Developments left, right and centre...

First up - you can follow my work and other goings-on on TWITTER from now on. Have a butchers!

I've been missing from the blog for a couple of months as we've had an eventful time in Casa Crayon. Mrs Crayon gave birth to a new shaving last month, Constance, who (6 weeks old today) is doing marvellously well. Older siblings are all very much in love with her so let's hope things stay that way!

On the work front I've been wrapping up on the preproduction design work for my new CBeebies preschool show RAH RAH:



Background artwork all delivered now so my role on continued production is all designwork and general input on the creative direction of the show with the team. Its looking pretty special I have to say - off to Chester Zoo next week for an introduction of the show to the wider team (publishing and merchandise partners) so there's a real momentum. It'll be airing in Spring 2011.

Other animation work has been the development on a new HIT animated preschool show, which I've been collaborating on with Ian Carney (superscribe) and Studio Liddell (superstudio) - that's looking great too and I'll be able to talk shortly about it on here after a few press releases start to appear.

In publishing I'm about to start work on my first picture book in a few years, working with UK publishers Tick Tock Books - very excited about this as it's a story that is also an animated series concept. Be great to get it out there as it was first envisaged, a pop-up book!

And with "Wereworld", the team at Puffin have started sending through some rough ideas for cover art and the like (I won't be doing this - I don't for a minute want to be accused of Dennis Waterman-syndrome). Very eye-catching and is going to really brand the whole series of books in the long run.

Bada Bling!

PRESS RELEASE - "Wereworld" novels picked up by Puffin!

TWO-BOOK DEAL FOR YA FANTASY NOVELIST

Puffin are very excited to announce that we have acquired two fantasy novels in a new series entitled Wereworld by British author and artist Curtis Jobling. Shannon Park, Executive Editor at Puffin secured world rights for the series from the John Jarrold Literary Agency, for an undisclosed five-figure sum. The Wereworld novels are due for publication in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

WEREWORLD follows the story of fifteen-year-old Drew, a shepherd’s son, as he comes of age and discovers he’s the last of the long line of Werewolves, and rightful (yet reluctant) ruler of the land of Lyssia, where lycanthrope ‘Werelords’ reign. Before long he’s hurtling headlong into an epic journey of fantasy and horror, from one deadly encounter to the next, meeting exotic Werelords at every turn as he’s drawn inexorably towards his destiny.

‘When Curtis approached me with the first volume of this series, I could immediately see the strength of his imagination and invention,’ said John Jarrold. ‘Much respect to Shannon for seeing how wonderful the idea was and getting it through the system at Puffin, including giving editorial guidance even before she could formally present it in-house.’

Shannon Park says, ‘I am so thrilled to sign up this series, which blends themes of traditional fantasy and contemporary horror within an action-packed story. Werewolves are hot property right now, and this series has huge appeal for the 10+ fantasy market.’

Curtis Jobling designed the Bafta winning BOB THE BUILDER and is also the creator of FRANKENSTEIN’S CAT, the BBC's hit children’s animation series based upon his book of the same name. In addition he has numerous shows in development with Disney, the BBC and others. His website is at: http://www.curtisjobling.com.

The first novels in the Wereworld series are due for publication in 2011 and 2012.

For further details, please contact John Jarrold or Jayde Lynch on:
John Jarrold - email: j.jarrold@btinternet.com phone: 01522 510544
Jayde Lynch - email: Jayde.Lynch@uk.penguingroup.com phone: 020 7010 3072

PS: Yes, I know, it's a Rick Baker Werewolf image. But then, he is the King.

New show in development

It was exciting to hear one of my new shows in development get a mention in Animation Magazine - Max Helsing: Monster Hunter. I've been working with the team at Disney XD for a while on this show - indeed most of my spare time is currently being taken up working on the bible - so it's a thrill to see it get a mention by Disney in the Press. It's very much a "watch this space" as we progress, but it's been a pleasure working with their development team thus far.

Off down to London on Monday to have a writers' meeting @ Chapman Entertainment for my new CBeebies show Rah Rah. That's also now well under way as we march into preproduction proper. It's been a long time coming, this show, but it's got so much heart we're really excited to be making it now.

Had a great visit to Middleton Technology School in Manchester yesterday to help their Year 8's with a project on Witchcraft. A great example of cross-media creative projects, they've incorporated their English, History and Art Departments as well as crayonboy here, a storyteller and a herbalist (!) as they create their own spellbooks. I don't often visit secondary schools - I'm usually an obvious choice for primary school visits - so it's a great buzz to go along to work with older students and see them engaged and enjoying art. Thanks to everyone there for making me feel so welcome!

Bada Bling!

New EdgyCute book

I'm very pleased to announce that I've been asked to include work in the new EdgyCute book from Mark Batty publishers, available in shops now from the seller or Amazon, or your local bookstore. The book covers what tends to be referred to as "lowbrow" art and pop surrealism, and features a fearsome list of artists and their work. I have a few of the Biteneck Beatniks paintings popping up in there - the book is compiled and edited by Harry Saylor, owner of the Orbit Gallery in the States and longtime chum and champion of my work.

List of contributors: Ana Bagayan, Gary Baseman, Becca, Mike Bell, Jeff Burnette, Robbie Busch, Michael Caines, Nicoletta Ciccoli, Alexis Covato, CRASH (John Matos), Chris Crites, Gerd Dagne, Kirsten Easthope, Jarrod Eastman, Greg Gossell, Rodney Alan Greenblat, Ryan Heshka, Brian Holderman, Angelique Houltkamp, Curtis Jobling, Jeremiah Ketner, Travis Lampe, Lex, Todd Marrone, Angie Mason, Hal Mayforth, Elizabeth McGrath, Brandi Milne, Motomichi Nakamura, Mitch O’Connell, Kathie Olivas, Emma Overman, Daron Parton, Brandt Peters, Lisa Petrucci, Mark Atomos Pilon, Judy Ragagli, Kevin Scalzo, Joe Scarano, Shag, Matte Stephens, Vivienne Strauss, Gary Taxali, Brian Taylor, Chris Uminga, Brian Viveros, Keith Weesner, Donald Roller Wilson, Derek Yaniger

Bada Bling!

THE GOOD FAERIES

Available for the first time as a strictly limited series of giclee prints comes Curtis Jobling’s personal homage to “Sleeping Beauty”; "Flora", "Fauna" and "Merryweather".

The triptych of paintings has been reproduced on radiant white watercolour paper, ensuring that they capture every magical detail of the originals. Brought to life on A3 sheets, each piece of artwork is 10” x 14”. The faeries are priced at £75 each or a bargainous £200 for the full set of three prints. The edition is limited to just 50 of each piece, with buyers to pay postage and packaging.

Ideal for homes, hallways, boardrooms and playrooms, "The Good Faeries" are the perfect gift for lovers of art, animation and alchemical aunties!

Please don’t hesitate in getting in touch for further details.

Bada Bling!

Curtis Jobling

frankscat@hotmail.com

Happy Birthday Bob the Builder!

It's been a funny old week on Planet Bling. Last week the BBC and HIT Entertainment celebrated 10 years of Bob being broadcast on the channel. That's quite an acheivement for any show, and one for which I and many other who helped to make the show are very proud. I was asked to appear on a Breakfast show to talk about the initial design of the character which although horrifically nerveracking still proved to be a lot of fun. Not least because I got to meet celebrity chef Brian Turner in the green room who, while the studio manager was walking us through what would happen, managed to shove a homemade scotch egg into my hand. Cheers Brian! :-D

Then it was on to a party at the Charlotte St Hotel where the new CGI version of Bob was screened/previewed. My personal tastes are still that you can't beat the original stop motion show (but then I'm biased as it's the medium of animation that I've always loved) although the CGI does I suppose breathe new life into the property. It's not like back in the days of Mr Benn when you'd make a dozen shows and that was your lot! Pictured above is the lovely Jackie Edwards, my old producer from Frankenstein's Cat and now VIP at CBeebies!

Off to MIPCOM in Cannes next month with Niel Bushnell from Qurios Entertainment. Great place to meet broadcasters, production companies and distributors, and generally get networky. Of course, with Mr Bushnell in tow, I'm suspecting it's going to be more like Morecambe & Wise in That Riviera Touch!

Bada Bling!

Ginges of the world unite

So, it's amazing what name-dropping Bob The Builder can get you. Emma and I went to see the rather fabulous Tim Minchin last night and much chortling occured when he started shouting out profanities during one of his songs about said-builder. On our way out my dear wife couldn't resist mentioning at the stage door to a chap (who turned out to be John, his tour manager) that the guy who DESIGNED that show was in the audience. "Hold on there, one minute," says John, disappearing. As a crowd of fans gather at the stage door he reappears to say "Bob The Builder's got you in!"

Admittedly he looks like he's going to kill us both, but in our defence he was talking at the time. At least when it's him and Em and I'm out of the picture he's grinning. Top chaps the pair of them and a terrific night topped off in the most unusual fashion :-D

And from divine comedy to crappy musings, here's a link to a podcast of myself and Qurios Entertainments Niel Bushnell, waxing unlyrical after a few too many shandies. Enjoy, or don't!

http://bushnellbling.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/2

Bada Bling! xx

Inside Bob's Belly

He doesn't post anything for three months then it's two in two days! Like a bus that Jobling fella...

TA-DAAAAA!!!!!!

Much weirdness. Cleaning out the garage and I found a box of old floppys (and no, that's not back issues of some kind of specialist geriatric magazine). This was a box from my days at HOT Animation designing BOB THE BUILDER. Checked the properties on these photos and it says the files are from February 2000. FEBRUARY 2000??? HOW OLD DO I LOOK ON THESE?!?!?! Anyway, crashing past the fact that I look like a forty year old tramp in these pictures (when in truth I was about 28 years of age) they're still an interesting flashback into my past and my 'umble days kicking off on Bob.

I've still got that Bazooka Joe tshirt upstairs. Heirloom, that. Heirloom........

Spinning plates

Developing original ideas isn't an easy business. Sure, an idea that might work for a book or a show can pop into one's head at the most unexpected moment, but to see that through into a finished, published book or broadcast animated series is another matter altogether. The majority of my time in the last few months has been spent keeping up the momentum on a number of new properties, as well as seeing others up to a level where they can be presented. This would be the spinning plates, for that's how it often feels, keeping the energy alive on one idea while picking the speed up on another. I suppose a better analogy for a short fat northern lad would be having his fingers in lots of pies.

Visited the Showcomotion Childrens Media Conference in Sheffield the other week which was terrific - a great place to catch up with writers, artists, creatives, producers and broadcasters. If you're in the business of developing ideas for television, in particular kids TV, I can't recommend your attending Showcomotion enough. It's the perfect sounding ground for potential collaborators as well as a great place to hear the ideas, first-hand, from broadcasters re: what they're looking for.

Just waiting for proofs back on the FLORA, FAUNA & MERRYWEATHER limited edition art prints. As soon as they're in I'll be opening up for orders.

Novel manuscript? Argh! Wish I could say more on that front, but we've got specific interest from one wonderful editor from a well established publishing house. Have to sit tight while we wait for a response. In the meantime I'm looking to crack on with my next attempt at a novel, this one a fantasy novel for girls as well as boys.

Bada Bling!

Flora, Fauna & Merryweather

A new series of paintings based upon my favourite Disney Movie, SLEEPING BEAUTY. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather (for those are their names) are the three fairies in the movie. Been wanting to do this triptych for ages now, and am expecting the originals to be going to an art gallery in the US in the very near future. These are also available as limited edition fine art prints - if you're interested just contact me directly, post on here with your details or drop me a line at frankscat@hotmail.com and I can fill you in with the details.

FLORA - the Green Fairy

FAUNA - the Red Fairy

MERRYWEATHER - the Blue Fairy

The High School Of Doctor Moreau

Here's a first sneaky peek at the new show I have in development, "THE HIGH SCHOOL OF DOCTOR MOREAU". I've collaborated with good chum and Spongebob Squarepants scribe Eric Shaw on the development of this, and the article shown above is from this month's Kidscreen magazine, a trade publication that features what's happening in the world of childrens television. Next week is the MIPTV trade fair in Cannes, which I won't be attending, but the lovely folk at Kidscreen asked if they could feature Moreau in the magazine in their "Cool New Shows" feature.

We're already getting a good deal of interest in the property and will hopefully be able to announce a deal with a production company in the very near future. It's a show that I feel is really read to run, packed with ridiculous characters and a world of nonsensical experiments. In a line, it's Weird Science crashing headlong into High School Musical...

Bada Bling!

Blowing off the cobwebs!

If there is such a thing in the worldwide tinterweb of an organisation that protects against the misuse and neglect of sorry, sad blogs, then I suspect I should be looking over the shoulder right now, waiting for a booted foot to come crashing through the front door as the blog police come and liberate the poor Badablingthing blogspot. I have, of course, been a bit busy - which is grand - but that's a feeble excuse for not keeping up to date on here with my happenings and goings on.

Big news on the business front is that I now have a new literary agent, John Jarrold. I met up with him for the first time a couple of weeks ago in Lincoln and enjoyed a tremendously pleasant evening in his company, as we outgeeked one another over all things fanboy. John is best known in the literary world as uber-editor of all things fantasy, scifi and horror. It's quite a departure from Laura Cecil, my previous literary agent who specialised purely in childrens literature. John is a dedicated adult fiction editor/agent, but he's been very happy to take me under his grown up wing. Which sounds rude. But isn't. Do check out his website for more about the fellow and the staggering list of famous authors he's edited, not least Iain Banks, Tad Williams and Terry Brooks.

The Animex Festival in February was fantastic as always, this time round the speakers' highlight was dinner at the Dun Cow Inn in Sedgefield, the infamous pub where Tony Blair took George W Bush for a meal of fish and chips towards the end of his tenure as prime minister. I was the only Brit in a party of fourteen, most of who were liberal Americans and staunch anit-Bush types. We asked the owner if we could purchase the chair that "Dubya" sat in for his meal, but he declined. Then we asked for just a wee stool, and still he said no but seemed to waver. When questioned we admitted that we planned to burn it in the street. This put an end to the prospects of us acquiring any furniture from the Dun Cow that evening...

I'm about to embark upon a trio of paintings based upon the fairies from Sleeping Beauty: Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. If you're liking the look of these and are interested in the originals, let me know. It's the Biteneck Beatniks hurtling headlong into the Grimm Faerie Tales. They're red, green and blue respectively. Or at least will be when I'm finished!

My Art Show is now in full effect in that there London. If you're in the capital, be sure to visit the Animation Art Gallery in County Hall, next to the London Eye. The original Frankenstein's Cat paintings and the Biteneck Beatniks show will be hung together there for the next month until mid-April. There are also limited edition giclee prints available of the nine Cat paintings.

New properties in development include a show that Jetix are just about to option, plus HIT Entertainment have picked up a preschool show from me directly and are optioning another exciting property too - more on this in the coming weeks!

Belated New Year to all

I've been asked by my better half to put a post on the blog as it's our homepage for the home PC - whenever we connect to the tinterweb we get SNOWFALL blaring full volume from our speakers and it's driving her a bit loopy, especially as Christmas was four weeks ago now.

Been busy already this year with a lot of school projects kicking off, principally an ongoing arts project with English Martyrs School in Hartlepool. I'm booked up until the beginning of April with schools which is pretty splendid stuff. The kids at English Martyrs have been great, and it's doubley a pleasure to be working up there as I get to stay with Niel Bushnell of Qurios Entertainment, and generally goof around a lot like a big gullah. We met up for a quiet night's suppage with Chris Williams, director of the Animex Festival of Animation, on Tuesday and what started out gentle enough ended with me leaving the drinking den with a shadow firmly cast over my reputation. Tarnished, I'd go so far as to say. I apologise to the Barmaid, just in case she's reading this!


Will be up in Teesside for Animex next month holding workshop and talks (4th to 6th Feb) - if you've never been along, get yourself down there. Better still log onto the website to view Qurios's rather brilliant sting for this, the festivals TENTH year:

Bada Bling!

Merry Christmas!!!

(Removed for the sake of the family Bling's sanity)

Jobling out and about

OK, let's get this out of the way with first - me meeting SANTA!!!! :-D See as I struggle to keep my excitement in check! This was at Farlington School btw...

Thought I'd next show you all a delightful picture of the delightful Alan Gilbey, the delightful script editor and lead writer of Frankenstein's Cat the animated series, holding aloft the delightful BAF Award for Best TV Series. I believe he's pawned it for filthy cash already... Couldn't be there myself but glad Al got to grab the gong on behalf of everyone from the production team.

Below is a picture of Mr Josh Lewis's left kneecap in Australia. Josh's wife, Felise, got in touch with me on Facebook and let me know that the family love the show so much that Josh felt obliged to get a Nine tattoo added to his tats. This is work in progress, and mighty fine it is too - as Josh sends me the finished tattoo I'll put it up on here. But this is tremendously flattering - I've never seen a Bob tattoo but then I think Nine lends himself to the art form more...

Just back from a whirlwind few days in West Sussex, opening the Farlington Christmas Fair as well as a new nursery hall at Burgess Hill School for Girls. Had a lovely time at both events, in no small part thanks to the hospitality of the pupils, parents and staff at the schools. Particularly have to thank Joy, Casie and Lucia at Farlington for enduring me, Emma and the girls, and also Fen, Georgina, Yudi and the gang at Burgess Hill for supplying me with hot cups of tea in the freezing weather. Here are some pictures from the event at Burgess Hill. Note the small army of Bob the Builders who were present. They're mid-shout there yelling out the word "PARSNIP" - I guess you'd need to have been there to understand the ramifications of this exultation...
And lastly, but by no means least, below is a picture of Frankenstein's Cat as done by Maria Chance (aged 6) of Stratford Upon Avon. Clever cookie that Maria is she's used the fridge magnet from the DVD box as a stencil and drawn around the titular moggie that way - great stuff Maria and many many thanks for sending this through to us!

Frankenstein's Cat wins at BAF '08

Just got the news through the televisual grapevine that we won Best TV Series at the Bradford Animation Festival! Great news for everyone who worked on the show - I'd have been there for gong collecting myself if it hadn't coincided with my son's 8th birthday party and I wasn't going to miss that :-) Bradford's a great festival, and Alan Gilbey gave a great acceptance speech by all accounts, saying that as neither myself nor Jackie or Sara, the show's producers, were present he was going to keep it for himself.

Very encouraging to see so many animation festivals in the UK now - as well as Animex and BAF, we have Showcomotion, Exeter which I visited at the beginning of the year, and my most recent new addition was Canterbury Anifest which I attended for the first time a couple of weeks ago. All the festivals are run by a bunch of terrific, enthusiastic and super-passionate people. If you haven't been a long to one yet... what are you waiting for?!?!

Off to Cinemagic in Belfast tomorrow evening to hold some workshops in schools over there, and really looking forward to it. Lots of school appearances lately also, including the rather splendid Barnard's Castle Prep School in Co Durham. I stayed in a reputedly haunted Bed & Breakfast the night before my workshops and although I didn't encounter a ghost my filling fell out of one of my incisors. Paranormal or dodgy dentistry? You decide!

Off to open the Farlington School Christmas Fair in Horsham this weekend and then down to Burgess Hill School a couple of days later to open their new hall. If you're in that neck of the woods, be sure to come along, especially to the Farlington Fair on Saturday 22nd - I'll be holding talks and workshops as well as signings.

Just finished writing a second draft of my (name under wraps) novel manuscript. Clocks out at 105,000 words currently, 33 chapters averaging 10 pages to each. And no, the font isn't 48! I'm really pleased with it and just hope the publishers who I'm presenting it to get it as well. I'll always love working in picture books and animation, but there's been something tremendously exciting about working alone on a book of this size. Ideally it's part of a series of books but I'll just be happy to get this first one off the ground. It's gothic horror fantasy. No. No more. I've already said to much. You have to die, now, you do realise?

Bada Bling!

The Frankenstein's Cat Art Show & Biteneck Beatnik Halloween Extravaganza (..... and breathe!)

It's here at last! The new art show kicks off this coming Saturday, 25th October, at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester. There'll be all the Biteneck Beatniks paintings on show and for sale, as well as the new original works based upon the Frankenstein's Cat animated series. There'll (hopefully) be books for sale, signings and Ron Go Bongo Biteneck Beatniks vinyl toys from TOY2R for sale.



Also, today (20th) marks the launch of the Frankenstein's Cat animated series on DVD (available in all good high street and online stores), featuring 8 episodes from Season One of the show. The timing is terrific as the BBC have just asked us for a second season of the show! We shall also have copies of this DVD for sale and signing too. If you're about, bring along the kids, grannies, frankenpets and whatever. It kicks off at 2pm:

Richard Goodall Gallery
59 Thomas St
Manchester
M4 1NA
UK
http://www.richardgoodallgallery.com/

Opening times: Tuesday – Friday 10am-6pm. Saturdays 11am-5pm Admission Free

I got back from a great week in Cannes last week, where I was peddling my wares (read pitching new show concepts) at MIPCOM. Plenty of the new shows were met with approval by various production companies and broadcasters so I'm hopeful that very shortly we'll get a few of them off the ground and into development proper. Highlight, besides catching up with my producer Jackie Edwards who has been snapped up by the BBC (huzzah!), was meeting Richard Taylor of WETA and Lord Of The Rings fame. Lovely bloke and nice that we shared a few common chums too, namely Ian Mackinnon and groovetastic concept artist Richie Dolan (The Frighteners)

Bada Bling!

Frankenstein's Cat Art Show (completed)

Well, these are the last three paintings in the series of nine Frankenstein's Cat pieces. I've actually had to go back through the others and tweak them a touch. It only occured to me while painting "Halloween" that I'd missed Nine's flies out on all the other paintings. Back I went and added them to each picture. I'll let you know when the prints of these paintings are available, if you're interested, but we're looking to hold an art show mid October at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester, where the originals, the prints, and the Biteneck Beatniks artwork will all be available for sale. Furthermore the art show will be moving to London and the Animation Art Gallery in December.

I've been a bit slack on the old blog lately as lots of work has come in all at once. In addition to trying to wrap up the art show we've been working hard on "RAH RAH", a new preschool stopmotion show that just this week was unveiled at Cartoon Forum in Ludwigsburg. Again, it's with my good chums who produced Frankenstein's Cat, Mackinnon & Saunders, and it promises to be achingly cute and ridiculously good fun for little ones all over. Roar if you're ready!

Furthermore I'm off to MIPCOM in Cannes next month to meet broadcasters and production companies about various new projects, specifically Biteneck Beatniks, which has now changed it's moniker to the more rounded and inclusive: "CHILLVILLE!"

Bada Bling!

Frankenstein's Cat Art Show (continued)

It's been a while since I posted on the blog, but real world distractions such as workloads and family fun have prevented my yakking. Recently managed to complete three more paintings from the forthcoming Frankenstein's Cat Art Show, as shown below:





Three more paintings to complete for the show, now, and am already up to my paint-smeared thumbs in each of those. I'm actively on the look-out for any galleries who might be interested in showing the Frankenstein's Cat art show, in addition to the Biteneck Beatniks. If you're interested or indeed have any recommendations of cool, groovy galleries who you reckon may be interested in this and it's worth my contacting them, please do leave the details here. I didn't realise when I embarked upon the show just how long it was going to take me - possibly this is because when I did the bulk of my Biteneck Beatniks art show I wasn't looking after the kids, but for the last 12 months or so I've had lots of daddy time with my girls, which is brilliant. The only downside is that it doesn't make painting any easier to get stuck into. Swings and roundabouts as my old history teacher Mr Bullough would say.

And talking of old teachers, I was at a booksigning in Waterstones in Ormskirk last Saturday when who should come in but TWO of my old high school teachers to surprise me, Miss Crompton and Mrs Hartley. I've now been advised that it is perfectly acceptable to refer to them as Janet and Rosemary, possibly due to the fact that having a 36 year old refer to them as "Miss" in a childrens bookshop can indeed come across as a little awkward. It was lovely to see them and a huge thrill for me - I remember each of them very well, although it appears that my photographic-memory-armed idiot savant elder brother was the one who really stuck in their minds! Cheers Mark! ;-D Thanks for coming Janet and Rosemary!

Been out and about doing lots of school visits and workshops in the last few weeks too, including a spot at the Showcomotion festival in Sheffield, which was great fun. I've been to two tremendous independent schools, Farlington nr Horsham and Giggleswick in North Yorkshire, to hold talks as well as give away prizes on their end of year awards days. Thank you SOOOO much to Joy Baggs and her staff at Farlington and Mark Brotherton and his staff at Giggleswick for making me feel so at home.


Below are the original roughs for the art show, before I got jiggy with the paints!

FILM REVIEW

And new to Badablingthing....

DIARY OF THE DEAD - a fine addition to Romero's pantheon of zombie tales. Following the POV of a team of college filmmakers who happen to have cameras on a shoot, they end up documenting the events that unfold as the zombies start to eat their way through America. Not up there with the FX budget of Land Of The Dead, but still splendid nonetheless

CLOVERFIELD - I really rather enjoyed this, and it had the same wobbly-cam effect as DIARY, what with being a "home movie" of a giant Cthulhu-esque monster romping it's way through New York. There was plenty there to give you the 9-11 tingles, plus big enjoyment when one of the characters you think is a lead gets smited early on! Bleak ending? Nonsense, for bleak endings look no further than...

THE MIST - I absolutely loved this movie, although it did bum Emma and I out with the ending. But then again, it's a horror movie, and you want a shock at the end. Doesn't come much bigger in my eyes. FX were OK but you can excuse that to a degree as the direction and acting really is top notch from an ensemble who are really on top of their game. What is it with Cthulhu-esque monsters all of a sudden?

What, they're all horror movies? And I work in kids books? Go figure...

Bada Bling!

Annecy and signings

It's that time of year when Annecy awaits the arrival of the short, ginger crayonboy. I'll be travelling out to the Animation Festival next Wednesday, in the company of Qurios Entertainment director Niel Bushnell. Got a bunch of meetings set up with various industry bods to look forward to.

I'll also be doing some signings while out there at the Bonlieu Centre - we'll have Frankenstein's Cat picture books, limited edition art prints as well as my Ron Go Bongo Biteneck Beatniks vinyls. If you're at the festival, come along to the signing at 3pm on Friday 13th (zoinks!)

I'm also going to be judging a Create Your Own Frankenstein's Pet competition with the Warrington Guardian, as part of the Year Of Reading initiative. It's open to any schoolchildren in the Borough so do contact the Guardian for more details if interested - winners will receive a visit to their school from yours truly (fools!) where I'll do some storytelling and animation screenings for everyone.