Next!

Already, come the pleasant utterances from various customers who have bought my book..."so when is the next episode"? I am going to make some headway on pages quite slowly to start with, and this will rev up.

Sweet labours rewards, at the Hypercomics fair

A gorgeous venue in a lovely park, and a very interesting exhibition. A total of fifteen copies sold on her first launch day...I would say I'm feeling pretty chuffed to say the least!

I am grateful to those who could make it, and who bought a copy... what a great launch.

Photos taken by Andrew Bridgmont

A satisfactory moment is being relished as I type this, sitting with a nice cold beer after a good day at the market....a harvest...sheer Bliss.

...Great to get the chance to look around at the world now I have surfaced from underneath my artists mossy rock, I just saved myself from metamorphosing into a complete mole! I by chance, found a wonderful comic which I bought immediately (SOLD point blank to the lady called Gwen!): Toilet paper Life...

The cover, with a hopeless little mouse sitting on a toilet in the middle of a field of roses, somehow sums up life's tragedy. It is debatable as to whether I feel the same way as the artist who explains in the opening page: that "life is like a roll of toilet paper...in the beginning, it is all pure and white...time passes and stains appear...call it memory"...arguably, a somehow effective analogy of sorts. Throughout, the artist philosophises on how tricky justice is, and touches on some insightful (although too brief) ponderings about desire, also how it is in fact... (as I interpret it) extraordinarily difficult not to be a hypocrite...and the only real problem is in the condemnation of it. At one point, are also some possibly over affectionate co-operations between various species (perhaps over egging the point), suggesting, that if we are unable to extend compassion to one another, that we extend it to all sentient beings.

True blue anthropomorphic reversal style makes the pill, as ever easier to swallow, and about half way through there is a televised news flash by a dark eyed rabbit about the growing phenomenon of abused onions.

There is a devotion to the drawings which I admire, they are charming and sometimes hilarious/ if a little sick, and quite clear on the dark side of cute. The cover swung it for me!

Artist (from Taiwan) goes by the name of 'tpcat'...

To see all pictures at their larger original size, click on the image once for the light-box viewer.

Note:
Thanks tpcat, I am sure you are happy for me to share your wonderful front cover illustration.

Launch Pads: Domestic Bliss

Here are links to exclusive preview pages and a web-shop where it is available for purchase from August.

Dan Berry, who runs a graphic novel programme at The North Wales School of Art and

Design, has recently posted about Bliss on their blog: The Comics Bureau.

There's also mention of her on Bugpowder.

I posted a bit about the launch on the University of the arts Alumni Bulletin.

Music

"Let's not make it such a God awful small affair...for the girl with the mousy hair..."

Quote, Bowie, with a Turner twist.

(I thought of this when I was engulfed by the tunes of David Bowie in my headphones as I work. It is harder to get into the zone if I don't have my music).

Camera catching

Photo by Gwen Turner

I captured this on the way home from the Lake District, ((at the train station, there was a bridge over the rail lines. A neglect of maintenance? (inserted 31st Oct 2012)

To see all pictures at their larger original size, click on the image once for the light-box viewer.

The Lake District

Me and Wordsworth

July, a much needed break in The Lake District.

I have a new book to read, The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth...

Hypercomics: The shapes of Comics to Come...

Domestic Bliss will make her debut appearance at the Comica Comiket, independent comics fair, Sunday 22nd August. The Pump House Gallery, Battersea. The fair is curated by Paul Gravett and is one of the events taking place as part of Hypercomics: The Shapes of Comics to Come, link here.

Synopsis and other thoughts:

It is about the journey of three main characters (amongst others): Bliss, a domestic cat and her elderly owners Mr and Mrs Hobnob. Bliss gets lost and has to learn to fend for herself in the wild, whilst the Hobnobs need to move out of the past. It is about two kinds of survival; Bliss and her struggle in the wilderness and her dangerous encounters with the agricultural industry, the Hobnobs quest to stay alive whilst playing their roles in an increasingly modern and alienating world…

It's a story of love, and a parody on modern living. 

This is a new take on previous comic trends, with an environmental slant.

I have had some distance from it now. I am glad I kept up the momentum after the M.A. at least to get the first episode done, otherwise I would have strayed toward other attractions...kind of like a self imposed post M.A. probation period, I have had to behave myself. Having the studio has been fantastic, a real motivating aspect to the process. Now things can cool down a bit. Good.


Ideas theories and retrospectives:

1) Hybrid picture book/comic

2) Art book

3) Filmic novel

4) Graphic film....(probably best)

5) The idea earlier on: an autonomous film

6) Movie....moving image...image that moves...moves me and others...movage!

7) Flick book with nuance

8) A Fovel

9) A Film-vle

10) Errrrrm...a Gr-ovel...(ha ha!)

(Insert Dec 2010, I thought of another: A Graphic Navel...

...as creating one requires a considerable degree of navel gazing).

Things are evolving beyond the zine/style comic book, and I have thoughts beyond them. What with bad press about super heroes, and the need to save the day etc...this has no bearing on how the form can fly as does the literary novel. The situation is excitingly open yet naturally tentative. To think of any recent and regarded works...(books and DVD's that I have found in the childrens section of Foyles, Waterstones and (the once) Borders books shops), I would choose Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival' and also Sylvian Chomet's animation work as an inspiration...especially Beleville rendezvous...they use no words. French comic artist Jean Giraud Moebius, is genius, I like the work of (Finish) Tove Jansson: The Moomins and am further intrigued by her wider evolution into literary works much later on in her life.

When drawing up the outline to the story of Domestic Bliss, I added words at the very end of my process. Actually, I started with a substantial story outline that I had written out, that felt like a blockage, but gave structure. Then it all disseminated into visual interpretation rather like interpreting a play text and creating a design. Then words left completely for a very long period as I felt my way through visually, until the tip of the very end like a cherry. Preserving the interpretive aspect of the visual, it's volatile nature contained by the essential mast of words. Words acting like pegged guide ropes to a tent...if they come loose, it does fly yes... but in a blind flat spin. 

All within the parameters of me and my drawing board which is very enjoyable, and keeps me out of mischief as it were. My knitting...

It has been great to tackle fiction from a graphic novel angle, now I feel I am shifting something from my own system, I will make some comments about these images below by Shaun Tan:

Image details: I am struck by the atmosphere in this illustration, and indeed it's impact. It is from a children's book by Shaun Tan: "The Red Tree".

This one: Though I feel this is a simply stunning illustration...

When seen in isolation from the whole sequence, the interpretations can be numerous...like witnessing snap-shots in real life that can so easily be misunderstood. But the book takes one on a 'reassuring' journey, the poor powerless girl does get out of the bottle, and what an incredibly effective way of summarising feeling...A children's book about depression!

(Insert Dec 2010) But the story is also about keeping faith in those small good things, represented by a little red tree sapling that you can't see very obviously, but is always there on each page throughout until the end when the problem has shifted....A kind of horror children's book for adults too...all those adults out there who had to grow up really fast. There are about twenty words in total throughout the whole book...I reckon psychotherapists must have this on their reading list too!

To see all pictures at their larger original size, click on the image once for the light-box viewer. The two Shaun Tan Illustrations were found on Google image search, and before that, I do not know of their origin. With thanks.

Cooling off

Bliss is cooling off or a while.

The fledgling stages are now over, this chick is officially hatched, its nest doesn't want it anymore (nine months since completing my Masters, funnily enough). So no more posts or a while, the first hurdle is clear, I now have another 99 to jump!

Final touches

Last tweaking, printing and production for May/June, and developing a show-the-world-strategy. Launching the series first after setting up my own publishing company then just carrying on with it really, but on a less high octane, now or never, first baby kind of level. It will gain in value in terms of the whole story, as the episodes are gradually completed over time, and I am confident about it's own self fulfilment for now.

I printed the first draft the other day which was monumentally satisfying. I showed it to a photographer I have worked with (it was still hot) and he was the bearer of good tidings. His objective eye was much needed, it is like I have just crawled out from beneath a rock and the sun is hurting my eyes. I really can't look at it for a while, it is like it has become part of my leg or something...far too close, (veering away from the healthy side of work and more towards Van Gogh cutting his ear off type territory...) I think it is important to let it sit for a while, as it is just out of the oven, oohh aahh, hot, ouch!