I know we’ve been asked to blog about something we’ve experienced in order to write about or draw it. But I’m going to be cheeky and write about something I DIDN’T experience, and was hugely aware of not experiencing.

It was Dagenham. 1973.

Remember England in the ’70s? …Well, I don’t. I’m American and I was only born in 1975. But just while I was in the middle of a crazy deadline for a picture book, a bunch of friends from The DFC days (remember that fine comic? I DO!) decided to undertake a huge comics project, involving more than 50 creators. And my task was to draw a day in the life of the book’s main character, with that day set in 1973 Dagenham. I knew I’d be tapping into a lot of nostalgia British people had for that era, and since I couldn’t time travel, and didn’t have a lot of time to research it, I was a bit nervous. But the project was too fabulous to say no. And the proceeds would all be going to support Shelter charity.

So I tapped into my experience from my DFC days, when I was writing Vern and Lettuce. Whenever I got stuck with that comic, I would ‘phone a friend’ on the team for help. And often that friend was Woodrow Phoenix (creator of the DFC’s Donny Digits, Horse of a Different Colour). And as luck would have it, my two editors on the project were none other than two DFC buddies, Woodrow and Rob Davis, who’d come up with the concept while chatting on Twitter. They’d both lived in Britain in the ’70s and are generally good at period detail. Read the rest of this entry »

A Thursday evening, last year. I am in a pub in smelly London attending the very jolly and well-attended launch party for Sarah McIntyre’s magnificent Vern and Lettuce book. (Buy it. Buy it now). I have had some champagne and some cake. Rude not to. Now I have some beer. Mr David Fickling has given a rousing speech which has, as usual, entertained and roused. There is more cake available and there are any number of talented cartoonists knocking about the place with whom I may converse freely about pens should I so desire (and I so do). In particular I spend a good deal of time catching up with my good friend Faz Choudhury. In short, all is very much well with the world.

Into this personal paradise enter a man, a woman and a boy. The man approaches me in familiar fashion, smiling. Says hello. Says, “This is my wife, Lucia”. I think, “never mind your wife, who are you”. Read the rest of this entry »