These animal portraits were drawn for con attendees at MCM Expo and Thought Bubble, Autumn 2011:
On the 16th January, I will be presenting at Laydeez Do Comics, a London-based comics group open to all that describes itself as “a unique graphic novel forum with a focus on comic works based on life narrative, the drama of the domestic and the everyday.” Or in this instance, everyday life narrative but with magic.
I will be talking about the themes and influences behind Blood Magic, and some of my other current work post- V&A Residency.
There will also be free copies of my comic Blood Magic, and limited edition, hand-finished prints for sale!
Monday 16th January
Laydeez Do Comics
The Sewing Room
The Rag Factory
16-18 Heneage Street (off Brick Lane), London E1 5LJ
I will be running a weekend residential course on creating Comics and Graphic Novels at West Dean College, near Chichester in Sussex. West Dean is a lovely setting, an unspoiled country manor house set in beautiful gardens and parkland. Topiary! Mosaics! Stuffed animals! Surrealist objects! It is a truly unique location, and a great experience just staying there, never mind the learning and socialising.
Last year this course was very popular, and was highly rated by the attendees.
Comics and Graphic Novels
2nd – 4th March 2012
Details are on the West Dean College website.
It’s been a while since I updated. This is, in a way, a GOOD thing, because it means I’ve been busy. So here are a few interesting newsworthy titbits.
Firstly, there’s a podcast of a discussion panel I chaired at Sci-Fi London about the Manga Jiman competition. The ladies on the panel, Zarina Liew, Yuri Kore and Clio Millet are all winners or runners-up of Manga Jiman, and they share their thoughts about comics, manga and competitions. It’s here, at Laydeez Do Podcasts.
This week is half term, so what better time to run a whole bunch of Manga Workshops?! Bedfordshire Libraries are having a Graphic Novel and Manga Festival all week, for which I’m running a workshop about Character Creation for young people… there’s tonnes of other things going on there, too.
Upcoming events I will be at:
MCM EXPO 29th – 30th October (at the Itch table)
Thought Bubble 19th – 20th November (at the Itch table)
I will be sketching and selling prints at the above events, as well as having more free copies of Blood Magic available! See you there!
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Not so much about what I’m doing this time: that can wait!
I wanted to let you all know about a project that my good friend and publisher Willie Hewes is raising money for.
She says: “I’ve been working on a new comic with dinosaurs. I’m about 3/4 done with the art, I think, and I think it’s really funny and kind of sad at the same time.”
Yes, it’s Willie Hewes! Of COURSE it’s funny and sad at the same time! It’s her trademark. Willie has been involved in indie comics for years, and as well as setting up ITCH Publishing has written and drawn Amaranth, Leek and Sushi, Agent Pepsi, and a whole host of awesome things, so you know you can trust her to get this project done and be cool.
“Don’t worry,” she says, “I’ve done this before. It’s going to happen.”
She is offering a load of cool freebies for donators, from featuring in the comic to receiving your very own woolly dinosaur.
http://www.indiegogo.com/dinos
Dinos
You can now read another review of Blood Magic at the Poopsheet Foundation.
There is also a lovely review of Urban Beasts over at the Forbidden Planet blog.
There have been a few online reviews of Blood Magic that I’d like to share with you! From Forbidden Planet International, Comic Bits Online and Anime Picks.
Blood Magic is FREE, you only need to pay the shipping charges, which you can do so via Paypal using the email karen(at)karenrubins.com
Currently the postage costs are 50p in the UK, €1.50 in Europe and $3.50 to the United States. Please email for other international charges. ^_^
If you like you can also donate to the Victoria and Albert museum who kindly funded my Residency, of which this project was a part. This is entirely optional!
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MCM Expo was so intense and tiring this year I spent most of the bank holiday sleeping. Now I am awake, so I can write my report. ^_^
I decided to do my merchandise shopping on the Friday, while there were no crowds, and managed to pick up the final volume of FullMetal Alchemist before it’s official release date. I have become rather addicted to this series. I also had a great chat with Emma Vieceli, Morag Lewis and the legendary Pat Mills about girls’ comics. I was also chided by Emma for using the word “wanky” in front of Pat, although I felt it to be fairly descriptive in the circumstances.
On Saturday, I decided to bite the bullet and cosplay for the first time. As much as I love dressing up in peculiar outfits, and who doesn’t, let’s face it, I had never actually done the cosplay thing. I always wanted to but was too chicken. So, because I was in danger of going through the whole of my life never trying it at least once, I dressed up as FullMetalAlchemist’s Lust. I found a few other characters from the series and did a little posing for photos for each other, but mainly I was behind the desk at the ITCH stall, helping Willie sell lots of ITCH publications, including the new Leek and Sushi Waves, which features a new story by me. I also did quite a few Urban Beasts sketches for con-goers, portraits of them as their favourite (or totem) animal.
On the next table to us was Nattherat and her amazing Those of No Class comic. Having been serialised on the web, I’d already read it, but the screen doesn’t do justice to the amazing painted artwork in the same way as the printed book. This was one of only a few comics I bought, as on the Sunday I made the rounds of Comics Village armed with copies of Blood Magic to see if I could entice anyone to swap with me. The response was huge, and I have an amazing haul of comics to read now, as well as cookies, a scone, postcards, a ring, a mirror…. do we really need money at all? One of the comics I swapped for was The Faucon by Bex (Rebecca Burgess) of Sweatdrop. This, oddly enough, was also medieval themed, with blackletter fonts and gold-illumined cover. Although only short, it was very moving. Bex’s artwork continues to improve and is full of life and energy. Lovely!
After Expo was over, a trip to the pub was in order, where I got to hang out with comics friends old and new and overhear bits of gossip that I really did not want to know and will not be going any further!
All in all, a really fun Expo!
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You can now get hold of a copy of Blood Magic for the princely sum of nothing at all!
I will be giving copies away at events I am attending this Spring.
I will be at Comics @ SciFiLondon
on Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st April
and at MCMExpo, London
at the “ITCH” table
on Friday 27th – Sunday 29th May
It is also being distributed on Free Comic Book Day (Saturday 7th May) at London comic shops GOSH and Orbital . If anyone else would like to distribute some copies for Free Comic Book Day, please let me know.
You can also get a copy by post, by sending me 50p to cover postage costs via PayPal, using the email address karen@karenrubins.com.
Although the comic is free, I will be accepting swaps! If you would like to, you can also feel free to make a donation of the price of an ordinary comic to the V&A to support their work.
Way back in 2009 when I had just started as an artist in residence at the V&A, looking at all the medieval imagery, an idea formed in my mind around the idea of blood being the source of power, magical power, spiritual power, whatever you like. It seemed to me that blood was one of the most primal sources of power, the most striking, and the most intimate. The bones of a story began to take shape. But the themes were so heavy – sacrifice, power, blood, males and females, the Pagan and the Christian… and then there was the difficulty telling the tale, with such themes, I hardly wanted messages I hadn’t intended slipping into the story. Gwen and Angela alternately or together had the pleasure or otherwise of listening to me ramble on about the story of “Blood Magic” and how to make it say what I wanted it to say. Eventually, after much procrastination and debating with myself, this comic came to fruition…. almost exactly one year after the ending of my residency. It came back from the printers on Monday, smelling of ink and with a lovely old-fashioned texture. Whether or not I achieved my goals with the story and storytelling… well, that’s for the reader to decide.
So, here it is: Blood Magic.
Blood Magic Comics
