Foxhole

When I ended Scary Go Round, I promised a new Shelley Winters project, "Destroy History", would follow. Well, it didn't. I wrote about 13 pages, couldn't see how I could write the character any more (given the direction I'd taken her), tore up what I'd done (I write all my comics longhand, away from the computer) and let the destroyhistory.com domain name lapse.

But I still enjoy drawing Shelley, she's a reasonable piece of very long-term character design. And on Sunday I started, by accident, working on a new thing for her. It's a short story called "Fox Flakes". It's not really a comic, it's all in rhyme, and I'm not sure what to do with it to justify working it up into a finished form. I don't even know what form it would take! And it's not drawn like my normal comics. But if you miss Shelley, she might just come back.

Watercolour sale

I have five watercolour drawings (all on 300gsm/140lb watercolour board) left over from my two-city tour. To prevent a run on them and a spate of refunds, they will be available first-come first-served by email reservation. They're £32.50 each including shipping.

Email scaryorders@gmail.com with "watercolour reservation" as your subject line and let me know which picture(s) you would like. I'll then direct you to the payment page. If you haven't paid within 24 hours of my sending you to the payment page, I'll cancel the reservation and put the pic back on sale - easy!

Charlotte (21cm x 25cm) SOLD!

Daisy (21cm x 25cm) SOLD!

Shelley (21cm x 25cm) SOLD!

Esther (17cm x 25cm) SOLD!

Susan (21cm x 25cm)

Martin & Tracy

I received this leaflet through my door the other day, I thought you might like to see it. Something about it worries me.

Here's Martin, hard at work. No bubbles in that wallpaper, and he's wearing a button-down shirt, lending a confident, stylish air to proceedings.

And here's Tracy. Nice job with those tiles, Tracy. That's a wicked finish too - no chance of cracking.

WHO'S THIS? It's not Tracy, and it's certainly not Martin!

The whole situation just has me feeling a little ill at ease. Until I know who the third party is, I won't be calling on Martin & Tracy for any of my painting and decorating needs. 

Your move, Martin & Tracy.

Forty drawings

Here are forty little drawings, give or take, drawn watching TV last night. Click for a better look!

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who commented on the Super Static Feedback Party post earlier today. I have said it before, but I am always surprised and delighted by the thought and care that you all put into your replies on posts like that. On an internet full of yahoos, crazies, loons, no-goodniks and wrong 'uns, I'm pretty sure that my readers by-and-large represent a calming island of sanity.

Super-static Feedback Party

I've just been looking at the numbers for Bad Machinery and they're going nowhere. Let me tell you, dear readers, never has a project vexed me so. Everyone I speak to about the comic is very enthusiastic about it. They like the setup, the characters. And it's a comic I love making. But I just can't put on new readers. With Bobbins and Scary Go Round, the curve always pointed gently, and sometimes steeply, up. But I can't get any momentum behind my current work. It's infuriating!

When I look at the drawing and the writing, I can't see where I'm going wrong - I work hard at both. But obviously am doing something wrong, as I get very little feedback these days. So at the end of each story, I sit back and think, a. is it worth doing another one for 24 weeks and b. if it is worth it, what could I be doing better?

Here's what I suspect may be wrong

1. Kids are a hard sell
2. The stories, at 100 pages, are too long, or too slowly paced
3. There are too many central characters

In the old days it was easy: I read emails that people wrote, looked at my message board, did more of what people liked. Now I find myself apparently getting something fundamental wrong and not knowing what to do about it. It's not that the sky is falling in - I can survive, just about, at the present level, but I don't want to spend another six months repeating my mistakes.

Special presentation: The Mentalist

I love The Mentalist. It's a program about a wizard, I think? Here's a special episode, just for you.



I apologise that there is a lack of some of the secondary characters in this comic but maybe I will do another one showcasing Van Pelt and that if you're really lucky.

London Small Press Expo review

I have just returned with mixed emotions from the London Small Press Expo, a new event held at Goldsmiths College in our glittering capital.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who came down to see me! It is always a pleasure to meet people who enjoy my work, or who just take an interest in my varied luxury items on the day.

LSPE has in effect replaced the now-defunct, bizarrely named UK Web And Mini Comix Thing, an odd event at Queen Mary University that drew a large crowd every year but had begun to show signs of fatigue. Hopes were high that it would correct some of the faults of that event.

The venue (Goldsmiths' art deco Great Hall) was certainly far nicer, and the organisation on the day far superior. So it was disappointing that, with the doors opening at 10am, I didn't make my first sale until 90 minutes later. There were almost no punters for the first half of the show.

The situation began to improve after two o'clock, but this was in stark contrast to the Thing, where there tended to be a steady stream of people throughout the day. It was difficult to tell whether this was down to a lack of promotion, a poorly signposted, difficult to find venue, "New Cross fear", transportation difficulties or simply an ever-increasing number of similar events in the capital and further afield.

It may just have been the fault of the show's poorly-designed website, which featured ample information but made it very hard to dig out. I would be interested to hear people's opinions.

For all my reservations, it was hard to feel that the event cannot return, lessons learned, stronger next year. I still believe that there is a gap in the calendar for an alternative comics event in the UK (in the vein of Mocca or SPX) that draws talent by reputation rather than proximity. Rightly or wrongly, London is probably the place for that. But I'm still waiting.

For Your Consideration

Here is a seaside special selection of sketches I drew this weekend as a thank you to those who voted for me in the Eagle Awards. It was very sweet of you, my readers are the best!

Here I am pretending to be a great caricaturist and editorial cartoonist. Sadly there are no actual likenesses in the image below. But imagine if any of this was real. IMAGINE!



It's cold underwater. Keep your fish warm with a "fish balaclava"! They love it.



I don't think Daisy is paying proper attention in this candid image. Note: Esther is withdrawing £30, enough for a pretty fun weekend in studentland.



Who is Steve Shields and why do his guitar stylings conjure images of a strange, inadequate Batwoman?



Finally, for KC Green, some BOMERS!

Looks Brains + Everything ebook

As promised, I am slowly getting the out of print Scary Go Round books into the ebooks section of my store as PDFs. I've just put up Looks, Brains & Everything, which now includes the original SGR story, "Gas", and a new introduction all about that story - plus all the extras from the 2006 edition. It now clocks in at 163 pages! At this price, lunacy.

Giant Days 2

Giant Days 2 is lightly pencilled in to run from mid-May - not sure as to its length and schedule yet. We will see! In the meantime, to remind you of this prospect, some wallpapers featuring the image below.

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LONDON AND LEEDS

I have two appearances lined up this month, London at the Small Press Expo (at Goldsmiths art college) on March 12th and Leeds at the Alternative Comics Fair (at A Nation Of Shopkeepers - just off the Headrow) on March 19th. It would be great to see you - especially if you've not come to this sort of thing before! These are both relatively new events, the sort of thing that right minds support (if I have any say about it).

I will have a raft of luxury items with me, let me see...

* A load of new watercolours for sale (see my Flickr for in-progress pics)
* The Giant Days commemorative edition
* Bad Machinery story 1 & 2 collection
* Such Scary Go Round collections as I can gather together from my limited stock
* Knitting Is Zen totes
* A variety of prints (I will try to debut a new show-exclusive print too)
* Teatowels
* Stickers, badges (many new, idiotic designs) and fox fridge magnets (I know!)
* I will be doing postcard sketches of course
* As ever, RAW LOVE FOR FANS will be handed out willy-nilly

As well as my childish, baffled face, both shows have a selection of my favourite art kings and queens offering up their wares - see the respective websites for details.

TRAVEL INFO:
London: New Cross Gate or New Cross are the stations for Goldsmiths, they're both overground and underground so you should be able to avoid Mayor Boris' trademark weekend travel chaos.

Leeds: plough north from the station up Briggate, turn left onto the Headrow, pass Albion Street and Cookridge St is the next right. Easy!

Forbrydelsen

Like all sane souls, I've really been enjoying The Killing on BBC Four, an excellent Danish detective series. The characters are great and the production design is excellent. There's something almost cartoonish about the way they all wear the same signature outfits most of the time - Lund's snowflake jumper, Meyer's stripy sweater, Troels Hartmann's purple shirt without a tie! So I have done a few little drawings and if you like them, maybe I'll do a few more.

Sarah Lund


Theis Birk Larsen