Hibernation

No big news, just a general update. :-)

I'm currently working on the pencils to Beholder of the Eye 3, so those who've been waiting to see what happens next to Chloe, Luthor and everyone else will (hopefully) be happy to hear that more is on the way. Unless things go off at a complete tangent, this marks about the halfway point to the story! :-o

Progress is also being made on one or two other projects, but until things are more confirmed there's not much else for me to say at this point... (so sneaky! XD)

I'm going into hiding from all the cold and snow of the winter, and will try and get some new things sorted that will come out next year. Here's hoping it all comes out well! ^_^

London Expo October 2010 Complete!

The London Expo finished yesterday and it was a lot of fun! I was still pretty clueless for much of it, but that's pretty much par for the course, lol. ^^;

Thanks to everyone who dropped by. The new anthology went down well and Japanofail was as popular as always! ^_^

It's looking as though my next comic will be Beholder of the Eye 3 (though I've barely started it), so fingers crossed for its appearence at the next Expo! Moar!

Expo this weekend!

Yes the Expo is nearly upon us once more, and everything's ready and good to go! ^_^

Just a quick review of everything on the table you know what to expect:

Six - the new anthology, it's looking awesome! £5

Japanofail 1-3 - issue 3 is making its Expo debut! £2 each

Beholder of the Eye 1+2 - being moody and stuff £2 for #1 and £2.50 for #2

D.R.U.N.K. - random violence for teh lulz: £2

Till the Sun Goes Cold - anthology about the sun: £3.50

Also a couple bits of merchandise! :-O

Badges - if I got the proportions right, the image above is actual size! 50p for 1, £1 for 3 for £1.50 for all 5!

Mini prints - 30p for 1 or 50p for both. (only 2 designs after all ^_^)

I'll also be sharing the table with the awesome Tammy from Dream Tripper so please feel free to check out everything on the table! ^_^ Expo's running for 2 and a half days this year, and we will be attending for the entire run of the show - we're ready! Hope to see some of you there! :D

Six is here!

Look what's arrived! ^_^

There was a time I didn't think these would show up in time for Expo, but they're here safe and sound and ready to go!

Initial responses have been really positive, so if you fancy yourself a copy come and check it out!

£5 for 84 pages of comic goodness. ^_^

It's available online here:

http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/

New book! Six!

6 comics by 6 artists - hence Six!

80-odd pages of comics of a wide range of styles. From horror to comedy with no limits on subject matter, there's something for everyone.

The awesome artist line-up in order of appearance (click the links to explore their work):
O G Roach
Rebecca Burgess
Pinax
Ushio (me! XD)
Sammy Borras
Kaiki

This should be on my table at Expo at the end of the month - so please look out for it! Over the next few weeks I'll try and get it available online for those interested who can't make it. ^_^

This is now available online here: http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/ Woot! XD

General Update

I like to update at least once a month, so I feel the need to write about what's going on these days.

Next month is LONDON EXPO! :D It's a few weeks to go and things are starting to heat up. I'll have lots of copies of Japanofail 3 for people to get ahold of (as well as everything else ;-) ) but I also have plans for something NEW as well!

I'm coming toward the end of making a new anthology! ^_^ Till the Sun Grows Old was a Jiman-based anthology, whereas this will be totally unrelated and have its own independant stance. A couple of the comics that will be in the book have already done the rounds on the internet, and a couple will be making their debut in the book. I don't want to spill the beans too early, but I can at least say it's going to be a real mix of content and styles. ;-)

So please look forward to a proper announcement sometime next month when I'll give full details.

(now all I need to do is design the cover >_>;)

In other areas, the Manga Jiman competition is still in full swing. If you're thinking of entering then the theme is nami/waves and the deadline is 1st November. So far I've pencilled my entry, and will think about inking it once I've gotten the anthology completed. Entries have to be kept private until after the results are announced, but much like my last attempt I'm sure it'll work its way out into print in the long run. ;-) Good luck to anyone entering - do your best! XD

I've gone and said all this publically now, so I need to make sure it gets done for sure, lol! :-O

New Event!

Just a quick note to say I've booked a space at a new comic event that will be running in March next year. The London Comic and Small Press Expo will be at Goldsmiths University on 12th March 2011. My spot is booked on table 30 so am confirmed for the event. Of course it's a long way off yet, so will probably post a reminder much closer to the time.

Please check out:
http://www.thefallenangel.co.uk/spexpo/london.htm

Of course next up is the London Expo in October, official word on attendees in the Comic Village (including me, lol! ^_^) have starting appearing on there, so it's worth keeping an eye on.

More news as and when it happens!

Japanofail Issue 3!

Just arriving today is issue 3 of Japanofail! Had a bit of fun with this one and took a couple risks with new styles of content. That said the key themes of fail is still the same! XD I hope people enjoy it if they check it out! :3

24 pages of fail for £2. I will be attending Comic Comkiet this Sunday (so it's lucky the comics arrived in time for that), otherwise I will be at the London Expo at the end of October. At some point I'll try and update the shop in case anybody can't make it to events but still wants it (I might have something else up my sleeve in time for Expo so may hold back and do one big update instead).

Cheers guys! ^_^

The comic is now avaiable online here:

http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/

Moar events! :3

The London Film and Comic Con at Earl's Court has been and gone. It was all very sci-fi and it was nice to see a few new faces. Thanks to anyone who stopped by, I hope you enjoyed reading! ^_^

There's no rest for the wicked, so the next event is next month! It's too quick! o_0; Comica Comiket is going ahead one again. I attended for the first time last October at the ICA gallery. This time it will be at the PumpHouse Gallery in London on August 22nd. It's a Sunday afternoon, so there's time to both sleep in for the morning and still get your comic fix! XD

Can't remember whether it was metioned before or not, but I'm on the list for attending London Expo in October. It's a while away yet, but am hoping to have some *new* material by that point. Stay tuned! ^_^

Events!

Just as quick note to say I'll be attending the London Film and Comic Convention at Earl's Court, London, this month. All day both days - 17-18th July. Visit for more info:

http://www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com/

I've never been to this event before, either selling comics or as punter, so have no idea what's going to go down. It promises to be fun! ^_^

I've got plans for attending a couple more events, watch this space. I'm also trying to make some progress on my next comic...

Shop!

It's new, improved, and has a proper home and everything.

Getting my comics properly available online has been a long time coming, but now if you ever feel the urge to pick up one of my titles, this is the place:

http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/

It's got everything I've ever self-published and is totally up to date. No longer do you need to drag yourself out to an event to find them! Please feel free to check it out. If you want to know more about some of the titles first, then there are links to each of them on the right side of this blog. Cheers! ^_^

May Expo 2010 is complete!

So it all went down last weekend, and I've still to recover properly from it! =_=;

It was a lot of fun, probably the most fun I've had at an Expo since I started doing comics. The cost of energy, sleep depravation and general exhaustion was well worth it. I a lot of new people, but also a fair few who I'd met before and had come back for more of my comics. Thanks so much guys, I'll try to make the next ones even better! I'm doing my best to remember everyone, but alas the memory is already fading (along with the bruises, lol).

This time our table was shared with the wonderful Tammy Taylor who was selling her comics Microwavable Fox and Parafect and other bits. If you missed her this time I trust she'll be at other events in the future, check out her stuff!

Quite a few of my newest comics found their way into the hands of readers - I hope you enjoyed them. Japanofail, as always, came top of the sales chart. It seems to be what people want most and I'll do my best to oblige for next time. ^_^

Speaking of next time, I'm hearing that the next London Expo will be a bigger event, opening a day early! 0_0 Six months to go for an even biger dose of geeky goodness! XD

Stickers round 2! XD

Just a quick note to say I'm once again a part of the Dino-Saw-Us event. It debuted at The Thing a couple of months ago, and the feedback was positive enough for the guys to run it again at the Expo!

Lookee here for more info:
http://dinosawus.blogspot.com/

Basically I've still got lots of stickers to give out from last time, so if you get ahlold of on of the passports (or even if not), feel free to pop over and get a sticker!:3

10 days to go!

New Book - Till The Sun Grows Cold

Ready for sale at this month's London Expo, Till the Sun Grows Cold is a collaboration between a few fellow artists who entered last year's Jiman competition. It's saftey in numbers, so rather than risk trying to put out a slim 8-page comic on its own, it's better to lump them all together for something a little more chunky. This is the result!

66 pages for goodness for £3.50. It's perfect-bound goodness so will be a bit more durable than your average comic as well. :-) As the comics are short, any proper preview risks spoiling whole chunks of story. All the comics are completely different, so while sharing an image from my comic isn't representative, it's an idea of at least a little of the contents. Please feel free to come browse at the Expo!

For more info on the other contributors, as perhaps a little discussion on it as well, please visit here:
http://www.sweatdrop.com/forum/showthread.php?p=190896#post190896

2 weeks until the Expo - everything's ready! XD

And it's also ready and up for sale on my online shop, please visit: http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/

Expo is this month! :D

So it's coming up to the MCM Expo in London once again. I am booked, registered and officially attending! List of artists can be found here:

http://www.londonexpo.com/show_features/comic_village__expo.html

The bad news: I was mentioning to people that I might perhaps have a new Japanofail ready in time - I've failed! ;_;

Things have gotten a bit on top of me lately, so while I was optimistically hoping to get a new issue done, it was not to be. :-( I'll still have issues 1+2 available, as well as all the rest of my comics (Beholder of the Eye 2 was finished in March, but it'll be its first Expo appearence), so hopefully there'll still be stuff for people to see.

The good news: There will be 'something' new appearing at the event. It's finished, and off at the printers. So as soon as I've officially got something sellable - I will announce it! ^_^

4 weeks to go...

I'm sure there are a few anime and manga fans out there, so thought this worth a mention. :-)

The guys over at eyeonanime.co.uk have recently relaunched their website. There's still quite a lot for them to do, such as linking up the complete archives from the old version of the site, but it's a start and updates will be much more frequent from now on.

As for my involvement, I am a contributor for them. And while my drawing antics have pulled me away from there quite significanlty over the last year, this new blog-type format should allow me to get back in the mix. So if you want to hear about interesting and unusual manga series, I'll do my best to keep you in the know. ;-)

Go to: www.eyeonanime.co.uk

Additionally, I also drew a set of 5 avatars that represent each of the staff members. It was a new thing to do work that wasn't a project just of my own initiative, so it was fun to do something different like this. There's also a nice little forum over there. The community is small, but very welcoming and knowledgable. Feel free to join in! ^_^

The Thing 2010 is complete!

So after all the hype, The UK Web and Mini Comix Thing 2010 has been and gone. So how was it? It was pretty fun as it goes. :-) Matters weren't helped by the local train station being closed and heavy rain, but people still battled their way into the venue. Today I also had backup in form of my sister - we make quite a fearsome team, lol. ^_^

A few of my comics found their way into the hands of people. Thank you so much - I really hope you enjoy reading! ^_^ It was a friendly event and it was nice to be able to meet and talk to a few fellow artists. I'll definitely consider attending again next year.

There was a lot of talent on display, so couldn't help buying more comics, lol. :3

So that's the first event of the year down. Next stop: London Expo in 2 months!

The Thing 2010 is upon you!

Not long now - it's tomorrow in fact! (as it's gone midnight now, lol) The Thing is coming!

No new news really, just a general reminder and summary of what to look out for:

- The Anthology: Epic dinosaur-themed book with lots of pages and stuffs. Contains 2 pages of specially made Japanofail! :D (which incidently celebrated its first birthday yesterday! :D )

- Beholder of the Eye 2: New comic - come get some! (Warning: contains 'rar')

- Stickers: Passports will be given out to attendees to collect creative stickers for fun times. It's all free, so don't be shy! ;-)

Still a little nervous as it'll be my first time with a table at this particular event, but then again it's been 5 months since the last event so am looking forward to being in a comic atmosphere once more. ^_^

Beholder of the Eye 2 - Preview!

I'm not sure how, but I got Beholder of the Eye 2 completed in time! The comics arrived earlier today, so this 44-page issue of angst and action (or should that be angsty action?) is good and ready to go!

It's The Thing in just under 2 weeks... I'm ready! If you're around please look out for it. ^_^

It is also available in my shop: http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/

Dino-Saw-Us! Raaar!

Not a major update, just a note to say I got my stickers for the Dino-Saw-Us activity that will be going on at The Thing. So if you're attending and find yourself with a passport - come and fine me on Table 32! ^__^

A couple of you may recognise the image as I have it on some of my business cards. But basically it's the only image I've got that's not related directly to one of my comics, so I took it!

Just over 2 weeks to go - but expect a big announcement before then! :D

Your Passport to The Thing!

Okay we're getting close to some fun stuff now. ^_^

It's the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing in London at the end of the month (27th March to be precise), and things are starting to come together. I *might* have news regarding my current comic progress, but that's for another update nearer the time methinks. ^_-

This update is regarding a fun little thingy that a few fellow comix peeps have come up with, and I've decided to jump on board. Visitors get given a free passport, and then they can fill their passport with creator-made stickers as they browse. That's all there is to it really, but it's a fun way to get people meeting each other. DINO-SAW-US is a go! (I pinched your photo for this - I'm sorry! ^^;)

Speaking of dinosaurs (barely...) look out for the dino-themed anthology for the event which is promising to be a 100+ page monster. I've got a 2-page Japanofail 'Dinosaur Spesh' in there which was quite fun to draw, so hopefully a few people who wouldn't otherwise check my stuff might enjoy it. Even though it's huge, the book's always sold extremely cheaply, so is well worth buying if you're attending - look out for it!

Three and a half weeks to go!

February Update

Figure I should at least to one post a month to keep things nice and current. ^_^

I've spent the last few weeks trying to get Beholder of the Eye 2 finished. It's almost there, but at the same time still has quite a lot of tweaking to be done (still got more than a few blank panels to fill - eep! 0_0; ). The image above is what the front cover will look like - a bit of a weird approach in wanting to make it both striking and muted, but there you go. The back cover's also done and is arguably better than the front, but the only way to see that will be to buy it! ;-D

So it's definitely getting there, but it's still going to be tight for The Thing next month! XD Will keep you posted...

Back on track!

It's taken longer than I hoped, but things are hopefully back on track in terms of me doing comics. Japanofail had gone on hiatus over Christmas, but it is now up again, although updates have shifted to Wednesdays. In between times I've been trying to compile new ideas for future strips, and there's still a while to go before I need to start work on it again. I'm not there yet, but hopefully I can start thinking about a third comic soon(-ish. lol).

I'm still working on Beholder of the Eye 2 which is taking forever. It's been over 6 months in the making as I tend to leave it every now and then while I digest its development. The good news howeverv is that I've FINALLY finished the pencils! It's going to be 40 pages of epic drama and action and I've really tried to improve many aspects from the first installment. Inking's been started on around half the pages so it's coming along. If I get my butt in gear *maybe* it'll be ready for The Thing, otherwise it's a cert for the Expo in May. ^___^

February's going to be a busy drawing month - wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

I'm late by two and a half weeks, but Happy New Year to all! XD

Some bizarre place known as 'real life' has been taking up my time, but I'm back now. Japanofail's been on hiatus for a last few weeks because of it, but should start updating again next week! No big news to tell, I've just been working (slowly) on a few different projects.

One new thing is that I'm on the list for attending London Expo this May. Expo's a nice big event, it will be my third time attending so I guess I'm a bit of a veteran now even though I still feel like a newbie, lol. Before that is The Thing at the end of March, so there's a lot going on. I'm going to be stupidly busy for the first half of the year - it's going to be quite exciting so long as I can keep up with the pace! After Expo I've no plans at all, so it's just going to be 4 months of PAIN! ;D

Hope to see you around, and I'll try to come up with the goods! ^_^