Medieval Times Are Here!

I'm thrilled to announce Medieval Times, a set of six new minicomics by me and the extraordinary Mark Brady!

....Once upon a time two knaves sat down in Ye Olde Tavern with a big bag of soldiers. These craven peasants selected the six miniatures of greatest fighting spirit, then perused their poses, demeanours and finery searching for the tales of valour and calamity within each."Medieval Times" follows these six brave English souls as they battle across Northern France in the heady days of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) to tell their stories of victory and misadventure. For King and Country!


Or to put it more plainly....! Mark and I were bouncing around a ideas to collaborate on, and one that grabbed us was the idea of using little fighting figurines as a blank canvas to infer stories of valour and misfortune upon, stories which were very specific and personal to the moulded-by-the-thousand figure in hand. We picked some historical soldiers and from these our favourite six, and their attributes and the kinds of ideas we were knocking about fell firmly into the gruelling times of the Hundred Years War between England and France. Looking over each little figure in detail, we considered their poses and countenances, weaponry and clothes, to find the character hidden within and their own tale of glorious victory, ignominious defeat, or somewhere between the two and in doing so hopefully creating something unique from something ordinary. Each comic stands alone, but there's plenty of little links and overlaps in there for the keen battle-watchers. Introducing....!

Geoffrey: Camaraderie & Lamentations

 
William: A Master's Tale

Guy: The Summer of 1369

George: In Pursuit Of Glory

Nicholas: A Flurry Of Flags.

Sir Thomas: In Noble Service.

Six handmade colour minicomics, eight pages plus covers, including and inspired by a fighting man of days of yore. £3 each or £15 for all six, available at Glasgow Comic Con - Clyde Foyer - on July 2nd and 3rd 2016 and also now in my online shop. It's been a real pleasure collaborating with Mark and there's hopefully more to come from us in the future. In the meantime - come get your Hundred Years War on!

2016: Oozing Wound Fascination

Hello hello. I've been working continually on a lot of quite in depth projects over the last couple of years, so it's with some excitement that hopefully 2016 is the year when some of these will see the light of day. I'm thinking of also taking a bit of an ill-advised step into the world of lo-fi illustration zines, though feel free to talk me out of this. In the meantime, here's some collected shonky photos of some dubious work that's seeped out on Twitter over the last few months. Onwards and upwards!

 

Cavernous and crepuscular opinions on The Apprentice. Serious kvlt shit. As it is, this benighted young man called it early and backed the winner.

An official Khorne Berzerker Product review for yet another excellent Williams Brothers beer. For completion's sake I should probably do the other Chaos Gods, but I don't know if I want to draw a bunch of Slaaneshi Penis Marines.

You can simultaneously indulge your interest in making profoundly stupid art about ridiculous things while shamelessly baiting for RTs and Faves on Twitter by combining a current topical issue with a hugely successful and beloved television program. But you won't necessarily get those Faves, and then you'll just feel cheap.

I thought I'd have a go at The Mooks' Draw Stormtroopers project. There's an abundance of incredible stuff here.

 

Sheldon. Ghnuzunga.

Sometimes you just lose your fucking mind and hold up a Greggs.

 

A reflective self-portrait. I watched Attack On Titan and it led to some profound thoughts.

 

Positive vibe emanation at MCM Birmingham.

He's not wrong though.

 

Sweet mood ring, Bro.

It was National Burger Day back in August. About a week later it was National Cheeseburger Day. No one's flying the plane.

 

Getting in on that "Draw Andy Oliver of Broken Frontier" action. Sorely tempted to write some of those ludicrous comics whirling about him.

Panel Show Recurring Talking Head Extravaganza

Hey! Well it's been very quiet on here recently, with not a great deal going on and no new comics to show... but there's plenty happening, as I'm quietly working away on some longer form projects and broader undertakings. But here's some goings-ons of late...

I was recently asked by John Wilson, a filmaking student and independent director at Glasgow City College, to be interviewed for a short documentary he was making on Glasgow's indie comics scene. You'll see me and also Marjory Wallace of the famous Team Girl Comics collective and the colourful environs of Glasgow's Geek Retreat:

A big thanks to John and his colleagues for inviting me to take part in what's clearly come out as a very skilled product. Look for that guy in future! In addition to that, I found a cool little documentary on the Edinburgh Book Festival's Stripped Comic Mart that I took part in last summer. Based on these two movies, I only own one shirt. Check it out!:

This Saturday 5th of April I'll be heading to the Dread Realm of Dundee to exhibit at the annual Dundee Comics Expo, which is running in conjunction with DeeCon, Scotland's largest Anime convention. Both events are free! There looks to be all sorts of cool events, talks and displays to be had at both, including a Kendo display which is safe to assume will be great. So I'm looking forward to meeting the comic readers and cosplaying anime-mad fans and fiends of Dundee, Tayside and The Kingdom Of Fife!

I'm missing a Gorgoroth show to be there, so you guys better show me a nice time!

Later in the month I'll be at the Graphic Stories event in the Glasgow's Waterstones in Argyle Street. A section  section of local comics talent has been carefully curated in Waterstones, and a small event is on for people to meet the creators and buy their wares. It's a real honour to be in Waterstones and to be invited to come along, and I'm sure it'll be a fun and interesting day and perhaps an opportunity to meet some new readers who are less familiar with indie comics, or comics altogether.

This lovely image by the excellent Coll Hamilton.

Don't Make Me Run - I'm Full of Geek Chocolate!

Over at Geek Chocolate, Roachwell has received a beamingly positive review. It's "a body of work that will challenge you, that asks you to actively participate and, God forbid, think for yourself" and thanks to us "the comic world is a slightly scarier, weirder, stranger, but above all, better, place".

I'm flattered indeed - thanks Geeks! Read the full review here.

Meanwhile, behind the façade of this innocent-looking comics-blog... we've also had a kindly nod from the industrious Colin Bell in his 30 days of Comics over on Bloggerin' Time.

Colin describes Roachwell as "uncompromisingly surreal horror comic, which alternates between the terrifying and the hilarious" and erroneously calls us "amiable chaps". Thanks very much - though I think you meant to say "contemptible shit-heads". Read more here...