ICECast interview with Shane Chebsey

 My thanks to the fabulous Shane Chebsey for inviting me onto his ICECast podcast and indulging me with an hour long interview where I got to talk about myself and my comics work. I have no doubt I missed tons, but we managed to cover lots from Oink and 2000AD to the comic festivals, to the new graphic novels, and many points inbetween. Many thanks Shane, do please click and enjoy everyone.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres - AND NOW ONLINE VIA ZOOM. email for details. His debut graphic novels Findlay Macbeth and The Prince Of Denmark Street are available on Amazon. Follow Kev on Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

My 3 Shakespeare Graphic Novels on sale now

My trilogy of Shakespeare graphic novels is available now.

Findlay Macbeth, my debut graphic novel, its successor The Prince Of Denmark Street, and the most recent volume The Midsummer Night's Dream Team, are all on sale now on Amazon for just £5.99. Or, if you want a signed copy, you can order them direct from me.

Findlay Macbeth on Amazon

Prince of Denmark Street on Amazon

Midsummer Night's Dream Team on Amazon

Signed copies - just pay £6.99 per book at paypal.me/KevFSutherland, making sure to include your address, and letting me know which book(s) you want, and a signed copy will be yours.

Libraries and schools can order copies from their usual supplier Askews and Holts. https://www.askewsandholts.com/

Findlay Macbeth - The debut graphic novel by Kev F Sutherland. Shakespeare's tragedy relocated to 1970s Scotland. Findlay Macbeth is top salesman at Alba Industries, but when he's denied promotion, things turn ugly.Abigail's Party meets Macbeth in a comic thriller by Beano & Marvel creator Kev F Sutherland. 125 pages of original comic strip, plus the full text of Shakespeare's play illustrated by Kev F.

The Prince Of Denmark Street - "Something's rotten, look at the state of Denmark Street" In the brand new graphic novel from Kev F Sutherland (Beano, Marvel), Hamlet is relocated to 1977, on London's Tin Pan Alley at the heart of the music business. A punk rock opera with a twist, when Prince Hamlet finds what happened to his dad, there's hell to pay. 120 pages of original comic strip drama, plus the full text of Shakespeare's Hamlet in one classic volume. The follow up to his debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth. "A hit, a palpable hit!"

The Midsummer Night's Dream Team - Quince gets the gang together for one last job in the third Shakespearian graphic novel from Kev F Sutherland (Beano, Marvel). Taking Midsummer Night's Dream and relocating it to 1977, the action takes place between Athens Restaurant, Woods Nightclub, and the local police station where the whole crazy story unfolds, in a comic adventure that adds brilliant and original twists to Shakespeare's work."Lord, what fools these mortals be!"120 pages of original comic strip drama, plus the full text of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream in one classic volume. 

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres - AND NOW ONLINE VIA ZOOM. email for details. His debut graphic novels Findlay Macbeth and The Prince Of Denmark Street are available on Amazon. Follow Kev on Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

My Pirate Birthday Party

Thanks to Hev for throwing me a Pirate Birthday Party last night. It was my best birthday party in years, and all on Zoom. 

We had a small and select crowd, and what a brilliant turnout (from top left: Ally, Felicity & Tom, Jude & Doug, Polly & Chris, Annette & John, Tilly &James, Steve, and Peter & Cath). The idea was to have a games night, based around a Treasure Hunt, which was all Hev's idea. I then piled in with more games, and got carried away with the visuals.

I made a series of Answer Smash questions on Powerpoint, and a Guess The Pirate wall of faces:

Then we did a handful of Scavenger Hunts, for which I'd made animated countdown clock videos, Hev made a treasure map game board with pieces for everyone, and I played pop videos for people to talk over in the breaks. I really enjoyed my bit of putting it together and, a few technical hitches aside, I think we pulled it off. The party started at 7, games were over by 8.45, no-one left for at least an hour after that, and the last guests stayed till after 11. That's a proper party, and we didn't have to make food.

That (above) is the pineapple given, nominally, as the prize to the winners. Though I think it was an 8 way tie in the end. If you're interested, the music videos we played on the night were:

Toiler On The Sea by The Stranglers

Frigging In The Rigging by the Sex Pistols (& The Muppets) 

Captain Jack Sparrow by The Lonely Island with Michael Bolton 

& 6 Months In A Leaky Boat by Split Enz 

I want to do it again for Christmas!

Next Comic Art Masterclass Tues Oct 27: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/508228

Oct 30 - Hallo Ian Special. https://www.wegottickets.com/event/507145

Nov 7 - Old Joint Stock

Dec 18 - Lichfield Garrick

Dec 19 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber

Agents update & other trivia

Way back on Tues Jun 9 I noted that I'd emailed these 8 agents (8 Literary Agents Seeking Graphic Novels Now) and most of these 15 agents (15 Graphic Novel Literary Agents Now Seeking Submissions), as well as most of these 65 agents (Manuscript Wishlist).

First reply came from Sam Hiyate, an RSVP, followed by polite Nos from Diana Fox, Bernadette Baker, Linda Camacho.

As of October I've received 9 replies, from Lauren Spieller (Triada), Linda Camacho (gallt & zacker), Andrea Somberg (Harvey Klinger), Elana Roth Parker (Laura Dail), Nicole Aragi, Hillary Jacobson (ICM), Diana Fox (Fox), Bernadette Baker-Baughman (Victoria Sanders), and Danielle Chiotti (Upstart Crow). Plus RSVPs of receipt from two more agencies.

Every single one of these agencies is in the States (7 in New York, one NJ, one PA). Not a single British agent replied, though to be fair most agents asking for graphic novels are in the States.

I have sent copies of Prince Of Denmark Street to the first 4 agents on that list, because their personal replies were the most encouraging and least robotic looking, and had one thankyou. The quest for an agent, and a publisher, continues.

MNDT finished, and work in progress calendar

With the four pages of crowd scenes at the start of the book, which include the likenesses of a batch of sponsors who've paid for the privilege, Midsummer Night's Dream Team is completed. As I put the finishing touches to the credits pages over the weekend, I should be ready to send it to the printers on Monday.

Of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't do something distracting instead, so I've just drawn up this calendar of the work in progress of my three books this year.

Of course it's vague and imprecise, but at a guess it looks like Findlay Macbeth took 29 days to draw, Prince Of Denmark Street took 44 days (but I'm sure lockdown wasn't so severe that I didn't take some sort of break), and Midsummer Nights Dream Team (the most spread out of the three) took 40 days.

PODS was written in 14 days and laid out in 12, MNDT was written in 15 days, but seems to have taken a whole 36 days to lay out (that's definitely wrong, but I've kept insufficient notes on day that were spent doing other things, like Socks gigs, Zoom classes and day trips as the lockdown eased.)

I realise only I am interested in these things, but I like to keep a note if I can. I have begun making notes on the new book - working title Twelfth Thing - with only about a day's work done on it as of Oct 9th.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres - AND NOW ONLINE VIA ZOOM. email for details. His debut graphic novels Findlay Macbeth and The Prince Of Denmark Street are available on Amazon. Follow Kev on Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

The Fingers Crossed Tour - Socks going live (we hope)

 We're Back! We're Live! We Hope! So say the new ads for the Scottish Falsetto Socks' Fingers Crossed Tour, three shows taking place in November and December, all going well.

These shows, in Birmingham, Lichfield, and Barton On Humber, are the rescheduling of dates that were meant to happen in the spring and got inevitably delayed by the pandemic. It's still unclear, on a day to day basis, where in the country is likely to get locked down next, and whether gigs can go ahead, with or without social distancing. But, having seen a number happen nationwide recently, these venues at least feel it's likely that we'll be able to do these gigs, so they're on sale, and it's full speed ahead. With fingers crossed.

In producing the artwork for this logo, I learned a new technique in Photoshop (from a Youtube video, inevitably) by which one can wrap a texture round a photo, in this case a sock texture round a photo of my hand. Sadly the pale sock was way too indistinct to look like anything, but it was fun to attempt. I've only had Photoshop for the last twenty years, I can be expected to know how it all works yet.

It's highly likely I'll use this same branding for any spring gigs, and maybe even for Edinburgh 2021. Who can look that far ahead? I know I can't.

As I was artworking this, Hev and I were getting new carpet laid in the bedroom and hallway, so this was done in the front room, surrounded by lots of displaced furniture. Tomorrow (Wednesday) they put the new carpet in the lounge, so I'll be camped out in the bedroom with Hev. Meanwhile the Kickstarter for MNDT has finished, succesfully, and I have a couple of final pages of artwork to do - the crowd scenes featuring the sponsors -  before I can send the whole book off to the printers.

The first Socks show to go on sale is Lichfield Garrick on Dec 18th (8 tickets sold already), the others will follow shortly.

Nov 7 - Old Joint Stock

Dec 18 - Lichfield Garrick

Dec 19 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber

Socks Hallo Ian Special Oct 30 + New Material Night videos

The Scottish Falsetto Socks are delighted to announce their next live show on Zoom: October 30th 8pm, The Hallo Ian Special. And, for the very first time, they have a guest on the show, the one and only Dean Friedman!

Dean has been welcoming the Socks as guests on his DeanZine LiveStream shows since April, indeed he's responsible for getting them back to work after the lockdown struck. The Socks have delivered a string of songs, many of them world premieres, on his Sunday night shows, and even co-hosted his day long virtual Song Fest at the end of August. So nothing could give us greater pleasure than being able to return the compliment by inviting our favourite singer-songwriter to appear on our little show.

At time of writing, I've already written the first bit of new material for the show, so let's see if inspiration keeps flowing for the next month. You can be sure, from that title, that there's one classic bit of material that'll be getting an airing.

Meanwhile we had a great turnout for our New Material Night on Friday Sept 25th, thanks to everyone who came. Below are video clips of some of the material that made up the night. The running order was:

Poetry Olympics

I'm A Sock

The Covids and What Kind Of...? (Song) - brand new, v good

Art gags

Patents

What Scotland Has Made (new version)

Aromatherapy

French Revolution

Plague (Song)  - brand new v good

History Of The Plague - brand new long section, v good

Anti Vax (Song) - brand new, good end to section

Covid Rally - brand new, okay

Rock Against Covid (Song) - brand new, good (but will date fast)

Improv section - obviously new, v good, but you had to be there

Story Of The Beatles, ending in Back In EDIN-Braw (new version)

Keen eyed Socks watchers will realise a lot of the show wasn't brand new, but was stuff we were trying out as possible parts of a future live show. We'd done a lot of these pieces in Leicester in Feb, after which development of the new show was put on hold. The best and most satisfying stretch was the brand new Plague and Covid material in the middle, which, coupled with the Improv, added up to half the show's running time. The Beatles turned out to be a bit of an anticlimactic ending, which I did again because it had gone so well live in February. It's curious to have gags that are based on the laughter that arises from the audience knowing what the next line is going to be (variations on John Lennon's Imagine, in that case), and see how they're rendered a bit empty when the audience are silent. Our Zoom crowd are very good at un-muting themselves to give a big laugh, but mostly avoid doing that in the middle of a routine. A fun show, enjoy the clips, see you in October.