Banal Pig's Review of the Year 2007 (Part Two)

Here it is, more reminiscences of times past.

July

I couldn’t really remember why it took so long to get Jolly Bear 2 out, but this is the reason:

“At the moment i'm working on a few bits. As well as JBFCSS2, of which you will no doubt be aware, i'm doing something for Monkeys Might Puke aka sleazy Dan Lester's anthology about Mickey Rourke, if there was a prize for most esoteric comic, that'd win it. i might do some awards.
Also, Jess Bradley is doing an anthology about animals which i'm doing something for, and not to mention the Rok Comics stuff and there's also a competition to get a comic in the observer which i'm certainly having a crack at. there's also this victorian horror story thing that’s been bubbling away for ages that i've got to get finished.”

Well, the Mickey Rourke anthology has still to see the light of day, as has Jess’s anthology (which I haven’t finished the thing for yet). The rok comics thing dragged out until October, and I’ve still to do the Victorian horror thing. I also did something for Jim Medway's Garden Funnies which should be out soon. The Observer thing was my main priority at the time I think, and inevitably no cigar for stevie t- more of which later.



August

we went to Caption for the first time in august:

“A lot of the small press veterans bang on about it as one of the big events in the calendar, so we were a bit surprised to see a rather poky room with not a lot going on (and not a lot of comics) when we got there, and having to pay a fiver to get in seemed a bit steep. The trouble is that people turn up throughout the day bringing their stuff, so if you got there early, you would be gutted, and not necessarily realise there was more to come, so you go home empty handed because there wouldnt be anything to hang around for. The idea of caption is really good though, you leave your comics and they sell them for you for 10% commission -peanuts compared with the cost of a table at one of the big expos, or even the web and mini comix thing, and of course you only have to give them money when you sell something”.

I sold well though so I cant grumble, although I don’t know how cost effective it is really to go to oxford and all that.

Also I came up with the web funnies idea, and projected my manifesto, as per the following:

“i have noticed a few things which i intensely dislike about certain strips, and as a result have come up with a few rules about how i am going to do my strip-
1- no geeky referencing of esoteric things (e.g. computer games, the internet in general, obscure films etc)
2- no boring continuous strips- the whole point is that its contained in 3 panels, if a story needs to be continued i'll do it as one long strip somewhere else
3- no "based on a true story" disclaimers”



-which I did stick to, apart from perhaps the strip based on Les Demoiselles D’avignon by Picasso, but its high brow and not fucking computer games so who cares.

I also said:

“i'm also going to stop moaning about the small press scene, and my terrible lot in life and concentrate on doing my own thing. i cant do anything about people i dont know, and i just need to keep making good entertaining work and see what happens. feel free to give me some shit if you hear me moaning.”

Hopefully I have been a bit more focused, and optimistic- I will see if there’s any more whiny blogs to come that I’ve forgotten about.

September

I submitted my entry for the aforementioned Jonathan Cape Observer graphic short story prize. I didn’t really expect to win, but I was underwhelmed by the winners. Have a look here for pdfs of the winners plus others, and see what you reckon.



Another thing about this competition was the fact that although the image was to be an arbitrary broadsheet size, they wanted the entries on A4 paper only (no cds or emailed images), which was logistically difficult, and undoubtedly meant that instead of receiving perfect electronic versions, they got ropey printouts which didn’t show off the images to their full potential.
*This isn’t moaning by the way, it is constructive criticism.

I was reminiscing about being a proper artist too, as I had a bit of time off. I wonder if I’ll ever make some beautiful fine art ever again. We’ll see (contemplative sigh).

October

I finished Jolly Bear and Fun Coconut Summer Special Two (there's a review here)in time for Birmingham, which as a comic expo was a bit disappointing; as previously mentioned Saturday was ok, but Sunday was absolutely dead. I didn’t even write a report of this, I think I was a bit sick of the whole business at the time, and wanted to crack on with the web funnies.

November

The web funnies continued until mid November, and although I said after the post-a-day for the first month I would do a few a week, I had run out of ideas, and wanted to crack on with BP4. I did get back a lot of positive feedback which was nice, but it was hard work which took up more or less all of my free time for that month. I might do another month at some stage, and I will still post as inspiration strikes me, but BP4 is my main thing at present.

I also came up with the idea of a Banal Pig Fan Club, which is to go ahead next year- stay tuned for more news- and I tried to flog some original artwork, but didn’t.

December

I have been quietly beavering away in December, and you can probably see December’s posts on this page so I wont review them.

All that remains is to thank you, dear reader, especially if you have bought or otherwise contributed to the banal pig, for your support, and hopefully we will see much more of each other next year.