My busiest month in 2019

So, 2019 was the year I decided to be more organised.

I had tried wall calendars previously but I hate looking at my scrappy notes on it.

It looked too messy.

In 2018 I gave up on it in about July and missed a lot of things because of it.

Birthdays.

Pre-booking train tickets.

That sort of thing.

So this year, as I was in the collaging mood due to working on my collage book, I decided to have a little fun with it. 

To make it more interesting to look at. 

To help me use it more.

Here's a sample.

My busiest month, May.

I made a few mistakes, which I had to fix with arrows, but I quite like that too.

It worked.

I was much more organised this year.

Something that was noticed and remarked upon by a few friends.

I've already started next year's calendar.

Putting in all those Birthdays. 

Great fun.

'I before E except after W, that's Weird' Kickstarter successfully funded.

Happily my latest Kickstarter was successfully funded.
It didn't make much more than the target and I had a late drop out which actually pleased me as it meant that I once again took possession of a piece of art that I really wasn't too keen on parting with, but I made it.
Happy days.
I've finished the bonus card, which I promised all physical backers and Andy Bloor has cleaned it all up for me and put the words into the standard format for the back of the card.
All is good.

I'll be inserting the original in one of the orders I send out.

Collaging.

I was happy to find an old collage book.
Something I'd played with years ago.
Cutting and pasting.
Trying to make no sense of images brought together on a page.
this little notebook has an image that I want to include in my SuperWeirdoes book.
I'll have to scan him from this page, that's the problem with collaging. Once it's stuck down it's stuck.
Made me smile to find him again though.

Playing with collages.

I've an idea to collage my A to Z of Super Zeroes, for the little hard cover book I've been working on in the background for a few years. I find making them quite relaxing and almost have 26, I just need to work out the story for each, their name and how to position the lettering (on the image itself or under the image on the surrounding page). I'll try both and see which I prefer.
Here's 'A' at any rate.
Alphabet Al.
That's all I've got for him at the moment 😐

Well, I have the beginnings of a rhyme but I need to work on it a little.
Get it to rhyme for a start.

Last Collage Postcard of the year to Jemma.

I quite like this one.
I love the retro feel of the spaceman, trapped in time.

I've no idea where I cut him from, some old annual or other.
I was really pleased that the whole things survived the postal service as the TICK and TOCK are bit of car that are not flush with the postcard itself and therefore I thought they might get knocked off.
They didn't.

Invisible Card...err Man Card.

Another collage post card for my daughter.
This one on the great H.G. Wells book The Invisible Man.

First step was finding an appropriate image, cutting out one of the characters and sticking the result on the original Penguin cover post card.
Then cut out the title from letters in the same source book.
Before...

cutting out the card behind the Invisible Man ... so you can see through him in the real world.
And then simply put some dialogue on it.

Just add a message to Jemma on the back, her address and a stamp (which I did forget with one card) and send it on its way.
I did wonder about how this one would travel,
Whether it would survive.
Seems it was received in good condition.

Postcollages.

As my daughter Jemma is now firmly dug in up there at Glasgow University I've taken to sending her the odd postcard ...

They involve me taking a card from my box of Penguin Classic Science Fiction book covers and sticking things on them,
Postcollages as it were.
I'm quite enjoying the challenge really,..

And I even write something on the back,
It's odd, and quite nice, in this digital age to go back to basics.

Getting ready for the Copenhagen Comics Convention.

It's been a few years, I think maybe 3 but would need to do some digging to be sure, since we attended the last Komiks.DK in Copenhagen and we've really missed both the trip and our friends over there. It'll be great to catch up and talk about what we've all done since.
We're going to be a little more limited in terms of what we can carry over with us this year as it's just me and Colin. Previously our friends Chris and/or Scott have come over with us but sadly this year they're not able to do so. We'll miss them both.
We're both really looking forward to it though, it's always been one of our favourite Cons and hopefully the name change will be just that, a change in its name.
I've been busy this month with the day job and the impact that a such a significant change in the Organistional Design of the company brings, but am still finding the odd moment to be creative.
Gary Crutchley has been great keeping WesterNoir 3 progressing, and has worked wonders with my script to produce a book that sets things up really well for the final book in the story arc, even changing bits of scripting here and there to improve it all. A great collaborative effort. A big thanks to Gary for his efforts, and talent.
As I've not had much time to do my own 'art thing' lately and work on Strange Times 2, I've been playing with collages in my spare moments, cutting and sticking images on a page, I wish I could be more loose and random but I think for me that's not going to happen...

 If nothing else I'll have a little sketchbook full of images to look at should I great a creative block...

Great start to the year...

It's always great to start the year with a fabulour review, and even better when it's one of our earlier books. Andy Bloor and I created The Wolfmen quite a while back but the beauty of Independent books is that they are constantly being discovered by new readers. You can find the review over on the SFX blog...
I also received the latest copy of OFFLIFE (issue 2), which is a free comic anthology (for those who live in the London area).

once again we've decided to advertise in it, and this time we've used Robot Shorts, and included a quote from SFX 222.

It's an interesting little comic, and the standout from this issue is a short from Neill Cameron.
One of the 'Family Days' in the West household over XMas was us all sat in the kitchen making collages, or similar, and here's what I ended up with. I've decided to do them all in a little book this time to keep them all together, and also it means they'll all be a little 'scrapier', which I like. I do have some words in mind for Jack The Giant, but am not sure whether or not to stick them on the page or not... decisions, decisions.

The Rufus Trimble of Infinuum 2001219

This story is coming together in my mind now. The story of each of the Rufus Trimbles and that of their nemesis The Great Mind. I keep finding the odd moment here and there to play with collages like this, and once I've completed Strange Times Book 2 I'll start on this book in earnest.

Next Saturday I'll be manning the Accent UK stall with Colin Mathieson at the MCM in Manchester. Please do pop over and say hello if you're in the neighbourhood.

The Great Mind.

Still playing at collage, and this time around I thought I'd have a go at The Great Mind, nemesis of the The Inter-Dimensional Society of Rufus Trimbles.

It's strange that the more I play with finding images with a view to combining them into something different, it strikes me that I've done this type of thing for many years. Previously I guess I've worked in three dimensions with building robots from f bits and pieces of broken down household gadgets, and now I've moved to two dimensional pieces of paper.

I'm having more fun with this than I've had doing anything artistic for a long time.

The Inter-Dimensional Society of Rufus Trimbles.

Had another little play with collage, I really enjoyed creating the look of the different members of the Society and this has set my mind to telling their story, and so they may well end up in a future book ...

I just wish there were more hours in a day.
If you have trouble reading the text on the collage it reads -

Before their final battle with the self titled ‘The Great Mind’, the founding members of the Inter-Dimensional Society of Jethro Milners breakfasted in Kensington’s wondrous gardens and discussed the day ahead over scones and a pot or two of Earl Grey tea.

In other news, a friend at work is sorting out a way to get Strange Times back on the website as a webcomic again, which'll focus my attention away from cutting and sticking and back to drawing and frowning.

MEGACON, Collages and Coldplay

A new event has been announced to take place in Carlisle on the 18th Aug. I'll be there with the Accent UK crew, and it looks to be shaping up into a great opportunity for comic readers in the North West to get a feel for what Cons are all about, and meet some of the creators and publishers face to face. I love these smaller events as they are much more informal than events like KAPOW and allow readers and creators more time to chat.You can find out more on their blog and facebook group.
Whilst I'm busy writing more than drawing (or what I pass off as such) I've taken the opportunity to do some more cutting and pasting on the side of my desk, and produced another little collage. This time it's what I think Captain America would have looked like had he been created to help the Union soldiers in hte American Civil War.

I quite enjoy playing around with collage ... might try something a little bigger next.
I took my daughter, Jemma, to see Coldplay at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester last nigh,t for her 14th Birthday present, and we had a great time. They certainly put a lot into these events these days. In my day you were lucky if the whole band turned up. These days there's giant globes bouncing around and confetti blasts. I did find standing for 6 hours a bit of a strain, it's my age, and am suffering a bit today but I must say that I really enjoyed the experience.

Playing around with collage...

I've been spending most of the last few months either preparing for Conventions, attending them, recovering from them, blogging, tweeting, facebooking or writing (and I'm pleased to say that I've roughed out Issue 2 of WesterNoir).It's difficult to do all of this and still attempt anything 'art'y (I was tempted to say artistic but that would imply a certain amount of prowess).
To keep my hand in with the cutting and sticking, I think they're called collages in the real world, I've decided to have a go at making a few cards that are roughly the size of those old Victorian photos and follow this theme so far as to setting characters into that time period.
First up in The Iron Man...

I think I got a bit too heavy with the background brown, and will try a good old cup of Earl Grey tea for the next one rather than acrylic paint.