company

what is maartje doing up this time of night you wonder? i am trying to finish some large scale drawings for the lamb's conduit street takeover, which will run more or less from 21 july till 5 august to coincide with the iapf. the lovely bikefix will be host to a short, but by my and my 0.3 lead's standards big, narrative. exhibiting in a space that isn't a gallery is a good excuse to make something site specific, so i have delved into my family's sordid cycle history for the occasion. 

the excellent company i will keep on lamb's conduit street includes: organiser tanya meditzky, barnaby richards and ellen lindner. 

happy days

today was one of those days, i came home after a long day's work, dog tired and ready to collapse. anticipating bills and bank statements i opened my letterbox only to find the long awaited dog comics anthology that rose robbins put together recently.

jon mcnaught

such a beautifully made little book. and full of dogs to boot. i have wanted a dog for a long time, maybe a little sausage dog or a whippet or a labrador or an american foxhound...but who needs a dog, when you can come home to a comic about one? although nothing can beat this canine.

joff winterhart

you can buy a copy at arnolfini or here gallery in bristol and at gosh! or extra bones in london. should you reside elsewhere, you can also buy directly from the editor herself.

me

for my own contribution i spent a holiday in shanghai taking photos of man's best friends wherever i could.

rose robbins

i love rose's graphic style and the simplicity of a story that is moving and true.

rip and gosh!p

first of all rest in peace jean giraud aka moebius.

panel from 'suster bertken'

mike medaglia and mark haylock of thinking comics host a monthly comics discussion group called gosh!p at -you guessed it- gosh. this wednesday they will be discussing david b.'s epileptic and the first issue of the strumpet, the ellen lindner edited anthology that features my short story 'suster bertken'. i will be there to take part in the conversation. come along for what promises to be an interesting evening.

brancusi

earlier this month i spent the afternoon sitting on a bench in brancusi's studio next to the centre pompidou in paris.

towards the end of his life brancusi considered his sculptures and the way they were placed in his studio to be one holistic work. individual pieces worked together to create a greater whole. he became reluctant to sell anything and plaster copies replaced any work he did have to part with. when he passed away he left everything to the french state on condition that it be displayed exactly the way it was in his atelier.

the studio had grown organically with brancusi acquiring three spaces adjoining it over the years, two of which became the area where he displayed his sculptures as a large constellation. the other pair functioned as workshop and storage. although he thought of the larger space as the actual work, i was almost more intrigued by the rooms he worked in. 

plaster heads were strewn across shelves and surfaces, waiting to be animated. his tools were arranged across the walls, almost tiny statues themselves. in contrast to the static beauty on the other side of the wall everything here seemed ready to be moved around, embraced or discarded.

i had been working on a one pager for the upcoming third issue of the comix reader, but was struggling to find the right way of rendering it. visiting atelier brancusi made me approach the page as one large panel and also to eliminate the bodies of the characters. i applied a wash of blue-grey watercolour over the entire page and then removed areas of paint to create faces.

short stories suit me well at the moment as i study 2 days a week, work 3 days and have a placement the sixth day. a single page is exceptionally short however and i wasn't sure what to write. i am always on the lookout for narratives, sometimes only realising i have one when telling a friend an anecdote i never even considered rendering as a comic. and that is how my contribution to the comix reader was born.

to pick up a copy or just to have a drink join us at gosh! for the launch party from 19:00 to 21:00 on friday 2 march. an exhibition of original artwork from the comix reader will also be on display.

dogs comic

rose robbins has been working on an anthology of comics on dogs, which launches tomorrow night at café kino, 108 stokes croft, bristol. because it is a week night unfortunately i won't be able to make it there, but i am sure it will be a great evening, so if you're around go have a look.

dogcomic is also the debut publication of often and mistakes. 

a dog from my contribution