2-D Festival, Derry

Derry seen from the river Foyle

Thanks to David Campbell and everyone else at Derry for the marvellous week I spent at the 2D comics festival. 2D was organized on a European-style pattern; there were classes, workshops and lectures during the week, with a more familiar UK-style comic event (with traders and guests sketching) at the weekend. The pace was relaxed, the hospitality excellent, the ice-cream beyond belief; there was even random dancing in the street when the evening got a little chilly (though sadly, no photos thereof).

I missed quite a few people this trip, but here are (top row) Aaron with Lazarus Churchyard, Aaron with Batman, (bottom row) Eddie with a bear from Kingdom of the Wicked and Paul with a Death from Sandman.

I asked permission to Blog these, but if you'd rather your picture was taken down, just let me know and I'll remove it.

Reservoir Dogs: guests Gary Leach, Rufus Dayglo and Declan Shalvey all argue over who gets to be Mister Black while organiser David Campbell looks on. Meanwhile, I walk backwards into a bollard.

Gary Leach & Rufus Dayglo sifting the hundreds of entries for the 2D schools competition.



The guest artists sketching for the crowds on the Saturday.



I struggle with a particularly thorny problem of anatomy while sketching.

2D included activities for children, such as the Monster Drawing Wall

The event was covered by BBC radio and documentary film makers.

2D is a relaxed, informal event in which fans get the chance to mix with creators - even international stars such as Bryan Talbot and David Lloyd - in a way not possible in the bigger mainland events.

Mike Collins explains to Bridgeen Gillespie and Bryan Talbot how he once nearly had the Cosmic Cube in his grasp.

"You won't put that on your blog, will you?"
"No, no Declan, of course I won't."

The full set of photos from 2D is available to view on Flickr.

Torchwood: Rift War Signing at Forbidden Planet London

The Torchwood: Rift War collection
Torchwood © 2009 BBC

A mere two months late I bring you photos of the Torchwood: Rift War signing at Forbidden Planet on April 25th. This was a big deal for me in two ways; first, it was my first signing at the London FP, a store I remember from its first incarnation on Denmark Street in the early 80's. Second, it was wonderful to be signing alongside such luminaries as Simon Furman and Paul Grist.

From left to right: Simon Furman, Brian Williamson, Paul Grist, Me, Ian Edginton
Photo by Joel Meadows.

Someone brought in a copy of my earliest professional strip, from Heartbreak Hotel (1988)

Defacing Bruce's copy of Absolute Sandman.

And then there was Bruce. Bruce has to be mentioned. There's a fine line between bravery and foolhardiness, and that's where Bruce lives, right out on the edge. Yes, Bruce got me to sketch in the flyleaf of his copy of Absolute Sandman - in ink.

Bruce with his defaced copy of Absolute Sandman.
Tiene cojones de acero, mis amigos.

Back From The Void

Back at last - though I've had plenty to post about, I've been distracted from the old bloggery-pokery by a combination of the following:

From Stickleback: London's Burning Stickleback © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD Stickleback created by Ian Edginton & Me.

Starting Stickleback series 3: London's Burning.

The new series is, I believe, due to premier this December in Prog 2010. I'm (bunking off) drawing part 4 of 12 as I write.

Mike Collins & me, cruisin' the M25

Travellin' About

I've been a guest at the 2D Comics Festival in Derry, Northern Island, and also just come back from London, where a group of us were marking the passing of comics polymath Steve Whitaker.

Black Straw Snoot Grids: They're a kind of sickness with me

Making Black Straw Snoot Grids

In theory this will one day help me photograph Daleks better, but in truth it's just compulsive displacement activity. I think I've got it under control now.

Rotring Art Pens: Getting Them Going

One of my sets of Rotring Artpens, marked with red electrical tape to show they're loaded with permanent ink.

I really love Rotring Artpens, albeit in a Platonic way; I've used them as my main tool for sketching and page layout work for more than twenty years. I like them so much I own two full sets of the drawing nibs (EF, F, M and B) - one set filled with permanent Rotring Artpen ink, the other with ordinary non-permanent fountain-pen ink.

My one bugbear with Artpens (aside from the fact that the caps on the new ones no longer plug onto the end of the barrels, leaving them wandering about to get lost while you're drawing) is their tendency to dry out. I'm not a complusive sketcher by any means, so I can easily go six weeks between sessions, and a common experience on breaking my Artpens out after such a period of inactivity was to find at least one of them hopelessly dried out. Bringing the pen back from the dead would usually mean half a swearing-hour* spent running hot water through the nib and then endlessly blotting to try and get the dried ink out.

Imagine my delight-crossed-with annoyance when, after twenty years of such tomfoolery, I discovered a simple answer to the problem; just dip the end of the nib in water for a few seconds until ink starts to pool in the water, then scribble on a piece of paper to get the pen going. The ink will come through highly dilute at first, but will soon darken to black. A really recalcitrant nib might take two or three goes, but on the whole, I can get any one of my pens running in under a minute.

You don't even need much water for the operation; old bottle-caps take just the right amount, and are handy to carry if you're sketching on the move.

Originally, I wasn't going to bother publishing this discovery, as it seemed so obvious I assumed I was the only one who had missed it. However, at Bristol I got talking to a group of fellow artists, all of whom had this trouble with Artpens and none of whom knew this method., so I hope it's worth mentioning.

*Swearing-hour: measurement of the time spent trying to get anything to work. Most often applied to new pieces of technology or software. Other units of time may also be employed to describe longer or shorter periods; as in "my first computer took two full swearing-weeks to set up, but the new one took only five swearing-minutes!"

Change to Blog Comments

I've been having a lot of spam comments recently (mostly ads for online gaming with a few porn links thrown in), so with some reluctance I'm moving over to moderating comments in advance. I feel driven to it after losing the better part of an hour rooting out spam, and I'm still nowhere near getting all of it.

The change will slow down how quickly comments appear (especially when I'm away from home), but it should allow me to prevent this stuff clogging up the comments pages.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

Sketches From Bristol

The Ramada Plaza Hotel, site of Bristol Comics Expo 2009

Just back from the Bristol Expo; a fantastic weekend, tiring but real fun, and wonderful to see so many familiar faces despite the credit crunch and the scaling back of this year's event. Thanks to everyone who came to get a sketch; this year for the first time I made more from paid sketches than I did from sales of books. Sleep proudly in your beds, o sketchees, knowing that you've helped to secure a crust or two of my imaginary starving orphaned children.

I'll post more photos from Bristol in the next few days.

I think this is everyone except for one girl I missed, just after Richard, the lad with the Nightcrawler sketch. Click on the photos to see the set full-size on Flickr.

I asked permission to Blog these, but if you'd rather your picture was taken down, just let me know and I'll remove it.

I've titled the photos based on names (if I know them or can read them from the dedications) or, failing that, the subject of the sketch. If you spot an error, leave a comment of the photo page on Flickr and I'll sort it out.

Adrian Kermode RIP

Adrian Kermode at Bristol in 2001, the night before he won a National Comics Award

I've just received the terrible news that Adrian Kermode has passed away. A comics writer and regular of the UK comics scene in the early 2000's, "Ady" will be remembered by his friends for his warmth, wit, and ribald sense of humour.

Ady is probably best known for his collaboration with artist Terry Wiley on the series Petra Etcetera. A sequel of sorts to the highly-regarded series Tales of Sleaze Castle created by Dave McKinnon and Terry Wiley, Petra Etcetera cut out the fantasy elements of Sleaze Castle, concentrating instead on real-world characters and settings. Ady's writing style fit the material perfectly, so that Petra Etcetera won the National Comics Award for Best Independent British Comic in 2001, and was nominated again in 2002. He was also a contributor to Selina Locke's anthology title The Girly Comic.

Left: Cover to Doctor Sorrow: The Crystal Skull Caper (art by me)
Right: Cover to Deadman & Hyde (art by Kieran McKeown, colouring by me)
Doctor Sorrow © 2003 Adrian Kermode & Mike Juniper.
Deadman & Hyde © 2004 Adrian Kermode & Kieran McKeown.

Following his success with Petra, Ady's interests turned towards the horror/action genre. I was lucky enough to work with him twice during this period, producing a publicity image and a cover for Doctor Sorrow: The Crystal Skull Caper (2002) and colouring the cover art for Deadman and Hyde (2004), both published under his own Charaydis Press imprint.

Sadly, in the last few years the demands of Ady's civil service career effectively put an end to his writing. He'll be sorely missed by his many friends. Our sympathies go out to his family, his partner Debs and her daughter Frankie.

Spring Is Sprung!

Lucky the Half-Face cat from 2004

This year's first sighting of Lucky the Half-Face Cat means it's officially the first day of spring here on D'Blog of 'Israeli. I spotted him asleep on top of a car in the drive of (what I think is) his home while on my way to the shops. He was a bit too distant to photograph, so here's a shot of him from 2004.