BLAM Blacksad... Blamsad?

It's been a while since I drew anything productive at a BLAM! meeting, but this week the theme was "absent cat".  I wasn't entirely sure to go with that direction, so I just drew my favorite feline private eye (not quite as inventive as Razarhawk Dani Abrams' brilliant cat-silhouette-in-smashed-plate-glass-window).  The sun was glorious so we were outside all evening, the lovely folk music more clear than ever.  BLAM! is Bristol's comic creators collective and it meets once a month at the Golden Guinea pub.

  

He must have a pretty heavy tie, considering the wind.

Signing off,
Jordan

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

Rough Planet

I had a bunch of Weird Planet rough work and concept sketches floating around the flat that I didn't quite know what to do with, so I thought I'd scan them in and give you a chance to see the comic without it's clothes on before dropping them in the ol' recycle bin. 

Imagining the visual world and the characters who populate it is my favorite stage in the development process, where it's all about just getting the ideas down on paper. Many of those ideas don't end up translating into the final piece and serve as more of a creative background radiation for me; it's nice for me to give them some daylight here.

There are lots of little permutations that occur as I try to get things just right, much to both Rich and my wife's annoyance ("Does this look better? What about this? Or this? Okay: this?). Why not compare these to the final comic and see if you can spot the differences? Weee, a game!

The first time I've done the thumbnail sketching stage sans Rich.

Playing with some avian and Mesoamerican influences for the Malakhim, and an early Thomas character study

 

Trying a new (and unsuccessful) over-sized thumbnailing technique

 

Divine evolution. I briefly toyed with the idea of having scraggly clipped feathers poking out from under his manacles.

 

    

And then there's colour, my mortal enemy. Sometimes I wish I was colour blind so I didn't have to worry about it. Oh wait.... hello black and white comics.  

It also helps settle petty disputes between Rich and I, like whether or not our protagonist could possibly be a ginger (the answer is no).

Getting psychedelic...

Let's try some normal colours (incomplete).

Enough of this madness!

Signing off,
JC

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!