I visited my friend Dan Berry’s Make It Then Tell Everybody podcast a couple of weeks ago; the episode is out now, we had a lot of laughs though I also talk about some difficult times for my mind. I think, on balance, you will enjoy it. In any case I did, and really that’s all that matters (is this a good attitude?)
Steeple is taking a break for a bit, but in the meantime you can read a new, two-part Charlotte Grote story, Circus Windows, at badmachinery.com – it starts here.
I’m currently working on a new Steeple arc, hopefully it will begin in the summer (around the time that volume 2 emerges – more news on that soon).
But there will be more business to take care of in Tredregyn before then — keep your eyes peeled in April for a one-off, very special crossover event that I haven’t written yet. If I have been taken by the angels (or COVID or an assassin’s bullet) between now and then, it will not appear. So keep those fingers crossed. Or adjust your expectations appropriately.
Steeple returns on Monday with a new 2-part story, “AUTHOR UNKNOWN?”, a crossover with Charlotte Grote of BAD MACHINERY and WICKED THINGS. Patreon subscribers (at the $3 and up tiers) will be able to read part 1 in full then, or you can enjoy it at webcomic pace on the website for the next 14 weeks. Following that, I have a four-part story in the works, a third “season” if you like with a complete arc that should take us into 2022.
In related news, Dark Horse have collected last year’s two stories, The Silvery Moon and Secret Sentai, into a new book. It’s out on August 4th in comic shops (Previews code APR210425) and August 17th in bookshops – get it any way you like! It features new artwork, a few new pages, a sketchbook section, and a beautiful cover by Giant Days artist Max Sarin.
The old Scary Go Round site has been running a near 20-year old CMS that can go no further. Getting thousands of legacy comics onto a new one won’t be easy. An attempt to move it to WordPress/ComicEasel collapsed under the weight of my three-headed archive. The success story continues.
You can read the Bad Machinery archive on GoComics (the enhanced version with all the extra book pages) and I’ll organise a page where you can sort all the chapters easily. In the meantime, I’m assembling PDF collections of the “New Bobbins” stories. $3 and up Patreon subscribers will get these as part of their subscription, just keep an eye on my Patreon page.
Otherwise, you can pay what you want for them on my Gumroad. I’ll try to put a PDF up every week – the first is up now. There are four collections – A Magical Pink Being (Amy is pregnant), Out Of The Woods (Shelley and Tim cause a great local disaster), End Of The Road (wrapping up the Erin Winters/Eustace Boyce comics) and Hard Yards (the epic wrap-up).
They each feature a new essay and notes.
You can get it here on my Gumroad page for £1. The next one should be up by this time next week.
Or, if you’re a $3 or higher tier Patreon subscriber, it’s available to download now as part of your membership.
Rounding out the collection, you can now get the 3rd and 4th New Bobbins books on my Gumroad page. They’re £1 each. Both feature new essays. My work here is, for the time being, done.
$3-and-up Patreon subscribers can download them here at no additional charge.
$3-and-up subscribers to my Patreon can read the first chapter of STEEPLE: CLOTTED CRIME in full, as a PDF now.
Patreon subscribers get access to, how can I put this, a lot of good stuff at this point – weird impromptu comic strips in a variety or formats, blog posts, sketches, process posts, historical trawls through my archive, and at all tiers of $3 and above, a trove of PDF editions of comics, including the new Bobbins collections from this year. Read in a higher resolution than things go up on the web, while supporting new comics here and extras like guest covers.
Thank you to my Patreon subscribers for your continued support!
As the top of this website has told you for a while now, the second Steeple volume is out next week, collecting the Silvery Moon and Secret Sentai stories from last year, plus a few extras.
Readers in the UK, if you get the book from OK Comics in Leeds (in-shop or online), you’ll get a signed, numbered, exclusive bookplate drawn by me. It is depicted below.
Thank you for your attention! Your support for this series… is appreciated.
[Note: the book is in comic shops next week, and other bookshops on August 17th]
Kelly Vivanco has done the cover for the upcoming Clotted Crime part 3, but that is not all. She has also submitted some archival pictures of Tredregyn’s sole all-merman folk outfit of the 1960s, TENTANGLE.
Kelly notes that “they really did a lot for sea creature outreach. Horribly strumming their guitars in unison, damply singing their briny hymns.” It was a different era and we can only imagine exactly how it was to visit the Victoria in 1962 and see these brave boys telling stories as old as the waves to a truly receptive audience. But as we all know, folk music travelled a long way through the 1960s, and things inevitably got freaky on the Lizard Peninsula…
She adds, “they lost two of their original members when touring Cornwall in 1967. Benny never picked up a guitar again.”
See more of Kelly’s work in fine art and cartoon formats.
I’m at two conventions in the next three weeks.
QUAI DES BULLES FESTIVAL – St Malo, France – Oct 29-Nov 1 2021
THOUGHT BUBBLE FESTIVAL – Harrogate, UK – Nov 13-14 2021
In St Malo I’ll be signing at the Akileos booth. In Harrogate I’m at table 136 in the Red Shirts Hall. I hope to see a few of you there!
NOTE: I am apparently almost inaudible through a mask in even a quiet shop, so please be… patient with me.