Mega Robo T-Shirts!

Just a note to mention that Mega Robo Bros t-shirts are now available from the Phoenix Shop! And, honestly, they look pretty great.

Available in sizes for ages 9-11 and 12-14! A bunch of people have asked if adult sizes and / or younger kids sizes are on the way - not yet, but do go tell the guys at the Phoenix if you'd like some, so they can gauge demand!

Okay! Please go buy awesome t-shirts!

(Awesome ad artwork by Paul Duffield)

Thought Bubble Sketch Commissions

Hello! I'll be at the brilliant Thought Bubble comics festival in Leeds this November, and I've had a few enquiries lately about doing commissions for people in advance of it. So I thought I'd come up with a plan. So I have. And it is as follows: 

I'm going to be offering A4 pen & ink sketches for £10.00 GBP - or less if they're bought as part of a bundle with some of my books (Mega Robo Bros, Tamsin and the Deep, Pirates of Pangaea, and How To Make Awesome Comics). So the planned price list is:

Sketch: £10

Single book: £10
1 Book + Sketch £18 
2 Books: £18
2 Books + Sketch: £25

As to subject matter, you have a few options. I'm very happy to do sketches of my own characters, so if you want Alex, Freddy, Stupid Philosophy Penguin or whoever, that's absolutely fine, and I love you very much for asking, and here are 150-odd examples of that sort of thing if you like that sort of thing.

If you want something else: I don't usually draw other people's characters any more, but I'll make an exception for Thought Bubble, as I appreciate there are people whose thing is getting every artist in the world to draw Batman or whoever. However, I have to make these things fun for myself, too, so I'll happily draw basically anybody - real or fictional, alive or dead - just so long as they are either:

a) piloting a GIANT ROBOT

or b) riding a DINOSAUR.

I've used Freddy as an example there but, as I say, if you want a drawing of Moon Girl or Oor Wullie or Queen Elizabeth II or whoever it may be, that's fine. As long as they are on a robot or on a dinosaur.

If you'd like to order something in advance and pick up at the convention, that's great, as it gives me more time to work on your sketch in advance - just drop a line to info@neillcameron.com letting me know what you want.

Oh hey, I should mention: part of the festival is the ceremony for the Young Peoples Comic Award, for which both Mega Robo Bros and Tamsin and the Deep are shortlisted.

Which is kind of crazy.

See you in Leeds!

Mega Robo Sketchfest

Those nice people at The Phoenix recently ran a special offer to celebrate the launch of my new book Mega Robo Bros, whereby anyone who bought a book through the website would get a signed copy and a free original sketch by me. I agreed to this, slightly nervously, hoping we might sell a few and bracing myself for it being "around 40".

Well, anyway, we were only out by a hundred or so.

I cannot overstate: this was tough! This took a lot. This turned into a real "Hamilton wrote... the other 51!" moment for me. But I wanted to make each one cool, and different, because it really means a lot to me that these characters seem to have connected with people, and I wanted to do something special to say thank you for the support.

So, anyway, here are a LOT OF DRAWINGS OF ROBOTS. Enjoy!

If you missed the offer, the book is of course still available from all good bookshops. This offer's over for now, but if you'd like a sketch, come find me at any of the various festivals and events I'm doing this year, and I dare say I could be talked into something.

MEGA ROBO BROS Vol 1

My new book MEGA ROBO BROS is out today from David Fickling books! It collects the first big arc of Alex and Freddy's adventures - for those counting at home, it's edited highlights of Season 1, and then the entirety of Season 2. (Season 3 currently unfolding weekly in the pages of The Phoenix!)

Anyway, I am super proud of it, and really hope people enjoy it. Early reviews have been extremely encouraging, but you know how these things are, it's always a question of getting the word out. I've updated my website with a new MEGA ROBO BROS page where you can read a preview, check out a bunch of the uncollected strips in their entirety, and more. Please feel free to share, link, tweet, tumbl, or whatever it is you're supposed to do nowadays.

And hey, if you're in Oxford, come along to Inky Fingers on the Cowley Road TOMORROW (Saturday 4th Jan), where I'll be painting giant robots in the window and signing books and drawing stuff for people, should you want that.

Also, SPECIAL OFFER: any and all copies of the book ordered this week from the Phoenix's online shop will get a free, original A5 sketch by me! Every one unique! Go grab one quick before my hand falls off.

Pirates of Pangaea Checklist

I've had quite a few people lately asking about when the next Pirates of Pangaea book might be out and, while I don't exactly know (although I could point you to some excellent books you might enjoy in the meantime), it's worth pointing out that for anyone eager to follow Sophie and Kelsey's further adventures, there are several which are uncollected as yet but can be tracked down in back issues of the Phoenix. To aid in this, and to help you satisfy all your Pirates Riding Dinosaurs needs, I thought I'd put together a little, in-reading-order...

PIRATES OF PANGAEA CHECKLIST!

Volume 1: The Golden Skull 

20 episodes

Collected as Pirates of Pangaea: Book One. 

ISBN: 978-1910200087

Available in good bookshops everywhere!

The Ghosts of Mathrak Chu

4 episodes

Available in The Phoenix, issues 33-36

Start here!

Volume 2: Escape From Razorbeak Mountain

20 episodes

Available in The Phoenix, issues 53-72

Start here!

Racers of Riverbed Run

4 episodes

Available in The Phoenix, issues 79-82

Start here!

The Treasure of La Sirena

1 episode

Available in The Phoenix, issue 100

Start here!

The Blue Devil

4 episodes

Available in The Phoenix, issues 110-113

Start here!

I believe, at time of writing, that all issues are in stock, please address all enquiries to orders@thephoenixcomic.co.uk!

Tamsin and the DEALS DEALS DEALS

The second volume of Kate Brown and I's Tamsin series, Tamsin and the Dark begins soon in The Phoenix, and they are running a couple of pretty great offers to mark the occasion!

Firstly, they've got a special Tamsin Subscription Deal! If you take out a 6-month subscription now, you'll be on board in time for first episode, and you'll then get to enjoy every single installment as the story plays out over the following 21 weeks. I think this is great, because a huge part of what we try to do with Tamsin is that kind of immersive, cliffhanger-fueled, what-on-Earth-is-going-to-happen-next storytelling that I think is one of the most exciting and unique possibilities offered by the weekly comics format, and particularly for young readers. So jump on now, don't miss a single episode, and to sweeten the deal they'll even throw in a copy of Book 1, Tamsin and the Deep - signed by Kate and me, and everything - to make sure you're fully up to speed on Tamsin and her world.

(Oh, and you also get six months of AMAZING COMICS in the entire rest of the Phoenix, too?) 

Note, this offer only runs THIS WEEK, so that people will be subscribed in time for the story's beginning. Sign up now and get on (magical flying boogie) board!

If you're already a subscriber, they're ALSO offering 20% OFF the Tamsin and the Deep book, all this month! Which is also a pretty great deal.

All in all, that should be just about all the creepy exciting all-ages Cornish folklore spookiness your mind can handle.

Until Book Three, anyway.

Tamsin and the Deep

My new book with Kate Brown, Tamsin and the Deep, came out a couple of weeks ago from David Fickling Books. It's a collection of the strip of the same name which appeared in The Phoenix, a 96-page graphic novel in four chapters in which we meet the 10-year-old Tamsin Thomas and see the quite extraordinarily strange direction her life takes after one ill-fated trip to the beach.

It's a story that grew over several years of spending time down in Cornwall, visiting family, and becoming slowly more and more obsessed by the fantastically strange folklore that abounds in the place. I was beyond delighted that Kate was up for drawing it, and she's done such an amazing job with it, bringing so much character and life and wonder and, fine, I'll say it, magic to the story.

People always ask about the target audience / age range for these things - in this case I'd say it's principally aimed at kids about 7-12. I'd be wary of going much younger because there some scary and upsetting things that happen. But on the other hand one reviewer said that their 4-year-old loved it and got to the end and immediately wanted to read it again, so what do I know? Your mileage may vary, and (hopefully) you know your own child best.

Anyway, I hope you'll check it out; it's my best attempt, basically, at making the kind of comic I'm always saying we need more of. Available from all good bookshops, or get it direct form the Phoenix store! 

Kate's already nearing completion on the sequel, Tamsin and the Dark, and that one... man. That one's just nuts. Starting in the Phoenix soon!

While I'm here, I thought I'd share some (more) amazing pictures. As I mentioned, the basic idea for Tamsin and the Deep was inspired directly by reading up on lots of Cornish folk tales, but the form the story took was really crystallised in my head after going to see an exhibition called Aquatopia (if I recall correctly) at the Tate in St Ives a few years back - a collection of all kinds of pieces from all over the world, with the general theme of 'the Imaginary Underwater'. It was full of diverse and amazing wonders, from Kuneyoshi to Gustav Dore to Turner, and was honestly one of the most inspiring and exciting things I've ever seen in a gallery. Anyway, I tried to find as many of the works as I could online, and some other stuff along similar lines and put them together in a kind of 'mood / inspiration board' on Pinterest to share with Kate.

I've now set it to public, so please feel free to go and have a look and see all the weird spooky mind-blowing masterpieces your mind can handle. (Please note, a couple of the images might be considered NSFW / not for kids. I'm thinking mainly here of Hokusai's Octopus. Go check it out, you'll see what I mean.)  

Thank you for your attention! I hope you enjoy meeting Tamsin.

How To Make (Basically Legible) Comics

As I occasionally bang on about here on the blog, I firmly believe that kids are great at making comics that other children will enjoy reading. However, when you're working with young creators there are occasionally some Basic Legibility Issues that can get in the way. So I put together the following Top Tips for Basic Legibility: 

Those are the biggies! Here are a few supplemental ones to do with words and balloons and such:

(I think this one makes the point it's making too well, in that it is confusing.)

And finally:

Please feel free to share with any young cartoonists of your acquaintance! And also please feel free to totally ignore and/or break all these rules because RULES ARE TOTALLY BORING, RIGHT?