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I was so chuffed when I got the picture from Molly Bruton of 'Maggie, the 2nd Mankiest Monster' that I had to go ahead and try to draw my own version! I started with the softer one below, but it wasn't quite right, and then I painted the top one, which I like very much! Maybe I'll name mine Molly for now, and she doesn't look as manky as Morris, but she has some of her own bizarre habits. Hmm, will have to think about this.



You can see a review by Molly and her dad, Richard, on the FPI blog here, thanks, guys! I was also very chuffed to read reviewer Matt Badham's comments about the Michiru Morikawa interview over at Down the Tubes and the recap of BICS on FPI. Michiru and I were both really nervous about that interview, she was worried about her English (which turned out to be almost flawless) and I was worried that I didn't know enough about manga to be able to ask good questions. I need to learn way more, but it was nice just to connect with her as another creator who gets a bit obsessive over drawing a good line.

And talking of good lines, I just got this fab drawing from the King of Good Lines, Warwick Johnson Cadwell. You might recognise his work from editorial illustrations in The Guardian, but he also makes comics and is one of the best people at drawing in Britain. Ha ha, I love the jar of Ginger Beard...



I was so glad to get the chance to see him at BICS, he's very elusive because he's usually working out somewhere on his boat. He's contributing to the Birdsong anthology that's hopefully coming out for Thought Bubble in Leeds.

A huge thanks to Shane Chebsey and everyone who organised the British International Comics Show in Birmingham this weekend! I had a great time launching Morris the Mankiest Monster (which you can buy here if you missed me)!



I think my interview of Michiru Morikawa went well. Something very cool happened in the middle of her talk; she was saying she was sad she hadn't been able to meet any of her co-creators, other than via e-mail, and suddenly one of them, Jeymes Samuel said something like, 'Hey, I'm here!', and there was a big happy first meeting! Jeymes was able to talk about the film being made, and made Michiru glow with his effusive praise of her work. That was fun!



Running my monster-making station at my table meant I didn't have time to run around the show very much, but I got to meet loads of fab people, including MP for West Bromwich East Tom Watson and his son, who coloured with me while we argued about energy policy, agreed that my MP Joan Ruddock is very cool, and speculated about possible uses of the glass entry tubes in the Ministry of Magic. He bought a Morris book and went home that night and wrote up a lovely review on his blog. Thanks, Tom!



We had a real mix of people come make monsters: one kid would sit down, then the table would be full of kids; a teenage girl would sit down and the table would be full of teenage girls; a middle-aged bloke would sit down and we'd have a bunch of guys cutting and pasting... it was great.

You can see a whole bunch more photos on the slideshow here. Thanks to cdave for crocheting me a brilliant set of Morris horns, to Molly Bruton for her lovely Morris picture (see the slideshow) and to everyone who stopped by!

Here I am, sitting in the studio, doing my homework:



At the British International Comics Show in Birmingham this Sunday at 11:45am, I'm interviewing Japanese manga artist Michiru Morikawa. She just sent an e-mail to say she's rushing around packing for the trip, and I've been reading through her brilliant comic, Advent, at the beginning of Woodrow's copy of The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga and putting together a slide show from the images she's sent me. We'll both be launching books there: Morris the Mankiest Monster by Giles and me, and Buskers by Michiru, Jeymes Samuel and Sean Michael Wilson, which is also being made into a film.



Michiru sent through lots of amazing images, but some of them were so complicated that I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get the most out of them in a slide show. I hope she doesn't mind, I've done a lot of closeups of her work, because I think the artwork looks even more beautiful when it's broken down into little pieces.



Here's a closeup of the first picture in the sequence:



Hope to see you at BICS! (I'd give you the web link but they seem to have exceeded their bandwidth...)

I had thought we were going to launch Morris the Mankiest Monster in London, but plans have changed... I had a very nice invitation from BICS coordinator Shane Chebsey and now the Morris launch will take off at the British International Comics Show! While I'm there, I'm going to interview one of Japan's upcoming and very talented comic artists, Michiru Morikawa. I still need to find out more about her work, but from what I've seen, it looks amazing. She'll be launching her new book, Buskers. (Edit: Ooh, some more of her pictures here, thanks to Rob Davis.)

I'm a bit nervous, I've never even been to BICS, much less had a table, but I'm thinking of lots of fun stuff that I could do with it. I woke up in the middle of the night still having lots of ideas about it and couldn't get back to sleep, so I made a pair of Morris horns:



In the cold light of morning, they look like a real DIY jobbie, but I might wear them anyway. I should've learned to crochet, they'd look cool crocheted. Ooh, a woolen Morris hat with horns... dangit, this is when I need to know how to knit! Or felt! ...Ah well, knitting and felting for another time. And I've ordered some badges with these designs:



Are any of you going to BICS? Do you have any tips for me? Hope to see you there!