My book ‘A Long Day Of Mr. James-Teacher’, and an anthology book I worked on for Blank Slate are now available from the Blank Slate store. You can also get these things on Amazon too, I believe!
I made these wee posters to promote ‘em. Click through to order the books. There’s also a preview of the James-Teacher book down at the bottom, after the jump.
Alright! So- after the jump, you can read a 7-page preview of the James-teacher comic. Hit it!
So the graphic novel I worked on, Walk Don’t Run, is out of my hands, slated for a January release date, and I’m now finally working on the kind of comics I’ve been putting off doing since about 2007. I’m extremely trepidatious about what people might think, but it’s best to get it out there. Nervous! I’ll concede that this preview doesn’t actually give much away, but I’ll be releasing drips and drabs as I go.
I dialed down my web presence to a minimum for the past year or so while I finished off Walk Don’t Run and James-Teacher (both out soon) and got into the swing of my next big job. At this point, I feel like I’ve got enough of a solid foundation beneath me to start putting things out on the net again. I really miss the fun and camaraderie of being a guy who puts cool drawings on the internet! I’m going to do that a lot more from now on. I’ll do maybe 3-4 cool things on here a month, and generally be around!
I’m also going to be at the Thought Bubble con in Leeds this November. Aaaand I gave my website a temporary overhaul, so it’s got links to all the comics I did while I was building myself up to starting Zygote. You know, between the ages of 16 and 25, I made maybe 30 pages of comics. Mostly, I was training as an animator, and then working in animation. In the past couple of years, I’ve made around 400. So- I’ve been training myself, and trying to build some confidence. I still don’t feel like I know what I’m doing! But, gee, here goes nothing. I’ve finished a whole graphic novel and I have two books coming out in the next three months- plus I am getting actual dough to do this one right now- so I guess I can CALL myself a comic book artist, at least.
Like I said, I’ve missed you guys! I ammmmm also going to be crossposting this stuff across all the social networks I belong to. So! No-one gets left behind. I’m looking forward to reaching out to people again.
I made a new brand identity for Blank Slate, who’re going to be publishing a few of my things in the near future.
I wrote this on why I felt the move was an important one:
“For me, Blank Slate is the perfect name for a modern comic book company: a clarion call to artists to forget the trappings of genre, industry and expectation and to focus on making work that reflects their own unique point of view.
“I’ve created a brand identity that I believe will reflect this ethos, and one which will be complementary to a wide variety of different types of work. I hope that the Blank Slate logo will become a badge of honour that artists will be proud to sport on the front of their books.
“The Blank Slate B is a logo that I hope will prove to be memorable, adaptable and lasting”.
I also wrote them a bunch of stuff about how I think this logo should be used, and a couple of other things. If you want to see the full, typo-ridden Design Strategy document I made- warning, uses unlicensed non-Blank Slate artwork as ‘examples’- right click, save on the link below.
http://tinyurl.com/blankslatedesign
I feel like I should talk about my internet presence of late- that is to say, I haven’t had one- this is all done with the best intentions and will be paying dividends for YOU, THE LOVER OF COMICS, shortly.
How ’bout that logo!
The band Xiu Xiu, who’re friends with my pal Daphny, wrote this song inspired by her time in Jail. Apparently, it was triggered by the comic I drew of the same event, which you can see on the Vice Magazine website. Here it is!
Also, I made this music video yesterday, so there’s that:
It seems like all I use this blog for is to plug things, lately, but- I’m in constant debate with myself over what my relationship with the internet should be, and how much I should share of myself on here. I’m very conflicted! One thing I’ll say is that most of my favorite artists don’t have a web presence at all, and I got into them more than ten years ago. While I’m plugging things, though, we still have 9 shirts available with the free comic offer- http://www.etsy.com/listing/77168506/knitting-zombie-t-shirt
Now I’m working for myself again I seem to be committed to seeing every stupid idea I have through to completion- is that a good thing? You be the judge!
(Also in girl’s sizes.)
Folks- I have a lot I want to share with you! I’ve been keeping a low profile lately, but rest assured I’ve been working hard on things I hope you’ll like. In no particular order, here’s a few things of interest:
-The 200-page graphic novel I’ve been working on with Sean Watson and Finlay Cramb, Walk Don’t Run, is finished (but won’t be out until next year)
-Blank Slate Books are going to be publishing my book, ‘A Long Day Of Mr. James Teacher’ later this year. They wrote about it here, and for also reason blogged this image that relates to a thing I can’t talk about:
- Turns out finishing a self-financed graphic novel isn’t the jubliant celebration you’d think- you’re just as broke, only now you also have no excuse but to go and get a proper job while you’re waiting for it to be published. Buy a shirt!
(I’m still @harveyjamestm on twitter, by the way.)
Another prophesized end-of-the-world come and gone! Of course, this one was just some kook. The real end-of-the-world prophecy of our times doesn’t come from this guy, or from the mayan calendar, but from science. We’ll see how that one plays out in 50 years or so. Fun fact: the last we humans really thought the world was going to end, and it didn’t, you know what happened? The freakin’ renaissance, that’s what. Not to play up to the image every single female on the internet seems to have of me (that I look and talk just like Doctor Who)- but you shouldn’t underestimate the capacity the the human race has to surprise.
I’m proud to say I came up with the tombstone joke in this Corey Lewis cartoon.
He looks like an early Nintendo Punch-Out!! character, or something! What a great drawing!
Personally, I’d have put two tombstones: God R.I.P, Macho R.I.P.P.E.D. – that way you make sure no-one misses the joke and you get to say Macho Man killed God as a bonus. Then like stink lines coming off God’s grave.
Incidentally, here’s my response to the event:
(Yeah, Jesus works in a big building with his name on it.)
