Hello Everyone! I was doing hourly comic day yesterday, which is a a day where artists try and make a comic for each hour they’re awake. I’ve got to admit it was a bit of a struggle at parts but on the whole it was really fun and my 12 comics (yea I was only up for 12 hours) read a bit like a day-in-the-life-of.
Enjoy!
Whahey! Hope you liked them!
Until next time!
Neil
Well well well didn’t that fly in? Probably because we’ll all getting older and time moves faster for old people (it’s true an old person told me).
I think it’s pretty hard to not think back on the year on Hogmanay, my initial though was ‘okay, I worked pretty hard but could be better’ but the more I thought about it the more I was like ‘Yea, that was actually pretty awesome’ and one of the best yet for my art.
I’m just going to do a short round up of my work throughout the year, maybe you’ve seen it all, maybe you haven’t. I certainly forgot about a lot of it until I had a good think about it.
Okay! 2013 started out pretty quiet, Seven Days in Berlin had been out for a few months and I didn’t really know what to do next. Just before Christmas I’d met my now girlfriend Coralie, which you can read all about in my soppy comics short.
We’ve been dating for about a year now which is a new record for me. At the start of February I got a call from Kerrang magazine to do a strip for them about Oli Sykes and a dinosaur, I did my best and I reckon it turned out pretty well!
From February through to May I don’t really recall much, from the looks of my Tumblr and Twitter it seems I was just farting about drawing animals and stuff. Anyways, in May me and Coralie went to Bordeaux, I did start a travelogue about this but it’s yet to be finished. Here’s a page.
In truth, the whole time I was there I was writing out another comic in my head. One about space and Astronomy, so when I got home I locked myself up for a few weeks and produced this.
The Amateur Astronomer’s Journal. Of all the comics I’ve made myself I’d say I’m most proud of this one. I’m rarely happy with a finished piece but I feel I really hit what I was trying to get across with this.
The book went out to some really great reviews and before I knew it, it was July and I was doing Glasgow Comic Con. The book got nominated for 3 of the SICBA awards and a good time was had. Next was the Edinburgh book festival where I met a wealth of amazing creators. I even got to meet one of my heroes Chris Ware (sheepishly gave him a book) and took notes on his and Joe Sacco’s talk.
September rolled in and me and my long time pal Alan Campbell did an exhibition called ‘A Sinking Night’ at Little Ox gallery. My main piece was a comic about a girl falling asleep. You can see the whole thing here.
Throughout October me and Colin Bell (Jonbot vs Martha dream team) got hard at work on a new comics and in November launched this bad boy.
Dungeon Fun is one of the biggest things I’ve ever worked on, it’s full colour and 32 pages and took a lot of work and a few all nighters to get finished. But it was well worth it. It’s reception was fantastic, it got tons of fantastic reviews and recently got featured in Comic Book Resources top 100 comics of 2013!
We took Dungeon Fun to Thought Bubble in Leeds where it did super good but I reckon my highlight of TB was meeting so many like minded creators and individuals in the comic world which although at first was a bit daunting was overall inspiring and motivating.
Shortly after returning from Leeds me and Campbell Miller (How to be a Ghost dream team) Launched how to be Suave.
In the same vein as ‘How to be a Ghost’ it’s short and sweet with a few chuckles and a nice overall message to boot.
And that’s pretty much it! I’ve done loads of one-off pictures and mini strips which can be found on my Tumblr or Facebook but that’s all the main bodies of work covered.
looking back I think I did as well as I could have, 3 books in a year ain’t bad. And although I don’t really feel comfortable talking about money, it’s worth saying for the first time in a long time I feel comfortable (of course this could all change). I can remember some grim moments a few years ago of being a regular at Govan job centre and having to borrow money from my parents to pay for bus fares etc. Well now I’m doing okay, earlier in the year I cleared off my debts and I just bought my parents a lovely weekend away, amongst other things, for their christmas.
Next year I hope to make even more books although calm down a bit on the other kind of work I take in to spend more time with my friends and family and very understanding girlfriend.
Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a fantastic new year!
Neil
Hello everyone!
Hope you’re all well! I have some exiting news, I’ve made a new comic!
Here look at it! It’s about the wonders of falling asleep.
As it is a fairly short comic so it’s not being released in book form but rather a snazzy lithograph poster! It’s fairly big (A2) poster of fantastic quality and comes signed and numbered for £8. The edition is 250 and once they’re gone they’re gone forever :0.
Posters can be ordered from my shop right here!
Thanks for reading!
Neil
I’ll be at this,
It’s a mini mart as part of the fantastic Edinburgh book festival and I’ll be with some of the biggest talents in the local comic world.
11 till 6 Saturday and Sunday in Charlotte Square, and it’s also free!
Hope to see you there!
Neil
Hello hello!
I hope you are well and the weather is however you like it wherever you are.
I just thought I’d give a little update on how things have been over the past while. Basically I’ve been plugging the new book as best as I can and try to get it out and about. So if anyone knows any shops that might take it or blogs that might review it let me know!
Apart from that I’ve been ploughing through commissions for people, also I was at Glasgow Comic Con which was amazing. I met lots of lovely people and like minded comicers.
In the next few months I’ll also be appearing at other Comic events including The Edinburgh Book Festival (i’ll be doing the mini mart on the 24th and 25th). I’ll also be at Megacon in Carlisle on the 17th this month, MCM on September 7th and Thought Bubble (which I am very excited about) in Leeds on the 23rd and 24th of November.
I’ll hopefully have some new books for some of these events, I’ll keep you posted!
Well that’s about it really, be sure to check my Facebook and Tumblr as I tend to update them with little things a bit more regularly.
Take care!
Neil
I must apologise for the very blunt title although my new book is out now and I’m super excited! Look!
It’s also been getting some great reviews, let’s hear some of them.
“mixes pieces of astronomy and science with a slight but utterly lovely story” –Comics Beat
“a sweet, innocent and beautifully touching story” –Big Comic Page
“the most accomplished work yet from a cartoonist I’m enjoying more and more.” – John Lees
The book is now available from my etsy store for £3 ($5) and books bought this weekend also come signed with 2 free badges!
The book is also available on Kindle!
Also if anyone would like a digital pdf (ipad friendly) please email me!
Thanks for reading, until next time!
Neil
Hello! Hope you’re all doing well!
Firstly I am super sorry I haven’t updated the blog in a while I have been mega busy with some projects and there’s one I’d like to show off today.
This is the cover for my new book.
This has been in the making for roughly the last 2 months, although it’s been in planning for a lot longer. It’s a fictional comic in which I’ve done my best to marry together some of my favourite subjects: space and astronomy, science and soppyness. It’s told from the perspective of a female amateur astronomer detailing some of her finds and wonders and I’m really proud of it. Here’s one of the 28 pages.
You can pre-order it right now from my shop!
It’s going to be available as of next Friday (21st) although if you’re local to Glasgow you should come along to the launch night! Where my good friend Gill Hatcher is also launching her new book ‘Bunny Behind the Moon’. It’ll be a super night and we’ll be doing some drawing and colouring in and other fun activities.
So that’s my big news! I’ll keep you all updated with other book news, in the meantime take care.
And keep looking up!
Neil
Hello everyone hope you’re doing well!
I don’t have much to say this week (crazy right?) but I do have some comics for you! I’ve been trying to get better at digital drawing and colouring so the first three are just silly ideas that I’ve made partly as little exercises and partly for the lolz. The strip at the very bottom was actually published in Kerrang! magazine last month! Woo! Click on them for bigness.
Well let me know what you think!
Take care
Neil
Yea I know I’m always a bit behind on stuff but still, happy world book day yesterday folks!
World book day is a charity that celebrates books and reading, every year millions of children are given book tokens to spend on new books and are encouraged by schools and libraries to come together in reading and enjoying books.
I think it’s an absolutely amazing thing as it gives kids a chance to own their own books as well as find out about other new and exciting material.
Anyways, I got a lovely email the other day from the teacher of class 5/4 at Camstradden primary school in Drumchapel.
As part of world book day the class project was to make their own bookmarks about what books mean to them based on my Pushpin bookmark design. Look!
How cool is that?! Needless to say this totally made my day. My original design (below) was me trying to illustrate what books mean to me and how they can take you to amazing far off lands and plunge you into adventure and it’s just so nice to see another person’s take on that.
The original bookmark is available for £1 from Pushpinzines.co.uk .
In the meantime keep reading everyone!
Neil
Neil Slorance 