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!

If you pick up the xmas issue of the Dandy Xtreme this week, you’ll find a massive Desperate Dan minibook (massively mini. up yours :p) bundled along with it. They’ve filled up 32 pages with some of the best Dan strips from the last coupla years, and i gotta say it’s humbling to see my *sniff* beautiful grizzly boy in his own minispecial. so if you haven’t seen his adventures yet, or wanna nab it before it disappears from the shelves, go grab it now! NOW! fucks sake. HURRRGHHHLE! ^_^

Also in the xmas Dandy is the Dan xmas special, a pop out reindeer thing what i did done, and loads more of the usual face-slapping cartoons. also a reindeer doing a poo. brilliant.

BTW, if you like toast, and you like tshirts, pick up my new TOASTED t-shirt design up now on the ultra-hip and ultra-ethical Limited Ink label HEEEEERE. Who doesn’t love toast? i mean really, its like crunchy sex (sorrrta).

Lastly a MASSIVE thank you for all the support and kind words about the relaunch of bearfoo.com, as well as the new Bear strip up yesterday. it made my bobbly bits all warm. i’d love to do more Bear, i feel like the break has been good and i’ve built up enough bilious world-hatred and made-up swear words to start afresh, but in reality i just don’t have time. The next three months are going to be ridiculously busy for me (for something i can hopefully announce before xmas), and after that there’s gonna be piles of other work to get sorted. So all i can say is if there’s a break anywhere, i’ll try and do more Bear. but it may be a little while.

For now, bearfoo.com updates every wednesday with another take of woe and cat-pokery. next week we start on issue 2!

ppHHHHHEWWW. i’ll shut up and you can get back to your lives now. i’m off to Brussels for a long weekend, and if i don’t find a chocolate factory to ruin i’ll be MOST sulky.

jx

I am VERY proud to say that bearfoo.com is now online! Updating every wednesday with Bear strips, from the first to the last, along with a few extra new things thrown in. If you’ve enjoyed Bear already in de comics, then come and rediscover the horrible ookness online! Or if you’ve never seen Bear and you found this journal from my more child-friendly work, have a look, scream a bit, tell an authority and vow to never go near animals again! Bearfoo does contain swearing, violence, and a lot of poo and sick. Be warned.

Yayyyy! Come and enjoy the fuzziness! I’m so chuffed to be able to share Bear online, he deserves a home on the internet

The bodies have been hidden, the fur has been shaved and arranged into crude hairy pictures, and the pigs have been over-revved. Yes, i think bearfoo.com is very nearly ready. What I of course mean is the site has been kicked into place, the exclusive NEW Bear 4-pager is drawn and finished, and all thats left to do sort through the Bear issues and prepare the artwork.

I’m hoping it will go live on monday. Hoping.

Hey, do you like webcomics? do you believe in time? do you like things more when they’re naked? if you answer YES to any of these, then you wanna pick up the Tastefully-Done 2010 calendar ho yus. Filled with tasteful nudes of some awesome webcomic characters you may know, you’ll also find a cold and lonely WHUBBLE shivering over on December! Ahh cold weather, you always make a man’s shares go down.
Best of all the profits go to Cancer Research! So please do go buy a copy, it looks proper mint. ^_^

also, these are the last few days for international shipping from Topatoco. So if you fancy any of my tshirts, bear books and toys, the panda poster, the Skull Rock pin badges, whatevvvver, and you live outside the US, better order now if you want em before Xmas! Thank you if you do! You get +20 HP!

lastly, theres two things happening at the moment that i really want to announce, but not sure i can. but they’re so exciting my head might explode (that would be a third exciting thing)

jx

****NOTE - the FWAP contest in the previous post is now closed! all winners nabbed, prizes sent out soon! if you wanna get in late feel free, i may have a few things left i can send thanks to all who entered!*****

Alright maybe its an unflattering analogy, but it was a really great sandwich. And even though its green and moving, there’s still a bit of egg or something egg-shaped in it, and it tastes pretty nice mainly because it brings back nice memories of what it was like when you ate it before. then you feel a bit wonky for a couple of days and have to keep excusing yourself. brrrap. sorry. brrrap. sorry, really sorry.

I sat down to write some new Bear today, something I haven’t done for about 3 years? maybe more? I will quite happily admit Bear is far greater than I what does write him, he and Loosh became their own entities and I owe them a great deal. But inevitably, towards the end of the series, writing their ladel-based hittings was starting to become 5% less enjoyable than when i started. After 300 or so pages, i guess you expect that. Which is why I pulled it to a halt, and wanted to leave it while it was still interesting.
But when you’re so fond of a character, you never want to leave him alone anymore than you want to needingly poke his corpse for ideas. Writing Bear was writing me, it was probably the most honest I’ve ever written, the closest to what’s in my head. That probably sounds pretentious, but i paid a therapist every week to tell me the same thing until I worked it out. So the idea of writing and drawing new Bear has always been appealing, but not something I wanted to rush out with. Besides, I’ve got a bazillion other sandwiches in my head that need finishing.

I’ve been rebuilding bearfoo.com from scratch for the last two weeks, and it’s looking good i think. the main site is built, now i just need to get all the comics on there. It will update regularly with a Bear story taken in chronological order from the comics. But clearly, this was a chance to do something new and immerse back into Bear for a little bit, and working on the site made me really nostalgic for the furry bugger. So I’m working on an all-new four-pager, exclusive to bearfoo.com.

It was strange stepping back in, it took a little while to get my head back into the right mindset. Most notably, making the words flow rather than just slamming a couple of ‘buhhh’ ‘wheeee’ and ‘rahh gumba’s in for effect. But the story itself rambled along pleasingly well, and I gotta say it feels like I’ve never been away.

‘Welcome Back You Poor Bastard’ will go online with the relaunch of bearfoo.com, hopefully next month. It features child slavery, snapped limbs, cat clowns and pig sick. Thank fuck ^_^