“…starting something new before finishing the last thing(s)”

On November 7, 2023November 7, 2023 By hesirIn Comic Cons, Comics ArtLeave a comment

So here we are, it’s the week leading up to Thought Bubble 2023 / TBF23. Just days away really.

I’ll be there (with Sarah too, which is great, as it’s always more of a fun weekend when we are there together), and I’ll have the usual array of comics and prints (and maybe even two new banners, see the side panels in the art above).

I’m looking forward to seeing some regular faces, meeting new people, as always happens there, and to catching up with old friends too (as we have often used the event as a focus point for our Norwich Art School friends meet-up).

But, regarding the comics and prints, particularly the comics, I’m hoping this is the last year I have to turn around to people who arrive at the table in eager anticipation of something new (and I love these people for that enthusiasm I really do, please don’t stop asking!) only to have to say, “No, sorry, I’ve no new Cthulhiad comics again this year… I’ve just been too busy with other stuff.”

Unfortunately this year, I will still be saying that.

And it makes me crazy in the brain.

I’d really hoped to have something new on the table, but it just didn’t happen. I talked about it with Sarah on a number of occasions, but the year just seemed to slip through my fingers, again.

It’s not like I can’t show people that I’m working on those other things (at least the comics ones), you can see that happening in the posts from earlier this year.

I’ve new work on Book 3 of “The Lance” (ie the final part of my two books The White Ship, and Drakon), and I started a whole new thing, well two actually, one a book looking at a retelling of the events around the life of the Gorgon, Medusa. Which I’m really enjoying working on (see some sketches below).

The other being a set of short fantasy adventures, which would be cool to have more time to work on, but might have to take a back burner seat while I finish these other projects. There are others too, some even scripted already, but they’ll be even further back, on the back-back burner if you will.

Earlier this week on a forum for creatives (admittedly in a different medium, i.e. not comics), I wrote the words, “…in the rich tradition of starting something new before finishing the last thing(s), I’ve started toying with a new thing”…

I think this is part of the issue… so many ideas, and never enough time… or never enough well used time.

The other reason is, I’m just working… ie, not on my own personal work, per se, but on collaborations and work for hire, for or with others. This being where the money to live and pay for things like printing and being able to even think about turning up to events like TB comes from.

And once you start doing that, it becomes incredibly hard to step away from it and find the time to work on your own things. Any free time you do get, you think, “Will I have the time to make some significant ground on that big project? To do it justice? And if not, why not do something smaller instead?” Which, when you do that, all you have done is started another thing you haven’t finished, and once again you’ve got yourself caught up in a self-perpetuating cycle.

It’s not like I haven’t been here before, here’s my old DevArt profile pic from 2003, twenty years ago…

Half of something, indeed…

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really been thoroughly enjoying the professional work I have been doing.

I’ve produced some of my strongest painted work of my career over the last year or so*, I’ve made some of my favourite comics art in that time too, done my first solo painted cover (I’d definitely like to try more of that). Even produced things that have inspired me and given me a way forward for some of those personal projects that are sitting in the wings. And gone back to my roots, laughs, by taking on duties on a western** comic… I’m sure you’ll here about that in the near future.

*_{much of which again, isn’t going to be seen, even in my portfolio for a while as I’m under NDAs until the work is out in the world. All of this makes it look like you aren’t working and producing new stuff, but that’s the business.}

** _{my first fully finished self-published comic was a western, called The Indian Fighter – currently out of print.}

Add to all that, this recurring (post Covid?) brain fog into the mix, and, well… you get the picture.

…

So, what to do?

Well, I guess this post is really me just saying, that I need to have a serious think about how I organise my time.

I need to fit in time for those projects of my own that are sitting there almost ready to go, but are just not being done or finished.

I’m hoping that this coming year is the year I get the balance right.

In the meantime, I’ll see you this coming weekend. And though for those of you who have bought my stuff in the past there might not be much in the way of new or unseen, it will still be great to say hello if you pass the table.

Look, new banners!

Regardless, let’s just have a great festival, and as always chat and rave and rant about our love of comics. It should be fun, come and say “Hi.”

We’ll be at table B34 in the DSTLRY Hall.

See you there.

Some bonus coloured Cthulhiad Art…

#JustPaperAndInk – a pop up indie comics show

On November 7, 2023 By hesirIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

So, this happened earlier in the year… #JustPaperAndInk (article by Broken Frontier)

June through July (2023) to be precise.

Basically a small independent comics creator pop up exhibition curated by Sean Azzopardi of PhatComics and myself. And, I guess, sort of an extension of the discreet exhibition he had held at his former shared studio space, called, “Framed”. with some of the artists who had showcased their work there, also having work in this show.

The show ran for just over a month, we were based in a shop unit ran as “The Space”, a arts project ran by a local access to arts organisation and pop-up gallery team called Creat-Hive, and we were just a couple of doors along from Hull’s Forbidden Planet store in The Prospect Centre.

I got to spend my days during the show away from my usual working form home environment, and at my temporary drawing board in the gallery space itself which as always was both fun and eye opening. The show itself bookended around the Hull Comic Con weekend event too, which was great as we were able to promote that as part of our show (one of the original thoughts that had instigated our event to be fair).

I chatted to a lot of people over those few weeks, as we had over 700 people come in and engage with the work/exhibition (ie not including the people who came in looking for other things (shops, another gallery, etc) or who left once they realised it was about comics). Which is a fair amount of people. We got to chat to about #MakingComics, comics as a fairly democratised artform, and storytelling medium, and even got to discuss the possibility of further projects with other organisations in the city, and outside of it.

I cant thank enough those people who took time out of their schedules to come and chat, it was very much appreciated, so cheers… you know who you are.

We even did a radio spot with our local BBC Humberside comics fan Kofi.

The show itself was divided up into four main sections, “the big noisy art“ at the front to draw people in (which seemed to work, cheers to Sean for providing those big fun colour pieces). Then we had a section showcasing the work of several “UK indie creators“, with which we added some hard copy examples of the books hung on the wall to show the work “in its natural environment” rather than a gallery wall (to paraphrase Crumb). And we made sure to show the creators SocMed links too, in the hope that even a couple of additional follower always helps, who knows?

Followed by two linked sections looking at “Comics Made In Hull“… which was a surprisingly big section, not only for the visitors, but for us as well. We even had someone come in on the first day and tell us that they made comics in Hull too. Which was great… Comics, the unseen communities, laughs.

…and finally “Hull In Comics“, a section that showed the city itself appearing as a character in some of that local work.

As part of the interpretation in the show, we added a number of text panels looking at other aspects around the world of making comics, so that it might be perhaps more accessible for those who had left comics behind some time ago, or just for those who had never ever really engaged with the medium.

In these sections we discussed the early history of the art form, how comics are seen in Europe by comparison to the UK & US, the balance of traditional and digital comics work currently being produced (and the threats posed by so called AI/Plagiarism Software), the use of comics in education, new voices, representation and the ever present dilemma of “But, Is it Art?”.

Amongst these we scattered a number of quotes by creators, critics and celebrated comics readers from within and outside the medium, who weren’t in the show, but who had discussed important aspects of comics and their value.

We also had a few books from our own collections to chat about and use as examples in discussion.

All in all it seemed pretty well received, and we have discussed holding onto the name of the show #JustPaperAndInk for further shows and exhibitions, workshops etc.

So I guess watch this space!