Leonieblog

Monstrum Horrendum : Mermaid Mayhem

2012-01-21T04:35:00.000-08:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More adventure

This is just a short adventure, set before the current story arc. It works as a stand alone story. It's only a 16 page book, Monstrum issues usually run at 52, although issue 3 looks set to be even longer.
The story is based on Issue 2 Vol 1 of Monstrum, which I think was released in 2004. It only had a tiny print run, so I thought it was worth reviving the storyline and updating the artwork and giving it a bigger release.
Click here for more Monstrum Horrendum adventures.

This Weekend.

2012-01-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

images from the new issue of Monstrum Horendum

I'll be posting up the new Monstrum Horrendum comic this weekend. It's only a short thing, but you read it all here (or on my site) for free!

Also, my art sale will be ending soon (31st Jan.) so please check it out and grab yourself a bargain.
Includes this stuff:

Almost done.

2012-01-11T13:44:00.000-08:00

Almost finished the Monstrum Horrendum mini comic, just a couple more pages to do, then scanning, lettering, collating etc. How quickly it gets finished depends on the rest of my work load, which is horribly unpredictable at the moment.

Cover painting is finished though! (Work in progress pics here.)

2011 - The year in sharks.

2012-01-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

Shark Night 3D
After a slew of straight to SyFy nonsense, 2011 saw shark movies return to where they belong - on a cinema screen in 3D. The plot of Shark Night 3D was every bit as flimsy and idiotic as anything SyFy has to offer, but it had better effects and was in 3D. There was a good variety of shark on offer, even the ridiculous cookie cutter shark got in on the action. The constant giant plot holes were a bit unnerving when witnessed on a large screen with surround sound, a constant reminder that the only reason this made it to the cinema was the 3D-ness of it all.

Super Shark
When trailers first appeared for this online I instantly assumed it was another spoof - along the lines of 'Ghost Shark' or the more recent 'Shark Pool'. So I was pretty surprised (and secretly happy) when it turned up on SyFy in all it's schonky glory. It begins (and ends) with a shark on land fighting a tank with legs. The shark also has it's own song. That's really all you need to know.The effects are very poor, even by my standards.
Fun facts: The main actress in it also starred in Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus. The guy who directed Super Shark is the dad of the guy who directed Mega Shark vs Crocosuarus.

Swamp Shark:

Some weird looking shark gatecrashes 'Gator Fest'. Starring Kristy Swanson, who also starred in another movie about a shark in a swamp (Red Water - 2003). Awful.

Sand Sharks:
Yet again, the trailer would lead you to believe that this is a spoof. It isn't. It's an actual movie made by actual people. I haven't seen this yet, but it looks like it's about spikey sharks that can swim through sand and are intent on ruining some beach party. It stars Brooke Hogan, who will also be featuring in the Asylums upcoming Two-Headed Shark film.

Live Every Week Like It's Shark Week:
Wow. The internet went crazy for Discovery's Shark Week. It's a pretty big deal for Discovery anyway, but this year it seemed to be a meme, a trend...it took over the internet. I don't know what the viewing figures were like, but apparently 2010 had 30.8 million viewers. Not bad for some shows about fish.
I've probably watched more Nat Geo stuff than Discovery in 2011, they just seemed to have better shows this time. I've particularly been enjoying Nat Geo's series 'Shark Men' which follows a group of scientists (who aren't all men - stupid title) as they tag Great White Sharks.

Gamma Ray Sharks:
I haven't read any Hulk comics in a really long time, but thanks to the huge clunky chunks of exposition in this comic I was able to get up to speed on everything that was happening. I only bought it, like many other people, because there are hulk sharks in it. The only good thing in the comic were the sharks.

Note to Marvel: The Marvel universe needs more sharks.

Bye Bye Jaws Ride:
The Jaws ride closed it's waters to the public at the start of this year, making 2011 the last ever year to go visit Bruce in his Floridian holiday home. I didn't realise that at the time, and I never got to go see it, AND NOW I NEVER WILL!! But thanks to the magic of the internet, you can pretend you got to go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_t3Q6ahmyU&feature=player_embedded
I guess after being shot at and mutilated a few times a day the shark was probably due for retirement.

Did I miss anything? Feel free to share your favourite shark moments of 2011 in the comments.

The Eagle Awards 2011

2012-01-03T13:25:00.000-08:00

The Eagle awards are open for voting, and some lovely person has nominated me. Unfortuntely, I'm in the same category as comic legends such as Tim Sale and Duncan Fegredo, so no hope of winning, but I'm still very excited to have stumbled across my name on the list of painters. Maybe next year there'll be a 'most sharks' category and I'll be in with a chance.
The awards this year are a good reflection of the growing comic scene in the UK and Ireland. There's tons of homegrown talent on there, a great variety of work and lots of new titles.
Go vote for your favourites:
http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/nominations/

Some new art for Luke's Lemons

2012-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

A few months ago my nephew Luke (age 7) was diagnosed with leukemia. He and his brother decided to raise money to help other children with leukemia, but rather than open up the traditional lemonade stand they decided to sell 'digital lemonade' and so 'Luke's Lemons' was born. Lukes Lemons is a non-profit organisation that helps to raise money for leukemia research.

Luke's been really brave, he's going through a lot and keeps on fighting with a strength and determination well beyond his years. It's wonderful that he and his brother were so quick to think of others and they've already managed to raise and distribute $2000 towards leukemia research.
If you'd like to help them you can buy digital artwork for a small fee via their Monkeybars page. All the money goes to charity.

I contributed some artwork to the cause:

A lemon themed picture (of course)

And a sea turtle (because Luke likes sea turtles)

The lemon artwork is currently available to buy.

You can purchase it here: https://www.monkeybars.net/society/thing/1671?sid=61#.TwIPP0ax3lA.facebook

Or check out Luke's Lemons for more art: http://lukeslemons.org/

The sea turtle painting will be realeased at a later date.

Cover art in progress

2011-12-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

Work in progress...artwork for the cover of a mini Monstrum comic, due out soonish (will be online for free).
Did the preliminary sketch using my new Wacom Inkling:

And here are the inks:

It's on A3 Bristol board, will finish it off with some washes of watercolour. Think I'll use a limited pallette to make it moody.

Shark man and friend.

2011-12-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

Maybe the strangest thing I've ever assembled....a shark headed man (I don't know why LEGO designed this, but I'm glad they did) on top of a shark. Thanks to Vicky and Chris for the shark, and Andy for the random shark man.

Also got a lovely surprise gift this Christmas...the new Wacom Inkling (also, thanks to Andy). Had a quick go, it's fun and will be useful for sketching. Planning on taking it out and about in the new year to do some doodles at the local museum.

Nom Donner, Nom Blitzen...

2011-12-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas!

Art Sale

2011-12-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

I am selling off some artwork at super low prices (limited time only) - Originals, prints and canvas prints. Most are from exhibitions and come ready to hang.
Better for those in North East England (could arrange pick up or delivery) as postage will probably cost more than the actual pieces in most cases.

Click Here to see prices and descriptions.

Some favourite moments...with Hook Jaw

2011-11-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

I know some of you visit here for the shark related posts, and usually I do stuff about shark movies but today I thought I'd share some of my favourite comic book moments.

Oh, that Hook Jaw. Such a mischievous little scamp!

That's not the...oh, never mind.

Stewardess school did not prepare her for this...

'Can I get some complimentary drinks to go with this pilot please?'

Thought Bubble 2011 successfully completed.

2011-11-24T05:45:00.000-08:00

Thought Bubble. Wow.
I won't even bother trying to do any kind of review because I really wouldn't know where to even begin.

This year I didn't bother with a stall, since a lot of my stuff is now available as a digital product rather than as physical books and my latest work has been published by other people (with bigger, better stalls) so it seemed pointless.
It worked out to my advantage, I got to meet a ton of people, actually ran out of business cards (first time EVER), and just got to do a lot of stuff I would've missed out on if I'd been stuck behind a stall all day. I don't go to many conventions anymore so it's lovely to catch up with everyone and see what they're up to. Also, I've been hooking up with more projects online and conventions are often the only chance I get to meet with my collaborators!
Brought a portfolio with me and had a great response from publishers, and some wonderful feedback from Marvel which made me almost explode with joy, also met lots of other great writers/artists/editors. Still managed to miss all the talks I'd planned on attending, but spent some time watching amazing artists drawing things so I feel like I learned something.
It was an exhausting but inspirational 3 days.

While I recover I've got a bunch of projects to finish up on. So I'll be spending the next few days drawing comics and storyboards, reviewing a years worth of footage (so I can see if there's actually a movie in there), and typing away at some new scripts. Luckily, I can do all those things from the comfort of my sofa with a big mug of tea.

Flying Sharks

2011-11-10T13:24:00.000-08:00

I did a comic in 2001 (I think? Maybe 2000? Sometime around then anyway.) about flying sharks. I haven't gotten around to doing a sequel yet (busy!), but if I did it'd probably look a bit like this:

2 - Headed Shark Attack

2011-11-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

After a two headed shark was recently mentioned in the news I joked on facebook that I'd have to make a comic about it quickly before the Asylum made a film about it. But, they've beat me to it! Damn their super fast movie making skills!
Yes, this is a real movie. Yes, I will be buying it.
It's due the end of January.

It's November already?

2011-11-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

I've been working away on my documentaries - even got to go back to London to do some more filming! Also busy with some comic projects / freelance work.
Feels like I've been working on some of these projects forever, hopefully I'll get to share them all with you someday!
In the meantime, please check out the Weekly Themed Art Blog (if you haven't already!). I've been contributing pretty regularly (my stuff is here) and the blog is full of great artists with a huge range of styles(with a blog list down the side so you can find more of their work too).
Horny Biker Sluts is getting back on track - pop over to the blog every Sunday this month to enjoy some lovely exclusive artwork. Get your crayola out because HBS is also looking for submissions!

This is a busy time for comic conventions too - with TWO new ones starting up : ComicsWest in Galway, Ireland (12th November) and The Canny Comic Con in Newcastle, UK (10th Dec.), as well as good ol' Thought Bubble in Leeds, UK (14th - 20th Nov.) I've also just seen that Tim Sale is doing a signing at Travelling Man, Newcastle on the 16th November! Wow! I've got a giant framed 'Spider-Man : Blue' poster in my living room. Wonder if I can drag that along?

New Illustrations.

2011-10-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

Some new illustrations.

I found some random bits of paper at the back of a cupboard which are perfect for inking; Super smooth, a little glossy and quite heavy, but no good for watercolours. So I thought I'd do some simple inked illustrations on it. I have no idea what kind of paper it is or where it came from, I have a feeling it was packaging or something.

They looked a bit harsh to me in black and white (probably because I'm used to my own artwork being all watercoloury) so I added a drop of colour in photoshop.

The Canny Comic Con - Coming soon!

2011-10-17T04:19:00.000-07:00

There's a new one-day comics event happening this December in Newcastle; The Canny Comic Con.

Check out the blog here for news on exhibitors/guests etc. Guests confirmed so far are Bryan Talbot, Paul Davidson, Stacey Whittle, Terry Wiley, Andrew Waugh and me!
There'll also be talks, workshops and all sorts of other fun stuff.

Monstrum Redux!

2011-10-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Monstrum Horrendum now has its own lovely little space on my website, where you can read the books online ( I know a few people had problems downloading them from Lulu, so this should make things easier!) They have been repackaged with some shiney new covers. Check them out!

And a new adventure is on its way!

Here's some of the work in progress:

Pencils

Inks

Wow. Looks like there's a lot of surprised and angry people in this issue! You'll have to wait a little while to find out what's causing all the commotion.

Hello Kitty!

2011-10-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

Steve Holder is an artist who I've wanted to collaborate with for quite some time. However, due to conflicting schedules, getting together on a project was going to be tough. The inital project I approached him with was a pretty epic book, which was just too big a project for either of us to really tackle at that point in time.

Then Steve had a great idea ; do a little project, just for fun as and when we get time to, using well known characters. His idea was to do something along the lines of Strange tales or Bizarro, to basically take established characters and give them our own twist.
So we wrote some scripts for each other to draw.

First up, Kitty Pryde! I'd asked Steve if he could do something based around a John Byrne era Kitty and he sent me this little gem.

'Dear Diary' Story by Steve Holder, Art by Leonie O'Moore.

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

P.S. All characters are owned by Marvel, we just did this project for fun!

Old Interviews Recovered! Graphic Novelists of the world rejoice!

2011-09-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

My last blog got swamped with spam, had logging in issues and eventually just disappeared entirely (still not sure how that happened?).
It didn't bother me because there was nothing important on there....although it was a lot more action/adventure than this blog (Martial arts! Shark diving! Apollo Creed Finger Puppets!) , it was still just general ramblings, work in progress and my other usual nonsense.
Then I remembered that I had a bunch of interviews on there, which I had done as part of my MA dissertation. They were a pretty good read, and useful for anyone else studying graphic novels. (Sorry to anyone who'd linked to them!)

Luckily, I've managed to retrieve them from the abyssal plains of the internet, thanks to the wonders of the Way Back Machine!

Here's the Bryan Talbot Interview from October 2005:

Andi Watson Interview, March 2006

Paul Rainey Interview, November 2005

JAWS 19

2011-09-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

With all the recent internet buzz of Nike making Back to the Future 2 trainers, I was reminded of something else awesome from that film - Jaws 19. Back to the future 2 takes palce in 2015, so Universal only have 4 years to make 15 more Jaws movies.

Don't worry Universal, I got your back. Here's 15 Jaws movie scripts ready to go. I assume you'll start filming posthaste:

Jaws 5: Back to Amity

Ellen Brody and Michael Caine are enjoying a happy retirement in Amity, when an old friend comes to visit. And by 'old friend' I mean a 25 foot great white shark. Although some teenagers seem to have gone missing, no one, except Ellen, suspects a giant shark. Assuming she's gone as crazy as her late husband, the Mayor ignores her and goes ahead with the 4th of July celebrations....with disastrous consequences.

Jaws death: speared through the head with an American flag and blown up with fireworks. 4th of July, yo!

Jaws 6: Smile you sonnuva...

Ellen Brody has passed away from a heart attack, brought on from the stress of the last film. Thea Brody, her Granddaughter, decides to stay in Amity after the funeral. Thea is a budding director who wants to capture Jaws...on film.
She teams up with a tough young fisherman to find the shark that has plagued her family for generations. He gets eaten.

Jaws Death: Chokes on camera rig.

Jaws 7: Exorcism

The new Mayor becomes obsessed with the history of killer sharks around the island. He is convinced that it's been the same shark all along and that shark is infact an evil spirit that cannot be killed. So he calls in a priest to do an exorcism.

Jaws death:
A crucifix to the eye, drugged and airlifted in to a shallow pool of holy water.

Jaws 8: Jaws Vs Whale

Luckily for Amity, the exorcism didn't work. Luckily? That's right, because now there's another killer in the water, a giant rogue Orca, and only Jaws can stop it.

Orca death: Severe shark to the face.

Jaws 9: Amity Shore

Thea Brody returns to Amity as producer of a new reality show : 'Amity Shore'. Jaws promptly munches through the cast of bright orange twenty somethings.

Jaws Death: Who knew that ingesting fake tan was fatal to sharks?

Jaws 10: Just when you thought it was safe to go anywhere....

A freak tsunami engulfs most of Amity. Jaws has a great time.

Jaws Death: Overeating.

Jaws 11: Jaws vs Bounty hunters

The newest Mayor is sick of the ongoing shark problem and recruits a team of specialist shark hunters. A rag tag bunch of tough guys and gals, they've already taken out monsters such as Megashark, Dinoshark and Sharktopus. Surely Jaws will be no problem...

Jaws Death: Intricate 'Mousetrap' style death device involving logs, a fake lagoon and sharpened wooden stakes.

Jaws 12: Party of doom.

Bored of Amity, Jaws decides to go terrorise a holiday paradise during spring break. In 3-D.

Jaws Death: Brain explodes from constant high pitch teenage screaming.

Jaws 13: This one's for the earth.

After a catastrophic oil spill, Jaws decides to take out every oil operation he can get his fins on.

Jaws Death: Burning oil/ oil drill calamity.

Jaws 14: Jaws vs Squid.

A colossal squid has moved in to town, and no-one likes it one bit. Especially not Jaws. FIGHT! At only 25 feet, Jaws is the underdogfish. A heartwarming tale of courage in the face (and tentacles) of adversity.

Squid death: Acute shark related trauma.

Jaws 15: Jaws vs Commerce

An exhibition of Polynesian artifacts at the Amity Museum of stuff includes a curious amulet which falls in to the hands of a corrupt businessman. The amulet gives the wearer control over sharks and the businessman uses it to terrorise his competition. But, as the businessman soon finds out, there's one shark that doesn't like being controlled.

Businessman death: Eaten by shark. That's right. Old school.

Jaws 16: Shark week

Hearing tales of a huge indestructible shark off Amity, the Discovery channel decides to centre shark week around the goings on of the island. Having previously been killed by a camera rig, Jaws is not too happy with their arrival. But, on the plus side, best shark week ratings ever.

Jaws Death: Some TV 'expert' claims to know a sharks weak spots, but ends up just shooting it in the head. Like a zombie. Which Jaws technically is by this point in the franchise.

Jaws 17 : Land shark

Matt Hooper Jr. is a geneticist working with sharks. He's created a new breed of shark able to survive out of water for long periods of time, to give scientists more time to conduct tests when they are working in the field. However, the shark escapes and mates with Jaws. Their offspring are a new breed of supershark - able to attack in and out of the water!

Jaws death: Lured on to traintracks, electrocuted and then hit by freight train.

Jaws 18: Shark Wars: this time it's personal.

Not all the offspring died. Actually, they did die in the last film but they'd all inherited Jaws' 'Jason Vorhees'-like regenerative powers and are back to wreak havoc. The remaining ones breed at an accelerated rate (and can fly), so they launch a terrifying attack on mankind - ON LAND! In the ensuing war, people are forced to build vast undersea fortresses as their coastal towns are destroyed.

Shark deaths: deaths from all previous films re-enacted as a lazy 'homage'.

Jaws 19 : This time it's really really personal

The avenging sharks work together to attack the underwater cities. Gorefest.
Sharks win.

Whatever happened to P.R.E.S.S ?

2011-09-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

P.R.E.S.S - Publishing Resource, Education and Social Space.

It started out so simple, so obvious, so worthwhile. But it just didn't happen. Here's a basic outline of why.

The idea was to bring small press publishers together and help them engage with the public. 'Small press publishers' meant anyone publishing low print runs independently - novels, poetry, comics, zines, artists books, prints etc. Mixing content in this way would help publishers, artists and writers learn new things from each other, uncover new opportunities and find new audiences. There would be a space comprised of a shop, a workshop space, a gallery, studios, a reading area and a cafe. The space would facilitate networking, learning, promotion and sales of small press stuff. There would be events, exhibitions, book launches, talks, workshops, meetings, and a wonderful shop full of rare and beautiful things.

It would be a social enterprise and it would be run in a professional way, would have a team of experts from each area as consultants, would offer opportunities and services for creators and also for the general public.

The first thing to go was the idea of having studios. The next thing was the cafe. Then there was some question as to whether or not a gallery was necessary. By the end, it was starting to look like a shop with a bit of extra space for readings and book launches. Then, even the store was an issue. It was turning in to a network that facilitated things, but even that wasn't quite right...

P.R.E.S.S. was never meant to be 'my thing'. It was just an idea I had, and knowing that I had the crossover knowledge needed to bring different publishers, artists and writers together, it made sense that I'd get things started. But, it also made things difficult. Wrangling a board in to place was a challenge. Getting people to see it as a group effort rather than a one-woman mission was also a challenge. Encouraging people to shape the business plan, without molding it to their own needs or altering it to the point where it's a completely different venture was a further challenge. This was just the tip of the iceberg.

So, what happened?
I discovered:

You can't just create a community, it needs to grow organically.

Trying to force a community together does not work. It takes time, patience, and a lot of networking.

Without a genuine community in place there is no sense of group ownership. At least, this is what I'd like to attribute the general sense of apathy to, but it could just be that people don't want to get involved.

After some market research it became clear that the majority of publishers wanted to get something from P.R.E.S.S. but not give anything. What I mean by this is that they are happy to avail of any services and events, but will not actively promote or mention PRESS on their blogs, sites, facebooks, twitter etc. They would like P.R.E.S.S. to keep an eye on all their ventures and offer to market their work and devise readings and events specifically designed for them. They do not want to have to contact P.R.E.S.S. and tell us about what they're doing or suggest how they could use the space. The only publishers willing to actively participate were the ones that already had good marketing, good launch ideas and a good network, i.e. the ones least likely to need our services.

This would be all well and good if we were only working with a tiny number of publishers, we could easily spend our time and resources (essentially) doing their work for them. But to be a viable business we needed to work with a greater number of publishers and not limit ourselves to just the ones working regionally.

The other problem with the lack of community was that there was no cohesion with in the network. We'd organise something and instead of everyone coming together to participate, people would turn up, complain about the poor turn out (even though they hadn't invited anyone or promoted it through their networks in any way) and then try and do their own version. So we ended up with a lot of unrelated but very similar things happening and no one would promote each other or P.R.E.S.S. Infuriatingly counter productive. And funders would look at our numbers and say 'There's not enough interest' and I'd say 'Yes, there is, it's just not concentrated in one place. It's different people at a lot of these events, if you added up the attendance you'd actually have a pretty big event.' And they'd laugh, because they could obviously see the futility of the venture.

Also, one of the nice things about a social enterprise is the shared sense of responsibility, and shared liability.

But no-one wanted to commit to any kind of responsibility or liability. It's understandable in the early stages, but you reach a point where you can't go any further without a group of people willing to put some risk into it. We hit that point. I certainly wasn't going to be solely liable for potentially tens of thousands of pounds for something I had no claim to, no gain from and no real control over.

Too many Fraggles, not enough Doozers.

Generally a problem in the creative industries, people who are creative aren't always the most organised. That's why arts management jobs exist. Also, the people who are both creative and business minded are too busy doing their own stuff to do other stuff as well. This is why we didn't get far with a board or a management team or any kind of workforce. The other problem was that the people who really could do a lot for P.R.E.S.S. weren't in a position to work voluntarily ( And part of the point of P.R.E.S.S. was to make sure people got paid properly and could make money out of publishing, so it would be contradictory to expect people to work for free) , but we couldn't generate money for salaries until we'd set up and we couldn't set up with out people working on it.....

Wrong place, wrong time.

Sunderland offered the best incentives for an arts sector social enterprise, but there was a resounding 'No' from publishers. Very few were convinced that Sunderland would be at all viable, mainly because people from Newcastle would not travel out.

Newcastle was tougher, less incentives more cost, but people felt there would be more visitors. But where in Newcastle? So, I had a lot of meetings and viewings to find somewhere suitable. There's lots of great places, Heaton Road seemed like a good location. Again, a resounding 'No'. It needed to be in the centre of town. So, I found some places in the centre of town.

The problem now was the timing. It was important that P.R.E.S.S. was professional and could establish itself as a proper self-sustaining business, so we'd need to kit out a building properly and for that kind of investment you need to know you'll be there for a while and that you are secure in your tenancy. However, around this time everyone was going crazy for pop-up shops. Perfect for many people, great for arts and collectives etc. Not great for a business, and that's what P.R.E.S.S. needed to be. But that's what all the landlords wanted, just some casual pop-up thing they could use while waiting for some 'proper' full rate paying tenants. This made negotiations very difficult and a lot of funding people who had initially been excited about the prospect of P.R.E.S.S. being run as a long term business now wanted to push us in to six month tenancies. Also, a lot of the things that P.R.E.S.S. would offer (such as workshop space) was now being offered by collectives in pop-up spaces, which looked to funders as though we weren't offering anything new. Even though we were....

I think P.R.E.S.S. or something like it could (and should) still happen. Something that brings people together and provides opportunities for people working in an overlooked and misunderstood sector of the arts. Something that gives the public access to unusual and low print run material. Something that acts as a starting point for beginners and also as support for established creators and publishers.
I think I will probably try again, but not in the North East and not anytime soon. And if I find somewhere financially viable for it, I'll do it as a straight forward business not a social enterprise. Then, if a community grows around it, great, and if not, then at least there's still a functioning business.

The Hook Jaw that never was

2011-08-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has visited this blog before will probably have noticed that I'm a huge fan of sharks and comics. So, to me at least, a comic about a shark is the greatest thing ever.
Back in early 2006 I had an idea for a Hook Jaw comic that I thought would be awesome. The basic gist of it was to present Hook Jaw as a legend and have different artists/writers do self contained stories set in different times and places that would build up the mythos of the shark. I managed to get some incredible UK talent interested, including Pat Mills (which I still can't believe)!
Egmont, the copyright holders at the time were initially happy for me to use the character. But then it all got complicated. They decided that they did not want the risk of publishing it, and wanted me to publish it myself and they would get royalties. Then they wanted me to do an analysis of how many I thought would sell, as they were only interested if the project would generate a decent amount of royalties. To do that, it would need to be a big print run, with plenty of marketing. Not being rich (and before crowdfunding was popular) I had to give up on the project. I've always wished I could've done it. I see now that Strip Magazine will be reviving the character. I'll be interested to see what they do with it.

Current projects

2011-08-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

Click for larger image

Detail from a new comic strip I'm developing for the comics/jewellery crossover project with designer Susannah Aynsley. It's in the early stages, but should come along a bit towards the end of the month. It's quite experimental and fun, can't wait to see what we end up with.

Click for larger image

Panel from a new graphic novel I'm working on. No publisher attached as yet, just working on it as and when I get time.

My new favourite thing.

2011-08-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

Getting a bit obsessed with the weekly themed art blog. I came to it via a facebook group and it's so much fun! So far I've submitted a Daggit for last weeks 'I,robot' theme and a Lo Pan for this weeks '80's action movie' theme.

In terms of actual work, I'm just finishing up on a comic strip for a collaborative project with jewellery designer Susannah Aynsley. I've also just signed up to Artflakes, so you can buy prints and greetings cards of some of my illustrations here.

Faeries, goblins and.....wookies?

2011-07-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

I spent some time in schools recently working on a project for Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. The exhibition is now up and you can see the work done by transition year students. We based the project on the Cottingley Fairies, the kids drew their own fairies and what not and then were photoshopped into a picture with their creations. As well as the traditional fairies, goblins, and pixies we also had some more unexpected characters like a cyclops, many unicorns and even some wookies! One finished piece was selected from each tutor group to form the mini exhibition.
The main exhibition is 'The truth about faeries' and features some exquisite illustrations, including work by two of my all time favourite illustrators, Arthur Rackham and Heath Robinson. They've also got the lovely old Ladybird book paintings and the flower fairy illustrations.
The exhibition runs until 23rd December.

Megamazing stuff for Charity.

2011-07-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

The amazing Spirit of Hope anthology is now available through Amazon. Please buy and support a great cause (and also because it's a great book!)

I did four pages for the book and I have to say it's one of the best things I've ever had the good fortune to work on.

Also, if you're in London on August 14th, come along to the Madonna Odyssey, a huge Madonna celebration with all proceeds donated to Stonewall. There's a pre-party party at Edge, Soho, followed by the main event at Punk, Soho. There's a huge array of performers and all sorts of fun stuff happening. Check out the event page on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174666319262443
I'll be there filming part of a documentary, if you are coming along and you have a camera please let me know, the more the merrier!!!

Also, thanks to Herod McHugh for inventing the word Megamazing.

Targaryens and werewolves....oh my!

2011-07-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

Some oddities have crept up in my sketchpad this week.

First of all, I've just finished watching Game of Thrones, and ended up doing a doodle just for fun. (While waiting for some paint to dry on my new comic!!)

It's just out of my head, with no reference, so if you're a massive Game of Thrones nerd please don't be offended if I've used incorrect colours or whatever :)

Anyway, DON'T SCROLL ANY FURTHER if you haven't finished watching Season One, or it'll be a

MASSIVE SPOILER!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

' I have never been nothing. I am the blood of the dragon'

And I also felt compelled to paint a werewolf. I think it's because I've had 'Werewolves of London' stuck in my head for the last few days. Awwwooooo!

I enjoy doing quick sketches and paintings inbetween 'proper' paintings / projects, just as a fun little diversion.

Any doodle requests? Let me know!

Free comics!

2011-07-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

click for larger image

Incase you didn't already know, you can read a few of my comics for free. Some are available online and some can be downloaded. Visit my comic page for details.

New Graphic Novel Underway!

2011-07-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

Just working away on a new graphic novel.
Here's the first page in progress. First, the pencils:

Then, cleaner pencils and some watercolour washes:

Some more colour:

A little more clean-up and we're ready for the lettering:

I don't have any release date for this yet as I need to fit it in around other work, but I will let you know my progress!

new Tag Team review

2011-06-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Tag Team just got a shout out on Indie 500 comics podcast.

Tag Team was a bit of an experiment I did a few years ago with a bunch of very talented writers - Dave West, Nigel Auchterlounie, Andrew Richmond, Michael O'Keefe, Colin Mathieson, Tony Hitchman and Ian Mayor.

If you like the sound of it, it's available from my store on Lulu.

Monstrum VS Sharktopus

2011-06-28T03:22:00.000-07:00

Just did a quick doodle for my own amusement, Ella and Chuck (from Monstrum Horrendum) being set upon by Sharktopus. Not based on actual events. And, yes, I do have more important things to be doing...

Covered

2011-06-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

I painted up a submission for Covered blog (one of my favourite blogs!), but in the time between checking the site and doing the painting someone else submitted the same cover. And I thought I was being pretty obscure choosing a 1940's Cat-Man comic.

But now my version is on there too. You can check out my finished cover next to the original 1946 cover at coveredblog.blogspot.com:

http://coveredblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/leonie-omoore-covers-catman.html#comments

If you like my version, I'm selling the original painting, unframed, for £45.00. Bargain!
If you'd like it, email me (leonieomooreATgmailDOTcom) to sort out payment and delivery
(I accept Paypal and the price includes postage to wherever.)
It's a watercolour and ink painting about A3 size.

Doc Update and a new Review!

2011-06-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, DocFest was a hoot, but I did not get commissioned. Sigh. So I'm going to try and beg, borrow and possibly steal enough equipment to just keep filming without any financial support while I continue to pitch it to some other places. There was some interest in it, and another doc I started last year is still in development hell (despite having a very respected exec. producer attached), so I guess these things just take time and persistence. As long as I still get the footage I can worry about everything else later!
Some highlights of the festival for me were:
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The travels of a Tribe called Quest (beware the annoying pop up ad on that page)
and Hell and Back Again
Didn't get to see as many films as I'd hoped but I got to go to the Nick Broomfield masterclass which was excellent, learned lots and it gave me a really different understanding of his work. Also, we saw Louis Theroux bumbling about as a regular paying visitor while all the documentary nerds swooned.

Meanwhile, the wonderful anthology book ( 'Spirit of Hope' ) that I contributed to has started getting reviews!

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/06/spirit-of-hope-a-comic-anthology-for-japan-and-new-zealand/

Lights! Camera! Muppet!

2011-06-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Photo by Steve Haigh

I've been working away on some documentaries over the last few years and tomorrow I'm heading down to DocFest to pitch my latest one. I've directed a five minute teaser which I'm very pleased with and I'll be pitching it in the hope of making a half hour version. Fingers crossed everyone!
I don't want to give away the premise, but here's some behind the scenes photos so you know I'm not making it up. (And if you recognise any of the people in the photos then you probably have a good idea what it's about.) It's really hard to use a camera with muppet hands, but luckily I had camerman Andy Johnson around to help out. Big thanks to Editor extraordinaire Katie Connon too!
I'll let you know how it goes.

Faerie folk.

2011-06-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'll be working in schools over the next few weeks, drawing faerie folk. It's part of an upcoming TWAM exhibition, which looks set to be awesome. So I'm off to work with kids and help them produce some cool stuff to go alongside the main exhibition. I haven't delivered any workshops in quite a while, but I'm looking forward to getting back in to it. The faerie pictured above was done with pencil and watercolour. I usually use ink, but I think the pencil actually works pretty good too, there's definitely advantages to it. I might do some more work like this, maybe even a whole comic. Off to DocFest this weekend to pitch a documentary. More on that soon....

Spirit of Hope

2011-05-31T01:39:00.000-07:00

An amazingly awesome new anthology is on its way. The Spirit of Hope book was created to raise money for those affected by the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan.

Contributers include: ME! And also:

Al Davison

Gary Spencer Millidge

Glenn Dakin

Darick Roberston

Liam Sharpe

Nick Abadzis

Martin Eden

Mark Buckingham

Ciaran Lucas

And tons of other people you love.
Copies of the book can now be ordered in advance at £14.99 + £3.00 p&p. Please state your preference of cover - Michael Allred (pictured above) or Jimmy Broxton (pictured below). Advance orders will be sent out and will hopefully include 3 small limited edition prints of the covers and an extra picture. The address is: The Comic Book Alliance, PO Box 165, Marple, Cheshire SK6 7BL. Cheques & Postal Orders should be made out to 'The Comic Book Alliance'.

And to end on a geeky note- That's a MIKE ALLRED cover!!! He's one of my all time favourite, major inspiration comic heroes, so I'm extra excited to have been a part of this book!
Now, please go buy some copies.

Next Exhibition

2011-05-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

I'm exhibiting at the Leazes Fringe Festival in Newcastle next month, check it out!

New website!

2011-05-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Spring cleaning over at my website is now complete - please check out the new (and hopefully improved)

http://www.lomoore.com/

Feedback, as always, is much appreciated!

From the TGT Vaults...part 1

2011-05-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

There Goes Tokyo... was a publishing / event organising / general small press mayhem causing thing that some of you may remember. I recently unearthed a treasure trove of forgotten nonsense, which I will share with you. Not all at once though, it's best to pace these things.
Here's a fine mess of a comics jam about a man and his cat, all the way from 2004:
TGT comic jam at the Waygood art fayre

Back soon.

2011-04-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

Working on two documentarys at the moment and working on a big website overhaul, so things will be quiet on here for a while. Hopefully some new work and interesting stuff to show you all soon. In the meantime, check out my friends blogs, helpfully listed to the left :)

New comic work and some shark movies.

2011-03-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Working away on a new comic for a charity anthology. The image above is the 'inked, first wash of paint' stage of the process. Hoping to get it painted and scanned by tonight.

It's been a while since I did any shark movie reviews, so here's two quick ones for you, along with product links because I know you'll want to buy them straight away:

Sharktopus:
Part shark, part octopus, all killing machine! Sharktopus is a genetic experiment / military weapon that goes haywire and ends up on a killing spree. Terrible effects, poor continuity and no attempt at acting make this movie everything you'd expect. It could've done with being more outlandish (yes, I know it's about a half shark, half octopus...), they could've pushed it a bit further instead of letting it languish in a predictable tv movie hell. Megashark vs Giant Octopus (from relative newcomers to the monster movie genre 'The Asylum') gave us sharks eating planes out of the sky! The most Sharktopus manages is eating someone on a bungee jump, but even that is presented in a pretty pedestrian way. There are many missed opportunities in the film. Having spent much of the movie pointing out how smart an octopus is, they fail to actually demonstrate this at any point. When Sharktopus pulls a car into the sea I thought perhaps we'd see him drive up the beach in it later or use it as the basis for some A-Team style montage. Unfortunately, neither of these things happen. He is occasionally bullet proof though.
I'd hoped for something a bit more savvy, or at least ridiculous, from veteran B-movie producer Roger Corman.

The Reef:
People adrift in the ocean get stalked by a shark. It sounds like Open Water, but it's surprisingly different in tone and style. Like Open Water, this film is also apparently based on a true story (although the director also made the same film some years ago starring a crocodile instead of a shark...).
They've used live shark footage which puts this film head and shoulders above most shark movies, because you don't need to worry about how real the shark looks when you've got an actual great white sticking it's big nose right in the camera. The shark is written to behave in a pretty normal fashion too, no mutations, no laser eye beams etc. So it's quite a refreshing change from the usual sensationalist nonsense that I tend to watch. It could've been a bit more tense, given the predicament the characters are in. It's well shot, the acting is okay (for a low budget indie style film) and all in all it's actually a pretty okay little film.

The Arctic Marauder - Jacques Tardi
This just turned up in the post for me and it looks AMAZING! The artwork is beautiful!!! So I thought I'd share it with you (with a product link so you can go buy it right away)

Greek

2011-03-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

Some Greek myth illustrations, starting with Zeus, Aphrodite and Medusa.

Silver Shark

2011-03-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned earlier, I'm working on an exciting new project with an amazing jewellery designer, Susannah Aynsley. She's doing a series of one-off pieces created with artists from other disciplines. I'm the first artist she's working with and we'll be creating something based around narrative.

Most importantly we had to start with a shark test. The final piece might not have sharks in it, but there's a very good chance it will. Here's our first experiment, using silver and perspex:

You may recognise it from my Jaws comic strip:

I'm really looking forward to working on this project this month. I'll let you know how it goes.

Read Book 2 for FREE

2011-02-27T03:52:00.000-08:00

You can now download Book 2 of my comic Monstrum Horrendum for FREE!:

Monstrum Horrendum Book 2

current projects

2011-02-13T03:43:00.000-08:00

It's only February and already I've veered off on strange and exciting tangents. This is definitely another year of adventure. Right now I'm working on two comic scripts (and, as a heads up, I will be scouting for some artists soon), working away on my documentary (and I've made it on to the NFM NE Docs scheme, which is a huge help), building up a new digital business (also just been shortlisted, we'll see how that one goes...) and I've just embarked on a unique collaborative project with a jewellery designer / silversmith, which is going to be a lot of fun!
It's not all work though, I managed to take a few hours out last week to check out Crispin Hellion Glover's show at the Star and Shadow. It was amazing! If he tours near you, go see it. His book performance was awesome and the Q&A was great, he gave a wonderful insight in to film making and was even happy to talk about the notorious David Letterman appearance. His films are pretty challenging. The only chance you'll get to see them is on tour but the 'vaudeville' approach (as he terms it) definitely adds a lot more to the experience. This week I'll be taking a few hours off to go see Rob Zombie's new tour. It'd had better be good Mr.Zombie because I'm super busy!

Some new paintings

2011-01-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

Jellyfish

Dinosaur

Also, as of March, I'll be available for freelance projects again. So, get in touch if you need anything, or visit my website if you're not familiar with my work ; http://www.lomoore.com/

Online comic - 'The fixer upper'

2011-01-23T04:21:00.000-08:00

Please enjoy a little ghostly 8-pager I did last year:

The fixer upper

Banish the Blues exhibition

2011-01-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

I'm exhibiting some work in Sunderland tomorrow, if you're in the area come check it out!

Some exhibitions

2011-01-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

Hectic start to the new year!
After deciding I wasn't going to exhibit anytime soon....I am now in two exhibitions.
First up is the 'Banish the Blues' exhibition at Creative Cohesion, Sunderland, running from this weekend until the end of February, where I will be exhibiting as part of P.R.E.S.S. alongside the Sunderland book project and glass artist Sarah Blood.
Then I've got a sketchbook on tour which will then be housed at the Brooklyn Art Library. That's the one I've been hassling you all about, the one I foolishly decided to fill with other peoples dreams. For better or for worse, it's finally finished!
My dreams for this year are pretty ambitious, so things may be quiet on this blog for a while. That's usually a sign that I'm plotting something big.
In the meantime, I'll be getting my comics ready for the iPad, so all you cool modern types can enjoy my books too. And I'll be doing some more free online comics too.

Happy new year!

Merry Squidmas everyone!

2010-12-23T09:51:00.001-08:00

Mega shark vs Giant octopus - the highlights

2010-12-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

My abridged version of the popular 'Asylum' classic movie.

Sketchbook project update

2010-12-11T05:08:00.000-08:00

Still working away on my sketchbook for the Arthouse co-op sketchbook exhibition.

I've been collecting peoples dreams because the theme I got for my book was 'night time stories'.

Here are some of the dreams / nightmares I've drawn so far. I've still got some space left, so if you have any dreams please let me know and I'll draw them and include them in the project!

Here are some of my favourites so far:

A red scaley zippy monster, a recurring nightmare from Glens childhood.

A cat mimicking Ians T. voice.

Ian M.s shark attacking a battle ship.

Andy's Daleks and a wookie with binoculars at Monument.

James had a dream about zombie grannies.

Download Book 1 - Free!

2010-12-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

You can now download Book 1 of Monstrum Horrendum for FREE! Merry Christmas!
It's still available in print (at cost price!) too, for anyone who would prefer the old school version.

Monstrum Horrendum Book 1

stay tuned

2010-12-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

FREE online comics by me - coming very soon!

An introduction to UK Small Press Comics

2010-11-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that I'm getting more visitors from the USA following my exciting adventures there in September. So I thought that I'd put up some links to some other UK comics people, who you may not know about yet. The comics scene is really vibrant in the UK and Ireland and there's lots of great stuff happening. Here are some places to check out online and some folks I recommend:

*Malcy Duff : I've reviewed many of Malcys comics for Comics International magazine, but really there's no way to explain them, you just need to experience them for yourself.
*Paperjam comics is a Northeast based collective and includes work by : Gary , Paul, Daniel, Ben
*Gary Northfield : Does a lot of stuff for kids after he created the very popular Derek the Sheep for the Beano. His earlier small press work has some wonderful comic timing and energetic drawings.
*Spleenal : Cartoony artwork with a very adult theme.
*Richard J Smith : Saturday morning cartoontastic
*We Are Words + Pictures , a London based collective, they make the wonderful Paper Science : Includes work by Tom Humberstone, and Phillipa Rice (who does 'My cardboard life', which is AWESOME!)
*Paul Rainey : 'Book of Lists' and 'There's No Time Like the Present' are great.
*I had the good fortune to meet the very talented WJC at the Thought Bubble event last year as we'd both been featured in New British Comics (which is a Polish / British anthology).
*Garen Ewing , such beautiful artwork!!
*Terry Wiley is a much respected small press veteran, his work is currently featured in the Girly comic (And I once got a cameo in the background of his Miffy comic!)
*Kristyna Baczynski , I just love her artwork and her lovely subtle use of colour.
*Accent UK , UK Anthologies based around a theme.
*Unico comics , a local (North East!) publisher
*Patrick Brown , a Northern Irish creator whose ambitious work is based on an ancient Irish epic.
*Phil Barrett makes some great indie comics!
*Atomic Diner, Irish publisher.
*Find out what's happening and what's new at bugpowder (and let me know if you have news because I write for it!)
*And buy small press comics online at smallzone

I'm sure I've forgotten lots of great people and there's tons I haven't even discovered yet, so feel free to leave more links in the comments section!

Onwards and upwards

2010-11-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I still have an entire moleskin to fill up for the Arthouse co-op sketchbook project. If you have any dreams you'd like to share let me know, so I can use them for the sketchbook project! Thanks to everyone who has already supplied dreams, I'll start drawing them this week.
I'm going to give my website an overhaul over the next few months and add up some video content as well as some new work and some online comics. If you've got any suggestions or comments about my site (http://www.lomoore.com/), now would be a really good time to tell me!
There's also an exhibition coming up in January in Sunderland, if you're on the P.R.E.S.S. mailing list you will have heard about this, if you'd like to contribute just contact askpressATgmailDOTcom.

un-Wellcome, un-Trustworthy

2010-11-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

When you apply for a grant you expect that there's a good chance you'll receive a letter telling you that you were unsuccessful. What you don't expect is an email attachment attacking your artwork.

I applied to the Wellcome Trust in the hopes of securing a small grant to help fund a graphic novel based on my Monstrum series. The idea was to work with a science consultant, I'd also hire a professional typographer and pay for a proper print run. The book would have been my main focus for 2011 and would have included a lot of outreach programmes, a residency and public engagement workshops as part of the project.

The feedback I received told me that they had found my idea original, it fit their criteria, they were confident that I had plenty of experience and could demonstrate an ability to deliver on similar projects. They were happy with the public engagement and the science content of the project. They also told me that they were impressed with my budget and project structure.

"There will be tangible, high quality output in a short space of time. It has the capacity to engage a wide range of audiences."

The reason I didn't get the grant was because one of the assessors decided they did not like my style of artwork. It was clearly a case of personal taste, as there was plenty of evidence that other people, including actual critics, had enjoyed my work. They then used the feedback form to critique my artwork in a nasty way. They also tried to justify this by writing patronising accounts of how they believed comics should be made.
For example:

"...unimaginatively coloured illustrations with a non-compelling narrative....Colouring is a sophisticated art that can add meaning and emotion to a work."

They clearly hadn't even read the supporting proposal properly and they overlooked some of the most important points of the project! I was really surprised and offended by the response, but the Wellcome Trust have not allowed me to lodge a complaint. I can't resubmit the project either. I have spoken informally to other people who have had dealings with the grants procedure and they tell me this is not an uncommon occurrence. Normally I wouldn't mention something like this on my blog, but since they've ignored my requests to complain in an official capacity, I'll just have to air my grievances online. By not allowing feedback from applicants it ensures that assessors will continued to get paid to ignorantly slate projects, and no-one will even check on what they're doing. How can you trust that your application will be dealt with in a professional manner?

Octobriana

2010-10-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

Some artwork I did for Octobriana Fest at the Cube cinema in Bristol.
http://www.cubecinema.com/cgi-bin/diary/programme.pl#5381

Here's the sketch:

Here's the finished piece:

The Shark Report - Free Online Zine

2010-10-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

The Shark Report - A zine I made a few months ago, is now available for FREE (as downloadable PDF) from lulu:

THE SHARK REPORT

It's full of reviews of shark movies and I did a whole bunch of new paintings for it. It also contains my Jaws comic strip (which you can read on its own here)

This was originally intended for print so the 'Make your own shark movie page' is a bit awkward to read online. Here is a more web friendly version, click for bigger image:

This is the first time I've used this feature on lulu, so let me know if you encounter any problems! And please excuse the hideous preview cover of blankness, it's stuck there for the moment!

Goodbye America.

2010-09-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

Back in dreary, wet England. Sigh. And straight back to work.
I have a new comic strip to finish, then it's on to a host of new projects.
Next up is a sketch book for the art house co-op sketch book project.
Then working some more on my documentary.
Then some new pieces for an exhibition in January.
A lot of people have been asking when the next issue of Monstrum will come out. I predict sometime towards the end of 2011. The next issue is huge and I'll be working with a specialist consultant to make the science stuff more sciencey. So it's a really big project.

In the meantime, I'm going to start putting more comics up online. Many people visiting my stall at SPX were disappointed that I hadn't done a story about lady wrestlers fighting dinosaurs (which is on the cover of 'Tag Team', but doesn't feature inside), and I can't think of any good reason why I haven't done that story. So, that will probably be the next one to go online.

2010-09-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

I spent two days filming at The Asylum, the awesome production company behind such classics as Mega shark vs Giant octopus and Titanic II. Everyone was really nice and very enthusiastic about their work, which is always inspiring. I met lots of cool people and hopefully I'll get to go back there and do some more stuff.

Then I took a nice train journey up to Ventura and watched the Cold Steel Challenge, which is a weapons fighting tournament. Very exciting and the people were all very welcoming and friendly. There was a great atmosphere.

San Francisco

2010-09-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

I stopped off at Isotope comics in San Francisco to leave in some comics and James invited me to draw a toilet seat for his collection (pictured). I was very honored to be asked ! I got a nice mention on their site too, check it out: http://isotopecomics.com/ By an amazing stroke of luck my hotel was next to a big art supplies store so I was able to pick up some permanent markers. You can see a Darwyn Cooke one in the background of the picture, and if you've been following my blog for a while you'll know I'm a big Darwyn Cooke fan, so it was really cool.

It's a great store with a nice lounge to hang out and read comics in as well as an area for artists to come in and use. And (thanks to the marvel of print on demand) it's currently the only comic store where you can get my books. Otherwise you'll have to buy them online or find my stall at a comic book or small press event.

It was really foggy in San Francisco so I couldn't spot any megasharks.

Also went to Santa Cruz and had a poke around the marine labs there. Off to Los Angeles tomorrow to do a couple of days of filmmaking!!

Monstrum 2 - Awesome review!!!

2010-09-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

One of the best reviews I've ever had! Monstrum issue 2 reviewed at Optical Sloth

Having an amazing time in the USA. Off to San Francisco today, hopefully check out Isotope comics while I'm there. Also hoping to spot a megashark chomping on the goldengate bridge. Must remember my camera.

SPX 2010 -Day Two

2010-09-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

Awesome!!! This is a great event. I've met tons of great people. Made lots of new friends. John from Metaphrog kindly took me around and introduced me to some publishers too. On Saturday night we popped over to another convention that was happening up the road, for web comics. They had a lot more merchandise and people dressed up, but it was a bit quiet. it was interesting to see the difference in approach to selling.
My prints were very popular today, infact people were giving me more than the asking price, a lot of people said I should charge more! I've never been told that in the UK.
Here's my table buddies Brian and Clay on the lookout for customers:

I tried to resist buying stuff because I have an epic journey ahead of me. But I had to get a Scott Campbell print, they're too brilliant to pass up, and lightweight enough for me to bring along on my epic adventure. Also got some mini-comics and a great comic about a shark called Xoc by Matt Dembicki.
Hats with eyes and teeth seemed to be the runaway hit of the show, but they did have godzilla advertising them and you can't get a better endorsement than that:

Also got to hang out with a lot of the cool people I met during my last visit to DC, the DC Conspiracy crew, Matt and Shannon and Greg Bennett (who will hopefully be touring the UK with his band at the end of the year: the jet age ).
Off to San Jose now for more adventures!

SPX 2010 - Day one

2010-09-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

It's huuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggeeeeeeee. Small press conventions aren't this size in the UK. It's been a great experience. Well, apart from the journey here. Delayed flights, and a missed connection meant I was a day late (so I had to scrap my day trip to DC to visit my hero Kermit the frog at the museum) and my luggage wasn't on the same plane as me, so there was some panic that it mightn't arrive in time, and it contained ALL my comics.

Anyway, it arrived just in time. The Quadropods (woolly sea creatures) sold out pretty quick and I've had a lot of good feed back about my work, and about an octopus necklace I was wearing which everyone (even the lady serving us at the noodle house) has complimented me on.

There's lots of amazing artwork on show here. I'm hoping to catch some of the panels and talks on day two as well.

I'm sharing a table with Brian Wimberley, go check out his work: http://double-es.blogspot.com/

JAWS : The untold story

2010-09-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

Due to a printing mishap The Shark Report will not be available at SPX, but I will be putting it online as a free PDF when I return. In the meantime, here's the real story behind JAWS, as told to me by a reliable on set source. (click on images for a better reading size)

Look who swam home!

2010-08-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

The woolly sea critters have arrived from Vicky Richardson. Lovingly hand made and ready to be shipped to the USA. I have built individual containment units for them, so customers can transport them safely home. And, yes, their eyes google about, like the one on my website.

old book, new review

2010-08-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Review of my comic Monstrum Horrendum Book 1 over at Optical Sloth.

shark movies, comics, movies, the usual

2010-08-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Whitley Bay Film Festival screened Jaws at the beach last weekend. It was awesome. The beach is definitely a great place to view the ultimate shark film. The deckchairs were a bit uncomfortable though and the poorly timed explosion at the end didn't really enhance my viewing experience. It's a strong enough film to stand on its own as an event without all the silly extras they tried to tag on. There was also a small exhibition of Jaws merchandise and props at Links gallery.

I ran a comic making workshop at the Lit and Phil last week as part of their Viz exhibition. It went very well, we made topical comics about vultures, Jade Goodys ghost, Gordon Brown, Jesus and useless qualifications.

Dr. Mel Gibson is giving a talk there tomorrow and Simon Donald is doing a talk on Tuesday. Check out all the details here: Viz exhibition

Just sorting out the final arrangements for my whirlwind tour of the USA next month. First up is the comic festival SPX, where I will be selling the following comics:

Some Forgotten Part, Monstrum Horrendum book 1 and book 2, Tag Team, The Shark Report, Sunday

As well as lots of prints, postcards, notebooks and hopefully some little woolly sea creatures too.

I will also be adding a trip to The Asylum, makers of such cinematic classics as Megashark vs Giant Octopus, Transmorphers, Titanic 2 and Mega Pirhana, where I will be working with Volt Media to shoot a promo for my next project. Ooooh...what can it be?

Then I'll be popping up to Ventura to check out the Cold Steel Challenge fighting tournament, where I'll be cheering on 'Is it cos I'm fat?'

I'll also be visiting family and causing general mayhem on both coasts. Wooooo!

Did I mention that I'm in this months edition of Glamour magazine? Because I am.

Pick up your copy before they're all gone.

Meow!

2010-08-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying drawing tigers at the moment. I don't know why. I guess it makes a change from sharks.

Almost finished my shark zine thing (cover image below) I think I'll do a very limited print run for SPX, then put it online as a free download.

In addition to my recent appearance in Glamour magazine, I'm on their website talking about myself and sounding like a big geeky fool. Enjoy.

http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/magazine/bespoke-special/newcastle/newcastle-video-blog

Glamour Magazine, September Issue

2010-08-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

I'm featured in the September issue of Glamour UK magazine (Newcastle edition)

We did the photoshoot and interview ages ago, it's cool to see it in print. It's not totally accurate, I've been publishing a lot longer than 2003 as stated in the article (check out the 'about me' section on my website for a proper bio), but it was a great opportunity and a chance to talk about the creative buzz currently surrounding Newcastle.

There should be a video on it's way too.

That's not me on the cover by the way, that's Katy Perry.

Although we're often mistaken for each other.

I don't know why.

Tell me about your dreams

2010-08-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'm taking part in the sketchbook project:
http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

Want to help me out? I need you to tell me about a dream or nightmare you've had. Or a bedtime story you remember from your childhood. I'll turn them in to sketchbook loveliness (with your name alongside your story, unless you'd rather be anonymous!) and it will go on a tour around the USA! Hurrah!

You can email me (leonieomooreATgmailDOTcom) your stories, or pop them in the comments section or just tell me in person if you're someone I tend to bump in to :)

Shout out Saturday

2010-07-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

I don't use Twitter, so I can't do 'Follow Fridays' but I did want to mention some cool people, so I've decided to do a Shout-out Saturday today.

http://madeinnewcastle.blogspot.com/ - The new store in Newcastle devoted to local handmade items.
http://www.lucyshappyplace.com/ - Brilliant illustrations, I bought one of her beautiful bags a few months ago and I use it all the time.
http://www.kyeo.tv/ - An up and coming business with a new approach to regional journalism, this is definitely one to watch.
http://www.104heatonroad.com/ - pop down and check out this 'Hive of creative commerce'. I had a good inspiring chat there the other day.
http://industrytypespublishing.bigcartel.com/ - Michael O'Keefe zines, now available to buy online. I'd wanted to tell people to go buy his work, but you couldn't until recently, so now I can say "go buy it".
http://www.spxpo.com/ - I may have mentioned this once or twice already, but I'm going to SPX in September and I'm super excited. It's a big expo for small press comic books. And it's in America, which is currently my favourite place to visit. I can't wait.
http://isitcosimfat.blogspot.com/ - Andy Talbot Smiths new documentary. You can follow his progress as he makes it.
http://www.thesettledown.com/ - Settle down in Newcastle is a lovely cafe (I recommend their cinnamon bites. Mmmmm) And they've recently extended their premises to include a new venue which will be used for a variety of events and arts activities. They're open to suggestions, so if you want to use the space for something, just get in touch with Neil.
http://www.litandphil.org.uk/html_pages/LP_news.html - The Lit and Phil are running a Viz exhibition next month (and I'll be doing workshops at it).

Discount

2010-07-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

You can get my book 'Some Forgotten Part' for 15% less at http://www.lulu.com/ until the 15th August. Follow this link and enter coupon code: BEACHREAD305

Or just visit my stall at a festival (there'll be a list on my site from now on, under the 'Exhibition' section: http://www.lomoore.com/ ) and get it way cheaper than the internet price. With an optional doodled octopus on the inside cover .

woolly critter

2010-07-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

Throw away all your 'collectable' vinyl figurines, because wool is where it's at! I've enlisted the help of Vicky Richardson to turn my squiddy/octopus/generic cephalopod logo in to a lovable little crocheted creature. Here's some photos of the prototype. If anyone would like to name him I'm open to suggestions.
If we go in to production there may be a limited run available at SPX.

(above) My Logo

(below) The woolly prototype.

Me and my logo hanging out:

My wisdom teeth are trying to kill me.

2010-07-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

A sketch based on the film 'Hai-alarm auf Mallorca' for my next book/zine/comic/whatever 'The Shark Report.' Still undecided about the format. It's in glorious full colour which makes it all a bit pricey and awkward. I might try out Magcloud, or go for a square format and hope for the best with Lulu's rapidly declining service. Or I might even go old school and print it at home and do a hand printed cover.

I'm also starting work on a comic strip commissioned by a magazine and I've got some more workshops coming up (the next one is in August at the Lit and Phil, more details soon!)

Toothache, and a dose of antibiotics which aren't agreeing with me, meant I missed out on this years Friendship Festival and have left me pretty glum all week, but hopefully painting more fish based mayhem will help.

Wonder Woman rant

2010-07-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Everyone else on the internet seems to be spouting on about the new Wonder Woman costume so I thought I might as well join in.

I don't think the re-design is bad, I just don't think it's right for Wonder Woman. You can't really rebrand an icon and keep it recognisable, the best you can hope for is to just make slight adjustments. But I suspect DC just wanted some short term publicity (which they got plenty of) as opposed to a long term change. Or perhaps they're gearing up for the alleged film that's been on it's way forever.

Even the Guardian newspaper felt the need to comment. I thought their suggestion, although (hopefully) tongue in cheek, was awful and missed the point of the character. For example, I don't think Wonder Woman has to worry about putting her hair in curlers, apart from the fact she's meant to be a naturally beautiful Amazonian she's also a drawing.

So, here's my suggestion with a quick little doodle to illustrate my ideas:

And here's the thinking behind it:

Basically, it's a classic Wonder Woman look, with some modern touches.

The drapey top is based on the old 'Young Diana' outfit.

The skirt - Wonder Woman wore a skirt in her first appearance. It was changed in favour of shorts, believed to be a bit more modest. Ironically, after complaints about the content of the comic, a propsed redesign in the 40's suggested a grecian style tunic as a more proper outfit.

The skirt idea made a few comebacks during the golden age, the 80's and even in Kingdom Come. It looks a bit structured in my sketch, but I was thinking something like a hankerchief hem would be a good update, along the lines of Beyonces ridiculous outfit in Lady gaga's Telephone video. (Ridiculous for a person, perfect for a comic character)
Are skirts really impractical for a superhero? No, because it's a comic and you can choose what angles you draw things from. She had far more on show when Deodato drew her in tiny pants.

Shoes: A return to the strappy sandal, currently on trend and a Wonder Woman fashion staple during the late 40's through to the 60's. Also, they fit well with Marstons original vision of a comic filled with bondage images.

But, for the record, my favourite ever Wonder Woman artist is Darwyn Cooke. They should just let him sort it out.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat...

2010-06-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

I made a book of little bats at the Gallery North book fair as part of the brilliant printmaking workshop. The event went really well, lots of diverse and exciting stalls and plenty of visitors. My comic workshops went really well, we made some great comics featuring (among many other random things) a misunderstood monster, a magic sausage, an unfortunate frog and some nazi zombies.
I feel very inspired to do some printmaking and I can see a run of handmade books somewhere in my near future. But, I have a ton of stuff to do first! I've got a mentoring session on Monday, which is the first chance I've had to deliver a one to one workshop, so I'm very excited. Hopefully it will lead to more. I've got a bunch of comics on the go (and not finding time to do any!) and I'm still trying to get my shark book finished in time for SPX. I'm also going to be learning to write a business plan for social enterprises through an SES course in July. I've done a business course before and written quite a few business plans, but not for a social enterprise, and P.R.E.S.S. is quite complex so it's time to get some expert advice.
I also took a trip out to Sunderland on Thursday for the Niall street / Northern Architecture event. The run down buildings have been transformed by a group of artists in to a thriving hub of activity in a very short space of time. Exciting things are happening in Sunderland!

comic workshops - June

2010-06-19T01:51:00.000-07:00

I'll be running some comic book workshops at the Gallery North Artists' Book Fair next weekend (26th June).

Here's all the other great stuff happening as part of the fair:

Artists’ Book Fair, Gallery North 26 June, 11 - 5pm. Gallery North presents national and international Artists' Book Makers to the region to sell and promote their work directlyto the public. An accompanying series of drop in workshops and demonstrations will also take place. www.northumbria.ac.uk/gallerynorth

2-4pmPrint your own hand made book with established Visual Artist Victoria Paisley.

12-4pmDemonstrations in hand-sewn head bands, gold tooling and stitching.All places are free, but must be booked.

15 June - 5 July, Newcastle's Lit & Phil will be hosting an exhibition of Artists' Booksfrom the University of West of England (UWE) Centre for Fine Print Research. www.litandphil.org.uk

29 June, 6 - 7.30pm, Loftus Room, Lit & Phil.Mick Wootton, Lecturer in Print at Northumbria University and established artist’s book maker will be giving a talk on collaborations, the development of Artist’s Books and current trends in bookmaking. To book a place, contact library@litandphil.org.uk Lucy May Schofield will be working with Gateshead Council with her Bibliotherapy stall and a community initiative group. www.bibliotherapyartistsbooklibrary.blogspot.com

Touring exhibition of books produced by students &lecturers at the CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Art). This collection will be on display during theArtists’ Book Fair at Gallery North and will be on show at 25sg, Newcastle 20th June during whichtime visitors will have the chance to handle the work and take part in a 'Show & Tell' event withother artist's book makers.

To coincide with Gallery North Artist's Book Fair Yvette Hawkins' solo show 'All the booksI have never finished' will be showing at The Gallery of Wonder, Newcastle University until 9 July 2010.

For more info or to book your place on nay of the courses/workshops contact: theresaDOTeastonATnorthumbriaDOTacDOTuk

Saturday Market

2010-06-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

So, I went to the Point Village Comic Market in Dublin on Saturday. It's the first time they've had a comics section at the market (which is only a few weeks old itself). I had a great time, it was nice to see how much the scene has grown since I left Ireland. The standard of work was very high and there was a really positive atmosphere. My stall was next to Philip Barrett and Ciaran Lucas. I've been a fan of Phils work for a long time, (we used to stock one of his early books 'Matter' at There Goes Tokyo...) and it was lovely to catch up and see his new work. I hadn't seen Ciarans work before, but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for it again. And if you see him at a convention, be sure to get a sketch, they're amazing!

I got some lovely feedback about my work and managed to sell some 'Monstrum's, 'Tag team's, and a 'Some Forgotten Part'. My new postcards were pretty popular too.

Hurray!

book, documentary, festival.

2010-06-05T04:25:00.000-07:00

Some images from the book I'm currently working on (between all the other projects!), it's called 'The Shark Report'. I'm hoping to have it ready in time for SPX in September.

Incase you're wondering, it's about sharks.

Also, (I think I forgot to post this up here, but I did remember to put it on facebook!) anyone who followed my old blog may remember that I got to go to California a couple of years ago and work on a short documentary. And learn how to shoot guns.
Well, there's an edit of the documentary up on YouTube now so you can see it for yourselves!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3LXfmxxUP8
And if you thought this was interesting, you will be excited to know that the writer/director, Andy Talbot Smith is working on a new documentary project "Is it cos I'm fat?" You can follow his progress through his blog and twitter. Sheriff is also taking awesome photos for it.

Don't forget, if you're in Dublin next weekend come by my stall and say 'hi' at the Point Village Comic Festival. Also, please buy some things too so I don't have to carry all my stock back to England.

point village comics website

2010-06-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Point Village Comic Festival now have a website:

http://www.pointvillagecomicfestival.com/

All the info about the new comics festival in Dublin can be found there.

New drawings

2010-05-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

I stacked up some of my new drawings while tidying and they made an interesting new image, a woman with a shark coming out the top of her head:

This is the finished version of the lower drawing, which is being made in to a limited run postcard (hopefully in time for my stall at the Point Village comic event in Dublin)

Point Village Comic Festival 2010

2010-05-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

I demand better 'print on demand'!

2010-05-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I'm about done with Lulu. Thanks to their flawed new system, I will be without any copies of 'Some Forgotten Part' at The Point Village Market (In Dublin on the 12th June. Yay! I have a stall there.)
So I need to sort out another place to print my work in future, but it was about time to start looking at better ways to print anyhow. Suggestions welcome (bearing in mind it's a full colour comic of great expense).
I'm also hoping to offer back issues of Monstrum as a downloadable comic, but that will require quite a bit of time and effort.
I've been working hard on my next project, a shark based book/zine/comic which should be available in time for SPX. It's going to contain diagrams and everything!
Also working on some other things, including the next part of Monstrum, which has meant getting in touch with scientists. That's right, actual scientists. Oh yeah, Monstrums getting serious. With the facts. And the science. But don't worry, there's still sea monsters galore.

The Big Mermaid

2010-04-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

I found a doodle for this while I was hunting for unused watercolour paper, so I decided to finish it with some paint. Ariel has gone the way of many 80's stars. Going 'Berserk' as the National Enquirer likes to call it. Were they really being considered for a Pulitzer?

BUY MY BOOKS NOW!

2010-04-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

Lulu (the print on demand site that I am currently using for books, which is handy but makes everything very expensive) sent me an email saying that my customers can get free shipping (up to £2.99) until the 05/05/2010. Just order my books (and that's plural because you'll want more than one) and put in the code FREEMAILUK305.

I don't know how well this works, because the small print all refers to US shipping, but the price is in sterling and the code says UK. So...good luck!
My Lulu storefront

This time last week I was dragging tables about.

2010-04-17T02:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the P.R.E.S.S. event that I've been all busied up with over the last few months. You can blame that for the lack of shark movie reviews and pointless doodles that have been so painfully absent from this blog.

Martyn (who I exhibited work with last year) and James let us stay at their house while they were away, which was great as they lived really near the venue, but bad because their devil cat hates people. Even me. And I gave it food and everything, but it still wanted me dead.

The event ran smoothly, but it wasn't as busy as I'd hoped. And sorry to the people who turned up to Drink and Draw after we'd moved to the bar!

However, the event was perfect for the needs of P.R.E.S.S. We made lots of contacts, everyone seemed pleased with the event, and we got plenty of feedback. As well as some excellent photos from Sheriff.

There's an outline of the event with photos at P.R.E.S.S.

Busy as I was, I still managed to pick up some loot!

The Killing Moon by Rod Glenn and Jamie Mitchell (Wild Wolf Publishing), which is described as : 'The Road meets Mad Max ... Beyond Northern England'. My Mother is a Troll, by Helen Limon and Sara Ogilvie (Zed Said) which is technically a kids book but I'd recommend it to anyone because it's excellent, and My cardboard life by Phillipa Rice, a beautifully made bittersweet comedy with cardboard.

Personally, I enjoyed the event. I got to meet lots of cool people.

We also resurrected There Goes Tokyo... for the day, in an effort to educate the young 'uns about the old small press scene (really it was an excuse to clear out the spare room). Poor Andy had to miss out on kettlebells (which he's enduring for this documentary) and sit behind a stall all day.

Thanks to everyone who came along, Deirdre and Theresa for their awesome talks/workshops, all the authors and poets who treated us to readings, Mike for the brilliant zine trail, Derrick for the mobile requests, all the stall holders (fully listed with links here), and to Matthew, Tom and Phillipa for travelling all the way up North.

More reports of the day here and here.

Also, New British Comics (featuring my work! and some other peoples work too) is up for a few Eagle Awards, so please vote for it!

Port Odd

2010-04-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday consisted of a lengthy but amazing road trip with Nick, Katie and Andy to Portmeirion. A Welsh holiday resort made famous by the tv show 'The Prisoner' (also used as a location in some other movies and in a featurette about Iron Maiden). I'd wanted to visit it since I'd discovered it was a real place.

It's so odd. It was built by Clough Williams-Ellis (1883 -1978). His intention was to build a resort that would not detract from the natural beauty of its surroundings. Portofino is often credited as the inspiration, but really it's a mish mash of styles and periods, with custom made pieces sitting alongside antique structures which Clough relocated to his village. Some of the bizarre features include a random Buddha statue (salvaged by Clough from a film set!), a stone figure of the goddess Friga from the 1700's (Clough wanted all the Saxon gods but this was the only one left at auction, possibly because as the goddess of Fridays she was believed to be unlucky), a dog cemetery (including one secret cat which was buried undercover of night), a statue of Shakespeare leaning over a balcony, and of course the Round house (number six's house in the tv show). And it's full of fish related details and adornments, so it kept me greatly amused. It's an incredible place.
More photos: flickr

24 hour comic challenge -the aftermath.

2010-03-21T03:13:00.000-07:00

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I am glad to report that the 24 hour comic challenge was a huge success. The workshops were brilliant, the Drink and Draw was busy and the challenge was booked out. Participants finished their comics (some with plenty of time to spare), and the comics were really good. Next week, I'll be finding out what is happening with the finished comics, hopefully they'll become available for everyone to read.

Here's some stickers we made at the mobile drawing workshop:

(Clockwise from top left: Ackbar warns of a trap!, a monster eating hearts, a raggedtooth shark hogs the camera)

There are photos from the event at the Tyneside Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tynesidecinema

24hr comic tomorrow.

2010-03-12T06:06:00.000-08:00

It's the 24hr comic challenge tomorrow, which I am facilitating on behalf of P.R.E.S.S. for the learning revolution at the Tyneside cinema:
http://www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/learningrevolution/24hour-comic-challenge/

The places for the challenge itself booked up pretty fast but there are still FREE drop in sessions to enjoy throughout the day and a Drink and Draw event in the evening.
I'll be running about making it a fun day for all and will no doubt hit my nap point about 3 hours in. Although I won't be making a 24hr comic, I might try and sneak in some drawing.

Back to the USA!

2010-03-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm all booked up for SPX this year. At least I think I am. Flights and hotel are booked and the money order went off for a half stall, but it's a few months until they confirm your payment, which makes me nervous. Due to the crushing financial outlay for such a venture I doubt I'll be at any other events this year, but I think it'll be worth it. Any excuse to go back to the USA.
It's unlikely that Monstrum 3 will be ready by September. I know, it seems so far away, but it'll be at least another month before I get back to doing any comics, and Monstrum is a massive undertaking. It may look effortless and like a child could do it in a weekend, but it actually takes a long time to paint it and scan it.
I will have a new comic/zine/book hybrid thing out for SPX, which will be fish related. If you enjoy my shark movie reviews you'll definitely want a copy. I guess I won't be printing too many copies...

April event - tell everyone!

2010-02-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

P.R.E.S.S. April event details have been announced:

http://pressukinfo.blogspot.com/2010/02/press-event-april-10th.html

Normal service will resume soon. I've booked a stall at SPX (http://www.spxpo.com/), so best get back to making some comics!

Damn it!!

2010-02-13T03:22:00.000-08:00

I honestly thought I'd invented the sharktopus:
http://leonieo.blogspot.com/2009/12/sharktopus.html
But it turns out that Roger Corman beat me to it:
http://io9.com/5470224/here-comes-sharktopus
Grrrr! Next time Corman. Next time.

P.R.E.S.S. (now with added bloginess)

2010-02-11T10:36:00.000-08:00

P.R.E.S.S. now has a blog:

http://pressukinfo.blogspot.com/

Hurray!!

I'm back.

2010-02-07T04:06:00.000-08:00

After a nice break in Spain (photos here) I'm back, refreshed and ready to work on some kick-ass events. Okay, that's a lie, I'm ready to stay in bed all day, but unfortunately that's not an option.
So, there's going to be a small press event at the arts centre Washington on the 10th of April. We need artwork from small press people to advertise it and some volunteers to help run it. Of course, one of the main reasons of running these events was to find more people who wanted to get involved and help out, so it's tough to get this organised.
Things are moving along again with P.R.E.S.S. after some really good meetings last week. Eventually I'll set up a blog or something so I don't have to ramble on about it here and I can get back to reviewing shark movies and drawing pictures.
I'm also back on Bugpowder, so I can share all the small press news that people keep emailing me.

early works

2010-01-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

An early O'Moore piece, accidently unearthed during a trip to Ireland. Although no date was found, experts believe it was made around the late 1980's. The work displays many signature O'Moore flourishes, such as a man-eating shark and a fictitious sea monster.

And yes, that is a dogfish chasing a catfish in the background.

24 HOUR COMIC INFO!!!!

2010-01-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

All the info about the 24 hour comic and the full Learning Revolution programme is here:
http://www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/brochure

And there's a bit about the Learning Revolution event at http://www.haus-projects.com/ , who co-ordinated the event.

"SAT 13 MARCH, 10.00AM UNTIL

SUN 14 MARCH, 10.00AM

FIGGIS ROOM & TYNESIDE BAR, FLOOR 3

Independent press organisation P.R.E.S.S. teams up with the Tyneside to deliver an exciting 24 hour event!

We’ll be testing you to your limits with this special challenge; to create a comic book in 24 hours. The story, the artwork, and the lettering will all be completed in the time allowed. No previous experience is necessary, only enthusiasm and ideas. Comic artists and graphic designers will be on hand to assist, and dinner and breakfast is included – and lots of coffee too! But if you just fancy a taster, there will be drop-in mobile phone drawing workshops, 24 min workshops, and
Drink and Draw sessions all across Saturday.
A round the clock creative event, not to be missed!

Entry:

£15 for the 24hr event. Places are limited, and advance booking essential.

FREE for public drop-in during the day. "

new year, new to-do list

2010-01-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty busy sorting out P.R.E.S.S. stuff since new year, I've already had to pass up some nice drawing projects due to lack of time, but fear not! I have some ambitious comic ideas in the pipeline for this year.

Meanwhile, things are going well with P.R.E.S.S:
There'll be a 24 hr comic event at the Tyneside cinema in March. I can talk more about that when the programme's out and we've sorted out the finer details.
I'm working on putting together an event at the Arts Centre Washington in April. This will have a wide variety of stalls, a mobile library, talks, workshops, performances, readings, drink and draw session and a chance for networking. So far people seem excited and eager to participate, I'm currently trying to put together a broad programme and sort out the funding (which is currently unconfirmed so there's a still a chance this might not happen...!) and it needs to happen quick so I can advertise it properly.
Between March and April I'm hoping to put together a short programme of talks in Sunderland based around different areas of small press. I've lined up some great speakers, but it's all down to funding now.

A busy start to the new year!

I got a bundle of awesome zines from Natalie Frost from a project she did recently at Barbara Priestman school. The subjects covered include guinea pigs, a fair, Johnny Depp, Sonic the Hedgehog, wire (as in pieces of wire.), and robots (particularly robot dogs). Brilliant!

Also got some more artwork through for Horny Biker Sluts.