I was recently asked by Mat Pringle to contribute an illustration to his forthcoming The Book One zine – the concept being that a collection of artists illustrate a book of their choice and write a few words about it. There’s been a Music One and Film One which can bought from his Etsy store. The Book One will be available at the end of February.

I chose to illustrate a scene from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. For those who haven’t read it, it’s a delightful read about World War 2 as seen through the eyes of two Jewish comic artists who create a character called The Escapist. Well worth picking up if you haven’t read it.

The zine will be in black and white but I also worked on a colour version (below). I’m really happy with how it came out and have been thinking about getting some prints made. If you would like one, get in touch by leaving a comment on this blog or email me at tomhumberstone*at*gmail*dot*com. If there’s enough demand I’ll get a limited print-run made…

The Calverts printing co-operative commissioned me to design a new poster for the 2012 UN International Year of Co-Operatives tookit they’re working on. I was asked to illustrate a contemporary version of a 1943 magazine illustration. Calverts write more about it here. As they say:

“Tom’s picture is a reinterpretation of the classic image from the National Co-operative Archive. It’s the front cover of the November 1943 issue of Wheatsheaf, Co-operative Wholesale Society’s magazine. Published at a time when co-operation and working together kept Britain alive, it has became classic image of the movement from its C20th heyday. In the present era of financial, social and ecological crisis and conflict, co-operatives are enjoying a renaissance, because they play a key role in building a better world by giving people an equal say and share in the wealth they create.

The new poster is 340mm x 480mm and litho printed on 150gsm Revive 100 Uncoated paper, made by Tullis Russell Papermakers for Robert Horne, with Bio vegetable oil based inks. Production and printing were carried out under Calverts ISO14001 environmental management system.”

Here’s my original illustration, with the final poster design underneath:

Here’s a new illustration commissioned by Moneywise magazine for a piece about the economic pressures of low/middle income families:

The brilliant Lizz Lunney – creator of Depressed Cat among many fabulous others – asked some comic artists to provide interpretations of Depressed Cat for the printed collection (now on sale – go get a copy for Christmas!). Here was mine:

I was recently commissioned by HR Magazine to illustrate their November issue.

The original image and a quick scan of the printed cover:

I just found this illustration I did for GritTV quite a long time ago (about this time last year I think). It was for a piece about crazy ol’ harmful Glenn Beck and his blackboard (not sure what I’m talking about? Watch this and then this).

I think the blackboard was left blank for some text to be added on GritTV’s end.

Anyway. Having not seen it for so long, I found myself liking it more than I did at the time – so thought I’d throw it up here:

It’s December. How is it already December? That came around quickly didn’t it?

Well, seeing as the march of time seems intent on moving at it’s usual unrelenting pace, how about spending your Christmas present money on comics and handmade things?

Should you wish to buy anything of mine from my store (excluding the eBooks) you will receive this exclusive Christmas postcard with a nice quote from Men Of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones on the back:

Yay comics! You can also buy a pack of 10 for £3 should you have a few comic fans as friends.

There are a couple of other things with my work in which you can pick up this Christmas including the extremely well received Nelson which had some lovely press in The Observer and was even recommended by Baroness Mary Warnock in The Guardian. I also have a one pager written by Anne Holiday in the latest Paper Science which can be ordered here.

My own work aside, might I also suggest heading over to Marc Ellerby’s site and picking up the new Chloe Noonan (you could also commission Marc to do a bespoke illustration for a loved one). You should also go buy some amazing Kristyna Baczynski prints/badges/zines/posters/wrapping paper. Or pick up Filmish from the wonderful Edward Ross. Or purchase The Peckham Invalids by Howard Hardiman, Sarah Gordan and Julia Scheele. Or maybe give some of your hard-earned to Katie Green who has some extremely gorgeous hand-made items at her Etsy store.

What I’m saying is, y’know, support the UK comic scene this Christmas. There’s some incredible stuff out there and they would make for some unique and delightful gifts.

Happy Christmas!

Tx

The Hangover Lounge is a lovely post-excessive-Saturday-night haven of good music and good food held at The Lexington in Kings Cross every Sunday from 2pm.

I was commissioned to produce an A3 poster for the club and to DJ a short set on Sunday October 2nd. One hundred copies of the poster will be available for FREE during the afternoon, after which point I’ll have a few copies to sell on my website if you’re interested in having one.

Here’s the poster design:

I also made a version that felt more striking but suggested a two-in-the-morning-on-Friday-night vibe rather than the Sunday afternoon mood I was after so ended up putting it aside. I post it here for the sake of sharing my love of that pink though:

As you might expect from the image for the poster, my DJ set will be formed exclusively of songs with handclaps. Embrace the twee with me on October 2nd and say hello.

(also: Withered Hand will be playing live at The Lounge this Sunday – the 25th September – and you’d be a fool to miss it!)

Been a busy month. One of the pieces I’ve been working on is a self-portrait for Orbital Comics. The fantastic London based comic shop is putting on an exhibition of comic artists’ self-portraits – all of which will be unveiled this Sunday (the 19th September) from 6pm – read the flyer below for further details. The idea of small press comic artists doing self-portraits (many of whom are either auto-bio artists or started out drawing auto-bio comics) is a lovely way of challenging the idea of the self-portrait and challenging the artists to provide something surprising. I have no doubt everyone involved has met the challenge head-on and provided something interesting and unique. I feel intimidated to be involved.

My piece is a relatively standard one page illustration – inked with a secondary gouache ’spot’ colour. Not too dissimilar to the spot colour we’ll be using in the upcoming Solipsistic Pop (but used here for a very different, very specific, illness-based, nausea feeling). Here’s a small preview:

And while I’m talking about Orbital – I was interviewed for their recent podcast and joined the regular hosts (Tom and Simon)  for a discussion about comics, Solipsistic Pop and the weeks releases. I had a lot of fun on the day and I hope that translates to an enjoyable listen. It can be found here and you can subscribe to the regular podcast here.

I’ll also be exhibiting the original artwork from my 69 Love Songs comic (Absolutely Cuckoo) at Flashback Records in Crouch End as part of the We Are Words + Pictures music related comic exhibition (organised by Sean Azzopardi). The private view is on Friday 23rd September from 7pm. Maybe see you there!

It’ll take me a while to properly process what’s happened this week here in the UK. It feel like so much has already been said elsewhere that I’m not sure I have much to add right now. So here’s an illustration instead.

The one thing I do want to say is that the people who are using terms like “as simple as that” or “pure and simple” as a postfix to whatever ill-considered, reactionary, and pernicious comment they’ve just made – those people – they should be treated with extreme suspicion and/or ignored.

Simple... The riots this week were – and are – anything but.

Can we please not throw around ridiculous notions about how owning a blackberry and being poor are mutually exclusive? Maybe refrain from talking about water cannons as if they are acceptable? Or at the very least stop suggesting that anyone attempting to discuss or understand the reasons for the riots are somehow tacitly condoning them?

Simple...

If ever there was a time for the need to appreciate complexity and nuance it’s now.