(Reposted from my Tumblr) Hi! I’m getting queries about pre-ordering convention sketches, so I can do them before-hand and take them along to the event for people to pick up. This is a *REALLY* good idea and I cannot emphasize this enough — at events, I am always tired and caffeined up to the teats, so, pre-ordering will *DEFINITELY* mean you’ll get a much nicer product, as I’ll be able to do them on my own terms at home. This isn’t to say I won’t be doing them on the day, but I’m just…. uh, giving a warning(?) XD

My con sketches are on 8.3 x 5.8 bristol board, pencil with a coloured ink wash. (Sorry, don’t have any examples to hand right now!) I charge £10 for these, so you can just chuck that over via Paypal if you like, and I’ll have the sketch for you in a sturdy envelope on the day.

I list all events I’ll be doing at the base of my website’s front page, but just for reference, this year, I’m at Melksham Comic Con and Thought Bubble. (I’m not doing any events next year — taking the time out to finish my book).

Email me (extra.minty@gmail.com) if you wanna get in on thiiiiis! :D

Well, wow!! I was super surprised and rather shocked that The Lost Boy is up on the nominee list for the YPCA this year! The other nominees are rather super, so I’m really quite flattered to be up there with them. I wish everyone the best of luck! It’s great that the BCAs/YPCAs are doing ace work getting these comics into the hands of school-age children… it must be pretty fun to be one of the young people judging the awards, eh :D

Whilst the YPCAs have been running sucessfully for a couple of years now, this is the first British Comic Awards ceremony we will see. I am very excited to see who will be nominated in the categories, and so happy to see such enthusiasm and great care taken over UK comics! Go Brit Comics! :D

Hello! I’ve been bogged down a lot lately…! But quickly, here are two interviews. The first was for Thought Bubble Festival as their series of Minterviews… I’m so excited for Thought Bubble again! It was definitely one of the best shows I’ve ever been to! Click for the interview. The second was for Richard Reynolds of Fanboy Confidential, and was also really fun to answer. I like answering questions ;3; Click for this interview!

I am also excited to be a guest at this weekend’s KAPOW! Comic Festival in London. I’ll be attending on the Sunday, with the Independant Comics panel at 12.45 in Room A, and then signing straight afterwards in the same room, until 2.15. This is a great panel: we have Emma Vieceli, Becky Cloonan and the creators behind Bayou Arcana joining us! Following that, I’ll be at the SelfMadeHero table from 2.30. Hope to see some of you there!

So anyway… here’s four little sketches of characters from A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones (mostly based on the actors portraying them in the series) that I did in a cafe when I was going nuts waiting for a replacement monitor to show up. I’d Instagrammed them at the time, and now I can’t find the originals, so, the Instagrammed versions will have to do, haha.

Hopefully they’re easy enough to figure out who’s who, but just in case, from top right in clockwise motion: Ned Stark, Joffrey Baratheon Lannister Whatever, Jaime Lannister, Sansa Stark. After that I got bored and went home. I should do some more sometime, though, they’re quite fun to draw.

Other than THAT, I’m coming to the end of a series of ilustrations for a perfomance piece as part of the Cultural Olympiad. I hope to be able to share a bit more information on this very soon!

(Quick round-up!)

Thought Bubble was great! It was my first time there, and the first time the comics festival covered the weekend as well. I had masses of fun and I really liked the attendees. I would say a huge number of them were A) younger than me and B) female. Very embarrasingly, I missed the first half of the first panel I was meant to be doing, which was about the then-newly released Nelson… though I did catch the last 20 mins of it and I’m not certain I would have been terribly useful anyway, everyone on the panel looked like they were doing a super job :)

On that note, Nelson is excellent! I’ve finally had a read-through and it is actually quite astonishing as a project. The thing that struck me overall was the vulnerability of Nel, and the emphasis on how quickly our lives rush past, the decisions we have to make in the blink of an eye, and the way memories can transform into stories – almost as if they’d happened to someone else – after a certain length of time. Have you read it yet…? Do you own it? You should! It’s a superb cross-section of the UK comics industry, and the book’s profits go to charity. Please consider supporting it – click here for the Blank Slate store page!

So a week after Thought Bubble (nearly typed ‘Bibble’, tee hee) it was off to Malta Comicon! This was my second overseas convention. We were all very well looked-after as guests, and were treated to some sight-seeing on the following week! We visited the War Museum and the Inquisitor’s Palace. I found the latter absolutely fascinating – I admit that the majority of what I knew about the Inquisition was down to hear-say and its representation in popular culture. So, to discover everything about the Maltese Inquisition was really eye-opening. ALSO! We visited Mdina on the final day, which, as was mentioned off-hand as we entered the city gates, was used as part of the set for King’s Landing in Game of Thrones. I promptly shat myself in excitement… and then my camera battery ran out. Damncakes. I *did* get a fat bunch of photos from the Inquisitor’s Palace however, so I gotta process those and get ‘em up on my Flickr at some point!

But yeah. Was sad not to spot either Jaime Lannister or Corto Maltese. They must have seen my fangirl aura approaching like a swarm of bees and hidden themselves (I don’t blame them).

So, really I’ve been so busy recently I’ve forgotten what my office looks like -_-; I absolutely have to cut down on events next year – my work schedule has really taken it in the face. Gotta try and catch up as much as I can…!

Speaking of work! Did you manage to catch Issue Zero of The Phoenix? :D I had one waiting for me when I got home! It was such a good read, and I’m so excited about January! Please tell me you’ve subscribed? You’ll be getting an awesome product and you’ll also be supporting the UK comics industry!

That’s about it from me… sorry for a non-pictoral post. I know it’s a bit boring :( I’m so squeezed for time at the moment!

Take care! Oh, and if you’re in the Melksham area, me, Emma Vieceli and Paul Duffield are signing and sketching for you at KOMIX on Saturday 10th! See you there…!

Hello! Paul and I have just returned from having a week-and-a-half break in Winchester, following the end of Freakangels. It was nice and relaxing… we got to do a lot of things that generally we are not able to do (like go outside). I actually got a small tan on my left hand. (Seriously).

I took a couple of photos with my “real” camera, which I should process at some point… in the meantime, I did take a few with my iPhone and put them through instagram, which you can see here: http://web.stagram.com/n/autojoy ^_^

I have updated the list of places which are carrying copies of Fish + Chocolate in my shop, which also includes Plan B Books in Glasgow, owned by my university mate Peter! Once again, I am very happy these shops have supported F+C, so if you’re looking to buy a copy and you’re within reach of one of these places, do consider purchasing from there ^_^

I’ve also updated the list of events I am confirmed to be at this year, on the bottom of the front page of my site :)

That’s all! I hope to provide you guys with some more news soon ^_^/