It’s been a busy few weeks round here, on the Writing and Drawing Comics front (as ever), but also specifically on the Events front. I did a Live Online Digital Event for 1,000 families! That went really well but also INCREDIBLY BADLY? (It is a long story. There were Technical Issues. Perhaps we will speak of it in full one day when I am less traumatised.) I did a packed-out theatre show in London with the brilliant Jamie Smart! I did a couple of really fun sessions at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival! All very enjoyable but also I am completely knackered now, and am looking forward very much to enjoying the forgotten delights of ‘having a weekend’. Anyway, it’s all calming down again a bit and I’ve just got a couple of events left before the end of the year:
I am very honoured to have been invited to the SCBWI British Isles Conference in Manchester, November 4th-5th! There’s lots of great people in the line-up and fascinating stuff in the schedule. I will be doing one of the Saturday afternoon break-out sessions with my brilliant editor from DFB, Anthony Hinton, where we will be talking all about, you know, how comic books get made. Anthony is brilliant and I think this should be a really fun session. I’m already excited to get into all the behind-the-scenes nuts-and-bolts nitty-gritty, in ways I never usually get to talk about in workshops!
After a bit of a break I will be back running my regular monthly Comics Club sessions at The Story Museum in Oxford! The next couple of dates are Saturday October 28th and Saturday November 25th. The morning sessions (for ages 8-11) often sell out (although I think there are currently spaces left for November), but we often have places in the afternoon session (for ages 12-16) so if you know any young persons who love drawing and making comics that you think might enjoy it, send them along!
MEANWHILE IN COMICS
Last week saw the release of the issue of the Phoenix that featured the culmination of all my Donuts VS Bagels nonsense in an epic Donuts VS Bagels VS Daughters of the Demon VS Villinoos Crossover Spectacular! This was such fun to get to pull off, and it was just a joy seeing people’s reactions come pouring in. This week’s issue features the outcome / aftermath, and I don’t want to say too much else just yet for fear of spoilers. But maybe we’ll have a full debrief back here one of these days, once the smoke has cleared a bit.
Also this week: I put the final touches to book 7 of Mega Robo Bros - the penultimate volume, NEMESIS, out next year - and now there is nothing stopping me getting back to working on the final volume. I’ve still got about 150 pages to draw, and I am under no illusion that it’s going to take a while. But I’m really looking forward to being able to get my head down and focus on it. The very next scene on my drawing board, next week, features a moment that’s been in my head since the VERY BEGINNING of Mega Robo Bros - kind of the Seed Moment for the whole thing, honestly - and I can’t wait to finally get it down on paper. All being well it should start appearing in the Phoenix early next year, with the book coming out later in 2024, so it may actually end up finishing up for comic readers and book readers around the same time. Which is weird to think about, and would normally fill me with a mixture of excitement and terror for What’s Next. But fortunately I have 150 pages of comic to draw to stop me getting distracted by such idle pondering.
SOME THINGS I WROTE
I wrote a piece for Booktrust on how to use comic books to engage readers! Full of recommendations and practical top tips for teachers, librarians, and parents you can read it here!
I think I might have linked to this already but just in case I missed it, I wrote a piece the other week for Books For Keeps on the subject of ‘The Serious Side To Comics’ which was about, I guess, the way that some adults unfamiliar with the medium tend to misinterpret it, and all the things that means they’re making kids miss out on. Anyway I was pretty pleased with it, and you can read it here!
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Next week in the newsletter I’m going to try and answer a few questions that people asked following some of my previous How To Write Comics posts (here’s part one, and part two), so if YOU have any questions about, you know, How To Write Comics, post them here in the comments and I guess we will find out together next week whether I know the answers!
Okay, that’s it for now! Don’t forget, if you are highly organised and thinking about Christmas already, that signed and sketched-in copies of ALL my books are currently available from my Web Shop, while stocks last, and would make for EXCELLENT CHRISTMAS PRESENTS! Okay thanks bye.