I have launched the new Band Of One Store where you can grab the Jack Astro comic book. A few A5 Art Card prints and various sketch cards from my morning warmup sketches which I’m posting on Instagram.
The store can be found here: https://bandofone.square.site/
If you are buying anything for Christmas I would order in the next couple of weeks to be sure of delivery before the 25th.
The last few months has been a wild ride, first with the Kickstarter. And then building up to the weekend at Thought Bubble.
It was such a joy to be able to talk to people about my work and show them the Jack Astro Comic Book in person.
A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by the table and either chatted with me or listened patiently to my pitch for the book. The response was really great and I’m still on a bit of a high having such a positive reaction from people both for my artwork and also the general concept.
I made this comic for myself really. Or to be more accurate for my 12 year old self. I would have been a massive fan of this comic if someone else had created it. It was especially exciting seeing youngsters around that age and a bit older looking so thoroughly psyched about the book.
The show was run amazingly well and all the precautions in place for Covid made for a great and safe show. Thought Bubble really cares about the artists and comic creators and there was SO much incredible talent on display. I wish I had more time to hunt around. I know I missed out on meeting and buying stuff from a few of my favourite creators.
Since the weekend ended I’ve been totally fueled with inspiration to get working on my next projects. I’ve got a few exciting things in the works including a spin-off version of Jack Astro for a kids magazine. And a new long form project that will be a bit more in the fantasy genre. A middle-ages setting, knights, dragons and my usual injection of weirdness and silliness.
I will definitely be hoping to attend next year’s show and hopefully one or two others throughout 2022.
It made the whole thing suddenly feel much more real, and legitimate. Of course seeing it on other people’s shelves will be a much more satisfying moment!
I spent a lovely evening having a read through of the comic. Noting down pages that needed tweaking, but generally just enjoying the reading experience. My wife was rolling her eyes as I sat laughing at my own jokes in the comic.
I spent another few evenings tweaking the files, and now I’m just waiting on the printers to deliver the final digital proofs before we go to full print run.
Look at how this turret gun appears to be shooting out of one panel, and into the panel on the opposite page. I drew these SO long ago, I’m going to claim that it was all carefully planned, but I honestly think that was a bit of luck.
I’ve decided on a good signing pen, an acrylic paint pen. I see people using Sharpie’s a lot but I think if I used one of those I’d be high as a kite on fumes after a dozen books.
Every copy for the kickstarter will be signed, so the REALLY valuable ones will probably be a rare un-signed copy!
