Totem

Every month a bunch of comic artists from around Edinburgh meet up for a drink, and every month we bring with us a mini comic we've made based on a theme set the previous month.  This month's theme was 'Totem' and despite my own contribution being pretty dumb, I thought I'd share it anyway.

You can find out more about the Edinburgh League of Comics and our activities here. Fellow artist Aimee Lockwood has posted her wonderful contribution here.

Bits and Bobs

It's been a busy few weeks and there's a lot of 'work in progress' at the moment.  But here's some cool stuff in the meantime.

I did another Drop In + Draw with the Edinburgh League of Comics, which went surprisingly well after a faltering start on the first day of the event.  Doing a comic book drawing session in a Shopping Mall had its pluses and minuses - benefits being that we got to take comics drawing to an interesting new location and give kids a chance to do some drawing who might otherwise not always get the same kinds of opportunities.  The downside of course was that most people were there to shop!

Still, it went very well in the end and our Sunday session was packed with people who had come out especially.  You can read more about the event at the ELC Blog.  I drew this stuff while I was there:

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Meanwhile, Patrick Tobin has written a lovely and insightful review of Filmish for 'Multiversity Comics'.  It's well worth a read if you're interested!  From the review:

Where most academic film writing is a closed (and often locked) door, Filmish is an open invitation, and all the better for it. [...] Filmish exists in one of the spaces between nerddoms, where ideas from different media and disciplines can freely bleed into one another and create something unique.

-Patrick Tobin

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And in other news, Paper Science 5 arrived in the post.  It's the newspaper format comics anthology edited by Matt Sheret that's just a beautiful collection of absolutely top class comics work from UK based creators.  And I'm in it too, with a short piece called 'Dust', my first ever wordless comic story.

You need to buy yourself a copy, or better yet a subscription to a whole year's worth of tasty comics. Go here and do that now!

Drop In + Draw Report

I think we can call it a success!  To celebrate 'Free Comic Book Day' on the 7th of May me, Tom Hunt and Fumio Obata organised a free comics drop in workshop for Newington Library in Edinburgh.  The idea was to get people together to draw comics, share ideas and learn from each other, with the three of us on-hand to offer advice and encouragement to budding comic creators.

Bolstered by some amazing coverage in the local press, tweets from comics folk and Scottish creatives, and mentions on the Forbidden Planet blog, we had people streaming through the doors from the start.  All told there were about 50 people who attended.

Just a taste of how busy it became.

And what was great is that we had such a mix in ages and interests, from wee kids just happy to conjure up fantastic worlds in comic-book form, through to older kids and teenagers showing a heck of a lot of promise and skill, and on to adults interested in pursuing their passion for comics further, or keen to get back into a medium they'd left behind years ago.

Fumio talks about his work and his European and Manga influences.

Tom and Fumio set up an impromptu lecture area and gave talks about webcomics and Manga respectively.  A number of keen people took time out of drawing to listen, taking away some great encouragement and knowledge from the two.

All in all it was a great afternoon, and people were I think very pleased with the event.  I got to chat with some interesting people of all ages, who share a real passion for comics.  All most people need is some encouragement, to see that it's actually quite easy to get starting making and distributing comics, and to see that they are not alone in thinking comics are a great thing to do.  I hope we provided that.

(You can read Tom Hunt's look back at the event at the Edinburgh League of Comics blog.)

Drop in + Draw: Edinburgh

The Edinburgh League of Comics, founded by myself, Fumio Obata and Tom Hunt, have organised our first ever event.  We're bringing comics drawing happiness to the masses with a Drop in + Draw session.  Hopefully it'll be the first of many...

The Edinburgh League of Comics is pleased to present 'Drop in and Draw', an informal comics drawing event for kids and adults alike!

This free event, held on Saturday 7th of May in celebration of Free Comic Book Day, gives you the opportunity to hang out and draw with amateurs and professionals.  Gain insight from our resident Manga expert Fumio Obata, our webcomic whiz Tom Hunt, or our non-fiction specialist Edward Ross.  Play comics creation games like Panel Scrabble and ComicJam, create your own Comics Remix, or just spend an afternoon drawing whatever you like!

We provide the paper and pens (though bring your own if you want), you provide the inspiration.

The event is being hosted by Newington Library, Edinburgh.  Drop in any time between 1pm and 4.30pm on Saturday 7th May and join the fun!  For more details contact Newington Library on 0131 529 5536 or email the ELC at edinburghleagueofcomics@gmail.com