scarygoround

It's not all rainclouds

Last week I posted that the next Steeple story would be the last, as Dark Horse didn't want any more. People were very nice, and posted the words I fear the most, "can't wait to see what you do next".  Yeah, me too. I have no idea what that will be.

But while I feel on the one hand that I didn't make as many pages of Steeple as I could have (about 500 in total, including the Author Unknown and Steeple Lite), 500 is still a lot. I started tinkering with the series in 2018 a...

Read STEEPLE 19: Maggie's Party pt 2 in full now

Here it is, the penultimate issue of Steeple. Issue 20 will be the last, but believe me when I say that I am going out with a bang. Your PDF is linked under the cover - let me know if you enjoyed the issue in the comments.

Girlspy

People sometimes write and ask if I have a PDF of a standalone book I did in 2003 (2003!) called "Girlspy". I tell them I will "dig it out". I have just dug it out for you. I apologise if anything in this book offends modern sensibilities. i am too scared to look inside it to find out. Link at the bottom of the post.

The new Steeple PDF will be up on Monday - the penultimate issue, alas. Dark Horse passed on volume four, so after issue 20 it will be time to move on. While this Patreon s...

2024: A new decade

Just some of the hot stories coming up* in 2024, an arc I like to call "Things Snowball".

*Allegedly

Survival of the flattest

ANECDOTE

I used to post loads of fun sketches on Patreon, I was a sketchbook monster and trees feared me. Sadly, circumstances are not currently conducive to fun drawing. My train rides into London (where I would scrawl to kill 45 minutes) have vanished with my move north, and my new house is a mess of renovations, which make it a less than harmonious etching zone.  

Should I tell you what happened when the chimney breast was opened up and decades of ancient soot f...

Sending to print

There have been many versions of this cover, but this is the one I am sending to print. I'll have copies at Thought Bubble, a couple of UK retailers will have them, and the rest will go to Topatoco. 40 pages, colour, A5.

Steeple 19 cover

To celebrate the end of my long writing stint, here's the cover for the next Steeple issue, number 19. I start work drawing this today. My plan is to conclude the current Steeple arc with #20 (which would run at the start of January), take a little break to bring you something else, then return with more.

Read STEEPLE 18: Maggie's Party pt 1 in full now

Twenty-five years since the first Bobbins comic was put on the internet... and no visible improvement has occurred ho ho! But I'll keep trying, at least until we reach the 50th anniversary, when I will retire. I'll be 72 and enough will, quite frankly, be enough at that point.

A new story for you! This is a two parter, and I think a further issue (number 20) will round out the current arc. I've not spoken to Dark Horse about a volume four as I've been writing something else for them, bu...

PDF bonus: Human Soup

A Patreon subscriber emailed to ask me about the availability - or otherwise - of a comic I made called Human Soup. This was a 24-hour comic I did for the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in 2015.

The event itself was enormous fun. I was in a big room with some other great artists. What I produced is, I think, not brilliant, and I think it's made worse by the fact that I managed to make ...

A robot, in disguise

I hope you have been enjoying Hell On Wheels, as it moves into its final week. Like Kit + The Wolf, it draws on the first comics I made as a child, the Marvel UK Transformers comics that made me want to make my own. Now that I've moved in my new house and begun to settle back into a routine, I can literally set childish things aside. The difference may not be immediately obvious.

Of course, it is a hubristic act to think that you can make a Transformers comic, because no characters are ...

Something from TCJ

The Patreon has been quiet for the last month because I have been moving into a new house and it has thrown up some challenges that, I am sure, will find their way into "the work", so I will not detail them here. I had a few weeks off just to concentrate on moving/phoning up people who could deal with an excess of dirty water approaching from several directions, but now am slowly working my way back into action mode. 

Today I have a really great piece about the history of webcomics...

Read STEEPLE: Hell On Wheels pt 2 in full now

Here's part 2 of Hell On Wheels. I hope you enjoy it. I was pleased with it when it was finished. I've hit my stride with these new stories, I'm hard at work on the next one, "Maggie's Party (pts 1&2)". Trying to get as far ahead as I can before I have to take time out from webcomics to write another Dark Horse limited series.

Your PDF is linked under the cover.

Fruit sequence

Easy peelers, prune, tomato trio. Each conveys a unique vibe. Drew these for my own amusement.

Great British Bump-Off issue 4 preview

Issue 4 is out on Wednesday. Written by me, art by Max Sarin, colours by Sammy Borras, letters by Jim Campbell, variant cover by Benjamin Dewey. This is the last one!

"Breakthroughs occur in the case of the mysterious UK Bakery Tent poisoning as Shauna gets closer to solving the mystery while hoping not to get battered in the process. Can she unlock the conspiracy and trap the poisoner in time, or will they slip through her buttery fingers?"

25 Years On part 1

Prior to publishing the first Bobbins comic online, I hadn't published anything. I'd barely shown the comics I'd made to anybody. When I did, they didn't really have any frame of reference for what I was trying to do, and generally people just couldn't understand what I was making them for. I remember after a productive few weeks in 1997, tacking a load of pre-Bobbins comics on my shared university h...

Preparing for SGR25 pt 2

I mentioned yesterday that I am contemplating making a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle to commemorate my 25th comics anniversary. The barrier to this is my high  standard of jigsaw picture appreciation and the commensurate effort and personal skill required to hit that standard. I want a lot of little people. I want a lot of textures to aid construction of largely homogenous zones. I don't want a lot of sky. I want a little story in there. I want some structures. I want some repetitive elements...

Preparing for SGR25 pt 1

On September 10th it will be the 25th anniversary of the first "Bobbins" comic being published. I'd like to celebrate this with a fulsome programme of events but as always, I have had no time to prepare anything and as a result, this epochal moment will pass with only the sound of a damb squib being stamped upon. I've not even started the commemorative jigsaw puzzle design. 

At best I will write an essay, an essay overshadowed by a powerful awareness that a. I was very luc...

Music desk: 2023 so far

As we are nearly halfway through the year, here are some new records I've enjoyed, with links to them on Spotify. I'm still going through a few things that make it harder than usual to keep finding new music and give it proper attention, but I've still heard some great sounds this year so far. Here are ten of them, in no particular order:

NORM - Andy Shauf
2023-06-22 15:54:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Cover workshop continued

This week I am writing Steeple 18, so here's the cover. I'm trying some different things with these covers because I think that is legitimate. It's not like they will ever appear on any shelf. 

This one features all the chillwave notions that you love. I hope you enjoy my nutty sky gradients and surf Maggie. What is this issue about? You will have to wait a while to find out. 

I...

GDxB cover: long national nightmare over

Thank you to the multiple patrons who suggested the idea below. Needless to say, it worked like a charm and I can now relax and plan the party (and by party, I mean printing invoice).

Great British Bump-Off issue 3 (of 4) preview

Out June 14th!

"Arriving in comic stores and digital next week, Dark Horse will be releasing The Great British Bump-Off #3, an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set in the world of English competitive baking from Giant Days‘ John Allison and Max Sarin."

Cover workshop

I've been trying to do a new cover for Giant Days x Batman that doesn't have Batman on it like the original does (this seems wise). I really liked the original, which makes the job a lot harder. I've produced several bad covers, here are two that were okay but I didn't feel really spoke to my "aesthetic". Neither has been "finished" but I thought they were fun enough to show here.

Making multiple failed covers for something usually coincides with being tired, but nothing revives me like...

A daft laugh with Photoshop's new AI features

The new Photoshop beta has the Adobe Firefly AI features built in so I have been playing with them. While obviously I fear AI taking my job (and everyone else's) I do think it has a significant role as a visual aide when built into software when you, like me, are not the absolute king of visual imagination. While its efforts to rework my characters were predictably not great, when I gave it panels to to extend, I found the results quite interesting. So here are a few for your amusement.

Read STEEPLE: Hell On Wheels pt 1 now

There was only a one-off special last year, but Steeple is back back back for an extended run beginning with a new two-part story, HELL ON WHEELS! I hope you enjoy part one - let me know in the comments if you do. Part 2 will follow on July 17th.

Your PDF is linked under the cover.

Rejects 6/18

Three comics from June/July 2018 that I don't think ever ran. Each betrays the state of mind of the author at the time ie f*ck this sh*t. Not a good time for my mind, I was burned out beyond belief. But in retrospect, each is interesting.

GDxB cover quest begins

I'm working on a print version of the Giant Days x Batman crossover to sell "under the table" at conventions. For fairly obvious reasons, I won't be putting Batman on the cover, mentioning his involvement, or selling it through my website. I made a cover that I thought was okay but didn't 100% feel like a cover I want to put on this book. I want something a bit more energetic and "Giant Days". 

But I post it here (at the point I abandoned it - there were more elements that I never ...

Steamboatin’

Not long until Steamboat Willy is out of copyright and I can start the next phase of my career.

More bookplates

These are to go with Great British Bump Off trade paperbacks (out for Christmas 2023). It's a "recipe card" - a real Fanny Cradock recipe! Please forgive that I have drawn the characters rather than Max - I do dabble in a few etchings from time to time. A poor thing but mine own.

Issue 2 is out now in comic shops!

2023-05-15 18:17:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Great British Bump Off #2 preview

Great British Bump Off #2 is out next week and here is a preview.

“As Shauna Wickle continues to try to solve the mysterious poisoning amongst her fellow baking contestants, she decides to go full Poirot-mode just in time for the deadly technical baking challenge!”

The Great British Bump Off #2 will be available at your favourite local comic shop and 2023-05-04 11:04:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Bookplate duty

Drawing an exclusive bookplate for Gosh Comics in London today. It took three tries, attempts one and two were extremely creatively mundane. But I thought this one had a bit more about it.