DAVID O'CONNELL
Writer & Illustrator
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Chimney Sweep

4th November 200915th June 2014
chim chim cheroo

The chimney in our flat was swept this morning. This was a new experience for me and I was astonished to see our chimney sweep was neither Dick Van Dyke nor a filthy, malnourished urchin, but the well-scrubbed Phil from Forest Hill.

He still used the flat-top brush but these days they have a vacuum cleaner stuck to the end to catch all the soot.
Happily, all was in order with our flue (no birds, skeletons of nannies or obvious structural defects) and I got to see the brush poking out of the top of the chimney pot which was most satisfying. Chim chim cher-oo.

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Observer/Jonathan Cape Graphic Novel Competition

2nd November 200915th June 2014

The Observer newspaper has been running a graphic novel short story competition for the past three years, but this is the first time I’ve ever entered. The winner was announced on Friday and printed in Sunday’s Observer: Viven McDermid’s story Paint.
What I love about this competition is the way it really makes everyone work an extra bit harder on their comics and also how it throws up new artists and unconventional styles and stories. More often than not I’ve never even heard of the artists in the winning pool – the competition seems to draw creators from all kinds of artistic backgrounds. This is great, as part of the competition’s remit is to discover new and emerging talent, as well as publicising the medium as a whole. People often seem to view it as a technical  ‘who’s the best’ kind of competition and I think that’s a bit unfortunate. It’s all about testing what can be done with the medium and stretching the boundaries a bit.
My entry, Blip, is below. I had huge fun doing it. Congratulations to Vivien and runner up Joff Winterhart and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s entries.

1.

2.

3.

4.

[The Forbidden Planet blog has more details on the winners.]

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Monkey

28th October 200915th June 2014
Monkey Magic!

I created this for a print for the MCM Expo. Didn’t see any Journey to the West cosplayers though.

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London MCM Expo – the review

27th October 200915th June 2014
All human life and more

Part of me, if not all of me, was dreading this event. Having heard of the madness of the cosplayer hordes, I was convinced I was going to hate it. However, the tables in the “comic village” were a very reasonable price, and as I live less than an hour away from the Excel Centre it seemed foolish to miss out on a chance to shill, especially as organiser Emma Vieceli had gone to some trouble to fit a load of last minute tables for exhibitors into the hall.

As it turned out, I really enjoyed myself: the ladies, gentlemen and undecideds of the cosplayer community were really nice and entertaining (apart from a fat little Naruto who tried to half-inch all my toffee giveaways) and, considering there was a room full of thousands of youngsters who had queued for literally hours to get in, they were surprisingly well-behaved. But oh, the cruelty of spandex! Herds of camels must have been slaughtered for the number of toes on display.
I enjoyed the taiko drumming displays, though I think I was far enough away from it not to suffer from sonic shock that some of the other exhibitors were having to deal with, and I saw the cosplay dancing demonstration enough times to learn all the moves by heart. Performances on request.

Trade felt slow, as might be expected at a games/manga/films-oriented event, but once I’d cashed up I found that financially I’d actually done better than I had at BICS in 2008. Whilst my comics had not sold so well, sales of prints and badges had made up for it. I guess this demonstrates you have to think about who your potential punters are and target your wares accordingly. The crowd were not likely to risk their pennies on something new and were more likely to go with something familiar: I noticed that most people who bought badges were not much bothered as to what was on them, they just wanted something to collect. It’s definitely a place where those with a more ‘showbiz’ attitude to selling will do well.

The usual small press suspects were all present: particular thanks to Sarah and Dave for minding my table whilst I had a break.
Shout-outs to:
Wonderful table neighbours Gary Erskine (I was really impressed by the time he spent talking to his punters) and lovely Kat Nicholson and friends;
the nice people at Supermonko;
the chaps from D-Con, which looks like it might be fun;
and a gentleman called Joseph who wants to turn my pics into 3-d paper sculptures.

I was briefly interviewed by the Geek Syndicate guys and had a longer chat with Dickon Harris from Panel Borders. I keep having flashbacks to the daft things I was saying so I doubt I’ll be able to listen to them in case I die of The Cringe, but if I get details of the broadcasts I’ll post about it.

A great addition to the regular convention circuit. There are already plenty of pics of the mayhem on Flickr.

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London MCM Expo

21st October 200915th June 2014
Go team!

This weekend is the MCM (Movie, Comics and Media) Expo in London’s glittering docklands. There will be games, superheroes, TV stuff, anime, comics and cosplaying. I’ve a table there (no. C51) which is very easy to find because it pulsates like a haemorrhoid:

C51

Do come and say hello! I shall probably be looking forlorn and world-weary, sipping needfully from a cocktail.

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The Planets

30th September 200915th June 2014
Us and our Neighbours

It must be hard being a planet: abuse from comets, space probes taking your picture without even asking your name, and that whole gravity thing – I could go on and on. The new nomenclature doesn’t help: poor old Pluto doesn’t know whether he’s Arthur or Martha. And now there are all these Trans-Neptunian Objects queueing up to join the club. Don’t they know what they’re in for? It’s a tough old universe.

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Kitty Bing & Caption 09

17th August 200910th February 2018

Ladyspy!

Kitty Bing, stealing glamorous fashion secrets, 60s-style!

I was at Caption on Sunday, the excellent convention on comic creativity in sunny Oxford. Although I missed out on Saturday’s events, Sunday still had various treats in store, including talks from Sarah McIntyre on the way children’s picture books are making use of comic style art in interesting and innovative ways, and Asia Alfasi on her autobiographical manga about moving from Libya to Glasgow and what that meant for a comics-obsessed young muslim girl. There were loads of other things too (including cake!) but the most important part of Caption is meeting enthusiastic creators and readers. I was particularly pleased to meet Jason Little, creator of the ligne claire-style Shutterbug Follies. I’m also very pleased that my cake fairy picture, that was part of the art auction, found a happy home with one of Caption’s excellent organisers, Jenni Scott.

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Mountaineer

12th August 200915th June 2014
There's no mountain 'ere

Messing around with colours today.

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Mariscal

11th August 200915th June 2014
doodlings

A week or so ago I went to the Mariscal retrospective at the Design Museum. These are some doodlings I did on the spot, plus a quote which I think might have come from a children’s workshop run as part of the exhibit.
It was a great little show but then Mariscal is one of my favourite artists. He’s had a go at designing and drawing just about everything from restaurants, logos, packaging, typefaces, magazine covers, comics, textiles and is most famous for the mascot of the Barcelona Olympics, Cobi. He has a wonderful energetic style and bold use of colour and has really left his visual stamp on Barcelona.
Here are a few snaps from the exhibition:

snaps

The exhibiton blog is here with many more (better) photos.

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HULK SMASH!

10th August 200915th June 2014
Hulk want better haircut

I am going to smash this week to bits! Workwise. In a nice, calm way. After I’ve had a cuppa.

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CSI: Little Chef

5th August 200915th June 2014
It looks bad, Horatio

There should probably be a caption or speech bubble here but I couldn’t think of anything other than “battered to death” which isn’t right because it’s more of a lightly crispy crumb coating. Plus he has obviously been cut. I should be a CSI! That pea on the left looks suspicious – book him, Horatio.

nomnomnom

Gravity permitting, this fairy will be winging her way to this year’s Caption for the exhibition and auction. Potato-faced scrubber/British female role-model Jordan was on the TV at the time, which may have influenced this drawing.

Speaking of monsters:

Monsters!

I recently bought a book collection of David Weidman‘s work and really love those clashing 60s/70s colour schemes and the way he layered colour. Groovy.

Lastly, I was on the train listening to a family who were off to see Oliver! so ended up drawing Oliver and nasty Mr Sykes:

Oliver and Bill

Almost caught up with myself!

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Boogie Cat Wants to Dance

4th August 200915th June 2014
Boogie Cat!

It is hard to draw a cat moon-walking.

What else have I been drawing lately?
Some of my neighbours:

Local People

It’s an interesting mix of types around here. Plenty of people-watching to be had.
More dancing. Slightly more formal this time:

Quickstep!

I had a lightly-boiled egg with soldiers for lunch the other day. Consequently a lightly-boiled egg soldier.

Coming out of his shell

More to come!

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Daily drawings catch-up

15th July 200915th June 2014

I’ve been neglecting my daily drawings. Here’s a few to catch up with.

Batboys

The Bat Chaps. Robin was eight years old when he joined Batman fighting crime. Have you hung around any eight-year-olds lately? Not much good when it comes to foiling bank robbers I can tell you. Unless you count vomiting up chicken McNuggets as a super power.

I went to the Isle of Wight last week to visit family and had a walk around Carisbrooke Castle. Much fun and excellent views to be had on the battlements.

Ruins.

I drew a couple of Norman chaps having a dust-up after that:

Calm down, boys.

It put me in a bit a of a fantasy mood:

Geronimo!

Back on track now, I think!

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Chicken Gangsters

10th July 200915th June 2014
Don't mess
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Checkout Bear

9th July 200915th June 2014
Do you want a bag?
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