It's surprising to think sometimes that the book Fatbag, my first professional (i.e. paid!) job as an illustrator, was 30 years ago this year. I remember creating the drawings like it was yesterday.
Having graduated from Manchester I moved to Norwich, where my parents had decided to re-settle during my absence. Rural Norfolk was a complete contrast to Manchester. I knew nothing about Norwich at all, but there was a burgeoning music and arts scene which I slipped into pretty quickly. With virtually no budget I started anonymously publishing an indies music/arts fanzine The Blue Blanket, through which I interviewed bands, touring and local, ran local event listings, plus there were odd features on the arts, and opinionated flippant essays under various nom-de-plumes. And of course it was fully illustrated with my work. It was fun, made me a bunch of friends very quickly, and invariably sold out. Somewhere along the years of multiple housemoving I lost my own remaining copies, so I've only memories of the magazine now, but recently I did find one piece of artwork in my dad's house.
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| from The Blue Blanket Issue 4, 1982 |
Any funds raised were pumped straight back into the production of the magazine, so the print quality and distribution gradually improved, the print run more than doubled over a year. However by then it was becoming a burden to write, illustrate, edit and publish virtually all by myself, the magazine was a full time job, any help I did get was completely volunteer. I had to make a choice - am I going to do this for a living? In which case I'd need to generate some income from it, or take up the reins of freelance illustration, which I'd just spent 4 years studying? It was time to get serious about my career.
After throwing most of my student artwork out of the window on the last day at Manchester Poly (see previous post) I just had a simple portfolio of graduate pieces I wasn't particularly happy with, mostly black and white. So I began looking with fresh eyes at the market for children's illustration. I worked on some story ideas and drew a full colour dummy picture book
Bored Brenda, (a modern day twist on
The Fisherman's Wife, set in Manchester) plus a couple of other watercolour portfolio pieces, and added drawings from
The Blue Blanket to my degree show black and white work.
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| Bored Brenda at home (original dummy) 1982 |
1 Comments on Blue Blankets, Bored Brendas and Fat Bags, last added: 6/20/2012
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It may be ages before I find it, but I think I've got a copy of "the Blue Blanket" somewhere.
With any luck I'll have discovered, scanned, and emailed it to you in time for your 70th birthday!
Weren't you chums with Charlie Higson for a while in Norwich? You should look him up now he's a media personality.