2008: Review of the Year
December 31st, 2008 Ben Powis
Wow, another year has come to an end. At this time of year I like to take a look back at all the things I have done over the last twelve months, before moving onto the next, and remind myself of all the great experiences and cool projects I have been lucky enough to work on.
I started the year with a commission from the BBC Radio Times. The piece about a spooky story called ‘All The Colours of Love‘ – which is a wonderfully inspiring title!
January also saw the print debut of my first comic Turtle Guitar. I can’t believe it’s only been around for a year! In truth is has been around a bit longer in digital format – Turtle Guitar was originally published on my website for free around October 2007 but people started asking me if it was available in print. Printing comics was something that I has assumed would be out of my league financially, as comics publishing is currently not my main income. But after a little research and a lot of quotes from various printers I discovered the cheapest way to print my work how I wanted would be my local printer, so we went ahead and Turtle Guitar was born in print!
I was very pleased with how the comic came out, the quality of the printing was great and the colours (which are so important to my work) are really vibrant! While all this was going on I was already working on my second comic, but with these nice shiny copies of Turtle Guitar in hand I wanted to get some people to look at them…
I sent some copies off to the people in charge of the Liveline Comics show in London who had an open call going on, and too my surprise they phoned me up and said they would like me to exhibit at the show!
I had the printed Turtle Guitar on show as well as 3 framed pieces – 2 prints and 1 original pen and ink page from my next comic. I was very excited to check out the show and see all the other work there but the day before I was in Edinburgh and arrived into London a little too late – doh!
I made a few calls and sent a few emails, managing to get Turtle Guitar into Gosh! Comics, Traveling Man stores (Leeds, Manchester, York & Newcastle) and importantly onto the London Underground Comics stall in Camden Lock Market. LUC has sadly drawn the curtains on it’s Camden stall a couple of weeks ago, after just over a year of selfless hard work pushing UK indie comics to the public – I would like to offer all those guys my humble thanks for their work on the stall! Good luck in 2009!
Illustration Friday entry from February 2008.
Now we fast forward through April and May, where a bunch of things happened but if I was going to write about them all I will be half way through 2009 before I finish this post! 
I was featured in ImagineFX though, which was cool!
It was at this time of year that me and my good friend Scott Purdy released our first flock of Pocket Monsters to the world!
Pockets Monsters come in the packets as seen above, they each contain an original drawing of a strange/wonderful creature by either me or Scott. We had a lot of fun doodling the little critters and they sold out fast, jetting off all over the world – thanks to everyone who helped us re-home our monsters! Pocket Monster Series 2 have already seen a pre-release late in 2008, look out for them returning with work form more artists in 2009!
During this month I was also able to reprint my illustrated story book ‘Whale Hunt‘. Using the same printer who produced Turtle Guitar I was able to improve upon the quality of the original books – Whale Hunt is still a firm favorite wherever I sell books!
Late in May I had finished my second comic, which I announced as ‘Where Grows The Bitter Herb‘. I had been trying to find time to get it sorted out for printing, the incentive came in the form of the London Underground Comics event NoBarcodes – a gathering of UK small press comics artists and writers in Camden Lock market. I raced ‘Bitter Herb through to have it ready in time, picking it up from the printers the day before I traveled to London!
The comic was met with a great reception (selling out!). I had a really great time at NoBarcodes – sharing a table with Dan Cox, Chris Getliffe and Jon Scrivens. I got to meet a bunch of other UK comics creators and checking out a LOT of really great comics and artwork! It was my first experience of a comics con of any kind, making me hungry for more!
Check out this awesome model of the player from Turtle Guitar by my friend Emily Arnold, this fella became our mascot through 2008!
This year also saw the release of Candycreeps, an RPG game set in a weird and wonderful world where the dead walk the earth, do the shopping and walk the dog all side-by-side with the living (and the reanimated theme park mascots…!). I was lucky enough to be asked to produce the cover for the book, along with 4 full colour chapter pages and a bunch of black & white interior drawings. The book was so much fun to work on, owed in most part to the people in charge, Nick and Elizabeth, whom it was a pleasure to work for! The book is avalaible now and I would encourage everyone to check it out (not just because my work is on the cover – its really fun!!).
In November I opened a new mini website ‘World of Afar‘. The online home of the world my comics (Turtle Guitar and Where Grows The Bitter Herb) are set in. The site will expand and grow over the coming months, containing sneak peeks into the next comic and exclusive insight into the world of Afar for those keen enough to explore!
It was around this time I got an email from Richard Bruton at Forbidden Planet. He had seen a couple of my comics and was kind enough to write a glowing review of Whale Hunt and Turtle Guitar – so I sent him a copy of Where Grows The Bitter Herb and he liked that too! Hi to Richard if you are reading this, your reviews kept my spirits lifted and my pencil moving through the lonely world of freelancing!
ThoughtBubble came around in again in November. I missed out on it the year before so I was determined to make it this time! I booked a whole table to myself and headed up with a suitcase full of comics, table cloths and price tags. This was officially my first full sized comics convention, I was nervous and excited but the day went excellently. The planning paid off – everything went smoothly, the table looked great and all the comics sold well! A big hello! to everyone I met there, too many to mention (sorry!)
So here we are in late December, I was posting a picture every day through this month, but I’m afraid I let it slip! All the Christmas shopping, festive drinks and turkey got the better of me I’m afraid.
I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and thank everyone who bought a comic, said hello, or clicked onto this blog over the last year…there is plenty more to come next year!
~ Ben
More play with digital painting – what do you think, is it looking any good? 
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