I had a most excellent if slightly manic Thought Bubble this year, but it certainly makes the day whiz by when you're busy!

As with last year, we drove up on the Friday afternoon to Belton village where Elyssa's father and his partner live, stayed the night, and we were all up early on Saturday to drive the remaining one hour forty into Leeds, again, as with last year, in thick fog (but this time no accidents or diversions). It was nice having the extra hands to carry my wares into the venue, but then I was on my own for the day as Ellie and family went off into the city for shopping and museums. But I was delighted to find myself next to David O'Connell (Tozo and Queen Mum Adventures) and Ellen Lindner (Whores of Mensa and Undertow), which all went to make an enjoyable day even more enjoyable.

I don't have a lot to report really as I spent a good 80% of my time selling books and sketching, selling the first book 15 minutes before the doors opened, and the last one 10 minutes after they closed. I sold 62 books - one less than at MCM, though MCM was over two days, Thought Bubble just one. The thing that makes Thought Bubble such a nice show (apart from it being so well organised and in such a friendly manner) is the nice cross-section of visitors - some hardened comic fans, some casual readers, some new readers, a variety of creators - a really welcome mix.

The only downside is that I didn't get to be very sociable and ended up missing loads of people I really wanted to chat to - many of whom were just as busy at their own tables. There were a good number of people who I know online but have never met face to face, and some who I'd mised at MCM and promised to catch up with at Thought Bubble - failure on all fronts! I don't begrudge the day I had one little bit, but as I couldn't attend the after-show party, I was slightly disappointed with this aspect of the day.

The nicest ingredient of the day was meeting readers and chatting to them about comics. Some of the feedback on The Rainbow Orchid is so nice, my natural reaction is to think I don't deserve it, but it really provides a boost and people are incredibly generous. To have someone queuing up, not to buy the book, but - already owning it - to tell me how much they loved it is the best thing. To see people leafing through The Rainbow Orchid while I'm sketching for someone else, and overhear them say "this is amazing!" is a guilty thrill you can only get at a show such as this. Of course, my feet are kept firmly on the ground too - several queues for big-name superhero artists formed past me throughout the day where my table (and sometimes books) are only good for leaning on while waiting (plus one brazenly dismissive comment), but of course I accept my book is not for everyone - it finds its readership, and that readership makes up for it very nicely indeed.

So, once again, the biggest thank yous possible to the Thought Bubble team for a super show, and equally big thanks to everyone who stopped by my table and said hello, bought a book or two, chatted or even just looked. My photo-taking for the day stands at zero (Ellie's dad took the one above - a special thanks to Bob and Anne for their wonderful hospitality over the weekend), but the sketch below was brought to me by Colin Mathieson, all the way from Komiks.dk, the Copenhagen comics con that happened back in May, where he presented a copy of The Rainbow Orchid to Sussi Bech, author and artist of the Nofret books. I had made a little reference to Sussi in RO vol 2 (can you find it?), so this was a very nice gift. Thanks Sussi, and thanks Colin!

I think a change in direction is needed for the Julius Chancer adventures, mainly so I can really go for that MCM Expo market in a big way. So...

... it's Chibi Chancer and Chums!

On Sunday I braved the trains (Sunday services are always a bit unpredictable) and made my way to London Bridge, then on to Euston, followed by a short walk to the Royal National Hotel and the Comica Comiket event.

I wasn't there to sell comics (though I did sell and sign a few copies afterwards), but to take part in the Drawing Parade, where several artists were given 25 minutes to work under a camera, the results being relayed live onto a large plasma screen for the whole room to see.

My photo, below, sees Ellen Lindner at the board, and shows the set-up, complete with my thumb over the top left-hand corner (which is why I usually rely on Elyssa as my photographer, but she was having a day at home, catching up with work for her magazine deadline on Monday). I followed Ellen, and I was, in turn, followed by Paul Duffield... and so it went for the rest of the day with a host of talented comic artists bravely wielding their pens and brushes in public. I'd liked to have stayed and watched the whole lot, but I had to get home and to my own drawing board, which really is my home at the moment.

It was very inspiring seeing all the comic creators there, giving up their Sunday to sell the wonderful comics they'd already spent all their evenings and weekends making. The other photo shows Ed Pinsent, Martin Eden and Paul Rainey in the foreground, with John Maybury of Space Babe 113 fame behind them. By the time I left, the place was a throng of people - I hope they bought lots of stuff!

It's hard to find bits of volume 3 that I can show you without giving too much away, but there are a few panels I'll be posting here and there.

Here's one to get the intrigue going...

Just a quick post to let you know that I'll be appearing in the drawing parade at Comiket, part of the Comica Festival, this Sunday (7th November), with my 25 minute slot starting at 12.30 in the Ellis Room of the Royal National Hotel.

Basically this is live drawing (gulp!) projected onto a big plasma screen and I'll have books to sign afterwards. There are lots of amazing artists taking part throughout the afternoon, including Ellen Lindner, Gary Northfield, Darryl Cunningham, Paul Grist, Roger Langridge, Hunt Emerson - and more! Not only that, but there are a load of exhibitor tables selling a variety of comics too. Come along!

This was my second time at the MCM (Movie-Comics-Media) Expo, and as with last year, I was a little wary about how my books would do at an event that is largely about anime, gaming and manga. But with over 45,000 visitors, there must be a few that might take a look...

And there were of course. Over the two days I had my best sales yet at a comics show, selling out of The Rainbow Orchid volume 2 about three hours before the show ended on Sunday. I even had time to do a few more detailed drawings in a couple of the books, in preparation for the next customer who came along.

One of the big attractions of MCM is all the amazing costumes people put together to parade around in. A lot of the characters I didn't recognise at all, but two of my first visitors on Saturday were familiar faces, both as friendly Rainbow Orchid readers and for their outfits - Tintin (Leela) and Professor Mortimer (Simon) - brilliant!

A new wave of British mainstream graphic novels was well represented on the aisle I was in as I was situated opposite the new DFC Library books - the Etheringtons with Monkey Nuts, Neill Cameron with Mo-Bot High, and Sarah McIntyre with Vern and Lettuce, sharing a huge table with her studio mate and Derek the Sheep creator, Gary Northfield, who was selling his hilarious newspaper-style comic, Bad Dog.

I wasn't very good at getting up and circulating as I find it difficult to leave the table and miss any potential customers! On Saturday, however, I had to, as I was part of the Comic Book Alliance panel with Tim Pilcher, Ian Sharman, Tony Lee and Helen McCarthy. The CBA is a super idea and I really hope it spreads and has an effect (well, it already is). As I'm not involved in the organisation myself, I learned quite a bit from the other speakers!

Others have written far more interesting reports than this, so I'll point you in their direction - Sarah McIntyre (part 1, part 2, part 3), Neill Cameron, Robin Etherington and The Beat. I must also mention a huge congratulations to Dave West and Accent UK for a well derserved Eagle Award (these are now part of the MCM Expo) for his excellent comic (with Marleen Lowe) Whatever Happened to the World's Fastest Man?, winning Favourite British black and white comic.

A big thanks to everyone who came and said hello or bought The Rainbow Orchid, and another big thanks to Emma Vieceli and her crew for their organisation of the Comic Village. It's part of such a huge event, but several times over the weekend helpers came by to check that everything was all right, a detail that is very much appreciated.

And finally, and importantly, big thanks to Elyssa for giving up her Saturday and helping me out at the table that day. She lost her scarf on the train a couple of months ago, so was able to get a big chunk of knitting the new one done - and was kindly awarded a Stitch London badge by the lovely Lauren O'Farrell over on Gary's table.

Just a couple of very quick bits... there is a new interview with me up at Mondoagogo which includes a couple of new pieces of Rainbow Orchid volume 3 art. Also a nice review by Dr. Mel Gibson on the Write Away website, which was lovely to read (more reviews here).

Don't forget I'm at the Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival this Saturday, and the following weekend I'll be at the MCM Expo (table C62) - where I'll be selling bargainous vol 1 and 2 bundles and equally bargainous posters.

Rather a lot of 'me' posts recently, so I thought I'd point out a few other good comicky things that have come my way (plus a bit of me-events news).

Have you heard of Buzz Comic? I think this could be a really good thing as more content gets added, and there are some excellent tutorial videos up from the likes of Bryan Talbot, Warren Pleece, Indra Shann and Kev Sutherland.

A couple of lovely publications have come my way recently - Whores of Mensa 5 is the party issue, and includes strips by Francesca Cassavetti, Ellen Lindner, Patrice Aggs, Cliodhna Lyons, Sarah McIntyre... and loads more. It's an excellent and hefty comic. And I also got hold of a copy of Rob Jackson's Goblin Hall, which I really enjoyed - the tale of a medieval lord who comes home to find his son has married the daughter of the Goblin King! An absorbing read (see Richard Bruton's review here).

There's a new comics news magazine coming out called Multiverse from Mike Conroy and Barry Renshaw. A preview is available for download, and if you like American superhero comics then you'll like this, a very nice production. They'll have a stand at the London MCM Expo so you can check it out there.

Talking of the MCM Expo, I will also have a stand there, so do come along if you want to grab a copy of The Rainbow Orchid volume 2 (or 1!), or just for a chat. I'm at the Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival next Saturday (23 October) and my almost-last event of the year is Thought Bubble in Leeds on 20 November. My last event will be at The Bookshop in East Grinstead as part of the `Twas the Sunday before Christmas shopping day on Sunday 19 December, of which more details to come (still far too early to be thinking about Christmas!).

There have been more DFC Library books released in the past few months, the second wave, starting with the Etherington Brothers' Monkey Nuts, then, just recently, Sarah McIntyre's Vern & Lettuce, and in a couple of weeks time, Neill Cameron's Mo-bot High. All worth adding to your collection!

Another DFC creator who has a new book out at the moment is Jason Cobley, who has just published Bulldog Clips, featuring brand new strips and a super cover by Andrew Wildman.

And I think that's it for now!

My agent, Oli Munson at Blake Friedmann, had introduced Silvio van der Loo to The Rainbow Orchid at the 23rd International Book Fair in Turin, Italy, back in May. Within a month contracts had been signed and Silvio's company, Silvester Strips, became the first overseas publisher to put RO into a foreign language, with launch set for the weekend of De Stripdagen, the Dutch comics expo in Houten, to which Silvio kindly invited me.

De Stripdagen happened to fall on the same weekend (September 25-26) as I'd been booked for the Bath Children's Literature Festival (see last entry), and as I didn't want to miss either of these events, I decided I would attend both, the Bath graphic novel panel on Saturday evening, and then catching an early flight to Amsterdam on the Sunday morning.

So, after just over four hours sleep, a drive to Gatwick, a small parking adventure, a bus to the North Terminal and the usual fun of boarding a plane (which I hadn't done for 8 years) Elyssa and I found ourselves bound for the Netherlands and Schipol International airport. At Schipol we were met by John Wigmans, and off we drove down the autosnelweg to Houten.

John deserves special mention - he first got in touch with me last year, expanding my knowledge of Dutch clear line artists such as Peter van Dongen, Eric Heuvel and Dick Briel, and I was able to meet him at last year's MCM Expo when he was in London doing research. As soon as I knew the Silvester Strips deal was going ahead I got in touch with John again and he put into action an idea he'd mentioned before - that of writing an article on The Rainbow Orchid for Stripschrift, the long-running Dutch comics magazine edited by Arco van Os (who also happened to be one of the organisers of De Stripdagen). This appeared in issue 411, the September 2010 issue, featuring a very impressive deeply researched and profusely illustrated 6-page article, plus the Lily Lawrence story, Sword of Fate, translated into Dutch by Mat Schifferstein (also Silvio's translator for De Regenboog Orchidee). This brings me to something I originally had no intention of airing, but as it got found out and mentioned both on Facebook and, more widely, Down the Tubes, resulting in a couple of emails - and as it happens to be an interesting little aside, I thought it should be addressed... the name Thomas Tipps!

The Adventures of...

Being a resident of Holland, and more plugged into the Dutch comics scene than myself, John was in touch with Silvio at Silvester Strips and very kindly did some proof-reading of Mat's translation. As a result of this, he was a little closer to the production of the Dutch edition and was able to include in his Stripschrift article the fact that, in the Netherlands, 'the Adventures of Julius Chancer' were to become 'the Adventures of Thomas Tipps' (seeing the proof of the article was the first I knew of this).

The Down the Tubes article mentioned that this was because the Dutch found this name easier to pronounce, which was indeed my first thought as it reminded me of a letter I received back in 1997 from Andy Konky Kru (as he was then known), who was one of the handful of people I sent early black and white pages of The Rainbow Orchid to, several years before it saw serialisation in BAM! Here's a little extract of what he sent me:

19 Feb 1997: "... the name Chancer is confusing, especially to a German public. If you make your artwork look as perfectionist as Jacobs, that type of strip would sell all over the continent, more so than here [the UK] ..."

And again, in his reply to my reply ...

7 Apr 1997: "... The name Chancer still looks weird. True, Tintin is named differently elsewhere, but wouldn't be nowadays! (In German it's Tim & Struppi, Struppi being the dog, pronounced Shtrooppy). There are so many English names which are perfectly easy on foreign ears, I'd think about it some more. It's much easier to remember a name where you don't have to wonder how it may be pronounced correctly. I'll ask others, but more important is what the French/Belgians think of it ..."

Well, I stuck to my guns, and although I never actually discovered the reason for the Dutch name change, I asked several people in Holland if pronunciation was a problem, and none thought so. My guess was that it may have sounded more British, an aspect Silvester might have wanted to play up as a marketing strength, or maybe - less likely - it was because Dick Briel's Professor Palmboom character also had Julius as a christian name. I did push for keeping the name Julius Chancer - if only because my website would keep its relevance to an international audience.

Stripschrift 411 had already been printed and included the Tom Tipps info, plus an advert declaring 'the Adventures of Thomas Tipps', but when I saw the Silvester Strips September catalogue available for download a few days later, it was Julius Chancer on the banner. On the way to Houten I asked John what he knew - he zipped his mouth and said he'd been sworn to secrecy!

Houten

So after a while we reached the Expo centre at Houten, not the most attractive of environments, seemingly an industrial estate of some kind, though the venue itself was much nicer. We collected our guest passes and made our way to the Silvester Strips stand - one of the biggest of the show - and there it was, De Avonturen van Julius Chancer: De Regenboog Orchidee, deel een. Despite not being dead-set against the Thomas Tipps idea, as long as it was for good reason, I was, after all, relieved to see Julius retained.

Silvio van der Loo, Garen Ewing, Mat Schifferstein, John Wigmans.

It was great to meet Silvio at last and also some of his family, plus the other Silvester Strips employees, including Patrice van der Linden who had worked on putting the actual book together. And I was very pleased with the book, a large size hardback using the maps from volume two as endpapers on stylish antique-brown sheet. In pretty much all other respects it's the same as the UK Egmont edition. Later on I met Mat Schifferstein, the translator, and was able to thank him for his hard work and also, with John, to make a plan for working more closely together for the translation of volume 2.

Most of my time at De Stripdagen was spent sitting at the Silvester Strips table, signing - actually for about four and a half hours. Although I did start to droop a bit towards the end, I was really happy to meet new Dutch readers and see the enthusiasm for the book. There's such a difference in attitude towards comics on the European mainland and in the UK. Here in Britain The Rainbow Orchid is mostly marketed as a children's book (which I'm perfectly happy with, by the way), whereas that's not the case in Holland - not that it's marketed to adults, it's there for both, just a book. Comics as a whole are not seen as primarily a juvenile medium, which is still the prevalent attitude in the UK, I'd say.

I did get to have a brief walk around the Expo (though only some of it) and to see tables bursting with lovely comic albums, with all kinds of material available. I got to meet Rob van Bavel, dedicated editor of the bi-weekly Eppo Stripblad (see Rod McKie's excellent Eppo piece here), and Eric Heuvel, a true master of klare lijn comics who I had sent The Rainbow Orchid to last year. Eric presented me with a signed copy of his brand new book, De Terugkeer (The Return), the third book in his series of Dutch World War II stories. The first two have been translated into English by American publisher Farrar Straus Giroux - De Ontdekking (The Discovery, known as A Family Secret in the English language edition) and De Zoektocht (The Search).

These were produced in conjunction with the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam and given to all Dutch middle-school pupils (the same with a German edition, an event which made international news). The new book, created with Ruud van der Rol, deals with the Dutch colony in the East Indies, its independence movement and the Japanese occupation of the territory and its internment camps, a slightly more obscure (though no less fascinating) corner of history that may mean translation into English is less certain - though I hope that's not the case. By the way, Eric is well-known for his strip (with Martin Lodewijk), January Jones, a strip closely related to The Rainbow Orchid in era, subject matter and adventure - fantastic albums if you can get hold of them.

Eric Heuvel, Garen Ewing.

Klare lijn

The clear line has a very strong home in the Netherlands. Besides the work of Eric Heuvel described above, Joost Swarte is one of the style's foremost names, indeed he coined the term ligne claire, is largely responsible for its resurgeance in the 1980s, and identified its close cousin, the atom style (atoomstijl). To give you an idea how much comic art is respected in Europe, Swarte was awarded a knighthood from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 2004. Other Dutch klare lijn artists include Henk Kuijpers (Franka), Theo van den Boogaard (Sjef van Oekel), Peter van Dongen (Rampokan), Dick Briel (Professor Palmboom), Michiel de Jong (Operatie Hanuman), Henk 't Jong (Willem Peper), Jan Vervoot (Lila & Merijin, Elno), Erik Varekamp (Agent Orange), Erik de Graaf (Scherven) and Teun Berserik.

Amsterdam

The day at De Stripdagen whizzed by, and afterwards John, Elyssa and I went off to get something to eat, finding ourselves nearby at the curious Asian Tower. We'd been sitting for 15 minutes before John pointed out that the top floor was slowly rotating, a very curious sensation once noticed. Despite our changing view consisting of primarily a car park and the neighbouring McDonalds, it was a lovely meal. John then went above and beyond the call of duty and drove us all the way into Amsterdam to our hotel, for which, after a long day for all three of us, Ellie and I are eternally grateful!

Our hotel was lovely - the Eden Amsterdam American Hotel, built in 1900 and very stylish on the outside (not too shabby on the inside either). On Monday Ellie and I treated ourselves to a day of tourism. We'd both been to Amsterdam before, visiting several main attractions, so after a breakfast of bacon and apple pancakes (for me) and a fruit pancake (for Ellie) we made our way to the previously unvisited Rijksmuseum. This enormous depository of Dutch art and history was having an equally large renovation, so only a small portion, consisting of its most important pieces, was available to view, which actually made it a very manageable visit, and totally fascinating, especially given the strong Dutch and English connections throughout the seventeenth century and beyond.

The weather, unfortunately, was very wet, but after a walk into the city centre, and a quick lunch, we decided to take the weight off our feet and have an hour's canal tour, which was just the thing. In the evening Silvio came into the city to take us out to dinner - a lovely Italian restaurant where we talked comics, publishing and life in general, a highly enjoyable evening.

Elyssa in Dam Square, Amsterdam.

Tuesday was our day for travelling home. We caught an early-morning bus from just outside the hotel back to Schipol, and by lunchtime we were back at Gatwick, then another bus to the car park, and finally back home (after a quick stop at Sainsbury's for supplies).

It was a tiring but lovely couple of days, and I am so grateful to everyone who looked after us and helped to give us such a warm welcome to the world of Dutch comics - first and foremost John Wigmans and Silvio van der Loo, who were both gracious and generous in spades. Thank you also to everyone who bought De Regenboog Orchidee, and thanks for chatting and letting me scribble in your books! And finally, a big thank you to Arco van Os for giving over so much space in Stripschrift for John's article. Next year De Stripdagen will be in the historic southern city of Breda, and with all three volumes out in Dutch by then, I hope to make it over to see what the reaction is, and to see if there might be a possibility for more Julius Chancer in the Netherlands.

On Saturday I was a guest at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature, taking part in a panel called Graphic novels: the new revolution with comics superstars Robin Etherington (writer of Monkey Nuts, Malcolm Magic, and loads more besides) and Dave McKean (Cages, The Savage, Violent Cases, to name a mere sampling), and hosted by children's author Eleanor Hawken, who kept the three of us on our toes with some very thoughtful questions.

The Guildhall was filled with a mixed audience in attendance as we each presented a quick slideshow and talk on some of our work. Dave talked about his new book, Slog's Dad (written by David Almond) and also explained his mask exhibit at the recent Hypercomics exhibition. Of great interest to me was his new children's book with Richard Dawkins, The Magic of Reality, which looks wonderful. I gave an introduction to The Rainbow Orchid and shared some of the inspirations that went into making the adventure - silent films, classic adventure novels, European ligne claire art and grounding the whole thing on a solid base of realism as a juxtaposition to the more fantastical elements which are revealed later on. Robin gave some fascinating insights into the creation and background of Monkey Nuts, The Lore of the Things and Baggage (which I'm really looking forward to) and also a new project - Freaky Giblets - the title alone makes me impatient to see it!

When asked for some general advice on starting out, Dave cited his experience of having his eyes opened at art college to a wide range of styles and techniques that he may not have considered beforehand, and how this can help you to eventually find your own unique style and voice. Sitting next to him on the stage, I felt something like an example of almost the opposite of this! I dropped out of art college because I was very sure of what I wanted to do, and furthermore, I have immersed myself in a style of cartooning that is very much influenced by a small school of European comic artists. But we all have our own paths and experiences, and I would actually agree with what Dave said because I'm very aware of my artistic shortcomings in several areas, painting and craft for instance, and sometimes wish I had a better grounding in those disciplines. Then again, I love what I do and how I do it - I'm doing exactly what I always wanted... but I've been lucky. I do change my style somewhat to suit various commercial art jobs, which further backs up Dave's assertion that it is good to have more than one string to your bow.

One funny moment came about when Robin mentioned my old blog entry about things I don't like in comics, which included monkeys and robots! Still, I totally stand by this! I hope it's clear that I meant the casual use of 'cool ingredients' with which to make a comic, where, without a decently thought-out plot to back the concept, it has no actual satisfying content and quickly runs out of steam. Comics such as Monkey Nuts, with its high quality character comedy, or the intelligently written Mo-bot High are a far cry from the zombie-robot-gun-monkeys I was thinking of!

After the talk we took to the signing table which is always highly enjoyable as we get to meet and talk to people who have a genuine interest and love, or just a great curiosity, for comics and graphic storytelling. One very nice woman even gave us a lovely chocolate each (I think her name was Marjorie... thank you, Marjorie!).

It was a very enjoyable event, and we were really well looked after by Eleanor and the rest of the Bath Festival crew. It was great to meet Dave McKean, someone who is not only a giant of the comic medium, but of book illustration, fine art and film, and also Robin Etherington, the embodiment of enthusiasm for comics and a great entertainer both on the page and off. Inspirations!

Afterwards Elyssa and I went for a quick dinner, and in contrast to a very laboured journey down, had a lovely easy drive back, getting home at about 11.30pm. Still, getting to bed about an hour later, we had to be up at 5am to catch a Sunday morning flight to Amsterdam, of which more in the next post!