. In return I will draw AT LEAST one ridiculous version myself and tweet it some time this week.

Art Monkey Challenge: ACCEPTED

 

Following on from Friday's post about the MegaMechaMonkeyMasterclass, I thought it was about time I actually started joining in and attempting some of Art Monkey's challenges myself. HENCE THE ABOVE! Script bits by my son Logan (4), art by me. He did draw one himself but, as is the way of all his drawings, it just ended up being one giant messy explosion.

(I mentioned this to Di, whose response was: "...but don't all YOUR stories just end in giant messy explosions?")

And in case it isn't clear from my messy lettering: yes, that is a "Galactus Cannon" in panel 3.

Anyway, it was fun! Why not have a crack at it yourself in this week's Phoenix Comic?

Mega Mecha Monkey Masterclass, PLUS Recent Rovings Round-Up!

This week's Phoenix Comic is out today, and it features the first of Art Monkey's brand-new MEGA MONKEY MASTERCLASSES - comic strips where the sketching simian has started a comic but left it up to YOU the reader to finish off the salient details! Check it out in this week's Phoenix - available from these fine vendors - and you can download a big version of the strip as an activity sheet, FOR FREE, from Art Monkey's page on the Phoenix website.

Along with, indeed, ALL the previous Art Monkey activity sheets! We're up to 17 now and believe me, there's loooooaaaaads more to come. Look, here are a few:

 

Get sketching and you, YES YOU could be the proud recipient of Art Monkey's Top Banana Award! Which looks a little something like THIS:

Hey, while I'm here: I've done a couple of workshops in recent weeks and completely failed to blog about them, so I'd just like to say a big thank you to Buff Baughan and Tam Weaver at Storyfest in Hartfield, where I recently spent a glorious sunny day in a beautiful village teaching a bunch of awesome kids how to make comics. And got JAM. And also to Judith Merryat Team V and Rachel Smith of Oxford's Natural History Museum for inviting me along and making me so welcome doing some recent workshops at the museum. (Said museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on Earth, so it really was a thrill to get to hang out there and teach kids about drawing and making up characters amongst many of the very artefacts that inspired my work on Pirates of Pangaea.)

Look, here I am with one of the groups. YEAH. UNDERNEATH A T-REX.

 And here is some of the absolute nonsense we were making up...

For a half-dinosaur half-Mr Bean likeness drawn from memory of what Rowan Atkinson looks like, I have to say: I am pretty happy with that.

And a final thank you to Ross Fraser at the Phoenix who was a huge help at these events; organising, taking these photos, and folding post-it-notes really quite beautifully.

Lots more school and library workshops coming up over the summer which I will, no doubt, competely fail to blog about here. If you're a teacher / librarian / bookshop owner and would like me to come teach how to draw Dinosaur Rowan Atkinsons and suchlike, you can find some more information about my workshops on my website. Thanks!

T-Rex Rampage!

Hello! Contrary to appearances, neither I or this blog have actually died, I've just been a bit busy drawing all manner of delightful things for The Phoenix. Case in point: the above, which is the cover to ISSUE 19, out this weekend! Somehow we have rampaged all the way through to the PENULTIMATE EPISODE already, so I thought I'd spend the next week blogging the  odd bit of behind-the-scenes stuff to whet people's appetites for the finale!

So, to get us started: that cover itself! HERE IS HOW I DRAWED IT, from rough all the way through to finshed colour version! It had an unusually smooth gestation, this one, so you won't see many major changes on the way through, but thought it might be fun to check out anyway...

 

Go grab your copy now! Available as of tomorrow morning from branches of Waitrose as well as all these fine vendors, and of course by subscription!

More dinosaurs next week. PROMISE.