BAGGAGE available for pre-order from Amazon NOW!

Just a little teaser for those of you who like to be ahead of the game on things! BAGGAGE is now available to pre-order from Amazon RIGHT HERE!

But you can start your collection much sooner than that, as MONKEY NUTS: The Diamond Egg of Wonders is published in 6 week's time! 

Ooooh!

Lorenzo!

ESCAPE lineart

Here's the main character lineart for my print from the Howies-ink-dot ESCAPE exhibition.

You have until the 11th of this month to get down to the Escape exhibition at the Howies gallery here in Bristol. To see the print in full colour and learn more about how to order it online just go HERE!

And don't forget, on Friday 23rd of this month I'll be back at the Howies gallery with a new painting for another group show, this time with the Weapon of Choice guys. I'll also be drawing live on the opening night, directly onto the walls of the gallery, along with NINE other ridiculously talented artists from the street scene. It's gonna go OFF. Details of the night HERE!

Lorenzo!

Rainbow Orchid Fanart

So, today is Rainbow Orchid day, which can only mean that volume 2 of Garen Ewing's SPECTACULAR comic series has been released! To celebrate, I offer for your eyeballs my take on his lead character, Julius Chancer...

There really is nothing I can say about this series other than it's fantastic, wonderfully told and exquisitely illustrated. The fact that Garen is a thoroughly nice guy with a very generous attitude towards other creators and a real passion for making comics the way they should be made just makes it all the better. So GO HERE and buy a copy, then GO HERE and buy a copy of volume One if you don't already have it. Ant then, GO HERE to Garen's fantastic site and dance around in all the goodness on offer!

Lorenzo!

The Lore of the Things Episode 1!

So, here we go. The Lore of the Things, the brand new FREE online comic adventure from us Etherington Brothers is now live!

READ IT HERE!

We won't say too much about it at this stage, other than that you have some treats a-coming! We've got quite a bit of the story prepped, but as we're currently in the final 8 weeks of production on our new book Baggage, the strips to begin with will drop every two weeks or so, just to keep the whole thing regular.

But to paraphrase the great adventure to which we now align ourselves...

"New episodes are never late, Frofro Bagel, nor are they early, they arrive precisely when they mean to."

Enjoy!

Lorenzo and Robin!

Monky Nuts advance copies! Sneak peek!

Right, these are awesome. Our publisher sent us through the first super-shiny-still-warm-from-the-presses advance copies of Monkey Nuts and the Diamond Egg of Wonders, here's a few shots of us gurning away with 'em!

Let me tell you, these babies are sooooo nice. The quality of production on the the printing and binding of these books is off the scale. Beautiful big hardback bad boys with gorgeous super-rich interior paper stock...mmmm! Good enough to eat!

As everyone knows, September 2nd will be national Monkey Nuts day, and we'll be back in here to show you lots more on the build up to the launch. Of course you can pre-order your copies NOW on Amazon right HERE.

Oh, and it's 1 Day and 17 hours until the launch of The Lore of the Things!

Lorenzo!

Jamie Smart's Fish Head Steve being developed for TV!

Just a very little sketch here to draw your attention THIS ANNOUNCEMENT about the fact that Jamie Smart's Fish Head Steve is being developed for TV! Believe me when I say that nothing could be better for you kids than to get a dose of this madness in animated form on a regular basis, so we at Etherington Towers are keeping all our fingers and toes crossed that this baby gets through all the 'orrible red tape of the broadcasting industry and makes it to our screens super-fast!

Congrats, Jamie, you deserve nothing less!

Lorenzo!

Next Exhibition: Weapon of Choice/Howies opens Friday 23rd July

Phew! The Ink-dot Escape exhibition has only just opened (runs until 11th July, photos from the opening night and details on our blog HERE) and already it's time to tell you about the NEXT exhibition I'm involved in!

On Friday 23rd July Weapon of Choice will be opening a new group exhibition in the Howies gallery, and I'll have a brand new painting in the show. I'll also be drawing something big live at the opening night, alongside a load of other very talented artists, so make sure you're there!

More details very soon, but in the meantime, here's a little peek at one of the pieces from my One Man Army show earlier this year...

HUGE news coming in the next few weeks, including the launch of The Lore of the Things, a sneak peek at the advance copies of Monkey Nuts and the Diamond Egg of Wonders, and, once the ink has dried on the contracts, news of something VERY new and VERY cool! Whoop!

Lorenzo!

Ink-dot/Howies ESCAPE show opening night

Sooo, here a few snaps from the excellent opening night of the Howies/ink-dot ESCAPE exhibition. You can learn more about the exhibition, which runs until the 11th of July HERE.

And if you can't make it to the show, you can buy a copy of our print through our store HERE!

Lorenzo! 

Today I have been inspired to revisit the title of this infrequent little column as I've been reminded of the core tenement to which I adhere: FUN.

That's the word I don't hear mentioned enough but have always associated with the comic medium. Unbridled FUN. And this is not just because comics have always been a physical, unashamed pleasure in the Etherington household but because they have the power to infect the storytelling process with genuine entertainment through the simple addition of pictures.

This is an opinion that was highlighted today on the Guardian Books Podcast (which you can listen to HERE) in which Sarah Crown discussed the allure of Graphic Novels with Ned Beauman and Rachel Cooke. Ned put up a resilient argument for the importance of caped crusaders and super heroes, arguing that the pleasure of sequential storytelling is in the breadth of history associated to it's myriad characters and the huge, expansive nature of it's universes. Rachel however saw a genuine pleasure in the fact that graphic novels are a quicker read, offering a welcome break from traditional literature without a loss in quality. Unfortunately, the core of the show is aimed at the importance of more autobiographical and mature material, which is all well and good (I'm a huge Chris Ware and Craig Thompson fan) but in my opinion they sort of missed the point a little.

The main problem here really starts with their use of the term 'graphic novel'. Its a divisive title created initially in the late 1970's as a way of selling comic tales to an adult audience. Alan Moore once memorably stated that is was little more than a 'marketing term' and looking at the reading list connected to the podcast I can see his point. Daredevil sits beside Maus; Watchman beside Black Hole. These works are significantly different in content and tone but they can all be grouped happily in the same pot. According to this system if it's book length and told sequentially then it must be called a graphic novel.

Nah. They're all just comics, people, and their true power lies in how much FUN they are to read - an extremely basic emotion and an experience that the panelists failed to highlight.

Lorenzo and I began working with this art form because of this precise potential for entertainment. To illicit gasps and wide-eyes and cheers and groans and laughter. Nowhere else have we found that same combination of ingredients with which to create our particular story-telling stew, than on the comic page.

So, yeah, comics have never been so much fun ... and there's an awful lot more fun to come!

London sketches

Sooooooo, I spent the weekend in London, and thus had plenty of time standing around on the underground and stuff, thereby giving me the opportunity to do a little character sketching, enjoy!

Lorenzo!

THE ESCAPE exclusive new print available NOW!

So, Robin and I were at the astoundingly awesome Ink-dot/Howies ESCAPE exhibition opening last night, and we were so blown away by the work in the show. Seriously, if you're anywhere near Bristol between now and the 11th July you NEED to see this show. It's very cool. More details HERE.

I'll be posting some photos from the opening night up very soon.

The launch of the show also means that you can now buy my brand new exclusive print from the show. Here, for your viewing pleasure is the full piece. It's available in A3, A2 and super-big-super-beautiful A1 sizes, and the production quality on these prints is through the roof. Gorgeous paper, super-high quality Giclee printing, they are things of beauty!

To preview and buy this bad boy, go to the prints section of our store HERE.

Oh, and my previous print for the ink-dot guys, featuring Stranski, is now also available in all three sizes. Whoop!

Cheers!

Lorenzo!

Happy Birthday, Etherington Pa!

So, today is a very important day, as it's the birthday of the bestest guy in all the world, our dad!

I'm so proud to have a father as caring, compassionate, and downright genius as Mr Etherington senior, and I just wanted to come in here and tell him so! Pops, I'm sorry I can't be with ya' today, but I hope you guys have a lovely time whizzing out around the Norfolk countryside!

Here, just for you, is my special version of Jack Vettriano's Birth of a Dream. Now hurry up and get that boat in the water!

TONS of love, Pops!

Lorenzo!