Random Sonic Comic Strip!

I have a bunch of doodles in a sketchbook for what was going to be a Sonic spin off comic for Manga-Gaga. I liked this one amongst them so I decided to re-draw it up in full. Ah, it's just like when Manga-gaga first started all over again (when it wasn't a series a such, just a bunch of daft comics I uploaded to the site for the fun of it.

Booked for UK Web + Comix Thing 2010!

I've visited the event two years running but for next years event on March 27th I now have a table reserved to sell my wares there! Got lots of planning to do, but the kind of things I'd like to produce for the event (and in general) are:

Prints, badges, maybe even posters and that kind of stuff.

DVDs of some of my animations. The Lucy Lolly DVD is almost ready so I could get that printed, and I'll throw some of the other films on it too (the ones I can get away with like the Howdooyoodoo, Fujis and RabRab).

Maybe I could also aim this to be the lanuch of Tea N Crumpets Version 2. If I can get it done in time that is.

Either way this should get me to pull my finger out and start making some new original stuff, so stay tuned!

London MCM Expo, yesterday.

Drew this on the train journey there.

That's right, an anime convention of all things! Well, it was also about video games, sci-fi, comics and other geeky things, but mainly anime. Weird that I never went to one of these a few years back when I was really big into the stuff so after a while of being out of the loop a lot of it went over my head, but I went because quite a few friends of mine were gonna be there and it was a fun day out. Shame I didn't really plan anything too well so I had to find peeps when I got there, most of which I didn't find in the end but I did bump into Euan and ShinKosai, and Stacey manged to find me too, so it was all good.

If I was to go again, I would defiantly pre-order the tickets, darn. I arrived at 11am and was stuck in the loooong queue for about 2 hours. Still, one of the odder queues I have ever been in, what with big lump of the people queuing dressed up ("cosplaying" if you wanna get weeaboo): I saw an awesome Tom Baker Doctor Who, a giant Pac-man suit, for some reason lots of gender swapped Nintendo characters, lots of elaborate Gothic dresses, and being an anime convention...lot's of ladies leaving little to the imagination (so many short skirts where to look agahsahjhj)! Many were holding up signs saying 'Free hugs!', too. Not that I'm complaining, or anything. It was no where near as bad as I feared, you know, like this..

Aliens!

Zombies!

Rabbit girls with carrots shoved up their arse!
(Ok now I'm just pretending I don't know who she's dressed as. She's from this.)

So when I finally got in the place at 1pm-ish it was packed to the gills and massive: never been to a convention this big before. Lot's of stores et up selling anime tat, including one or two dodgy hentai stores (how much of a virgin must you want to be forever to buy a full body length pillow with a naked anime girl spread across it?), but there was also a lot of up-coming video games to play test, a big stage where at the end of the day the cosplayers pranced about on, and some cool stuff like the Ghostbusters car and a Back to the Future Delorean. There was signing booths with Tom Baker and Craig Charles which were a bit of a rip off: you had to buy tacky expensive merchandise before you could get anything signed. Meh, I'm not that fussed about a signature.

The stuff I spent my cash on. was tempted to buy more but I emptied my wallet!

Quite a lot of the anime distributors like Manga and ADV were about selling wares as well as Neo Magazine, and Helen McCarthy who was signing copies of her new Osama Tezuka book, which was one of many things I bought while there along with the 'To Infinity and Beyond!' Pixar book which was surprisingly cheap, and some brilliant Sega themed t-shirts, a cheap DVD of a film I've never heard of that looks interesting, and a poster for an ace Wii game coming out soon.

All hail the Ecto-1. Coolest car ever (the Delorean is a close 2nd).

I didn't get many photos but if you want to see a nice batch of some of the cosplayers check out Stacey's Flickr folder. Even though I'm not a big fan of anime like I used to be, it was a lot of fun and next year maybe I should live out this comic I did a while back for Manga-Gaga..

MAOAM

I don't know why the packaging of these sweets has been getting complaints..

Maybe a little NSFW, perhaps? Haha, would this be considered Rule #34?

I know, this is old news (See this article if you don't get it) but I've been sitting on this sketch for a while, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

These sweets are darn yummy btw. Must be all the love that goes into them...

Sorry!

Huhuhuhheheheheuheuheuhehuhuhh

I had a sudden realization yesterday: I have never, ever drawn Beavis & Butthead. This had to be rectified. These two are so fun to draw! Easily two of my favorite cartoon characters of all time.

This image even has a sort of story so it's not just a generic portrait: Halloween is coming up, and Beavis wants to be Frankenstein's monster. Commence stupid plan involving a lot of pain on Beavis' side, as always. Next would be chucking green paint on him, but Butthead picks up a bucket of acid instead. Go on, you can map out the whole episode in your head, I know I can!

Can you believe I grew up as a kid watching this? Pfft, I turned out just finnuooopaoopkkalllupp what was I saying?

Topical Comic, Oh my!

Postal Strike + Hotel Mario = this thing. Pretend it's a new issue of Manga-Gaga or something. I like making quick comics without the pressure of it being a weekly routine on a website. Mind you, that did keep me drawing a lot.

Cool 2 Chil Concept art and other stuff

Now that Cool 2 Chil is online for all to see, I can show some bits and bobs from the development of the film here. =)

The very first brain storming sketches. Most of these are a bit pants.

Experimented with a whole bunch of styles until I grew to like the character in the top right corner. At first I was going for a simplistic cut out look, but ended up with more organic, traditional characters instead.

From here the sketches are more or less a lot like how the characters looking the final film. This was all before we had a final storyboard down, just tossing ideas around.

A colour chart for the main characters of the film. There was a bit of a mess up at first with the names of the two kids, so right up until the recording session they were known as Robert and Ralph.

EDIT: I found another page of sketches I hadn't scanned yet. The animation didn't come out quite as bouncy as these doodles but maybe that would have been too distracting anyway. I did keep the football idea though, not sure if it really works but it was fun to animate that bit.

You may of noticed the pencil tests at the end of the film in the credits. I might gather all of those up and upload them to youtube later.

'Cool 2 Chil' is online & DVD launch night.

A film I animated for Connexions here in Southend is now up on Youtube. You may of seen bits of this on my show-reel and maybe saw my posts here talking a little about it. In case you were wondering I also did the voices for the two bullies, lol. Right at the end in the credits you'll see some of the pencil tests I did with my Playstation Eye while working on the film. Thanks for uploading it, Terry!

Speaking of which, tonight was the launch of the DVD of which the film has been released on. The disc is provided in a resource pack about young carers that is going to be sent out across schools all over the place, which is nice!

The event was at the Focus Youth center just a walk away from me, and upon walking in these posters with a screen from the film where everywhere! A cuppa of tea, some cake and a chat later and we were called into a cinema room to watch the DVD! Cripes!

Before that there was some powerpoint nattering about the Young Carer's and the club and whatnot. A majority of the audience were from Schools and it was all about getting them aware of the needs of these young chaps that look after their disabled or ill parents. I found this re-working of my art on one of the slides particularly amusing..

Either way the film went down a treat and it's going to be spread about for many to see so I'm rather pleased! :)