The great thing about self publishing comics is that you can do whatever the hell you want.
If you’ve been following my work for a long time you may already be familiar with DUZIDA, my on-again-off-again tokusatsu inspired comic series.
DUZIDA is a creation that’s very close to my heart and I’ve tried several times to get it just right. I thought a good way to do this is if I take all the stuff that I’ve done in the past and smash it all together (as such I’ve been referring to this project as Duzida Remix to myself)
The first issue borrows pages from previous iterations but as I move on with this project they’ll become few and far between. I’m unsure how long I’m going to make this. We’ll see what happens. Either way, this time round I want to have something that resembles an ending!
I keep making the same mistake whenever I decide to make daily comics in October. I quickly realise that a lot of stuff happens at work. I can’t talk about work. So there are days on end that can’t have dairy comics written about them.
Also I ended up being really busy over the past couple weeks (good busy) so that’s hindered my ability to make comics.
Once I’m out of the other end of having a million other things to I’ll make some more. They just won’t be daily!
It’s October which means it’s time for me to make diary comics every day cos I did that one year instead of inktober ages ago and I’ve rolled with it ever since!
Snot & Dog was an idea I came with through a character design workshop. The idea was, you drew an object over and over again, simplifying it and making it easier to draw until you could eventually get a shape to create a character from. Snot was originally a chair would you believe. Then I just gave home a dog so he’d have someone to bounce off of.
The first comic is a redrew of my original outcome during the workshop. The second one is hot off the press. I don’t really know where I’m doing with Snot & Dog but I wanna keep going with it. I enjoy writing extremely silly, single page comics.
Last weekend I did something I don’t do very often, I travelled overseas for an event.
I’ve been meaning to table at TCAF for more or less the entire time I’ve been selling my work at conventions.
This trip was always going to be a bit of a write off due to the massive overheads involved with flights but I wanted to go to TCAF at least once.
Toronto is a nice a city and Toronto Comic Arts Festival was a great event. I loved being able to see a whole bunch of indie comics and creators I usually wouldn’t get a chance to see in the UK. The vibe was exactly the same as that of Thought Bubble, it was super chill and people were there to buy comics(!) Usually at events like MCM what I make over a weekend is heavily reliant on taking commissions, which is fine, I love drawing things for people. But comics take an incredibly long time to make so attending an event where people are keen to buy them is always a plus in my eyes.
Could I have tried a bit harder with being social? Absolutely I could, but that’s not my forte so that’s never going to happen, let’s be honest. (Being jet lagged for the entire duration of my stay in Canada didn’t really help) But everyone that I did speak to was super friendly.
Logistically, TCAF was a bit of a nightmare. For me that is, not the event. Other than when the ceiling started spewing water. As I was travelling by plane I had to very carefully consider what and how much I was going to bring with me. Though, in fairness, what I packed was the perfect amount.
That included; Some stuff for displaying books, 5 different comics (15 copies of each except for Punk Shark which I bought 30 of) a few sew on patches, some pins and some stuff to draw commissions with should the opportunity arise. Oh, and a Punk Shark plush that I got made about 3 years ago and have only now started displaying on my table.
I’d definitely consider doing TCAF again. Maybe in a couple of years. However, I would definitely plan it a bit better. Everything was slightly last minute and it worked out that I’d arrive on the Friday (the day before TCAF) and leave on Tuesday (which is when I’m writing this, sat in the airport waiting for my flight home) Arriving a few days prior and leaving the day after would have been a much better plan, but time limitations – and the means to get time off work- wouldn’t allow it to work out that way. Either way, I wanted a bit of time to explore, I’ve never been to Canada before!
I really like Toronto, it was nice to be in a big city without the constant threat of being stabbed or having my phone snatched. Though, perhaps those threats were present and I just didn’t notice.
This has undoubtedly been the most stressed I’ve been in the run up to a con, but that’s to be expected, I was travelling abroad completely on my own. But it was totally worth it.
I decided I worked too hard on LIME for no one to see any of it until at least November.
So here’s the first 7 pages for you to enjoy.
My thought process for this comic was basically just “what if I made a comic that was a love letter to Jet Set Radio” I’ve had it on the back burner for years but something arose that gave the chance to finally see it though.
Later in the year I’ll have some more news on what’s going on with this project, so sit tight.
In 2019 I made an artist book for the first year of my BA. I was really in to using textures (I still am to be honest) and found objects at the time so I made an A4 size zine full of photos and collage.
I got a bunch of them printed then just sorta forgot about them because COVID happened so I wasn’t able to go to any cons or zine fairs to sell them. Recently they’ve been added to my table at events and on reflection I still really like them. I’d like to make more stuff like it in the future.
This is almost a spiritual prequel to This Comic Hasn’t Actually Got a Title Yet (the final outcome for my MA)
I’m currently working on a massive collection of diary comics from 2019-2025. As it stands it’s looking to be a book of around 250 pages (at the very least!)
Here are some from the before times. I’ve had to remasters these ones, as well as a few others, as I went through this weird phase of not using panels in diary comics. I’ve been shuffling the art around and putting it in panels to make it a bit more user friendly.
bozorobo.blog 