Christmas Sketchy's

I have once again attended a Dr Sketchy's event in Newcastle and once again it was magnificent. 

 It's quite refreshing to attend a life drawing class where everybody doesn't look embarrassed to be there. I can honestly say it was an entertaining and fun afternoon, we drew, we watched, we sang, we clapped and we cheered. Good.

The Dr Sketchy performers always impress me with both their wonderful performances and their willingness to sit still for such long amounts of time. I have attempted to sit still quite often and have always failed.

The variety of talent is a treat for the senses. If you're not a drawer I would still recommend this as a good afternoon of entertainment, though do give drawing a go, you'd be surprised what you can do.

Looking forward to the next Sketchy's, see you in the new year folks.

Canny Comic Con Report

The Canny Comic Con happened on the 10th of December 2011.
I would like to think it set a challenge for the larger cons to give you more awesome for your money (we did it for free).

First of all a huge thanks to Alexi Conman for taking the reins and making the CCC come into being. Good work sir. We're all proud of you. Also thanks to the wonderful Newcastle City Library who gave us shelter and tables to sell our wares from.

Now. There were so many awesome people involved both in front of and behind the scenes that I fear I would never mention them all, so instead I bring you the rest of the day in the form of pictures.

Canny Comic Con

This Saturday is the Canny Comic Con. I will be there drawing pictures, selling paper goodies and running a little sticker hunt. Fun for all ages. I will share the sticker map with you all very soon but for now here's some more info on the CCC. 

http://cannycomiccon.blogspot.com/

The Canny Comic Con is a little festival of comics and sequential art. It will be held at Newcastle City Library all day on Saturday 10th December 2011.

Comics, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, manga, sequential art - however you want to refer to it, the CCC wants to celebrate everything about telling stories in pictures. Whilst it won't be on the same scale as some of the bigger UK comic conventions, we're going to have a full range of activities, including: talks and panel discussions, workshops, and a hall of stalls where you can meet some of the finest comic-creating talent from the region and beyond.

Whatever your age or experience, whether you read comics, make comics, or are just interested to know a little more, we hope to have something to interest you.

Entry to the CCC will be FREE. That's right, no charge. You don't need to book tickets, you don't need to pay us anything. Come along and support the biggest comic event to be held in the North East for over fifteen years.

High Bridge Christmas Arts Bazaar

For a bit of a warm up before Made in Newcastle's very own Christmas Market a few of us (including myself) will be appearing at the Highbridge Art Bazaar this Saturday. It should be a great day, there are many talented folk involved. 

The Facebook Event for your RSVPing and calendar needs: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=176306775790337

Where to find me in December:

Made in Newcastle Christmas Market on Sunday the 4th December.

The Canny Comic Con on Saturday the 10th December.

After that who knows.

Hope to catch you all at one event or another, or all. All would be awesome. 

Thought Bubble

This time next week I will be at Thought Bubble. In preparation I have been busy putting together cards and the like.

These lovely designs will be appearing on my speech bubble cards, which I hope you will all like. I am also putting together a couple sets of blank speech bubbles so that you can make your own live photo comic. These sets will come with a link to a flickr group where you can share your comic and see others. It should be good fun. As long as I get them finished.

I will have copies of my 24 hour comic done in 2010, Not Mushroom for Thought  and a little collection of mini comics. Unfortunately my current comic project is still at the script stage and will not be ready for this years con. I do aim to have it done by Hi-Ex, this will be my first Hi-Ex, good thing I'll have Paul to show me the ropes.

On that note my table buddies for Thought Bubble are Paul Thompson and Cuttlefish. Many of the other Paper Jam Comics Collective regulars will be present. If last year is anything to go by you will probably find most of the Newcastle comics scene on the one row, throwing paper planes and challenging passing artists to 24 minute comics.

It should be good fun. Hope to see you there.

I will be at Made in Newcastle @ Grainger Market Enterprise Event

Missing MiN? Then fear not.

Time

I will be exhibiting some of my work La Boca art Cafe as part of the BeetleBugs Illustration Exhibition and Family Tea Party. Thanks to Mai for the opportunity to do so.

The event is this Sunday, from 12pm - 4pm.  Facebook Event Page
Afternoon tea, burlesque bugs and my illustration & photography. Lovely. This will be the second outing of the above piece plus some never before printed photography and hopefully a nice new piece I am working on right now.

I will post some previews after the exhibition hanging on Friday.

Paper Jam Exhibition at MiN

What have I been up to? Lots.
Recently with the Paper Jam Comics Collective I've been busy exhibiting my illustration work at Made in Newcastle. I did one brand new piece for the exhibition as well as showing my page from Art and That, the rather blurry photo courtesy of my phone.

The theme for the exhibition was loosely based around History and That anthology which we first unveiled at Thought Bubble. There was a rather delayed launch party of said anthology on the Friday which doubled as the closing party for the exhibition. Many were in attendance and there was much fun had.

We also left some blank comic panels and a box of words on the table in the gallery for the week so that people could take part in our "famous" 24 minute comic challenge. Two words, one comic, 24 minutes. I have managed to rescue all the ones that we left for us to see and will be scanning them and uploading them to the Paper Jam Comic Jams blog very soon.

What else have we got. Ah yes... view the exhibition closing/History launch party in photographic glory. It's like being there... only without sound, movement or the majority of the senses.

 

Thought Bubble 2010!

As you might have heard The Paper Jam Comics Collective had a rather large amount of representation at Thought Bubble this year. I was there to document the madness, sell comics and have fun.

New on sale from our gang were such titles as Tales of the Hollow Earth 2, Sugar Glider, Food for the Dead (fondly nicknamed Project Z), Verity Fair 2, Big Bang 2, Hermit, Show and Tell, Not Mushroom for Thought (that's mine), Mutual Slump 2 and our long awaited and hopefully soon to be much celebrated brand new anthology History... And That!

I have to say a huge thanks to everyone who came to see us, bought our comic or just stopped by for a chat, it was an awesome day! Also thanks to James and Alex for single handedly manning the table for a few hours while I was swept away by the flow of the crowd. 

It was a tiring day to say the least but much fun was had by all, including young Dylan here, who was an absolute star at what I believe is his very first convention. Well done.

I have also just been reminded that the before and after parties were some of the best I've ever been to. It was great to finally put the face to the online names of Matt and Kelly, among others. And one thing I have learned to be true from the Thought Bubble after con disco is that geeks sure can dance. So much fun.

A quick catch-up!

Not long after the launch of Made in Newcastle (mentioned in the previous blog post) I was involved in a  Paper Jam Comics Collective anthology called Art... and that. This anthology had the theme of art (surprisingly) and was put together with the wonderful encouragement and aid of Empty Shop.

We launched this anthology on the day of the "What are you like?" exhibition preview at the DLI, in Durham. It was an excellent event and the gang were in great company with Empty Shop, Salford Zine Library and Set of Drawers to name a few.

We were a bit pleased with ourselves to say the least.

The exhibition was brilliant and I loved seeing all those comics and zines gathered in the one place, Salford Zine Library you are a magical travelling wonder.

As expected, a room full of creative, drawing types when presented with a chalk board will play their own special form of Pictionary. One where nobody gets the answer right easily but the pictures look great. Here we see a certain Mr Waugh attempting to depict the word "download". He might not live that one down.


What's Next? 


History... and that! Another wonderful Paper Jam Comics Collective anthology. I am thrilled to say that you will be able to buy this from us at Thought Bubble this very weekend!

I have two pages in this anthology, one about foxes. Foxes that glow.

And my very own 24 Hour Comic Day contribution Not Mushroom for Thought! Again, you can buy this from me at Thought Bubble where the Paper Jam Comics Collective will be representing Newcastle in FORCE. We have four tables between us and we are ready to roll.

So, what is this 24 Hour Comic Day? How did it go? If you want to check out how I got on and what the rest of the PJCC gang got up to we kept a blog for the event, which we aim to update every 24 Hour Comic Day with more sleep deprived comic goodness.

And that pretty much brings me up to date... I attended BICS as one of the masses and bought comics and talked to friends, old and new. It was cool... but the big news still remains:

I will be at Thought Bubble this weekend and I will be selling comics!