Onwards and upwards...

Book 2 - 'Day of the Deal' finally kicks off

With the script and research wrapped, Book 2 - 'Day of the Deal' finally kicks off on it's regular schedule. Having been so far delayed by my ill health (quinsey) - 3 weeks, and the unfortunate arrest of the Crime Consultant in Holland - a delay of 2 weeks. The good news now being that all is storming forward once more.

Story wise - the first four pages take us into what happened after the "Smuggling Vacation" and as you'll see, all did not return to normal by any means.

The story now unfolds, of which I can say little except that the new adventure takes you to 'Alleyton' - the small industrial town where it seems to be just another ordinary weekend in the lives of our main cast of characters.


Elsewhere, glancing back to Book 1, Comics International have ran a four page interview with myself which you can find in our Media section here!

Replete with accuracy and fine detail, it should do a fine job of getting the book in front of the thousands who have so far heard plenty, but know little as to what the book is really about. So thanks to Mike Conroy at Comics International for enlightening comic readers the world over.

Now I'm back at the board - drawing, inking and painting. "T" will be putting up the latest pages every Sunday night as well as simplifying certain things and adding a little more content, which should soon include a ' Making of ' section to document how it's being put together.

'till next blog - keep reading.

Regards

Jas

P.S - Serialisation of Book 1 continues as ever in the pages of Weedworld magazine.

A new year... a new adventure!

Smuggling Vacation this month arrives in the States courtesy of Diamond; America's main distributor for comics.



Now having knocked myself out distributing Smuggling Vacation the best I can, I'm now on this year's book - 'Day of the Deal' which will begin it's serialisation right here from Feb 1st.
'T' is now making some additions and changes to accomodate the new book which takes us to Alleyton; the home of Stan, Kaye and Mikey, and the new true crime adventure that comes their way.

A new page will go up each Sunday night. First readers who've read the whole thing have gave it a big thumbs up and it promises to be a worthy follow on.

Well, back to the board.

Feb 1st is the night!

Regards

Jas

It's been a while...

Am now busy on the follow up to Smuggling Vacation, entitled 'Day of the Deal' as well as continuing the sales of SV on weekends. Time has been lacking, hence the lack of blogs lately.

Almost didn't have the time to promote the Ganjaman Presents magazine where Him and Her featured in the two page special 'Amsterdam Weekend'. Due to be available from the site some weeks ago it is already sold out following the three day Hemp Expo at Brick Lane. Will add it onto the paypal once Jim Stewart sends me more down.



Plenty happening. Easier just to bulletpoint so we can get up to date:

*Following Hemp Expo was Comica last week, headed by Paul Gravett. An excellent day where sales of SV surpassed expectations and reminded me that I need to start lining up some signings once more.

* Previews magazine by Diamond - the comic retailers bible: December issue. Smuggling Vacation features in both the British and Worldwide sections and will soon be taking the book all over the world.

* Contacted by a London Film Company regards the Film Rights to Smuggling Vacation. Many have said the book would be an excellent movie and it seems one film company has been quick to spot this.

*Dec 13th, 3-5pm booksigning at the Astral Gypsy in Coventry.

* Day of the Deal completes writing in two weeks time. August 2009 is now penciled in as its release date.

That gets us up to date. More additions to the site will be here soon. Hemp Expo Pics to go up, a new 'About' page, and a preview of Day of the Deal to come.

...and just one last thing. Jonathan Ross requested a copy of Smuggling Vacation prior to print with a view to providing a cover quote. Due to his overwork it never happened, but now... ?

Events for the autumn

Latest news:

November 14,15 & 16th - London 'Hemp Expo' - Brick Lane.
The number one day in the smoker's calender arrives. We'll be down there for all three days displaying artwork, signing copies and chilling out at the coolest London event of them all.

As well as this I'll be continuing to take SV around the country via the comic marts: Sept 27th - Liverpool, Oct 18th Nottingham, Oct 25th Birmingham and Nov 1st Sheffield.

October 3rd & 4th - BICS Comic Festival - Birmingham Will be signing artwork and grabbing copies of Amsterdam Weekend that feature in 'Jim Stewart's Ganjaman Presents', after this copies will be available from the site.

Other things are in the pipeline which can be announced once they reach print.

In the meantime I hope the new site additions introduced by Nooode and 'T' are enjoyed.

all the best

Jas

Amsterdam weekend is wrapped.

With the two page special Him & Her's Amsterdam Weekend wrapped I can get back on top of other things. So what's been happening?

Site News: Nooode is now working on the site. Fixing some errors that have come from switching to the bigger hoster and that have resulted in some ilogical on screen typos. As well as this he's busy building the media section to be added, space for the new comics and more shop space which will all be unveiled this weekend.

News on the Golden Orbit 'Censoring' dispute: Promotional differences with organiser Gez Kelly of Golden Orbit are resolved it seems. Gez is now cool with my promoting Smuggling Vacation at Golden Orbit comic mart events. So whilst Manchester and Birmingham have been missed, I will be at the Linear Hotel on Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool on 28thSeptember displaying artwork and signing copies of Smuggling Vacation.

One final thing. Alan Grant will be launching Wasted at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue on the 27th, between 12 and 2. I'll be there to show support in what's hoped will be much needed and major happening for British Comics.

Cheers for all the support over these previous weeks as it's been a little testing with the negative fallout from some of the media coverage Smuggling Vacation's been getting.

Amsterdam Weekend and site improvements now on the way.

Regards



Jas

A Stars and Stripes Special

Last weekend I joined Fesworks and Tanya on America's premiere radio show, The Webcomic Beacon, where we discussed the so called 'Controversy'...


(You may need to enable ActiveX/scripts in your browser to hear this audio)

To hear the entire show, and many others in their archive, go to http://webcomicbeacon.com/

What a week - Crashes and BAN 2?

Hi all,

So the site kept crashing and in the end, unable to top up every eight hours, we've had to change our hoster which was problematic to say the least. In short, for three and a half days - no site.

Problem now solved as we've quadrupled the bandwidth, so back to the news.

The comic ban story rumbles on. Following the signing at Sheffield last Saturday I have been contacted by the organiser who would like me 'NOT' to attend further events as he was disturbed by the below article that appeared in the Sheffield Star the evening before.



For someone in the comic industry to be so sensitive and to subscribe to a ban I find stunning and am hoping the organiser will come to his senses. Should hear off the guy later today.

Am now getting down to drawing 'Him & Her's Amsterdam Weekend' which will be up on the site at the end of the month. This means no signings for the following two weeks whilst I'm at the board, and it may be that following this, the planned signings at the Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool Comic Marts may now be cancelled.

Perhaps there's another way on this.

Keep you posted on what develops.


Jas