Wonky Pictures of Newcastle

I haven't yet strung these together into any kind of narrative, but I am nonetheless enjoying drawing simple pictures of Newcastle shops, roofs etc.. from the toon's various coffee-houses.

Peg Powler

Peg Powler is a face of the Tees river spirit. It is also the name used by Rebecca Little & AJ Garrett for the excellent DIY paper-based creativity that they promote on Teesside. I travelled back down to the beloved Tees on Saturday for selfish reasons: cos they've included some of my diary comic entries in their latest 'Words' exhibition at Stockton ARC.

I never got round to making the quiz that I'd meant to go with my diary, but I liked how they displayed it : it's nice to see your badly drawn thoughts in frames! And I included my original notebook diary hung on a string there so you can read through my diary as it actually is.

Being a diary, there are various personal episodes and thoughts covered in the pages. Some of them involve my ex girlfriend, which I hadn't shown her. So as it turned out, she accompanied me down to Teesside on this occasion, and read about some of mythoughts of our break-up in my diary ...

Picture Letters this week.

I am making an effort to draw picture-filled letters this week, with replies to some lovely people so far sent off to Teesside, Cambridge, and Buryatia (Siberia). They are to people I miss, people who I think are ace, and people who I will enjoy having a papery relationship with. I have been thinking a lot today about how many of my best friends are books; about how the friend I speak most to is a piece of paper; and about how this is actually okay.

There are many other things I SHOULD be doing. Mostly on computer and online. But after the day is done, it is good to put away the electronic things and find a piece of paper to talk to.

Monsters are go!

Don't forget to draw a monster when you see a gig!

I've had my first submissions for the next monster zine (very good, very good), and have been getting a bit overcomplicated in my cut n paste attempts at monsters myself. Deadline in about a month!

New zine, not for Newcastle

Here are a few pics of a new zine I've done for the Brighton Zine Fest.

It won't be available in Newcastle, because it's a bit too personal.

It can be easier to share your feelings with strangers, sometimes, hence the title.

I was going to do a stall, but today I've decided not to: I'll have a better day walking around talking to people. And chasing the bus named after Peter Kropotkin.

Second Bothy Zine waiting for ...

... the weather to be lovely.

So I doubt I'll get started for a couple of months yet.

Today, for example, the forecast says: "Heavy overnight rain will clear by dawn. Otherwise, no more than a few drizzly showers. Very wet/saturated conditions underfoot Moffat area and Cheviots, with stream/river levels very high."

(My planned route involves lots of trudging around moorland streams in the Moffat area, and my 'pre' plan is to do the top bit of the Pennine Way down the Cheviots from Kirk Yetholm.)

So I'm sticking to train routes for now, and will be using these to go to the Brighton Zine Fest on 19th-20th February. I've got a zine made, ready for printing especially for the Zine Fest. But it's a bit personal to show around Newcastle, so the intention is for only strange southerners to read it.

bethan took my pilgrimage sampler zines on tour

Zines to Lyon in 2010, to Mars by 2012!