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Artists And The Internet.

I realised where I was going wrong earlier this year. I tapped into a vein with some Find Chaffy cartoons of the universal humour variety (introverts, pugs, food, etc), and some of them went super viral. 7 million views on Facebook, then 12 million for the next one (Humblebraggggg isn't it). It was like a drug. Attention. Validation. Done it, found the wave and Am Currently Riding.

Course I never reached those heights again. Every now and then something I post will get traction, but by and large it’s a fraction (I assure you that rhyme is accidental). And the worst part? Everyone who viewed that cartoon, went ‘huh’, and instantly forgot it. Scrolled on. One or two stayed, added to the numbers, but nah it’s gone. It meant nothing. Viral means nothing.

That was quite a revelation, especially as I was hungrily grasping for more Likes. Be honest, artists, we’re all posting this stuff up for free for the Likes. For the attention. For bringing new people into our audience, bit by tiny bit. Does that translate into earnings? Not really. Not at all, really. It’s just nice to be noticed.

A few years ago I thought branding was the answer. Artists treating themselves like brands, creating your USP and having a front of house - i.e. your website which was your corner of the internet. Trouble is we’ve done that, and all our websites are floating about like mini icebergs, fun to point people to but not much more. So then instead of this lonely iceberg, we jump onto the passing cruise liner. Social media. But suddenly there are tons of people just like us, and they’re all screaming about their work, to each other, and the noise is deafening. There’s no way to be heard. 

Recently I thought collaboration might be better - artists from different skill sets teaming up to work on An End Product. And hey that’s fun, creatively, but getting it noticed is jumping back onto that cruise liner. Your Kickstarter might raise loads on day one, but by the end, people are just ignoring you. But you’re still shouting. Because you have to. Because how else will you get this brilliant idea heard.

I love the internet. I love the support, and the easy connectivity with an audience. I love people who find me through my work. Of course. Every artist does. But I realise though how much stock i put into it - how desperate I was for it to work for me. And how impossible that is. The internet, for all its joys, has made art utterly, utterly disposable, something to be glanced at in passing, and then forgotten about. And us with it. As both a creator and a consumer, its abundance has killed the joys of it for me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to reach children with comics in the real world. When we ran the campaign to put Moose Kid Comics into hospitals, that was the first step for me. Beyond hospitals, schools. Beyond schools, the general public. To engender a love of comics into society again, but a society who forgot about them. The internet is full of the already-converted, whereas the real world holds the key to a much bigger audience.

Schools would be great. I’d love to work on some initiative where we send comic-making worksheets to every school, or print enough free copies to draw the kids in. To make comics part of their lifestyle again. Ask me about it In The Pub, I will happily bore you with it.

For myself, I’ve always shied away from the real world, in my natural state as an Introvert (hey I could make a funny comic about being one of those). Part of the reason I started doing my drawing videos (HERE) was to force myself in front of a camera, and build my own confidence. And it worked, it has been really helping. I’m excited about next year, about being better at real world stuff. Perhaps doing more comic-making workshops than the few I do.

So anyway, in conclusion. I’ve spoken to a lot of artists recently about our dissatisfaction with not the internet per se, but our dependence upon it. And our need for validation. We’re reaching similar conclusions at the same time. Art needs to be made for the love, not the pursuit. The end goal should be achievement, not applause. 

The real world > The internet.

Viral means nothing anymore.

Ok bye.

[jamiesmart-blog]

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Dis you. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/findchaffy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/findchaffy

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On 1st December, I set up the Moose Kid Comics For Hospitals fundraiser. The idea was to raise enough money to send a whole stack of printed Moose Kid Comics (available to read free here) to children in hospital, with the help of the brilliant charity Readathon.

Thanks to the INCREDIBLE generosity of our funders, we smashed through our £2,000 target in just the first 24 hours. Four days later, our total sits at about £3.5K, and we still have the best part of a month to keep going.

So here I’d like to lay out some of our stretch goals, and explain how much bigger we can make all this if the funds keep coming in.

The main point to make is that now we’ve made more money, we can send comics REGULARLY throughout next year. Not just a one-off delivery. This is brilliant because children stay in hospital for different lengths of time, and may well take the comic home with them, so to be able to constantly replenish the supply for the next patient is wonderful.

If we can reach £4,000 on our fundraiser, we can afford to get 1,500 copies of Moose Kid Comics printed. That’s 750 of issue one, 750 of issue two, each 36 pages, full-colour, oversized pages, beautiful paper. Really nice quality. Of that 1,500, Approximately 900 will go to Readathon. Readathon will then send them out in batches of 9 or 10 at a time (to avoid high postage costs), to each of their 30 hospitals (all the main ones). Readathon make 7 deliveries a year, so Moose Kid Comics will go out with them about three times in 2016.

The remaining 600 comics will come to me. While Readathon have the main hospitals, I found there were plenty of hospitals, wards, hostels etc not on their list, and I’ve been amassing the contact details for each of them. 600 comics mean if I have 20 addresses, I can send 10 comics to each, three times in 2016. My postage costs will be considerably higher, so the few hundred pounds remaining from our £4,000 total will help me cover that, and if there’s even a penny left, I’ll be donating it direct to Readathon.

IF we can reach £5,000, then we can also afford to get our 16-page Christmas Special printed, and sent out to all 30 of Readathon’s hospitals, along with however many I can reach, at the end of 2016. Just in time for next Christmas.

I hope this all makes sense (and if it doesn’t, or you have any questions, do let me know!)

Reaching £5,000 would be really fantastic. Going beyond that is something yet to plan, but it could include sending comics out through 2017 too (including our issue 3, which should be ready by then), creating exclusive activity books for the wards, or just donating the money directly. However much we raise, and whatever we do with it, I’ll be sure to keep you up to date here.

And lastly, thank you THANK YOU again for your donations. This has gone so amazingly well, I’m kinda in shock. If you haven’t donated yet, please check out our campaign HERE. Or please share us around! We can still do so much more good. 

[jamiesmart-blog]

Moose Kid Comics, the online children’s comic I edit, has just released a CHRISTMAS SPECIAL! 27 artists, 16 pages, all-ages, free to read or download at www.moosekidcomics.com. 

One of the reasons Moose Kid Comics was set up was to show how great children’s comics can be, because we have so many brilliant artists with mad ideas. For this Christmas Special, everyone pulled out their festive A-game, and I’m so so chuffed with what we’ve produced. I really hope you like it too.

At the same time, we’re launching a fundraiser to get printed copies of Moose Kid Comics sent out to children in hospital, because I think that’s where comics can really come into their own. Delighting and inspiring kids who really need cheering up. Thanks to a lot of kind donators we’re on track to hit our target already but please consider joining in, and/or sharing our campaign. The more we can raise, the more good we can do: https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/moosekidcomics

[jamiesmart-blog]

TRIBES - All Our Skills Coming Together

I used to think my work was everything. It made me jump out of bed every morning. It was 100% my calling as much as it was my safe space. I was happy to be a recluse if it meant hiding in my self-created worlds. Recently though, I’ve felt a bit… restless. I guess that’s to be expected after 15 years of doing this as a job.

Don’t get me wrong I still adore creating comics, I still count myself immeasurably lucky to have the freedom to do so. It’s still what drives me. I still miss it when I’m not doing it. However, it occurs to me that perhaps I haven’t reached my potential, and that after all this time I really should have. That I’m not where I should be. That I had such high ambitions, and they were maybe too high to actually reach.

I’m not the only one. Over the last few years I’ve noticed a dissatisfaction amongst other creative friends. Friends who are, by all accounts, doing their dream jobs. Who have their own books/games/merchandise out in the world, which is surely a dream realised. They, too, are getting itchy.

The creative industry is a strange one. The successes you thought would make you happy, don’t. At least, not for any length of time. Getting a book published sounds wonderful, but for the majority of artists/authors, you do some promotion, make a few hundred quid in royalties and then watch it quietly slide out of print. Put that against the time that went into making it, and it’s a loss, at least financially.

THE AUDIENCE 

The key, of course, is building an audience. But every creative reaches a point where that… plateaus. Social media is the most illusory of all media in this respect. I love the people I get to interact with on social media, I’ve come to consider many of them good, arms-length, friends. But I know if I’m promoting something new I’ve created, only a fraction of them will actually buy it. That’s the rule of thumb with any online interaction. And, crucially, I know that whenever I promote My New Thing, I’m only promoting it to people who know about me already. The bubble isn’t growing, the audience isn’t building. Most artists on Twitter are telling each other about their new work, instead of potential new readers.

I love social media, but I fell into the trap of thinking it’s all the promotion I need. Whereas in fact, it can be incredibly limited. Your moment is gone the second someone scrolls past you.

Perhaps this is where my slight despondency has come from, realizing that I’ve reached the edge of the bubble, and not managed to go beyond that. There are certainly things I could do to improve the situation – more interaction in the real world for one (something I’ve been woefully poor at, because I always thought being an illustrator was the perfect excuse to hide away). I also believe that artists should build themselves into ‘brands’, more than just their work. And that each of us needs to build our corners of the internet as if they were our shopfronts. It’s hard to imagine you’ll ever reach the page views of The Oatmeal, or build the same kind of nodding respect as Hewlett, but we can at least try.

There’s more to it than all that though. I wonder if part of the answer lies in collectives.

COLLECTIVES AND COLLABORATIONS

For years, creating comics and books had been purely at the mercy of publishers, and whether they would choose to employ you. The internet did a lot to change that, especially in comics and the rise of independent publishing, as comic artists began to become self-funded, building their own audiences. Often now this is what publishers look for in their artists, someone who has already built their own brand.

Getting to this point though feels near impossible for most. There’s so much chatter online already, so many other great talents, a wonderfully supportive community but again, one which is in danger of selling to itself. What if your grand idea, your character, your brand, reaches its limit and you just can’t reach any more people than you already have?

Collectives already exist in comics. It’s more than just artists building anthologies of their work together, it’s about a select few banding together and forming a virtual studio, a company through which to channel their creations. Big Punch Studios is one such, a fantastic example of talented artists pouring huge amounts of effort into pooling their creative resources. For a monthly subscription fee you receive their work as collected editions, but they go beyond that, even kickstarting a sandwich-building card game. All under the one umbrella of their studio. And all completely independent.

I’ve admired what they’re doing for a while, it seems a really smart way of not only building an audience, but exploring different avenues for their creations with the studio framework as a support. This is what I’ve always felt artists should do, limiting your idea to only the medium you know seems like a self-imposed cage for it.

Collaboration with other artists, too, is another great way to see a project come to life. I’ve collaborated with some really awesome artists before, some projects have worked out (like this great Looshkin animation), some seem fated to never see the light of day.

Perhaps, then, we could combine the two ideas. Collectives and collaborations. Perhaps what we really need to power our industry forward from the inside is to form tribes.

TRIBES - STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

The idea of a tribe is not only groups of artists banding together to work on their ideas, it’s groups of disparate artists. A comic artist, an animator, a developer, a toymaker, and a filmmaker, for example. They come together to form a studio, of sorts, a collective, a creative hub. And then, crucially, they all work on the same idea. So say one of the group has a character they really want to explore, well the comic artist draws up a bundle of weekly webcomics, the animator makes some animated shorts, the toymaker makes a real-life version of that character and the filmmaker films it in the wild, all hosted on the developer-built website.

It’s not just about everyone bringing together their collective audiences. It’s about exploring a character/idea to its fullest, stretching it out through different mediums, building its mythology. And it can easily extend from there. More comic artists could come on board and help create a printed, sellable anthology based around this character. An author could join in and write novels about the character. With the right talent, you could build apps, write songs, create puppets, sell merchandise. You could form a membership club of sorts (as the brilliant Lizz Lunney does with Fun Club), involve the audience, build a brand.

It’s still a collaboration, but it’s also a collective. It’s strength in numbers, in a fragile industry. It’s bonds and connections between creative people to create something bigger together.

And, should someone else in the tribe have an idea, then the other members can join in with that too. A fair shot for everyone. Whether the creator makes the idea public domain, so free for all, or some legality is drawn up to protect each participant’s interests (should the idea be noticed and picked up by a larger company). Whether every artist is doing it for the love of it, or Patreons or Kickstarters are involved to help fund the tribe. The important thing is the coming together.

AND SO...

Remember when Gorillaz first came out and it seemed such a fresh idea, music and cartoons combined as one complete product? Why aren’t we all trying that? Why do we sit on our ideas and only let them live through our own hands, rather than letting them grow and flourish through others?

It requires involvement, it requires trust. It requires more working out than I’ve done here. But the older I get, and the longer I do this, I start to wonder if my own ideas have reached their limit purely because I haven’t let them go any further.

[jamiesmart-blog]

Here is the last of our Find Chaffy animated shorts, about how different Chaffies can be. Created by me, animation by Birdbox, produced by Mind Candy. Enjoy! :)

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Here is our second Find Chaffy animation, about how, um, stupid they are. Animation by Birdbox, produced by Mind Candy.

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We’ve been making Find Chaffy short animations, in association with Birdbox and Mind Candy. Please enjoy this first one!

[jamiesmart-blog]

Trying to create a new children's comic - what was involved.

I’ve been meaning to write this all up for a while. Our contribution to the world of children’s comics, www.moosekidcomics.com, launched on 20th June this year. A 36 page, full colour, all-ages comic, featuring original characters by nearly 40 artists, all online to read or download, and all free. It was a bit ambitious, but that was exactly the point.

We wanted to make a comic completely free of financial or business decisions. We didn’t want to target a demographic, or factor in distribution costs. We wanted to create this as an ideal, a statement of intent, a shot across the bow.

So, now the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to describe everything that went into it, and be completely honest about all that was involved.

Moose Kid Comics has taken about a year to build. And while that sounds like a lot for a single issue, we needed that whole year. Partly for the contributing artists to be able to fit it into their schedule, partly for myself and Moose Kid editorial consultants Chris and Andy to chip away at what exactly this thing would look like. I think we’ve ended up with a comic which has a really nice feel to it, an overarching style (despite the huge variety inside).

I had a lot of qualms about creating the main character myself, and about taking more pages than anyone else. I certainly didn’t want to overshadow any other artists, and sought a lot of advice on whether what I was doing was a good idea. The reason I did take the lead, however, was because I wanted us to create a comic where there was a character at the front, and bumbling away behind the scenes, and waving goodbye at the end, so the reader had a point of entry. Someone to identify and empathise with, so they could be carried along through the other strips. A memorable, very visual, anchor around which everything else can spin. And making Moose Kid a kid who loves comics, being transported into comics, and chased by grumpy authoritarian figures, seemed like the best way to hook a reader in.

Anyway, as I said, it took a year. Of that year, I’d say the time I’ve spent on it equates to about a month, full-time. That’s quite a chunk (I was surprised when I worked it out), especially for a freelance illustrator like myself. That’s a lot of emails, a lot of admin, and a lot of tweaking. I’ve edited anthologies before so I knew what would be involved, thankfully on Moose Kid the artists have been pretty stone-cold amazing and made the process a lot easier than it could have been.

Financially, I’d say it will have cost me about a grand. A lot of that is on getting printed copies of the comic, to send to artists and for contests (also a limited number available for sale, more on that later). I also got a ton of leaflets printed and sent to a number of comic shops and libraries around the UK. Then add the postage of a few hundred and yeah, that’s about everything.

Since this was a non-profit project, none of the artists involved got paid. Now, that’s always quite a hard sell, when you’re asking someone to contribute to your idea for free. However, I think the mere concept of trying to build a children’s comic was enough to win the first round of artists, and I could then use their names to bring in even more. When we initially asked artists to get in touch, we had nearly 400 responses. Even Sam, the amazing web-lord who built the site, refused payment. What this showed was the sheer goodwill, the clawing urge to bring children’s comics back to the fore, and if we could in any small way contribute towards that, then hey let’s just try it.

So how did it do? www.moosekidcomics.com scored about 15,000 hits in total on the launch day, mostly through word of mouth and social media. Since then we’ve had a small but steady build to about 25,000 total. We had a brilliant amount of coverage, here are just a few of the great reviews from Forbidden Planet, Women Write About Comics, and Broken Frontier, we even got a mention in The Guardian.

Publishers too, got in touch. That’s something obviously I can’t say too much about, but they’re good names, and I wonder where these discussions might lead. We’ve also arranged to do a special one-off Moose Kid event on September 20th at The Cartoon Museum in London, where artists will be running comic-making workshops. Do book your kids in, there are only a limited number of places! Also important to note is that there will be a limited edition printing of Moose Kid Comics available to buy on the day (and after, if there are any left). This is the only place you’ll be able to buy a copy, it’ll be reasonably priced, and all profits go to the Cartoon Museum.

From all of this, the most apparent message is that there is a very real need and desire to create more original content children’s comics, and get them in front of children. Adults, kids, comic artists, publishers, they’ve all been overwhelmingly supportive in helping Moose Kid find an audience, and asking what they can do. Some even offered money to help the cause. And while Kickstarters and the like are very appealing ideas (I'd love ideally for artists to get paid, of course!) I’m concerned I couldn't handle the huge amount of work involved in running one, and it would make any future issues take even longer. Moose Kid, for my part, was intended to be a side-project, but towards launch it became all-encompassing which is a little tricky at times.

Could we have done better? Undoubtedly, you can always do better. I worried the issue was too long, I worried that it was too frantic perhaps. However I don't think there's a duff strip in there, so I'm chuffed with that, and I'm very glad that all the artists liked the comic too. That was a BIG relief.

As for the future, well let’s see. An issue 2 is definitely on the cards, although it may be some time. It would be nice to get new artists on board too, although space is obviously limited since we already have so many great talents already. I can't tell you how many emails I write beginning with 'sorry its taken me so long to reply', since we still get an influx of (genuinely great) prospective artists wanting to join.

I owe a massive, MASSIVE, debt of gratitude to all the artists who gave up their time, all the editors and designers who helped and advised, and to all the readers and reviewers who spread the word. We have an industry here just waiting to explode, and an ever-growing audience just waiting to grab hold of it. Reaching them is the hardest part, so hopefully with our efforts, we might have influenced at least one person to make their own comic too.

[jamiesmart-blog]

Hey I drew a comic about the great new book you're reading!

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I drew a comic about your exciting new project!

[jamiesmart-blog]

Happy Christmas Argh God

HELLO YOU

To end 2013, I've decided to stop drawing silly pictures and get a proper job like a grown up. Nah not really, but one day it might happen, and i might be the guy who phones you about your PPI claim. Just think about that when you're blowing a whistle down the phone line.

I hope you have had a wonderful year filled with y'know the stuff and the other stuff. I've had a pretty cool one I will confess. We got a dog, called Rocky, who is the coolest dude in the world and you will be sick of if you follow my instagram account. I went to Hong Kong, got shortlisted for a rather nifty children's book award, saw the release of my labour of love book 'Kochi Wanaba' (available from all good book places), as well as my more child-friendly Fish-Head Steve. In amongst it all, I drew comics pretty much constantly for both The Beano, Doctor Who Adventures and The Phoenix (who just celebrated their 100th issue!), as well as my own ridiculous little projects like Corporate Skull, my beloved novel, and y'know everything else. I even got to contribute to the children's horror compilation 'Boo!', and the new Bravest Warriors book coming out next year. AND OTHER STUFF. I can't think straight at the moment, my brain is full of chocolate santas.

I was really hoping to take some time off in january, to plough through some of my own projects. I worked my buns off in december to get ahead of schedule so i could do this, but i dunno, somehow i'm still not far enough ahead! It's super frustrating. But hopefully I can find a week here and there in the beginning of 2014. I need to do the final round of edits on my first novel (and do a first draft of the NEXT one), design a new range of T-shirts, not to mention write the next issue of Corporate Skull!

And then there's Moose Kid. Moose Kid is one of the things I'm most excited about for next year. It'll be our statement to children's comics, a loud and proud declaration of the talent and enthusiasm in this generation of artists, and an attempt to show what CAN be done. We have some genuinely incredible work in already, if we can just haul it all together and show you all, i think you're going to flipping love it. You, being the internet. Sorry, i don't have everyone's names to hand.

So, in the true spirit of having too much to do, here is the Christmas card i drew last year, because i haven't had time to do a new one. HOORAY! BODGING IT RIGHT UP TO THE END!

Have a great yule, y'all. And humble thank yous for sticking with me, as ever.

J

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Kochi Wanaba now available to buy!

I've been so remiss in blogging about this, and for that i apologise, but i am delighted to announce that my new book Kochi Wanaba is available to buy! Either direct from the publisher Blank Slate, your usual online retailer, or i am hearing reports of it appearing in comic stores and book shops up and down the land too. 

Those who have known me for a while will know Kochi is the longest of all my projects, about eight years in the making. It is a pencil-drawn graphic novel about a group of kids who hang out, being rude to each other, swearing and bitching about things. Of all the kids, quietest is Kochi, who is very introverted and prefers to spend his time with his head in a sketchbook. His unofficial girlfriend, Lhys, is quite the opposite. Loud, excitable, and willing to take all the boys on in a fight. 

Their group simmers with tension and resentments until one day, the Bee Festival comes to their village. What should be a happy day causes brutal fractures in the children's friendships, and events spiral horrifically out of control.

To say any more would spoil it, but its been a real labour of love, and i'm incredibly grateful to Kenny, Woodrow, and all at Blank Slate for helping this book become a reality. It's not intended for children (swearing and violence), but it is hopefully funny, disturbing, provoking, and sweet, all at once.

Kochi was actually serialised online, and you can read it here www.kochiwanaba.com. Here are a few of my favourite comments from it:

"I’ll be honest … I loved this from page one to the... end. The art style is flawless as well as beautiful. Perhaps one of the best web comics I’ve read in quite sometime! Maybe you’ll decide to further this masterpiece or leave it as it is, either way I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, thank you!" - Osozaki

"If that was truly the ending (which i hope it weren’t) you have just kicked something beautiful full on in the nuts and left it in a gutter to die." - Jim

"This is one of the best blends of bleakness, beauty, humor, nostalgia, panic (both social and mortal), and super-squeezable nightmarishly-proficient artwork. Everything about it was unexpected. I love it, dude." - Jimmy G

I really love and appreciate that people got so invested in the characters. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed it and commented! And if you have read it online, I'd urge you to check out the book too. Not only is it beautifully printed (the colours feel a lot more subtle), there's also a small essay about Kochi and its creation, and a bundle of sketchbook pages and never before seen artwork. Like this, the very first sketch i did for the book.

So there you go. Maybe a very last minute Christmas present, either for someone else or just for you because HEY you've worked HARD this year, and you DESERVE IT.

Man. I am so chuffed this book exists for realsies now.

[jamiesmart-blog]

Happy 100th, The Phoenix!

(image nicked from the Etheringtons blog, apologies!)

This is pretty amazing, it's fair to say. The Phoenix, the UK's newest independent children's comic, reaches its 100th issue today! For a weekly comic, that's pretty astounding, especially these days when there are so few original content weekly comics for kids around. A MASSIVE congratulations to everyone involved, all the hard-working editorial team as well as the incredible roster of artists and writers. Here's the to next 100 issues!

You can get The Phoenix in some stores, online, or digitally, so please do check it out www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk. Issue 100 is a BUMPER issue.

For my part, i've been lucky enough to draw my strip, Bunny Vs Monkey, for every single one of those issues. And that's an honour I don't take lightly! Over the last 100 issues, BvM has featured ridiculous machines, endless minor injuries, and (hopefully) a few story arcs threaded through it all keeping everything nice and mysterious. In this issue 100, for example, we finally find out not only where Bunny came from, but all the other animals too!

Funny thing about Bunny Vs Monkey, I started work on it around 2003, so it's nearly ten years old. Back then I was developing it for television (that *cough* didn't work out), so I thought you might be interested to see a bit of painting I did for it back then, to get a feel for it all.

It looks incredibly clunky to me now, and as you can see, both Bunny and Monkey have changed colour. But when I had the chance to pitch an idea to The Phoenix, Bunny Vs Monkey was my first choice. And I'm so glad I've had the chance to draw it, it's given me so much room to explore the idea, the world and the characters, and really build everything up nicely.

Below are some more concept pieces i did before I started the comic, just trying to get a feel for the environments.

I'm currently drawing both Bunny Vs Monkey AND Looshkin, who appears every few weeks or so in his own special 4-page exclusives. It's a crazy amount of fun, and I can safely say this is the best job in the world.

Thank you, The Phoenix, and everyone who buys it! We will make children's comics huge again!

[jamiesmart-blog]

Fish-Head Steve shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize!

I am so, SO flipping excited to announce that my book Fish-Head Steve has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2013! And as far as I know, it's the first time a comic book has been shortlisted for the prize! DOUBLE WHAMMY!

I'm in the 'funniest book for children aged 7 - 14' category against five other books (all of which look to be STRONG competition). You can read more about the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and what it means HERE, winners are chosen by a panel of judges and 200 schoolchildren in December I believe.

Just being shortlisted is an AMAZING honour, and I'm dead chuffed about it all. A million thank yous to everyone on The DFC (Ben and Will especially), everyone at David Fickling Books, Jodie my agent, and everyone who's ever read Fish-Head Steve.

Here's to comics, fish-heads, and funny books! Keep your fingers crossed! ^_^

[jamiesmart-blog]

It's TODAY, everyone! Issue 94 of the brilliant PHOENIX comic is out, and it features the four-page debut of LOOSHKIN. Demand a copy from your local comic store, or head to the Phoenix website to order single issues or download it all app-like. Meanwhile on twitter all day today i'll be giving out prizes and sketches, so join in with the hushtug #looshkinday.

SO excited about this. Just sent over the next Looshkin strip too, which should appear in a few weeks.