Says Rob Curley (via):

As some of you may be aware I have been producing my own line of comics for the last five years and to date I have mainly concentrated on Freak Show and only recently expanded the line by releasing Atomic Rocket Group 66 which, unlike Freak Show, will run as a set of ongoing mini series. This takes a lot of the pressure off of deadline schedules etc and frees up a lot of time for other projects.

I have a few of these projects planned for over the next few years and of course this means more artists to bring them to life! The first project will be a three-issue horror series with covers by Stephen Thompson. The job is of a professional nature and a high standard of work would be expected, and it is of course paid work. I would need to see at least four pages of sequential art to get any real idea of an applicants artistic level.

If you would like to apply for the position of comic illustrator under the Atomic Diner banner you can send your sample work to robsubcity@gmail.com.

I will be advertising the position through trade mags, forums and art colleges etc so please be patient when waiting for a reply.

Cheers

Rob

The Dublin Comic Con has a proper website, here. Its only 16 days away, but not too late to attend!

Deepest Sympathy was Phil Barrett's entry for the Observer competition; it's available for viewing on his blog. As is Earth's Not Cool, his 4-page 24-hour comic. (Great cartoonist; not-so-good with the maths!)

Hi-ho, Bugpowderites!

My new novella, MOIR: STAND UP, COMIC, is now online at The Matthew Craig Dot Com.

Cover:

In Moir: Stand Up, Comic, a third-rate comedian loses his job (to a moment of madness) and his wife (to a geography teacher), and is left with a simple choice: find a new dream to follow, or find a real job. Easier said than done when the ghosts of his past dog his every step.

Moir is a bit of a departure from my usual goofy fare, and I hope you enjoy it. A print edition is also available (£1.75 mail order, £1.50 from my table at the Thought Bubble Comic Fair, Leeds, Nov 10th).

Speaking of goofy fare, I have also posted an extended edition of SUPER SENTAI SPIRIT DOG HONDLE, the mangaesque adventures of my postmortem pooch. I hope you enjoy that, as well.
Cheers,
Matthew Craig
//\Oo/\\
http://www.thematthewcraig.com

Ming writes: When i was young, i thought i was english, because i spoke english.
i'm not english, i'm malaysian. And i blog comics at www.artmaker.blogspot.com
ming
ps: thought you might like to know.
pps: my country was once colonised by the british
tripple ps: here is a sample comic.

Yellow Beast Publishing is proud to present to you a new comic/magazine, entitled “Hungry Monkeys”, featuring worryingly subversive new characters such as:
Devil Balloon - one fine scoundrel, and a very murderous balloon.
Mr. V - Holds on to Devil Balloon’s trailing string so ol’ DB doesn’t float away. Also a cretin.
Defty – Huggable yet continuously bullied fall guy.
Simon – Schmuck. Loves Annabelle.
...and loads more.

Stocked by: Swin City of Swindon, Paradox in Poole, or from branches of Travelling Man from November. Also in the US at Golden Apple on Melrose in LA, Pop Culture Paradise or Ash Avenue Comics in Tempe, AZ, and Gryphon Comics in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Check out our MySpace, and drop either myself or Martin a line. We’ll send you some stuff. Or you can email us at hungrymonkeysmag@yahoo.co.uk.

We’ll be seeing you at the 2008 Bristol International Comics Expo. We’ll have a stand and we will be “practically giving away” our comic/magazine. We’ll see you there. Just look out for Yellow Beast Magazines; the brand with the yellow beast. In black and white.

Dale May & Martin Bassett (The Hungry Monkeys)

Chris Doherty has uploaded the first issue of his comic "Video Nasties" to his ComicSpace gallery.
What's there amounts to the first part of what's hopefully going to be a four or five part mini-comic series.

It's only going to be up in it's entirety until actual physical copies of it are produced, probably in time for the Leeds Thought Bubble event, so until then check out this 'Pilot' edition, and send any feedback to Chris!

Full details (and updates) of COMICA events can be found at Paul Gravetts website

The Small Press is coming to Camden Market - If you can assist or want to use the stall to sell your wares, contact via the Facebook site.

Video of the Brum comics convention. Also: video of John McCrea at work.

Just a quick reminder of the Dublin Comic Con - As well as tons of star guests from the world of mainstream comics (Jim Lee, Steve McNiven, Mark Millar, Carlos Pacheco, etc), I'm told there will be a healthy Small Press/Independent showing too, including Will Sliney and Declan Shalvey, and many more.

Its not too late to book a table as an exhibitor, €150 for the weekend for 4 foot worth of space. And you can find cheap flights here!

Contact: info@irishcomicshop.com
Venue : Tara Towers Hotel, Merrion Road, Dublin 4
Date : November 17th & 18th 2007
http://www.myspace.com/dublincitycomiccon

Now available - 'Tag Team' - new one-off anthology comic.
Stories by Dave West, Nigel Auchterlounie, Andrew Richmond, Michael O'Keefe, Colin Mathieson, Tony Hitchman and Ian Mayor. Art by Leonie O'Moore.
32 pages, black and white interior, colour covers.
Available to buy from lulu.com
Original artwork from the book available to buy at www.lomoore.com

Myfanwy Nixon writes:
Hi guys, this might be of interest.

As you will have seen this weekend, the Observer announced the winners of its competition in conjunction with Random House, Jonathan Cape and Comica.

Some of the comments on the official Guardian blog remarked that it would be nice to see the losing entries as well as the winners. So I've been compiling a list of links to those who entered. You can see the result here. So far I have only 15 of the rumoured 300 entrants, but I will go on adding links as I find them (plus – that's 15 juicy comic strips waiting for you to read). If anyone else entered, and wants a wider audience for your work, they should drop me a line in the comments box below that entry and I will be happy to add a link. There is also a Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/551664@N23/.

As I mention in my post, one unexpected side effect of this is that cartoon artists from all over the UK are getting together and looking at each others' work, which is just great. A few years ago, we all would have entered the competition, heard nothing back, and retreated into our shells. Not any more – viva l'Internet!

All the best,
Myf
drawanyway.com

(Great! Now, does anyone want to compile and publish them? - Dan)

Some updates from Paul Gravett:

Hello again

Hope this finds you well. The big news coming up this weekend is the start of COMICA 07, the return of the London International Comics Festival, which runs from October 20th right through to November 6th.

The ICA is the main focus of events and they have their programme online and bookable at www.ica.org.uk/comica
On Saturday we kick off with a special acoustic set by American anti-folk singer-songwriter and comic artist Jeffrey Lewis, followed by three fascinating international comics talks, from Kosei Ono on manga and Gérald Gorridge on bandes dessinées and comics in Vietnam, to Sarnath Banerjee on Indian comics. There's a deal if you book up all 3 talks

Also happening as free events, with ICA membership or daypass, is 24 Hour Comics Day, when around 24 cartoonists strive to create a 24-page original impromptu story in 24 hours. It starts 3pm Sat and concludes by 3pm Sunday. Details are here

And the presentation of the winner of the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica graphic short story prize, at 5.30pm:
http://www.ica.org.uk/The%20ObserverJonathan%20CapeComica%20Graphic%20Short%20Story%20Prize+15049.twl

On Sunday October 21st the panels continue with three discussions on Manga, Webcomics and Manhua (that's comics from China) with special guests including Yishan Li, Mr Clement, Paul Duffield, Ilya, daniel Merlin Goodbrey and more:
http://www.ica.org.uk/Lingua%20Comica%3A%20Asia-Europe%20Cultural%20Exchanges+15050.twl

But not everything is happening at the ICA. One of Comica's other partner venues is the French Institute in South Kensington and on Sunday night 8-9pm in their magnificent library there's a discussion about graphic novels in English with Gérald Gorridge and special Cambodian-French graphic novelist Séra. Only £3 or £2 concessions.
For details of this and the whole Comica 07 programme, ICA and beyond, see my own site for listings and links here:
http://www.paulgravett.com/comica/comica07/comica07.htm

On Monday night 6.30-7.30pm, October 22nd, visionary Belgian writer and critic Benoît Peeters will be talking with me about bandes dessinées and manga and launching Tokyo is My Garden, his graphic novel with Frédéric Boilet, now in English from Fanfare/Ponent Mon. Tickets only £3 or £2 concessions. You can buy them on the door.

And two of Italy's greatest graphic novelists, Igort and Gip, have been invited to talk at the ICA on Tuesday 23rd, 7-8pm. Unmissable. The link is here:
http://www.ica.org.uk/Fumetti%20Maestros+15051.twl

If you feel like partying, Comica has also joined up with Illustrated London Noise, the monthly Friday free-form club night, from 9pm on October 26th and Le Gun, Tom Humberstone and others will be drawing live.
http://www.ica.org.uk/Illustrated%20London%20Noise%3A%20Comica%20Edition+15038.twl
You can go to that after catching Alan Moore in performance with Michael Moorcock and Iain Sinclair from 6.30pm. Get tickets here:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/22452

Finally, for this bulletin anyway, one of the film highlights of Comica, running right through the season till November 4th is Princess, a truly disturbing adult animated vengeance-thriller from Danish comics creator Anders Morgenthaler.
www.princessthemovie.co.uk/princess_trailer_850k.mov
Screening details here:
http://www.ica.org.uk/Princess+15012.twl
...
Hope to see some of you at the upcoming Comica season- lots more goodies to follow, from our Halloween special, Posy Simmonds, Misako Rocks!, Nick Abadzis, Abouet & Oubrérie of AYA, Mark Newgarden movies and live performance and music with Our Comic Book from Edinburgh, Iraq War graphic novels and special Persepolis Movie screening on the last night, Nov 6th.

All my best and take care

Paul
---------------------------------
www.paulgravett.com
www.greatbritishcomics.com

Well, I'm back from the Birmingham International Comics show! And what a fun show it was. Here are some updates fresh from the Bugblog inbox:

Markosia Enterprises have signed a new four part mini series - “The Magpye” - from the critically acclaimed UK comic studio Monkeys with Machineguns.
Described by writer Chris Lynch as a “psychological supernatural super-hero-horror story”, The Magpye will be solicited in late 2008.

Here's a collection of cartoons, mostly involving stick people of some kind or other, that David Guy draws.

Brendan O'Neill is looking for artists fopr his Scampenstein project.

To celebrate the launch proper of his regular webcomic, Steve Tillotson has set himself the task of creating a new 3 panel comic strip every day for the next month. At the end of this herculean task (while also working full time), a new strip will be posted twice weekly.
http://www.ditcb.co.uk/banalpig
http://www.banalpig.blogspot.com

The Chemistry Set are pleased to announce the addition of Tony Lee and Dan Boultwood, otherwise known as Silver Bullet Comic Books' Two Drunk Guys In A Bar,and their miniseries, The Gloom, to the ranks of the Chemistry Set creators.
The Gloom starts October 19th and serializes every Friday at The Chemistry Set.

Thomas Plaskitt, under the alias newthink, makes rather lovely looking comic art.

Matthew Craig was also at Birmingham, with some of the following comics: MOIR: STAND UP, COMIC, SUPER SENTAI SPIRIT DOG HONDLE, TRIXIE BIKER: ENTER JACK NARCISSUS, VITALE, and many more!

Adam Cadwell was there too, with The Everyday minicomics issues 1 - 8 to sell and trade and also some signed A3 prints of his latest comic Spilt Soda.

Theres a nice review of random journeys 1 - 3 at the daily crosshatch website.

Hurk has a new comic-book 'MEAT HILL' , out now.

Brighton Cartoonist Bird has a new website for his comics. It's called The Euphonium Mole, and it's a mixture of one-off cartoons and a webcomic about a guy in a suit called Carl Garbanzo. Updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
.

I'm debuting a new FREE minicomic at the Birmingham International Comics Show - Here's a sneak peek. Grab one off me, or look out for it lying about in unusual places.

Oliver writes:
how do?
both myself and jim medway, amongst others will be doing the 24 hour comic day thing at the ICA if anyone fancies coming along to point and laugh. it's on 20th and 21st of Oct and there's more info here.

all the best
oliver
Rolling Stock Press
trainsare.blogspot.com
www.rollingstockpress.co.uk

Check out the Leeds Sequential Art Festival on 9th-11th November

They're planning to have a selection of small press stalls at Thought Bubble and are running the following workshop which should be of interest to anybody wanting to take the plunge into self-publishing:

How to Self Publish your own Comic Book.
Ever wanted to create your own comic? Find out how to with this step by step self publishing session run by Dr Simpo.
This workshop is free but places are limited please book in advance. Contact, thoughtbubble@hotmail.co.uk
Saturday 10th November 1pm to 3pm The Carriageworks

Also just announced, Kieron Gillan and Jamie Mckelvie will be holding a talk about how they create comics which will be very interesting for any budding comic creators. The time and venue for this will be announced soon on the Thought Bubble website

Any small press creators interesting in booking a table can (I think) find info about that on the website.

Nick Abadzis talking about Laika on Inkstuds Podcast.

Like Buses, if you missed that Dublin comic con, don't worry, theres another one soon - 17th-18th November to be exact. Despite the mainstream line-up on the website, last years event boasted a healthy small press contingent, hopefully this one will too.

Albion's John Reppion reports on SubCon, Ireland's premier comics convention.

The Big Draw is taking place in London right now, up to the end of October. If you're handy with a pen or pencil, pop along and show off a bit.

The new issue of Hope for the Future is out, a mere two and a half years after the last one. It's mostly about ghosts. It's available to buy from Indyplanet here. (they also have a few preview pages up)

Further details can be found, along with regular webcomics, here:
http://www.flyingmonkeycomics.co.uk/