New website pending!

 Thanks to the Society of Authors for a grant to cover some bills during this ongoing Cost Of Living Crisis.

I've been awarded another grant for my fine art practice, and with a few recent successful exhibitions, so I'm focussed on that for now.

Once my new website is completed, you will be able to buy prints directly, and from my print on demand sites, and my Etsy shop, which is also undergoing new updates.

This blog will become a subscriber only blog, so details to follow.

Of course, commissions are welcome, so here is some info for mural commissions:

Netflix Fan Art Program

I now have several works accepted into the Netflix Fan Art Program available to purchase in my Redbubble shop, including popular Stranger Things themed Valentines Card designs, Stranger Things Christmas Cards, Joyce Byers designs. 

Take On Me vs Stranger Things

The question that everyone wants to know, especially the Duffer Brothers... 

with a JOPPER wedding for S5... 

What happens when Joyce and Hopper go on a Take On Me style comic adventure?!

Murray of course, takes on the role of that cafe lady, with a fetching apron... But what is this comic that Joyce is reading?

Hopper seems to be trapped in there... WTF?!

 

Logline

 

JOPPER S5 Stranger Things in A-ha’s Take On Me video 

 

 

Synopsis

 

At the end of series 4 of Stranger Things, Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper finally got together as a couple and a new romance blossomed. 

Joyce is sitting in the Byer's kitchen with Murray, reading a comic to seek answers to the problems Vecna has caused while they were away in Russia, when Hopper winks at her, and she is invited into the comic world of A-ha.

Hopper and Joyce dance around a comic frame for a while, when a wrench wielding demorgorgon appears, and they run away, as Hopper knows that setting fire to the comic would be bad, and hide behind a keyboard...

Meanwhile, in the Byers house, El and Mike turn on the TV to see that A-ha's Take On. Me video is on MTV. But El spots something weird - two small figures appearing near the keyboard - but then it skips to Pal playing guitar...

Nancy nonchalantly flicks through the comic on the table, turns the page, and sees JOPPER and the demogorgon running through the pages... 

Various adventures ensue, with Will drawing an eraser to delete the demogorgon from the comic, and Steve Harrington playing TOM on the stereo, before all the ST kids join JOPPER in the comic to dance with A-ha, who are thankful that they erased a monster from their best music video, or the single would never be a hit...

Joyce and Hopper escape into the real world, and Hopper becomes a real man.

They get married.

Dark Horse Comics will never accept this... which is quite honestly wrong, so I'm working on something that they will...!

Caring During A Pandemic #wagesnotclaps

 I obviously did no work during the pando. I couldn't even get online shopping deliveries, and everything kept changing so rapidly that there seemed no point in doing anything except watch the madness unfold and get through day by day.

Cups of fucking tea are supposedly the answer to it all according to people with a "keep calm and carry on" false British pluck spirit - or toxic positivity as I call it.

I made this when I had no iMac.

Pitch illustrations and pricing for online discussions, webinars and workshops

Here are some illustrated pitches following a recent paid online discussion about arts and mental health.

 

Cloudbusting is out now!

Breaking news!

 Cloudbusting is now available to buy as print on demand via Artithmeric!

Available to stock for libraries, bookshops and comic shops with an ISBN number.

See The Lincolnite feature here.

Thanks to my first customers, and for the requests for signed copies.

This version of Cloudbusting will be the first press copy.

The reason for this is because some of the pages are actually missing!

Some of the files were corrupted when my iMac broke down during the first lockdown, and Artithmeric have done a fab job of adjusting the pages, so I am endeavouring to include the missing pages later. 

For anyone that has purchased the early version, there will be a mini zine entitled "Jobkill" as a supplement. In the future, historians and graphic novel laureates will comment that this early version is a very rare copy worth millions of pounds!

Once I have recreated the missing pages, and uploaded a new PDF - which is difficult without the correct software - there will be another version of Cloudbusting. It will probably have a different cover.

Thanks again to everyone that has bought a copy so far!

Thought Bubble 2021

  

Good news! I will be tabling at this year's Thought Bubble Comic Con!

I will have copies of Taped From MTV, Ms Blackbird's Home For Peculiar People, and hopefully some copies of Cloudbusting for publishers, now that I have purchased the ISBN!

I am also hoping to run one or two workshops over the weekend.

All of my work available on Artithmeric is available via this link!

This includes Cloudbusting, the graphic novel, Taped From MTV, and all Cloudbusting merchandise.

I have ordered a limited edition print run of Taped From MTV, so I will have 20 copies to purchase, along with the zine Ms Blackbird's Home For Peculiar People, and other prints, postcards etc. 

I will be at table 58A in the redshirt hall!

I am unsure whether I will be able to bring my all new sanitisation station on the train! But here it is for visitors planning to come!

So, the following is my experiences for my first Thought Bubble Festival!

Arrival!

For information, travel and accommodation was paid for out of my last respite funds. I haven't been awarded any more respite funds for next year, as apparently I'm "just a Mum". So following the advice of Kev Comics, I am thinking of running a workshop in Harrogate to cover this next year if they are still being trying to economically stonewall me.

Who wouldn't want to buy these amazing goodies?

Custom leather jacket

The goal: To earn a minimum of £500 via sales and commissions.

I aimed higher than this, as I need another £800 worth of sales to reach the £1000 turnover threshold to be eligible for a SEISS grant.

Stock value is over £1000, so this was achievable.

Evening doodling at Major Tom's Social for Thought Bubble Broken Frontier Drink N Draw!

The prompt was "The World's Oldest Man", so I drew The Curator from Doctor Who - see below, bottom sketch :-) Someone did the Tenth Doctor when he aged hundreds of years :-)

The Starling Cafe inspires more bird - themed art!

The results: End of Day 1 = No sales :-(

Saturday morning view from The Crowne Plaza hotel window :-)

 I was obviously using respite funds, so I took time out to have a look around Harrogate, and I liked what I saw!

The Pump House Museum and an original sulphur spring! Of course, we had Harrogate Spa water to keep us replenished :-) Except one mad person who brought a bottle of Buxton... Oooh!

I discovered this lovely fika cafe - called Fik! For frokost :-)

But first, kaffe!

I later found the female Thor And Loki! And Una Comics!

Sunday morning, I was invited for a breakfast for kings and queens with Supermeeps at Betty's Tea Room :-)

I need to find the Yorkshire version of Dearnley's Tea-O-Meter I was in the process of making! Here's one for the Care Crisis!

 

Results: Day 2 I sold one print for £18

Lots of interest in Cloudbusting, so I'm still hopeful people will buy a copy online - glad I didn't get loads printed.

And I did get my hands on a Swear Trek badge...

Goal: £500 Actual earnings: £18

Highlights were Nicolas Cage trousers, female Thor & Loki, and the panel about British comics :-)

So, in all, I was glad to have made it, but I'm planning a strategy for how this can be improved.

1. The stall was kindly offered for free by Thought Bubble, so this could be a permanent thing for illustrators who are carers?

Otherwise, I would need to gain either commissions for leather jackets, or workshops sometime before January. I'm currently not planning any workshops until the New Year, unless funding is successful.

2. The hotel and train travel was funded by respite funds, so I will be working towards restoring that funding by July 2022.

Otherwise, I would need to gain either commissions for custom converse, or workshops sometime before November. I'm still working on sourcing funding for more workshops from spring next year, otherwise I could organise one for Harrogate in the week before, or on the Sunday, which was something I had thought of before the weekend, but we had new carpets fitted, so I had no time to organise it.

3. Sales of work! I had over £1000 worth of stock, so a minimum of £300 worth of sales would cover the hotel and train travel! My goal was a minimum of £500, but £800 would make the £1000 threshold to be eligible for a SEISS grant...

I'm starting to think it would be better for business to mint all work as NFTS...

Did I mention sales of work??!