Gentzilla

Richard and I had a blast at the London MCM this past weekend.  Here is something I did to keep my hands from idleness over the two days...

The text is taken from a print by artist Dowaito and master calligrapher Tanaka Shinko and means "counter poison with poison" or "fight fire with fire".  There is currently no known reason as to why The Gent would ever be so huge.

Oh and also, check out what the stupendous Pete Taylor of the Swansea Comics Collective bequeathed to us at the Bristol Expo a few weeks ago!

The Gentry a la Pete Taylor

Well, that's all for now. We'll try and give a more detailed report of our past two cons in the near future, but you know what we're like.

Signing off,

Jordan

THE IRREGULARS IS HERE

Good afternoon Ladies, Gentlemen and everything betwixt,

After a monumental wait due to a shipping error we finally have The Irregulars! For those that don't know Irregulars is our huge anthology book featuring a huge number of creators of huge talent! Just how huge and how talented you ask? Here are the contributors:

Tony La Vella, Rafael Desquitado Jr., Pete Taylor, Lisa Harrison and Matt Watson, Petri Hanninen, Robert Levebvre and Kierston Vendekraats, Chris Redfern and Darren Mullen, Sarah Rowles, Nick Soucek, Matt Duncan, Biz Stringer-Horne, Paul Bradford, Chris Mole and Brendan Purchase and Ben Wilsonham, Mike Pasquale, Dave Evans, Luke Halsall and Gavin Pollock and Andrew Scaife, Jamie Lewis, Alfie Gallagher, Marco Brunello, James Story, Pyrink and of course Richard Worth and Jordan Collver.

The Book itself comes in at a wow-hopping 130+ pages and needless to say we're  proud as any parents could be of this baby. With a mixture of black and white comics, colour comics, prose, poems, tabletop games and a foreward by none other than Master Stuart Gould of UKcomics, we don't mind saying that its a good looking little chap. Head over to the Emporium to pick up your copy.

For those of you that haven't read Ladies & Gentlemen yet, you need not fear; not only can you read the first issue entirely for free over on the Ladies and Gentlemen tab (at the top of the page) or if you're feeling saucy, you want to pick up the first two issues head over to the Emporium Tab. But failing even that, the book itself is full of stand alone adventures and a jumping on point in for new readers

This is just the cover, it's as pretty on the inside and after all that's what's really important.

In other sadder news, Ladies & Gentlemen will be taking a short hiatus. But belay your cries and fears, the Water Closet Press is a strong as ever an we will continue to create comics till our last days. The hiatus is a tactical decision on our part. We are currently working on a graphic novel that will have a lot of the same themes and ideas as L&G but will be much larger in scope. Cutting awayL&G is our way of getting the best out of both projects. We didn't want to split our time between the two in such a way as to thematically bankrupt the larger book or to draw attention and effort  away from the Gentry, who have been very good to us.  Having said that, this is by no means the end of the Gentry but merely a temporary departure. We have much more in store for them.  Furthermore, with the success of The Irregulars at conventions we have been talking about putting together another anthology in the hopes that more people with get to play around in our universe and we can keep the adventures of the team going in a smaller format. 

Other than that, stay tuned for more stories coming your way. We've been talking about sci-fi a lot lately.... Just sayin'.

Anthology Update & Thought Bubble 2013

Welcome to 2014 everybody!

Long time no see.  It's been a whirlwind over at Water Closet headquarters!  Last time we saw you we had just gone to print with our mighty anthology and were about to head off to Thought Bubble.  We got the chance to meet some of our fine contributors while we were there and give them some copies of the book, still warm from the printing machine. They were only delivered (by hand!) to us that morning by the omnipotent Stuart Gould, and nothing compares to that feeling when we first opened the first box and laid eyes on the beauts.  It was a treat to share that with many of you, and get such positive feedback from passers by.

Sitting directly to our left was Adam & Hillary Steel, the fine folks from Darkmook Paper Miniatures.  Adam was kind enough to do a Gentrified version of his insanely fun tabletop combat game for the back of the book (pictured below sans Were-Hyenas, of which there are 4).  For those of you awaiting the board on which to play, hold on to your butts because it will soon be available right here for free download.  You can print it out, cut out your paper figurines and have a ball. 



Get out of my kitchen!

Weren't at Thought Bubble, you say? Where can you get your hands on a copy of The Irregulars, you ask?  Well, despite selling well at the convention, we still had too many books to be able to transport them back to Bristol, so at the moment our stock is in the capable hands of the Travelling Man comic shop in Leeds.  From there they will be distributed to the other Travelling Man shops (Manchester, Newcastle, York) and back down to us.  Once that happens we will finally be able to ship out copies to all the very patient individuals who lent us their talents for the book, and to those interested in buying online.

So watch this space and we'll let you know when we have our books back and ready to go!  In the meantime, go read some comics and them make some comcis.  I leave you with a comission I did of a battle damaged Gent...

Peace,

Jordan 

"Irregulars" - The Ladies & Gentlemen Anthology

The Water Closet Press is very pleased to announce that our very first anthology has been finished and sent off to press.  Featuring the work of some 28 contributors and 20-something stories, it's coming in at a whopping 136 pages.

We will be launching the book at this year's Thought Bubble in under a fortnight's time. Pop by our table and pick one up, then walk around the convention in hunt of signatures from all other contributors in attendance. Collect five, meet us at the after party and we'll get you a pint. Probably.

The Irregulars be also available at any subsequent conventions that we attend (TBA), online through UKcomics, and on the shelves of select comic book retailers (TBA).

See you in the funny books folks.

Love,
Rik and Jordan

Redd Rockz and Submission News

So, here it is, our very first paid piece as the Water Closet press. It's a promotional piece that will be appearing in Manic Mosh magazine. We met the editor at MCM in London who was won over by Jordan's cover work. The brief was pretty simple: "A one page comic that promotes alternative model Redd Rockz." I think originally there was talk of some kind of superhero origin story, but I decided that was lame and opted for the more noir type tale. One page really isn't enough to play around with story. It would work fine for a gag or a last panel twist but since we we're being paid to promote I didn't feel comfortable doing that. Similarly I made Redd herself the McGuffin of the tale rather than the protagonist. That free'd us to play with her range in modelling styles and didn't force a character we'd created into her real life repertoire. Originally I wanted Jordan to have a frog in a top hat playing the trombone sat atop panel one as a little nod to our first ever creation The Land of All Sorts , but he claims it didn't fit...

...and instead left an easter-egg to another one of our creations. See if you can spot it. Now without further gilding of the lilly. REDD ROCKZ. 

Click to Enlarge

Don't forget guys we are still looking for artist and prose stories for our anthology book coming out in October. Check out the full details for submissions here. We have so many fantastic teams already on board and the book is really shaping up to be diverse, fun, silly and action-packed so why not get involved. 

This is the Voice of Richard, England Prevails.

MCM London 2013

Good day to you all!

Just a quick update to let you all know what's going on in the Water Closet. We attended MCM London last month and it was our most successful convention to date. In fact at the moment we don't own any issues of Ladies and Gentlemen issue 1. WE SOLD OUT!!! Whilst this is obviously fantastic news for us it does mean that issue one is only available to read on the blog. But dry those tears, we will be getting our fourth run of the book done in time for our next convention.

Happy as clams. Photo courtesy of Paulus Van of Manic Mosh Magazine.

Which reminds me, at our next convention we will also be launching our anthology book. We've had a bunch of great submissions already and there is still time to enter with prose stories and art work. We also have a bunch of scripts waiting to be picked up so if you like making comics, whether it will be your first or your millionth book, get in touch with us. The final deadline for artwork is OCTOBER 1ST so there is still plenty of time to join the Water Closet Press.

Also whilst I've got you, why not check out this interview we did for the 20 Minute Longbox Podcast. We talk about Ladies & Gentlemen and our adaptation of (part of) Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" which can be found under the Weird Planet tab at the top of this page.  It's a great show and Stephen is a friend of ours so why not check it out.

That's all for now. At least all I can remember. See you in the funny pages.

Rik

Water Closet Press Interviewed by the Swansea Comics Collective

www.sccassemble.co.uk

Rich and I feature in a Mr & Mrs-style round of "Who's Your Comic Crush?" Q&A hosted by the fine folks over at the Swansea Comics Collective.  Go check out their blog (here) to learn our inner-most comic secrets! Then get yourself a copy of their Copperopolis anthology.  If you read that aloud it's almost poetic.

This was alot of fun to.  If you're an indie/small press creator, get in touch with the SCC and have a go yourself! 

Don't forget: We will be at the MCM London Expo this weekend so if you're in the neighbourhood, stop by our table in Comic Village.  See you there!

-JC

Water Closet @ Bristol Comic Expo 2013

Water Closet Press is pleased to report that we had a delightful time at the Bristol Comic Expo this past weekend. This was our second time at Bristol and, while we did enjoy last year (despite some mixed reviews from fellow exhibitors and attendees), this year was better by far. We more than doubled our sales (more of a testament to the fact that we came out with a second issue since then than our skills as snake oil salesmen), and it was really encouraging to have people who picked up Ladies & Gentlemen #1 last year mention that they had been looking forward to getting the sequel. One kind gentlemen even bought some pages of original art!
 

The historic Brunel Old Station was a fitting setting to sell the Victorian-themed L&G.  The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, and we got the distinct feeling that the comics present were the comics that everybody in the room were reading anyway; that we were all in it together, were all part of something.

Our evening activities on Saturday consisted mainly of being serenaded by a mono-toothed Sinatra-singing geezer who staggered over to the table we were sitting at in an Irish pub. It was quite endearing at first, but soon turned in to more of a hostage situation by the fourth or fifth time he sang the apt lyrics “Please release me, let me go.”  Then, perhaps inevitably, he turned out to be a wee bit racist, so that was the end o’ that.

Sunday proved to be the nicest day of the two, providing us with a chance to go and meet a whole bunch of other creators and confirm our theory that Stuart Gould of UK Comics, who prints our books, is in fact single-handedly running the entire British comics scene. We chatted with (and swapped books with) a whole bunch of folks who are increasingly becoming the pillars of the Small Press, including but not limited to:

The conglomerate of lovely chaps generating the eternal feedback-loop that is LOU SCANNON / THE PRIDE / STIFFS;  the wonderfully embeardened and bubbly RAZARHAWKS duo (I was drawn!) ; the master anthologists of the DISCONNECTED PRESS; Mark Pearce, responsible for the maniacally hilarious RONIN DOGS (and the TMNT poster to my left); Owen Watts and his many comic-fingers in many comic-pies; Andrew Scaife and his debut comic NEW YORK PARK; and Jon Lock of the glorious AFTERLIFE INC.  Not to mention all the other folks who were kind enough to stop by our cramped little table and chew the fat about comics.  Thanks to you all for your interest and support.

Whewph! All in one fantastic weekend.

NOTE: Despite us not appearing on the list of exhibitors on their website (silly us), don't forget that we will indeed have a table at the upcoming MCM LONDON COMIC CON on the Saturday and Sunday, May 25-26th. Hope to see lots of new faces, and some of those faces we met in Bristol!

ISSUE THREE SUBMISSIONS UPDATE

Good day to you all,

Well the feedback we've received for our anthology submissions has been outstanding thus far and can only get better. So to whet your appetite we're going to give you a little guide to some some of the creators already involved.

First up we have Jamie Lewis of Free Form Jazz Detective . And just to get you all in the mood, Jamie has sent us this wee sketch of a wee Gent.

Next up, from Professor Elemental we have Chris Mole (writing) and Brendan Purchase (art). The first two chaps to come to us looking for artist and writers independently, it made perfect sense to team up Brendan's dark ink work with Chris's Lovecraftian script.

An old friend of The Water Closet from Canada, one Master Tony La Vella of Comic Blvd is collaborating with Californian artist Rafael Desquitado Jr. Tony has smashed a script out of the ballpark with a tale told from the villain's perspective entitled "DISMEMBER OF PARLIAMENT"!

Thought Bubble panel guest and writer Umar Ditta is on board with a script just waiting to be drawn. Mesr Ditta is also working on a third issue and is looking for artists. You can check out his stuff over on facebook.

Hailing from The Swansea Comics Collective and contributor to Copperopolis is the fantastic Pete Taylor. Pete is ideally looking for something along the lines of "Moth versus Awesome Monster"! Not only can you check out his art at thismanthispete.com but you can check out his Moth sketch right now!

All the way from Texas (in America) is Micheal Waggoner. Mike is planning on doing a crossover with his own character El Diablo Azul. A Luchadore ghost hunter....'nuff said.

Dave Evans is the first contributor to our gallery and what he has done is both brilliant and adorable. Check out his stuff over at daveevansillustration.com

A good friend to the Water Closet and wearer of the most splendid face hair, Sir Adam Steele of Darkmook Miniatures is going to be contributing, we don't want to say exactly how and give the game away but watch this space. It's going to be a lot of fun.

That isn't even everyone so far! The hectic schedule of artists means we're still working on how (and more importantly when) people can get involved in the book. We don't mean to brag but we are talking with such outstanding talents as James Stayte, Jacob Wolf, Neil Ford, Biz Horne, Graham Johnson, Nick Souček, Neil McClements, and the fine folks behind El Bigote!

But fear not, if you want to contribute there is still plenty of time. Whether it be a story about Hex's favourite playing card, and alternative universe wherein the Gentry are Spanish, or the back story of a thug who once felt their wrath, we want your stories. Our final deadline isn't until October. Full details can be found here.

 

So far this anthology is looking great and is going to feature a wealth of talent. So why not get involved and we'll add your name to the list!

See y'all the in funny books,

Rik & Jordan

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS - ISSUE 3: LADIES & GENTLEMEN (AND COMPANY)

Good morning/afternoon/evening to you, fine ladies and gents. With the unprecedented success of our first two books, Water Closet Press is in the process of creating a third. And, being the sociable and comic loving creatures we are, we are keen to have you take part.

For Issue 3 we’re planning a printed anthology based in the Ladies & Gentlemen universe, and we're looking for submissions. This is where you come in. 1-5 page complete comics (black-and-white or colour), alternative covers, pinup art, poetry, short prose fiction (with or without illustrations)... whatever it is you want to do, we want to print it!

If you are an artist looking to make a comic but have no script or writer, get in touch. We'll do our best to get you connected to a writer in the same boat (as they very often are), or we'll craft you a script ourselves. The goal here is not only to tell a bunch of great stories, but also to develop a network of comic creators within the Small Press community.

THE RULES

We want this project to be as open as possible so we won’t limit you with too many rules. Having said that...

1) The Gent. He never speaks or is seen without his mask. Ever.

That's basically it. We would also ask if you’re thinking of submitting that you respect our characters and don't dramatically kill them or maim them or give them insane back stories that will be impossible to work into future plots. Just be sensible.

Other than that, it's your toy to play with. Use any of our existing characters as a springboard for your own imagination, or feel free to ignore them and/or invent new ones to interact with and explore the world of The Gentry. If you already have your own comic project, why not do a cross-over? Or re-imagine things from a "What if...?" perspective. It doesn't have to be an adventure story... even if it's a whimsical look at a day in the life of The Moth's hat, we're looking for variety and innovation. Any style, genre, and theme will be accepted. We don't want to see imitations of our work, we'd rather see yours.

THE IDEA

Here at Water Closet Press, one of our favourite things about serialised comics is the process of collective storytelling. The idea that stories are immutable and sacred scripture carved into stone is an illusion. Narratives change over time, growing and transforming with each manifestation. They are made alive in the hands of others.

This folkloric potential is one of the most appealing aspects of hero-genre comics in particular, and it's something we would like to reflect in Ladies & Gentlemen... but we can’t do it by ourselves. We want to put it in your hands - the hands of the Small Press community in the UK and beyond - and have you participate in its telling.

SUBMISSION & DEADLINE

If you have an idea for a story or artwork you'd like to do (or anything else up your sleeve), simply e-mail us at thewaterclosetpress@gmail.com and we'll go from there. Want to contribute but haven’t read Ladies & Gentlemen? Fear not! Issue 1 can be read in full online, and we have several other short stories you can browse to familiarize yourself.

We are aiming to release the book at the London MCM Expo. We had fantastic results launching there last year and met a great bunch of people. Since the date for the convention itself hasn't been announced yet, we are going to say that the absolute deadline for completed submissions is the 1st of October 2013.* We're hoping that this will give people enough time to work at their own pace and produce something they are proud of.  *(EDIT: We will no longer be attending MCM.  The deadline has been changed to 1st of NOVEMBER 2013 and we will be launching the anthology at Thought Bubble instead).

WHAT DO YOU GET IN RETURN?

That's a good question.  Unfortunately we are not able to pay for entries at this time, however...

1) Your work gets printed in a high quality UKcomics publication.
2) You will receive the number of issues equal to the number of pages submitted.
3) As a contributor you will also be able to order copies from us at print cost (which should be significantly lower than retail price), sell these at your own leisure and retain the profits.
4) Finally, you'll be getting fantastic exposure at the conventions we attend and through our social media/blogging, and vice versa.  Small Press cross-pollination!

The collection will be a minimum of about 30 pages of Water Closet material, but our goal is to get enough entries to push that to around the 80 pages mark. Obviously once we have received enough synopses from interested parties we'll have a better idea of the book's size and cost, etc.

Sound good?
Let's make some sweet comics!

~ Rik and JC

COMIX TRIBE REVIEWS LADIES & GENTS #1

Thanks to John Lees from Comix Tribe for his charming review of Ladies & Gentlemen Issue 1, wherein we were complimented on our "superbly-designed characters (The Gentleman in particular looks brilliant – I want an action figure!)", the fact that Jordan "proves himself to be a very talented artist," and that Rik "deftly weaves a tale" with "strong, concise storytelling."

Read the full write-up here! 

You know, come to think of it I want a Gent action figure too...

* Not available in stores... or anywhere.

WATER CLOSET TV

At the Thought Bubble convention a few months ago (which you don't know anything about because we never did get around to posting a report on it), Richard and I were caught on camera by SciPulse for a brief interview about Ladies & Gentlemen...

Now I remember why I choose to draw comics, safely behind my bristol board.  Having said that, the misspelling of my surname in the video may not be a coincidence.

While we're at it (and now that I've figured out how to embed a video), we might as well dig this one up for you.  It was made by our friend Jo Howell and was shortlisted for the Impact Yorkshire! contest after a showing at the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds, May 2012.

Thanks for watching, reader!

Signing off,
Jordan

ISSUE 2 PREVIEW - LIONS AND RATKIN AND WERE-HYENAS, OH MY!

I don't know about you, but I like to spend a while looking at the interiors of a comic before I buy it. You can never trust those fancy covers. Well we've concocted a virtual flip-through of Curse of the Were-Hyena Part 2 to give you that luxury.  Click on the image to open it on a separate page for an up close look-see...

 

...And to think we left out some of the best bits!

LONDON MCM FANS

For all those who stopped by our table and picked up a card or a comic: Thank you, thank you, and welcome to our blog!

Be sure to click on the "Ladies & Gentlemen" tab at the top of the page to read the entire Curse of the Were-Hyena Part 1 for free. Want to find out what happens next?  Go to our "Emporium" page and we'll send you a copy of Part 2.  Already have Part 2 but want a paper copy of Part 1 to complete the set?  Go to the Emporium!

If you enjoyed the comic we'd love to know what you think. Pop on over to our facebook page and give us your thoughts (and your thumbs).

We'll try to get up some pictures (I think we only took about 2) and a report of how the convention went shortly, but until then, thanks for making our first MCM a big success!  See you at Thought Bubble.

Signing off,
Jordan 
 

KEEP CALM AND BUY A POSTER

Water Closet is pleased to present you these new poster designs to accompany the release of Issue 2.  There's one for him, for her, and for everyone in between!  They will be available at this weekend's London MCM Expo and Thought Bubble in November.  If you can't make it to either, we'll keep you "posted" as to when you can order your very own copy straight from the world wide web.  We hope you enjoy them... British and so on and so forth.

 

Available in size A4 and limited stock of A3.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND OTHER UPDATES

Last week, after pulling an all-nighter-and-a-half, the artwork to Ladies & Gentlemen Issue 2 was sent off to very capable hands of Stuart Gould of UKComics.   I feel like I've been working double-shifts in this last month, coming home from work and diving straight into drawing and (with my wife having long since gone to sleep) nothing to prompt me to stop but for the stinging of my eyes. Now I can sleep easy... or rather, wake up from stressful dreams of last-minute printing problems or art mistakes that don't really make sense but nonetheless can't be solved.  At least I know this happens to the writer and not just the artist; Rich told me he had a dream where I drew all the characters as X-Men and refused to see why that was stupid.  "Ladies and Gentlex-men"??

As soon as they're printed and I receive that glorious package at my doorstep, we're going to be hitting the cons and shop stands armed with some 200+ copies of Issue 2 and another 100+ copies of Issue 1.  Kicking it off will be the London MCM Expo on October 26th, the first time Rich and I have had a table there (but the second time we will have been, after our flopped experience at the Eagles Awards this past summer).  If you haven't been before, it's an insanely busy event crammed with hordes of costumed animangalescents (and the occasional disconcerting princess something-or-other with a beer belly and 5 o'clock shadow).  This should translate into being the biggest convention for team Water Closet so far and hopefully our most successful - a good launch venue for our sequel volume.  Otherwise, it's a great place to go if not just for the people-watching and should keep us endlessly entertained as the masses flow by our table in their pan-gendered garb.

After that, of course, it's up and over to Leeds for the darling of all comic conventions, Thought Bubble, where the winners of the Northern Sequential Art Competition will be announced.  I'm rather excited about our entry, so fingers crossed.  This will be the first time I'll have to travel to get there, since I've been lucky enough to live right in Leeds for the other years Thought Bubble's been going.  The consequences of moving to the South West, I suppose... but hey there's always Bristol again this May, and then Rich will have to haul his heiny down here.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm telling you all this in advance.  We should be writing about our experiences at these things when they actually happen.  Until then, the REASON I'm typing this in the first place is to let you know that ISSUE TWO IS FINALLY DONE.  It's journey to the prin-ters is now com-pLEET.  And that in the meantime every page of ISSUE ONE IS NOW ONLINE FOR FREE in dazzling technicolour (black and white) so you can catch up.  But by no means let that stop you from buying a good ol' fashioned paper and ink copy to put on your book shelf if you like it.  We're ever so poor and hungry fellows.  I'll also add shivering.  That invokes a certain pity associated with puppies, I think.  The kinds with their little ribs showing.

Ooh ooh, and we also have a little feature on Geek Syndicate this week for their "Autumn of Indie" elevator pitch.  Kinda nifty, and I'm interested to see what other independent comics crop up there.

So come on down to London or Leeds while we're there and we'd love to chat with you and put a copy or two in your hands.  If you can't make it to either of those, I'll be going around Bristol peddling our wares at the local comic shops (Excelsior looks promising), and we are available as always at Travelling Man and OK Comics in Leeds, and on our Emporium page.

Holy smokes! Being cooped up too long has clearly heightened my rambling disposition.  Time to stretch my back, (pretend to) crack my knuckles, scrub away the ink smears and hit the open road... I'm trembling with excitement.

Signing off,

Jordan