Matthew Sheret
November 30, 2009
Tom gets it right
I usually do a rolling tumblog over here, but for one reason or another it went to sleep for a little while. I thought I’d restart it this week, but first flag this up: Tom Humberstone‘s magnificent essay on ‘Getting The Smell Right’ for Solipsistic Pop.
November 26, 2009
Catching up
Leeds this past weekend was tremendous. It didn’t quite seem right to have a wordy sum-up over at WAW+P, not least because none of use in quite the right state to do it. Besides, a pictures says a thousand words. Anyway, a huge thanks to all of the Thought Bubble team for another tremendous event.
With the bulk of my two big freelance gigs done I’ve now got a few days to catch up on the things I’ve let slip. I’ve got, oh, maybe thirty e-mails to stockists, contributors and interested parties to get out by the end of play tomorrow, and all of this reading…
(…actually, that’s a bit of a cheat. I’ve already finished Oliver East‘s Proper Go Well High, which made an already emotional Matthew cry on the train back to London, and Geof’s Fetishman 10, which was tremendous, hilarious and beautiful)
After that, well, one of the gigs goes live next week so that’ll get a polish before I start looking for more work. I’m also hitting planning stages for a few WAW+P events, none of which have yet been announced, all of which could well be quite exciting. Next year will be interesting.
November 18, 2009
Paper Science
So, We Are Words + Pictures stepped up a gear in advance of this weekend’s Thought Bubble Festival by printing up twelve page newspaper Paper Science, with the generous help of Newspaper Club.
I’ve blogged about it for both, so go and read more. There’s a process blog to be written about editing the thing, but just thinking about it gives me horrid flashbacks.
November 11, 2009
Frankie Say Pop
My first words on pop are live now on Global Comment, a review of Frankie Say Greatest, their THIRD greatest hits compilation…
It is a disco at the dawn of the eighties. Pop, bombast and synths are swamping stereos and “Blue Monday” has already happened. GRID has been reclassified as AIDS – it’s ravages being made clear worldwide – while war, holding actions and terrorism are part of the worldwide language of engagement. Holly Johnson is wondering if we’re living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods? Posters on ever street corner tell you that “Frankie Say Relax.” People ask “How?”
A few hundred more words here. I’ve got a massive respect for Global Comment, and when editor Natalia Antonova got in touch I was more than happy to join the team. Sarah Jaffe‘s work has been a pleasure to keep up with over there and, oh, I’ll just insist you go over and find your own favourites…
As well as that Solipsistic Pop is now for sale. Head over to their shop and spend a few pounds on what is, frankly, the start of something very important.
Coming soon: Paper Science!
November 9, 2009
On form
Comiket was a huge success. Chats, flyers, sales and handshakes were enjoyed widely in our corner of the room, a nice hub of creativity that provided a safe haven for more than a few people in the crush of comics and custom. Lots of ideas about where to take the stall were generated, which is pretty stimulating.
But what was more impressive, and more exciting, was the way We Are Words + Pictures actually worked. Mark‘s been with us to a few of these things now, and I’m quite happy to say he’s become part of the heart of the set-up. He’s passionate with customers in a way I never quite manage to be, and happy to talk about what he loves without getting bogged down in why he’s doing it – I ratchet into motivation horribly quickly. Anne is similarly great at getting people to engage and also throwing a focus onto long term logistics: She made forays into the market a few times, nudging me towards tables and initiatives where they looked right or looked interesting which was great.
It all meant that Julia and I got on with what we want to do. With some of the customer engagement dealt with by Mark, Julia gets better and better at selling her work, talking up her current ideas and plotting her next move. Her turnaround rate on sketches, pages and design is extremely fast now, and it’s a thrill to see that work arrive in my inbox or on my RSS feed. I’ve hit a nice set-up and take-down rhythm, popping up tables and stalls with a reasonably clear idea of what I’m up to. I’m also thinking a little wider about who we could talk to, where WAW+P could go next and what we could pitch at.
Besides the obvious bar that Solipsistic Pop has set I was pretty inspired by the work that Nobrow are producing; volume two of their illustration journal drops soon, and it will doubtless look beautiful. The North Wales School of Art and Design seemed to be bubbling away nicely, and Aiden Smith was one of the friendliest people I’ve met at these events for a long time. I also got to briefly chat with Tim and Andy of London Libraries Graphic Novel Network, which could be a really promising initiative and definitely people WAW+P would like to speak to more.
Mostly though, I think something really clicked with the four of us. We were on form, and I’m excited to see if we can keep that up for Thought Bubble. Fingers crossed.
November 5, 2009
Oslo
Before November arrived I managed to escape to Oslo for a few days. It was colder, prettier and a lot more welcoming than expected, which is just about perfect in my book. I hit the docks, the Opera House and the finest coffee shop in the world while I was out there, and managed to find the time to catch up with Einar, a magnificent local touchstone and one of the Touch team responsible for mapping the RFID field. A lovely man and clearly a very very clever man.
A really lovely bit of calm before the workstorm. I’m in deep on two paid projects at the moment, including the continuing adventures of the Newspaper Club guide, as well as a few personal ones too. I’m taking We Are Words + Pictures to the Comiket on Sunday 8th November and to Thought Bubble on Saturday 21st, and will be excitedly showing off Solipsistic Pop at both.
Had a lovely catch up with the BERG team last night at their Laika drinks, as well as Team Phonogram, most of Last.fm and James Bridle, who demonstrated the matchbox computer he built and shared some of his theory of awesomeness.
Now I have to do some work.
November 2, 2009
Paper Science
Somewhere between a ‘zine and a mini-anthology, Paper Science is a snapshot of what We Are Words + Pictures are interested in at the moment. The only criteria was that the contributors had to throw something together that’s a little bit different from what they usually do, resulting in a collection of illustrations, short stories, comics, essays, an extract from a book and an interview.
Contributors include Adam Cadwell, Chrissy Williams, Dan Hancox, Emilie Chalcraft, Julia Scheele, Katie West, Lizz Lunney, Marc Ellerby, Mark Higgins, Mark Oliver, Matt Jones, Matthew Sheret, The Girl With Shit Stories and Tom Humberstone.
October 22, 2009
Solipsistic Pop goes to print + Radio times
Tom Humberstone and I made a trip to the printers last week to check out the progress of Solipsistic Pop. It is looking beautiful. I was always going to be excited about this project, but now I feel that same giddiness I remember feeling every time I heard this.
We’re also on Resonance fm‘s show Strip! later today (22nd), at 5pm.
Continuing ‘anthologies and collectives month’ on the show, Alex Fitch talks to four members of a group of Irish comic book artists – Stephen Mooney, PJ Holden, Will Sliney and Declan Shalvey – who work for a variety of British and American comic publishers and collectively promote their work through a blog with the title “Eclectic Micks”.
Alex also talks to the curator of the new anthology “Solipsistic Pop” Tom Humberstone, and contributors Julia Scheele, Matthew Sheret and Stephen Collins, which intends to bring the sensibilities of high-end American Indie comic anthologies to the under represented world of British small press creators. Julia and Matthew also talk about disseminating their own self published comics – “We Are Words + Pictures” – to the public via market stalls and club nights.
Alex Fitch was a gent to throw this together, and a saint for staying up all hours to edit the show.
Busy busy busy.
October 21, 2009
Elsewhere on the internet
Emotional Pornography is a group-blog started by the delightful Miss Katie West. It does pretty much what it says on the url, and I offered up this untitled contribution:
She starts for a cigarette, the room all moving in chat and business, forgetting her empty wine glass. Glasses. She stops, retrieves, tops them up; the bottle splashing off the rim and wetting a rug she probably doesn’t recognise. She pauses in pouring, before more for good measure and then more again because she really wants to drink…
A little more at the site. There’s some beautiful work on there, writing and photography, and I urge you all to add it to your RSS feeds.
I’ve also started blogging as Newspaper Club‘s “embedded reporter”. My first post, titled after a quote from Russell, went live today:
Part of the fun of the system is being able to play with how your copy looks on the page. If you think you’ll want to print a newspaper around the launch then go away now and start gathering words and pictures. I mean it: Now. It’s better to have to leave things out than abandon a half full draft.
And that’s enough of that for today.
