Birmingham

Hello pals.

Hopefully it goes without saying that i will be presenting my wares at the Birmingham International Comics show this weekend. I know my loyal commentators will be there, but if there are any casual pig lovers out there who fancy a trip to the picturesque west midlands this weekend, then do it! The repeatedly aforementioned JBFCSS2 is now back from the printers and looking fancy, and we'll have all the good stuff, including Gareth Brookes' new book "The Smell of the Wild".
Good old Oliver East will also be joining us, and i understand he'll be bringing not only his excellent Trains are Mint series, but some of Jim Medway's books as well.

Cor Blimey! Why would you want to go to any other stall?

Jolly Bear in colour

here's the last one for a while- i've got other stuff to do and have to go back to work on tuesday (boo) also, gareth gets a heads up on top shelf's blog (click link on right, cant be bothered finding link, the hey bartender bit).

Post 97- Chatterings

Yes friends it's very nearly the anniversary of this blog, and its also nearly the 100th post. so what have we learned? that i write down things that i am planning to do and then a bit later i either do them or dont bother. sometimes i cause controversy and sometimes i make up puns, and reprint stories that i have written.

by the way, when i lived in london and only used to work 4 days a week (those were the days lol! ha ha!) i started to write some novels. the first one was about a mysterious event which wiped out all but about 100 people, basically your last man on earth fantasy, but with the idea that the few remaining survivors were all bastards, like being on big brother or something. i got to about chapter three and got cold feet. the second one i though had a bit more potential. i stole the premise from an obnoxious african woman who gareth went to a creative writing course with, and the name of her novel was "fourteen intelligent men build a castle". i dont know what her story was actually about or anything and dont care, but mine was an (attempted) victorian h.g wells pastiche about this group of gents who are brought together to a remote scottish isle/loch/ whatever to build a castle for a mysterious genius recluse (you know the type), and certain members of the party start dying, you know, mysterious. anyway, maybe i'm writing this so i dont forget it forever, but if there's anyone who'd like to read either of these books, send me a cheque for £15,000 and i'll send you the manuscript, and we'll split the profits 50:50.

anyway, i was also thinking about making longer comics, and i really want to step it up a notch with banal pig 4. my current vision (sounds a bit pretentious doesnt it?) involves 2 levels of comics- i.e. a main strip and a sub-strip running alongside/under/against it, and i want to continue to develop the banal pig "universe" (againy this sounds a bit poncy, but it is fairly common comic speak i think) and feature more of the peripheral characters and make the general look a bit more dense, or at least vary the layouts a bit more. this means that it wont be ready for birmingham, but i'll have JBFCSS2 and maybe another minicomic, and i've got my fingers in a few other pies.

there's exciting things going on over at Man Man's house too. Gareth's decided that he's gonna take on a few more challenging projects, including a development of the bastard teachers thing from the portrait anthology, and an adaption of his own short story about a young boy who decides to make himself some sex dolls, with varying successes.

there's also a reasonable (unsolicited) review in the new Comics International no 202, of Man Man 1 & 2, which says it's funny and good value for money, and then gives it a lukewarm 6 out of 10.

anyway, i'm off on me holidays now, laters!

Bristol Expo

Its all over and its been a great weekend i reckon. We all sold well- pictured is our display, Man Man and Bingo Bonanza on the left; Gareth had a new comic, Mediocralypse, which is more in the style of the "bastard teachers" strip in the BP Portrait Anthology, with more funny drawings and little stories about wanking with grandads and that.
My stuffs in the middle, including the new comic Ethel Sparrowhawk which sold well and has had a lot of good words said about it, and it seems the things we wanted to achieve with it have come across. I'm gonna put the first 6 pages on the myspace at some point today, so please check it out if you havent seen it.
On the right is Oliver East's Trains Are... Mint including an exclusive with the first few copies of Trains Are Mint number 3, which i read last night and is as brilliant as the other two in the trilogy, so check them out if you havent seen them already.

Also pictured are Oli East (beardy, red check shirt) and Gareth (Charles Hawtrey) who were sharing the spoils.

I think there are a few reasons why we did much better- we had much more choice of stock this year, 17 different titles to choose from, and from my own point of view it is nice to have something a bit less vulgar than the Banal Pigs (i.e. Ethel Sparrowhawk) which broadens the appeal a bit i think. Not that there's anything wrong with calling your dad a cunt, pissing on old mens heads, and anthropomorphic geese sucking men off for crack is there?
Secondly, we've got a bit more of a reputation now, we've been around for a couple of years, and also as Bristol's my home town i've actually got some mates here now.

I picked up some good stuff by the looks of it, which i may review or mention later, and we drank with the good old Monkeys Might Puke boys, and i would advise you to follow the link and watch the short films, especially "When a man loves a Chicken", which is genius.

See you later