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To find out more about #HourlyComicDay, click here to read my previous post! (Oh, and my picture book Dinosaur Police launches with Scholastic UK this spring.)























Thanks for reading! Here are some peeks at my upcoming picture book:

I'd been missing these comic strips going out in The Funday Times in The Sunday Times (probably because I was flat on my back with 'flu), so here's a peek at the Shark & Unicorn that ran on 14 December!



My editor's brief was that it be MUSEUM-themed, to tie in with the section's featured film, Night at the Museum 2.



(You can read previous Shark & Unicorn strips here.)

Oh my goodness, I mustn't forget Shark & Unicorn in The Funday Times! I think I must have a thing for chubby equine mythical creatures.



This comic ran on 30 November, and my brief was that it be PENGUIN themed.

Here's my Shark & Unicorn comic strip that ran last weekend in The Funday Times section of The Sunday Times. The film theme for the issue was The Book of Life, but I was asked not to use the word 'ghost' or 'haunted'. (Thus the 'spookies'; I had to be a bit creative.)



Actually, The Book of Life looks interesting, I'll include the trailer:

Hello! Here's the comic I made for the 24-Hour Comic Marathon at this weekend's Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal.

The challenge I set myself (besides making a whole book in 24 hours!) was to make a comic book that an adult could read aloud to a child. (Usually comics are rather difficult to read aloud.) So there are bits that might be slightly wordy, but I was doing that to try to make it read better. It was an experiment, so see if you think it works!


















































Ta-DAH! Thank you for reading! I'll blog more about the event and creating process soon, but big thanks to Scott McCloud, who set the original 24-Hour Comic challenge, and came all the way from the USA to give the festival a boost and pop his head into the room a couple times with his wife, Ivy, to cheer us on. Here we are in the Page 45 room with the six other creators who were working on their own books along with me through the night (from left): Jack Teagle (@jackteagle), Kristyna Baczynski (@kbaczynski), Warwick Johnson Cadwell (@WarwickJC), Scott ((@scottmccloud), awesome coordinator Dan Berry (@thingsbydan), Fumio Obata (@FumioObata), Joe Decie (@joedecie) and me. Dan was amazing and worked with a local Kendal printer, Absolute Digital Print, to roll out 50 copies of each book by that evening. (Wow!) I've sold out of my copies, but perhaps sometime I'll print some more.



Oh, and did you notice that big crowd scene, when Jamie the scribble is on display at the art museum? I got some help with drawing the crowd from the amazing team of Kendal College assistants who stuck with us through the night, in two shifts. A lot of the people were drawn by Janet (here with her sketchbook), who's ace.



And here are Phil Welch and Katie White, who stayed with us through the WHOLE 24 HOURS and created an AMAZING BLOG, tweeting as @24hcm and using the #24hcm hash tag. Also, a little look at my work desk, and a pose on the following Sunday with festival-mascot-creator Felt Mistress and the two top festival coordinators, Julie Tait and Sandra Wood. Thanks so much, everyone!

The theme of last weekend's edition of The Funday Times was DRAGONS. Which was very handy, because the dragon is also a big part of this year's Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge!



Shark & Unicorn are mucking about with Dragon a bit here.



A cool thing: yesterday I got to meet my Sunday Times editor for the first time! Her name is Karen Robinson, and we'd only ever talked by e-mail. The Funday Times is mostly a film tie-in, but Karen's keen to nurture local talent, and I've been thrilled to have a regular comic in a real broadsheet newspaper. (Well, only six times a year, but regularly six times!)



I had lunch with her and Damian Kelleher, who's been my amazing champion and go-between for Summer Reading Challenge, Funday Times, Kids Week and lots of other things.



And Damian has a new book out this week! A Dog in No-Man's Land ties in with the First World War commemorations and looks great, published by Templar, with illustrations by Gary Blythe, edited by Helen Boyle (of WRD magazine) and designed by Nghiem Ta (who's worked on loads of Templar's 'ology' books).



They've tucked all sorts of letters and postcards in amongst the pages, giving it a wonderful scrapbook-like feel, and I'm very much looking forward to reading it. Congratulations, Damian, Gary, Helen and Nghiem!

If you’ve ever perused the online web comic community Tapastic.com, you’re sure to have seen the slice of life webcomic “The Danemen” featuring the DaneMan himself. The silent (word-less) comic transcends language through the use of visual queues that brings drama and comedy to the viewer. It’s like watching a classic Chaplin act and waiting for the finale, which never disappoints and is almost always unexpected.

In the video below, David shows us his work process and how it defines his unique style. Make sure to take notes, and don’t forget to support his Patreon campaign so he can make comics until the end of days!

http://www.patreon.com/DaneMen

http://danemen.com/

Poor Unicorn! It's all Pegasus this season.


Here's my comic strip that appeared in yesterday's copy of The Funday Times (a section of The Sunday Times.) It's supposed to tie in with the film Rio 2, but the only real connection is a blue flying thing.



Here's a little peek at the work in progress, and the final printed version. (Thanks for tweeting the photo, @Lorna_May_D!) I did the pencil rough on the plane to Dubai and - my poor editor - it was almost illegible.



There's a big discussion going on right now over on the Awfully Big Blog Adventure, analysing the sentiment: 'Sure, the book is awful, but at least they're reading something'. It's worth reading, particularly for the comments. I commented, but it's right at the end, so you'll most likely miss it, and I was responding more to things in the comments than the original article. So here's my mini article:

Why I hate 'proper books':

I keep encountering this term 'proper books' and I hate it so much. Often it's used in a discussion that puts down books which have illustrations in them or stories told in comics format. I wish we could stop using the words 'proper books' because it means different things to different people. Visually literate, well-read people may use it to judge a book fairly among its peers. But well-intentioned adults who know less about books borrow the term to shame kids away from books that are perfectly good, only because they don't understand that kind of book. They may have leafed through a single poorly made comic book and decided they didn't like comics. Or have recollections of being shamed in childhood for reading books with pictures when an adult deemed them too old for that.

What does 'proper' mean, anyway, that makes it a better word than 'good'? Proper implies a certain serious, stiff-collared, sitting-up-straight-at-the-desk educational worthiness. Not an experience that involves curling up in a safe place and getting lost in a world.

Proper, blegh.

Let's stop saying 'proper books' altogether. Anyone with me on this one?

I'm very aware that I've been posting all these event photos, but not many drawings! But I was working yesterday on my Shark and Unicorn comic strip for The Funday Times (a section of The Sunday Times). Here's a little peek at the upcoming strip, from when I was inking it on my lightbox:



And I think I missed the last strip running in the paper while I was deadlining for Cakes in Space. So here it is. I've already put a shark in the bath, but this is the first time it has involved time travel... or not.



Events! I still have some upcoming events! Have a look to see if I'm in your area and come draw with me. :)

Oxford Literary Festival, Sat, 22 March, 12 noon, Corpus Christi College:
Set sail for adventure with Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre! Their book, Oliver and the Seawigs, is full of giggly-but-dangerous monkeys, a near-sighted mermaid and some very big hair. There will be live drawing, ukuleles and lots of laughs.
Book tickets here!



Essex Book Festival, Sat, 29 March, Chelmsford, 2pm, Cramphorn Theatre:
Blast off with Steve Cole and Sarah McIntyre for an afternoon of comic capers. Find out how comics inspire the talented duo and pick up some tips for your own comic creations. Whether you enjoy writing, drawing or simply reading comics, this hour of madcap hilarity with two of the most popular children’s book creators will put a smile on your face.
Book tickets here!



Cambridge Literary Festival, Sat, 4 April, 1pm, Winstanly Lecture Theatre:
Set sail for an adventure with story-telling legends Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre as they introduce their book Oliver and the Seawigs, full of giggly-but-dangerous monkeys, a near-sighted mermaid and some very BIG WIGS. Learn how to draw your own Sea Monkey and let your monkey join in with the silly sea shanty chorus!
Book tickets here!

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Straight from the offices of Publishers Weekly, it’s More to Come! Your podcast source of comics news and discussion starring The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald.

In a More To Come interview special episode,  Heidi talks with acclaimed indie comics creator Jeff Smith about his Eisner-winning kids’ fantasy epic Bone, his adult sci-fi tale RASL, the advantages and difficulties of being your own publisher, his new Paleolithic webcomic Tuki Save The Humans and much, much more on this episode of Publishers Weekly’s graphic novel podcast. in this podcast from PW Comics World.

Now tune in Fridays at our new, new time for our regularly scheduled podcast!

Stream this episode and catch up with our previous podcasts through the Publishers Weekly website or subscribe to More To Come on iTunes

Hurrah! LiveJournal is back! (I was getting worried!) Hello, all you fabulous LJ people!

I've been away and had an adventure! While LJ was down, I agreed to post it over on my publisher's website, the David Fickling Books blog. (David's the lovely chappie who published my Morris the Mankiest Monster and Vern and Lettuce.)


Low-tech blogging in China

So here's the first panel, and you can read it in daily installments over on the DFB blog. (But don't worry, this here's still my main blog!)

Gini and Sam go to China

In the meantime, keep an eye on all the fab comics folk at the Super Comics Adventure Squad, the Forbidden Planet International blog, Gosh! Comics blog, Comical Animal, Paul Gravett's website and The Fleece Station blog.

And be sure to come to The Fleece Station for New Cross Turn Left, a comics extravaganza party on Sunday, 24 July! Organised by my excellent studio mate Ellen Lindner, with a DJ set by our very own Reginald Frothy:

We have a new fancy fishmonger in Deptford! Plenty of scope for HIGH DRAMA. *cue JAWS theme tune*










And a little peek at last night's MA show at the Royal Academy:

I finished inking this travel comic on the way back from visiting Philip Reeve and his family on Dartmoor last week.


































You can see Philip's drawings over on his Dartmoor Sketchbook blog.

Hey, there! Sorry it's been awhile! I'll post lots more photos soon from New York City and MoCCA comics festival, but here's a little comic I made on the plane ride to Seattle.



My parents have just been sitting here helping me turn it into a mini comic for Stumptown comics festival this weekend. So swing by my booth and grab a copy if you're around!









I LOVE New York! I have so many photos I can't possibly process them all tonight, but here are two.



MoCCA was fabulous; here's a glimpse of some of the things Ellen Lindner, Cliodhna Lyons and I will have on our table in Portland!

Well, it took me only a week to fail on my promise to get a new sketch up every friday.

Yep, I kinda suck.

Maybe this will make you feel a bit better.

I've recently decided to do something I've always wanted to do, but for whatever reason always backed out of - a webcomic.

I've loved comics as a medium since I was a kid and I've always thought doing a webcomic on a regular basis might be fun. That being said, I don't have a ton of extra time and I didn't want to get something started and never see it through.

I'm not saying there's no chance of that happening this time out, but I've chosen sort of an easy-breezy style of art and I'm going to give it my best.

I want to get a few pages ahead of the game before I start posting stuff, so I'm looking at getting up and running by the end of next month - hopefully. I'll have mo information as I get closer.

In the meantime, here's a little something to wet your whistle.

Steve

My Space Hop workshop yesterday at the Paddington Children's Library went well. The librarian Laurence Foe even donned a Storm Trouper outfit and the staff wore antennae so we'd all be space themed! We designed aliens and some of the older kids made space comics. A group of four girls were in stitches with laughter over a comics jam they did together, and they said I could redraw it for my blog today. Here's their version, hee hee!



The writer of You Can't Eat a Princess!, Gillian Rogerson (the other space princess) is meeting up with me for Thought Bubble in Leeds, maybe Mr Fart Bubble will want to come with us.

I'm sitting here at the Fleece Station and just got off the phone with Anne Cottringer, a filmmaker and the writer of our upcoming picture book, When Titus Took the Train. This is almost too good to be true, but Anne is putting in a bid to be honourary Fleece Station member with a documentary about sheep shearing! Here's a fascinating clip about how to shear a sheep. It's awfully therapeutic watching that wool come off.


Anne's Youn Farmers Documentary website link

I've been terrible lately with my daily morning sketches, and it's made me feel a bit unwell. It took reading Simone Lia's blog to remember that it's okay if I keep things simple. It's not very original, but I don't care.

On New Year's Day, Stuart and I went on an urban hike along the Capital Ring from Wandworth to Richmond. On Sunday, I woke up with flu and felt like death, so I bashed out this comic to cheer me up.

It's dedicated to nedroidcomics, beatonna and lucylou, whose online comics always make me feel better.









Okay, so I tweaked the inscription a bit...

Hey, guess what, I got to meet Lucy Knisley! (That's lucylou.) I'd always wanted to meet her and I've been reading her online comics for a few years now, but Chicago is a long way away, and then suddenly, there she was in London! I was already going for dinner with some comics creators who live locally, so she and John came along. Yay!




Here's a photo of Akanksha Awal and James Turner eruditebaboon) with his remarkable 'tache.

Peter Stanbury and me, playing with the candles.

Lucy with her ISBN tatoo and John:

Alex Milway and Katie Milway:

Rian Hughes and Gary Northfield:

Peter Stanbury and Paul Gravett

Viviane Schwarz and me

Somewhere in the back there, a very blurry John Aggs


We got to see the amazing comics travel diary Lucy is keeping on her trip, and I got inspired to make a comic this evening. Not that it is at all autobiographical, oh no.

I quite like how this one came out! A bit minimalist. I penciled it while I was having my morning coffee at this great little garden cafe run by French ladies, called La Fleur. There were big, fat, ripe strawberries on the bush right next to my table and I was willing myself not to steal one, but the nice owner saw I was swooming with the effort of restraint and let me pick one.

Then I inked it on my break. Which is probably not what one is supposed to do on a break, it's probably healthire to stretch or go for a walk or something.



Hey, the original of this looks clean and nice, want to buy it? £40 + £5 registered mail postage via Paypal for people in the UK, £6.50 postage for Europe and £9 for anywhere else. Drop me a line at sarah at jabberworks dot co dot uk. (Artwork size is 28 x 17cm, ink on cartridge paper.)