New blogs and twitter.

Horny Biker Sluts has it's own blog now, nothing on there yet but that's just because I'm snowed under with events and pitches (determined to make some movies next year, oh yeah!) and all the other usual stuff. I'll start adding things soon, so keep an eye on it!
http://hbsbook.blogspot.com/
P.R.E.S.S. now tweets because stuff is moving forward and it seemed like a quick way to share info, and give little updates, which will be handy over the coming months.
http://twitter.com/PRESSukinfo
Being new to Twitter I haven't a clue what I'm doing, so it's worth following just to see what idiot thing I'll do next.

Thought Bubble and all the other goings on.

It was Thought Bubble at the weekend and I spent pretty much all of Saturday behind my stall, venturing out briefly to say hello to some people and to show around the Horny Biker Sluts book (more about that in a minute).
My stall did better than I was expecting, with prints being especially popular.

I did some new postcards too, but decided at the last minute to give them away free:

Here's how the stall looked:

It's the first time I've had so many of my comics in one place, they're usually only available online.

The event itself was great (although I missed the talks and didn't get much of a chance to look about), there was a good mix of work and I got to meet lots of great people, including Tony Hitchman who I've collaborated with for ages but had never actually met in person!



The Horny Biker Slut book was debuted at the event. It currently contains work from me, Spleenal, Terry Wiley and Vanessa Wells. When it's full of work it will go off on it's merry way touring about as an exhibition in a book. I was surprised by how many people didn't get the concept of the book as a piece of art, but I guess that may be because I was showing it to people who had turned up to buy books not just look at them.
The book itself is a stunningly hefty A3 tome hand made by book binder extraordinaire Deirdre Thompson.

The exhibition at the Lit and Phil is still going well (it's up until the 23rd of December). There's a book and ephemera sale on at the Lit and Phil this weekend, which sounds awesome, so if you're planning on poppoing down I'd suggest doing it then.

My paintings are based on the people who were linked to the society and related collections (hence all the bird paintings from Hancocks collection of stuffed creatures).

I went to the Great North Musuem (formally the Hancock Museum)to do research and did sketches based on the collections there.

My friend Sam (from way back in my Kali days) will be performing at the Sage tomorrow as part of the 'Computer games live' event. It looks like it will be awesome and I'm looking forward to it. Tickets available from the Sage.

Thought Bubble Stuff

Almost ready for Thought Bubble this Saturday. At my stall there will be:
-Monstrum Horrendum book 1
-Monstrum Horrendum book 2
-Tag Team
-Some Forgotten Part
-Prints
-Postcards
All at reduced special prices!
And I will be debuting the 'Horny Biker Sluts' exhibition.
Tony Hitchman and WJC will be around during the day if anyone would like to come by and get their copy of NBC signed (they'll be available to buy from Shanes stall).
Hope to see you there!

P.R.E.S.S. update

The exhibition opening at the Lit and Phil went very well, and I've sold four paintinhgs so far!

The meeting for P.R.E.S.S. also went well. I'll be mailing out the minutes next week, but here are the general points and conclusions.
Firstly, we have too many fraggles and not enough doozers. And in non-muppet terms that means that although we've found plenty of artists and writers we haven't found enough people interested in organising and building up a community. Secondly, I've been telling everyone how awesome P.R.E.S.S. will be, but not explaining why. So it's important to get across the incentives of being part of P.R.E.S.S. and what it can actually do for people.

The solution we arrived at was to create a programme of fun educational events aimed at people with no prior knowledge or only a passing interest in comics and small press. This will culminate in a taster of P.R.E.S.S., where we take over a space for temporary time.
Hopefully this will get a wider range of people involved in P.R.E.S.S. and give everyone a tangible experience of what we're proposing.

Community business meeting

Nearly finished my paintings for the exhibition next week.

Incase you're wondering what's happening with the super awesome idea, there'll be a meeting on the 4th November. Get in touch if you'd like to come, and please let everyone know about it:

There will be a formal meeting (as promised!) on Wednesday the 4th November at 6.00 p.m. at Hoults Estate.

In the meeting we will cover where we're up to, the issues facing the project and also what needs to be done so we can move forward. We will look at what people feel they need from the space and how we can best address those needs.

Please let me know if you plan on attending as I will need an idea of numbers.

The meeting agenda will cover:

-Aims and needs
-Available space
-Funding
-How to proceed

If there is anything else you feel we should discuss please email me and I'll add it.


About the project:

P.R.E.S.S. – Publishing Resource, Education & Social Space

A community space for small press practitioners to help develop their work, build a network and engage the community.

P.R.E.S.S. aims to:

*Provide a space that will allow practitioners use of studio, gallery,library, archive, shop and educational facilities
*Provide networking and promotion opportunites
*Create new opportunities and collaborations
*Engage and encourage the local community to become involved with publishing
*Help to raise the profile of small press publishing and create a better awareness of publishing
*Encourage research and provide learning opportunities for practitioners