Hope that Christmas brings you lots of wonderful surprises…
Monday, 16 December 2013
Monday, 9 December 2013
Maddaddam
Here's an illustration from a few months ago. This was to accompany a review in Nature of Margaret Atwood's latest novel Maddaddam.
The piece went through a few changes as the art director, Barbara Izdebska, checked details against the review copy of the novel in the Nature offices.
I wasn't totally in the dark as Maddaddam is the third book in a trilogy and I had read the first novel in the series Oryx and Crake a few years ago and was able to speed-read the second book After the Flood while I was doing roughs for the illustration.
I was pretty happy with how it turned out in the end and Barbara very kindly sent me on the review copy so that I could finish the trilogy!
The trilogy is a captivating and terrifying depiction of a world after a pandemic has wiped out most of humanity. A handful of human survivors manage to cling on to a perilous existence, along with the Crakers, a tribe of bio-engineered humanoids bred to populate this brave new world (on the left in my illustration). Both groups must contend with the pigoons, ferocious and intelligent creatures who are the descendants of genetically modified pigs bred as human organ farms.
The whole trilogy is great but Oryx and Crake remains my favourite. Start there and see how you get on.
The piece went through a few changes as the art director, Barbara Izdebska, checked details against the review copy of the novel in the Nature offices.
I wasn't totally in the dark as Maddaddam is the third book in a trilogy and I had read the first novel in the series Oryx and Crake a few years ago and was able to speed-read the second book After the Flood while I was doing roughs for the illustration.
I was pretty happy with how it turned out in the end and Barbara very kindly sent me on the review copy so that I could finish the trilogy!
The trilogy is a captivating and terrifying depiction of a world after a pandemic has wiped out most of humanity. A handful of human survivors manage to cling on to a perilous existence, along with the Crakers, a tribe of bio-engineered humanoids bred to populate this brave new world (on the left in my illustration). Both groups must contend with the pigoons, ferocious and intelligent creatures who are the descendants of genetically modified pigs bred as human organ farms.
The whole trilogy is great but Oryx and Crake remains my favourite. Start there and see how you get on.
Sunday, 1 December 2013
The difficult second issue
Yes folks, Hitsville UK issue 2 is finally with us.
It's colourful, it's psychedelic, it's funny, it's sad, it's strange, it's even better than issue 1, it's 36 pages long and it's yours for just £3.50 in print or 69p(!) digital from Great Beast comics.
In issue 2, spiv-hop pioneer Jack Spatz competes in the local rap battle, Gerry comes to blows with his eccentric genius producer Greg Pastis, and The Dreadnoughts and Carrie Nation's Revenge face down neo-nazi agitators Aryan 51. Meanwhile, Greg sends Gwillum on a dangerous mystical mission to find THE SONG.
Forbidden Planet International's Richard Bruton described Hitsville UK 1 as "a bloody great accumulation of inspired madness, musical insanity and general chaos... a pure, unadulterated hit of a comic".
Andy Oliver of Broken Frontier said it was "a riotous, frenzied whirlwind of a comic book. I'll be pre-booking my tickets for the next gig!"
You can order issues 1 & 2 from the Great Beast store.
While you're there, check out other ace new comics from (deep breath) Robert Ball, Dan Berry, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, John Cei Douglas, Isabel Greenberg and GB's founders Adam Cadwell & Marc Ellerby.
Monday, 14 October 2013
AOI Illustration Awards
I'm currently living in a small igloo made of half-drawn comics pages, but I thought I would crawl out from under the Bristol board for a few minutes to write about the AOI Illustration Awards.
I won the New Talent (student and recent graduates) prize for the Editorial section with two pieces from my MA project Capital City. Here's an excellently composed picture by Sally Kent to prove it.
Tuesday night was the awards night so Sally and I went along to Somerset House to hobnob with other illustration types and I picked up my certificate from John O'Reilly, editor of Varoom magazine.
We had a great time and met some lovely people, including Edd Baldry, who won the Professional prize in the same section as me, Anna Cattermole, who won the Professional prize in the Self-Initiated section for her beautifully observed drawings of boat building, and judge, cartoonist, illustrator, author and new dad Stephen Collins.
It was all a bit of an enjoyable blur and as ever with private views I was too busy talking to people to properly take in all the art. My two pictures are in the first room, sharing wall space with Anna's afore-mentioned boat pictures and some striking digital collages illustrating The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by the sartorially impressive Nate Kitch (he's the one who loos like Jarvis impersonating Elvis Costello in the picture below). I only got a chance to have a quick whiz round beyond our room, but I saw enough to tell that it's a well put together exhibition in a beautiful space, and (as you'd hope) there's a fascinating variety of approaches to contemporary illustration on display.
We're going back to have another look at the weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. Below is a picture of all the winners taken by Sara Thomas. As ever, I appear to be arseing about!
More info on the AOI Awards to be found here and here.
Right, I'm off to draw comics again. The long awaited Hitsville UK 2 is on its way!
Tuesday night was the awards night so Sally and I went along to Somerset House to hobnob with other illustration types and I picked up my certificate from John O'Reilly, editor of Varoom magazine.
We had a great time and met some lovely people, including Edd Baldry, who won the Professional prize in the same section as me, Anna Cattermole, who won the Professional prize in the Self-Initiated section for her beautifully observed drawings of boat building, and judge, cartoonist, illustrator, author and new dad Stephen Collins.
It was all a bit of an enjoyable blur and as ever with private views I was too busy talking to people to properly take in all the art. My two pictures are in the first room, sharing wall space with Anna's afore-mentioned boat pictures and some striking digital collages illustrating The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by the sartorially impressive Nate Kitch (he's the one who loos like Jarvis impersonating Elvis Costello in the picture below). I only got a chance to have a quick whiz round beyond our room, but I saw enough to tell that it's a well put together exhibition in a beautiful space, and (as you'd hope) there's a fascinating variety of approaches to contemporary illustration on display.
We're going back to have another look at the weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. Below is a picture of all the winners taken by Sara Thomas. As ever, I appear to be arseing about!
More info on the AOI Awards to be found here and here.
Right, I'm off to draw comics again. The long awaited Hitsville UK 2 is on its way!
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Bullshit Jobs!
David Graeber's article on Bullshit Jobs for Strike! magazine seems to be getting a lot of attention all of a sudden, and deservedly so.
Though I'm a big fan of Strike! and was very flattered to be asked to contribute something to their Summer issue I was up to my eyes in comics and other stuff and so had to turn them down. Then Strike!'s editor cunningly dangled David Graeber's article in front of my face. I read it and couldn't say no.
It's a thought provoking piece and, as someone who has more than once suspected that their current mode of employment was ultimately (whisper it) a bit pointless, it really struck a chord with me.
It's much better and more persuasively written than I can manage but allow me to quote one of my favourite passages: "A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It’s not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish. (Many suspect it might markedly improve.)"
It's also really good on the 'psychological violence' that results from our situation, the frustration, boredom, anger and shame that comes from that niggling feeling that you are literally wasting your time on this planet. It was this aspect of the piece that led me down the route I took for the accompanying illustration, that sense of feeling trapped, helpless but also angry. (Appropriately, there's definitely some Francis Bacon in there.)
You can read the full article here and you can buy a copy of Strike! from the same website.
David's impressive looking tome Debt: The First 5000 Years is on my bookshelf and is next on my reading list.
Though I'm a big fan of Strike! and was very flattered to be asked to contribute something to their Summer issue I was up to my eyes in comics and other stuff and so had to turn them down. Then Strike!'s editor cunningly dangled David Graeber's article in front of my face. I read it and couldn't say no.
It's a thought provoking piece and, as someone who has more than once suspected that their current mode of employment was ultimately (whisper it) a bit pointless, it really struck a chord with me.
It's much better and more persuasively written than I can manage but allow me to quote one of my favourite passages: "A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It’s not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish. (Many suspect it might markedly improve.)"
It's also really good on the 'psychological violence' that results from our situation, the frustration, boredom, anger and shame that comes from that niggling feeling that you are literally wasting your time on this planet. It was this aspect of the piece that led me down the route I took for the accompanying illustration, that sense of feeling trapped, helpless but also angry. (Appropriately, there's definitely some Francis Bacon in there.)
You can read the full article here and you can buy a copy of Strike! from the same website.
David's impressive looking tome Debt: The First 5000 Years is on my bookshelf and is next on my reading list.
Friday, 2 August 2013
Hitsville UK from Great Beast comics
This is a belated post to announce that Hitsville UK has been relaunched by Great Beast Comics.
Appropriately we launched in the very musical surrounding of Manchester at the MCM Comic Con on 20 July, and you can now buy issue 1 as well as some classy Hitsville UK pop art prints from the Great Beast online shop. I'm really excited that for the first time you can buy an instantly download-able digital version of our comic.
You can also pick up Hitsville UK issue 1 from Gosh! Comics, Orbital Comics, Foyles books and Sister Ray Records in London, as well as OK Comics in Leeds and Gnash Comics in Devon, with more shops to follow.
(If you're a comic, record shop or indeed any shop who would like to stock Hitsville UK then please let me know.)
As some of you know we originally brought Hitsville UK out at the tail end of 2011, so it's taken us a bit of a while to get here. It's basically my fault for going off and doing an MA in Illustration after issue 1 and getting swamped by the workload. Dan and I are pleased as punch that we're getting to relaunch and continue the series with Great Beast. To those of you who have been stoically waiting for issue 2 to materialise (yes Alex, yes Camila) I promise promise promise that issue 2 will arrive in November in time for Leeds' Thought Bubble festival.
Why are we so excited to be with Great Beast?
Comics and graphic novels appear to be on the rise in blighty and beyond. Existing publishers and newer upstarts have released some great books at the artier, more literary end of the comics spectrum over the past few years. I think Great Beast could fill what has so far been a gap in the comics landscape (at least in the UK). GB's comics are intelligent, sophisticated, produced with great craft, but also crucially they are POP!
GB's founders, Adam Cadwell and Marc Ellerby have published their own comics under the imprint, notably Adam's vampire slacker comedy Blood Blokes and Marc's droll Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter. They've also published collected editions of their autobiographical web comics The Everyday and Ellerbisms. I just finished Ellerbisms and am still reeling from the subtle but emotionally devastating storytelling contained therein!
Then there's Robert Ball's stunningly beautiful Winter's Knight. Im a bit angry about Winter's Knight. The artwork is so flipping amazing I don't actually think it should be allowed. It makes the rest of us look rubbish! Robert is teaming up with the equally talented Warwick Johnson-Cadwell on Dangeritis, which you can see taking hilarious form over on its Tumblr and which will be published in book form at Thought Bubble in November.
Just announced from Great Beast is Isabel Greenberg's Tall Tales and Outrageous Adventures, witty retellings of classic fairytales. Isabel won the Observer/Comica competition a few years ago and has a graphic novel coming out from Jonathan Cape soon. She also has a piece in the V&A's current exhibition Memory Palace, which I wasn't sure whether I would like but is BRILLIANT! (Go see it).
And then there's us... continuing the tale of Hitsville UK, the indy record company with the weirdest, coolest, freaks in pop music; the best (though possibly only) musical-pop-art-soap-opera in comic form.
Now published by Great Beast.
Which is why we're a bit chuffed.
Appropriately we launched in the very musical surrounding of Manchester at the MCM Comic Con on 20 July, and you can now buy issue 1 as well as some classy Hitsville UK pop art prints from the Great Beast online shop. I'm really excited that for the first time you can buy an instantly download-able digital version of our comic.
You can also pick up Hitsville UK issue 1 from Gosh! Comics, Orbital Comics, Foyles books and Sister Ray Records in London, as well as OK Comics in Leeds and Gnash Comics in Devon, with more shops to follow.
(If you're a comic, record shop or indeed any shop who would like to stock Hitsville UK then please let me know.)
As some of you know we originally brought Hitsville UK out at the tail end of 2011, so it's taken us a bit of a while to get here. It's basically my fault for going off and doing an MA in Illustration after issue 1 and getting swamped by the workload. Dan and I are pleased as punch that we're getting to relaunch and continue the series with Great Beast. To those of you who have been stoically waiting for issue 2 to materialise (yes Alex, yes Camila) I promise promise promise that issue 2 will arrive in November in time for Leeds' Thought Bubble festival.
Why are we so excited to be with Great Beast?
Comics and graphic novels appear to be on the rise in blighty and beyond. Existing publishers and newer upstarts have released some great books at the artier, more literary end of the comics spectrum over the past few years. I think Great Beast could fill what has so far been a gap in the comics landscape (at least in the UK). GB's comics are intelligent, sophisticated, produced with great craft, but also crucially they are POP!
GB's founders, Adam Cadwell and Marc Ellerby have published their own comics under the imprint, notably Adam's vampire slacker comedy Blood Blokes and Marc's droll Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter. They've also published collected editions of their autobiographical web comics The Everyday and Ellerbisms. I just finished Ellerbisms and am still reeling from the subtle but emotionally devastating storytelling contained therein!
Then there's Robert Ball's stunningly beautiful Winter's Knight. Im a bit angry about Winter's Knight. The artwork is so flipping amazing I don't actually think it should be allowed. It makes the rest of us look rubbish! Robert is teaming up with the equally talented Warwick Johnson-Cadwell on Dangeritis, which you can see taking hilarious form over on its Tumblr and which will be published in book form at Thought Bubble in November.
Just announced from Great Beast is Isabel Greenberg's Tall Tales and Outrageous Adventures, witty retellings of classic fairytales. Isabel won the Observer/Comica competition a few years ago and has a graphic novel coming out from Jonathan Cape soon. She also has a piece in the V&A's current exhibition Memory Palace, which I wasn't sure whether I would like but is BRILLIANT! (Go see it).
And then there's us... continuing the tale of Hitsville UK, the indy record company with the weirdest, coolest, freaks in pop music; the best (though possibly only) musical-pop-art-soap-opera in comic form.
Now published by Great Beast.
Which is why we're a bit chuffed.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
The THE
Did this piece last week for Times Higher Education mag. It illustrates an opinion piece by John Kaag on juggling the responsibilities of being an academic and a dad to a toddler.
Thursday, 20 June 2013
AOI Awards
I'm delighted to report that I've won an AOI Illustration award!
I won the New Talent Award in the Editorial and Social Comment section for these two pages from my MA project Capital City, a graphic poem about the City and the financial crisis.
Here's what the judges had to say about my work: "We really liked the sense of narrative and social comment in this work. The words are written by the illustrator and so the text and image work together rather than illustration responding to a text. It is a very impressive piece of work, the spreads are stunning. It has real impact and has a lot of atmosphere. "
I'm very excited about being part of the exhibition at Somerset House 2-27 October, and I believe there will be an awards ceremony shindig, for which I may buy a new shirt.
You can read more about the AOI Illustration Awards here http://www.aoiimages.com
I won the New Talent Award in the Editorial and Social Comment section for these two pages from my MA project Capital City, a graphic poem about the City and the financial crisis.
Here's what the judges had to say about my work: "We really liked the sense of narrative and social comment in this work. The words are written by the illustrator and so the text and image work together rather than illustration responding to a text. It is a very impressive piece of work, the spreads are stunning. It has real impact and has a lot of atmosphere. "
I'm very excited about being part of the exhibition at Somerset House 2-27 October, and I believe there will be an awards ceremony shindig, for which I may buy a new shirt.
You can read more about the AOI Illustration Awards here http://www.aoiimages.com
Friday, 24 May 2013
Bowie Odyssey (oddity?)
Was it really back in January that David Bowie released his surprise single 'Where are we now'?
At the time it struck me that despite knowing the hits, and having some Bowie-obsessive friends, I'd never really listened to any Bowie albums. Right, I thought, I'll listen to the classic albums in order and see how far I get.
Around this point I stumbled upon the amazing blog Pushing Ahead of the Dame (named after a lyric in Queen Bitch), that dwells on each Bowie song more or less in the order that it was recorded, and it got a bit obsessive.
Well, it's the end of May now and I've just started on Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). Not sure how much time I'm going to dwell on some of the 80s albums - my understanding is that it all goes a bit pants after Let's Dance, but it's been a great journey so far.
It's a tough question what my favourite album has been so far, but at a push it's probably the wonderfully unhinged Diamond Dogs, which led me to create this illustration, inspired by the Guy Peellaert album artwork, but with a schoolboy humour, Aladdin Sane twist.
Enjoy!
Ps. David Bowie - Five Years on BBC Two tomorrow sounds like it's going to be dead good.
At the time it struck me that despite knowing the hits, and having some Bowie-obsessive friends, I'd never really listened to any Bowie albums. Right, I thought, I'll listen to the classic albums in order and see how far I get.
Around this point I stumbled upon the amazing blog Pushing Ahead of the Dame (named after a lyric in Queen Bitch), that dwells on each Bowie song more or less in the order that it was recorded, and it got a bit obsessive.
Well, it's the end of May now and I've just started on Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). Not sure how much time I'm going to dwell on some of the 80s albums - my understanding is that it all goes a bit pants after Let's Dance, but it's been a great journey so far.
It's a tough question what my favourite album has been so far, but at a push it's probably the wonderfully unhinged Diamond Dogs, which led me to create this illustration, inspired by the Guy Peellaert album artwork, but with a schoolboy humour, Aladdin Sane twist.
Enjoy!
Ps. David Bowie - Five Years on BBC Two tomorrow sounds like it's going to be dead good.
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Strike!
I have a couple of pages in the Spring edition of the brilliantly titled STRIKE! magazine.
These are exerpts from my MA project Capital City, a phantasmagorical take on the City and the financial crisis.
I'm dead keen on STRIKE! This is only their second issue but it's a compelling publication so far. It wears its lefty politics on its sleeve but it's not po-faced about it and it chucks interesting, provocative ideas about rather than preach a party line. It's also wittily and beautifully designed and has attracted an impressive collection of writers and artists so far, including Ralph Steadman, Mark Fisher, Alain de Botton and Stanley Donwood as well as less famous names, myself included.
The Spring edition includes articles and polemics on Blair and Iraq, Indian cotton farming, the Occupy movement and anarchist economics, all accompanied by brilliant illustrations, including this terrifying Tony Blair by Edgarr.
I'm still getting to grips with a lot of the stuff in this issue and this is what I really like about STRIKE! For only a quid an issue you get a hell of a lot of food for thought for your buck.
You can see a list of stockists or order issues 1 & 2 from the STRIKE! website http://www.strikemag.org and find them on Facebook here
These are exerpts from my MA project Capital City, a phantasmagorical take on the City and the financial crisis.
I'm dead keen on STRIKE! This is only their second issue but it's a compelling publication so far. It wears its lefty politics on its sleeve but it's not po-faced about it and it chucks interesting, provocative ideas about rather than preach a party line. It's also wittily and beautifully designed and has attracted an impressive collection of writers and artists so far, including Ralph Steadman, Mark Fisher, Alain de Botton and Stanley Donwood as well as less famous names, myself included.
The Spring edition includes articles and polemics on Blair and Iraq, Indian cotton farming, the Occupy movement and anarchist economics, all accompanied by brilliant illustrations, including this terrifying Tony Blair by Edgarr.
I'm still getting to grips with a lot of the stuff in this issue and this is what I really like about STRIKE! For only a quid an issue you get a hell of a lot of food for thought for your buck.
You can see a list of stockists or order issues 1 & 2 from the STRIKE! website http://www.strikemag.org and find them on Facebook here
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