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Webcomic Spotlight: Clan of the Cats

clanofthecats

Clan of the Cats is a webcomic with serious longevity. It’s been running for ten years and has an impressive archive that’s, literally, growing by the day! Fortunately for new readers it is divided into different stories and the premise is easy to grasp; Chelsea Chattan is a witch cursed to turn into a panther; as such she has magical abilities: she can cast spells and talk to cats. All cat owners will recognise their own cat in the character of Sebastion who is an accurate and affectionate representative of the feline species.

The plot is taken seriously and well planned out, but there is humour largely in the personalities of the characters. All of them feel ‘real’ with some of the storylines dealing with ordinary day-to-day dramas. Even the background characters are memorable. The art style changes but it started out good and only gets better – those ten years of webcomicing have clearly paid off. Yes – I am quite envious, but it is inspiring to see.

No one will be surprised to know this is one of my favourite pages. Any comic that does Star Trek fan-service gets the thumbs up from me!

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Blog

Webcomic Spotlight: Clan of the Cats

clanofthecats

Clan of the Cats is a webcomic with serious longevity. It’s been running for ten years and has an impressive archive that’s, literally, growing by the day! Fortunately for new readers it is divided into different stories and the premise is easy to grasp; Chelsea Chattan is a witch cursed to turn into a panther; as such she has magical abilities: she can cast spells and talk to cats. All cat owners will recognise their own cat in the character of Sebastion who is an accurate and affectionate representative of the feline species.

The plot is taken seriously and well planned out, but there is humour largely in the personalities of the characters. All of them feel ‘real’ with some of the storylines dealing with ordinary day-to-day dramas. Even the background characters are memorable. The art style changes but it started out good and only gets better – those ten years of webcomicing have clearly paid off. Yes – I am quite envious, but it is inspiring to see.

No one will be surprised to know this is one of my favourite pages. Any comic that does Star Trek fan-service gets the thumbs up from me!

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Webcomic Spotlight: Capes -N- Babes

capesnbabesbanner

Capes -N- Babes is a webcomic that knows its audience: Geeks. It’s a gag comic centred on a Comic Shop in a strip Mall called, funnily enough, Capes -N- Babes. It acts as a forum for geeky discussion on current trends in the comic book industry, T.V and the internet. Its main characters are honest with opinions and experiences that are easy to relate to. Their world is very like ours except all the popular fictional characters are real people. They all ‘star’ in their own franchise… unless it has ended, in which case they have had to go out and find themselves day jobs. Marc, the main character, frequently interviews them for the stores video podcast.

Needless to say a lot of humour results from the colliding of worlds; superheroes brought down to earth by the laws of physics and Zombies who don’t want to be stereotyped. There’s Roy, the werewolf who works in the video store who is frequently mistaken for a cosplayer, a Narnian bartender and illegal aliens who are… Aliens! (I actually watched Alien yesterday and could not stop snickering due to the image of an Alien dishwasher that kept popping into my head). Capes –N- Babes will have you satirising the world in no time and keep making you smile throughout the day.

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Blog

Webcomic Spotlight: Capes -N- Babes

capesnbabesbanner

Capes -N- Babes is a webcomic that knows its audience: Geeks. It’s a gag comic centred on a Comic Shop in a strip Mall called, funnily enough, Capes -N- Babes. It acts as a forum for geeky discussion on current trends in the comic book industry, T.V and the internet. Its main characters are honest with opinions and experiences that are easy to relate to. Their world is very like ours except all the popular fictional characters are real people. They all ‘star’ in their own franchise… unless it has ended, in which case they have had to go out and find themselves day jobs. Marc, the main character, frequently interviews them for the stores video podcast.

Needless to say a lot of humour results from the colliding of worlds; superheroes brought down to earth by the laws of physics and Zombies who don’t want to be stereotyped. There’s Roy, the werewolf who works in the video store who is frequently mistaken for a cosplayer, a Narnian bartender and illegal aliens who are… Aliens! (I actually watched Alien yesterday and could not stop snickering due to the image of an Alien dishwasher that kept popping into my head). Capes –N- Babes will have you satirising the world in no time and keep making you smile throughout the day.

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New Painting

I thought you might like to see a comission I’m taking to my Nan.  It’s a watercolour version of an oil painting originally painted by the artist D.Long.  My parents picked it up in a charity shop, and my Nan liked it so much that she wanted one of her own, so my services were called for.

As you can see it’s a painting of a young girl standing in a field with some sheep.  I hope she likes it.

nanspainting

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Character Meme

Stolen from purenightshade of Children of the Tiger.

Pick a character from Epic Fail and I will answer the following questions about them:

01. Full name
02. Best friend
03. Sexuality
04. Favorite color
05. Relationship status
06. Ideal mate
07. Odd Skills/Skills in general
08. Last Amusing Escapade
09. Favorite food
10. Crushes
11. Favorite music
12. Biggest fear
13. Biggest fantasy
14. Quirks
15. Bad habits
16. Biggest regret
17. Best kept secrets
18. Last thought
19. Worst sexual/romantic experience
20. Biggest insecurity

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Webcomic Cameos Work-in-Progress

cameowipThe ‘new’ crowd scene for page 11 with the webcomic cameos is coming along slowly- but it’s coming along! Thankyou for being so patient. I thought I’d give you a small reward by posting a picture of the work in progress.

As you can see it still has a long way to go with plenty more characters to add and coloring on top, but I hope you like what you see so far and recognise some of the characters. I feel so priviledged at being allowed to draw them I am taking extra special care! Everyone who wanted a cameo in this scene will get one.

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Comix Thing 2009 Report

On Saturday the 28th March I went to the UK web & Mini Comix Thing. It took me around 3 and a half hours to get there. This was the first one I had ever been to and I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it. (I find travelling on the London Tube, with its crushing crowds and labyrinthine passages, pretty harrowing). On arriving in the morning I remember thinking it looked small, about the same size as a Freshers Fair.

Seven hours later, with a bulging bag of comic-books and the show about to close, I visited the last table. There is a chance I missed one; I kept thinking I had done it all then spotting something new. I’d had a great day, meeting tons of friendly artists who were happy to talk to me and seeing many beautiful creations. There was such an enormous variety there it kept me entertained the whole way through.

I was wearing fairy wings (so I might be recognised) and I did not feel out of place! No one else was wearing them, but there was an eclectic mix of dress, everyone was different. I was rather impressed that out of all these creative types not one of us had had the same idea. We stood out… and fitted in. Apparently dressing memorably is all a part of the self-promotion.

I gathered plenty of advice about web and small-press comics along with a lot of contacts. I went to one of the talks they held throughout the day which was on ‘Breaking into the Mainstream.’ The panel advocated getting yourself out there and doing plenty of legwork: no one is going to ‘discover’ you; you have to tell them you‘re out there!

I think these talks could have been publicised better – sure they were announced but if you weren’t standing right next to the announcer your chances of hearing it were slim! A big time-table stuck up at the entrance and beside the staging area where the talks were held would have been useful. Of course, if I had gone to more talks I would never have had time to get around the whole Thing, so overall I’m glad it worked out the way it did.

I will definitely be going again next year and would like to exhibit Epic Fail there sometime in the future in the future.  It was enjoyable and inspiring.

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Epic Fail Spotlit on TGT

The TGT Podcast website just featured Epic Fail as one of their spotlights, so go and read what they have to say.  They do a weekly webcomic podcast featuring interviews with some really top webcomic artists.  It’s one of my favorate things to listen to while I’m working.

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Dying my hair with Henna

Before Henna
Before Henna
After Henna
After Henna

After much deliberation I decided to take the plunge and Henna my hair. I ordered 400g of Henna from a reliable seller on Ebay and ended up using 250g on my hair.

I mixed it up in a great big pudding bowl with orange and lemon juice until it was a mashed-potato consistency, then covered the bowl with cling film and left it to sit for around 16 hours. I added more orange juice to thin it, wrapped a sheet around my shoulders that I usually use for painting, and started glooping it on my hair.

I started at the back and tried to section it out as much as possible. It got tougher the more hair I added until it just became a muddy mess. I rubbed my fingers through it trying to massage the henna deep into the hair and glooped more on until it was thickly covered. Quite a lot of it splattered about and I ended up with henna on my face a neck which stained them orange for a while, but that soon disappeared. Unsure as to how evenly I had applied it I figured I’d done the best I could so I wrapped my head in cling film and proceeded to wait for four hours. I just drew and did computer stuff as per usual. I had to stuff the edges of the cling film with tissue paper to stop liquid-henna running out. It felt really warm and heavy on my head.

After four hours I ran a bath and soaked my hair in it. It helped get the majority of the muddy henna out and I showered the rest, washing my hair with teatree shampoo as I normally do but with extra conditioner. I figured all the henna was out when the water started to run clean. So I got out the bath, towel-dyed my hair, and ran off to my D&D game. I didn’t get a proper look at it til afterwards.

As you can see it is quite a difference from my dark-blonde hair!  I’m pleased with the colour. I had worried it would look orange but it is definitely red! It seems really even all over and I don’t seem to have missed anything after all! I’ll be interested to see it in daylight and wonder how it will turn out in a few days time when it settles to its ‘true colour.’  Overall I’d say dying hair with henna is a piece of cake!

I found Henna For Hair a really useful resource.