Orful Comics

Well it’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks here at Orful Comics HQ. Thought I’d give y’all an update on what’s been going on

First up, I will be attending Comica Comiket on Saturday. I’ll have half a table there and will be selling the usual stuff. All the books, artwork, prints and Paper Science. If you have a spare couple of hours, come on down and say hi. Not done a convention of just small pressers in a long time so I’m pretty excited.

Next, you may have seen that recently My Cardboard Life celebrated it’s 700th strip recently. Philippa ran a week of guest comics to mark the occasion and yours truly submitted one. You can see it in the blog.

In more comics news, I’ve spent this week working on a submission to Cambridge University’s 9th Art Magazine, a free magazine entirely dedicated to comics. I didn’t have much time to spend on it but I’m actually really happy with the result. Here’s a little preview.

A final piece of non-comics news, I was recently asked to design the album sleeve for Wobbly Squadron’s new single. Was a pleasure to work on and I can’t wait to see it in real life. Here’s a little sneaky peek

Anyhow, that’s all for now. See you all on Saturday. I’m gonna draw some more stuff

-Rob

Good day to y’all!

As is the Friday tradition here at Orful HQ, there is a new comic up on the site. Go check it out here!

Couple of bits of news this week. First up, reviews! Richard from the wonderful Forbidden Planet International blog did a write up of some of my books. How nice is that?! Read all about it here.

Secondly, next week sees the inaugural London Super Comic Con at the Excel Centre in London’s shiny docklands. As per my quest to attend roughly 8 million conventions this year, Orful Comics will be represented in the small press section. Sadly, can’t tell you exactly what table I’ll be at as I don’t know myself right now but as soon as I DO know, I’ll let y’all know.

I’ll be selling all the usual junk there. Books, prints, original artwork and Paper Science, that stuff. If you’re attending, do come say hi. I’d like to see your face!

Following on from that is my next piece of news. After a bit of a panic regarding finances, I am delighted to announce that Orful Comics: Volume 2 will be making its debut at Super Con! I am told that the books will be delivered on Monday in what can only be described as an amazing bout of efficiency from the printers and I will be selling them all weekend at my table. Quite excited about this one as it has what I consider to be my best work to date in it and I can’t wait to see it in the flesh (paper). I will make them available in the store after the weekend and will try and do a comic shop drop-off in the next couple of weeks.

Here’s the cover

That’s all for now, have a nice weekend

-Rob

Roughly a year ago, I had an email from Matt Sheret from We Are Words And Pictures asking me if I wanted to contribute a page to Paper Science 7.

Obviously I jumped at the chance and spent the best part of a year procrastinating until I finally knocked something together at the last minute.

Well guess what guys! Paper Science has LANDED!

Featuring stories from myself, Adam Cadwell, Marc Ellerby, David O’Connell, and more, Paper Science looks like being a real treat! It’s also looking like being the last one for the forsee-able future so make sure you get while you can.

They cost £3 and can be bought from here. I will also have them with me at the many conventions I’ll be attending this year, but more on that later in the week.

Very happy with my entry actually. Has been fun to work in colour for once and very keen on getting more colour stuff done. It’s strange how I found myself drawing differently with the intention of a full colour end product.

Thanks a bunch to Matt for giving me this opportunity. It’s nice to know something I’ve done will actually be seen by lots of people so thank you so much.

In other news, off to the launch of the Ben Kinsella exhibition tonight to see the other big comics project I’ve been working on in situ. Very excited to see it! Again, more on that later in the week.

Until then, peace out homies!

-Rob

Hi all! Merry Christmas and junk. Hope y’all be stuffing your faces right now.

Anyways, final update of the year here at Orful HQ and boy have I been busy lately!

First up, reindeer!

I recently got the amazing opportunity through work to make a Christmas animation to go around the top of the BT Tower in London. It was a lot of fun to do and made me smile seeing it on the way to work every day. Was nice to be able to wish the whole of London a Merry Christmas in my own little way. Here’s a vid of it:

Next up, comics!

As you no doubt are aware, the usual update schedule has been put on hold for a little while so I can get a few other projects out the door. Well you’ll be glad to know that they are both pretty much done! Woohoooo! and in time for Christmas too!

The first of these projects is for anti knife-crime charity, The Ben Kinsella Trust. They are organising a touring exhibition to educate children on the dangers of carrying knives and kindly asked me to create a comic to go up on two of the walls. Really happy with the results of this and it’s great to know that a lot of people will be seeing my work and that it’s for such a good cause. Here’s a little preview image:

The other big project I’ve been working on is for the amazing newspaper anthology Paper Science. I had an email at the start of the year from Matt asking if I’d like to be in Paper Science 7 in a travel themed issue. Obviously, I jumped at the chance! I was hoping to be a good boy and get it done early in the year so I wouldn’t have to worry about it but then tragically, writer’s block struck me hard in the face. I tried writing a few things which then didn’t seem right. I then tried to do something a bit more personal and introspective than usual but then I felt like I was dumping problems on my audience. I tried out abstract but then I’m not so good at abstract. Eventually October came around and I had no ideas and ever decreasing amounts of time.

So I forced myself to smash out a semi auto-biographical strip with some jokes in it and got to work on some of the best artwork I’ve done yet in a comic. This, thankfully, worked. Here’s a preview:

Paper Science lands sometime in January? (Matt if you’re reading, when does Paper Science land?)

With those out of the way, I can now start working on stuff for myself again. YIPPEEEEE!!

Been working on a couple of website updates ready for the re-launch in January you’ll be glad to hear and also, I decided to draw some stuff that’s not for anything whatsoever other than my own personal enjoyment. Fans of Adventure Time, peep this:

Merry Christmas folks

Hey all!

So yeah! WTF is up with this no comics shit?!

As some of you may or may not know, the past few months has been a hectic mess of moving house, too many projects and other stuff, whilst still trying to hold down a paying job. I am TI-ERRRRED man!

Two of the big projects I’m working on lately are getting close to deadline dates now and I still have a fair amount to do which is why I’ve made the tough decision to shelve Orful Comics for the rest of 2011. As much as I love putting out a weekly comic, carrying on trying to do this with everything else on is proving detrimental to all projects, which I don’t want. I’m sure you don’t want that either.

So what happens next?

I will still be working on the comics in-between the other projects I’m doing but giving myself the luxury of a bit of time to work on them properly and hopefully might build up a bit of a buffer in that time which in the long term also means better comics as I’ll still have a bit of leeway to work at a reasonable pace.

I plan to make a return to the regular schedule on 13th January so keep your eyes peeled!

On a positive note, I am so happy with the way this year has gone for Orful Comics. Since 2011 rolled in, I have so far only missed one deadline, and that was a server failure and so completely beyond my control. I’ve seen the quality and quantity of my work increase and have loved seeing so many people at conventions being interested and complimentary of the comics. It’s also been great to meet so many new people in the small press scene this year and I thank you all for spurring me on to keep doing this! CHEERS ALL!!

So you’re going on a break. What are your plans for next year?

Next year is all about carrying on the momentum I feel I’ve built up throughout this year. The comic will continue to update every single Friday. I will finally get Scene City 3 finished (maybe even 4 too). I may even get a couple of mini projects I’ve been wanting to do out there too! I will be doing MORE conventions than ever (May is looking… tiring) and I will, as ever, love every minute of it!

WELP! That’s me done here for 2011! Time to make a brew, stick the feet up on the lightbox and take it sloooooooooooooooow

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

-Rob