57 today. It’s a good age and it means I’m allowed Vegan ice cream for my breakfast.
Cheers. 🍻
57 Today
The return of the Bubble People
Me painting a Bubble person in ‘22. I’m revisiting these lovely characters for an upcoming exhibition in Brew, Hull.
More details soon. I’m really looking forward to exhibiting in this lovely venue.
VOTE! Broken Frontier awards are open.
Broken Frontier proudly presents the shortlists for our 20th annual Broken Frontier Awards. Our team has selected five nominees for each of the 15 main categories that comprise the BF Awards, honouring some of the creators and publications of the past year whose work has particularly spoken to us in 2023.
As always, you will have a big say in who gets to take home an award
While I wouldn’t want to influence anyone in any way, A Pocket Chiller has been listed in the best periodical category. An amazing ongoing series that has so many wonderful artists involved. Happy to see Mudchurn used to advertise the series.
2023 Year review. It was a good one for Phatcomics.
Phatcomics in 2023
I wasn’t going to do an end of year round up for 2023, it can seem like a humble brag session at best, grandstanding at its worst. But so many different creative actives happened in 2023 that I feel it needs documenting. So here we go.
The year didn’t really kick off until February starting with a weekend at Leeds Craft fair. I became a member of Leeds Print Workshop. My artist in residence at Back to ours chat shop also begun. March began with a dose of Covid and an installation in the stairwell gallery, Hull central Library.
April was busy with a trip to Toronto for the mighty T.C.A.F. I had four comic pages exhibited in London as part of the All about the ink, group show, curated by Mark Stafford.
May I started a letterpress workshop at LPW. I was awarded a DYCP ( Develop Your Creative Practise) Arts Council grant to learn new printmaking skills. this really added shape to the year. In June I started a Risograph residence at East Street Arts. I produced a number of publications, including some new sketchbooks. The chat shop residency ended and I published a comic containing all the portraits sketched during this period. A body of work titled the Ruin was exhibited in The Brain Jar, Hull. Also in Hull in the Prospect centre, It’s Just Paper and Ink a group show, was installed. An exhibition put together by Gareth Sleightholme.
July was a bookbinding course at London Centre for Book Arts. A really informative and reawrding experience. Mudchurn, a new comic for the A pocket Chiller series was published. South London Comic Zines bash was hot fun.
August and Mandy Apple, a gallery in Scarborough was hosting a group show of work from our letterpress course. More print activity as I was part of 20/20 print exchange and exhibition with Leeds PrintWork shop. Small Press day at Gosh! Comics was a brilliant day.
September
October saw me returning to East Street Arts for a second Risograph residency. I just love that bright soya ink. This session produced sketchbooks 11,12,13 and a zine titled The Beast Farm.
November saw the continuation of The Brain Jar exhibition, A new installation in the Library staircase gallery. Then it was Thought Bubble and a new comic, Father’s Daze.
December was the last gig of the year A craft fair at Dive Bar, Hull.
In conclusion it was a year that was pretty good. None of it would have been possible for the amazing people that facilitated events and friends and community that supported me. I’m really lucky to be connected to so many wonderfully talented, kind, supportive generous people. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me this year.
Best wishes to you all for 2024.
Father’s Daze now in stock at Gosh! Comics
At this point it would be easy to mistake Sean Azzopardi as a journeyman cartoonist, so ubiquitous has he been on the UK small press scene over the last twenty years, but a mistake it would be. Sean has been evolving his craft, incorporating new print techniques, a myriad of aesthetic flourishes and fresh narrative challenges into his honed cartooning practice. Sean’s latest release, Father’s Daze is a testimony to his ongoing growth as an artist. Recently Sean has been repackaging his autobiographical comics under the banner Lifes a Party, stand alone stories from his life that can be slotted together like a mosaic to form a bigger picture, to tell a bigger story. The latest chapter, Father’s Daze, demonstrates a casual mastery of the form as Sean adopts the authorial voice of his own abusive father and threads the needle from Grandfather to Father to Grandson (Sean himself) in what is an impressive flex of smart cartooning. A real step up and a satisfying, if disturbing, story that has a real emotional punch.
Father’s Daze can be purchased from the Phatcomics shop, Gosh! Comics and OK Comics.
Printmaking at Leeds Print Workshop
Here a selection of photos. Taken during various sessions at Leeds Print Workshop. I’m a member and have discovered the joy of Letterpress. Letterpress involves using Wooden and metal letters that are covered in ink and run through a press. The results are recorded on a sheet of paper. I have also had access to East Street Arts Risograph facilities. Risograph is similar to a combination of screen printing a photo copying. So, combining these two processes into comics, posters and sketchbooks has been creatively exciting.
Exhibition launch – July 7th – 5pm
My new exhibition, The Ruin, will be opening on Friday July 7th.
On view will be screen prints, Canvasses and a floating sculpture. All works are for sale and there will be comics and other prints available on the night.
This work has been developed during my residency at the Makers Space in central Libray.
Risograph at East Street
Last week I took part in a residency at east Street arts convention house.I was learning how to develop my skills using Risograph copies. This is part of my learning contract with the Arts Council via there DYCP grant award.
ESA have a room dedicated to all things Riso and it is run by staff member Hannah Platt, who is also a brilliant photographer, as shown by the pictures used in this post. The residency as mentioned is a core part of my skills development and enabling me to further develop my attempts to fuse screen print reprographics and comics into a new ( For me) form.
Having this extended access opened up a lot of potential creative paths that I’m looking forward to exploring. The work produced during the residency was a Zine for my upcoming exhibition at the Brain Jar, Hull, a new mini comic and a sketchbook zine.
Risograph is a rewarding creative process and if you have patience and enjoying thinking around problem solving. This has become an important part of the creativity for me.process and it’s application and the effect on the resultant work.
Plus, LOUD colours!
Thank you Hannah, Frank and ESA for making this a rewarding and fun experience. I look forward to returning sometime with my new knowledge and skill set.
Hello 2023
I can’t believe the calendar has reached March already. This is my first blog post in a few years. I’ve decided to return to blogging as social media is a bin fire. The above picture is from Phatcomics first event of the year at the Tetley craft market.