Hey Kids, FREE COMICS!

Well there I was shopping for organic hand-picked artisan Green tea and what did I see by the till? Why, only the Future of British Comics, that's all.

Yes, the super-exciting BIG NEWS (from yesterday, which it you are reading this you probably already know) is that a special FREE Issue Zero of The Phoenix Comic is available now through Waitrose supermarkets! To get your FREE copy, here's all you have to do:

• grab a copy of Waitrose Weekend magazine. It contains a CODE.
• go on the Phoenix website and ENTER that code
• get a FREE COMIC.

If you don't live near a Waitrose, don't worry - plans are afoot to make sure no-one misses out on their Phoenixy goodness. And look, if you know anyone who *does* live near one, or if you have access to the Internet and a bit of initiative, I dare say you'll be able to get ahold of the code. But if you can, you really should try and grab hold of a copy of the mag, as it's got a great-looking pullout section about the Phoenix, a glorious double page spread by Patrice Aggs, as well as such esoteric delights as Today presenter James Naughtie talking about comics, and the revelation that Olly Smith off Saturday Kitchen used to write for Pingu.


I'm so excited about Issue Zero - I was lucky enough to get a peek at a copy the other day and it really is something a bit special. It's not just recycled content or the first few pages of stuff that was going to appear anyway ("preprints", I guess), as you'd often get in these kind of things - we all went to a lot of effort to create new stuff specially for the occasion - prologues, teasers and standalone episodes, as well as some other very exciting bonus treats.

I'll try and blog more tomorrow with a sneak peek at my contribution(s) to the issue, but till then- seriously, go and grab a copy, while stocks last. Order one on behalf of a son/ daughter/ niece/ nephew/ class/ local neighbourhood street gang of your acquaintance, and be the gnarliest* grown-up on the block. Or heck, just order one for YOU. And then read it while you sip your organic artisan hand-picked green tea.


*What, you didn't hear? 'Gnarly' is totally back.

ComICA this Saturday!

Just a quick note to say I'll be at ComICA Comiket this Saturday, mooching around, chatting to fine comics creators and selling and signing books at the DFC Library table. Come by, there'll be all sorts of fun stuff happening, to wit:

• 1.30-2pm: Sarah McIntyre: the fabulous creator of Vern & Lettuce and illustrator of Morris The Mankiest Monster and many more! Sarah will be signing and sketching and comics-jamming and well frankly WHO KNOWS what comics-related mayhem may ensue.
  
• 2.30-3pm: Adam Brockbank: the preposterously talented comic artist and film concept art designer extraodinaire (Harry Potter, Captain America, and those are just the ones he's casually, off-handedly mentioned, doubtless many more) will be signing copies of the extraordinary MeZolith.
• 3.30-4pm: Neill Cameron - that's me - will be signing & sketching copies of Mo-Bot High, drawing robots on any available surface, and... well, who knows? I'm going to bring my trusty cardboard mo-bot along and take pictures of him meeting various Interesting People, I think. And Hipsters.Hipsters and cardboard robots, it should be a fun afternoon!
  

Anyway, I'm not actually too sure what else is happening on the day - as previously discussed, I currently have an embarrassingly limited brain capacity for any matters not directly relating to Pirates and Dinosaurs - but I know there's going to be loads of amazing cartoonists drawing live on a big screen and stuff, so I'm pretty excited to be going along. I'm mostly just hoping to meet and hang out with some interesting comics people, and maybe snag a copy of Blank Slate Books' utterly great-sounding Nelson, which I think is out now? I think?

Anyway, do come along and say hi. And on that note, I hear the call of Pirates and Dinsoaurs. Till Saturday!

The GIGANTOSAURUS Sale is on!

Yes, it's true - for the first week in November, (and in an attempt to clear a bit of space in my studio) I'm running a GIGANTOSAURUS-sized sale in my online shop, offering a whopping 20% off EVERYTHING. To take advantage of this senses-staggering salestravaganza, just enter the offer code GIGANTOSAURUS when ordering. Once again, that offer code:

GIGANTOSAURUS

But what can you buy? Why, here are a couple of options:

Mo-Bot High BOOK ONE - signed copy with ORIGINAL SKETCH of your choice! Whatever the heck kind of giant robot you want, drawn in the front of this VERY GOOD GRAPHIC NOVEL. Check out more details HERE: http://neillcameron.bigcartel.com/product/mo-bot-high-book-one

Or how about, just in time for Chrismas, the return of:

...Neill's Christmas Cards of Awesomeness! Five designs, featuring Father Christmas mish-mashed with everything from Cthulhu to Batman to (naturally) Giant Robots.

More details HERE: http://neillcameron.bigcartel.com/product/christmas-cards-of-awesomeness

Commissions are currently SOLD OUT due to workload pressures, but I might put a couple of pieces of original art up in the shop in the next couple weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Now: please go and buy things so that I can move in my studio and afford to buy Christmas presents and stuff! Thank you.

COMPETITION! Design A Fantastic Creature! And Win Fabulous Prizes!

Those fine people over at Devon Libraries are having a competition as part of The Big Draw in October to design fantastic, weird and wonderful creatures! The most fantastic, weird and wonderful will win prizes! There's some signed copies of Mo-Bot High in it for the lucky winners, for starters! And I will be helping to judge the entries. I promise to be fair, impartial, and completely immune to bribery. Unless anyone has any peanut butter m&m's. You DIDN'T HEAR ME SAY THAT.


Full info over on the Devon Libraries site! And in case you were wondering about the singularly weird and wonderful creature at the top of this post, she/he (?) is the result of a game-of-consequences-type collaboration between myself and the ludicrously talented and famous cartoonists Sarah McIntyre (head) and Garen Ewing (body). I drew the feet. Looking at it now, I think maybe we each modelled our sections after ourselves. Appropriated / recycled from the Super Comics Adventure Squad blog, lo these many years ago.

Upcoming Awesomeness, plus A Brief Explanation of Invisibility

Hello! I'm doing a couple of workshops and stuff next week, and Lo Here Are The Details:

Tues 25th October: Luton Central Library - How To Make (Awesome) Comics Workshops - sessions at 10:30am and 2:00pm! Details here!

Friday 28th October: Haverfordwest Library, 10:30am - one-hour illustrated talk and live interactive drawing shenanigans!

If you're in the area, or know anyone with kids who might fancy diverting them for an hour or two with robots and monsters and kung-fu zebras and such, do let them know! I will of course be selling and signing copies of Mo-Bot High at all events!

Other than THAT - look, I know I've been nigh-invisible in terms of blogging and tweeting and facebooking and g+ing and such lately - god, I'm exhausted just listing it all. This invisibility has extended to going along to comics conventions and events etc. What can I say, it's always the case as a freelancer that when one is the busiest, that's when one can kind of disappear from the face of the earth a bit. Just last week I was really sorry to miss the launch party in London for the Etherington Bros' Baggage, the brand new release from the DFC Library that looks absolutely fantastic and is just about the most exciting and positive thing one could hope for in British comics. Anyway, m'colleague Sarah McIntyre went and wrote a great report of the night on her blog, so go read that!

Essentially, I'm just flat-out, nose-to-the-wacom on all manner of exciting, awesome, fantastically superlicious stuff for The Phoenix, and between that and, y'know, parenting, that's pretty much all 28 hours in the day accounted for. But hey, it's not long now till January 7, 2012, when you'll get to see all the fruits of this uncommunicative busy-ness for yourself!

Till then:

PS Not really "till then". I will totally be blogging between now and then.

Uh, hopefully.

Be What You Want

I recently did a bunch of illustrations, comic strips and posters for the Be What You Want Campaign, organised by Close The Gap. The campaign is intended to support young people in being what they want to be, and help tackle gender stereotyping and occupational segregation.

It's always nice to have a job where you're drawing fun things and working for a cause you can believe in, so this was a really satisfying project to be involved with. Occupational segregation now joins the ever-growing list of Social Problems I Have Bravely Fought Through The Medium of Comics, along with traffic safety, adult innumeracy and chronic disease in indigenous populations. Oh yeah, and racism. Obviously.


Packs of the posters and comic strips were sent out to every primary and secondary school in Scotland, which is kind of mind-blowingly awesome to think about, too. Anyway, I've put a few sample pieces over on my website, and you can check out and download the full set of resources over on the Be What You Want website.

Amusing Tales and Scribbles and Such: the DFB Storyblog!

I've recently joined in blogging over at the DFB Storyblog, where lots of David Fickling books' fine writers and illustrators (and me) are sharing tall tales, amusing anecdotes, and whatever other assorted nonsense takes our fancy. The general theme to start with was 'coincidences and misunderstandings and what have you', to tie in with the recent launch of Andrew Norris' I Don't Believe It, Archie!

I joined in with a nerve-shredding tale of terror which, as well as being senses-shatteringly exciting, features such eye-poppingly gorgeous artwork as the following:

Intriguing, no?

Read the full story here! I'll be contributing fairly regularly to the blog, so brace yourselves for further tales from the foothills of the mountains of madness.

Do go and have a read, there's tons of fun stuff on there already, with posts from my fellow DFC Library peeps Dave Shelton (Good Dog, Bad Dog) and Sarah McIntyre (Vern & Lettuce) as well as such luminaries as Candy Gourlay and Tony Mitton. Enjoy!