Oh dear me! What an absolutely DEVASTATING hangover!! If you were following me on Twitter on that fateful day, you probably saw the full extent of it. Have literally never felt that close to death before. All I was capable of doing was ordering a pizza, which the delivery man subsequently dropped on the floor. Lucky for him, I was too hungry to complain.

IN OTHER NEWS, I’m at Kapow this weekend at the Business Design Centre in Angel, London. I will be on the mezzanine level at table 179. If you’re in the area, please stop by and say hello. Would be good to see your faces!

Shatter-proof does not mean indestructible!

Going to be at Bristol Comics Expo this weekend selling my wares. If you happen to be in the area, come along and say hi

In what initially seemed like a good idea, I will be sacrificing the next three weekends to sell comics to you, the public. I will be travelling the length and breadth of the country, suitcase in tow, to sample some of this nation’s finest convention centres.

Let’s start from the beginning shall we?

BRITSOL COMIC EXPO: 12-13 May

First up is the Bristol Comic Expo at Brunel’s Old Station in Bristol. I’ve not done Bristol as a convention before and it has been many many years since I’ve properly even been to the city so quite excited about this one. I genuinely have no idea what to expect but I am looking forward to selling to a new audience

KAPOW COMIC CONVENTION: 19-20 May

Having re-stocked the suitcase, it’s time to head down the road to my local convention, Kapow! Again, I’ve not done this convention before but un-like Bristol, I can actually walk there from my house. You can find me at table 179 which is on the mezzanine level to the left of the main entrance. Here’s a helpful diagram:

MCM EXPO: 25-27 May

Finally, fuelled by coffee and falling apart at the seams, Orful Comics heads down to London’s Docklands for the May edition of MCM Expo, by far the most insane convention of the year. I don’t know specifically what table I’ll be on but I will be found somewhere within the Comics Village

SLEEPING: 28 May-25 Oct

I will be mostly sleeping until October’s MCM Expo…

At all conventions this month, I will have the usual array of comics, prints, original art and other junk on sale

Oooooo slow convention days, how I love thee

Since it’s the 100th edition of Orful Comics, I thought I’d take a break.

So here I am, sipping rum on the shores of the Bahamas presenting you with a guest comic from my wonderful friend Pete “Peggles” Gorbert.

Here, he has decided to take his favourite two comics, mine (obv.) and People I Know by Mr. Timothy Winchester and mash them together. LOVE this idea! If anyone else fancies mashing up a comic for me, that’d just be splendid

Oh yeah, and thanks you guys for sticking with me for 100 comics about my face. You’re all the best!

I love Thorpe Park! And yet, despite all the rides that throw you about and turn you upside down, I was most scared of a ride that drops you for a few seconds. Weird

Also, sorry to Jo for putting a big ol’ speech bubble over your face

Also also, I’ve only just realised it looks like Tom is groping my ass

I wouldn’t put it past him

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

I’ve been to a fair few comedy nights over the years, of varying quality it must be said. However turning up at Cavendish Road in Haringey, I knew I was in for something a bit special. You see this comedy night was not being held in a pub or a theatre, it was being held in the host’s HOUSE.

As the guests arrived, we all stood around a little nervously, not quite knowing what was about to happen. Our fears were put to rest however when our host appeared dressed as what can only be described as an incredibly camp Richard O’Brien.

Our host, Mr. James O'Brien

The night was under the premise that an obsessed Richard O’Brien fan had captured various “contestants” and forced them into a bizarre version of the Crystal Maze. We were soon whisked away towards the kitchen to meet our first captive comedian, Sunil Patel. Here we were treated to a fun little tale of failed record attempts, culminating in Patel attempting to eat a whole onion in under 90 seconds. An odd ending to say the least but fitting given the setting. I’m fairly certain that the whole endeavour was caught on video from at least five different angles.

Next up, we were ordered to grab our coats and head out into the garden. Here, behind a toilet bonfire, we met Javier Costales. our second prisoner comedian was a musical act. Unfortunately, most of my memory of this set has been pushed out of my memory by the toilet bonfire exploding halfway through. Sad, as I do remember thoroughly enjoying the music under the stars but having never seen a toilet explode before, my brain took that as a priority.

Once the laughter had died down and the fires put out, we were taken back inside to meet Barry Ferns, our friend who lives in the cupboard under the stairs. Crowding round in whatever space we could find to see this smallest of stages, it was clear that this night was something special. This wasn’t a standard open mic night but more an intimate meeting of friends telling each other funny anecdotes. You really felt like these people actually lived like this and that was a nice feeling.

Fern’s set was a tale of an un-comfortable, potentially dangerous situation brought on by politeness, made all the more funny by its apparent truthfulness. Once finished, Fern returned to his cubby hole and we headed upstairs for a toilet break, only to find Amy Howerska hiding out, drinking wine. Gathering around on the stairs we all listened intently to her stories. Again, this felt like a group of friends just having a chat over coffee and it felt nice.

An absent comedian calls to check in. It's a bad line

Moving on, we headed to the bedroom for something a little different. Here, Keith Foggan and Kieron Coyle played out a comedy sketch reminiscent of Morcambe and Wise’s bedroom sketches. Excellently written and performed brilliantly, the whole room was in stitches, even during a slightly bad-taste Auschwitz pun.

Leaving Foggan and Coyle to get some sleep, we moved on to our final, and possibly most surreal act of the night. With twenty-something people not being able to fit into your average bathroom, most crowded around the door while myself and three others took the plunge and headed in. Here, we were met by Luke Capasso, stripped down to underwear, holding a guitar and shaving his legs. I must say I’ve never had comedy set directed at me from less than a foot away and it was equal parts terrifying and brilliant. Capasso’s set was spot on, reminded us of our own mortality with dead-pan brilliance. How he managed to remain so deadpan after convincing one of our fellow guests to finish shaving his legs for him I’ll never know.

Congratulations for James O’Brien on his first Semi-Detached Comedy Night (held in a terraced house it has just occurred to me). The night could have either been utterly brilliant or completely disastrous and thankfully, it exceeded everyone’s expectations. I shall definitely be keeping an eye out for the next one

Owwy owwy ow!! I can tell you now from multiple experiences that being hit in the foot with bass guitar tuning keys is not a pleasant experience! Do try and avoid it if at all possible. Weird though that I wouldn’t feel the pain from it until I’d actually seen what had happened. Stupid brain

‘Nuff said

Also, Claude’s face.