rainbow orchid launch

Congratulations, Garen Ewing on the launch of his new book! A lot of people have been anticipating this book for a long time, Garen’s been working on it for years and years, and it’s well worth the wait! You can read a great interview of Garen by David O’Connell (creator of adventure webcomic Tozo) about the book and his foray into England’s version of the Roaring Twenties.

David O’Connell, Garen and his wife, Elyssa

Egmont threw the party in the gallery of Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where you can still see large prints of the artwork on display for the next week. My photos came out blurry, but there was a great turn-out: comics journalists Paul Gravett, Peter Stanbury, John Freedman, Alex Fitch (Panel Borders, podcast with Garen to go out Thursday), Joel Meadows (Tripwire magazine) and Tim Pilcher; artists including my studio mates Viviane Schwarz and Gary Northfield, David O’Connell, Rian Hughes, Neill Cameron, Alex Milway, Jason Cobley and loads of other friend and Egmont colleagues.

Go out and order this book now, the first in a series of three; it’s fabulous!

Here’s Gary in the studio this morning, sporting his brand-new Rainbow Orchid t-shirt

You can hear Garen give a talk in Oxford on Saturday, 15 August at Caption comics festival. Stay the night, and come to my talk the next day, it’ll be a great weekend. Here’s the provisional schedule of events, as posted by girlycomic:

Saturday 15th August
10:00 Caption opens: Meet and Greet & Art Activity
12:30 – 2:30 Zine Workshop
1:00 – 2:00 Talk on the history of gay & queer comics by Sina Shamsavari
3:00 – 5:00 Manga Workshop with Asia Alfasi
2:30 – 3:30 Karen Rubins talks about her V&A Residency
4:00 – 5:00 Dude, where’s my con? Discussion panel on comics events.
5:30 – 6:30 Rainbow Orchid: from small press to Egmont talk by Garen Ewing
7:00 – 8:30 Charity Art Auction
9:00 – 10:00 “Mad Scientists and Rampaging Robots” quiz with Tony Hitchman

Sunday 16th August
10:00 CAPTION opens
12:00 – 1:00 Scriptwriting Workshop with Jon Spira
12:30 – 1:30 Comics and Picture books: crossing the divide talk by Sarah
McIntyre
2:00 – 3:00 Asia Alfasi talks about her manga titles and experience in the
comics industry.
2:00 – 4:00 Automatic Drawing Workshop with Al Davison
3:30 – 4:30 In Conversation with Mark Stafford (Cherubs, tbc) and Jamie McKelvie
(Suburban Glamour, Phonogram).