And That's About That

I sent off the last batch of A-Z of Awesomeness Posters this morning, and while I was up that way popped into the SSNAP offices to deliver a cheque for £1,500.00, which is what profits from sales of the posters came to. I do actually have a few posters left, but I'm afraid all the staying up nights addressing envelopes and constant trips to the post office carrying heavy bags of packages was starting to wear me down a bit. £1,500 (that's 300 posters) seemed like a nice round number at which to cut it off, so there we go.

Apologies to anyone who's had to wait a little while for their poster to arrive; as I say, I got a bit swamped with it all so some of the last orders to come in had a bit of a delay before I could get to them. Anyway, they are all posted now, so hopefully you should have them soon.

Thanks to everyone who got in touch to suggest / request putting the A-Z on books, t-shirts, mugs, sailboats etc, and sorry to anyone I haven't had a chance to reply to yet. Basically, I would love to do every such thing, but I do kind of need to get on with that tiresome old 'making a living' thing for now, so that's why I'm kind of drawing a line under it there. I'll probably take the remaining posters along to conventions and stuff, but for now, that's about that. There is one cool thing I'd like to do with the A-Z, which might be happening later in the year, so I'll be sure to tell you all about that as and when.

Huge thanks to everyone who retweeted, reposted, dugg etc. It was a crazy and rather entertaining couple of weeks (I've made a note of the dates so in years to come I can tell Logan about The Week I Was Internet Famous. Mildly), and we made a nice little bit of money for a very good cause. So that's nice. Cheers to you all.

Coming Soon: me posting about something else!

Posters. Again.

For whatever reason, there seems to have been a resurgence of interest in my A-Z of Awesomeness lately, with posts about it appearing in places like io9, buzzfeed, wired.com, and all sorts of others. This has led to a surge of people getting in touch to express their dismay at the A-Z posters being sold out and asking if I could please print some more. I hadn't planned to, but it was just starting to seem kind of stupid, so last night I ended up caving, printing off a bunch more posters and putting them up for sale.

Here's the thing, though. I never drew the A-Z in the first place with a view to making money from it. It was just supposed to be a fun thing, a creative exercise rather than a commercial one. I only printed the first lot of posters after initial reluctance because I'd ended up losing a lot of money paying out on bandwidth charges when it all first blew up so much bigger than I'd expected. Having sold all the posters and recouped my costs, the idea of making more money off it - well, it was just making me weirdly uncomfortable.

It's not that I have an actual aversion to making money, although I can see how it may be starting to appear that way. The point is: all the characters featured in the A to Z are not my characters. I don't own copyright on Spider-Man, Doctor Who, Gundam, etc. etc. They all belong to other people, and I do take that sort of thing somewhat seriously. If someone started making a bunch of money selling their own posters of Mo-Bot High, I wouldn't like it, right? (Well actually, I would probably be all geekily excited if that happened, but I risk diluting the force of my argument here.)

Anyway, I woke up this morning with an idea which, for me, solves the whole problem and restores the project to it's original unsullied state of pure awesomeness. So here it is: all profits from this second batch of posters, and any subsequent printings, will be donated to SSNAP (Support for the Sick Newborn And their Parents), a charity which supports the Intensive Special Care Nurseries (Neonatal Unit) at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. It's a place and a team of people to which I owe more than I could ever hope to repay in this lifetime, but maybe a few quid from selling some silly posters will make a start.



So there you go. Buy as many posters as you like, in the knowledge that by doing so you are increasing the sum total of awesomeness in this world.

And I'm back to not making any money, and can relax again. If you would like to support me financially as an artist, and believe me I have no desire to stop people from doing so, you can buy some of my comics - I will try and add them to the shop page soon - or why not go and pre-order my book? It is entirely full of awesomeness, I can assure you.

Posterpalooza 2009: REPRISE

Back when I was selling those posters of my A-Z of Awesomeness last year, I held about 30 copies back out of the print run of 250 as I was convinced the post office were going to lose / mangle / destroy a lot of them in transit. Six months later, and it seems I may have been a little paranoid there.

I have 25 copies of the poster left now and, in response to a recent mini-flood of enquiries that I think stem from the A-Z getting a big-up on io9, I'm offering the remaining 25 copies up for sale.

Run don't walk over to the print shop page on my website if you would like to snag one. After this there shall be no more! No, really.

Posterpalooza 2009, Part 3: THE END

Hooray, it's over! All sketches done, all posters posted! The final batch were sent on Saturday (20 September) - they're shipping worldwide via airmail and should take no more than 5 days, so hopefully everyone should have their posters soon. Apologies again for it taking a while, but they're all done now. It turned out to be rather more of an epic undertaking than I'd perhaps envisaged, but y'know. Lessons learned!

I twitpic-ed a bunch of the sketches as I went along (as and when I could be bothered), here are a few of them...



Anyway, huge thanks again to everyone who ordered one. I really hope I got everyone's sketches right. I was double-checking everything as I went along but, statistically speaking, probably screwed something up. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them!

Posterpalooza 2009, Part 2

Yes, look, its some more A-Z Poster doodles! About halfway through now and I've got another big stack to mail out tomorrow. Apologies to anyone who's waiting on theirs but I think getting through them all is going to stretch into next week. I forget that even relatively simple things kind of add up when you have to do them 250 times. Anyway, I promise I am sketching away as fast as my increasingly-cramping-up little hand can manage. Look, PROOF!

Look at it, it's like a blur.

...so I would estimate having all orders shipped my mid-to-end of next week. I'm going to carry on posting these status updates here, partly to keep people posted and partly cause I quite like making those little montage-y images.

Another satisfied customer!

Posterpalooza 2009

These are a select few of the sketches I've been doing on A-Z posters! Thought I'd give a quick update here. Huge thanks to everyone who ordered one, I'm working my way through all the sketches as fast as I can, and I'm hoping to get them all shipped over the next week. I'm sending them in batches of 50 or so - the first lot went on Saturday, and I'm aiming to send another batch every couple of days this week. They're being sent airmail around the world, which should take no more than 5 days to arrive, so hopefully you all should have your alphabetical postery goodness in your hands soon!

After an initial rush of interest that burned through my website's bandwidth allowance overnight AGAIN, things have slowed down to slightly saner levels again. I actually have about 20 of the posters left, so if you'd like to get one, head over to the shop! (Don't worry, if they've run out you won't be able to order one.)

(More) Awesomeness For Your Wall!

Hooray, the posters came! They turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. Look, even Luke Cage approves!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who entered the contest. I've selected three winners at random, and they are...

1) graashoppa
2) raincoaster
3) David Hailwood

I will get in touch about where to send your posters to! Sorry to everyone who didn't win!

I've put the high-res art for the poster up on the internets, as promised, in case anyone wants to download it and print their own copy off. You should be able to get it on skydrive, from the following link:



OR... well, I've kind of bowed to popular demand, and I will now, after all, be selling some prints myself.

It's a limited print-run of 250, and to make them even super-special-er, I'll be signing each one and doing an EXTRA BONUS sketch of the character of your choice. I've set up a new 'shop' page on my website to sell the things, so why not head over there and have a look?

I really wasn't planning to, but a couple of things swayed my mind:

1) loads of people totally seemed to want one, and
2) the A-Z actually ended up costing me quite a lot of money in terms of bandwidth charges and stuff, and it would, y'know, kind of be nice to get some of that back.

I'm a killer salesman, I know.

Awesomeness For Your Wall

I finally got around to collating the A-Z of Awesomeness into one place!

You can go and check out the entire A-Z in a new section I made for it over on neillcameron.com. Also, I'm getting a few copies of the above poster version printed up to give to friends and suchlike, and should have a couple left over, so thought I'd give a few away here. Say... 3? If you'd like one for your wall... well, just say so in the comments on this post, I guess. I will put names in a hat and pick three lucky, lucky people at random!

(I'll stick a high-res version up somewhere on the internets too, but I'm just figuring out the best way to do so that won't cripple my bandwidth any worse than it is already. I can't sell copies of the poster due to the nightmarish quagmire of legal and copyright issues I'd be setting myself up for, so thought this would be the fairest way.)

---

EDIT: No more entries, please, lines are now closed. Thanks to everyone who joined in, I'll announce the winners in a bit.

Z is for... ZZ Top Zapping Zombies

Here is today's extra-final entry in the A to Z of Awesomeness! And we are ending the only way we possibly could have: with Zombies, getting shot the hell up.

Extra points if you can name all the zombies!

I am very sorry this is a bit late, real life kind of intruded on me towards the end there, and I didn't want to fob you guys off with a quick knocked-off doodle for the final entry, so I took a couple of days off from it. Anyway, it's done now!

Today's topic was suggested by Kelvin Green, with Brian Pierce throwing in the irresistible idea that said zombies should be all the characters from the A-Z so far. Thanks to them both. Gives it a nice air of finality, I think!

So yeah, that's it! A huge thank you to everyone who got involved here, on the Facebook Group and on Twitter, you have put more smiles on my face with your suggestions than I can count. And also the occasional terrified grimace, just to keep things interesting. Special thanks to those of you who really got involved with suggestions above and beyond the call, including Manolis Vamvounis, Edwin Austin, Elizabeth Taylor, Peta Waller-Bryant, Stephen Fitch, K. D. Bryan... astonishing alliterators, all. Apologies to anyone whose suggestions I never got to, I do honestly feel bad about these things!

To ease any possible awesomeness withdrawal symptoms, I will be updating the blog every day for the rest of the week with some stuff that, whilst not alphabetically themed, should hopefully be pretty awesome nonetheless, as well as hopefully some nice big poster-sized versions of the entire A-Z. Because I am SUCH A NICE GUY!

Y is for... stay at the YMCA, Yoda wishes he could, hhrmmm?

Here is today's extra-penultimate entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness!

Today's picture was suggested by Manolis Vamvounis of Comics Nexus, so I hope he will now forgive me for professor X's vile (and inaccurate) anti-Hellenic slurs of yesterday.

Only one left to go! If you have ideas for awesome things that begin with Z, well you'd better let me know sharpish! You can post them over on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus.

I can't quite believe we're nearly finshed! What will I do with my free time now? Oh yeah, have some.

X is for... Xena experiencing Professor X's extravagant Xenophobia

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness, a nearly finished thank christ month-long project in which I draw a thing that is awesome for each letter of the alphabet!

Yes, Charles Xavier's dark secret is this: in his dream of peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants, there is no room for Greeks. Think about it, you've had X-men from Russia, Japan, Kenya, Germany, Canada, Ireland... but no Greeks. Coincidence? I think not.

(Please no-one remind me of some obscure Greek X-man I've forgotten, thereby spoiling my Hilarious Joke).

Anyway! Today's picture was suggested by Peta Waller-Bryant, so thanks to her! I decided to do it as a homage to John Byrne's classic cover to Uncanny X-men issue 138, partly because of the X-men connection, and partly because Mr. Byrne seems to have acquired a reputation for being quite the massive racist himself these days. And, y'know, because I thought it was funny.

I was trying to think of more racial epithets for Greeks, but I'm afraid 'Hoummous eaters' was the best I could come up with.

Two letters to go! If you have any ideas for Y or Z, you can post them over on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus.

W is for... Wolverine Wishing Wonder Woman Wasn't Wasted

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness, a month-long project in which, oh y'know, I draw stuff, and that.

Thanks to Matthew Halton, who suggested today's picture. He wrote:

"Wolverine Wishing Wonder Woman Wasn't Wasted

Wasted in the sense of drunk, that is. Not wasted as in, she isn't being used to her full potential. Unless maybe you think that would be better?"

Hell, why do you think she started drinking?

Good lord, only 3 letters to go. If you have any suitably awesome ideas for X, Y or Z, you can post them over on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus. Speak now or forever hold your piece.

V is for... Venom and Voltron Voguing on Vulcan

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness, a month-long project in which I draw a picture of whatever random nonsense people on the internet tell me to for each letter of the alphabet.

The sharp-eyed amongst you will notice that I drew Vehicle Voltron, rather than the more famous / cool Lion Voltron, simply because he is more alliterative. Those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, I would refer you to the last episode of me and James' Unified Review Theory Podcast, in which we discuss the matter in rather more detail than is necessary or interesting.

Anyway, this was suggested by 'marinarusalka', so many thanks to them! Possibly the oddest thing about it is that this is NOT the first time I have drawn a giant robot vogue-ing, as readers of Mo-bot High may possibly recall.

You can suggest ideas for remaining entries in the A-Z yourself, although you'd better move fast as there's not many left and damned if I'm doing this nonsense again. Holla ideas at me over on the A-Z Facebook Group (which just hit 500 members, hooray!), on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus. X, Y and Z are still up for grabs, people. Dazzle me.

U is for... Uhura and Ultraman on a Unicorn Underwater

Here is today's extra-SENSUAL entry in the Eh? to Z of Awesomeness!

Russell Smith and Michael Goldrei both wanted an Underwater Unicorn-riding Uhura, which shows that great minds clearly think alike. I threw in Ultraman for my own amusement, to make it kind of like the cover of a romance novel from another, altogether odder, planet.

Anyway, sorry there was no pic yesterday, I was rather under the weather. Also it was a Saturday, and the 4th of July, so I figured absolutely no-one would notice or care. If you throw your minds all the way back to 'A', you will recall that I started this whole shebang one day early, so had a day in hand. Which I have now used up. My conscience is satisfied.

Hey, guess what? More awesomeness tomorrow! We have only got a few letters left, but they promise to be extra-bizarre ones, so why not suggest some ideas yourself? you can do so on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus. Come on, think of awesome things for X, Y and Z. Think of it as a challenge.

T is for... Tintin and a Timelord Taking Tea in Tibet

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness!

I swear, if ever I 'make it big' in comics, I intend to immediately retire and just draw mountains all day long.

Anyway, thanks to Brian Pierce for suggesting today's entry!

More awesomeness tomorrow! If you want to suggest idaes for future entries yourself, you can do so on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus!

S is for... Sulu and Spiral Swashbuckling in Space (with Several Serrated Swords)

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness!

Today's pic was suggested by K. D. Bryan, so thanks to him / her! Spiral is a slightly obscure x-men villain. Sulu is the Dopest Motherf*&#er in Starfleet. That's about all you need to know.

Thanks to all who've enquired about purchasing either the original art or prints of these pictures. I'm afraid that a) I produce them digitally and b) they are of copyrighted characters, so either option is unfortunately impossible. Yes, I have cunningly undertaken this whole project in such a way as to make it absolutely impossible for me to make any money out of it. I am quite the commercial genius, thank you.

More awesomeness tomorrow! If you want to suggest idaes for future entries yourself, you can do so on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus!

R is for... Ranma Regurgitating Ryoga's Ramen

Here is today's extra-unsavoury entry in the Ayyyuuuurghhhh to Z of Awesomeness!

This was suggested by fellow once-and-future DFC creator Kate Brown, so you can all blame her. What does it say about me that this was possibly my favourite entry so far to draw? Absolutely nothing good.

Anyway - due to interest in this alphabetically-themed nerdy nonsense rather outstripping my expectations, I've had to upgrade my web hosting, so there's a chance that some of the images may disappear for a bit tonight while everything is re-pointed over to the new server, although hopefully not for too long.

EDIT: you can always check out the full set over at the Facebook group, anyway. I figure I am unlikely to suddenly become popular enough to crash facebook. Unless there are a lot more Manga-Vomit-Fanart enthusiasts out there than I thought...

Anyway, as ever, your suggestions are actively sought for future entries in the A-Z! you can suggest stuff on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus!

Q is for... Q and Q reading Q

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness!

This was based on a suggestion by Edwin Austin, who wanted to see Q (Desmond Llewelyn) and Q (John De Lancie) in a Queue to see Q (the winged serpent). I loved that, but the idea for this circular / infinite regress-y thing popped into my head, so here we are.

Thanks to everyone who suggested ideas for Q - given the relative paucity of both characters and verbs beginning with said letter, you guys really outdid yourselves.

The letters R-Z are still up for grabs, why not suggest something yourself: on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus!

P is for... Peter Parker Playing Ping-Pong with Pikachu

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness, a month-long project / challenge / bizarre act of artistic self-flagellation in which I draw a picture each day, for every letter of the alphabet, based on suggestions from You, The Internet.

This was an amalgamation of what seemed to be the most popular elements suggested by a bunch of people who, I'll be honest, I am too sleepy right now to go and check.

Hey, a bunch more people have been joining in lately, which just makes doing this all the more Awesome. We've got a good few letters to get through yet, so why not chime in with your own demented alliterative suggestions - you can throw them at me on the A-Z Facebook Group, on Twitter, here on the blog, or over on Comics Nexus!

More awesomeness tomorrow! And tomorrow is 'Q', so it promises to be extra tortuous!

O is for... Optimus Prime Obliterating Oompa Loompas

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesomeness!

Hey, I can't believe it took that long for Transformers to show up, either. Thanks to Davey Candlish for his suggestion, over on the Facebook group, and to everyone else who voted!

Also, while I'm thanking people, huge thanks to everyone who's linked to the A-Z lately, it's very much appreciated. The more people join in, the more fun it is all round I think.

Why not go and join the Neill's A-Z Facebook group and suggest future awesomeness yourself? Or indeed, just do so here on the blog, over on Twitter, or at Comics Nexus. I need more ideas for 'P', as a matter of some urgency!