How To Make Awesome Comics is OUT TODAY!

Available in all good bookstores as of today is my new book, HOW TO MAKE AWESOME COMICS! An educational and instructive manual for persons of all ages on every aspect of the comics-making process, with extended ruminations on the nature and origins of creativity plus NUMEROUS fart jokes and a WHOLE PAGE THAT TELLS YOU HOW TO DRAW PENGUINS. Buy it for every child you know, and also for any you don't, and also for yourself. THANK YOU.

Here are some places you can grab a copy:

• direct from the Phoenix website!
• From excellent comics shops such as Gosh Comics in London, Page 45 in Nottingham, OK Comics in Leeds, to name BUT A FEW!
• From major online retailers, or slightly less major but arguably morally sturdier ones!
• From, honestly, all good bookshops across the land.

And if they don't have it, ask them to order it! (ISBN: 978-1-910200-03-2)

And hey, parents, librarians, teachers and readers all: you can download printable versions of all the activities in the book, and many other worksheets and fun comics-based activities besides, from here:  http://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/awesome/

Let the drawing-filled summer holidays commence!

Seeing as I'm here, here are a few ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS! Look, it's my blog, I'm allowed to go on a bit. I'd like to thank the following people, without whom the book would NOT EXIST!

Sarah McIntyre! A tireless force for spreading the comics word, I'd particularly like to thank Sarah because it was she who dragged me along to do my first school visit - something that frankly terrified me, but I figured if things got hairy I could at least throw Sarah to the feral children and make my escape while she fought them off. ANYWAY, as it turned out, it was actually completely amazing, and kind of ended up changing my whole approach to comics and my career; a huge amount of this book comes out of ideas I've developed in my workshops, seeing first hand the excitement and creativity that comics generate with kids.

(Sarah McIntyre, seen here HATLESS AND IN FIGHTING MOOD.)

Ben Sharpe! Our original editor on the Phoenix, who commissioned Professor Panels and Art Monkey in the first place and was utterly invaluable in figuring out the tone and approach for the strip. I think without Ben's steady hand I'd have gone a lot more sarcastic and facetious and generally it wouldn't actually have worked nearly as well for the actual intended audience. 

Paul Duffield! who worked with me tirelessly on the design and layout of the book, putting in efforts above and beyond the call of duty when he really could have been off drawing mind-bogglingly amazing comics instead. (Paul's fingerprints are all over the finished book, and it looks *beautiful* as a result. He even drew the pencil shavings on the cover!)

And of course, all Ficklings everywhere but most particularly of all David Fickling, who I could thank here for a solid hour for all he's done for publishing in this country, for comics, and for me personally. And it would still not be enough.

(The man himself, photo courtesy Jo Cotterill)

Is that enough self-indulgent gushing now? I think it probably is. PLEASE BUY MY BOOK?

And hey look! Some OTHER awesome comics out today: Gary's Garden by Gary Northfield and Long Gone Don by the Etherington Brothers - spectacularly, embarassingly talented fellow all. That is quite the library of AMAZING COMICS FOR CHILDREN starting to build up, right?