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Hey. There's a third Cork Expo on, if you're in that neck of the woods I'll be there, selling art, sketching and a whole bunch of comps (incl Lion and the Eagle and Soul Plumber if you haven't picked those up)

It's a one day event taking place at Mahon Point on Sept 16th 2023 - Will Sliney, Declan Shalvey and a whole bunch of others will be there.

https://mahonpointsc.ie/cork-comic-expo-3/

He's ChatGPT in Human Form. Persuasive enough on first glance to seem insightful, but you're never long in finding out it's a big crock of cockamamy.

Well, it's taken a bit longer than we'd hoped - let's blame covid - but at least we found a home for our collection. It's with Liminal 11, each comic is accompanied by an essay on the folklore subject and it's been beautifully designed. You can see some of the pages here:
https://comicbook.com/comics/news/liminal-11-reveals-first-look-preview-of-fascinating-folklore-a-compendium-of-comics-and-essays-exclusive/

Thank you BB, was wondering whether I'd run out of steam - so this is pleasing to hear!

WHAT? ANOTHER ISSUE? Apparently. This one is a smidge late (which is ironic giving I've mostly been sitting on it for a month - but it has been proofread, I think, which means almost certainly it's typo filled)

https://www.pauljholden.com/2023/08/21/a4-issue-two/

oops, I did it again!

A4 issue 1!

https://www.pauljholden.com/2023/07/15/a4-issue-1-july-2022/

[Noam Chimpsky]

Completely missed this, love it! Well done that squaxx!

ood day all Squaxx

Well that's Easter now past and the nights are getting lighter. We are into the 4th month of the year and I'm keeping up with my 1 a month (personal) challenge in producing a Tooth character in glorious 3D.

For this one I haven't used a base model and went back to Sculpey for my most ambitious sculp yet.
As always these are Characters I love reading in the prog or Meg.

This month I give you my version of Noam Chimpsky.
Now the boring stuff-
Using wire and kitchen foil I formed the initial body shape and layered the Sculpey over the top. The head I did separately and added on after baking.
To attach it to the stand I drilled holes into his hand and feet and pinned it. I did the same with his rucksack.
Hopefully I've captured enough details to pass him off as Chimpsky.

A further plea to anyone who has done anything similar and created anything 2000AD in 3D (that's not commercial)
I know we have a talented lot out there and it should be shared.

Enjoy Chimpsky

Download now with amended typos! (same link!)

No room for more pictures. Otherwise I would. I literally squeezed as much as I could reasonably get! Thanks for the typo watch-will fix them for a new edition

I've created a little micro 'zine of short nano fiction. It's called A4 because ... well, it all fits on one side of an A4 sheet. You can download it and print it out and fold it into its own little displayable mode, if you like.

www.pauljholden.com/a4

I have NO idea what I'm doing about anything.

Oops! Northern Ireland colloquialism sneaked in there, he was on his hunkered down (I think he was technically kneeling on one knee?) anyway I can picture it!

Recently reminded that there was a double page spread (likely in an annual) which show Ian Gibson drawing a page of Dredd from a Wagner (or possibly TB Grover script). Dredd is on honkers, firing at on coming traffic (he's facing away from the reader). Anyone else remember this? can the furnish me with a scan?

Hi, I can't talk page rates here, but one thing with 2000ad is the volume of work they can give you, unless you're a demon with deadlines you're likely to be required to draw six pages a fortnight, which amounts to 12 pages per month. And even prolific artists find themselves with gaps between projects. Which means, regardless of page rate, the volume of work you'll end up doing is low. So having other gigs is absolutely essential.

Sometimes that other work will be in the form of story boards, illustration, other comics (at the early part of my career I'd take work that paid less than my 2000ad rate because, frankly, I could draw that many pages, but I wasn't being given that many pages) Story boarding/advertising, video games all pay more than comics.

No need for any education, you're always going to be judged on the quality of the first six pages in your portfolio. Early part of your career you'll end up working for nothing (or if you're lucky low pay) but that's because you're also learning on the job. (I used to steer a lot of people towards futurequale because it was a great training ground)

At some point you'll find the free/low paid work keeps coming to you, so it's time to start looking for better paid work.

I started working for 2000ad in 2000/2001 it took eight years before I could give up my day job (tbh it was a great day job part time/paid really well, so that kept me there) it's a long slog (took another ...?10 before my comic earnings matched/exceeded my previous dayjob+comics earning). But the people who want to draw comics will find themselves not put off by any of that.


Get to conventions and meet other people in the same boat, you'll often find yourselves having parallel careers. (If you're an artist, find writers, esp in the small press where writers out number artists) these people will be your peers as your career progresses.

they are big, FOR WHICH I MAKE NO APOLOGY - I'm old and my eyesight is poor and the bigger you draw the tighter those lines get... (as I recall I multiplied my numbers by 1.4 which, because I'm an idiot I thought was 40% larger than print, rather than 50% larger, but I will use your maths from now... this DOES explain why all my pages are larger than I keep expecting them to be...)