Bad Toon Rising is a collection of drawings of well-known cartoon characters produced by amateur artists entirely from memory and without any reference materials whatsoever. We can all picture what Mickey Mouse or the Pink Panther look like in our minds, but getting that image down on paper is another matter.

Have a go yourself, for hours of fun in the pub with your comics chums!

The wall comic displayed at Comica back in June, is now available to view online.
Artists include Nick Abadzis, Matt Abbiss, Patrice Aggs, Faz Choudhury, Malcy Duff, Tom Gauld, Daniel Johnston, Roger Langridge, Simone Lia, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, Gary Northfield, Paul Peart-Smith, Barnaby Richards, Dave Shelton, Sarnath Bannerjee, Mark Stafford and Zeel. With a special contribution from Chris Ware.

It's a large file (2.3mb), but is definitely worth the wait.

The wall comic was co-ordinated by Tom Gauld and the website designed by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey.

And while you're here, don't forget to check out Tom's weekly strip in the Guardian Review, running for a limited period while Posy Simmonds is away.

Andy's Bugpowder sub-site now contains an Encyclopedia of
British Comics Creators
The beginnings of a gargantuan project...

Metaphrog have a plug in the Guardian

Julie Burchill, of all people...

Illlustrator and comic artist Chris Bishop, author of the comic series "Her," is inviting the whole wide (online) world to celebrate his birthday by becoming a guest-cartoonist. First, read Her. Then, draw your own "Her" strip and e-mail to her@chrisbishop.com by September 5. Cartoons will appear on September 8.
[by way of BoingBoing]

Andy writes:

Latest additions at bugpowder.com/andy :

Shtumm #3 in large scans. Includes an unsual little comic from 1793, called 'Der Lebenslauf' (ok, so it's not completely 'shtumm'), meaning the course of life. It also means simply 'cv', but sounds rather more poetic. The comic-ness of this sequence is less based on the life of the man depicted, (just sporadic sequences) than the landscape background, in particular the tree in the middle, to which the man's life is compared. This is especially interesting for understanding what constitutes a comic, or picture story. It's not the amount of time between panels, but how much happened in that time to the protagonist, or to the story told to us about him.

Konky Kru Picturesstrips in new scans: b/w photo jpgs can be more appropriate than b/w gifs.

Scans of Konky Kru Mini #1 , the latest, and hopefully last, version of KK zines. On stronger cardboard paper, by the way. (This and Shtumm are available from Gosh).

Magazine 6 my sketchbook-fanzine about comic-festivals. This one is about a little mini-comics thingy in Hamburg, including drawings of the music acts afterwards ('garage punk' I'm told). Also drawings from the Frankfurt bookfair, a somewhat larger event (about 7000 publishers).

Also put up more scans for another, more ambitious sketchbook magazine, called 'Realistische Zeichnungen' ('realistic drawings'). Here are those for #0. The only issue ready for sale is #1 (4 quid / 6 Euro).

The latest batch from July/August this year includes drawings made at the Loveparade, for the ravers amongst you.

Andy

For a while I used eBay as a way of refining my comic / graphic novel collection, selling the chaff and using that cash to buy the good stuff. Sequential Swap aims to do that but without the money element. It's very early days but might well be worth keeping tabs on. Then again, it might not!

(via Jounalista)

With the recent publication of Jeff Levine's new book Watching Days Become Years, Sparkplug comic books are seriouly emerging as a new US alt-publisher worth taking seriously. Other publication from them include work by Ted May, Eric Haven, Jason Shiga and Dylan Williams plus the anthology Orchid. They've got one of dem PayPal store things going on so go buy stuff.

DUCK! is an online exhibit on the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art website of original works by comics types on the theme of a duck. And as everyone knows ducks rock.

The 2003 Ignatz Award Nominees have been announced.

I have recently updated and improved my online portfolio with more sketchbook pages, early comics, a page of links and downloads and a page about ongoing projects. Take a look!

The Canadian National Post is running excepts from journals of local artists and cartoonist Seth is this week's diarist. (part 2, part 3, part 4)

Unless I'm faced with an urgent deadline, I don't start the day with paying work. I prefer to begin with something more personal. Today, it was the book I am working on with my father. It's a memoir of his childhood in Depression-era Prince Edward Island, tentatively titled Bannock, Beans and Black Tea. He's not a writer, but he is a wonderful storyteller. Over the last decade or so, I've managed to get him to write down all the stories he's told me over my life, and I have been editing them into a book. Polishing them, really. They have a wonderful tone -- both innocent and bitter at the same time. I've been slowly working on this book for years now, and it's finally nearing completion (hopefully to be published in the spring). I've poured a lot of effort into making it a beautifully designed monument to his life.

(via Journalista)

Mirrors

The trailer for American Splendor, the movie of the comic of the life of Harvey Pekar, is online. (via LMG)

Back from attending Caption
Comics news:
New Windy Wilberforce book from Ed Pinsent from Kingly Books
There Goes Tokyo release Gone by Nigel Auchterlounie
New Panel Beater section in Comics International ... of all things

Some Pictures

tired now - more will no doubt be posted soon

The Beano is 65...
so the guardian interview the great Leo Baxendale

yeay!

The latest issue of Zum!, the UK small press review zine, is now available to download here. The focus on the rather fine Malcy Duff is reason enough to pay Mr. Mooncat's magazine a visit.

A webpage for my recent comic Manhole is open for inspection and is reviewed here. All man-hole related jokes to the usual address, please.