Exciting news! The first issue of ink+PAPER is out this week. This is a brand new comics magazine put together by the fabulous David O'Connell, and it includes a photo essay by yours truly. I haven't seen a hard copy yet, but David assures me it looks fantastic. That's his cover illustration up there. London Underground nerds can have fun trying to work out which tube line he's illustrated, but it's a bit of a trick question because he's incorporated several elements from different tube lines (the seating is the Design Research Unit's 1970s District Line moquette design, though).

If you're in London, come to the launch party at Orbital Comics this Friday from 7:00pm.

ink+PAPER will also be on sale at Saturday's Comiket fair on Saturday as part of this year's Comica Festival (another brilliant line-up of events this year). This year Comiket is being held at the newly refurbished Bishopsgate Institute. I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

If you can't make either of those events, it will be on sale in Orbital Comics and Gosh Comics, or you can buy it online from here.

The other big comics news this week is of course the release of Nelson, the ambitious comics anthology/exquisite corpse story told by over 50 of the UK's best comics creators, with all profits going to homeless charity Shelter. (You may remember I made some fan art of the cover.) I've been looking forward to this one for months, not just because loads of my friends are involved or because it's for a good cause, but because everything I've seen of it speaks to the dedication and creative brilliance of the people involved. I'm very excited be getting my hands on a copy tomorrow, courtesy of Alison at Space In Text. (I will be buying a copy as well. I just haven't decided whether to pick up a hardcover from the Blank Slate table at Comiket on Saturday, or one of the Frank Quitely bookplate softcovers from the Nelson launch/signing at Gosh Comics.)

November 19-25 is Nelson Week, so look for more about the book then. I strongly suspect that you're going to be hearing a lot about it in the run up to Christmas!

I was at Conway Hall for about the last 15 minutes of the (International) Alternative Press Fair on Sunday, and after browsing tables in the very cramped aisles, I found myself taking photos of the lovely interior (I do rather love this building!)

I didn't have enough time to buy much, but I highly recommend Onion Soup by Dan Berry (buy it here), and The End of The Line by Woodrow Phoenix (not sure where you can buy that one from).

And on Monday I saw lots of things in Margate but I haven't been through all of my photos yet (I actually used my camera for some of those, rather than just my phone)

This morning, for some reason, I put pen to paper and knocked up a quick sketch of her within a couple of minutes. You probably don't realise what a major thing that is for me to have done, but it is. I just don't draw. I have such complete block about my ability to even do so that this is actually the first time in months that I've even tried. It might even have been the first time this year. So, it's a big thing to me that I suddenly felt the urge to do so, because it's something that never, ever happens, but today it did, and I didn't even think about it. I just grabbed the first pen and a pad of paper, and drew.

Of course, a couple of minutes in I lost my confidence again, as I made her nose bigger and pointier than I wanted to, and I bodged up her mouth, which made her look a bit cranky (hence the comment about needing coffee, because that seemed a good reason to be cranky!)

Anyway, my point of this post is really this: Jenny Everywhere is a character with so much potential, because she's a copyright-free open source superhero with the power to travel between dimensions! She can fit into almost anything, and she's got a great attitude, and, frankly, I don't think nearly enough people know about her. So I thought it would be fun to come up with a "draw Jenny" challenge — a bit like the "draw Batgirl" challenge that did the rounds of the blogosphere a couple of years ago (not that I'm expecting it to go quite so viral).

Here's the pertinent information about Jenny Everywhere, aka The Shifter:
"Jenny Everywhere has been described both as existing in every reality and being able to shift between realities. This gives the character the ability to be inserted into the continuity of any existing or new work, such as various comics or webcomics. The concept may also be extended to other mediums [sic]

The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish."

More information on Jenny Everywhere here: theshifterarchive.com/faqs.htm

I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone takes up the challenge! If you do, tag your blog posts/Flickr pictures etc "drawjenny" and hopefully they'll be easy to find. If you want to leave comments here on my blog, or on my livejournal, I'll try to post as many as I can next week.

There was a birthday cake to celebrate, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First there was Friday night's gathering in The Angel & Greyhound, where Alex oxfordslacker and I bonded over a mutual love of — of all things — The Andrews Sisters¹. Alex also came up with a description of prog-rock which worked as a perfect analogy of why I hate HDR photography, but unfortunately I can't remember what it was now. Something about technically-adept musicians playing everything perfectly, all at the same time, just because they can, but it having absolutely no soul or character — which is what I feel about most prog-rock and indeed about most HDR photos I've seen. (YMMV.)

I spent most of Saturday in a state of hangover daze, which was really unfair because I'd only had two pints on Friday night — and I stopped drinking before 9:00pm. After popping into the town centre to get a new memory card and a bacon sammich from Browns in the covered market (right opposite the cake shop where the Caption birthday cake and Jeremy's Tatlin Tower wedding cake came from), I made it back to Caption in time for Kaz's talk about her current residency at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Having already been to visit her in her studio, some of it was stuff I already knew (in fact, photos with me in even appeared in some of her slides), but it was interesting to hear about the process of applying for the post, and how it's working out so far. Choice quote: "I had to be polite and pretend that I was a legitimate person."

I also enjoyed Garen Ewing's talk about his journey from 1980s zines to being published by Egmont this year. I've been a fan of his book The Rainbow Orchid since I first picked up his original self-published black-and-white version some years ago, and it was particularly fascinating to see how the work has evolved into the new book which has just come out. For me, the best part was seeing his preliminary sketches and pencils (in fact, I almost prefer the pre-inked pencils to the final result), but it was interesting to compare the original character sketches with the way those characters ended up. It was also interesting to see how some of the panels in the original version have been redrawn for the new book — to much improvement, both compositionally and historically (since it's set in the 1920s, it's important to get the period detail right). And the cover for book two is absolutely gorgeous — you're really in a for a treat.

elephant sketches by Garen Ewing

Another thing to look forward to is not one, but two new comics from Terry Wiley, both of which he let me have a sneak preview of, and I can't wait to get my grubby mitts on my own copies. There's a final part of Petra Etcetera, and a whole new story focusing on Verity Bourneville's acting career (or lack of), which is great 'cos I always loved Very as a comic character. (You can even read that one online) Terry also mentioned that he wants to get on with writing part two of Surreal School Stories at some point, so that's even more to look forward to!

Saturday evening was lots of fun, as Captionites descended en masse to new Chinese restaurant, Lan Kwai Fong. (Apparently it's named after a neighbourhood of Hong Kong, so it's a bit like calling your restaurant Cowley Road, which is where it is.) They have an extensive menu of stupidly-named cocktails, most of which I avoided, instead opting for a rather more sophisticated Singapore Sling. Unfortunately, I felt a lot less sophisticated drinking it when my charming dining companion, Paul Fryer had a taste and compared it to "drinking a Wham bar" because it was actually an accurate description. Oh well, posh alcopops will do the trick too! They also have a decent menu of dim sum options, which Paul got all excited about because it meant he got to eat tentacles for the first time¹. I love calamari, so it was fine with me, but he baulked at trying the tempura frogs' legs, which I've never eaten either. The folk at the next table were only too willing to get stuck in, though!

We made it back to the bar (which, due to unfortunate timing on the licence, was a dry one, which seems very wrong for a comics event, but people managed), in time for Tony Hitchman's annual comics quiz, which is always good fun — this year's was about Rampaging Robots. There are prizes for correct answers, but I always think it's much more fun when people try and come up with the silliest and most unlikely answers, instead. Mostly, it's just a great excuse to look at his slides of awesome vintage comic art from the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, and to hear the snarky asides from other people in the bar.

"Is his crotch a giant speaker?" asked Daniel Merlin Goodbrey

Sunday was pretty relaxed; the only thing I had planned was Sarah McIntyre's talk about the many similarities between comics and picture books, and her experience in both fields. It was really interesting, showcasing some amazing and wonderful children's books, many of which I'd never seen or even heard of before. Hopefully Sarah will put the slides online (Slideshare?) — or at least list the books on her blog — as almost all of them had some visual design appeal beyond just being "books for kids" (although I think regular readers are aware by now that I love kids books anyway). She also had a lot of useful suggestions about getting your work published, which is an area I think lots of small-press publishers could actually be pretty successful in, if the book examples she showed are anything to go by. She also talked about how many books are almost half the size of the children reading them, so when they open them, "it's like they're wrapping a whole world around themselves." She talked of wanting to do this for adults, which reminded me of the Alan Aldridge retrospective at the Design Museum, which had enormous versions of some of his illustrations for you to walk amongst. (I totally blanked on the name of the artist during Sarah's talk; only remembering it on the coach home, listening to Scott Walker!)

Although there seemed to be a few less people this year, it was still a great excuse to catch up with old faces like Gav Burrows and Ali Pulling, as well as meet lovely new people like Neill Cameron and Jason Elvis Barker. Least expected was seeing Jason Little, who was a long way from his native Brooklyn, but had arrived with erstwhile New Yorker Ellen Lindner. His Shutterbug Follies was one of the first webcomics I remember reading, way back in the day, but I felt like too much of a dork to go and say hello, because it's been years since I did actually read it. Of course, it's been collected in a book now, but unfortunately he didn't have any on sale — although I can understand why he wouldn't want to lug anything around.

I didn't pick up many comics this year. Partly it's because I'm watching my budget, and partly because I've been reading a few series and I couldn't remember which of the previous issues I already have. There didn't seem to be a lot worth picking up on spec (making me regret even more not making it to APF a couple of weeks ago, as those events usually have some amazing stuff on sale) or, at least, none of the cheaper stuff really caught my eye.

I did get a signed copy of the new edition of The Rainbow Orchid, which looks great in colour and has a gorgeously-printed cover; and I finally got around to buying Urban Beasts. I usually avoid anthropomorphic/"funny animal" comics but Urban Beasts plays around with anthropomorphism in an interesting way — and I'm not just saying that because it's by my friends! Now, where's issue #2?

I was also pleased to find a Jenny Everywhere comic, not just because it only cost 50p, but because I was there at her inception way back in the day², and I think she's a seriously underused character, so well done Nigel Palmer, whoever he is (there's no contact information). The final thing I bought was an untitled minicomic about a man in a hot air balloon, which was absolutely delightful. There are shades of Mr Benn, but it's no less charming for all that. It's by someone called Jack Brougham. And I would have picked up Paul Fryer's Ghostly Goings-On even if we hadn't been going off to dinner together, because the simple cover design appealed to me. I really enjoyed it, too; the first story, A Ghost For Tom Bailey, is really sweet and funny, and the second one, The Spirit of Winter, has a lovely denouement.

I do have to gripe about the Caption souvenir programme, though, as it was very disappointing. It was full of pin-ups and not many actual strips, and none of the artists' names were actually listed on the same page as their own work. Some people did sign their work, but many didn't, and as there was no contact/website information in the zine (huge oversight, people!), it makes it pretty hard to track them down to see more of their work. There was a list of names that referred to page numbers, but that was incredibly aggravating, as none of the pages actually had any numbers printed on them! So here's a tip: if you're contributing to any kind of anthology, make sure people know who the work is by. That means signing it and providing contact details on the work itself. That way it's much easier for people to find you! Simple.

Other highlights from the weekend before I sign off:

Ice-cream at George & Delila. For me, this has become a Caption tradition (they're just down the road; it would be rude not to!) This year I tried the green-tea ice-cream and the passion-fruit sorbet. Both were nice, although the portions were ginormous, and the green-tea made me feel a bit sick after a while. I highly recommend the passion-fruit sorbet, though; it's very refreshing.

The panel between Mark Stafford and Jamie McKelvie. They talked about different processes they use when collaborating with other people (mostly Bryan Talbot and Kieron Gillen, respectively — or disrespectively in Gillen's case, snark snark), which was quite interesting, and about the new Longbox initiative which is probably going to change the comics market for good (and I mean that in both the sense of positive and the definitive).

Drinking cocktails in a cabana. A damn fine way to end any weekend.

¹In honour both of my bonding with Alex over the Andrews Sisters, and of the first time Paul ate squid, I give you this mp3 of the Andrews Sisters singing Hold Tight, Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama). Don't get icky with the one, two, three!

²Of course, seeing a Jenny Everywhere comic always raises the question again — whatever did happen to Steven Wintle (the guy who originally invented her)? Well, wonder no more, because I've found him! He's blogging with his brother Gary (who I seem to remember that I once agreed to marry once he got older) over at I Was Ben. Yay!

MORE REVIEWS OF CAPTION 2009 HERE:
Rich Johnston: "It’s a unique convention in that the comic book creators who attend far outnumber the non-comic book creators. And to be fair, even they have a dabble. That’s part of what Caption is about, a democratisation of the form, the realisation that everyone can create comic books and find their own inspiration."
Gavin Burrows: "One panel was titled ‘You Should Totally Run Your Own Con, Dude’. But that’s pretty much what happens here anyway. Like the kids from Fame, the attendees put on a show right here. Caption is a magnet and a playpen for people as mad as you. Then times by nineteen."
Neill Cameron (with ace sketches of attendees as pirates with dinosaurs.)
Garen Ewing: "so many creators compare themselves unfavourably with their colleagues, forgetting that no one will ever do what they do in the unique way they do it"
Sarah McIntyre: "I ate something called Wild Ants Climbing Trees Glass Noodles, which disappointingly turned out to be something better named Slimy Noodles with Little Quorn-like Bits Stuck to Them."
Jenni Scott has posted her review in pieces, you can see them all here:"the first part of the day, as usual with CAPTION, was pretty well stuffed with creativity structured and unstructured."

April 24th-26th: Alex Milway's Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival, with loads of people from the Super Comics Adventure Squad (formerly of the DFC) and some fun-looking workshops.

May 3rd: the London Zine Symposium. I remember seeing loads of lovely handmade books and things there last year, so I'm sure this year's will be good too.

May 9th: Bristol Small Press Expo. I haven't decided if I'm going to Bristol this year, but if I do, I'll be sure to check this out alongside the main event.

May 9th-10th: Bristol Comics Expo.

May 23rd-24th: Comics Village at the MCM Expo. This is reason enough not to worry too much about missing Bristol, as most of the faces will no doubt be here, too.

June 27th: LUC@176. Best thing about this is that it's ROUND THE CORNER FROM MY HOUSE. Yes.

August 15th-16th: Caption. This year's theme is Away With The Fairies, apparently, and I hear rumours of a panel populated by DFC creators. Caption's always one of my year's highlight's, but nothing is going to top last year, when I spent the evening hanging out with one of my all-time favourite design heroes stuffing our faces on delicious Brazilian barbecue in a restaurant designed like a 1970s supervillain's lair (all orange and black moulded plastic), then sat sinking into the squashiest sofa in history while he sang my favourite Scott Walker and Glenn Campbell songs to me. Beat that, Team Comics.

I didn't make it to the model trains at the Peoples' Palace, but I did make it to mini comics at, er, the Peoples' Palace. How many Peoples' Palaces are there in London anyway?

Anyway, nomenclature aside, it was a good event, by all accounts. I deliberately arrived late, as past events have seen me run out of money and have hours to hang around doing nothing until everyone packs up to go to the pub. On arrival, I (typically) got distracted from looking at the tables by catching up with friends, including running into some stray Lithers, which was a pleasant surprise. I didn't seem to come away with huge amounts of comics, but I still spent about £30 (including a couple of things that didn't end up in the photograph at the top of the post). I'm not sure how good everyone's sales were, but the event was pretty crowded right up until closing time, which seemed like a good sign.

I must be getting O-L-D though, because I left the pub early, which is something I've been doing a lot of late. Me, who always stays until closing time. Not anymore, it seems. I'm not sure if it's a good thing, or not, as I never seem to get to bed any earlier than if I'd stayed out all night… Instead, I found myself getting a few strange looks on the tube, because reading through my haul of mini comics was making me giggle. Comics that are actually comical, who'da thunk it? Although I was a little disturbed that two comics out of the ten featured villains made of sentient facial hair! (That would be Airship by Sarah McIntyre & David O'Connell, and Francesca Cassavetti's Striptacular Comics Revue.)

There are a few things I regret, though. There were a couple of times when I got distracted by friends just as I was considering a purchase and then never went back to buy, which I feel a bit bad about. And I wish I'd thought to take a photo of Ellen Lindner's glamorous outfit (apparently it was her second choice and she wasn't sure about it, but let's be honest; she always looks great). I did, however, manage to grab the last copy of her brand new collected edition of Undertow, which I've been awaiting the conclusion of since I read the first chapter in her self-published comic Blonde on Blonde in, ooh, 2003 or 2004. Undertow was updated regularly on Webcomics Nation, but it was one I much preferred to read in paper format, so I'm delighted to now have a copy of my own. You should go and buy yours, too, although in my opinion, nothing beats the drama and linework of the last two pages of the opening chapter. Which is not to say that the rest ain't good, 'cos it is!

Also recommended:

• Chloe Noonan – new thing from Marc Ellerby, which is sardonically fun, though I'd love to see the whole thing done in colour. I know, I know, too expensive, but the colours on the front cover are so pretty. Watch Marc's LJ for details on how to get yours.
• Mugwump The Great – pocket-sized lunacy from Roger Langridge; ace as always.
• A Nice Cup of Tea and a Deadline – fans of Sarah McIntyre's blog will already know about this, a collection of some of the cute and funny illustrations and comic strips Sarah posts daily (with a lovely titular headnod to A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down), but you should buy a copy because the selected strips sit really nicely together. Except, I don't know how you can get one 'cos Sarah doesn't have a shop on her site¹. But, you can read her report on the Thing.
• The Everyday – simple, autobiographical strips by Adam Cadwell, with nice low-key observations about the small pleasures in life, illustrated with a lovely, elegant line. I didn't actually buy a copy 'cos of low funds, but I made Fimb buy one, and now I'm pointing you lot in Adam's direction, too.
• Whores of Mensa – I bought the latest issue last year, but now's your chance to buy up all the copies under this particular title, as Ellen informed me that they've just received a Cease-and-Desist from Mensa so they'll have to change the title, and may have to destroy existing issues.
• Tequila Monkey – not comics, but these handmade sugar skull brooches were doing a roaring trade, hardly surprising, as they're cute and affordable (although I'm considering commandeering mine for use as a pin-cushion, is that wrong? It's just that it's perfect!)

¹psst, Sarah, Folksy is a good place to set up an online shop!

In the nearby New Globe pub, those rebel reprobates from LUC are having their own breakaway event, SchmurgenCon. Looks like there'll be some good stuff on show, but am I the only one who thinks that the Schmurgen thing seems like an in-joke that's already past its sell-by date? Or maybe I'm just pissing on someone's chips. Nonetheless, it's still worth checking out if you're going to be in the area for the Thing, although I expect the LUC bunch will end up in the same pub as the people from the Thing later in the evening, and will probably be willing to sell you something then if you ask nicely. The pub in question being the big Wetherspoon's pub on Mile End Road between Stepney Green and Mile End tube stations, I forget the name of it but it's not an especially nice pub. The only thing it has going for it is that it's cheap and has a wider selection than most, which is why we always end up there post-Thing. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of choice in Mile End, I guess.

In case you hadn't noticed, here at Mondo Towers WE LOVE MODEL TRAINS. So I was quite excited to find out (via @genmon) about the London Festival of Railway Modelling [warning, has audio], which takes place over the weekend. I've been meaning to go up to Alexandra Park all year, and this is a good reason to do so, but I'm not sure I can fit it in on Saturday if I'm already going to the Thing. Maybe if I get up early, and pray that London Transport is not completely broken.

The model trains event continues on Sunday, but I've already made a date with a friend to see a Russian film from 1926 at the Phoenix Cinema, one of those London institutions that I've never yet made it to, so I'm looking forward to it.

Also on Sunday, Wilton's Music Hall is having an Open Day. I visited during the Open House weekend last year (some photos here), and it's a truly fantastic, unique space. Well worth the trip to Shadwell, especially as it's free. Plus there are a couple of great pubs to visit in nearby Wapping.

Oh, and in case the title of this post didn't remind you, don't forget the clocks go forward on Sunday morning!

Also on the comics front: the latest Scott Pilgrim book is out this week. Awesome sauce.

I didn't go to any of the talks, and ran into less people than I expected to, but I did bump into Sarah (her review of the event is here) and the lovely Mr Sheret of the Polaroid Press, as well as a couple of other familiar faces that I knew to say hello to, and was entertained by the mini-exhibition of zines and comics, not least because I discovered some new names amidst the usual faces, and blasts from the past.

I picked up a few good zines and comics, too, mostly of the cheaply printed/photocopied variety because they cost less! I haven't read them all, but so far think my favourite is This Was Before You Were Born, a little booklet of stories by Katie Haegele of The La-La Theory, which cost me the princely sum of 50p. They're all tales she's inherited from her family, which I found totally charming especially the story of her uncle Charlie who loved Christmas morning so much as a little boy that the whole family celebrated Christmas every morning morning until Epiphany, which involved wrapping all the presents up after they'd unwrapped them just so that they could unwrap them again the next morning! That's kind of crazy behaviour, but it's sweet rather than dangerous, just how I like my crazies.

Small press stalwart (and Space Station 65 partner) Rachael House made a good list of tips for making zines:

You can see all of them in the photoset on Flickr. (Tip #4 especially amused me, after all the computer vs. paper conversations I've been having/following lately.)

Zine Fest organiser Melanie Maddison also puts together a zine called Colouring Outside The Lines. I picked up the latest issue, #4, which is a great catalogue of female illustrators from around the globe, complete with spot pictures, website information and interviews. I haven't had a proper read yet, but it looks pretty inspiring. You can buy it via Folksy or via Etsy. It's well worth a look, and I suspect I'll be linking to some of the talented ladies I find in it when I finally get a moment to give it a proper read!

So far 2009 is shaping up to be a good one for zine and comics events. I picked up a couple of flyers for some more events coming up:

First up is this Sunday's Alternative Press Fair, back at St. Aloysius Social Club (a place I seem to be visiting often enough for it to deserve its own tag on my site). There's a good interview, full of self-pubishing tips from the guys behind the APF over at Spoonfed (which is a site I signed up to a few weeks ago but haven't really used yet, so I can't tell you how useful it is).

Brighton Zine fest is a two-day event on 21st-22nd of February. I'm hoping to get down for one of the days.

The London Zine Symposium returns on May 3rd. There was a lot of great stuff on sale last year, plus it's right next to one of my favourite pubs!

Via Dave Shelton comes news of a an event on the 14th-15th of February that's probably a bit more mainstream, but worth checking out if you're in the area, the Highland Expo in Inverness. I'm almost tempted to go myself. I like Inverness.