The Pirates of Pangaea

I am delighted and thrilled to be able to announce the project I'm currently working on: The Pirates of Pangaea! It is a ludicrously exciting new comic by Daniel Hartwell and myself that will be appearing in The Phoenix, a new children's story-comic launching in January 2012.

Want more? Check out this THRILLING TEASER!

Pirates of Pangaea from thephoenixcomic on Vimeo.

I won't say much else for now, as it would rather seem to defeat the point of the whole 'teaser' thing if I then went on to tell you all about it. Suffice to say, I'm really, really, really excited, and having so much fun, and I think you guys are going to like this.

Be sure to sign up to the Phoenix newsletter for loads more exciting announcements and news as we head towards the launch!

DerryBots

I spent last weekend at 2D, the Northern Ireland Comics Festival in Derry. And very fun it was too. Apart from anything else, it was lovely to see my Mo-Bots on posters for the event all over Derry, on walls and bus shelters (as in the above). Very exciting! I've never seen my art on a bus shelter before. (Well not that I didn't draw there myself in marker pen. No wait, I didn't say that).

Look, there's one!

I was over principally to do a couple of workshops, one with a school group on Friday and then one that was open to the public on Saturday. We were doing 'Giant Robot Design For Beginners', which is where I attempt to teach some of the basic principles of figure-drawing-without-a-model, but in a fun and robot-y way, involving a lot of rocket launchers. Seriously, a LOT. The Saturday session in particular was tremendously enjoyable - a really good mix of ages and levels of drawing ability, it just seemed to go really well and was lots of fun. Many supremely awesome / insane robots were drawn, which of course I singularly failed to take any pictures of. Here are a couple that I somehow ended up with:

GHOST-BOT, by Caitlin

An excerpt from the epic comic sage STEGOBOT VS ROBOCOP, sadly unattributed. If you drew this please get in touch!

Clockwise from top left: Quack-Bot by Gary Northfield, Bunny-Bot VS Dragon-Bot by Matt Brooker / D'israeli, Squirrel Ice-Bot by Jim Medway, and the character find of 2011: Rocket Spy Squid Bot by Lauren O'Farrell. Photo nicked from Lauren's Tumblr!

Those last four, I dunno, I think they might have had some practise at drawing before. Lovely chaps all, anyway, and really great to get a chance to hang out with them and gab about comics and doing workshops and stuff. And, mostly, to listen to Gary and Jim make up monkey jokes for 11 straight hours: an unadvertised highlight of the 2D Festival, frankly.

Anyway, after forcing a bunch of kids to draw robots, said kids then got their revenge for the rest of the day on Saturday by making me draw THEM robots (or, as ended up being the case, portraits of themselves as zombies.) Again, totally failed to take any pictures, but here's one of a robot I sketched in one (hopefully) satisfied customer's copy of Mo-Bot High:

That is: a Zombie-Bot with One Arm Covered in Spikes, One Arm That Is a Laser Cannon, One Arm That Has Like Wolverine Claws, One Arm Hanging Off, Rocket Launchers, A Scary Skull On His Chest, An Axe Stuck In His Head And a Tank For a Foot. It was quite a specific request.

And then, just as my zombie-drawing hand was getting tired, one customer turned the tables and drew a sketch of me:

That is by Lochlainn Kelly, who let me read his comic about zombies and drug addicts which was frankly one of the most awesome and hilarious things I've seen in ages. I think he's captured my likeness rather well. And look, he even got his deviantArt page URL in at the bottom. The kid's a pro!

Huge thanks to the festival organisers, David Campbell in particular, for inviting me over and for looking after me so magnificently while I was there. I love Derry, and it was a lovely opportunity to catch up with some old friends AND go to a funky awesome friendly informal comics festival all at the same time. Big win.

I is for... Ikiru

Here is the latest entry in the A-Z of Awesome Japan, a series of 26 drawings I am doing to celebrate things I love about Japan. You can see the full set so far here. Some people have been kind enough to sponsor me in this endeavour, with proceeds going to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami relief fund. If you would like to so too, well god bless you. You can do so here.

Annotations:

• Ikiru is a 1952 film by Akira Kurosawa which tells the story of a painfully repressed and boring middle-aged government bureacrat who learns that he has stomach cancer and only a short time to live. I know, sounds like a laugh riot. But it's simply astonishing. I'd like to write a long piece about how much I loved this film and all the beautiful, hilarious, awkward, heartbreaking and uplifting moments and images it contains, but I'm a bit pushed for time so I'll simply advise you in the strongest possible terms to go and see it. Seriously, go and see it.

While I'm here: available to pre-order now is The Spirit of Hope, a comic containing work by loads of top creators, from which all proceeds will go towards charities supporting victims of the disaster in Japan. Read all about it here! I'm very sorry not to be in it myself - I was away the week stuff needed to be in for it, unfortunately - but the list of creators is extraordinary and the few peeks I've seen of work in it are really rather fantastic. So, y'know. Get on that.

Right, must dash! Off to 2D today to spend the next couple of days teaching children how to draw robots and such. Hopefully see some of you there!

2D or not 2D? Actually, yes, 2D.

Just a quick note to say I will be at the 2D Comics Festival in Derry next weekend! Read all about it at www.2dfestival.com. Very excited about this one as it sounds like a really fun event, and there's a ludicrous line-up of stellar comics artists going along for me to be act awkward and intimidated around. Hooray! I shall be doing some workshops and stuff and, y'know, just hanging around drawing robots and stuff really. Do come along and say hello if you're in the area!

H is for... Handy Hangover Hints from Hagakure

Phew! It's been too long, sorry. Anyway, here is H's pic in the A-Z of Awesome Japan!

Annotations:

• Hagakure or The Book of the Samurai is a practical guidebook on the Way of the Samurai written in the eighteenth century by ex-Samurai turned Buddhist monk Yamamoto Tsunetomo. It contains much moral guidance and information on honourable behaviour, preparedness for death, and the killing of one's enemies. It also advises samurai to always carry a little powdered rouge up their sleeves, for covering up the effects of a hangover. I read it several years ago, and that image has stayed with me. Hence this drawing!
• I wrote a review of Hagakure on our old blog Unified Review Theory, which you can read here.

Back soon with a pic for 'I' I'm thinking it might be (someone) Inebriated In an Izakaya. But WHO? Suggestions welcome!

Actually come to think of it, I was once inebriated in an Izakaya. Maybe I should just draw that.

G is for... Giant Robots Guarding over Geisha in Gion

Here is this week's* entry in the A-Z of Awesome Japan, a series of drawings I am doing on this blog to celebrate stuff that is awesome about Japan, and to help raise a little money for the ongoing disaster relief efforts in that country. (You can sponsor me here.)

Annotations:

• Giant Robots are, well, it's rather self-explanatory, isn't it? Needless to say, I quite like Giant Robots.
• Geisha are, well, it's rather complicated, isn't it? Entertainers? Performers? Hostesses? Go ask Wikipedia.
• Gion is an inordinately beautiful and atmospheric historic neighbourhood of Kyoto, famed for its long-standing associations as a Geisha district.

* yes, it's weekly rather than daily now. Been horribly busy, sorry. I am a Struggling Artist, remember, and have a fairly packed and punishing schedule of Struggling to get through each day. Also, I wanted to take a little more time over these pictures, so that they represented work I'm proud of rather than being just rushed, hurried and rather sucky. If I have any aspirations as an artist, I guess they could be summed up as "to produce work which is not sucky". Yes, I DARE TO DREAM.

More next week! And every week for like another five months, geez.

EXTRA FUN FOR PROCESS NERDS! Here is the process:

F is for... Foxes Feasting on Fukujinzuke (near Mt. Fuji)

Here is today's - or rather, this week's, sorry - entry in the A-Z of Awesome Japan!

• Foxes are a popular figure in Japanese mythology; principally the magical shape-shifting fox Kitsune, a messenger of the Shinto deity Oinari.
• Fukujinzuke is a mixture of pickled sweetened vegetables - aubergine, daikon, cucumber, radish and such - whcih is popular as an accompaniment to curries and other dishes. It is very possibly my favourite single thing to eat in the whole world, and every time all the shops in Oxford run out of it (which is distressingly often), I want to CRY.
• Mount Fuji is a big ol' mountain.

Another entry in the A-Z coming after Easter. You can if you wish please sponsor me to carry on doing these - all donations go to the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund and are hugely appreciated.

Happy Easter, everybody!