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

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.

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 ^_^