~Mallorychan

So much going on, so much done and still so much to do and it's not even July yet! It may seem like we've been a little quiet of late but trust me, it's only because we're working our assess off behind the scenes, much like a swan.
The trip to New York was immense fun (thanks yet again to Cliodhna for hooking me up with a place to crash and some table space), I met a huge amount of really great people and drank a fair bit of booze. The Mocca show was a real eye opener and i came away with a veritable plethora of creative ideas and helpful advice from many of the truly awesome artists there. Thank you each and every one!
After the party-fest that was the big apple we actually had a fairly sedate Download festival this year (for us anyway) helped along by Jo being pretty sick the whole time with a bug i picked up from the plane's air-con.
Next though, we've got our sights firmly set on the The Birmingham International Comics Show where we should be releasing the next issue of our anthology, Left of Centre (and it's looking damn fine if i do say so myself), Dan's first poetry book illustrated by yours truly and some spiffy postcards as well and probably some mini comix of various types. We've just been confirmed a table at Leeds for Though Bubble in November as well so maybe we'll have something new to go for then as well!
Currently, i'm drawing my new manga style series (finally) which is shaping up way better than i expected (i'll post the first few pages up soon) and then next week it's back to finishing off this HM chapter..

Laters!

A huge amount of stuff going on here at the moment but it's all going to have to wait till i get back from the states to talk about. Don't forget! If you're in NYC this weekend come and see us at the Mocca show! It's going to be a great laugh but we only have a limited amount of books with us due to the luggage constraints so get in quick if you want one! I'll be on hand doing sketches for anyone who wants one though so come and say "hi" (we're on table 541 i think, Skylight Ballroom).

Well, it's the start of another fun packed year for FAM and that means it's time to gear up for the next convention season! we've got a whole stack of things to get ready/printed/organised and i'm juggling 3 strips at a time now but quite amazingly, i'm staying on top of it all for once!
I'm on a major artistic high at the moment and i think i must be getting quicker again because i'm finishing a page in 2 days now as opposed to the previous 5.
I'm gearing for putting out 2 anthologies of stuff in March and then a new one out every six months after that (which with my current workload shouldn't be a problem) and we've a whole load of merchandise and goodies to finish making/printing so the next couple of months are going to be really exciting times! I love all this small press malarkey, it's an absolute hoot! The satisfaction of making your own books and seeing the final product all printed and bound is a great one. Going to con's, chatting to people about their and my work and learning new tips and tricks is such fun i get all tingly with excitement thinking about it

We've got 3 new series starting for #3 of the anthology (tentatively titled 'Left of Centre' ) - The manga strip HM High charting Jess mason's younger years, another offshoot of High Maintenance called Fallen Angel (which is the expansion of a very old script of mine which i wrote well before i started all this comic drawing fanaticism) and an HM unrelated 'underground' style strip called Tactical Goth Chick.

Loads more going on as well but i'll give a full round up at the end of Jan.

busy, busy, busy.....

Well, The FAM crew had a lovely weekender up north, you can read all about it here :-

[link]

but now i'm down with an awful cold and feel like crap..

bah!

Sometimes, things just plain suck!

Just when i had everything sorted out for the Lancaster con - the hotels booked, transport sorted, printing stuff ready and all sort of other things hooked up they go and cancel it!
While i can't blame the organiser Ant for that (it was just just lack of support in the end though tbh, he hadn't pushed the con. very much in my opinion) it's still pretty frustrating. In the end it just means that all the stuff i've prepared will be going along with me to next years con's but i still feel i've lost time and i've definitely lost money (hotel costs).

All of this was pretty much the culmination of a crappy week really. My son was a complete arse, my wife hasn't been sleeping well (partly because of my son being a complete arse) and i made a major fuck-up at work which i'm currently berating myself for and wondering how i still have a job...

On the plus side, i'm drawing great stuff at the moment but that's feeling like a really little thing to be thankful for right now...