Astrodog round up

First off, Astrodog is on sale to buy on line here, so if you'd like a copy go ahead and order one.
At the moment it's only UK postage, but I do plan to fix that, it's simply a case of me sorting about pricing, so if you're anywhere other than the UK and would like a copy, let me know.
Secondly, I've received some lovely comments on twitter from happy Astrodog customers, but what's been particularly pleasing is how many people have told me their kids have enjoyed reading it, which is pretty much all I hoped for.
Lastly, I've been lucky enough to get some really nice reviews so I thought I'd link to them.
From back when Astrodog was appearing online Zainab Akhtar (do check out her site for some great reviews) wrote this on The Beat.
The excellent Too Busy Thinking About Comics blog review by Colin Smith here, and also a piece I wrote about some of the inspirations for Astrodog here.
Over at The Beat Laura Sneddon wrote this.
And finally here's Richard Bruton's review on Forbidden Planet's wonderfully comprehensive blog - I feel particularly honoured to feature in the wonderful library.

Astrodog at Kendal's Comic Festival

It was the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, and the very first time I've had a table. The table was to sell print copies of Astrodog - yes, Astrodog is finished and it's in print. I'll be making Astrodog available for purchase online very soon too.

Sadly I didn't get to see as much of the festival as I would have liked, not only did I have a table but I was with my 6 year old daughter, which meant I couldn't really sample all that was on offer, which means I can't really review the festival. What I can say is this, it was brilliantly organised, lots of shops and venues in Kendal participated and appeared to reach a lot of folk who might not be regular comic fans, the organisers were incredibly helpful, the events looked great (and the people who went seemed to enjoy them) and I met a lot of people and sold more copies of Astrodog than I thought I would. I also spent an hour in Waterstones drawing pictures from kids and enthusing about my live of fingerpainting using the Finngr app to a family who seemed very interested in the process - I may have banged on to quite a few folk about fingerpainting!

Anecdotally I think sketches were very popular and although I wasn't charging for them I did do a few, including a dog portrait for an Astrodog fan.

I'd have to say the first comic festival was a success, whether I go back trying to sell comics or not, I'll definitely be back

Astrodog comic, at last!

Hi everyone (anyone), I've finally started Astrodog as a webcomic. if you look over here you can see a teaser image but the comic starts proper tomorrow - that's Monday 1st of July.

BOO!

BOO! is a comic Andy Waugh and myself came up with as we wanted to make a horror comic for kids. It somehow grew to include 6 other brilliant creators (Warwick Johnson Cadwell, Rob Davis, Jonathan Edwards, James Howard, Gary Northfield and Jamie Smart) that I feel privileged to be working with and Andy does a great job of outlining the, uh, 'organic' development here.
I won't be starting my strip for a few months, however I'm using the time to indulge my finger painting obsession and mess around with ideas. The following pictures are not really roughs or thumbnails for my strip, these scenes may never appear, but they're to get me in the mood and inspire me.

 

Here's the BOO! tumblr page, and you can follow us on twitter at BOOcomic

Educating Marmalade

Slaine finger painting

Some PaintGirl

I'm not quite ready to start my PaintGirl comic but I decided to ease into it by practicing drawing her. These are not meant to be studies of the character and her proportions, they are just playful doodles to help me get comfortable drawing her and trying to capture a mood.
Of course I've ended up liking them more than any 'finished' work, they're not slaves to things like perspective or reference, they just exist and make no apologies for it. I'm hoping that this attitude and approach will bleed over into my non-finger-painted work, and I'll take steps to support that.