Herne Bay Cartoon Festival 2018
Last weekend was the Herne Bay cartoon festival. I think this may be the sixth time it has run and it's a great little event. It is organised by local residents Sue Austen and Steve Coombes as well as cartoonists like Royston Robertson and a lot of volunteers. Only about 30 cartoonists attend and the festival uses lots of little venues. It was great to go back to where I used to live as a student. Not much has changed apart from the type of people who live there. I think they will ultimately change this threadbare Kent seaside resort for the better. They have to contend with a lot of postwar ropey building stock and a pebbly beach that is strewn with litter, but with people like the cartoon festival organisers working on it anything is possible.
I ran a cartooning workshop at Beach Creative on Saturday and there were a lot of creative kids there. Toast cafe next door do fabulous lunches.
There were a lot of great exhibitions on around the town, Including the funny women exhibition at the seaside museum. Unfortunately no one knows who drew my favourite cartoon of that exhibition but I was happy to see Tove Jansson Moomin originals.
Some of us spent a blisteringly hot Sunday morning baking on the pier. We were painting and drawing big cartoon boards. I had one of the holey boards which was great fun to watch when I was finished and had got back from throwing myself in the sea. After a restorative ice cream we had a cartoonists carousel ride before I dashed for the bus to head to Canterbury and another trip down memory lane.
More photos of the event here: https://procartoonists.org/feeling-the-heat-at-yet-another-sunny-herne-bay-cartoon-festival
Heading to the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival
Taking the train down to the Kent coast today, Taking part in the Herne Bay cartoon festival. It should be a nice trip down memory lane as I used to live in Herne Bay when I was at Kent University in Canterbury.
I'll be running a cartooning workshop and swimming in a lot in the sea. England is actually having a hot summer for a change.
A First Look at the Print Version of FAB Club 2 - Friends Against Cyberbullying
My new book arrived this week. It is always a bit scary designing something from thousands of miles away and hoping it will turn out okay. Fortunately, it is exactly the way I had hoped it would be.
My editor and Advance Reading Team have made this a great book. Head to Amazon if you want to take a closer look.
Illustrated Epistle Extract: Crook Crockery
This month, I threw together the last of my pottery. Unlike the others in the class, I had very little experience and almost no natural ability. This was how things went:
This is an excerpt from my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out in the middle of the month. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here: