Evil Mrs.Cadaver

The Evil Mrs.Cadaver lives next door. Ollie and Quentin are a bit spooked by her but, like the time my son hit a wasp nest with his stick, they can't help goading her whenever possible. I am now writing a series of strips to introduce her to us properly.

The wasps stung my daughter.

Jerk?

Brendan Burford, my editor at King Features, said I could come up with something better than "Jerk"... but I can't.

First Sale!

I have my first sale in the US! The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Daily and Sunday. Fantastic! My thanks to John Killian at King Features. What a star!

Coincidence

I drew this strip the week before my trip to New York and would you believe it, one of the Sales Team I met there was called Richard Heimlich.

Launch Date

I have a launch date! It's January 7th 2008 with the first Sunday being January 13th.

New York

I'm back! It went really well. Everyone seemed very positive. I was made to feel very welcome by some very nice people. Fantastic to meet Brendan at last. The Hearst Tower is incredible with wonderful views. Even managed to do some sightseeing including a run round a hot Central Park. Much hillier than I expected and SO many people at 7am. Remember to buckle up in the cabs and don't pay $150 for the ride out to Newark airport like I did!

So, back to drawing strips and it's now up to the sales guys to do their stuff.

New York

At last! It's been almost a year but I'm off to New York for the sales launch. Finally get to meet Brendan Burford tomorrow evening for dinner which I'm really looking forward to. Then meet the sales team and do my presentation on Wednesday morning. Don't fly back till Thursday evening so a chance to do some sightseeing and maybe a run in Central Park. Well, both my brothers have done it so I've got to complete the set.

OK, so it's a fairly predictable premise but I wanted to draw Quentin's head on Ollie's body and a grumpy Ollie disgusted that he's now a wriggly worm.

Don't try this at home!

Now this is REALLY nerdy... I've discovered the most gorgeous notebooks to write and sketch out my ideas in. They're called Moleskine® (as used by Hemingway, Van Gogh and Picasso). I'm using the 240 Plain page 13x21cm acid free paper notebooks. Beautiful.

One of my all time favourite Sunday strips. Really pleased with the 'timing' in the last 3 panels. So satisfying when it all comes together like this. Wish every day could be the same.

So, back to colouring up the approved strips after a month of designing my sales brochure, finalising my syndication contract and preparing the presentation I have to give to the sales team in New York. Only 3 weeks away now.

New Website for Ollie and Quentin

A new website just for Ollie and Quentin. www.ollieandquentin.com It's a work in progress but you get the idea. Some links don't work yet, Eventually there'll be a shop section. The samples are just my favourites but will probably change to some that give new readers a good introduction to the feature.

8th August 2007: Signed Syndication Contract

BIG day today. Nearly 10 months after Brendan first contacted me I have FINALLY signed my syndication contract with King Features. This is mainly due to the agreement I had to reach with the RNLI before I could sign with Kings. My thanks to my lawyer Stu Rees www.stus.com for all his hard work.

Seemed an anticlimax actually signing it. Shouldn't there be cheering and bells, flags and trumpets? Instead I signed it as I was changing into my cycle shorts just before I biked home.

So I've completed my sales brochure artwork only to discover I've got to do a 15 minute presentation on my strip to the King Features sales team in September. Getting a crash course on Powerpoint from my 15 year old daughter.
It's quite fun.

With my 'launch' date fast approaching I've been working on my sales brochure. Here are the cover and spread illustrations. Obviously logos and type will be added later. This is the easy bit, doing the stupid bio photograph is far harder.

Still doing Sundays. This one came about when we found a huge spider in my daughter's bed. As you can see we've decided on a name and logo.

Quite proud of the drawing in this one. I'm especially pleased with the way Ollie is holding the dreaded banjo.

I really enjoy the Sunday format. Shame it takes so damn long to colour them up.

In fact Ollie got his name from an ankle ring he had put on him as a young chick. When he looked down at it (ie. upside down) the number 31770 looked like OLLIE to him.