"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

Bear Pit Cover Art and The Bristol Comic & Zine Fair 2013

Greetings, frequenters of the Water Closet (by the way: eat some fibre).

I'm happy to have my artwork feature on the cover of the upcoming Bear Pit Zine #7, focused around the theme of Time. BPZ #7 will be available at the Bristol Comic & Zine Fair (continue reading below for deets), and on the Bear Pit website after that.

  Old tree, old man, old paper: the "deep time" that nature operates on is something that oak trees are far more familiar with than wee creatures like us. And stuff like that.

I forgot to post my contribution to the last issue (#6 if you're counting along), Flight, which I adapted from an unpublished comic I made a while ago about Carl Sagan.  I've been unable to display it anywhere else due to copyright reasons - a shame because I was quite proud of it - but this version gave me the chance to showcase it, albeit in a re-worked and re-imagined form.

The folks behind Bear Pit Zines are also the masterminds of The Bristol Comic & Zine Fair which is returning for its third year on Saturday 5th October. This time 'round it has expanded from the basement of Cafe Kino (its past home) to the glorious studio space of The Station. 

Water Closet Press will be 1 of the 40 exhibitors at the event (as well as the afterparty following the Fair, and probably the pre-party on Friday), so if you are in or around Bristol that weekend, be sure to come on down to see some fantastic creators and celebrate the world of independent publishing with us.  

End transmission,
Jordan

London MCM / Anthology Announcement

We regret to inform you that, due to a massive oversight on our part, Water Closet Press will unfortunately not be able to attend the upcoming London MCM Expo in October.  

While this is indeed terribly sorrowful news and Rik and I are both crestfallen, it does mean that having our Ladies & Gentlemen Anthology ready in time for the convention is a bit pointless. And that means that the 1st October deadline is also moot.  So, if you are currently working on your story -- ink stains on your cuffs, 3 inches of cigarette ash piling at your feet, black rings around your eyes and 7 gallons of black coffee in your bladder -- lift up your weary heads.  Cast your eyes on the calendar and behold:

THE NEW DEADLINE FOR ANTHOLOGY SUBMISSIONS IS THE 1ST OF NOVEMBER 2013.

Just in time for a Thought Bubble launch. If you were wanting to contribute before but didn't have enough time, now is the perfect chance to hop on board (click here for submission details).  Hopefully we can use this opportunity to re-double our efforts and get even more fantastic creators involved and make this collection even stronger than it already is.

Apologies again to all our current contributors who have carefully budgeted their schedules, or if you were hoping to see us (or the anthology) in October.  But we assure you that there will be no such proverbial ball-dropping with Thought Bubble, that most sacred of conventions.

And may God have mercy on our souls,
Rik & Jordan

Ladies & Gentlemen Anthology Preview

Oh hello,

By this time next month, all the artwork for our upcoming Ladies & Gentlemen anthology will be in the capable hands of Mr. Stuart Gould of UKComics, diligently being bound together in what is shaping up to be one heckuva book.  We thought we would give you but a glimpse of some of the splendorous comic-ry that has been trickling into the Water Closet Press inbox.  

Check out the websites and so forth of the contributors pictured above:

Jamie Lewis

Petri Hannini

Alfie Gallagher

Chris Mole & Brendan Purchase

Tony LaVella & Rafael Desquitado Jr.

Tony LaVella & Pyrink

Luke Halsall & Gavin Pollack

Biz Stringer Horne

Marco Brunello

Pete Taylor

And we have other confirmed stories and images not yet gazed upon, including but not limited to:

Dino Caruso & Dario Garofalo

Matthew Duncan

Chris Redfern & Darren Mullen

Sarah Rowles

Wait till you see the whole thing!  What a joy it is to see so much talent all joining hands and frolicking about in the blossoming fields of small press. And playing jumprope, perhaps.

Release Date and Convention Schedule:

The Ladies & Gentlemen Anthology (title to be announced) will be available at the LONDON MCM EXPO on 26-27th October.* Before that we will also be at the BRISTOL COMIC & ZINE FAIR on the 5th October (but without the anthology), and then in Leeds at THOUGHT BUBBLE on the 23rd-24th November (with the anthology, hooray).  Hope to see you at one/all of those  *(EDIT: We will no longer be attending MCM and will be launching the anthology at Thought Bubble instead).

Signing off,
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. 

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