Now, with the twenty pages complete – I feel comfortable showing a few random panels here. It’s been a really interesting and fun process to colour someone else’s linework. Eddie’s art is a joy to colour and he’s a fantastic collaborator – making sure that we were all on the same page throughout and managing to find satisfying compromises between scientific accuracy, accessible storytelling, and aesthetic consistency. I’ll post more when the comic is finished. Eddie has posted a couple of blogs on the subject here and here.

Here’s a short preview of the piece:

Anne and I also contributed a short piece for the previous Paper Science issue on the theme of Jobs. It was called In The Running and I put a small photo preview on this blog when it came out but it occurs to me that I never uploaded much else. Here is a slightly more readable preview:

The issue is still available from the We Are Words + Pictures website.

It was commissioned as part of the Occupy Sketchbook that Cartoon Movement have been running for a few weeks now and happily coincided with my own plans to go and do some drawing down at St. Pauls. I’m hoping to make my visits there a little more regular and do a bit more of this sort of thing – if I draw anything worth showing, I’ll post it here. In the meantime, check out my Cartoon Movement piece (along with two other European Occupation pieces) here.

I drew in the van, in pubs and cafes along the way, and during the gig with very little lighting – so the images aren’t the best I’ve ever drawn. I cut these drawing out of my sketchbook and annotated them before adding a dash of colour on the computer. It’s a little haphazard but I’m happy with the results and it feels in keeping with the spirit of the tour.

Wanted to have this up and online sooner but I’ve been working hard on Solipsistic Pop 4 (launch party details announced here!) and illustration commissions – so have only just got around to it…

Dan Hancox also wrote about Day 8 for The Guardian here.

Don’t know if this is definite, but I think the plan is to do one or two days a month of the Alternative Reality Tour in the future – so be sure to keep an eye out in case they’re near you! Can’t recommend it enough.

Hoping to get along to OccupyLSX sometime this weekend and do a bit of drawing there if I can but, again, work may get in the way…

The sixth issue focuses on jobs and employment. Anne Holiday and I have a one page comic in there called “In The Running”.

To try and deal with the way newsprint deals with colour, I went for a strong and vivid colour scheme – fingers crossed it works. From this photo on the WAWAP website, it looks like it did:

You can order a copy online here or pick it up from the WAWAP table at MCM, Comica Comiket or Thought Bubble.

Solipsistic Pop 4 stamp design by Katie Green

I created Solipsistic Pop – the UK comics anthology – in November 2009. In the space of the following year, I edited and published 3 volumes before taking a break last November to focus on my own comics and have a bit of time to reconsider how to make Solipsistic Pop a financially viable, self-sustaining publishing endeavour.

With Solipsistic Pop 4 I’m ordering a bigger printrun of 1,000 and investing in barcodes – hopefully solving a few distribution problems, making sure the comics are getting to a wider, larger audience – and also reducing the unit cost. Still, all this requires a bit more collateral than I’ve been used to and thus, Solipsistic Pop 4 needs some help.

I’ve decided to launch a crowd-sourcing campaign for this money through IndieGoGo – opening up the chance for people to pre-order the book and also support the anthology. There are all sorts of other incentives with original art and printing plates available depending on how much one invests.

If the target is reached – not only will I be able to make sure the book is printed without any financial risk on my part, but it will also allow me to invest any profits into future editions of the book and start paying the artists who contribute (who are currently supplying artwork for free which, as a freelancer myself, always makes me feel guilty).

The IndieGoGo campaign is here. Spread the word and tell everyone you know about it! I’m already overwhelmed by the support everyone has shown it – Becky Cloonan inparticular made me feel privileged to be working in this profession – which genuinely seems to attract some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Becky says it best when talking about the long hours of comics freelancing:

What makes it worth it though, is I love drawing. I LOVE IT. I love making comics. I love starting a new page and buying new paper, ink and brushes. I love telling stories! I love the people I work with, I love the people I meet. I love thinking about the syntax and language of comics. I love esoteric discussions about the comic book industry. I love the opportunities I’ve had in life because of comics. The second I stop loving it I will find something else to do. Comics are hard work. Comics are relentless. Comics will break your heart. Comics are monetarily unsatisfying. Comics don’t offer much in terms of fortune and glory, but comics will give you complete freedom to tell the stories you want to tell, in ways unlike any other medium. Comics will pick you up after it knocks you down. Comics will dust you off and tell you it loves you. And you will look into it’s eyes and know it’s true, that you love comics back.

The lovely promotional video was shot and edited by the exceptionally talented Ben Lavington Martin.

The book features over 50 British comic artists tackling one character’s lifetime – from their birth in 1968 to the present day. As the blurb from the Blank Slate press release says:

One continuous tale takes us from 1968 to the present with one chapter for every year, each of those chapters recording the events of one day in the life of one woman. A life told in snapshots. Nel Baker’s life.

Nelson embraces all aspects of comics storytelling across a wide spectrum of UK-based creators, uniting established talents from 2000AD, DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, The Beano and The Dandy with small press, Web comic and newspaper strip artists in one intriguing story.

Nelson is an unprecedented anthology, a crazy experiment that is part exquisite corpse and part relay race, and best of all, an all–consuming novel like nothing you have seen before.

I was honoured to be asked to be involved and worked on a later year in Nel’s life (not sure I can be much more specific than that at this point). It was an interesting process: attempting to be faithful to the story so far, while bringing something of my own to the story and leaving it in a place that allowed the next artist to bring something of their own to it.

It was challenging but I’m extremely proud of my chapter and I’m excited to be part of a book that has the work of so many artists I admire in it. I’ve not seen the chapters that follow mine but I think I can safely say it’ll be a fascinating read. Here’s a tiny peek at one of my panels:

Looks like November will be a good month for UK comics as that will also be the month Solipsistic Pop 4 launches. Some of you may have already seen I’ve announced the line-up and concept for the fourth volume – all the details are over here. The work coming in is looking superb and I can’t wait to unveil some of the insane additional material that will come with it. Keep an eye on the website for future announcements and updates.

To celebrate, the first three volumes of Solipsistic Pop are now on sale for the very reasonable price of £10 over at the shop.

While you’re there, you can also pick up limited prints of my Icelandic illustration that I had made – a bunch of them have already gone but there’s a few left if you have a bit of cash burning a hole in your pocket.

Right then, back to work…

I’m also moving into my swanky new studio. Once I’m all moved in I’ll post some pictures up here. It’s all extremely exciting and I can’t wait to get stuck into the screenprinting and letterpress facilities they have on-site. There will be open days and workshops going on throughout the summer which I’ll be sure to flag up here as and when they come up.

In the meantime, here’s a little info on my whereabouts over the next month of so:

First up, is the Sci Fi London festival this weekend at the BFI. I’ll be on a panel with Tony Lee, David Hine and Al Davison discussing the progression from self-publishing to more mainstream publishing (please accept my apologies for the flawed taxonomy here but I’m in a rush). I feel a bit of a fraud being there considering I’m still self-publishing right now but I’ll hopefully have something interesting to say on the matter. I’ll also be helping to run an informal Drop In & Draw session afterwards with the We Are Words + Pictures team. Be lovely to see you there if you’re free on Sunday (April 30) morning. Here’s the blurb from the Sci Fi London site…

11am – Small press to mainstream

Al Davison & Tony Lee (IDW Doctor Who comic), Tom Humberstone (Solipsistic Pop) and David Hine (Batman) talk about how working in small press comics has lead to work for mainstream publishers, but also provided a home to publish alternative titles throughout their careers so far.. Chair: Matthew Badham (Tripwire Magazine)

Followed by ‘Drop in and draw’ activities for first time artists wanting encouragement in creating comics, run by Tom Humberstone

Then I’m off to Toronto for TCAF 2011! Extremely excited about returning to one of my favourite comic shows and the city itself. Regular readers may already be aware of how much I’m in love with Toronto. If you’re going, please do stop by and say hello. I’ll be bringing Solipsistic Pop Volumes 1-3 and may be on a panel or two although that’s still to be confirmed.

After the festival (May 7-8) I’m hoping to go camping with some friends and plan to give my horrifically neglected sketchbook some much needed attention – I’ll throw the results up here if they’re not too embarrassing. Also: check out the amazing poster by Jillian Tamaki:

Then on May 24th I’ll be speaking at the Flash Symposium at Birkbeck University about short stories. Should be a fun evening so do come along for that one.

All of which will culminate with a weekend at the Hay Festival (May 28-29) with the We Are Words + Pictures team again. Running informal comics workshops. Here’s a blurb from the WAWAP site…

Hayfever is the children’s version of the immortal Hay festival. Packed full of all manner of events and activities, WAW+P will be adding to the mix with a two day Drop In + Draw workshop over the festival’s first weekend on the 28^th and 29^th May.

Although it’s a very informal, drop in workshop where you’ll be welcome whatever you want to draw, we’ll be focusing on creating comic characters.

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.

Tom Humberstone, Edward Ross and Anna Saunders, Ted Brandt and I will all be in attendance over the weekend. We’ll be positioned in the Hayfever Courtyard, right opposite the Giant Wallbook which, I’m told, will tell you everything you need to know about the earth.

Phew. And with that, I shall leave you with a small section of the first page of Ellipsis which is coming along nicely…

Hopefully see some of you over the next month or so!

Ellipsis is a collection of six short, standalone but interweaving stories. I’ll refrain from revealing much else for now, but I’m really enjoying the writing process and looking forward to showing bits and pieces of it on the blog as it all comes together.

I was hoping to get it ready for TCAF in May (did I mention I’ll be appearing at TCAF this year?) but the stories continue to grow and evolve and the book is looking like it’ll be around 100 pages or so now – so it’s unlikely to be ready before the end of summer. I may take a free preview along with me but it’s unlikely as I feel revealing one story without the context of the others wouldn’t be wise.

For now, here’s a couple of quick character studies/warm up sketches and colour/process tests I did while taking a break from scripting – doubt they’ll appear in the book so thought I could throw them up here:

Drawing the line: London during the student protests is a project Anne and I have been working on for about a month now and we’re both incredibly proud of how it’s come together. The first part – Warning – is up and the next two parts will be uploaded over the next two Wednesdays. I’ll write more about it all once the entire feature is online, but for now I hope you enjoy this first story…

UPDATE: Parts two and three are now online and the full nine page comic can be read here.

It’s been a pleasure working with editor and political cartoonist Matt Bors on this. Mainly though, it’s been wonderful to continue to collaborate with Anne. I don’t usually like to work with another writer on comics – generally preferring to work alone. But Anne and I have a great working relationship which is continuing to grow stronger with each comic we work on. The line between writer and artist is becoming satisfyingly blurred the longer we work together.

We were both very much on the same page with what we wanted these comics to be and hopefully that focus comes through in the stories. Anne’s written a little bit more about this on her blog.

We’re already planning more comics together and even starting to think about a much larger project further down the line. Watch this space for more!