Hi there

To celebrate the launch proper of my regular webcomic at http://www.banalpigfunnies.blogspot.com/ I have set myself the task of creating a new 3 panel comic strip every day for the next month. At the end of this herculean task (while i'm also working full time), i will return to posting a new strip twice weekly.

Anyway, i would be very grateful if you check it out, and please spread the word.

Thanks for your time and be lucky

Steve Tillotson

Banal Pig Comics
http://www.ditcb.co.uk/banalpig
http://www.banalpig.blogspot.com

Myfanwy Nixon sent the following in for you all to see which carries a link to one of the most ill-informed pieces of journalism I've ever Observed. And we wonder why sequential art is so poorly understood in this country...

This might be one for the Cartoon County blog.
As you may have seen this weekend, the Observer announced the winners of its competition in conjunction with Random House, Jonathan Cape and Comica.
There's been a bit of disgruntlement in the world of online comics creators, not at the judges' choices, but at this ill-informed article http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/10/observer_books.html
The Guardian website also failed to put up copies of the winning entrants until 24 hours later, so sadly there is little discussion of the winners' work; it's more an abstract debate about the Observer's coverage of comics (and their seeming belief that the words 'comic' and 'manga' are synonymous).

But! After chatting online with a few of those who did not win, I decided to put together links to as many of their strips as I could find online. You can see the result here: http://www.drawanyway.com/2007/10/16/cartoons-the-observercape-winners-and-some-worthy-entrants/.
So far I have only 14 of the rumoured 300 entrants, but I will go on adding links as I find them (plus – that's 14 juicy comic strips waiting for you to read). If anyone else entered, and you want a wider audience for your work, drop me a line in the comments box below that entry and I will be happy to add a link. There is also a Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/551664@N23/.

As I mention in my post, one unexpected side effect of this is that cartoon artists from all over the UK are getting together and looking at each others' work, which is just great. A few years ago, we all would have entered the competition, heard nothing back, and retreated into our shells. Not any more – viva l'Internet!

Rory Walker, illustrator and cartoonist extraordinaire, has an upgraded and supercharged website now, which he'd like you to check out. Go to www.roryroryrory.com for more great stuff like this...

Andy P, Brighton creator of indie comics character, Celph, has found a great sales place for his stories - which are now in a smart postcard format as well as regular mag form - record stores. Often considered as untapped resources for the right kind of books to find a market through, they haven't been as fully explored as they should be. But Andy's getting good results from putting his stuff in amongst the music at GET CUTIE, BOY PARKER, RESIDENT and TOY LIFE. The card packs sell for £3 a shot, the comics are 2 for £2.
Andy's web presence is www.myspace.com/celphbatch25

From Paul Stapleton :

I've just done some paintings I'd like to sell. They're all painted in acrylic onto good quality block canvas, with the pictures continuing onto the sides.

Attached is a jpg showing the four paintings - three of them come on a single canvas block (measuring 10x7"), while the other is formed up of four small canvas blocks (measuring 7x5"). Each painting is £50 including postage. If you're interested, let me know on beat_bedsit@yahoo.co.uk.

All these paintings are strictly one-offs. Other works for sale of various kinds are detailed on my website www.pogscribbles.org