Daniel Clifford writes...

Halcyon & Tenderfoot launches on Saturday

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:56:00 +0100

We’re still working on the comic itself, but on Saturday we’re launching Halcyon & Tenderfoot issue 1 at Newcastle City Library.

Here is a poster for the event:

If you can come along, do. This is the most important day of my life so far - the launch of a comic I truly believe in and want to be as big a success as possible.

This comic has something for everyone. I think. I hope.

Email ArtHeroesUK @ gmail . com if you want to know some more.

Review of 2011

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:41:53 +0000

The idea of doing a ‘Year in Review’ post seems like a good one. Unless you’re as verbose as I am. If I was to write a blog that genuinely summed-up my year, I’d probably go on for about 100, 000 words.

Instead, I’ll do a VERY brief summary of some best bits from my “career” this year and the things I’ve been reading.

Sugar Glider

Although Sugar Glider issue 1 was released in November 2010, most of the (very positive) reviews related to the book were written in the first months of 2011. And we sold over 200 copies of the comic during 2011 too.

The ambitious it’ll-never-work Sugar Glider Stories issue 1 was completely and released in March. This comic was written by me and Gary Bainbridge (the co-creator and artist) and drawn by a lot of different artists. Some of them were veterans of the small press scene but post were from the Paper Jam Comics Collective. Again, this comic sold well and received great reviews.

By the time Sugar Glider issue 2 was released in September, it was clear that my aim of getting the whole series (3 issues of Sugar Glider and 2 issues of …Stories) completed by Thought Bubble was lost.

But it didn’t matter. Sugar Glider 2 was the comic I wish issue 1 had been. It’s not perfect, but it achieved my intentions - there’s family drama, Geordie vigilantism, London-based superheroes, self-critique and amazing artwork from Gary throughout.

But that’s not all! Sugar Glider 2 came with a free mini (tragi)comic called Anthony, drawn by Lee Robinson. We launched Sugar Glider issue 2 at Travelling Man in Newcastle. This was the first time Sugar Glider was available at an event in it’s home city and, thanks to Mike and his great team, it was a huge success!

Because editing Sugar Glider Stories 1 wasn’t a big enough job, it was decided that issue 2 should feature guest writers as well as artists. For me, this was a huge success and made me feel like Susie and her supporting cast were even more real than before. I wasn’t the only one giving them a voice and actions - other people could do it too. Susie and her friends (and foes) surely have a life of their own, right?

Due to decreasing amounts of free time, Sugar Glider Stories 2 hasn’t yet reached it sales potential, but a few more reviews should increase the sales from ‘good’ to ‘very good’.

I’m ending the year worrying about finishing off the Sugar Glider series. I’m sure issue 3 is going to be hard to write (there are lots of loose ends to tie up, and I’m not sure all of them have “shocking” enough conclusion for most readers) and I’m also sure it’ll be a longer issue than usual. Gary will not be happy.

Art Heroes

2011 was the year I hooked up with Lee Robinson to work on Sugar Glider 2’s Anthony mini-comic and then a story for Sugar Glider Stories 2. I loved Lee’s work on those projects and got on brilliantly with him so, needing to find someone new to work with during freelance workshops and wanting to work with him on more comics, I proposed that we go into business together.

The result was Art Heroes - a partnership business set-up in late October to 1) publish all-ages comic books 2) facilitate comic book workshops in libraries, schools and other organisations and 3) create content for other publishers and mediums.

The first Art Heroes release, Halcyon & Tenderfoot issue 0, was hell to put together but well worth it in the end. Lee’s artwork, although rushed for release, is splendid and I’m very happy with the introductions to my two new favourite characters. Issue 1 of the series is written and will be released in March 2012. I’m halfway through scripting issue 2 now, which will be released in June 2012.

Other comics

The first anthology I put together, A4 Comics presents…, sold out at Bristol Comic Expo in 2011. This comic was very expensive to print and I simply didn’t have the drive to push it any further - it will not be reprinted, but most of the contributors will be putting out their strips in various forms as we go ahead.

Lily and Danel: Adventurers and Friends couldn’t find its audience so I decided to give all of the issues away with convention purchases. I’m really proud of the story and Lily’s artwork, so it was more important to get the comic into people’s hands. Even if it cost me to do so.

(at this point, I’ve realised just how long this blog is…short for me, though)

I successfully pitched a story for Into the Woods, a fairytale anthology that will be released in February 2012. The story I pitched doesn’t really fit into the 5 pages available in the book so the scripting process was…difficult… I’ve learned a lesson with this one. Still, the art looks good and from the creators involved, I know the book will be amazing.

I was asked to contribute to Grant Springford’s Abnormals anthology and successfully pitched an idea for the character Throwback. Lee Robinson will be drawing this strip, which I’ll be writing once I’ve finished Halcyon & Tenderfoot issue 2.

I failed to pitch to any comics that would pay money for producing content. What a silly sausage I am.

But I am developing a non-superhero pitch (!) with Gavin Mitchell for next year. And maybe James Cornell will draw the indie love superhero story pitch I wrote this year.

Conventions

I went to a lot of conventions this year.

Bristol was great for socialising with Lily, Martin Eden, Grant Springford, Graham Pearce, his wife Maxine, Stephen Downey and Amy, and for meeting writer/artist Paul Grist, artist PJ Holden and reviewer Luke Halsall. And I was on a bloody panel!

2D was fantastic for dancing, hanging out with friends and finally meeting Kevin ‘Gio’ Logue. I also met Ron from Sunnyside Comics and the writer David Hine. All were lovely.

Glasgow Comic Con was almost spoiled when my tablemate, Graham Pearce, was diverted by a train-related suicide. But we didn’t let a little thing like death stop us from having fun. I sold more comics to the main audience for Sugar Glider than ever before. I met artist Graeme Neil Reid and went home smiling on my first class train.

Thought Bubble saw the ending of Jack and Daniel’s Comic Book Workshops with our last session and the beginning of Art Heroes with our first comic book release. Both went brilliantly. In fact, including Sugar Glider and Art Heroes releases, 83 comics were sold from our table. More on Gary’s table too.

The first Canny Comic Con was a huge success. Lee was brilliant during our day-long Art Heroes workshop and I thoroughly enjoyed my second stint on a comic convention panel. Aside from that, I couldn’t get involved in the day too much - being slap-bang in the middle of two weeks on emotionally-draining Jury Duty. Roll on next year!

Comics I liked

Non-exhaustive and in no order…

Uncanny X-Force

Thunderbolts

Daredevil

Swamp Thing

Batman

Animal Man

Sweet Tooth

Abnormals

Spandex

A book and a CD I’m enjoying

Grant Morrison - Supergods (the American cover is so much better)

The Magnetic Fields - i

And that was my year. How was yours?

Thought Bubble 2011 Megablog, GO!!!

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:42:00 +0000

I’m going to have to accept that I’m not very good at blogging. I’m especially bad at blogging my convention experiences. If I hadn’t deleted it, you could look at the one I did for Glasgow. It ended on a cliffhanger!

With that in mind, I’m going to try to do a coherent and comprehensive report about Thought Bubble.

Thought Bubble is a comic convention that takes place in Leeds every November, organised by Lisa and Clark and their great team. It’s linked to Travelling Man somehow. Yes, I am not the most knowledgeable about Thought Bubble’s organisation. Except that it is exemplary. Indeed, the people behind Thought Bubble make this the easiest convention to enjoy for their exhibitors and attendees.

Before I attended Thought Bubble 2009, I had heard of comic conventions. They were things that happened in a place called America. Or other places far away. They were things that people with houses and cars went to. Not me. They were impossible things. But by November 2009 I had written a few comic strips and I was friends with a number of comic creators. Comic creators who were heading to Thought Bubble. Wait… Normal English people can go to these things? And there’s one happening in Leeds? We used to go there for day trips!

After attending Thought Bubble 2009, I became even more entwined in this comic book world. I started listening to podcasts, hanging out with podcasters and became friends with even more comic creators. I also started Jack and Daniel’s Comic Book Workshops, while developing three comic book projects.

I launched those three comic books at Thought Bubble 2010. One of those comics was Sugar Glider issue 1, which went on to be a huge success (relatively, speaking) and helped me to get even deeper into the comic book world.

(I recently spent over an hour opening a bank account because I spend so much of my time giving back story - looks like we’ve finally reached the opening titles)

Thought Bubble 2011 was always going to be very important for me. It represented my 1-year comic book publishing anniversary for one. On top of that, the convention would include the very last outing of Jack and Daniel’s Comic Book Workshops, as well as the launches of Sugar Glider Stories 2 and my new comic book Halcyon and Tenderfoot and the business behind it, Art Heroes. My love of Thought Bubble means that I put a lot of stock into the convention every year. This year that kind of backfired. Staying up most of the nights in the week leading to the show worrying about whether or not we were going to get everything ready meant that I was ill most of the weekend. Not contagious ill. Just stupid nervous ill.

Despite my inability to eat and subsequent spacey demeanour, Thought Bubble 2011 was my favourite convention so far.

Jack and Daniel’s Comic Book Workshops’ last outing was lovely. I was very lucky to have known and worked alongside Jack Fallows for the last few years. We’ve both learned a lot about comics and facilitating sessions through working together, and this workshop was a fantastic last hurrah.

More children and young people than could fit around the one table, were squeezed around the table making comics. The kids designed superheroes, ninjas (a lot of ninja cats), robot animals and every other type of character a wonderful young mind could come up with. They drew comic strips about those characters, as well as boy geniuses, robots and more cats.

At one point Jack turned to me and said, “They’re doing what we’ve always been trying to get people to do at our workshops.” And Jack was right. These young people had clearly been surrounded by comics, had swum in seas of comics and could instinctively utilise the conventions of the medium in their own work. A marvellous send-off!

On the comic book sales side of things, I shifted more copies this weekend than at any other convention in the last year. In fact, I think that I sold more than at the last three conventions PUT TOGETHER!

The great thing about publishing a multi-part story like Sugar Glider is the fact you get the same people returning for more! And I’m not saying that that’s the best part because you get more money from the same people, it’s good because the returning customers are saying, “I really like this comic you’re doing. I like it so much, I want to read more of it.”

The last year has seen a lot of work go into Sugar Glider - not just from me, but also from the artist and co-creator, Gary Bainbridge, as well as all of contributors to Sugar Glider Stories. There are also a load of comic readers and reviewers who have done their bit to support the comic and spread the word about it. If the comics themselves hadn’t already done so, then the sales we made at Thought Bubble validated all that hard work.

But things weren’t just ending or peaking for me at Thought Bubble, the convention also marked the official launch of Art Heroes - the partnership I have set up with Lee Robinson. I’ve blogged about Art Heroes before so I won’t go into too much detail, but - for me - this was the most important part of the weekend (business-wise, anyway). As well as talking to people about the workshops and comics that Art Heroes has been set-up to create, we also launched Halcyon and Tenderfoot issue 0 - a teaser comic for the first Art Heroes comic book series.

I was very happy to be able to tell readers of Sugar Glider what they could expect from Halcyon and Tenderfoot comics. It went a little something like this:

“You know how Sugar Glider is firmly routed in real-world Newcastle? This new comic is set in a completely fictional city. You might have noticed that there’s a reason for absolutely everything in Sugar Glider… I don’t even know why they have superpowers in the new comic. And I don’t care! But it will still have all of the things I’m interested in writing about: finding your place in the world, living up to expectations, tough family relationships… Everything like that!”

I love Sugar Glider (I make no secret about that) but the differences between SG and Halcyon and Tenderfoot are what makes this new comic so exciting to work on. And (potential) readers seemed really excited about the new series too!

Away from the workshops and the comics, I had an excellent time with friends, old and new. This is secretly why everyone goes to comic conventions. If we just wanted to buy/sell comics we’d visit/run the local comic shop.

Again, I have to praise Lisa and Clark for the excellent organisation of the convention floor. The block of tables I was situated in contained most of my very best friends - people associated with the Paper Jam Comics Collective and others I had been raving about for the last year or so. There were a few on our row I had never seen before (or maybe I just didn’t remember them - I am awful for that) but it was lovely company for the weekend. Of course, I had Lily and Lee working on the Art Heroes table too!

As a stroke of luck, the Unseen Shadows team were right opposite me, giving me a chance to catch up with Cy Dethan and Nic Wilkinson, joke-feud with Barry Nugent, and meet Dan Thompson and Steve Penfold for the first time (out of character, anyway).

I never made it to the Saturday night party due to the butterflies raging war in my stomach and the lost sleep catching up on me (and I had been desperately looking forward to it since last year), but I still managed to speak to most of the people I had intended to.

I spoke to all of the Sugar Glider Stories 2 creators in attendance and thanked them personally for their involvement. Lily was very good to hunt them out at the start of the show and deliver their complimentary copies of the comic too.

I was most looking forward to meeting Gavin Mitchell for the first time. Gavin created four amazing pages of art for Sugar Glider Stories 2 and we’ve had a great time chatting and joking over the internet since we started on that journey. And now that SGS2 is all wrapped up, we’re developing a pitch to take around publishers next year.

I’m very happy to announce that Mr Mitchell (aka @bobgoblynn) is exactly the same in person as he is online. Something that can’t be said as often as you would hope about internet friends. I’m sure many people are sad to realise that every nasty thing I say online is joke, for instance!

Gavin also won the 2000AD X-Factor-style award for best artist with a semi-fashionable haircut!

At this point, I’d love to mention everyone who I spoke to at the convention. But that would take far too long and I’d miss people out so I’ll just say that if I spoke to you, it was amazing and leave you with a few new discoveries to check out: Biz Horne and Team Girl Comic’s Gill Hatcher.

See you at Canny Comic Con!

Art Heroes

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:14:50 +0000

If you look back to the beginning of this blog, and the beginning of the year, you’ll find that I set myself a bit of an ultimatum: Get serious about succeeding in the arts or give up and get a normal job.

I’ve been playing in the arts since I was about 17 and, although I always had the intention of making it my job, I’ve never been able to do so. I made short films and music from about that age but I was far too stubborn to join in with either of those industries and decided to be completely DIY, without having enough skill, experience or money to pull it off. I’ve got a scriptwriting degree but I can’t find the motivation to develop TV scripts that most definitely will never be bought. I have, however, been making some money doing comics.

Along with Jack Fallows, I’ve been running comic book workshops in schools, libraries and anywhere else that would have us for the last two years. These have been fairly successful but due to other commitments, the workshops never really reached their potential.

With Gary Bainbridge and a handful of other artists, I’ve been working on Sugar Glider and a few other titles for over a year. Since my first publications went on sale last November at Thought Bubble ‘10, I’ve shifted well over 300 units and received rave reviews for my work. But, again, I feel like I’ve not been able to do as much as I would want to as everyone is making comics in their spare time - and everyone has precious-little spare time!

Another frustration factor has been my “day” job (I work evenings as a Youth Work Assistant). Not only is this job in constant threat, it has also changed so dramatically over the last few months that it is no longer the same job I started three years ago.

All of these things (and more too tedious or petty to include) drove me to the self-imposed ultimatum I blogged about when I first switched over to Tumblr.

Now that it’s nearing the end of the year, I suppose I should have made some decisions and moves towards success or, quite frankly, I should be getting myself a ‘real’ job and start contributing to society. (yes, that was a little tongue-in-cheek)

Art Heroes is the answer to all these problems. Or, at the very least, the beginning of the answer. But what is Art Heroes.

Art Heroes is the trading name of the partnership business I’ve set up with Lee Robinson. I met Lee back in March after our mutual friend Ruth Comer told Lee that I’d be the best person to talk to in regards getting started in comic books. As is my way, I immediately convinced Lee that it would be a good idea to draw the Anthony mini-comic that came with issue 2 of Sugar Glider.

In the most basic terms, Art Heroes is a comic book publishing company, which also runs comic book workshops in schools, libraries and any other establishments that wants them. Over time, we’ll also be pitching other companies with the intention to develop content for other publications and mediums.

The first Art Heroes comic, Halcyon and Tenderfoot, will be released 4 times per year starting in March 2012. However, we’re working incredibly hard to get a preview #0 comic ready for Thought Bubble next week. I’m sure we’ll get it done… This A5 black and white preview will be just £1.50, though you will be able to buy a digital version for £1.

Here’s a lettered rough version of page 1. Lee hasn’t done the finished artwork on this yet, but it already looks great:

The Art Heroes website is not finished yet (we’re doing a comic at the minute!) but if you want to have a little look, go here.

Jack and Daniels Comic Book Workshops comes to an end

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:56:34 +0100

For the last two years, I’ve been running comic book workshops in libraries, schools and other establishments around the North East. I’ve been facilitating these workshops with Jack Fallows, and we’ve called these things Jack and Daniel’s Comic Book Workshops. It does what it says on the tin.

Jack is a very good friend of mine and an incredibly talented and experimental comic book creator. All of his work is worth reading, but my personal favourite is his 24hr Comic, John Henry Split My Heart. Go and buy it.

Although Jack writes most of his comics himself, he played the part of Artist in our little team while I played the part of Writer like a disciple of Stanislavsky.

Starting on Oct 1st 2009, our workshops were designed to encourage young people to be excited about literacy, as well as creativity and comics in general.

During that time we worked with

BBC Blast
Seven Stories
Bede’s World
The Pavilion, Peterlee
South Tyneside Council
Newcastle Libraries
Middlesborough Libraries
Houghton Library
Holystone Primary School
Wheatley Hill Primary School
Shanklea Primary School
Whitley Bay High School
Houghton Kepier Sports College
Prudhoe High School
Gosforth Academy
Churchill Community College

And probably a few others that I’ve forgotten about.

Well, Jack was so taken by the session we ran at Shanklea Primary School that he has decided to make a career as a teacher. Now that Jack is studying for his PGCE, he can no longer devote any time to the workshops.

On Sunday 20th November, the last Jack and Daniel’s Comic Book Workshop will take place at the Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds. Buy tickets for Thought Bubble here (it’s well worth it) and see the workshop listing here.

Sugar Glider 2 launched, you know?

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:37:00 +0100

On Saturday 27th Aug, Sugar Glider issue 2 launched in Travelling Man Newcastle.

Travelling Man in Newcastle has always been very supportive of independent/small press comics. A lot of that is down to Jack Fallows work shepherding local creators into the building every other Thursday night, but I think the Newcastle TM’s manager, Mike Thompson, just loves great comics and wants this store to be the best comic shop it can possibly be.

This support of local comics and comic creators meant that a launch event for Sugar Glider 2 - a relatively unknown comic book by two relatively unknown comic creators - wasn’t out of the question in Travelling Man Newcastle.

Between 1pm and 4:30pm, we chatted to a lot of friends, co-workers, fellow comic creators and - surprise, surprise - people we had never met who liked the comic and were eagerly awaiting this new issue.

Without a doubt, this was an amazing day hosted brilliantly by the Travelling Man staff. Myself, Gary Bainbridge (co-creator and artist of Sugar Glider) and Lee Robinson (artist of the Anthony mini-comic that comes free with Sugar Glider 2) were made to feel very welcome and thoroughly enjoyed chatting with readers and signing copies of the new comic.

For me, Sugar Glider 2 is a creative highpoint. I’m very happy with the story, characters and dialogue and how I’ve managed to mix-up a lot of different story strands. More happens in issue 2 than in issue 1, but I’ve managed to break it down into less moments and less panels. Gary’s artwork is amazing. His acting, which was always great, is fantastic. And the action scenes are laid-out brilliantly, making the issue look incredibly exciting. We also have included the Anthony mini-comic drawn by Lee Robinson. A small light-hearted character story, that will impact the events of the third and final issue of this series.

You can buy Sugar Glider here.

Travelling Man’s website is here.

Gary Bainbridge’s blog is here.

And Lee Robinson’s blog can be found here.

Photos by Gary Wilkinson, who you can find here.

Sugar Glider 2 launches this Saturday!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:19:00 +0100

If you’re in the Newcastle area (and I’m in South Shields so I include a lot in that ‘area’) on Saturday, then you should come along to Travelling Man between 1 and 4pm.

Why?

Travelling Man is a cool comic shop with great staff, a good small press section and a range of offers.

Oh…AND Sugar Glider issue 2 will be launching with me and Gary signing copies and chatting with anyone who wants to chat. There might be some free gifts too. Might be.

This will be the first chance for anyone to pick up the comic and the first chance for Newcastle readers to chat to me or Gary about the book. We’ve appeared at events in Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol and Northern Island…but never Newcastle. Where the book is set. Oops.

Sugar Glider 2 has received 2 great reviews so far. My favourite quote is “The Empire Strikes Back of comic books has arrived” from Geek Syndicate’s Luke Halsall.

Please come along. And if you can’t tell some of your friends who might like to.

The Facebook event for this is:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207338189319821

The flyer is:

A blog about a blog

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:24:27 +0100

When I started up this blog, I had hoped to be able to update on a fairly regular basis. My last blog (the one I had on Blogger) was very rare and very long posts and I didn’t want to be in that situation any more. Unreadable long posts few and far between.

And it started well. When I signed up for Tumblr, I was posting a blog every weekday and a few on weekends when I got a chance. But now it’s gone wrong again. I seem to be posting regularly for a short period and then…nothing for so long.

Indeed, the last blog I posted was on 13/05/11 - the day before Bristol Comic Expo. And a lot has happened since then.

That’s always been my problem with diaries and blogs. When you’re busy and you’ve got something to write about, you don’t really have the time to do the writing about it bit… That’s what they call a Catch 22, right?

Actually, I did manage to write a blog the week after Bristol. But it wasn’t for here - it was for the FPI Blog. I was asked to do an overview of the panel I was on/organised. So I did. And you can read it here.

After Bristol I had a lot of comic book work to get on with: Sugar Glider issue 2 had moved into production, and I was preparing the scripts and artists for Sugar Glider Stories 2. There were also meetings to be had with James Cornell about Simon and the Sundial.

And, before long, I was off ‘on tour’ again. At the beginning of June I was over in Derry with Lily to stay with the artist, Kevin Logue, and to attend the 2D Comics Festival for the first time.

A fantastic weekend of meeting new people, meeting internet friends for the first time and meeting up with my regular convention friends was followed by a very hard week at PAYE work, and then a time-consuming week of freelance work. And then the tour bus was revving up again. Readying itself for my journey to Scotland for the Glasgow Comic Convention!

But more on that tomorrow…

Countdown to Bristol Comic Expo: 1 Day to Go!

Fri, 13 May 2011 12:30:31 +0100

It’s only 1 day to go until the Bristol Comic Expo (I’m definitely not writing this on Thursday straight after I finished yesterday’s blog) and I’m extremely excited!

Tomorrow I’ll be trying to sell people my comics and merchandise but without being too pushy - I don’t want to take anyone’s money who doesn’t want to give me it and doesn’t really want my comics. But I’ll have Sugar Glider, Sugar Glider Stories, A4 Comics presents…, Lily and Danel: Adventurers, Sugar Glider badge pack 1, and Sugar Glider badge pack 2.

I’ll also be in the Mercure Hotel’s Panel Room 1 from 1pm on the What’s the point in small press superheroes? panel with Paul Grist (Jack Staff), Graham Pearce (Sgt Mike Battle), Matthew Craig (Trixie Biker) and host Stacey Whittle (Small Press Big Mouth).

But aside from those events, what should people be looking out for? Well, let me tell you…

Martin Eden will be launching the latest issue of Spandex. This series started strong and has been getting better with each issue, so issue 4 should be such a good comic that you’d be a fool to pass it up. Plus, Martin will be sharing a table with me so you won’t have far to go to get hold of a copy.

My advice is to pick up all 4 issues of the series, but if you only buy one issue of Spandex make it issue 3 - a self-contained story that gives you everything you could possibly want from a singe issue.

Grant Springford is launching his latest comic with Abnormals Special #1. I’ve heard great things about Grant’s work in the past (I think his comic was called Pest Control) but never had a chance to read any. However, I have read this issue and I can tell you that it’s a lovely self-contained horror, adventure, superhero book with some of the best dialogue you’ll read all year.

Graham Pearce is launching Sgt Mike Battle issue 16, which promises to be just as funny as the previous 15 and reveal more secret histories of war and politics.

Here’s a confession: I hate ‘funny’ comics. The comedy general falls flat, they either don’t have substantial stories or suffer from diminishing returns, and I’m just not that interested.

But I like Sgt Mike Battle.

The politics, GI Joe references, the - actually funny - jokes… this comic just speaks to me.

If you’re interested in picking up an issue, go for the new one but you could also pick up the trade, which collects the first 7 issues of the series. Whatever you do, though, buy some of Graham’s comics.

Cy Dethan, Stephen Downey, Vicky Stonebridge and Nic Wilkinson will be launching their new Markosia book, Slaughterman’s Creed.

I haven’t read this book but I have heard a lot of great reviews (and I mean GREAT reviews) and Cy and Stephen’s previous collaboration, Cancertown.

I picked up Cancertown at BICS last year - one of only a few books that I picked up at that show and read it in one sitting. An enjoyable and weird book with fantastic artwork, Cancertown demonstrated the potential of the whole creative team to deliver a truly stunning book. And from what I’ve heard, Slaugterman’s Creed is that truly stunning book.

There are many more comics that people should be picking up, but these are the things launching at Bristol that I’m most excited about.

Pick ‘em up, people!

But buy my comics first.

Countdown to Bristol Comic Expo: 2 Days to Go!

Thu, 12 May 2011 17:52:00 +0100

Supposedly there’s only one sleep left until we make the trip down to Bristol for the show. Well, if I have my way there’ll be TWO sleeps - I plan on an afternoon nap tomorrow to prepare me for Friday night in the bar.

Over the last few days I’ve written about all the things I’ll have for sale at the Bristol - comics: Sugar Glider, Sugar Glider Stories, A4 Comics presents…, Lily and Danel: Adventurers, and badges: Sugar Glider 4-badge pack, Sugar Glider Vigilance badge.

But today I’m going to be writing about something that’s completely FREE.

The What’s the point in small press superheroes? panel will take place on Saturday featuring Paul Grist (The Weird World of Jack Staff), Graham Pearce (Sgt Mike Battle), Matthew Craig (Trixie Biker) and…well, ME (Sugar Glider)! I suppose I should also mention the lovely host of the panel too - Stacey Whittle (Small Press Big Mouth).

Since getting involved in small press comic publishing, I’ve felt a fair bit of animosity towards mainstream superhero comics. Something I’ve found a bit weird, as these comics can be just as relevant and artful when done correctly as anything in the other genres.

Then when I started working on Sugar Glider, I felt a general “why bother?” from some of my peers. There was, perhaps, something to justify about adding another superhero to the massive roster already in existence.

That and some of the comments in a review we got for the first issue of SG (a review I largely agreed with or, at least, understood) helped inspire this panel.

As host, Stacey was the obvious choice. She is the queen bee of small press comics (consuming them, talking about them and - soon - editing them). Plus, I know she doesn’t have any real interest in superhero books. She won’t always have to play devil’s advocate - some of what she asks/argues will be based on her real feelings and concerns. Plus, she’s an engaging personality with the ability to keep the panel travelling along at a nice pace while still including the audience’s questions.

Paul is an Image Comics creator working on a superhero book. If I’m right about the way Image works, the system is somewhere between self-publishing and mainstream, which will give Paul a unique perspective on the topic. Not to mention the fact that he put out the first 12 issues of Jack Staff through his own Dancing Elephant Press.

Graham Pearce has been making Sgt Mike Battle for around 10 years now. I’d never really thought of his comic as a superhero book but it seems that everybody else does. However, being a parody of superhero comics - Graham also has a nice take on the genre and the issues we’ll be discussing.

Matthew Craig is another small press veteran publishing superhero books like Trixie Biker that deal in believable characters, fantastical situations and a healthy dose of comedy and fun.

In that respect, Matthew’s comics are probably the most closely related to mine, Sugar Glider. Although there is still a difference in our superhero output and I think that comes down to the tone of the books.

So, there we go - 4 superhero comic creators with different perspectives on their work and the topic we’ll be discussing and a fantastic host. Why would anybody miss out on this panel?

What’s the point in small press superheroes? takes place in Mercure Hotel’s Panel Room 1, at 1pm on Saturday.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting about other people’s comics you should be picking up at the convention.

Countdown to Bristol Comic Expo: 3 Days to Go!

Wed, 11 May 2011 17:52:00 +0100

Writing these blogs over the past few days is making me even more excited about the convention this weekend. I can’t wait to talk to other creators and fans and get some of my comic books into their hands.

So far I’ve written about A4 Comics presents…, Lily and Danel Adventurers and Friends - The Pirate Adventure, Sugar Glider and Sugar Glider Stories. That’s all the comics I’ll have for sale at the weekend. But not the only things I’ll have for sale - Bristol Comic Expo 2011 will see the debut of new Sugar Glider badges and stickers!

I’ve taken the 5 new Sugar Glider badge designs and put them into packs of 4, mounted on felt with a card label over the top.

I’m hoping for two things here:

1. People won’t be upset by how the designs are grouped together (“but I wanted the yellow and pink design!”)

2. People will be willing to pay a little bit of cash for the badges because I’ve taken a bit of time (a lot of time) to come up with the design card, print them, cut them out, cut out bits of felt, staple them together and stick the badges on.

There is a second badge pack too. I say ‘pack’; it’s just one badge. But, again, mounted on felt with a bit of card stapled on the top.

This badge is big and square, and emblazoned with the logo of the Vigilance superhero squad - characters featured in Sugar Glider Stories and soon to make an appearance in Sugar Glider issue 2.

Pick up badge pack 1 for £1.50, and badge pack 2 for 75p. Or you could get both in a combo deal for only £2. But you won’t only get a saving of 25p (wow!), you’ll also get the fantastic new sticker that will come free with any of my combo deals.

And, there you go, that’s everything I’m trying to sell you at Bristol Comic Expo this year. I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about the panel I’ll be on.

Countdown to Bristol Comic Expo: 4 Days to Go!

Tue, 10 May 2011 19:21:59 +0100

Over the last few days I’ve been talking about A4 Comics presents…, Lily and Danel Adventurers and Friends - The Pirate Adventure, and Sugar Glider. That means I have only one more of my comics to talk about, Sugar Glider Stories.

A spin-off from Sugar Glider and intended to act as a stopgap between issue 1 and 2, Sugar Glider Stories adds context to Susie Sullivan’s world by delving into the lives of the main title’s supporting cast.

Sugar Glider Stories is 10 strips written by me and Gary (7 and 3, respectively) and drawn by titans of the UK indie and small press comic scene - plus a few pin-ups too.

Here’s what the reviewers said:

“Sugar Glider Stories can take its place alongside the best small press comic I have ever read as every bit its equal.” - ComicBuzz.com

And…

“Some big league comic book creators do not even have this talent” - GeekSyndicate.co.uk

This is the best comic I’ve released so far - I’m very happy with the stories I scraped together and I was even happier with the beautiful artwork from all the contributors. Indeed, I was even happy with my own artwork! That’s never happened before.

Speaking of contributors, I’ll be sharing a table with one of them - Martin Eden. Plus, Graham Pearce (who provided the back cover) and Matthew Craig will have tables selling their own wonderful comics.

Pick up Sugar Glider Stories for £3 at the Expo or for £5 when bought with issue one of Sugar Glider. And as it’s a combo - you’ll also get a free sticker!

I’ve blogged about the comic extensively so you can go back and find out more if you’re not already convinced.

Countdown to Bristol Comic Expo: 5 Days to Go!

Mon, 09 May 2011 15:14:44 +0100

I’m not very happy with the writing in the blogs over the last few days. I’m out of practice and rushing them to make sure they go up. Hopefully, today I’ll write something where the article/essay is as good as the subject of it.

I’ve already blogged about A4 Comics presents… and Lily and Danel: Adventurers and Friends - The Pirate Adventure (damn, I love that long title!), today I’ll be writing about Sugar Glider issue 1.

Sugar Glider was created with Gary Bainbridge around the time of Thought Bubble ’09 and finally launched at Thought Bubble ’10. Without a doubt, this is the most successful thing I’ve ever done (comics, music and films). The first printing of 100 sold out within 4 or 5 months and has received 8 reviews, which have ranged from good/promising to excellent.

Hoping to capture what we loved about superhero comics as young readers, Sugar Glider is an all-ages coming-of-age story packed full of adventure and a good helping of teenage angst.

Or as the reviewers put it:

“A fantastic debut issue of a new all-ages superhero.” - HyperGeek.ca

And…

“Truly the best small press comic I have ever read.” - GeekSyndicate.co.uk

This will be the convention debut of Sugar Glider’s second printing. The new printing looks so gorgeous that I feel sorry for the 100 people who have copies of the first printing.

I’m very proud of this comic, it has set my mind ablaze with ideas and possibilities - I could write Sugar Glider and Sugar Glider-related comics all-day everyday. Here’s a thought - somebody pay me to do that please!

Make sure to pick up a copy of Sugar Glider from me at the convention for just £3. Or £5 if you get it with the subject of tomorrow’s blog.

Countdown to Bristol Comic Expo: 6 Days to Go!

Sun, 08 May 2011 17:06:00 +0100

Aha! I’ve managed to get online in order to post a second Bristol Comic Expo blog! As I said yesterday, I’ll be talking about each of the things I’ll be selling at the show and the other fun things to look out for too.

Today: the most fun, cheapest and worst-selling comic I have published so far.

On the way home from Thought Bubble ‘09, Lily finally relented and agreed to draw a comic strip for me. A week or so later I had arrived at the idea, Lily and Danel: Adventurers.

Over a few months we put together 12 pages of this all-ages webcomic before giving up. Lily had a lot of university work and we were making the North East Geek Feast podcast. You can read the webcomic here.

We decided to resurrect Lily and Danel for this comic, which debuted at Thought Bubble last year. Although I was incredibly proud of Lily’s artwork and my work in it to, the comic didn’t sell very well at all.

The 8-page main strip follows Lily and Danel and their dog, Monty, as they find and follow a treasure map.

But it wouldn’t be an adventure if things went as simple as that!

We meet a number of characters and visit a range of locations along the way, and see Lily and Danel go through testing, funny and scary times!

As well as the main strip, the comic also includes a pull-out colour poster with fun puzzles on the reverse side. One thing I always hated as a kid was a great poster in a comic but then not being able to put it on my wall because it would ruin the comic!

Making the puzzles was a great experience too - there’s a wordsearch and a spot the difference. Perhaps the strangest spot-the-difference ever.

Even though I loved making those quizzes and the main strip, I’m probably most happy with the two back-up strips.

The first back-up, Marlon the Cheeky Chimp, was a silly story Lily told me one night when I couldn’t get to sleep. Sounds daft, right? But I have a real problem sleeping and these little stories really send me off.

Anyway, Lily told me this story and then I streamlined it into a one-page script and I think it’s great!

The second back-up strip and the back cover of the book, Bye, Bye, Dragonfly, is the saddest kids comic I could come up with.

Wholly based upon the catchy title (that’s how I always did it when I wrote pop songs), this is a nice little story with some great art from Lily and colours I was very proud of.

Colouring isn’t something I think I’m very good at, but the colours we used on this strip work exactly as intended.

Lily and Danel: Adventurers and Friends - The Pirate Adventure will be available at the Bristol Comic Expo for £2. Perfect for young children and adults looking for a nice little adventure story.

Countdown to Bristol Comic Expo: 1 Week to Go!

Sat, 07 May 2011 21:58:59 +0100

It’s been a long time since I’ve managed to finish a blog. Indeed, I’ve been writing this one for two days now - so even the title has had to be redrafted.

I will be in the city of Bristol for the second time, attending the Bristol Comic Expo for the second time, and exhibiting at the expo for the first time - although, I will be exhibiting at a convention for a second time.

I’m hoping that I’ll have enough time over the next week to post a few blogs about what I’ll have on sale at my stall and other good things to look out for. Today, I’ll start by showcasing the first comic I put together: A4 Comics presents…

A4 is a flip-book all-ages anthology where one side features the 19 page Barry Boyd The Badger Boy story I wrote and drew (with help from Lily), and the other side features 6 great strips.

Barry Boyd The Badger Boy was never meant to be in this comic. I was meant to write a story called Justin Time about a time-travelling schoolboy and Jack Fallows was meant to draw it. But for a number of reasons that never happened.

Instead, I created the character Barry Boyd, a were-badger on the run from a shady government agency and unable to trust the people around him.

I had originally intended to use a character I created years ago called Panda Man but wanted to do something very British and have a very fierce character. A panda just wouldn’t work. Badger Boy would.

The art in this comic isn’t that great but all 20 pages were completed within about two weeks and I hadn’t drawn a comic for about 7 or 8 years.

The main thing you should read this comic for is the villain. I almost don’t want it to give it away. Snake Hips is a half-man, half-snake, disco-obsessed shady government agent. Very proud of that one.

Meanwhile, on the other side of A4, strips from 1 page in length to 5 pages devoted to female characters …

Trainee Space Chef was written by the mysterious Quinston Q. Blowfish and drawn by the brilliant Martin Newman (not that Quinston isn’t brilliant, himself).

The longest strip on this side of the book, Trainee Space Chef is a space-opera, pirate-filled big bag of food fun!

This was my favourite strip to work on as Quinston was very happy to collaborate and discuss even the smallest details - not that I really came up with any ideas for the strip.

I did, however, scan the pages and letter it. And I thoroughly enjoyed that as the dialogue was so great!

This strip is a favourite of the best local radio DJ in the UK, Bob Fischer.

The next strip, Lure, is a spin-off from Paul Thompson’s Tales of the Hollow Earth comic.

An odd choice, maybe - a horror comic in an anthology aimed at girls between 10 and 14 years old - but I think Paul really pulled this off.

Tales of the Hollow Earth is one of my favourite small press comics, albeit one that I believe has yet to achieve its potential, and this strip is my favourite entry in the Hollow Earth world so far.

The artwork is beautiful and horrifying in equal measures, and in a style completely separate from everything else I see on the scene at the moment.

The page layouts for this strip are also incredibly impressive. Yes, this first page is very simple but the rest of the pages are as complex as you’d want to get in an all-ages book!

This next strip, The Dream, is the first printed work of Charlotte Mitchell - one of the girls who attended the first Jack and Daniel’s Comic Book Workshop.

This simple one page strip will hopefully be a small first step in a long and successful illustration career for Charlotte.

We had a bit of trouble getting this one finished for the comic but I’m really glad we did - I always try to help people move forward with their ambitions.

Obviously, this next strip, Sugar Glider: First Night, is incredibly important to me.

After seeing a sketch that Gary had drawn at a Paper Jam meeting, I asked him to do me a 4 page strip about this character, Sugar Glider.

He came up with this lovely, short and simple story about a teenage girl, which would eventually lead to everything we have in Sugar Glider.

I’m credited on this strip but that was just a few background ideas, editing and a bit of dialogue. This is Gary’s strip and a lovely tale about Susie Sullivan’s first night in her gliding suit.

A must-read for all fans of Sugar Glider and Sugar Glider Stories.

I’ll skip out the next strip as it’s another one page strip - a cracker, but I think that showing it would spoil it. It’s called Girl on a Spring and is by Martin Newman - the artist on Trainee Space Chef.

The last strip in the book is by two of my friends who I’ve, sadly, not had a proper conversation with in some time.

Robyn the Tomboy Wonder is fantasy food-fighting romp by Iain Milne and Faye Stacey - two people really going places.

This strip is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I first started looking for submissions. Plus, it’s all based on a pun! (I love puns)

So, there you go, pick up A4 Comics presents… at Bristol Comic Expo next weekend. There are only 6 copies left and I’m undecided about reprints so, you know, get it while you can!

Sugar Glider Stories interview 12: Gary Bainbridge and Daniel Clifford

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:44:35 +0100

It’s taken a long time to get this sorted, but here is the final Sugar Glider Stories interview. This time Gavin Jones from The Sidekick Cast has interviewed…erm…me and Gary.

I haven’t posted any blogs between this and the last one as I wanted there to be a fluid progression along all of the Sugar Glider Stories interviews. Over the next few days I’ll be starting to post regularly again.

Oh, and Sugar Glider Stories is now available to buy (details at the bottom of the post)

1. People may have heard this story before, but can you tell us what Sugar Glider is all about?

Daniel Clifford: Sugar Glider is about a Geordie girl in her late teens who can’t commit to any of the hobbies or jobs she starts. She’s tried just about everything a girl her age would have…and a lot more! She’s quit wildlife photography, fashion design, filmmaking, judo, climbing, badminton, etc and now it looks like she’s going to quit athletics too. Despite being a very gifted long-jumper.

However, there is one thing she seems pretty set on - and that’s jumping around Newcastle fighting crime as Sugar Glider.

Gary Bainbridge: The book as a whole is a modern and hopefully fresh interpretation of the superhero genre. It’s a nod to the influence of the Marvel Silver age, Ditko, Kirby et al, while also maintaining some sensibilities and DIY ethos of the British small press.

2. You’ve launched issue 1 of Sugar Glider but what made you think that you could expand on the universe so quickly with Sugar Glider Stories and that you’d have an audience for this?

DC: I suppose a few people might be asking that question, “Why not wait until the three issues of Sugar Glider are out?” I never see the point in waiting, really.

The first issue of Sugar Glider is about to get it’s second printing and people seem to be genuinely loving the comic. Not only were people more than willing to give up their free time (and comic-making time) to draw Sugar Glider Stories, there are people giving up their time to add to the Fan Art section of the Facebook page. We’ve never asked people to do this fan art and there’s no real reward for it, so I guess the character has caught people’s imaginations. That says there IS an audience to me.

But even before Sugar Glider was released we’d planned this comic, me and Gary had decided on stories and I’d contacted a lot of the creators who ended up working on the comic. It never makes sense to me that people would wait to be told they’re allowed to do something like this or wait until some sort of ‘proper’ time. This is self-publishing - you decide that you want to do something and if you have what it takes to do it (in this case, some brilliant artists for friends and the money to print the comic) you get out there and you bloody-well do it.

Even if the book doesn’t sell it wouldn’t make it a wasted venture. It’s about achieving something. When I was in a band we decided to make an album and self-release it. We sold 10% of the copies we made. But does that matter? I released an album. This is exactly the same sort of thing.

There’s too much waiting in comics, anyway. Too much treading water. Some comics you read and you think, “They’re just waiting and waiting until they can tell the story they really want to tell.” Just do it now!

3. Gary, how did it feel having other artists (especially Daniel, of all people) take on characters that you created?

GB: Actually, it was my suggestion that Daniel and I swap roles for a couple of strips in Sugar Glider Stories. Daniel’s got a really lovely ligne-claire influence in his drawings and the strips he’s drawn for SGS really are the best drawings I’ve seen him produce. It’s all about stretching yourself. I don’t get as many opportunities to write dialogue as I used to when I exclusively made comics alone, so getting back to writing a script - especially for someone else to draw - was something that felt natural and uncomfortable at the same time and of course, you only progress when you’re out of your comfort zone.

It’s really strange at first seeing other artists, especially those you know really well, draw characters you’ve created. You notice that they see and exaggerate certain details, and in doing so, bring something of themselves to the characters. It’s like listening to a cover version. But a good cover version, one that rearranges the song so it doesn’t sound like a cover at all.

4. Daniel, I was actually pretty surprised at how good your art was. Have you ever thought about becoming an artist rather than writer? I noticed there are no legs in the story you drew, though. Was this just the way the story went or are legs/feet your artists Kryptonite?

DC: Thank you very much! I’m pleased you think that.

When I was younger, I spent all my time drawing Ben Reilly and the Scarlet Spider - copying Mark Bagley’s work in Amazing Spiderman. I definitely wanted to be an artist. Then I stopped for years and lost any ability I had and all sense of what made drawing fun for me. But I’m very pleased with the work I did on this comic - even if it is just a rip-off of Garen Ewing’s brilliant work on Rainbow Orchid.

I really enjoyed drawing these two pages but it took me forever to get done - two whole weekends - and afterwards my shoulder was completely wrecked for a week! I’m that much of a weakling! But even though I really enjoyed it, I was just thinking how much writing I could’ve been doing in the same time. That’s where my passion lies. Although I must admit that I have a story in mind for two of the Sugar Glider characters that I want to write and draw.

And, no, I don’t find legs and feet particularly hard - it’s angles, hands and backgrounds that do my head in. But when we were coming up with the ideas for this comic Gary said, “I think we should do one of the strips where I write it and you draw it.” and I said that it should be a news broadcast so I only had to draw heads. But, then, by the time I was drawing it I wanted to up my game to stand alongside all the fantastic creators on the comic.

5. We’ve hear from all the great creators previously (insert links) about how you managed to convince them to work on the book but what’s your side of the story?

DC: With most of them it really was as simple as sending an email, text or having a chat at a Paper Jam meeting - that’s because most of the people involved were already friends. The ones who weren’t from Tyneside were people I’d met at conventions or from doing a podcast. So, in that respect it was quite simple.

The only person who one of us didn’t already know was Kevin ‘Gio’ Logue - and that was all through Twitter.

I must confess that whenever I hear about an artist, I immediately look at their work and think about whether or not we could work together. I’m quite predatory like that - you have to be if you can’t draw but you want to make comics. I suppose that might sound quite cynical but it’s also about making friends with people. I mean, I couldn’t work with someone I didn’t think of as a friend.

Anyway, Stephen Downey - who is a fantastic artist himself - suggested people follow this artist from Derry called Kevin so I jumped in there and had a look at his blog, really liked what I saw and started following him. We chatted a bit and then I asked him if he wanted to get involved. Kevin was the last person approached about Sugar Glider Stories and the first person to finish off all their work.

But, aside from Kevin, it was just a case of begging some very talented friends and being very grateful for their hard work.

6. How big do you see the Sugar Glider universe becoming? Do you ever see a time when neither of you, the original creators, are involved in the development of some of these characters?

GB: I would love to see what some artists would do with the SG universe, not in a sprawling Marvel universe sort of way, but more like giving an artist or some creators a free pass to take our characters for a walk around the block. But right now I’m loving telling Susie’s story and exploring the fictionalised Newcastle in which she lives, just hinting at what’s happening elsewhere in the SGU.

DC: When we were developing the comic, I was writing character bios as if this was a major franchise that could support multiple comics, animated and live action TV shows, and a whole range of action figures. Like it was Star Wars, or something.

Not that I thought that would or should happen, but I wanted to know the world I was writing in completely so that I always knew where our characters would go, what they would say and where they’ve been before this.

GB: We totally would make a needlessly massive toy line though! But we were definitely rigorous with our development of the wider world of the characters. We followed the only rule of script writing that seems to make sense to me which is, “know your universe as God knows this one”.

DC: But I can definitely see a point where a Sugar Glider mini is finished and me and Gary go off and work on characters separately and have other people on board too. I’d love to see Gary doing a one-shot or a few issues on Detective Terry Tiernan. He’s one of my favourite characters and I think that Gary could do an amazing job on Det Tiernan. And, as I said before, there’s a story in my head for Mother Goose and The Hanging Gardens of Babylon - two of the characters introduced in Sugar Glider Stories. Another character in SGS, Jackie from Jackdaw Rising, is one I could see in a live action TV spy series. Haha!

When it comes to other people working on the stories without me or Gary writing and drawing, that’s where Sugar Glider Stories issue 2 comes in - we’re inviting pitches from writers and/or artists to work on the comic and hoping to have an almost purely editorial role on that issue. So anybody looking to work on these characters or looking to work on their first comic strip should get in touch.

7. Given that you’ve said that you’re inviting pitches, is there anything or any character that you’d consider off limits? And how can people submit pitches?

DC: Any characters that we’re being deliberately cagey about are off-limits - the woman from ‘Jackdaw Rising’ and Star from ‘Fathers Day (Reprise) in Sugar Glider Stories 1. Anyone else is there to be played with. And if people are interested in working on the comic, we can always let them know what will be in store for the characters they’re interested in.

GB: I’d really like it if people were to pick a character they like the look of and ask “who’s this?” and “can I do a strip featuring them?”

There’s a load to choose from in the crowd scene on the cover, or lurking in the backgrounds of the strips in SGS 1.

DC: Getting involved is as simple as emailing me on danielmiddlej@hotmail.co.uk and I’ll forward it to Gary too.

8. I wouldn’t like to ask you to play favourites…but do you have any favourite stories in Sugar Glider Stories #1?

DC: I love every single page of the comic and think that this is one of the biggest things I’ve ever been involved it. So I have no favourites in terms of thinking that one strip works better than any other.

GB: Mine is mint.

DC: But there was one that I had more fun writing than the others and that was ‘Unbreakable’ as drawn by Martin Eden. The story required some new characters to be created, which is always a load of fun! Mother Goose and Pelican are my favourite new characters. Martin has always worked on team books so I didn’t feel bad about shoving nearly 10 characters into 4 pages. Plus, Martin’s sensibilities and art style brought out the weird in me - that story contains a prison made completely of diamond and I think it still works.

GB: I have some memorable moments in the comic, a favourite Newcastle architectural oddity by James Cornell, the vignettes by Lee Grice and Andrew Waugh, the unspoken relationships in Dan Gilmore’s strip. It all makes a rich and multi layered book that we could never had made had we worked without the vast array of talent.

DC: Like I’ve said, I love every page of Sugar Glider Stories and that’s because everyone who gave their time to work on the comic is an absolute class act who gave their all to the project.

To buy Sugar Glider Stories and other comics I’ve has a hand in, visit http://cottageindustrycomics.bigcartel.com.

To buy Sugar Glider Stories and more great comics by Gary Bainbridge (and I really suggest that you do!) visit http://gb.bigcartel.com. You can also find out more about his work at http://unterweltcomics.blogspot.com.

Gavin Jones is the co-host of The Sidekick Cast; a funny and revealing podcast about comic books. You can find articles on comic books and video games - as well as the podcast, itself - at www.sidekickcomicsuk.com. The Sidekick Cast can also be downloaded from iTunes - just search for ‘Sidekickcast’.

Sugar Glider Stories interview 11: Martin Newman and Christian Kerr

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:20:22 +0000

And, finally, we have reached the last of our interviews with the contributors to Sugar Glider Stories (as conducted by Gavin Jones, naturally). This time, we’re looking at the artists who worked on the longest story in the comic - Martin Newman and Christian Kerr.

Q1) Can you tell us a little about yourself and where we may have seen your artwork before?

Martin Newman: Boring, bald, middle-aged, drone who creates comics as part of my secret double life. I’ve done a couple of 24 Hour Comics Challenges (Evolution and Beep, Giga) and devised the Tyneside zombie comic sort-of-anthology, Food for the Dead. I’ve also contributed to the Paper Jam Comics Collectives’ …and that anthologies.

Christian Kerr: I mainly write about comics, rather than make them. Although, I used to draw a lot as a kid, inspired mainly by British comics artists from 2000ad who were making a splash over the pond in the 80s. Since becoming a member of the Paper Jam Comics Collective, I have resurrected the dead artist’s hand only to discover that I was much better at it when I was thirteen! Oh well, I still enjoyed doing a piece for PJCC’s History…and that anthology, which Andy Waugh ‘remixed’ into a full colour cover.

Q2) How did Daniel and Gary convince you to get involved with an anthology based around a very new and Northern superheroine?
MN: Daniel asked me to pencil a story with Christian inking it. The same thing worked well on Food for the Dead so I said yes. And Northern superheroines are ace.

CK: What happened was…Daniel asked me if I would be up for working with Martin again, I’d really enjoyed inking his work on Food for the Dead and felt that there was an interesting tension/dynamic between our very different styles, so I said ‘Yeah, if Martin’s up for it.’ Daniel then went to Martin and said ‘Christian said you’d pencil a story in the upcoming Sugar Glider anthology.’ So Martin couldn’t refuse, really. Got a good business head that Daniel. Hard-nosed.

I heard that’s how they used to treat the old-timers in the Bullpen at Marvel. Stan would just say ‘You’re on the next issue of Micronauts, motherfucker, or I’ll shoot your fucking cock off.’ Or words to that effect. That’s Daniel’s approach. Uncompromising. He’s got a hook hand, you know.

Q3) Which story are you handling on the book? Is this something you chose or was it assigned to you?

MN: Daniel asked me to pencil the ‘Father’s Day’ story. He assigned me the story. I thought this was OK until I read the other interviews and realised that everyone else was allowed to choose theirs. I got the longest one with no superheroes in. But I enjoyed doing it nonetheless.

CK: It’s the one where everyone’s sat round a table, chatting. You know, family drama, interpersonal conflict, nuanced storytelling, complex facial expressions and no superhero action whatsoever.

I had to embed hidden messages in the visual fabric of the piece to keep myself amused. If you read the strip backwards, the Devil materialises out your arsehole and eats your cat. See above for the answer to the second part of the question.

Q4) How did you find working on a character and story that was completely of someone else’s devising?

MN: It was surprisingly difficult. I prefer to draw a more cartoony, less realistic style. I usually choose characters that are easy to draw. But now it’s been done I appreciate the finished work.

CK: It’s quite fun. You’ve got less of a personal investment, I suppose, so you don’t get precious. If you fuck up, it’s someone else’s problem. This is incredibly liberating for someone who actively looks for reasons not to give a hoot.

Q5) Have you been able to see the other artists’ work on the book? Did this make you raise your game?

MN: I’ve seen work by the other Paper Jammers and Graeme Pearce. I wanted to try to do something equal to their work.

CK: I haven’t seen any of the other work. Oh, maybe I glimpsed some at the last PJCC meeting. It was pretty fucking awesome. I try not to notice what the others are doing too much because they’re so good and I think my stuff pales, to be honest. Luckily, Martin has a great eye for layouts and his character work is so strong that I can basically pin his pages to the wall and throw fine liners at them like darts and it comes out looking ok.

For more information on Martin and to read his comics visit http://martinnewmancomics.blogspot.com/, you can also follow him on Twitter @mncuttlefish.

For more info on Christian and to read his blog, visit www.miraclemouth.tumblr.com.

To find out about Food for the Dead go to http://projectz-outbreak.blogspot.com. You can buy the comic in the city of Newcastle in Travelling Man and Made in Newcastle.

Gavin Jones is the co-host of The Sidekick Cast; a funny and revealing podcast about comic books. You can find articles on comic books and video games - as well as the podcast, itself - at www.sidekickcomicsuk.com. The Sidekick Cast can also be downloaded from iTunes - just search for ‘Sidekickcast’.

Sugar Glider Stories interview 10: Ian Mayor

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:26:00 +0000

I mentioned in a previous post that the creators contributing a pin-up to Sugar Glider Stories had all been revealed and interviewed. Then me and Gary decided that we should replace a page of his artwork with the a pin-up drawn by one of our friends from the Paper Jam Comics Collective, Ian Mayor.

So, here’s Ian’s answers to the questions provided by Gavin Jones.

Q1) Can you tell us a little about yourself and where we may have seen your artwork before?

My name’s Ian Mayor, I’m a professional games designer, writer and very occasional artist based in Newcastle.

Other than a couple of PaperJam Comics Collective anthologies you’re very unlikely to have seen my artwork but my writing’s been published in a couple of places and appeared in a couple of videogames. If you pick up Driver: San Francisco later this year you’ll hear a little dialogue I wrote and a lot of dialogue I edited, implemented or otherwise messed with.

The trailer for Driver is here, if you’re interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPM_HOGnK0o

Q2) How did Daniel and Gary convince you to get involved with an anthology based around a very new and Northern superheroine?

I’ve known Gary and Daniel for a while now through the PJCC and have followed the development of the book from Gary’s first sketch, through Daniel’s initial story concept and beyond.

Sugar Glider belongs to a tradition of superheroes that I particularly like; the teenage hero, the ‘super adventure’ as coming of age metaphor. From Spiderman, to Buffy, Batgirl to Static I’ve always had a soft spot for them.

Also, the fact it’s set locally is a big plus, I’m not a Newcastle native but I’ve lived here for a few years and really like the place.

Q3) Which story are you handling on the book? Is this something you chose or was it assigned to you?

I’m not handling any story, I’ve done a pin-up, which frankly, represents the sum of my artistic powers. I really started doing it as a piece of Fan-Art which Daniel and Gary liked and asked if they could put it in the anthology.

As I’ve got nothing else really to say about that I want to take this space to dedicate my small contribution to comicbook and animation writer Dwayne McDuffie who tragically died last week. I started buying American comics in the early 90’s and looking at Dwayne’s work in the Milestone Imprint he co-founded is one of my formative ‘comics reading’ experiences.

A real talent and a nice guy, too, by all accounts. A real loss.

Q4) How did you find working on a character and story that was completely of someone else’s devising?

I’m used to drawing characters of other’s devising as given a piece of paper, a pencil and five minutes the chances of me doodling Batman, Daredevil or ‘The Alien’ are pretty high. That said, Sugar Glider was a bit different.

I saw Gary’s Sugar Glider design before I knew anything else about the character and it struck me as being strong, dynamic and clean. She’s got a distinctive silhouette, great graphic markings and these underarm wing-things that (despite being a real cock to draw) mean you can really emphasise movement. It is something of a blinder.

I wanted to do justice to the design, to the interesting, well-rounded character that Daniel’s developing and her environment. I hope I have.

Q5) Have you been able to see the other artists’ work on the book? Did this make you raise your game?

I know many of the contributing artists work, though I’ve seen very little of the actual anthology art. There’s a lot of talent here so I know the book will ‘look’ aces.

I’m very interested to see how Daniel’s writing and the character of Susie Sullivan gets filtered through a few different styles, see if the voice changes at all. Beginning something is hard, striking the balance between exposition and drama when you’re creating a world is a bit of a tightrope, and so far, Daniel’s done a great job.

For my own part, I think I’ve done a good job and hope people enjoy the image.

For more information on Ian, visit www.ianmayor.com or contact him on Twitter @IanMayor.

Gavin Jones is the co-host of The Sidekick Cast; a funny and revealing podcast about comic books. You can find articles on comic books and video games - as well as the podcast, itself - at www.sidekickcomicsuk.com. The Sidekick Cast can also be downloaded from iTunes - just search for ‘Sidekickcast’.

Sugar Glider Stories interview 9: Lee Grice

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:19:06 +0000

Looking back through these interviews, it becomes clear that the contributors to Sugar Glider Stories can be split neatly into two categories - veterans on the UK small press scene, and newcomers launching themselves onto that scene (you can decide for yourself where Andy Waugh goes).

Today’s interviewee is a trickier one to categorise, though. At the time of writing, Sugar Glider Stories will be the first published work of Lee Grice (in print, at least). But he’s also a relative veteran on the small press scene in terms of hosting the influential Small Press Big Mouth podcast since 2009. The questions, as ever, were provided by Gavin Jones.

Q1) Can you tell us a little about yourself and where we may have seen your artwork before?

Alright, my name’s Lee Grice and I co-host the almost legendary Small Press Big Mouth podcast. I’m pretty much unpublished, though I do have a panel in Jamie Smart’s wonderful Find Chaffy webcomic and I designed the logo for the Dissecting Worlds podcast. You may also have seen my fan art on the Moonfreight 3 webcomic website or on the Everything Comes Back To 2000AD blog. Hopefully, there will be a lot more of my artwork out there to be seen soon.

Q2) How did Daniel and Gary convince you to get involved with an anthology based around a very new and Northern superheroine?

I used to be very arty but fell away from it completely about 10 years ago. I recently discovered my old portfolio and sketchbooks and uploaded a bunch of this old art to Facebook and Twitter. Daniel saw it, liked it and said “You MUST draw something for me what I wrote!” Or words to that effect.

Q3) Which story are you handling on the book? Is this something you chose or was it assigned to you?

I’m drawing ‘Father’s Day (Reprise)’, which is a very short, silent vignette - a quiet, character-based interlude. Perfect for me, actually. I asked for it - I’m not at all confident in my drawing & storytelling skills so when Daniel asked if I wanted to contribute to the anthology I said “Yeah. Cool. What’s the shortest story you got?” “One page.” “I’ll take it!” He sent me the outline and, being the awkward git that I am, I immediately asked “Can I make it 2 pages instead?”

Q4) How did you find working on a character and story that was completely of someone else’s devising?

No problem at all. Most of what little work I’ve done has been other people’s characters. There’s still been a quite a bit for me to design myself - sets & extras - so it been a good exercise in both regards.

Q5) Have you been able to see the other artists’ work on the book? Did this make you raise your game?

No, I haven’t seen any of the other art and I don’t really want to. I already know some of the artists involved so I know what company I’ll be amongst. I’m very aware that as the new boy the pressure’s on me to keep up and not let the side down. My intention is to produce the best two pages in the book because my fear is that when it comes out it’ll all look professional and polished apart from “that God-awful two-pager by Grice!”

For more information on Lee and to keep up to date with his podcast, visit smallpressbigmouth.blogspot.com or contact Lee on Twitter @lovelylee_g.

Sugar Glider Stories interview 8: Simon Cavanagh

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:53:46 +0000

These interviews are slowing down now - only two more after today’s. Then it’ll be either one with me and Gary or one interview each. But my good friend Gavin Jones won’t even be writing the questions for us until we’ve posted the first ten interviews.

I suppose the first spurt of interviews came about because those contributors were working on 1 or 2 pages for the books, while the ones coming out now are for creators working on 4 pagers. 8 pagers sometimes! Today’s interviewee is Simon Cavanagh; talking about the 4 page strip he has contributed to Sugar Glider Stories.

Q1) Can you tell us a little about yourself and where we may have seen your artwork before?

While I do like to maintain an air of mystique, I suppose I can divulge some titbits in the name of art. I’m fairly new to the comic book scene, and while I don’t have any of my own stuff out there (yet!), I’ve contributed a few pieces to Paper Jam Comics Collective …and that anthologies and Martin Newman’s Food for the Dead.

Q2) How did Daniel and Gary convince you to get involved with an anthology based around a very new and Northern superheroine?

Admittedly, it was solely Daniel who convinced me. Either that or Gary’s methods are so subtle and ninja-like that I haven’t even realised. Daniel had discussed the Sugar Glider plan with me in the past and I was very excited by it. So when he offered me the chance to do a piece for Sugar Glider Stories I didn’t need much convincing at all…honest!

Q3) Which story are you handling on the book? Is this something you chose or was it assigned to you?

I picked the ‘Jackdaw Rising’ story. Mainly because I was really drawn to the character’s back-story. That and the fact I got to draw a feisty female in her PJs in an action-packed fight sequence.

Q4) How did you find working on a character and story that was completely of someone else’s devising?

It was definitely an educational experience. I had a few sketches from Gary of the character for reference, but the challenge comes from portraying an accurate representation while putting my own spin on her. Hopefully, I’ve captured the essence of the character and made sure she remains recognisable.

Q5) Have you been able to see the other artists’ work on the book? Did this make you raise your game?

Absolutely. As soon as Daniel mentioned the names of several of the other artists featured in the book I had to go and have a ned around the internet to see what I was up against. I mean, er…what other people were bringing to the table.

To answer the question, yes, it really did make me raise my game because there are some amazing artists contributing to this.

As Simon is a touch removed from modern society, the only way to find out more about him and the comics he has worked on is to ask me or to pop into Hebburn Library in South Tyneside, where he works.

Gavin Jones is the co-host of The Sidekick Cast; a funny and revealing podcast about comic books. You can find articles on comic books and video games - as well as the podcast, itself - at www.sidekickcomicsuk.com. The Sidekick Cast can also be downloaded from iTunes - just search for ‘Sidekickcast’.