This blog began in 1997 as a single news page called Nucelus. In 2005, during a long wait to move into a new house, I decided to learn some php and MySQL and write my own blogging system, which became inkyBlog and which now powers this, my own Webbledegook blog.
Thank you to my brother, Murray Ewing, for help with some of the more challenging aspects!
November will see the release of The Rainbow Orchid in Spanish (La Orquidea Arcoiris) from Netcom2 Editorial. A preview appeared in NetComic no.16, which you can see here.
The English (UK) edition of The Complete Rainbow Orchid has been out for nearly two months now and is doing well, with a couple of nice Amazon reviews online (thank you, nice Amazon reviewers!). I was particularly pleased to read this extract:
"The addition of a cool, strong and resourceful female antagonist gives this book a modern edge that can be lacking in some of the European BDs that this tale echoes."
The initial print-runs of both volume one and two have sold out, and both have gone to a second-printing, which is great news.
I had a marvellous time at the last few events I've done - the Forest Row Festival (two workshops), Just Imagine (comic workshop at Elm Hall School) and a terrific two-hour workshop at the Cheltenham Literary Festival (which sold out).
The next event I'll be at is Thought Bubble in Leeds on 17 and 18 November. I'll have The Complete Rainbow Orchid with me, and hopefully The Rainbow Orchid Supplement too (going off to print imminently!). If you can't make it, I'm selling signed and sketched-in editions of The Complete... from my online shop.
Let me leave you with this great article on selling kids' comics by Laura Sneddon. Selling comics to the general public in the UK is a real challenge, but it's more about getting them seen than having to convince people to give them a go. This has been my experience everywhere - if people can see and look at The Rainbow Orchid it nearly always results in sales. Visibility and access to comics themselves are the challenge!
