KLJ3.com » life

Happy Holidays

KLJ3 — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:00:28 +0000

Listening to: ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ by She & Him

May City Mayhem

KLJ3 — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:55:58 +0000

It’s taken me almost a week and a half to digest what went on at the Excel Centre in East London. MCM Expo, it is fair to say, is a very different animal to Bristol Comics Expo. With heady memories of the fun had at Bristol I headed off to the movie The first thing you notice is the shear volume of people and the amount of those people who are in cosplay. Most of them spectacular representations of anime/manga and video game characters…and an old school Cyberman.

This was my first time at MCM so I was a little overwhelmed and very under prepared. Half an hour spent queuing for money and then a further two waiting for tickets we finally made it in to this:

Somewhere in between the wrestling and the Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament was the Comics Village. Four aisles of tables holding reams of pretty bound paper wares with friendly and equally pretty people stood behind them. I managed to pick up more comics than at Bristol including ‘Wolves’ by Becky Cloonan.

The experience was exhausting but fun with a friendly if not hectic atmosphere. People would happily stop and allow you to take photos of their elaborate costumes. If you stopped and did this with every proud cosplayer then you would never actually make it to the main hall and curiosities that lie within.

Listening to: ‘Crucify Me’ by Bring Me The Horizon

Bristol Comic Exp(l)osion

KLJ3 — Sun, 15 May 2011 13:19:53 +0000

Small Press Expo at the Mercure

So that’s it for another year. Bristol Comic Expo has come and gone, and as usual I cannot wait for this time 2012. This was my third year in a row attending the comic convention, only going for the one day but what a day. Like previous years most of it was taken up by talks that left me feeling inspired and raring to get to work. The selection of talks ranged from woman, politics and cartooning to the launch of a new Lovecraft anthology. The former providing much food for thought as well as links to both Kate Evans and Blue Lou‘s fantastic websites.

All this left me very little time to actually get out and buy anything. I did make it to Daniel Clifford’s table to pick up a copy of issue 1 of Sugar Glider. He obviously had done his job at the ‘What’s the point in small press superheroes?’ panel. Taken straight from Sugar Glider’s facebook page; Surrounded by friends and family with it all figured out, Susie Sullivan is desperately unsure of her purpose in life. Casting ordinary pursuits aside, Susie takes to the Newcastle skyline as the crime-fighting…SUGAR GLIDER! I highly recommend this and the companion book Sugar Glider Stories.

Sugar Glider, Sugar Glider Stories and a SG sticker adorning my notebook.

See you next year hopefully for both days.

Listening to: ‘Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win’ by Beastie Boys

Albums 2010 (Part 1)

KLJ3 — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 10:30:48 +0000

Wanted to put this out last Saturday actually at the beginning of the year but a busy week stopped this. One week late isn’t too bad. 2010 was a great a great year for music so there was a lot to choose from. In fact I had to list all the albums I’d come across in the previous 365 days before I could even begin to collate a top 10. This is obviously the best of the albums I have heard this year. I’m only one man with two ears after all.

In no particular order.

A hugely unpopular answer in certain circles to the above statement will be Kate Nash’s My Best Friend Is You. It’s a bit purile and it’s a bit immature but it’s infused with the same teenage heartbreak that made Emmy The Great’s First Love such an enjoyable listen two years ago like Nash’s debut, Made Of Bricks, a couple of years before that. From the faux-sixties shalala of Do-Wah-Dooto the slighty embarrassing monologue, Nash’s North London mockney carries you through an album of late night summer jealousies.
Stand out track: Later On

Albums with long expected release dates rarely live up to the hype. Just ask The Prodigy and Guns ‘n’ Roses but not Uffie. Three years with several singles and various guest appearances, most of which appear in the track listing for Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans alongside many more electro hip hop tunes produced by the likes of Feadz, Mr Ozio and Pharrel Williams. There have been many pretenders over Uffie’s comparitively long career but none of them have delivered anything near as polished or, more importantly, enjoyable.
Stand out track: First Love

Way back, around this time 2009 I discovered a band on Spotify that pretty much encapsulated everything I love. Pretty boy/girl vocals, obscure references, clever plays on words and lyrical turns of phrase, Los Campesinos! seemed perfect. Imagine my elation when it turned out that the bands third full length was due for release within the month. Romance Is Boring takes LC!’s previous twee sound and makes it “more post coital and less post rock” as Straight In At 101 states.
Stand out track: In Medias Res

There were several films that I really enjoyed this year Kick Ass, Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs The World and of course The Social Network with its fantastic soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Bearing similarities and even reworking tracks from Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV. I believe this dark ambient soundtrack went some way to making The Social Network the great film it was.
Stand out track: Hand Covers Bruise

When Kieron Gillen, one half the creative team behind musicentric comic Phonogram, recommends a band you take notice. So when I hear him mention in passing the name Sleighbells and their debut album, Treats, I took note. One month later and I had a copy in my hands on release and it didn’t disappoint. Combining noise pop with Derek E. Miller’s post Posion The Well, post hardcore credentials if I was hard pushed to name my album of the year this would probably be it.
Stand out track: Tell ‘Em

Listening to: ‘Not In Love’ (feat. Robert Smith) by Crystal Castles

‘Musical’ Review (Of 2009)

KLJ3 — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:17:47 +0000

Holidays are coming…holidays are coming…and now they’ve passed and we’ve hit 2010 at an exponential rate so it’s time to do a review of the year. A vintage year. Nay, a vintage decade. The two thousands (nouties never really sat right with me) is the decade in which I grew up. Sure I’m a nineties kid but I’m a consumer of the 2000s. Films, TV, books, comics, and probably the thing that has shaped me more than anything, music. Buying hundreds of CDs and dancing like a loon in the indie clubs of Bournemouth, Southampton and of course London. 2009 has been no different, maybe with the exception of the pretension of youth slipping away so that more mainstream but no less valuable music has vied with indie rock/pop gems and ghostly electronic soundscapes for attention. Here is my list Spotify playlist featuring tracks from the top ten albums (in my opinion) from 2009:

Top Ten Albums 2009

And if you don’t have a Spotify account here it is in no particular order:

Emmy The Great – First Love
Polly Scattergood – Polly Scattergood
Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another
The Dead Weather – Horehound
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
La Roux – La Roux
Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Florence + The Machine – Lungs

The two audio depositories I have used above, Spotify and Last.fm respectively, are signifiers of how my acquisition of music has altered over the last year and will continue to change in the coming years. An early adoption of mp3 technology in the mid ’90s did not deter me from buying CDs and collecting vinyl in the ’00s. Maybe its that collector mentality that hasn’t allowed the CD and DVD go the way of the TDK SA C-90 (other cassette tapes are available) quite yet. I think the physical versus virtual space, bits versus atoms will be the final death blow to the compact disc for me.

Small amount of my compact discs on shelving

More compact and denser HDD

However, I’m pleased to see a very gradual equilibrium forming between the valuation of digital and traditional formats that is being forged democratically between end consumers and originators, such as Goliaths Radiohead and David IAMX, cutting the middleman label bosses out. Not it has to be said due to any misguided act of spite but because of the old guard’s inability to adapt.

On a more personal note, around this time last year I set four New Year’s resolutions. Two of which I have gone some way to achieving. Sometime in 2011 I shall hopefully have a story published in Accent UK‘s Victoriana anthology. Sooner than that I have provided the art to Mark Clapham‘s story The Beast Within in Accent UK’s 2010 anthology Predators which will be out before Bristol International Comic Expo. As well as this honour, I have also worked on several covers and lettering projects which have been equally as fun. Also, my personal project that was called SolNoir and is now entitled Singualrity has begun to take shape thanks to the fantastic talents of artist Gerald Forton and colourist Danjerzone. 2009 has been a kind year to me but I’m really incredibly excited about 2010 and the next decade.

Listening to: ‘Land Of My Formers’ by Future of the Left

Thoughts on Thoughtbubble

KLJ3 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:25:44 +0000

I know it was over a week ago but I’ve only just returned from a great week in Leeds visiting my friend which began with a bang with Thoughtbubble. Although I’ve been in and around comics since the my childhood this year’s Thoughtbubble one day event was only my second con after Bristol back in May. After the initial overwhelming amount of cosplay (our favourites were the duo dressed as the Riddler and Penguin) and not knowing where to start we set about having a look around. I was pleased to see that there was a lot of small press sat along side the larger independent retailers and the rockstars of comics such as Ben Templesmith and Frank Quitely.

Chief amongst these, aside from Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie who gratiously signed a copy of Phonogram: Rue Britannia for me, were the guys from We Are Words And Pictures and their anthology Solipsistic Pop.

A beautifully designed and bound fifty pages of comic, two mini comics and a sixteen page insert with a sticker and badge, that proudly adorns my jacket, thrown in for good measure. You can get a copy here and recommend you do. A brilliant read and also completely inspiring. These people make comics and brilliant ones at that.

Of course much more money was spent on small and large press alike. Some might say too much. I’m sure you wouldn’t.

Listening to: ‘Ghosts (Blestenation mix)’ by Ladytron

Thought Bubble, Leeds

KLJ3 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:31:41 +0000

I’m off to Leeds this weekend and staying throughout next week visiting a friend. This visit coinsides, not through serendipity but careful planning, with this years Thoughtbubble festival. Some of my favouite creators are inattendance so I cannot wait a fact even more accentuated by some of the comments on the conventions website.

“Thought Bubble 2008 was literally the best UK con I have ever been to. Highly recommended to professionals and fans alike!” – John Reppion (Albion, Raise the Dead)

High praise indeed. I shall be tweeting with photos so follow me over at twitter.com/klj3 otherwise see you there hopefully around the Accent UK table.

Listening to: ‘I Could Never Be Your Woman’ by White Town

Big In Japan

KLJ3 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:50:08 +0000

Mere Mortals will be touring Japan in support of their debut album Rebel Radio which sports a front cover design by me. They will be playing the following dates:

4th Nov 大阪・江坂MUSE :Esaka MJSE/ Osaka
5th Nov 大阪・心斎橋DROP: Shinsaibashi DROP/ Osaka
8th Nov 東京・新木場STUDIO COAST :STUDIO COAST Shinkiba/Tokyo
9th Nov Apple Store 銀座インストアライブ:Apple instore live Ginza/Tokyo
11th Nov 愛知・名古屋ell FITS ALL: ell FITS ALL/ Nagoya
12th Nov 福岡・福岡LIVEHOUSE CB : LIVEHOUSE CB /Fukuoka
15th Nov 神戸大学 Kobe Univercity / Kobe

I apologise if the Japanese is illegible. I’ve copied it straight out of the email the band sent me.

Listening to: ‘You’re So Great’ by Blur

Fingers in all the Pi

KLJ3 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:13:00 +0000

Every three months a good Google ranking does not make but time has got away from me. I hasten to add that I consider this time well spent. One of the many weekends was spent at the Bristol Comic Expo. This was the first time I have visted the convention and I have to say it will definitely not be the last. I had an amazing time. Attended some talks, got some books signed by Andy Diggle and Jock, spent way too much money on more comics and saw Coraline 3D which was spell binding. Apparently the event was scaled down this year but this didn’t stop me from being overwhelmed and very star struck. I assure you the last three months haven’t just be used to gallivant around the country, I have been working.

The first of these projects to bare fruit is an article I wrote for AlertNerd.com for the fourth issue of their PDF zine Grok. This time it’s all about Extra Life. Head over to the link above to download your free copy.

Secondly, I’m still working on the art for Mark Clapham’s story The Beast Within for Accent UK’s 2010 anthology Predators. And then in 2011 the Victoriana anthology will contain a story by myself entitled Aspirations & Appirations. There is an artist attached but I’ll post more on that as it happens.

Black Sol is now called Singularity and is moving forward faster than the high velocity star it contains. I have also created a one and done comic which I’ll post up here over the weekend. Yep that’s me kind of saying I won’t leave it so long next time (again).

Listening to: ‘Prey and Predator’ by Efterklang

This is London, not Antarctica

KLJ3 — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:50:00 +0000

To be honest it’s neither. It’s Corfe Mullen, a village just outside Bournemouth where I live. It snowed all day and it is still snowing now. Can’t wait to see what kind of white Winter Wonderland the morning holds.

Listening to: ‘Winter Wookie’ by Belle And Sebastian