New Comics! New Con! New Country!

It was a close run thing, but Freak Out Squares #2 is done! Massive thanks to lettering hero Colin Bell for bringing it all together so quickly, as it means I can say I’ll be launching the issue in a weeks time at Dublin International Comic Expo. It’ll be my first time at DICE (indeed, my first time in Ireland) and all reports have it down as being a fantastic con, so really looking forward to it.

I’ll be tabling alongside Comicon life-partner Sam Read, and will have copies of Freak Out Squares #1 & #2 and Master Tape #1 & #2 with me. We’re the RF Comics table, catch us looking fresh faced and composed all weekend long.

You can check a preview of issue 1 at the link at the top of the page, and hopefully will see some of you there and I’ll have the issue up for general physical/digital order as soon as possible for those not making the trip.

Harry

Kool & Deadly

I arrived back from ICE Comicon last night, after a 9 hour bus ride from Birmingham that could only be described as luxurious. I’d said to comic-slinging-buddy Sam Read that he wasn’t to rat me out if I came on here and described our weekend as an unparalleled success, but I’ll forgoe any of that.

For us at least, it was pretty quiet sales wise.That said, it was a day spent chatting with some great people and meeting fellow creators, so even though I brought a lot more stock back with me than I would’ve liked, the trip can still get chalked up as time and money well spent. ICE was in it’s first year, and first year Cons are going to have teething problems But I’ve got no doubt that Birmingham as a city has enough comic fans that this Con can only grow and improve from here. The punters seemed to be enjoying the day, and were endearingly chatty and enthusiastic whenever they stopped by the table. Next Con for me is MCM Glasgow 6,7th of September, tabling with Garry Mac and Stephen Sutherland, and then onwards to DICE with Sam, by which point I hope he’s got better at drinking Rum.

A big positive from the trip down was getting Nostalgia & Comics to take some books off me. When I lived in Birmingham it was my local store (I’m still not sure if it’s the only comics store in Birmingham mind. Any others, get at me!), so I’m pleased to announce that they’re now stocking copies of Freak Out Squares, Master Tape #1 and Master Tape #2. They’ll be sat in with the new Wednesday releases for the next couple of weeks, so if you’re a local you can head down there to pick them up. As always, previews of both titles are available at the links at the top of the site.

Right, time to kick back with Twelve Gems and the collected Six Gun Gorilla. Cheers for reading, and hopefully see some of you at MCM!

Harry

Cats Van Bags

(A post in which I lay out a Con schedule that to my mind seems like a lot, but really amounts to a few well spaced out weekend visits to nice places.).

In just under a fortnight the Riggs to my comic book Murtaugh, Sam Read, will be accompanying me on a trip down to Birmingham to exhibit at ICE – International Comics Expo . A one day event on August 2nd, it’s held at “The Studio” on Canon Street, and me and Sam will be pitching up for the day and trying to make our respective marathon journeys worth it.

I grew up close to Birmingham, lived there for a couple of years, and can remember a whole heap of nothing happening around comics there in any of that time, so it’s pretty cool to be heading down to do something like this.  There’s some great guests going (Declan Shalvey, Bryan Talbot, Jordie Bellaire, to name but a few) and advance tickets are £5, so if you’re around the Midlands that weekend come look at comics. We’l be stocked heavy with issues of Freak Out Squares, Exit Generation and Master Tape.

September 6-7th I’ll be at MCM Glasgow selling alongside Unthank crew mates Garry Mac and Stephen Sutherland. This will be my 4th year living in Glasgow and the first time I’ve made it along to a local con in any capacity. Rolling deep in the scene, clearly.

September 27th-28th Me and Sam will be taking our (at this point incredibly well oiled, sales dominant) show on the road to Dublin for D.I.C.E, in the run up to which we’ll mainly be working out how comics work in Euro’s.

And then, far enough away that posting dates up seem’s utterly futile, we’ll be having a thoroughly good time at Thought Bubble on November 15-16th.

And that’s the lot for the year con wise. MCM Glasgow should see the release of FREAK OUT SQUARES #2, which is about to enter it’s colouring phase. The completed pages Garry’s shown me so far are a whole new level for him, so I can’t wait to see what Harry Saxon adds with his colours.

MASTER TAPE #3, after a script writing gestation period that could be accurately summed up as ‘aneurysm-esque’, has just had layouts okayed, and art shall commence shortly. I’m really pleased with the issue (eventually), and it should be much more fun to read than it was to thump out of the aether. That will come at D.I.C.E at the earliest, Thought Bubble at the very latest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Scrapheap

There’s a few projects I’ve worked on that have never seen the light of day. The majority sit in my scrap folder as Word documents, to be mulled over and re-purposed down the road when I’m feeling desperate for something to work on but the words aren’t coming. A couple have got to the art stage before faltering, and I thought rather than have them sit in my Dropbox I may as well post them up here.

The Drift

This was a 6-page pitch I put together for a 3-part series last year. I think I described it, somewhere, in the most wanky way possible, as being ‘Sci-fi meets Steinbeck’. Which basically means I’d been watching a lot of Firefly and fancied my own itinerarant future-space workers romp that day. It’s a project I ended up really enjoying writing, and I still have all 3 issues sat looking at me. I imagine parts and characters will get re-used in the future.

The art is by Arturo Lauria, someone who’s work I really like and would love to work with in the future. He’s busy prepping his project Colonus AE for Dark Horse Presents, which should hit sometime this year. He’s done a wonderful pin up for the next issue of Freak Out Squares, and we’ve both said we’d like to do some more stuff together down the line.

Lettering, as is industry standard, by Colin Bell.

 

 

 

First Blood

In retrospect, ‘First Blood’ is almost comically morose and not-very-good-at-all. Still, it’s nice to look back on something like this and see that there has been some improvement. It was really early days for me then (I mean, it’s early days now, so that’s how early we’re talking) and I was trying to write something for the aborted Keyhole Comics Anthology (aborted after everyone had paid for their art…and letters…because they decided they couldn’t be arsed. Cheers chaps.). Then, as now, I find that I hate writing shorts and I’m really not very adept at it. I could put the work in to get better at them, but I’m fundamentally too lazy/find working on longer things a lot more satisfying.

Art by Terry Cooper. Letters, as per our eternally binding contract, by Colin Bell.

 

 

 

 

Inaugral Awkward Post

Greetings!

For the past while, my good friend and partner-in-comics Sam Read has been hosting previews of my comic series’ FREAK OUT SQUARES and MASTER TAPE over at his blog. I thought it was about time I cultivated a little corner of the internet for myself, so I’ll be using this space to post up previews of my work, details on con appearences, and to generally talk about how wonderful/useless I am, depending on the mood strikes me.

For the time being, you can check out previews of the two aforementioned comics by clicking the links at the top of the page.

 

Harry