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Guys guys great news, I’ll be at the Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds this weekend (November 15th & 16th), bearing all before me. It’s my favourite convention of the year in the place of my birth, back down to earth. Going back to my roots!
Here’s where my table is, next to ultimate hero friends Kristyna Baczynski and Joe List at 146 in New Dock Hall.
I’ll also be on a panel, ‘Comics For Everyone’ on Sunday at 11AM in Leeds Dock. Natasha Allegri of Bee & Puppycat/Adventure Time is on it too, so it’s bound to be elbow to elbow. I know I will be attempting to soak up some of those talent rays myself.
JOHN, ALL I WANT TO DO IS FILL MY BOOTS, WHAT WILL YOU HAVE FOR SALE?
* Bad Machinery book 2 hardcover & softcover
* Expecting To Fly 1 & 2
* Giant Days 1, 2 & 3
* THAT
* Loads of prints
* Tea towels
* Badges & Stickers
* Answers to your questions, however niche + fringe they may be
* RAW LOVE FOR FANS (critical)
Last year I was stacked out with little time to do paid-for sketches but play it by ear, maybe ask on Sunday when it’s quieter. I’ll always do a scrawl in your book for you.
I’ve just added the Expecting To Fly 2-parter to my shop. It’s sold as a 2-book set, but if you bought book 1 from me at a convention, or from a store, you can get a copy of issue 2 on its own.
If you’re coming to Thought Bubble in Leeds next weekend, I’ll have these with me. Otherwise, why not invest? I feel like these might be… a good present… for someone who likes comics. Even if that someone is yourself.
I’ve designed some new shirts for Christmas.

After a couple of months of thinking about it, I’ve decided to conclude Bad Machinery with the Case Of The Modern Men. It feels like the right time to do it. The characters have outgrown the setting, the premise and the format. I’ve tinkered with the comic for three cases, with mixed results - a whole story of giant pages, then lots of little strips, but I’ve felt like I was in a holding pattern for the last couple of years. I don’t want to stop telling stories with these characters, but I’m not sure I can do much more with them without returning to the drawing board. There’s definitely more to come from Charlotte, Shauna and the rest of them, but you might not see much of them for a little while. With the third book released in December and five more stories to go, Oni’s beautiful print editions of Bad Machinery should continue unabated. I’m really proud of what they’ve done with my work.
Needless to say, comics won’t stop in the meantime. When Expecting To Fly ends this Friday, Bobbins will return for a run of a few months (6 or 7 days a week) while I work on the 4th Bad Machinery book and a (currently secret) print project. I came up with so many ideas creating the idiotic, fictitious “Scary Go Round universe” over the last couple of months, that I see no reason for anyone to panic any time soon. The website will probably revert back to being called “Scary Go Round” as an umbrella for all the different things I’ve been doing over the last five years.
Thanks to everyone who has supported Bad Machinery. Think of this as a Doctor Who-style regeneration in progress. Your friends will be back.
Those of you who have been reading for a long time will remember the Scary Go Round movie, only released on VHS in Botswana and American Samoa. My friend Jonathan Edwards managed to catch a screening in a temporary cinema in the Leeward Islands (subtitled in Pidgin) and took these photographs. It’s a shame that few got to see MAUREEN PURD as Shelley and DON LEMON (later TV’s Captain Probus) in an early role as Ryan. Sadly not pictured: PEPLUM ST-JOHN as Tim Jones.


