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!

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

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