My publishing empire

Having read an article in the paper exactly a week ago which gave me the misguided impression there was money to be made by publishing books on Amazon Kindle (on a second reading the article makes it quite clear that there's very little money to be made doing this, by the way), I have managed in the last week to publish 10 books. Sorry, got carried away.

I started by putting my comic Hot Rod Cow out there (just 77p, or download a sample for free), and it's been joined by Sinnerhound. Added to those comics, which have been in print for the last year already, I've published two comic-related items for the very first time:



The Tock is a bedtime adventure story for kids which I wrote on New Years Day 2009. I illustrated it over the next couple of days, only in pencil, then showed it to a few people, including publishers an agents whose biggest comment was that it was too long for a kids picture book. It wasn't until a year later that I got round to inking it and, on those folks' advice, edited it down to a smaller page count. But I didn't like it shortened, and it was clearly going to be prohibitively expensive if I published it at its full 64 page length. Well now, thanks to Amazon Kindle, the whole book is available at its full length, the black and white pages looking perfect on a Kindle or iPhone screen and I'd encourage anyone to read the free download I bet you'll want the whole thing.

The Immortal Partie - A Mr Hawk Investigation is a full colour comic strip that I wrote way back in 1994 and which the brilliant artist John Erasmus illustrated in wonderful painted colour. Because it's in full colour it's always been a challenge to publish, with any printed copy being a bit expensive for what was, originally, just a 10 page story. However, redesigning it for the Kindle screen, I found that every single panel of John's artwork, which we'd laid out in a rigid 9-panel-per-page grid, merited filling the screen, giving us a 90 page work of art which reads perfectly on Kindle, iPhone, iPad etc. I've read it on my iPod and it has quite simply never looked so good before. Again I'd urge you to read the free download. I guarantee this story - a murder mystery featuring severed hands popping up all over Leicestershire - will make you want to read it to the end.

Of course my comic strip works are just one side of my publishing empire. I've also published 6 volumes of sitcom scripts, from the archives of The Sitcom Trials. Enjoy...



Breaking News: The Lavender Millbank Mob is currently #66,564 in Amazon's sales ranking. Could do better.

Go Wild In The Country - another book on Amazon

Lord help me I've only gone and been and published another book on Amazon. It's Go Wild In The Country, a romantic comedy produced as part of The Sitcom Trials under the pseudonym Jane Simon. Check it out.



You can download a free sample to your iPod, IPhone, Kindle, iPad etc, and why don't you post up a nice review while you're at it? And if you want to see the version of this script that ended up on TV, you'll find it over on the Sitcom Trials blog.

I've started putting quite a few pieces of work out there on Amazon, check out the latest in the Sitcom Trials Bookshop.

Dead Air - sitcom script on Amazon

Inspired by a piece in the Guardian the other day extolling the virtues of publishing books on Amazon Kindle, I've delved into the bottom drawer and started publishing a few of the things I've written. Here's one of the first to climb blinking into the light, a pair of sitcoms called Dead Air and Clarice.



These sitcoms were produced and performed as part of The Sitcom Trials, about which we should all be hearing a lot more soon.

Dead Air is dead cheap. Go on, spoil yourself.

Youtoobling, from Tom Waits to Axis Of Awesome

Last night I treated myself to a bit of late night Youtoobling (I watch videos on Youtube and see what connections come to mind). There is some thread running through all of these, though I confess in the morning it can be a mystery even to me. Here's where last night's ramblings took me, beginning with Tom Waits...

The Piano Has Been Drinking, Tom Waits



Woody Allen Jesus, Tim Minchin

Nirvana on Jonathan Ross @wossy

Peter Kay does John Smith advert they can't show shock

They Might Be Giants on Jonathan Ross 1992 (naff titles, so Graham Norton)

You're Not The Boss Of Me Now, They Might Be Giants

The Impression That I Get, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Knock On Wood, Amii Stewart

Ever Met A Day, Graduate

So Lonely, The Police

Fish slapping dance, Monty Python #teddingtonlock

Squad, camp it up! Monty Python @BoyGeorge

British police are the best in the world Tom Robinson, Glad To Be Gay #youtoobling

I Am What I Am, John Barrowman

Sweet Transvestite, Tim Curry

Walk Like A Man, Divine

You Can't Stop The Beat, Michael Ball

Good morning Baltimore, Hairspray

Goodnight San Diego

Do You Know The Way To San Jose? Dionne Warwick

He had a rifle, oh what a rifle Raquel Welch TV 1967

Bang Bang, BA Robertson

Goodbye Girl, Squeeze

Goodbye, Miley Cyrus

The Four Chords, Axis of Awesome

Louise's funeral, the music

Today we had the mixed blessing of attending Louise's funeral. (I've remembered her in an earlier blog full of music).

She died in November in Israel aged way too young (our age, that's always too young) and the funeral was today in Torquay. The first good part of the day was meeting old friends we don't see too often (one I hadn't met for nearly thirty years, that's really far too long); and the second was the music Louise had chosen for her funeral (and don't we wish we'd all had that conversation when there was time? Tip: have that conversation) which comprised just three tracks (I'm guessing they only allow you three, which suggests we should all be working harder to get on Desert Island Discs), all of which were spot on (and the last of which I'd chosen myself in my musical tribute to Lou. Good guess).

Enjoy them and remember Louise. If you didn't know her, then think about the most marvellous of people who you wish was still with us.







Kev F

Who Stole Batman's Potty? - comics by kids

The new year's Comic Art Masterclasses have begun, with me teaching comic art to kids in primary schools in Taunton, Eastleigh and Bristol. Working with two groups a day, with up to 30 in each group, they all go away with a photocopied comic containing a strip written and drawn by every single one of them plus an individual caricature by me. Here are the front covers from my first eight groups of 2012 (click to enlarge)...



If anyone wants me to come and show their kids how to do what I've been doing for a living for the last two decades, drop me a line, a comment, a Twitter, smoke signals, the usual methods. Click below to see more, including video and contact details.



RECOMMENDED COMIC BOOKS & GRAPHIC NOVELS for Comic Art Masterclass students, teachers and librarians

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2000AD memories

John Freeman of Down The Tubes is compiling a 2000AD birthday celebration piece, so has asked former contributors some questions. Here are my answers:

First memory of 2000AD?

I bought issue 2 then read it on my paper round. As a result it bears the ink smudges of a few dozen Leicester Mercurys as it slid in & out of my bag so is probably worth less than some copies. I was addicted to the weekly Marvel reprints at the time so took a while to start getting 2000AD regularly, only becoming a subscriber when it merged with StarLord.


The 2000AD book that credits me for work I had nothing to do with. Can't hurt

If you worked on 2000AD, do you have an anecdote you'd like to share about your experience of Tharg and his minions?

• My first cheque from 2000AD, for either a Captain Klep script or an illustration in an annual (circa 1980) was made out to the Rev F Sutherland.
• I wrote a Ro-Jaws Robo Tale in the 1981 Sci Fi Special whose credit-box fell off en route to the printers, so no-one ever knew I wrote it. It was the robot with the knife out the bottom story drawn by (equally uncredited) Steve Kyte.
* In recompense, a recent reprint volume of ABC Warriors and Ro-Busters credits me as the author of a story from an early annual which I had nothing to do with.

Favourite Character or Story (if you can't pick one then feel free to mention several)

For a long time it was Dredd, and I'm the reader who still thinks Gerry Finley-Day's Rogue Trooper remains the best version of the character, but once Alan Moore's strips started, nothing else compared. DR & Quinch, Halo Jones and Skizz are pretty unbeatable.

What do you like most about the 2000AD?

In its heyday it quite simply led the world in the quality and originally of its creators and creations. I was privileged to be the right age to live through 2000AD's golden age as a schoolkid and student. At the age of 18, in 1980, I got to visit the 2000AD offices in Kings Reach Tower when Alan Grant and Steve McManus were in charge there. To that date it was probably the most exciting day of my life.

What would you most like to see in 2000AD as it heads to its Forties?

Sadly I have lost touch with 2000AD, drifting from it in the early 2000s, but I hear good things. I look forward to hearing more.

Kev F Sutherland