SO EXCITED.

SO EXCITED.

OKAY GUYS, HUGE NEWS! My upcoming graphic novel (based on a YA novel by Prudence Shen) NOTHING CAN POSSIBLY GO WRONG, will be serialized online from now until its publication in May 2013! 

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is a graphic novel about two guys, Nate and Charlie, one’s a nerd, one’s a jock, but they still manage to have this weird, kind of combative friendship. Until they both get tangled up in a highly competitive school election that spirals out of control and then … well, you’ll have to read it to see. ;) This book contains ninja cheerleaders, over the top comedy and SO MANY BATTLE ROBOTS. Seriously, I was reading through it the other day and I had to draw like 50 pages of robots fighting and it is insane.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE COMIC! I would really, really appreciate it! The comic is going online with the permission of my publisher, First Second, and I’m very grateful to them for letting me share it with the internet. So, internet, please tell everyone you know of its existance! 

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong will be updating with a page every weekday, and Prudence and I will be blogging along with the updates, giving readers insight into our creative processes and other nonsense.

Yay!!!!

Sketchavember 2012 - Part 3!

21 - Meilee, my adorable and awkward factory girl. She always looks pretty gormless, because people leave you alone if they think you're an idiot.

22 - Lin, who came to the same conclusion in the boy's side of the factory. Also has the misfortune of being on the back of Jemima's page, which I shaded with markers.

23 - It got to about 11:30pm and I was falling asleep, then I remembered I hadn't done a picture, so I drew Coda falling asleep.

24 - I almost got through Sketchavember without drawing Duo again. Almost.

25 - Noone, the main character of a graphic novel which I planned and then scrapped. I still want to do something with the characters though.

26 - Haha, I tried to draw a demon but he kept going wrong, so I rubbed him out and drew an angel instead, which was a million times easier. I wonder if that says anything about my psyche.

27 - Ah, here's the demon.

28 - Having developed a character model for Hephzibah, I completely failed to make one for Gorse. Oh well.

29 - A Vrega, having a nice stretch.

30 - Last but not least, Kero. Originally he was some kind of alien that resembled a demon, but I've been thinking I might just make him a sort of feral demon instead.

And that was last year's Sketchavember! I hope you enjoyed this insight into my pathological fear of drawing anything that's not people. XD

These are five of the ten new postcards I made to take to Thought Bubble. I'm really pleased with them, I think they show improvement from the last batch, which is always encouraging. Part of it might be because I really tried to limit my colour palette for all the new postcards.

They're all my own characters this time. There's Meilee and Lin, who have fallen asleep in the rain because they can't find any shelter, Shasta contemplating a remnant of the Old World, Jessie looking out over the castle town in her Patchworker uniform (it's a sort of messenger and general dogsbody, if you're curious), Louise being led into the woods by some fairies (they're still after that key), and the Crowboy giving Lottie a little gift.

I still haven't got round to scanning my Sketchavember pics, so until then here are some observational sketches.

While my little sister was visiting here in Bath we went to the Fashion Museum. They had a timeline of dresses from 1800 to 1900 (loosely) showing the changing silhouette and the fashions for different fabrics. The ones from the early 1800s looked like the comfiest thing, but the late Victorian dresses were so stylish. There was also a special display of black evening-wear, but it wasn't very clearly labelled so I'm not sure how old one of the dresses was. I guessed 1960s, but in hindsight I think it was 1930s.

If you're wondering why the timelines go backwards... that's because I'm left-handed, so I start on the right-most edge of each page. Not ideal for chronological order.

What's the Time, Mrs Woolf is once again looking for submissions! The deadline for the Jan/Feb issue is provisionally set at January 31st, so you have lots of time! We don't have a theme for this issue, but as it's the January/February issue if you want to do something related to New Year or Valentine's Day then that's fine. As usual we're looking for articles, illustrations, comics and questions for Poppet. (Especially articles! We also accept short stories, poetry and reviews.) However we're NOT looking for a cover this month, as Meg Guindon has already volunteered one. submission guidelines are as follows:

the zine is printed A5, black and white

all files should be 300dpi, preferably jpegs or tiffs

we recommend leaving a 5mm safety margin within the A5 page

WTTMW is currently by women, for women

please email submissions to whatsthetimemrswoolf@gmail.com, or to myself or Lilywoolf directly.

P.S. Lilywoolf and I assess suitability on a case-by-case basis, but in general try to keep it PG-13 as far as violence or nudity goes.

There are 6 DAYS LEFT and the project is only two-thirds funded! So to get you guys hyped up, here are a couple draft pages from the beginning of the graphic novel itself. There’s still time to make this graphic novel happen, so keep spreading the word!