The Water Closet Press

More Fan Art

2012-03-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys, here is another piece of fan art from my buddy Mike Pasquale, he is currently working on his own project call Jacob Saint. Info for which can be found here . and if you like that y'alll should follow him on twitter on @MikePasquale. His piece is the Moth and boy howdy did he make him look creepy!

Personally i love the creepy full mask. As ever if you have any fan art just let us know by finding us on twitter on on our facebook group http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ladies-and-Gentlemen/302970856398746

England Prevails.

Rik

A Hex on Both Your Houses

2012-03-06T15:53:00.003-08:00

Well, it's that time again: Teaser Tuesday... hey there's 10 minutes to spare until Wednesday, it still counts. This week features The Amazing Hex Vincente in another Ladies & Gentlemen featurette. Stay tuned for more fan art, and the release of The Gent's short feature next time. Enjoy, fine readers.

First Fan Art....wowzers!

2012-03-03T06:24:00.003-08:00

Hey guys, as promised here is some fan art. This piece is by my good buddy and childhood friend Steven Douras. You can find his work here and here . He pretty much knocked this bad boy out of the ball the ball park. Hope you guys like it as much as we do. Hopefully more soon!

To view in FULL SIZE, open link in a NEW WINDOW and zoom right on in!

Sweet!

See you all in the funny pages.

Rik

Sleight of Hand....

2012-02-28T03:31:00.012-08:00

Hey guys, welcome back to teaser Tuesday. This week we have the first ever Ladies and Gentlemen Story (before we even called it that) and what is essentially the creation of Hex, as an older version of himself. For those of you who visited us as Thought Bubble you may have already seen it. It was originally published in an anthology call The Sorry Entertainer by Simon Moreton , a fellow small press creator and wearer of a fantastic beard. The paper was pretty successful and we even got a couple of mentions in some shining reviews. Check them out here

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2011/the-sorry-entertainer/

http://thingsinpanels.co.uk/

http://highlowcomics.blogspot.com/2011/09/small-press-anthologies-three-2-candy.html

Now enough shameless self promotion. Here's the story. The concept for the story is a playing card so its meant to be read in rotation. I've post it twice, once right ways up and the other wrong ways down so you dont have to strain your neck trying to read the second half. Sorry bout that guys. But here at the Water Closet we love physical comics, trust us it really works if your holding a real copy.

To view in FULL SIZE, open link in a NEW WINDOW and zoom right on in!

And here it is upside down so you can read the second half:

Stay tuned because next weeks One page story is another Hex one. See you in the funny books.

Rik

A Moth to The Flame

2012-02-21T05:40:00.003-08:00

Why hello folks. Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for but just didn't know it: The very first of 5 (or so) Ladies & Gentlement character featurettes that will be exclusively appearing right here every fortnight! We hope they will whet your appetites in the interim while we're hard at work on Issue 2. And of course, if you like what you see be sure to pop over to our fantastical Emporium page and get your very own copy of Issue 1.

Signing off,
Jordan

A Depressing Valentines

2012-02-15T06:59:00.000-08:00

So there it is guys our valentines gift to you lot, hope you guys had a nice day. Next week Jordan and I will begin the thumbnails of issue 2. It's our favourite part of comics creation because it when we get a chance to be truely collaborative. Jordan also said he was excited about the script which means I must be doing something right. See you in the funny pages.

Rik

Happy St. Valentine's Day, Ladies and Gentlemen

2012-02-14T01:12:00.010-08:00

in the gutters but looking at the stars....

2012-02-10T08:03:00.000-08:00

Hey Ladies and Gents, another post for you all here. Firstly some business, We sold out in Travelling Man Leeds and OK Comics., we are in the process of arranging some restocking but til then you can always order online from our emporium. JC (who coincidentally got engaged over Christmas, hoorah!) is working on our exclusive online one page stories whilst as of today I have finished the script for issue two.

To wet your beaks for that, we also featured in this little documentary about comics creation that some of our friends made as a third year project. Check it out here!

We've been given so much support from friends and family and would like to give a huge thank you to each and everyone of you. I hope you enjoy Ladies and Gentlemen as much as we enjoy creating it. See you in the funny pages folks.

Rik

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Happy new year all! it's been a while since we updated but here a quick look at what we have going down. Jordan is in the process of returning from Canada as I write this. I'm writing because honestly I'm slacking somewhat. I've spent this week writing the roughest possible draft for Ladies and Gentlemen issue two. It basically has the events of each page listed with the number and construction of panels with very basic dialogue. The following week will be spent getting this down into a digital copy, redrafting and then showing it to Jordan. In the meantime you can expect some of the following things from us;

A bi weekly strip. These will be one page stories that'll tell tales from around the world of L&G in the run up to the release of issue 2
More blogging, hopefully about upcoming projects and conventions we'll be attending.
Not dinosaur mafia. Alas I started doing drawings for a comic that i came up with whilst incredibly ill call Dinosaur Mafia ( its full title is Dinosaur Mafia: The Unlikely Love Story Betwixt a Small African Boy and a Root Vegetable.). I did these drawings to entertain Jordan and admittedly there was a couple of days when I had intentions to go forth into the world with my nonsensical doodles but after drafting a page I realised just how terrible and inconsistent I am and thus have decided to throw the idea away, or a least store it til I find an artist willing to do the art work or Jordan gets 100 people to say they want to see it.
I've started research for a big project, i don't want to give the game away right now and thus far its something i'm doing to entertain myself but if it is allowed to see the light of day i'll let you chaps know.

Anyways, that's all I got for now. In the meantime I'll be working on getting the T-Shirt available to buy online and finally getting round to writing something in the bio pages.

Rik

...oh and before i forget....

2011-12-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

COMING SOON...

Merry Christmas

2011-12-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

Howdy y'all. Given that the festive season is upon us, updates of the blog may fall off with with Jordan heading back to Canada and me having to work every breathing hour to keep people liquored up (in my spare time I will be watching Laurel and Hardy in true Christmas fasion). Anyways, in the meantime I hope you enjoy this pun based doodle I did . Merry Christmas. If this were JC he'd include God bless us everyone.

People I Know Presents: Angela Lansbury Week!

2011-12-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of meeting a very pleasant fellow during my time spent wandering away from our Water Closet/Biz Horne table at Thought Bubble last month. Timothy Winchester, was his name, author of the adorably simplistic People I Know. Standing behind his colourful table, he beckoned me from across Sevilles Hall so he could compliment my mutton chop sideburns. That was nice. And then, without having ever seen anything I'd ever drawn (presumably his faith was instilled by the facial hair alone), he asked me if I wanted to participate in his upcoming Angela Lansbury week for his blog. That was nice too. And THEN, still without having ever seen anything I'd ever drawn, he bought an issue of Ladies & Gentlemen I had under my arm, right on the spot (again: sideburns). What a friendly man, Timothy Winchester.

So, here is a sneak peek of my contribution. When I think Angela Lansbury, I'm reminded of some of my fondest on-screen childhood memories and the armour finale scene from Bedknobs and Broomsticks has to be one of the best. If you've seen the movie, you'll remember that Substitutiary Locomotion is the name of the incantation Angela's character is trying to perfect throughout the film in order to animate objects...
and it makes a catchy little musical number too! Go check out Mr. Winchester's blog at timothywinchester.blogspot.com to see a whole bunch of other People Tim Knows' doodles of their favorite incarnations of Ms. Lansbury.

In other news, issues of Ladies & Gentlemen seem to be just-about-nearly flying off the shelves of our local comic stores, which is swell. Richard and I are also going to be filmed this very evening for a documentary on young people breaking into the art scene in the UK. But I'll leave it to my fine writer Mr. Worth to describe this all in more detail later. Until then, keep it real. Or, stay something or other. I don't know how to sign off a blog post.

Jordan

Small press Leeds!

2011-11-29T10:53:00.000-08:00

Having been talking about trying to build up the small press scene in Leeds, our buddy Biz Horne made this poster. It's fantastic and features our scottish ginger darling Sarah Cooperthwaite. They all look hot and this is frankly fantastic!

At some point in the near future the Water Closet will do a little FML strip in return but for the time being Biz nailed it! Nasty Bizness and the Water Closet Wenches!

Another little comic

2011-11-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, after yesterday's little doodle of Flyboy I came up with another vaguely upsetting image. In other news Ladies and Gents goes on sale tomorrow in OKComics who are having a massive small press push. Why not check it out

A quick update

2011-11-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hello, just a quick update here to let you all know what's going on in the Water Closet. A bunch of you have bought issue one which is greatly appreciated and so far the feedback has been great. In other news we are currently working with Biz Horne in a documentary being made about people trying to break into the comics industry so I'm sure the upcoming weeks will be filled with news of that. Since we're on the subject of Biz, she is working on one of her FML comics but is going to feature our character Sarah from Ladies and Gentlemen. The hope is that we can do a story for her in return and really get some camaraderie going in the Leeds comics scene.

Also Ladies & Gentlemen is available to purchase in all comics shops in Leeds, so if your in Yorkshire you can get a first hand look at the issue in Travelling Man, OK Comics or Forbidden Planet. I think that's all for now.

Although I did draw this today and hoped you guys would like it.

Good Day to you Sirs

Rik

Special Thanks

2011-11-27T13:11:00.001-08:00

Here is a document uncovered in the special collections section of the Leeds Public Library. Rather unbelievably, it details all those whom we are indebted to for their support, encouragement, and generosity. All these fine folks made it possible to print Water Closet's first ever comic, Ladies & Gentlemen...

Thank you all, and we are presently endeavouring to put together all your well-deserved rewards packages!

Have a little read.

2011-11-21T15:47:00.000-08:00

Howdy all, you can now read the first few pages of our comic for free just by clicking on our Gallery and if you like it and want to find out what happens you can go to the Emporium and buy an issue via paypal. Hope you guys like what you see.

Have fun folks and remember if you like us tell your friends, share the link, tweet, whoop and holla. It helps us out so much.

Cheers Rik

Thought Bubble, or "Our First Convention and What we Learned."

2011-11-21T08:51:00.000-08:00

Day One: The day of optimism and uncertainty

Richard Worth and Jordan Collver losing their convention virginity.

Well, here it is our Thought Bubble blog post. In summary, it was one hell of an event. We were stationed over in The Royal Armouries (my former employers) on a table with the lovely Biz Horne. Our comics couldn't have clashed more. Ours is a classic comic affair promoting Victorian action adventure and moustaches, whilst Biz is trying to raise awareness of the very real and serious issue that can arise in forced marriages. Recipe for a comedy sitcom you say? Well yes. I think both team WaterCloset and Team FML had a good time and we got to get some exposure at our first ever con. Also Biz brought biscuits. My hero!

The lady Biz and myself on day one.

Business went well, with a few friends coming to pick up their donation prizes and a few strangers buying the odd issue. We gave a couple of statements into the odd dictophone too! The vibe at Though tbubble is always great so although we weren't selling massively we were still very excited to be there. What happened next though was... intense. We hit the after party festivities around half eight having already had a celebratory curry and excited at the thought of being able to mingle with other creators. And that we certainly did. We ran into our omni-present, energetic, flip-flopped printer Stuart Gould of UKomics, and I finally got to meet the devilishly suave Simon Moreton of Smoo Comics who is in fact our very first publisher. We appeared in a Newspaper called The Sorry Entertainer, you should check it out! I also briefly chatted to Kieron Gillen on his way to the DJ booth. I've met Keiron before; I was drunk then too, and looked like this...

Travelling Man birthday celebration costume.

For those of you who haven't read Phonogram Singles Club, that's me dressed as Seth Bingo, Gillen's douchebag DJ. Bumping into a creator dressed as one of his characters is a bit like standing at the front row of a gig in the band's t-shirt. It makes you look a bit crazy. Anyways, Kieron was very nice and dissapeared to go drop a dancefloor bomb. That left us to chat with Cameron Stewart. He was on the next table to us and at the party gave us some valuable tips on how to get our names out there. He also said that the comic "looks good" which will be going on issue two's cover. He's also Canadian, much like Jordan. They bonded.

Cameron Stewart, Eisner Winning well of advice to newbies and sayer of the word "Eh?"

Whilst I'm talking about the afterparty its worth mentioning a number of things. Namely that the Jeramiah Weed Co. table giving away free cups of delicious sour mash and ginger ale helped to get the party started. A number of bizarre events followed. My good friend Nick Robinson (not the news guy) had to take his shoes of too dance as his shoes were hurting him. He's 6'7''.

This is what his shoes look like: Preposterous...

Here's what his shoes look like next to Jordans head:

Princess Leia, but not.

The free drinks, which incidentally was only supposed to be one per guest, turned into several and resulted in me coaxing Jordan into dancing his weird marionette dance as I drunkenly chatted to strangers about any and everything. Photographic evidence can be found over on my facebook page but, unlike the fine beverages of sir Jeramiah Weed, aren't fit for public consumption. Needless to say, much of Team Water Closet ended up looking a bit like this...

Sexy.

Anyway we met some lovely creator-folk who you can find on twitter, @kenkills @lolapoodlegirl and @ailishoctigan are amongst them.

Day two: The day of mist and hangovers

Day two: Hungover... enter: My recovery hat.

The start of day two hurt alot. We'd lost a lot of pep, mostly due to lack of sleep, our new bestfriend Cameron Stewart was missing, and I'd given up trying to look presentable. But on the plus side day two was the day of strangers. Footflow was a bit slower, giving the chance for other creators to wander around in a similar haze, on the look out for something good to pick up. This meant we got to meet a lot of peple and spread our name a bit. Kieron Gillen even came back and bought an issue. Nice guy. Unfortunately Biz jumps ship slightly early meaning we had no biscuit based support, but on the upside when Cameron did arrive he flicked our buddy the bird which was hilarious. We managed to make it through the festival alive which is bonus. We made friends and got to show some strangers the book. We also got a few tips and tricks from the veterans which helped immensely. We're now on the lookout for more cons to hit up and shops that want to shelf our book.

Thought Bubble was my first ever convention a few years ago back when it was starting out. Now being on the other side of the table there makes me feel immensely proud -- its unlike any other convention. Everybody has a good time and whether you're there as a creator or not, there is always a very welcoming feeling. Fingers crossed we'll be there again next year . We've learned that despite the hard work we've already put into creating the comic, we've still got a lot of hard work to do. We've learned that getting hammered mid con isn't always a great idea, and that you should always take a closer look before buying a drink for a guy you only think is Tony Harris (when it really isn't). And most importantly we've learned that other creators are in the same boat as you (or were at some point) and are largely nice people who still love comics and want to check you (and your comics) out.

Coming soon will be news on how to purchase online and a few pages from the comic for y'all to fix your eyeballs on.

Good day to you, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Rik

Thought Bubble update...

2011-11-20T16:46:00.001-08:00

Hey y'all, we had a great time at Thought Bubble and got to hang out with some great people. Over the next week i'll be posting up the various pictures and tales from the events, but right now its time for me to pass out.

Rik

For those of you that haven't seen this...

2011-11-10T06:08:00.000-08:00

I made this comic about the creative process. Its not true, Jordan and I have a very good working relationship, also note that Jordan's illustrations are a lot better than mine and can be found here whilst my ramblings can be found here . Anyway i hope this makes you laugh.

The first of many....

2011-11-10T05:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks,

Welcome to the Ladies and Gentlemen blog. This is where we plan to have most of our updates and ramblings about the comic but you can also get information hereand you can follow us on Twitter via @WaterClosetPres .

We've got alot coming up in the next few weeks, namely the launch that will be happening at the fantastic Thought Bubble Festival here in sunny Leeds.

After that i'll be setting up a link to buy the comic on eBay for those of you that missed out on the ground floor.

See y'all in the funny books.

Rik