Ellerbisms

Hi guys, long time eh? How have you been? Me? Oh I’ve been busy…

At very long last my autobio graphic novel Ellerbisms is now available for pre-ordering.

5 years in the making, 268 pages, 200+ original strips (rescanned and retouched) 30+ brand new pages specially drawn for this collection, rounded corners (!!!!!) and endless drawings of my face.

I’m offering incentives for pre-orders like sketches, mini comics, buttons, original art work (for the first time I am parting with the art from the series and if you know me at all you know how hard that is) and more so why not check out some of the personalised offers available and fill your house with Ellerby paraphernalia.

If you don’t know what Ellerbisms is about, well, it deals with the small, sometimes funny sometimes sad moments of the day that might not be big or life changing in the big picture of life but are moments we all have and relate to. It’s also a relationship told in pictures. It’s a love story, one that you’ve probably gone through yourself or are currently going through. It was a webcomic, some people liked it. I’m very proud of it.

It will be out in time for Thought Bubble in Leeds and (hopefully) Comica in London next month, there’s a blog with more information about it right here. I totally 100% think you should buy a copy.

Chances are if you read Ellerbisms, you also read The Everyday by Adam Cadwell. I mean, hell, he’s a recurring character in this strip ferchristsake! If you don’t read it, then by golly you should. It ends today after 3 years of updates and I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to say a few things about Adam’s brilliant comic.

A lot of people lump Bisms and Everyday into the same sentence or compare the two strips off each other, and okay, I can see why ; me and Adam are both good mates, we both do autobio comics and we’re both ferociously handsome. But to me, The Everyday is pretty different from Ellerbisms – sure it’s a comic that stars it’s creator, but to say the Everyday is about Adam is a mistake. If you look closely, Adam isn’t the main character, it’s his surroundings, his observations that make up the bulk of the Everyday’s plots. It’s the walk to work, the bus journey into town, the chilling with mates, the idea that not something amazing happens to you all the time, but it’s the little things you notice, the odd conversations you overhear that make up your day which everyone goes through and that’s why people warm to it. I’ve seen one or two comments that with The Everyday, you don’t get a sense of who Adam is and in a way I’ve always admired him for that; he’s never fully let the readers into his head, but he’s certainly lent them his perspective for a while. To me that’s a different and refreshing take on the autobio genre and although what’s done is done, perhaps I could have taken some of that onboard with my own comic.

Adam’s progress as an artist has also flabbergasted me. I was reading over the mini comic collections yesterday while working on my entry for his “alternate endings” project and it’s amazing to see just how far he’s progressed in three years. When I see artists like that, it makes me really excited to think about how their art will look in another three years. He’ll bloody out draw us all! If he does a big ol’ book collection of The Everyday it’ll be great to see those early wonky strips turn into slick lines and gorgeous spot blacks.

He should be showing some of his Blood Blokes project off  today and, well, you’ll see why he should be ending The Everyday. I can’t wait to read a long project from him, something that isn’t wrapped up in 4 panels, but stretches 4-6 issues. He’s a clever sod, that Cadwell and I reckon he’ll pull of some awesome story telling techniques and pacing. There’s always been this healthy competition between me and him and it’ll be interesting to see how Blood Blokes and Chloe Noonan are received by the general comic book buying public. Also who can get their project out first! HAHA GOOD LUCK CADDERS! HOW LONG DID 7 PAGES OF BLOOD BLOKES TAKE?

This blog isn’t supposed to be a giant suck up, but rather a thank you to a comic that I’ve personally really loved for the past three years. One that’s made me up my game artistically, curse the creator’s name for being so good and above all else, relate to and look forward to.

So, yeah, cheers Adam.