Colouring Richard

Today I started colouring Richard The Third. Or rather I continued colouring him.

You might remember a year ago I published Richard The Third and it has become my most popular graphic novel. A first print run of 500 sold out, and the second print run is quickly being got through. (In fact, looking across the studio, I see there are only about 120 of that second run left).

A couple of weekends ago at The Lakes comic festival I took part in the Rights Market, and three of the four publishers I met asked for PDFs of my books. Scholastic asked to see Joseph & Ruth, and the other two, VigeVage and WSOY, asked to see Richard The Third. They particularly wanted to see the coloured pages of it. But, at that time, I only had half a dozen pages of Richard in full colour.

The odd method I've used in the production of this book, and for my subsequent Shakespeares for kids, is that I colour the backgrounds first. This leaves the figures in black & white relief form. Which looks weird in colour, but means the black and white version of the book, the only version that's been printed to date, has the characters standing out against grey backgrounds. Which I think looks good. (See image above).

I'd gone on to do full colour on a few pages, for demo purposes, but then left the rest of the book in that half finished state. Well, now I'm going to, whenever time allows, complete the job so Richard will exist in a full colour version. It will no doubt be prohibitively expensive to buy in that form at the moment. But if the hope that springs eternal, of a publisher taking my books on and getting them to a proper sized audience, then it'll be a bit closer to being ready to be seen in public.

The new coloured version of the book includes a number of newly written and drawn pages, produced as a result of conversations with my agent Emily, nearly a year ago. These flesh out earlier scenes and explain some characters a bit better, but have yet to see print. Whenever a third print run happens, those pages will be in it. And of course they'll be in any colour version.

Worksheet: 

Tues Oct 15 - Coloured pages 7 - 20.

Weds Oct 16 - Pages 21 - 24A

tbc

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms 

October Live Book Sales

Above: My table at Tetbury Goods Shed for a small but pleasant Tetbury Comic Con.

October began quietly with two books sold after a Port Talbot class with only 3 pupils in, and 2 books bought by the library at Killarney Community College. So chalk up 4 Richard The Thirds there. Then the comic weekends begin...

Sat 12 Oct: Wrexham Comic Con - £353

26 x Caricature only - (on credit card alone, more on cash, not counted up)

8 x Richard The Third

8 x Colouring Books (2 xWho, 2 x Cult, Hollywood, Euro Vol 2, 60s, 90s)

3 x Space Elain

3 x MNDT

2 x FM

1 x PODS

1 x Tales From Bible

1 x Who Notes

1 x Socks comic

Sun 13 Oct: Tetbury Comic Con - £188

14 x Caricature only (+ more cash)

10 x Richard The Third

5 x Space Elain

4 x Colouring Books (Who, Euro Vol 1, Scot Pop, Xmas Movies)

4 x MNDT

2 x Joseph & Ruth

1 x PODS

1 x FM

Mon 14 Oct: Cantref Primary Abergavenny - £105

15 x Richard The Third 

Total Live Book Sales For October (up to Cantref): £646

37 x Richard The Third

12 x Colouring Books

8 x Space Elain

3 x FM

2 x PODS

7 x MNDT

1 x Socks Superheroes

2 x Joseph

0 x Omnibus

1 x Tales From Bible

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms 

They're Eating The Dogs! They're Eating The Cats! - comics by kids

A week of comics by kids in schools in County Kerry, Ireland. Oh and also The Lake District and Port Talbot. Did I ever mention distance is no object?

The Lakes and Port Talbot. The first was a little one off class on the Saturday of the comic festival in Bowness, and the second was a one off morning class at Port Talbot library. Fun ones that you can forget you’ve done, cos they were part of a busy day. Anyone else remember Shakey Hands Man on Banzaii?

Killorglin day one. So I returned to County Kerry, for my third visit, and this time the good folk of Killorglin had me in for two whole days. Interestingly the Peppa on Steroids title came about without them having seen the identically named comic from last year. Oh no, it’s not another meme is it?

Killorglin day two. Memes are a constant thing with high school kids. The “Mama” one seems to be based on a tiny video clip that wouldn’t pass muster on You’ve Been Framed but which they all thought hilarious. 

Killarney was a revelation. I wasn’t expecting such a busy town full of American tourists and horse drawn buggies. Wish I’d had time to see more of it. As it was, two classes created two marvellous comics. Plus one of the pupils, Emma, who can draw better than me at their age, made me the star of their comic strip…

The celebrities seven of these eight groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip (I didn't make a note of who the short class at The Lakes chose) were Michael Jackson ( a rather disturbing three times), Ryan Reynolds, Adam Sandler, Osama Bin Laden, and The Weeknd.

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms 

Grampa The Burp Guy - A month's comics by kids

Thanks to September being a particularly quiet month for Comic Art Masterclasses, this montage takes in comics drawn by me, from ideas from kids, ranging from St Ives Library in August to Chiswick Book Festival in September, and schools in Cardiff and The Isle Of Wight in October.

St Ives in August seems such a long time ago, and here are the kids comics looking as fresh as a daisy. Luckily this year I'd done the class on a fixed fee rather than a doorsplit, as we weren't very well attended. Somehow we'd managed to book the classes on a day which wasn't part of the Book Festival, as had been planned, so it hadn't really been publicised. These things can be harder than you think.

Chiswick Book Festival, by contrast, was a pair of classes that I'd agreed to do on a doorsplit, and this time it worked very much in my favour as, somehow, the word hadn't got through that my class is limited to 30 participants. The afternoon had 45 booked in it! I got away with it, and had the bonus that not only did I get a greater doorsplit than if numbers had been as low as I can normally handle, but also that amount of parents of that amount of kids meant I signed and sold loads of books at the end. As you can see here, I sold five quid's worth more books in two short bursts after these classes than I did in a whole day at The Lakes Festival later that month. And that's 5 times as many as I sold in a whole day at TBC in Bedford. Selling books to parents after public classes is my best market at the moment.

My first actual classes in an actual school since the end of the last school year didn't take place till Herbert Thompson Primary in Cardiff had me in at the start of October. And what a smashing pair of comics they dreamed up.

To round off this batch of comics we have a pair from the Isle Of Wight, where I was brought over courtesy of the IOW Literary Festival. The festival paid for the classes and paid the extra for the ferry as well, which was marvellous, because otherwise these classes would have been prohibitively expensive. It's great to be able to reach schools who might otherwise not be able to afford a visiting author/artist like my humble self. That said, we suffered a bit of communication breakdown. My morning school was in Sandown, which was a 40 minute drive from my afternoon school. But the message hadn't got to the morning school that they needed to leave me time to get to the next place. So I turn up at 8.30 ready to start, only to find that they've scheduled my class to start at 10, so it doesn't finish till 12.20. So it's a bit of a rush to get to my afternoon school in Ryde.

The afternoon school suffered an even worse communication cock up, for which I have to responsibility because i accidentally agreed to it in an email, not realising what I was agreeing to. They wanted two 1hour sessions. I explained my workshop takes two hours, so couldn't I do that instead? We agree on that. And what I don't realise that I've agreed to teach both classes at once. So I arrive, late, in the hall instead of a classroom, and there's 60 kids waiting for me to try and be heard. I give it a go. Then, worse, I see more kids are joining the group, but I have to rattle on without time to question it all.

By the time I'm halfway through the class, struggling to be heard over the brouhaha, I discover that, as well as the Year 3 and Year 4 I'd (accidentally) agreed to teach, someone's brought in a bloody Year 5 group as well. It's impossible and unmanageable and, by the end, I feel has made me come across as some kind of bad supply teacher who can't deliver a comic art workshop to 90 kids, rather than the education-and-entertainment genius that I usually give the impression of being. It also takes over half an hour on the photocopier at the end cos I have to produce a different version of the comic for each one of the three classes that had been bundled in there.

So, the reminder to myself is: read your emails properly and make sure you never agree to teach a class bigger than the manageable number of 30. Unless it's a book festival class where you're on a doorsplit, and the parents are there watching and waiting to buy heaps of your books afterwards!

The celebrities these eight groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Michael Jackson, Jackie Chan, Merlin (yes, the magician), David Attenborough, Ronaldo, Billie Eilish, Mr Beast, and Kendrick Lamar.

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms 

September Book Sales

(Above, my table at the Lakes. Not as wide as two banners. Yes, I know. I managed)

September's Kev F Book Sales

Live events / classes et al - £638.41 (full breakdown here)

D2D - $70.40

Etsy - £39.94

Lulu (Amazon) - £13.26

Blurb - £0

eBay - £477 (but this doesn't count as it's not my books)

D2D September sales - $70.40 (57 books)

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess is the runaway, er, sockcess with 45 sales, almost all on pre-release. Who Notes, Elain and Esther have all however disappeared without trace, Richard sold 10, MNDT 3 and Joseph 1. (And I know that adds up to 59 books. The chart total vary on different pages).

Lulu/Amazon September sales - £13.26 (reported Oct 9th)

Despite a Facebook advertising campaign, aimed at plugging colouring books but directing people to my website, I only took a quid more than the previous month.

3 x Tales From The Bible, PODS 

2 x Royalty Colouring 

1 x Captain Clevedon, Christmas Movies, Eurovision Vol 2, 60s Pop, 70s Pop 

Etsy September sales - £39.94 - 5 sales (inc postage)

2 Digital Richard The Thirds

1 x Who Colouring, Eurovision Vol 2, 1960s

Blurb - probably £0 again

5 units sold it says, but as always is opaque about what, and for how much.

Flogging shit on eBay - £477

It's not my books, so it doesn't count, but in what has otherwise been a very quiet month, I've kept things ticking over with such items as:

Gladiators signed front cover proof £230

Gladiators souvenir magazines £31

Transformers comic No 10 £25

Transformers comic No 45 £15.30

Gladiators Comic No2 £15

Viz No 26 £10.99

Judge Dredd Role Playing Game £9.99

Monsters Of Rock programme £9.22

 - and sundry other magazine for a fiver or less

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms