Thought Bubble 13

I'll be heading down to Leeds this Friday for Thought Bubble's weekend Comic Con (Nov. 23rd/24th).

I'll be bringing along loads of comics, postcards and maybe some prints.  This will be the first showing of Filmish issue 4 at an English comic con, and you'll be able to pick up all the previous issues as well.  I'll also be selling the last few copies of my first autobiography comic 100 Tiny Moments and will have copies of my more recent book Grow.

I'll be sharing my table with the wonderful Katie Green who'll be selling her amazing new graphic memoir Lighter Than My Shadow. 

Grow - Tales of Parenthood

I'm pleased to announce that I am currently putting the finishing touches on my latest comic, which will be released on the 17th of November at the Thought Bubble comic festival in Leeds.

The comic is called 'Grow', and it gives my take on fatherhood.  It’s an honest but affectionate timelapse of my fledgeling family, taking us through pregnancy and the first six months of my son's life.  These strips portray the anxiety, frustration and happiness of becoming a parent, and those odd little moments of ill-timed projectile vomiting and unwanted dietary advice from homeless men.

I'll be selling the first copies at the convention, where you might be lucky enough to meet my wee one.  I'll be signing and sketching in copies, and if you like my son can chew/drool on them too. 

I'll make them available to buy online / possibly as a digital download, and in select comic shops later in November.

You can check out my previous autobio work '100 Tiny Moments...' here or buy it here.

Mary's MCM Experience

This is not the regular voice of Edward Ross, this is his partner in crime, Mary Campbell, who has just spent the weekend at the MCM Expo in London, selling Filmish and Eddie's other work.

This was only my second Expo, but my hopes were high going in, based on my last experience, which involved meeting lovely people, getting great new comics, and having fun spotting the costumes I could recognise among the cosplayers.

In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight...at MCM!

I knew this Expo would be different, as I was going it alone while Eddie partied hard in Wales (Only kidding! - see post below). It was an experiment really, to see if the creator was needed to sell their own work, or if the work could sell itself. Over the first two days it seemed as if the creator needed to be there, as sales were not going as well as last year. But after a Saturday spent freaking out about what a disaster the convention was going to be, I went home and had a good nights sleep, then came in on Sunday morning with an new table plan and a positive attitude. I stood up, I was smiling, chatting to people, singing Bon Jovi, generally being welcoming -  and sales went really well.
I learned a valuable lesson that day... don't expect a comic about film theory to sell itself!

My new plan - badges everywhere!

It was lovely to see people who were fans of Eddie's work already, and just wanted more, or to see people who latched onto the idea immediately - "A comic about film theory, that's just what i've always wanted!" These people brightened up my day, and were always fun to talk to.  Other fun people to chat to were the comics creators there to sell their work. For a comic geek like me it is great hearing about the process behind a comic, exciting new projects on the horizon, or recommendations for new comics to read.

The excellent Howard Hardiman, who taught me the sign language for "Living On A Prayer".

From these excellent people I got a wide variety of comics loot. Although I couldn't buy something from everyone I wanted to - I would have gone bankrupt - I did pick up some great comics and artwork, which kept me busy on my train ride home. All purchases were much enjoyed, but a special shout out has to go to the two titles that left me begging for more... the next Lengths and Blood Blokes cannot come quickly enough for me!

Top left to bottom right - Joe Decie, TpCat, Adam Cadwell, Jess Bradley, Timothy Winchester, Howard Hardiman, Philippa Rice, Sean Azzopardi, Louis Roskosch, Luke Pearson, Philippa Rice (again!), Warwick Johnson Cadwell,  T'Sao Wei and Philip Spence. What a haul! Not present is John Allison's Giant Days - a comic so great it is already a present for somebody, and an amazing print from Joe List that is being flattened under a heavy pile of books!

Also purchased was this fab drawing from the lovely John Allison - me and Eddie with superpowers! If only it were true...

And with that I will stop rambling excitedly and let normal service resume as soon as possible...

London Smog and Hayfever...

The Edward Ross Comics Roadshow will be appearing this weekend simultaneously at MCM Comics Village in London and the WAW+P Comics Classes at Hay Festival in Wales.

Mary will be selling my comics on my behalf and enjoying the fun of MCM during the three days of the convention - this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (27th -29th May).  There will be copies of my usual stuff, including the still quite new Filmish #3 and 100 Tiny Moments, as well as some shiny new postcards.

The whole thing's a bit of experiment to see if it's possible to sell comics without the artist in person, and if it doesn't work out, at least Mary gets a fun holiday out of it.  If you're in London that weekend, I truly recommend making a day of visiting MCM.  It's geek paradise, with loads of computer game booths, movie promotion stuff, cosplay, and most importantly dozens of fantastic comics creators selling and talking about their work.

Meanwhile I'll be with We Are Words + Pictures teaching comics to young folk at Hayfever, the kid-friendly spin-off of Hay festival.  After the success of Edinburgh's recent Drop In + Draw and the fun we all had at Latitude last year, I'm very excited by this one, and it'll be a pleasure to work alongside comics experts Tom Humberstone, Anna Saunders, Ted Brandt and Anne Holiday spreading the fun of comics!

We're there for the first weekend of Hay, the 28th and 29th of May.  If you're there, drop by and join in!  The blurb for the event is:

Create your own comic book character
Make stories with words + pictures
What would a character that you made up from scratch look like? Would they have a beard or tentacles or tiny pointed feet? Would they be tall or chubby or have piercing blue eyes? Well, the We Are Words + Pictures team are here to help you decide and put your ideas into practice. With established comic artists and illustrators on hand we’ll get you designing your very own comic book character and developing a story for them to feature in.

Comics @ Sci-Fi London 30th April - 1st May

I'll be back down in London for the Sci-Fi festival over the May Bank Holiday Weekend, where I'll be participating in a panel discussion about 'Comics and Moving Pictures'. There's a whole weekend of events planned, including a number of panels and discussions, a drop in comics class with Tom Humberstone and WAW+P, film screenings, and comics stalls.

Flyer by Tom Humberstone

The discussion is on Sunday 1st May at 3.30pm at the BFI Southbank.  I'll be chatting with creators Martin Fisher (Battle among the stars), Huw J. Davies (Freeman, Garth) and Roger Mason (2000AD, The Mice).  I'll also be selling comics and hanging around all weekend.

Full details can be found at the London Comics Festival website.

Leeds Thought Bubble and Laydeez Do Comics

I've been back from the Leeds Sequential Arts Festival for over a week now but only now have I had a chance to have a proper think about my experiences.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend.  I have to say it was a much more close knit experience than my MCM trip in October, largely due to the fact the majority of creators and industry professionals were staying in the same hotel, going to the same bars and restaurants, and hanging around in the same hotel lobby.  The fact that out of convention hours we were all killing time in the same location made a big difference to the atmosphere.

My top hotel memory was playing 1980s boardgame classic Heart-throb with Liz Lunney, Timothy Winchester, Philippa Rice and my table buddy Luke Pearson.  Fun times!

 

Luke Pearson sitting with his comics.

The one day convention was very enjoyable, but perhaps the single day is too short to entirely justify the costs of attendance.  The atmosphere on the MCM convention floor was ultimately much more electric with so much stuff going on and with all the artists coming in every morning to sell.  Three days in London offered a much better chance to get to know others than the single busy day of Thought Bubble.  I really missed out my chance to properly explore the Thought Bubble floor during that one day, a big disappointment.  Still sales were pretty strong, and I can't complain since I had loads of fun across those two and a half days.

Me buying a miniature copy of Filmish from 

Philippa Rice's convention diorama.

On the Sunday I gave a presentation of my work on '100 Tiny Moments' to a group of comics artists, academics and members of the public at the 'Laydeez Do Comics' event, run out of Leeds Art Gallery.

I discussed my experiences of going through that fairly intense 100 day creative process, and looked at some of the themes that emerged as the project progressed.  It was an interesting experience, seeing how a new audience reacted to the work, and giving my first public presentation of work.  The group seemed to respond really well to the project, though it turns out explaining the 'future' element of the autobiographical project was harder than I had foreseen.

"Wait, how many children do you have?" I was asked at one point.
"Two... Oh you mean now?  Uh, none." I responded, to some laughter.

The other artists and academics presenting work were really lovely and supportive, and it was interesting getting an insight from women working in the Danish comics scene.  I was really moved by the work of U.S. artist Maureen Burdock, who is using comics to deal with some deadly serious issues, filtering the horrors of sexual abuse and gendercide through a children's book aesthetic.  I strongly recommend you look into the important work she is currently doing.

We Are Words and Pictures Radio

Image © Sean Azzopardi

On Monday after MCM I recorded a podcast with Mike Leader for WAW+P Radio discussing how I got into comics, my work on Filmish and the 100 Tiny Moments project, and my experiences at MCM.  You can listen to the podcast here.

MCM London Report

Last weekend Mary and I hopped on a train and journeyed down to London to attend the MCM Expo, where I'd booked a stall to sell comics alongside the fantastic Luke Pearson.  For all three of us this was our first convention, and the first time any of us had run a stall selling comics.  The whole weekend was an amazing experience, meeting dozens of talented comics artists from across the country, and witnessing the full-on madness of a convention where over 40,000 people attend over the course of a weekend.

Most amazing was the huge number and variety of cosplayers you could watch walking around the hall.  Dressed as anime and manga characters, superheroes and computer game icons, these people were amazing to watch go by, even if I didn't recognise 80% of the characters on show.

 Riddler and Penguin at MCM. Photo © Mary Campbell 2010

100 Tiny Moments Book - OUT NOW!

The '100 Tiny Moments' books arrived the other day and now have been hand numbered, assigned a badge and packaged.  They look beautiful, and I'm proud as anything to have my first 'proper' book out.  You can buy it over to the right of this page. 

I'll also be selling it in person at the London MCM Expo this weekend.  Please come along and check out my stall (table C87), which I'm sharing with the super-talented Luke Pearson.  I'll be selling '100 Tiny Moments' as well as a lovely printed version of my 'Simple Knot' story.

---

For those who didn't follow the series, '100 Tiny Moments From My Past, Present and Future' was my response to the 100 Days challenge - to do one thing, once a day for one hundred days to make yourself a better person.

I decided on creating a series of autobiographical comics examining my life - from memories, through current events, to imagined futures.  Over 100 days I created 100 comics, and in that three month sprawl you really can see a change in me.  From those early, scruffy attempts through to the increasingly complex and lovingly created pieces that emerge in the weeks that followed, there's a story to be read between the lines and panels of these comics.

It seems long ago now, but it was a fantastic project to be a part of.  Working to that kind of schedule is tiring and draining, but it does get results.   I learned a lot in that 100 Days, and I think it shows.

If you've not read the strips, you can still read the whole series here and see if you like it.  I hope if you enjoy the project you'll be able to support it by buying a copy of the book.

Appearances 2010

I'll be making my first two appearances as a comics artist this year.

Latitude Festival - Thursday 15th to Sunday 18th July.

I've been invited to help out with We Are Words + Pictures' comic drawing workshops and drop-in and draw events at the festival.  We'll be there from Friday to Sunday so if you're there, come on by.

Come and join some of the UK's finest small press illustrators and help create a unique comic to celebrate Latitude 2010. Drop in to polish up on your drawing skills, relax and take inspiration from our library of 'zines and comics or help fill pages with colourful characters, tall tales and fantasy lands while we spin a yarn in the Suffolk sun.

We Are Words + Pictures are a group of illustrators and writers creating comics throughout the UK. Since 2008 they have worked with the ICA's Comica Festival, Brick Lane Market and comedians Josie Long and Robin Ince.

Thought Bubble: Leeds Sequential Art Festival - Saturday 20th November.

I've also booked a table for my first ever convention, the one day Leeds Comic Con.  I'm going to have to work hard to have more stuff to put on my table, which is a good thing I think.  If anyone fancies sharing a table, just get in touch and we'll see what we can do...