‘MOOSE KID’, the amazing new humour comic for kids has gone live! Volume 1 is  free to view online or download and features 36 pages of amazing new characters and fantastic artwork.  It’s been put together by comic-champ Jamie Smart and a few of his pals as an attempt to inject new life and original creator-owned content into a kids comic market that is (Beano and Phoenix aside) largely dominated by licensed properties based on TV shows and movies. Have they been successful? By gum, yes!

I’m lucky enough to have a page in it called ‘Gimbal and Chug’, about this rusty pair of obsolete robots:

I put a lot of thought (probably too much!) into Gimbal and Chug and have lots of background info and origin stories for both of the characters and the crumbling industrial world they inhabit.  I was reading a lot of Jim Woodring around the time I was creating this strip, so the opportunity to create a ‘silent’ or wordless strip was too tempting to resist, and it was a nice opportunity to do something a little different to ‘Faraday’ and my work for the Beano

As for the comic itself – there’s a mad range of creators and styles on show – a handful of familiar faces from the pages of the ‘Beano’, a few from ‘The Phoenix’ (how I wish that title was available in Ireland), the world of book illustration, webcomics, Tumblr and much more.

The artwork and design is consistently beautiful across all 36 pages, so you’re bound to find a something you love.  My favourites after a first read are probably ‘Sir Loynstake’ by Rick Eades, ‘Flora and Fauna’ by Laura Howell, ‘Airlock Homeboy’ by Nigel Auchterlounie (‘when will he see me for the beautiful woman I am’ is probably the best line in the whole comic), and ‘Young Tank Girl’, which reads a bit like Charlie and Lola for slightly-more-grown-ups.  Having said that, I love pretty much everything between the two covers and am looking forward to seeing MORE!

It’s worth noting that personal hero Tom Paterson’s in there with ‘Beelzebaby’ a sort-of reboot of his famous Sweeney Toddler character – always a pleasure to see new work from a legend like him; one of the biggest influences on my own particular development as a cartoonist alongside Jeremy Banx and Raymond Briggs.

Anyway, enough waffle – Click here to read and be amazed –> MOOSE KID

Yo dudes, I got a comic about everybody’s favourite old-school thrash band, Metallica, in this week’s Kerrang! magazine.  They do a ‘komic’ supplement once a year and this year I was asked to be involved.  As a teenage Kerrang! buyer and life-long Metallica fan, sure how could I resist

I’m in there with fellow Beano scribbler, Steve Beckett and the guitarist from Good Charlotte ( a comic book artist in his own right – who knew?) amongst others.  It’s fun. My strip allowed me to draw one of my favourite bands in a couple of compromising scenarios, sample below!

Check it out if you like rock, Metallica or comics, yo.  If you don’t like any of these things… I dunno, there are no words.

It’s in the shops ’til next Thursday or so.

I was on the Tubridy show on 2FM this morning talking a bit about my work for the Beano and some other bits and pieces.  A pretty cool experience all in all, pleasantly surprised to learn RT is an Oink! fan

Here’s a link to the segment if you’re interested:

Issue 5 of the Irish language anthology RíRá is out and I’ve got a three page story in it! Here’s the first page:

Click to embiggen!

Apart from yours truly it features a raft of great-looking schtuff from Irish comic talents including Phil Barrett, Eoin Ryan, Fintan Taite, Maeve Clancy, Bob Byrne & loads more.  Well worth checking out.

It’s published for school-age  kids, so if you know a kid learning the language, or even just interested in it, it’ll make a great gift!  You can get it in newsagents throughout the country, and it’s available on Kindle and iPad and for online purchase too – check it out here.

I’ll put up an English language version of my contribution on this site in the new year so look out for that!

Le grá,

Al

Issue 5 Cover