The support that’s come in from twitter, facebook, email, and especially all your wonderful comments on yesterday’s blog tribute, have all been quite overwhelming. I know i’m not the first person in the world to lose someone, but your sympathies have meant a huge, huge amount to me. So much so that it all made me a little upset last night (the good kind of upset though).

So in return I wanted to offer this. I don’t often draw serious or autobiographical comics, but last night i wrote this to try and put into pictures what i felt i’d lost. A lifetime of communication, represented by telephones.

If reading this makes only one person pick up the phone and call their dad, just to talk about nothing at all, then its worth it.

(to see a bigger version, click HERE)

again, thank you SO much for all your kind wishes. lets next week go back to talking about silly stuff again.

jx

Dad died on Friday night, well, around midnight so maybe that’s Saturday. Mum phoned me a few hours previous to say he’d seemed shaky and gone to bed, I told her not to worry. Dad had been getting frailer over the last coupla years, and none of us felt he looked after himself properly. Then I got the phonecall. He had woken up with difficulty breathing, and four ambulance people hadn’t been able to save him. A large part of me had been expecting this phonecall for years and years, and it had sort of prepared me for it. I don’t think I slept, just waited till it was light outside and drove home.

My dad was pretty extraordinary. I know most people’s are, but my dad achieved far more than I ever could. He was born mid-WW2 in sussex, his pram shot at by Luftwaffe on Brighton seafront (so the story goes). When he was in his late teens he became a drummer and joined a band. In the sixties they toured all round the small cavernous venues of Europe, to put it in perspective this was just before the fledgling Beatles followed the same trail. He met my mum while drumming at her sister’s wedding, and convinced her for a year his name was Dave (it wasn’t).

(that’s Dad on the far right)

Most remarkably, I think, Dad built his first house for him and mum. I mean from scratch. He designed it, drew the plans, laid the bricks, installed the plumbing, put the pictures on the wall. Sure he had a little help on the manual labour, and only narrowly averted blowing up the street with the wrong gas installation advice, but that house was entirely his doing. You can see how it looked inside here..

Even the stereo is shag coated! Proper sixties. And a real testament to hard, honest, graft. He even found time to make a scale model as a doll’s house for my sister, with working electrics in it. This is it in early stages..

Dad became an architect and had an office in London’s Fleet Street, employing maybe ten people. Despite being constantly held back at school, he’d turned his life into something successful. He worked incredibly hard for all he had, and spent a lot of money sending me and my sister to decent schools.

(dad in the proper 80s studio, before computers)

In the early 90s, thanks to recession and bad advice, he pretty much lost it all. We ended up moving from house to house (the houses getting smaller everytime), and his feelings of letting everyone down really showed on him. Since then he tried to pick himself up again and again, but it was no use. The world wouldn’t let him get back on again, and he became more and more withdrawn.

In the last few years his health suffered (no thanks to his smoking and drinking, but also from years of stress I suspect), and by the end he had terrible breathing difficulties, trouble walking for too long, and last year even cancer had latched onto him. I’m not quite sure how he put up with it all. Through it all he persisted, working hard on a trilogy of science fiction novels (only 2/3 of which he finished writing though).

Feels weird. I’m not sure its kicked in properly yet that he’s not here anymore. As a grown-up you detach a little anyway, I think, from your parents, but it’s confusing to piece together the dad you knew as a kid and the dad you knew as an adult. I’m not sure which memories should be surfacing, they seem so different from each other.

Now he’s passed, I feel guilty I’m not feeling more. I don’t quite know how I’m supposed to be taking it. I know it’s absolute balls. And I miss him. And I’d like him back, please.

Rest in peace, Pete Eynon Smart. 1941 - 2010
jx

Just as a final note, this is my drawing desk.

Dad bought it for me as a 21st birthday present, since up til then I’d been drawing on kitchen tables or my lap. I’d needed it so badly, especially since I was claiming to be a professional illustrator, and he’d gone out of his way to afford it. I still use it now, and every single thing I have drawn in the last ten years, I’ve drawn on this. Dad’s support of my career was unmatched, both him and his father had wanted to be cartoonists but never managed it, his pride in me was a real motivation. I owe a lot of what I do, and what you probably know me for, to him.

If you’ve been following me on twitter or facebook recently, you may have heard me excitedly gibbering about the notion of working on new Whubble. Now the children’s book is nearly in the bag, my mind started searching around for new ideas to work on to add to the pile of 7 ideas i already want to get done now LIKE NOW. Whubble sprang to mind, i think more people on the internet know my work from Whubble than they do from Bear, and he really captured a humblingly big audience. So it’s about time he came back to his desk.

Whubble Wheek starts 1st March, where new strips will run every day. After that? Hopefully I can update once a week, but we’ll have to see how kind time is. But I’m proper excited to be writing and drawing new Whubble, and I hope people will dig the new strips.

But also, do come check out the new improved WHUBBLE website. The old one was falling to bits, and the comments barely worked if the wind was blowing the wrong way, so to give Whubble the website he deserves I’ve rebuilt it. Now you can easily look through the archive, check out the wallpapers, banners, fanart, and also join the Whubble facebook! Come over and say hi!

jx

ps. oh and check out Bearfoo.com today, for a special bonus 4-page guest strip by Colin and Simon. And then be a bit disturbed.

pps. lastly, i made a Formspring account HERE. if you wanna ask me anything about anything, here’s a good place to do it until we all get bored and find proper jobs ^_^

I think it’s pretty much there. It’s surreal to say, but i think my children’s book is finished.

Surreal because back in november, when it was cheerfully announced to me that this book would need to be finished by the end of february, i’ll happily admit to being more than a little freaked out. And maybe when you see the book, you’ll see why. It’s packed, i mean PACKED, full of brightly coloured wonder, and it’s the kind of work I’d have estimated I’d need a good 8 or 9 months to get done. Not 3. And what was I going to do about earning money in that time, when I’d be so full-time on making the book? (as it turns out, i spent 95% of my time on the book. I got 5% of time to do a few paid things inbetween).

I don’t know if its the same for other artists, but when I look at a large body of work I’ve completed, I wonder if I’d ever have started it, if I’d known just how much needed to be done. Conveniently, I seem to forget this every new project I start, otherwise I’d be too terrified to start anything. And while I say the book is finished, there’s still bits here and there to be done on it of course, with a week and a half left till the deadline the publisher now steps in to kick it into shape. Although, thankfully, all through the process they’ve let me run riot and write, draw and design pretty much the whole book how I want it. So if this bombs, it’s all on me :p

Also, this process brought me an agent. i’ve never had one before, I’ve worked for over a decade without one and managed to get by (though, it must be said, after 10 years work i’d hope my bank account will finally one day get above zero. pfft. where’s the glamour?). With only three weeks till our deadline, most of the work done, and the contract still not signed (leaving it a bit late, yeah i know) i was advised to get an adult to deal with the legal stuff rather than my meat-fists trying to wade through it. So I suddenly found myself sitting in the office of a rather wonderful agent (more on this later), agreeing to sort this out together, and now feeling remarkably more comfortable that someone’s looking out for me. I almost feel like a professional.

So there we go. I’m over the moon this book is finished, but at the same time I’ve enjoyed it a lot more than you might expect give the workload. It’s been such a joy to work on, and hopefully that’ll show when you read it. It’s scheduled for a release in summer this year, everyflippingwhere. Hopefully it’ll be announced soon and then I can actually say what it’s about C’MON GEEZ i wanna say WHO IT’S ABOUT!

I’m so bloody excited I could burst an eyeball.

The other week we stopped selling the Panda Roll posters (i got one before they went, might give it away in a contest), this week we’re shutting down a whole BUNDLE of tshirts. Some great Angry Little Robot, Whubble, Ubu Bubu and Bohda Te T-shirts are being closed out because they just ain’t making the grade no more, these are the designs set to disappear VERY SOON..

So if you do wanna grab any of these tshirts before we burn them like witches, HEAD OVER TO THE BOHDA TE SHOP WHICH IS HERE, CLICK HERE, THIS LINK, IS WHY ALL THE CAPITALS, YES? and do it soon, because I fear they might be dead by morning. Or longer. I don’t know, but they’re gone very soon.

A coupla those designs I was really proud of (ALL. i mean ALL), so it’s sad to see them go. But this is progress. Lets slough out the old and ram in the new. By new, i mean who knows what.

more communicative journal update soon, when this THING in my HEAD stops SHOUTING.

jx

okay here’s the thing, a few months back we put a Find Chaffy poster up for sale at the Bohda Te/Topatoco store, where you have to find 10 Chaffies hidden in amongst all the cute rolling pandas! But we’re going to stop printing this poster in just one day’s time, never to be repeated!
So if you want to grab hold of one, this is your very last chance as it disappears from the internet! Measuring in at 22″ x 11″, printed on super-high quality semi-gloss photo paper, it’s a beautiful piece and one I’m so bloody proud of.
Nab it heeeeere! From Tuesday 26th jan 2010, it will be gone.

See now the problem with my brain is it won’t sit in one place. I get all excited about stuff and want to get it DONE and then do the NEXT thing before the first was DONE. I appreciate having this enthusiasm for what I do, but I’ll admit sometimes it’s frustrating trying to concentrate. It’s like sitting a four-year old in front of a hundred tv screens and demanding he pick one, and though you’d really like to faceplant him soon as his focus wanders you know you can’t because you’d just be giving yourself a brain aneurism. That’s my analogy. Also my kid analogy.

2009’s been a pretty good one I’d say. Personal highlights of the year, moving in with the delovely Sarah and all the wonderful people I’ve met, and buying a scanner big enough to ride like a sexy donkey. Work-wise, the highlights for me would be the Ubu Bubu and Fat Chunk 2 books, the two signings I did at the Science Museum and Forbidden Planet and getting to draw a poo-loving vampire in Toxic comic. Alongside that my own personal projects, particularly hauling Find Chaffy into a living breathing campaign, cataloguing all the Bear strips onto bearfoo.com, and everything else besides. A mountain of characters, pitches, comics and websites rumbled along to maybe one day see the world.

But to be honest, it’s been very slow in terms of actually making a living. Like everyone I guess, but particularly these last 6 months there’s been barely any paid work and obviously that would be concerning to someone with common sense. Fortunately, I’m intensely stupid, and choose to be all like OH HEY I COULD DRAW SOMETHING ABOUT A PIG STITCHED TO A MONKEY AND THEY HAVE ADVENTURES instead of all like oh noes money gone. And he’s like DOES THE PIG/MONKEY HAVE A NAME EACH, OR ONE COLLECTIVE NAME and I’m all like hey man it’s a metaphor for terrorism and he’s like OH.

Point is, 2010 is already shaping up to be an action-packed one. Upon this altar I’ll cut out the hearts of every project planned, should you be so inclined to see them beating.

The SECRET KIDS BOOK which probably isn’t a secret if you’ve heard me gibbering about it is coming along well, I’ve been putting the hours in over Christmas and to be honest I think I’m over halfway. Looking good to meet the February deadline, and excited about it’s release in July! Excited to share more when I can.

KOCHI, my 4-years in the making pencil comic, WILL be a webcomic in 2010, hopefully in spring. I’m planning to make it daily, for 100 days. I tried making a few books of it and after all the work gone into it, I just wasn’t happy, so I’m trying to get it exactly right before I offer it up. But if you like kids calling each other swear words then dying, you’ll like Kochi.

FISH-HEAD STEVE if you were lucky enough to catch FHS in the now greatly missed The DFC, then you may be glad to hear I got exciting news on xmas eve. I’ve received an offer to adapt Steve into medias new, more than that I can’t say but soon as it’s signed hopefully I can announce it.

BEAR I’m so glad bearfoo.com is up and running, and really plan to work on some exclusive new strips to sit alongside the existing ones

DR.WHO again, alas, something very secretive I can’t talk about so there’s probably no point me mentioning it. I can say I was honoured to work on something associated with Dr.Who last month and, if it’s well-received, could become something proper. News soon!

FIND CHAFFY there are a whole bundle of Chaffy sightings I just haven’t had a chance to post up yet, but in 2010 the search for Chaffy is going proper big-league. Keep yer eyes open! ^_^

WHUBBLE yes I would love to draw some more Whubble strips. No I can never find time. But yes I will commit myself to doing more in 2010. Or may my eyes fall out and my arms grow inwards.

CORPORATE SKULL here’s an interesting one. If you’re familiar with the few CS strips I did some time ago, you may think the bony-headed swearing office worker is a bit of a one-joke pony. I certainly wondered. But over this year I’ve been formulating a very large, complicated and rather outlandish story for Coporate Skull, and I think it’s nearly getting there. And as it gets there, I get more and more excited to start work on it. I don’t think I could commit to doing a full graphic novel but maybe if I did it as a webcomic, a page a week, slowly telling this story it might motivate me to keep going. I’m proper psyched to explore CS so am committing myself to starting it in 2010. Maybe I’ll work on some promo posters soon, get myself in the mood.

And all this aside, there are other things still bubbling under. Space Raoul’s getting some interest from telly, I’ve got my first ever custom toys to work on, and hopefully I’ll keep churning out more Desperate Dans throughout next year. I also hope to create a new dance. A Jamie Dance. I will do it when I enter the room, and people will talk of it.

So whatever you’re doing for the sham bullshit pressure-rubbish bastards celebration that is New Years Eve, have a great one! I can’t wait to get 2010 started ☺

Jx

Ps. Io9.com voted the Ubu Bubu 3 cover in their top covers of the decade? I am honoured, flattered, confused and would argue against it ^_^ thanks io9!

Thank you to everyone for your support this year, it’s been a real blast and i hope you’ve enjoyed the rubbish i gush out with. Next year’s shaping up to be even better! ^_^ Here is today’s update from bearfoo.com to wish you a most excellent christmas and a bibbly bobbly boo.

woop!

jx

The second half of this year has been a bizarre one. There’s been practically no work around, which meant I buried myself chin-deep into my own projects. Finishing Kochi, setting up bearfoo.com (Weapons Grade Plutonium! updates today. yes?), and a handful of things besides which i can’t yet mention. The key to getting work, far as i’m concerned, is to just keep working. Blithely ignoring the fact that no one’s hiring you, because they’re obviously wrong.

But one thing I did concentrate on was a children’s book I wanted to do. I worked up the concept, did a few pages of finish art, asked around for contacts and sent a bundle of proposals off to various publishers. Now, it should be said i’ve been sending work to children’s publishers for literally a decade (balls), probably irritating the hell out of them, and got nothing but rejections, ignored, and ‘what the fuck is this supposed to BE?’ letters. It never stopped me though, the enthusiasm for a new idea FAR outweighs the fear of being rejected. It’s a joyous short-term-memory idiocy i think.

But this time it was different. A publisher got back to me the very next day, saying they were interested. The day after, another. The day after, another. At one point five different publishers were weighing it up, which is just ridiculous to me. Everyone’s on crack. Or having a very-laboured and complicated joke.

Within a few weeks I’d chosen who seemed best for the project, and am very excited to say I’m working on my first children’s book ^_^

Now I’m obviously limited on what I can say. It’s for a rather big children’s book publisher (their sheer enthusiasm for the idea convinced me). I’m writing and drawing it, in fact so far they’re letting me run riot. And its about a character of mine already floating about, you may have seen him.

The only panic in my eyes was the time. This book is scheduled to come out next summer, which means it needs to be finished for february. Thats nearly 50 full-colour pages written, pencilled, inked and coloured, half of which are INTENSELY detailed, in about two and a half months. And i’m working large size too, A2 for the original art. If we pull this off, i can modestly say i think it’s going to look fantastic. But i’m working this baby all through christmas and out the other side just to try and get a good head start, i’m back to working 13 hour days, 7 days a week where possible. And don’t get me wrong, i love working like this, a proper long day drawing this bobbins is such a buzz for me. But two weeks in to the schedule, and i can already feel the mental blocks forming.

So if I haven’t emailed you back or I go full-hermit over winter, this is the reason why. I’m so bloody excited to do my first children’s book, I’ve always wanted to do one, to proper bum the mainstream and see what they make of me. And as soon as I’m allowed to announce what it’s all about, i will. If you’ve been following me on that there stupid twitter you may be able to piece it together from my ramblings on the subject, but for now it’s a secret.

FUCKING YAY ^_^

you can keep your Ben 10 action-fister and your go-go hamster sulphur licks, for christmas i would like one of THESE please Sunty Clorz!