NEWS-BLOG
We’re hosting a comic and zine fair in Bristol on Sunday the 25th of Sept. Do pop by and say hi – its free to get in. More info HERE.
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AUGUST
- See here for my contribution to Better, Drawn.
- Have put my 24-page mini-comic ‘A Working City’ up on the site, in three parts. See here for the first part.
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JULY
New 4-pager comic for our comic-zine Bear Pit. This is off for printing as we speak.
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JUNE
No comix news.
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MAY
- We successfully published the Sorry Entertainer Newspaper Anthology. Click here for a recent review.
- Simon M and I attended, and were well attended at, the Bristol International Small Press and Comic Expo. You can read Simon M’s review of our experiences in three parts 1, 2, and 3.
- And I also did another Boneshaker comic/illustration (see here).
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(The Rest of) APRIL
- Had great fun, and success, at the London Zine Symposium. This is one that I’m definitely going back to – I’m excited about the prospect of, instead of hiding under my table, chatting to some folk next year.
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13th April
We are raising money to print a high quality, tabloid-sized newspaper, chock full with comics by artists from all over the world. We want to produce something that is at once disposable and essential, tactile and unique. We want to make something fun, something entertaining, and something that we can pass around the cities in which we live, proud of the fact that we made it.
We are fundraising to cover the printing and distribution costs for 500 copies of this newspaper. The problem is, honestly, we don’t have the resources to do this on our own, and that’s why we’re reaching out to you lovely people. The money won’t line our pockets. There will be no profit if this is successful, because the total amount will only just cover our costs.
Depending on how much you contribute, you can get your hands on:
- minicomics from the contributors
- copies of the newspaper itself
- your name in the paper
- original artwork from the anthology
Simon and Nick
The Sorry Entertainer funding campaign.
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29th March
Simon M. and I have both donated zines to be sold at Egaku: Draw for Japan’s Art Fair this weekend. The fair is at Jaguar Shoes, 32-36 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, E2 8DA on Sunday 3rd April, 12 – 8pm.
All proceeds will go to support charities and aid agencies helping Japan deal with the aftermath of the recent earthquakes and tsunami. Sadly, we won’t be there, but do pop along if you can and buy some art – it’s for a good cause, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with what you find there.
(Text nabbed from Simon M‘s post.)
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16th March
The London and Comic Small Press Expo 2011 was good fun. After a slow morning where punters were far outnumbered by exhibitors, things picked up in the afternoon. Simon has always been more eloquent with words than I, so I’m just going to link to his review of SPExpo. (Also: Andrew Cheverton offers a good round-up of the event more broadly; and Rob Jackson offers his take on the day).
(Photo by fellow comic author Thom Ferrier)
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4th March
In precisely a week I’ll be on the train to London for the London Small Press Comic Expo, and have been up until 2/3am working on comic stuff every night for the last week. On track though, and today have printed the first complete draft of the new mini-comic. It looks pretty alright, though as I’m using halftones for it, I have a bit of fiddling around to do with the lsi in order to minimize the crossing effect. Hopefully that won’t cause too much grief.
The inaugural Bear Pit Zine ‘Upheaval’ is coming together too, though am currently waiting on a few submissions (including my own), but should all be together for printing next Monday. Dave Lander (Lando)’s submission is a work of art (I’ve seen it in progress, and even as is it deserves to be framed and admired by all). The zine will be distributed soon.
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24th February
Bear Pit, The Bristol Comic-Zine collective that Simon M. and I have been setting up, now has its own webpage. Deadline for submissions to issue #1 of the Bear Pit Zine, the 28th of Feb., rapidly approaches.
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14th February
In less than a month (March 12th), Simon M. and I will be here (do come say hi!):
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10th February
Today I went along to Taylor Brothers, a family-run printers in Stokes Croft, Bristol, to witness the offset lithographic printing of Boneshaker Issue #4. (The Boneshaker blog post is here.) They were amazingly friendly folk, accommodating me for about an hour with a full tour and explanation of their production processes. If I am ever in the position to print a 1000 or more of anything, I know where to go.
Each of these units are identical, save they are loaded with different inks and the corresponding plates (Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow).
This is the stack of covers. They are left to dry for a bit before being run through again to print on the other side of each page.
Andy changed the plates to start printing the ‘text’ – which after a bit of confusion I learnt just meant the stuff that isn’t the cover. The plates need teeny amounts of adjustment to ensure they line up, which is still judged by eye – though they no longer make the adjustments with a spanner, Andy explained.
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9th February
Today’s post marked the 100th comic posted on Mis-Comp. Thats kinda exciting.
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3rd February
The mini-comic To Share is To Divide is now for sale at Sticky Institute in Melbourne, which may be of interest if that’s your part of the world (see photo below)
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28th January
My second guest strip is now up on The Daily Cross Hatch (the first one is here). I’ll post it on this site next week.
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25th January
Its been a busy week with a submission for volume #4 of Boneshaker – I’ll put it up on this site in the next few weeks or so; and another guest strip for The Daily Cross Hatch – which will be up this week or next (my first one is here).
I’ve also dredged up some concept work for the main miscomp character that a friend, Kate Derrick, did about seven months ago… its strange to see him with a nose (etc.).
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19th January
Now that To Share is To Divide is all up on the site, I thought that I’d share a preview from my upcoming mini-comic. Its somewhat an understated contemporary dystopia, drawing on (bad pun) elements from the usual suspects e.g. 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, to sketch out something typically (for MisComp) melancholic and passive. :)
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6th January 2011
First experiment of the new year: I had a go at ink washing. With a bit more practice, I think that I’m going to try and ink wash a comic page or two instead of relying on photoshop for the grey fills.
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30th December
To Share is To Divide has been reviewed by Kevin Bramer of Optical Sloth.
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24th December
Seasonal well wishes to you all.
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19th December
A very positive review of MisComp Booklet #5, by Matthew Murray of 365 Zines, can be read here
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5th December
I made a birthday card for my friend, Rose, and I thought that I would share it with you. It was actually quite difficult to make, but more because it had me in stitches laughing rather than anything technical.
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22nd November (Updated 30th Nov.)
Thought Bubble 2010 in Leeds was good fun. MisComp was well received, and I managed to cover the table costs. No profit over the weekend, mind, but that seems inevitable when there are two nights in a hotel to cover, various drinks and cheese-less pizzas, and of course the costs of getting there and back.
The classiest moment of the weekend might’ve been the lock-in on the Friday night (drinking the bar dry, and smoking in doors); whilst the least classiest is pretty easily the casino venue for the shows after-party (loud, expensive, and soulless). Met some sound people over the weekend too, so in all it was certainly a worthwhile experience. Simon has written a review of the weekend which, actually, suffices very well for my own experiences. Simon and I also appear right at the start of Matthew Murray’s extensive review of the event.
(Simon M. in front of our table at Thought Bubble 2010)
(Myself, left, and Simon M., right, at our table. Photograph courtesy of Matthew Murray.
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14th November
Am still a bit excited about the new comic ‘To Share is to Divide’, firstly because it is the longest work I’ve done to date, by far, and secondly (apart from my submissions to Boneshaker) it is the first comic I’ve done that has really been made with the medium (on A5 paper, etc) in mind.
I think that as a comic, its a comic… but as a zine, I guess it might be regarded as a perzine. I wonder what differences this (classification) makes in terms of how people perceive my (and others’) work.
Have continued with the momentum of ‘To Share’ and have started a new story called ‘A Working City’ – this is about 3 pages in so far, and so far its alright. :) I’ve a story arc for it that could probably push it to at least 12 pages, if not double that. We’ll see how we’re getting along.
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6th November
Yesterday I went about printing off the new comic, ‘To Share is To Divide’. The photocopiers didn’t manage the grey well at all, so the alternative was to do it straight through a colour laser printer. This meant that I couldn’t take advantage of the automated booklet making, and therefore had to print/fold/staple by hand. Took a wee while. And my stapling needs improvement. But, new comic DONE, and ready for Thought Bubble in two weeks time.
And have started hand-binding the anthology, which roughly replaces Booklets 2-5 (plus 6, that was never made). I think I’ll have to make a second jig so that I can get enough copies bound in time for the expo.
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28th October
Today I manually pasted in rudimentary html previous/next buttons at the top of all of the posts from 2010. Because I’ve done it manually (I am now embarassingly ex-geek), it takes a little while. Not sure if I should do the strips pre-2010, as I’m not convinced anyone reads them.
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26th October
Yesterday MisComp received an unambiguously positive, and itself well written, review of Booklet #5 from Matt at 365 Zines.
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11th October
Finished my contribution to the forthcoming issue #3 of Boneshaker last week – have gone for a double page spread this time, and I’m fairly happy with what I’ve managed. It will be out probably late November.
Am currently trying to storyboard a 12-page story, which will be somewhere in the region of 60 or so panels all together (at 5 panels per page). Its pretty hard work, trying to keep the whole story coherent, not to mention trying to conceptualise scenes that are not only consistent with the story but might be both interesting enough and draw-able. I want to get this done in time for mid- November, about a month from now.
Also, miscomp.wordpress.com slipped over 35k overall hits today. If every visitor so far has spent only one minute reading what I’ve drawn, that totals over 583 hours. I’m pretty confident I’ve not consumed nearly that much time drawing the comics, so as far as I am concerned its been worthwhile.
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20th September
Have been playing around with a few things I’ve been learning on a ‘How to Draw Comics and Cartoons’ course. Look, noses, mouths, and even eyebrows! …face bits.
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19th SEPTEMBER
I’ve put a short biography up on the Pro-Comics blog, run by Mike Getsiv. Although brief, it is more comprehensive than my biography here.
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15th SEPTEMBER 2010
MisComp booklet #5 has just received a fairly good review from Optical Sloth. Here is an excerpt:
“Is there a word for something that is wistful, sad and amusing at the same time? Nostalgiaish?… told from a perspective that, even with the general misanthropy of comics readers, isn’t seen often enough.”
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8th SEPTEMBER 2010
Have finished putting together the MisComp wall for the Boneshaker exhibition today. You can see photos here. Although I would change a few things, if I had the time, which I don’t, I’m fairly happy with it. Am not around for the launch, unfortunately. So I’m looking forward, when I get back after the weekend, to seeing what people have written on the post-it-notes.
Also, today the site passed 32k hits.
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23rd AUGUST 2010
Miscomp booklet #2 has been reviewed by Matt Murray, of 365 Zines, who picked up a copy at the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo in May this year. Its generally a positive review, which is good, if not a bit lazily written. It would be interesting to see what he makes of the more recent Miscomp booklets that have moved into longer and more detailed story formats, which is something he wanted to see more of. Maybe I’ll send him a copy.
Other news today… you can now buy MisComp Booklet #5 with the MisComp comic pack. Including P&P, for £7.50. A breakdown of where the 750 pennies go is listed here.
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17th AUGUST 2010
The preview run (5 copies) of booklet 5 has just come off the press. It incorporates the three-tone (black, white and grey) approach I’ve been using for the last couple of months, the outcome of which is looking OK-ish. They don’t completely hide their photocopier heritage, particularly because the greys are not consistent – but at the same time they still do look pretty good. A larger print job is on the cards.
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4th AUGUST 2010
And back. Am looking forward to pulling my notes together for a book-length story I hope to have finished before the Thought Bubble Comic Expo in Leeds this November.
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9th JULY 2010
And of I go…. *zooom*
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7th JULY 2010
Am getting ready to head out to the states for a few weeks this Saturday, so miscomp has found itself a wee bit neglected (not updated). Will try harder. Hopefully I’ll be able to lay my hands on a scanner in Maine, else it may be a wee while until the next update (though I have got the next Boneshaker submission lined up, so it won’t be absolute absence at least).
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30th JUNE 2010
I’ve now moved house, and pretty much settled in (ie. unpacked). The moving bit really wasn’t too painful, but the packing and unpacking at either end was really just tedious in its monotony. After all, unpacking all my stuff was like a Christmas where I’d bought and wrapped all my own presents… both a bit sad, but more simply unexciting.
Have just managed a new post for today, which I am sure that everyone in UK cities can at least relate with.
Earlier today also saw the launch of a new project, and one that I’d had on the back-burner (so to speak) for some time. It was only with moving, and actually having to go through all my bits, that I stumbled across enough bits of paper in random places that I could pull together into the beginnings of little hand-drawn maps. This project is intended to be a collective effort, so please do contribute any little maps you might have floating around on bits of paper etc.
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22nd JUNE 2010
Managed three late nights of drawing last week (including a piece for the second volume of Boneshaker), in time for another week at Glasto from which again I’ve just returned. Am a bit sad to have left the site again, and missing the actual festival. And hope you enjoy(ed) my automated absentee-birthday-post. Am now a bit behind with posts, and probably will be for the next week.
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8TH JUNE 2010
I missed last weeks update on account of having spent the week working at the permaculture garden on the Glastonbury Festival site, but I got there at last. I’m off there again next week, so I’ll try to get another one drawn up in advance for next week (I’ve already one in mind).
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24TH MAY 2010:
Lots of news today:
* The Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo this last weekend was great fun. And despite fears of not breaking even, it turned out that I even made a profit (£6!). Thanks to everyone there for a great time, and for the masses of inspiration! Even if it was freezing cold in the 5th floor air-conditioned room from which we could only stare longingly over the sunny and warm outside world… I hear that we had one of the better lots.
A more comprehensive account of the weekends events can be found at my Smoo Comics table-partner Simon M’s blog. He has photos on his post, two of which I’ve included below, as well as links to many wonderful and talented people.
* I have a bit of stock left over from the weekend – though books 1 & 2 sold out so am going to get more printed this week – and will offer them to buy as packs including booklets 1-4, plus a badge, for £6 incl. P&P (to the UK). I have a PayPal account (and made a PayPal button to make it easy), under the Shop link on the right, but am also happy to accept a cheque – just lob me an email!
* And… I’ve decided today to experiment with the introduction of grey (#CCCCCC etc.) backgrounds, and have applied this to four recent posts, incl. SHIFTING, and BIRD SONG.
Our table at the Expo: me on the left, Simon M of Smoo Comics in the middle, next to Eyeball Comix.
Simon just read something amusing in Eyeball Comix #1.
Potato-printing the bags a few days before the expo. Brilliant fun!
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18TH MAY 2010:
Books 3 & 4 of miscomp are now published and available to order, just in time for the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo this coming weekend (22nd and 23rd). You’ll find me with Simon M of Smoo Comics (table 52), in the small press wing.
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10TH MARCH 2010:
You can now follow MisComp on Twitter: http://twitter.com/miscomp.
