I rarely do things like this but since you’ve managed to find my work and continue to return to it, you are obviously all intelligent and discerning people who deserve a nice friday treat.

Treat number one
Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genuis and You Shall Know Us By Our Velocity, talks at TED about the creation of 826 Valencia, the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart (”Whenever you are, we’re already then”), publishing McSweeney’s, and teaching children literacy skills. In a funny, energetic, and inspirational talk he puts the call out for creatives in similar positions to do similar things with the children in their community. He’s a little nervous to begin with but very worth a watch…

Watch it here

Treat number two
David Simon, creator of the only TV show worth watching - The Wire, talks at USC Law to a roomful of Journalism and Law students about the show, the end of the American empire, the future of journalism and the internet. There’s a couple of spoilers at about 15 minutes in for those of you who’ve yet to see all five seasons of The Wire - so it might be worth skipping ahead. It’s a fascinating talk and you’d be doing yourself a favour if you gave it a listen.

Watch it here 

Okay, back to work and back to our regularly scheduled online portfolio/self-promotion… Apologies for the interruption.

The Guardian’s G2 section has another of my illustration’s this week. As with last week, the next part of Zoe William’s Anti-natal column is accompanied by my tired brush pen. Illustration below.

Drawing cute babies isn’t as easy as it looks but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it…

There’s an illustration by me in todays Guardian G2. It’s for Zoe Williams‘ Anti-natal column (read it online here). If you don’t get a chance to run out and buy a copy (because I know you’re all going to try…) the illustration is here:

The Canadian website Health Central are running an exclusive feature on my 24 hour comic about Crohns Disease. The comic is accompanied by the first of four blogs, written by me, about my experiences with the condition. The first post focuses on my reasons for doing the comic, the response it provoked, and the difficulties of attempting a 24 hour comic.

Read the first blog here.

I’ll post an update on here when future blogs are online…

Update

The second blog - “A day in the life of a Crohns sufferer” - is here.

Groenland records are releasing another Broadcast 2000 single in the wake of the success of ‘Get up and go‘. The track is called ‘Run’ and will be available via download only (listen to the track on the Broadcast 2000 myspace). I was asked to produce the artwork for the single - here it is:

Here’s a very small selection of concept ideas I’ve been commissioned to do recently. This sort of work is often produced in a short, very intense period of time so forgive the unfinished look of some of these. I won’t mention the clients or even the concept ideas the images are meant to convey as I’m not completely sure if I’m allowed at this point. Hopefully, you’ll just find the images faintly interesting.

Last night, Dan and I were interviewed about the My Fellow Americans book on Rhod Sharp’s ‘Up All Night‘ on BBC Five Live. The evening saw Obama secure his nomination as the democratic Presidential candidate, and also marked six months since the Iowa caucus, the first major event on the primary calendar.

The interview went well enough. However, through no fault of his own, Rhod had little knowledge of our book which led to us being asked more general questions about the election rather than anything specific about our trip and the grass-roots reporting.

Still, if you’re interested in hearing us blather on about the US election, or would just like to hear me stumble over my words and spend what feels like an eternity feeling around blindly for the right phrase - listen again to the show here. We’re interviewed about 3hrs 7mins in.

Download or listen to the mp3 of our interview here.

Organ Grinder records are releasing the new Left With Pictures EP (titled “Secretly”) in August and here is the artwork I provided for the CD. Very few people I know continue to buy CDs now so I’ve also tried to design an original and interesting package. If it all works well, I’ll post some pictures of the final product here - hopefully it’ll be a nice ‘thing’ that people just want to own. I’m convinced (but may be alone in this) that the success of downloads and torrent sites shouldn’t mean the death of CDs/Vinyl… it just means that the artwork has to try harder to convince the punter to part with their cash. Anyway, here’s the cover of the EP:

The back cover:

The tracklisting:

This is an early image for the cover:

Finally, a poster idea:

Thoughts? Criticism? Unending praise?

My Fellow Americans book launch

A big big thank you to everyone who came, bought a book, bought some artwork or just said hello. Was a wonderful evening and the feedback to the book has been really encouraging. Apologies if I didn’t manage to say more than a few words to some of you - it was an extremely busy night and I was a bundle of nerves… as I often am at these sort of nights. There’s a few words about the event and details on how you can buy the book online at the My Fellow Americans website.

Special thanks goes out to all the bands and DJs who played on the night. Every act was superb and really made the evening. Dan and I owe you all several drinks.

Buy the book!

Those of you who were unable to make it to the launch night, or are just interested in picking up a copy of the book can now go here to buy it via PayPal. If you don’t have a PayPal account, contact us via press@myfellowamericans2008.com for details on how to pay by cheque.

If you’re based in London, the book is also available to buy in Orbital Comics on Charing Cross Road. Further retailers will be stocking the book and I’ll update this blog with the details. If you’re a retailer and would like to stock the book, please get in touch via the email address above.

The book and my comics are all available to buy through the Ventedspleen shop which is here. There’s also a link to the shop in the sidebar of this blog.

NoBarcodes

I exhibited at the London Underground Comic’s NoBarcodes event in Camden Lock Market on Saturday. Sold a few comics and copies of the My Fellow Americans book - my thanks to those of you who came and said hello. I always find these sort of events quite hard as I’m not a natural sales person and find it infinitely more comfortable drawing the comics from my desk at home, but it’s always good to meet other small-press artists. Thanks to the warm, friendly, gracious and supportive Oli Smith for making me feel so at home on the day.

Here’s a very brief interview I did with fellow comic artist David Baillie which was part of the promotional drive for the week leading up to the event.

A quick reminder to those of you who haven’t already put it in your diary…

The My Fellow Americans book launch is tomorrow (Wednesday May 28th). Held at The Cross Kings, 126 York Way, Kings Cross, London N1 0AX (gmap). Doors open at 7pm (until 12am). Free entry all night.

Here’s the cover artwork for the book:

Four fantastic bands are playing on the night: Left With Pictures, Beacons, Plug, and Le Tetsuo. DJ sets from Nik Void and Word The Cat. Click on the links to hear their music on their myspace pages.

The first 50 copies of the book sold will come in a specially hand-printed envelope featuring this image:

All the original artwork and illustrations from the blog will be displayed and available to buy. I’ll also have a few copies of my comics there.

Here’s an American themed playlist to get you in the mood.

Hope to see you all there!