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Thanks to Selina Lock at Factor Fiction for her fab review of my Dear Diary mini comic!

Yesterday evening, David O'Connell and I went to a Children's Book Circle panel at Penguin Books on the Strand to hear these people talk about books for kids and imagination. The very serious looking dude on the left used to be the Children's Laureate and I doodled him inside the cover of the little Puffin handbook they gave us:

From left: Michael Rosen, Puffin editorial director Amanda Punter, children's book academic (one of his books rescued me when I was writing my thesis) Peter Hunt, the fabulous Giles Andreae (who wrote Morris the Mankiest Monster), children's book journalist and critic Nicolette Jones and Puffin Creative Executive Sarah Kettle.



It made me laugh when they asked Giles what he looked in books as a kid, and he said he always looked for the shortest books, and comics and books with pictures. And now that he's reading books to his kids at bedtime, he still looks for the shortest books, so that's what he aims for when he writes them. If he can get a book down to one perfect word, he'll be a happy man.

Michael Rosen made a mention of some sort of exhibition at the Institut Français of Russo-French children's books in November. (So let me know if anyone hears anything about that, could be interesting!)



We somehow managed to miss the whole crowd of people going for drinks afterward, but Dave, Giles and I ended up having a lovely chat and a few pints together. Then I went on to an election party at the house of Tom and fab writer Sally Nicholls, which made me laugh since Giles is rather fond of his school chum, Tory leader David Cameron, and Sally's house was full of Lib-Dem/Green-voting Quakers. But Sally and Tom had colour-coded cocktails for the three major parties and Tom had devised Election Bingo for the BBC coverage, with squares marked Technical difficulties, Bellwether, Victim of the Expenses Scandal, Over to Jeremy, and Shock result (which we didn't get, it's been a bit of a damp squib finale).



I came back with a couple things in my bag, including this great card from Maureen Irving and Natalie Fountain, organisers of last month's UniComics festival, whom I was very pleased to see at the panel event. (I told you they were well organised, they even printed up cards!) And my defaced Puffin handbook (sorry, Puffin, that logo is very fun for scribbling).

Late night working, difficult morning. I'm not very good at winter mornings.



The marvellous writer of the book I illustrated, Morris the Mankiest Monster, Giles Andreae has lots of other tricks up his sleeve, including the famous Purple Ronnie series he originated, and his more recent line of stuff, Edward Monkton. Last week the Times ran a huge three-page section on his thoughts behind his new animation, The Pig of Happiness. While I could relate more to the Pig of Comfort this morning than the Pig of Happiness, I was hugely intrigued by his description of his breakdown into clinical depression. His stark, insightful description of it reminded me of the huge gulf between being depressed and suffering depression; people who have never suffered depression can't even start to appreciate the total wiping out of personality and horror that come with it. More than a call be 'be happy', I found it a call to be gentle and patient with people who are depressed, something I could use reminding about when I'm tempted to wish they'd 'snap out of it' or something equally callous. (Giles related that to someone telling a person with a broken neck to get a grip.)
You can read the whole article at Times Online here.

It also makes me think about how much creative people who have suffered serious mental health issues have to offer the rest of us in giving us a window into this whole world. Their contributions are so HUGELY valuable; it's enough just to write something worthy, that will only get a small audience. These guys know how to make the subject genuinely interesting, and what can be more interesting than the dark and strange places the mind can go. So few people are able really to communicate what breakdown and chronic suffering is like, or make us see things differently, want be more understanding and contemplate the fragile thread that keeps us all from falling into the same pit.

A lot of people in the comics community have come to value Leeds-based writer and artist Darryl Cunningham for having this very gift. He's someone who has struggled hugely with depression, but has retained a sensitivity to what others are going through and lets us see what really happens. Keep an eye out for his upcoming book, Psychiatric Tales, coming out with Blank Slate in February. You can see extracts from his book on Live Journal (he's tallguywrites), or to go straight to the autobiographical chapter, click on the image:



Thanks, Giles and Darryl! We all really need to hear this stuff, and you guys make us look forward to reading about it.

This one's dedicated to Giles Andreae, creator of Purple Ronnie and Edward Monkton, and who wrote the poem for the book I just illustrated, Morris the Mankiest Monster. (He writes poems just a little bit better than me.) You can listen to him talk about poetry and making greeting cards here or listen to him read a funny poem here that was written by a lot of people, like a comics jam. (Do people call it a poetry jam?)



Other item of great interest, Manchester-based eadesmust just made a fab comic about a witch named Hetty Grubb who brews up her own friend named Brian.

My lovely publisher, David Fickling, says I'm allowed to talk about my book now as much as I like, and I can even post a few images! So here is the book that is going to blow off your head with its fabulousness this autumn. Woo woo!!


This is a picture of me with the breathtakingly dashing author, Giles Andreae and our revolting hero, Morris himself. Go on, say it, isn't he the best thing ever? I can't even tell you how thrilled I am that my first book in Britain has a big, shiny, green bogie stretched across the front cover. We are going to have SO much fun with this one.

Hey, the Amazon link is up already! They are speedy.