Comics For Christmas!

(Image courtesy The Etherington Brothers)

The festive season is (nearly? sort of?) upon us, and so I thought I'd provide a few suggestions for Christmas Present Ideas for Kids Who Love Comics! DISCLAIMER: a couple of these will involve MY comics. (This is my blog? Turkeys are expensive? Look, let's just get through this.)

Because Comics, as we all know, are the GREATEST GIFT OF ALL.

1) The Phoenix

The Phoenix have some great Christmas-present-suitable subscription offers at the moment - I particularly like the "Book Plus a Sub" deals. So you could, for example, get a copy of HOW TO MAKE AWESOME COMICS to enjoy over the holiday period, and then an awesome comic sent direct to your house, every week thereafter. It's the gift that keeps on giving!

2) Sketched books!

For a more personalised present, you can get signed and personalised copies of my books, HOW TO MAKE AWESOME COMICS and MO-BOT HIGH, direct from my web shop! Including custom sketches, done just for you! http://neillcameron.bigcartel.com/

(Also there, a few copies of me and Adam Murphy's collabocomic THE CURSE OF BARRY STARKEY. Very limited stock, left over from Thought Bubble! Be the coolest person in your non-specific local area!) 

3) MORE sketched books! 

Lots of other Phoenixy creators have their own webstores, too, where you can get personalised copies of their books and also check out their other works! For example:

• for anyone who loves James Turner's STAR CAT (which, surely, must be everyone), why not check out his completely hilarious BEAVER & STEVE collections. My son's new favourite, hugely recommended! http://eruditebaboon.bigcartel.com/

• for fans of Adam Murphy's CORPSE TALK, you can get signed & personalised books, Custom Corpse Sketches, and more, from his store: http://adammurphy.storenvy.com/

• for fans of TAMSIN AND THE DEEP (which had BETTER be everyone), go to the incredible Kate Brown's store for prints and original art: http://autojoy.storenvy.com/products

Look, you can even buy the complete set of originals for EMILIE'S TURN, the ballet strip we did! Aaaargh that would be the greatest present ever.

• those exuberant Etherington Brothers have a store filled with their books as well as prints and sketchbooks stuffed full of Lorenzo's mind-meltingly gorgeous artwork. http://www.comicsboutique.blogspot.co.uk/

• Signed books, prints, posters and original cartoons from the gorgeous Gary Northfield, here: http://garynorthfield.bigcartel.com/ 

...and that's just a few. I've left so many out, and apologies for that, but you get the idea. Pick a creator, head over to their site and see if they have a store there, it can be a great way of getting uniquely cool swag and supporting your favourite artists at this time of year!

4) MORE Awesome Comics

There are so many great comics for kids being produced at the moment - I wanted to update my last post on the subject about five minutes after finishing it, but in the meantime why not check out some of these great comics? 

• DUNGEON FUN, by Colin Bell and Neil Slorance - I've ranted about this many times before - hugest possible recommendation, particularly for kids who love the kind of stuff in The Phoenix, or just Stuff That Is Awesome generally. You can order direct from publisher Dogooder Comics, here: http://dogoodercomics.bigcartel.com/

• NIGHT POST by Benjamin Read and Laura Trinder - this utterly gorgeous, lavish, fantastic hardback is available from selected fine comics shops - for instance, the marvellous Page 45. (Who also sell a bunch of other great kids' comics, so go nuts.)

One more Christmas-themed message while I'm here! I'll be doing a couple of festive live events in Oxford over the next couple of weeks, specifically:

• Saturday 13 December, 11am - Waterstones, Broad St - live HOW TO MAKE AWESOME COMICS fun! The idea is I'm going to to a kind of live version of my usual festive Santa-themed drawing challenge, expressing the Spirit of Awesomeness in Santa form. How many bizarre and ridiculous Santas can I draw in an hour? Come along and let's find out together! Also signing books, doing sketches for people, all that good stuff.
• Tuesday 16 December, The Story Museum, Pembroke St - NEILL CAMERON'S CHRISTMAS CARTOON - a special one-day course in which I will be teaching participants to draw ridiculous robot and dinosaur-themed Santas of their own, and making cards and comics with the results. Booking and details here!

Festive advertorial ends! Thank you for your time. Back to drawing amusing pictures of Parks and Recreation characters, tomorrow!