New Merchandise!

I printed some new merchandise for the events I attended in the autumn.  The Zine! vinyl stickers are 80mm and pin badges are 38mm. The Giant Rhinos plectrums are glow in the dark! They are all available to order online through my Etsy shop.

Zines In Space - Online Shop

 

Yesterday I took my final comic pages to the photocopier and then folded a big pile of paper. They are now available to order from my Esty shop. I have a variety of comics available including some mini comics for just 50p ! Some of the older comics will be out of print soon because I'm discontinuing them (Mix Tape, Best Day Ever, Smoothie Wars, The Crossroads and Jumping the Shark Mini Comic)

I'll will have these comics with me on the Inspired Comics table at these events ...

• Bristol Comic & Zine Fair - 5th October 2013
• London MCM Expo - 25th - 27th October 2013
• Thought Bubble (Allied London hall)- 23rd - 24th November 2013

Thanks for reading this blog over the summer! It was a really fun project to work on. There will be a bit of a gap between this and further comics from Giant Rhinos and friends while I work on some autumn comics with Sarah Fogg. The best place to follow my other projects will be on my portfolio blog or my tumblr. You can also find me on twitter.

Here is one last playlist song ...

Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

I don't really have a good reason to put this on the playlist. It's just the best radiohead song with a very impressive animated music video. Lianne La Havas covered it when we saw her live and it sounded beautiful.

Digital Zine Production

I've been placing the comic pages into a In Design file as I finish them. I know it's not very hip to use software at this stage but its a really easy way to get the booklet printed ready to be photocopied.

I'm hoping to print the comics next week which is pretty exciting! I need to choose how many copies to print

 

Beck - Defriended

Most the songs left on the playlist are not actually very close to the theme but I picked because of how they sound or because I listened to them a lot when I was the same age as the characters. This is a new song by Beck and I was pretty disappointed when I found out that there wasn't a full album to go with it. I bought a copy of Guero back when I didn't have a large CD collection and carried a portable CD player. The disc got a dent from a chair leg and still worked fine.

But for on theme music - Today I heard that Kiran Leonard used a radiator as percussion on his album. I'm not sure if it's on the songs which you can stream on band camp at the moment, but it sounds kind of interesting. (He is also only 17. That's the same age as the aliens who are making music in my comic.)

Pip Outfit Change

There's 3 scene changes in Zines In Space. So Pip and Annie get to have outfit changes! I thought Pip looked extra cool with the cap to cover her tired-from-party eyes.

Bag Boy by Pixies

I like shouting along to this song when it comes on the playlist. But I always get the shouting order mixed up. 

Tearfund Cafe Gig Sketches 2013

Daughters of David were the Tearfund Cafe house band (sorry I can't find a link?), so there is more sketches of them because we saw them a couple of times. There's also sketches of Trinity from the Netherlands (they know how to get a room dancing).  Then gospel group Divine Divine from London.

I was also working on the comic while I was away, so I have some stuff to post about that in the week.

Mikayla and Melissa from Music For Sleeping Children by Boom Bip & Charlie White

Comic playlist song! Zines In Space is about 2 best friends, so some of the songs on the playlists are on the theme of friendship. Music For Sleeping Children is a music video project which starts with recordings of interviews with teenagers.

T-Shirt Designs

It's fun designing clothes for Annie and Pip to wear, but at the start of this comic Pip is wearing a shoulder bag and necklaces so you can't see her t-shirt in most panels. Annie's t-shirt is a reference to on of my favourite teen movies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

The Waves by Villagers 

Rhythm Composer by Villagers 

I have 2 songs by Villagers on the playlist I made for making this comic. It was too difficult to choose just one to share. Both songs are from their 2013 album {Awayland}. I think the record includes a lot more drum machines and electronics as the base for song writing than in previous albums. It's great music anyway!

Stella Arena 2011/2013

This is the first page from a short story comic that I am working on over the summer. It's been a lot of fun trying to improve some of the older designs I created in 2011. I decided to make this smaller project partly because I really liked the story idea and partly so I could practice drawing the aliens and their environment before starting again on the longer story.

 

 

At the end of my university course in 2011, I printed a dummy book of the first Giant Rhinos In Space chapter. This photo is a nice comparison of the changes I made recently. I think in the dummy comic their world is explained verbally in dialogue and I'm hoping the new design is a stronger visual description.

 Immunity by Jon Hopkins

I made a playlist for when I am drawing this new comic. It's over 2 hours long so I will just post some of the songs that really fit the theme of the comic the most. This song by Jon Hopkins was one of my main inspirations for writing this short story. I don't think it really is a recording of a photocopier as the beat but the song is just beautiful. When I first heard it on the radio I had to find it straight away. The vocals are provided by King Creosote and if you liked listening to the song I highly recommend their joint album Diamond Mine.