Comics & Illustration

Klaus in kus! 10

2012-02-18T00:46:00.000-08:00

I have a six-page colour Klaus comic in the new kus! anthology. Here are some preview pages.

Two new cat comics

2012-01-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't drawn any new ones for a month or so and these ones are therefore (?) pretty rubbish. I'm working again now, in London, so hopefully inspiration will strike, either from reading on the tube, or in ACTUAL LIFE.

It's been a while! A new gig poster

2012-01-04T04:17:00.000-08:00

A new poster for Euros Childs' gig in Newcastle

2011-12-15T03:56:00.000-08:00

*Which was rejected by the promoter.

A Klaus review from Design Week

2011-12-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

I'm still drawing my six page Klaus comic for Kus (a page a day, between job applications) so for now there's no new work that I can show. But here's a nice mention of the book by Design Week;

"In a very different tale, Short’s Klaus the anthropomorphic cat, a witty little Moomin-like devil, stars amongst a cast of peculiar creatures including ‘humanoid rats’ and his feline ‘libertarian doppelganger Otto.’

In a departure from usual comic language, the dialogue is packed with literary allusions, anachronistic speech inflections and poetic quips, making for a brilliantly funny, surreal read."

The photo of the book and poster above was taken by Roman Muradov, whose work is lovely.

Nether-le-Nudd, page 1 of a football comic

2011-12-02T03:27:00.000-08:00

I'm drawing a six (or so) page Klaus comic at the minute, so nothing new will be posted for a week or so. I thought I'd post this first page of a football comic in the meantime. I haven't drawn a second page, the punchline page, the point of the story, as I didn't like this first page. But here it is. The one below is an older football comic page from earlier in the year. It's 'about' the Brazil team of the 1970 world cup.

A daft new cat comic

2011-11-30T03:45:00.000-08:00

Two new Klaus comics

2011-11-29T04:27:00.000-08:00

A Klaus review from Forbidden Planet

2011-11-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here

It's a good one, saying:

"There’s a delicious sense of timing and visual gags all through the pages, often a funny downbeat payoff, or more accurately, the moment just before or immediately after the actual payoff. You do the work, Short just delivers the means to connect the jokes…"

and;

"over the course of the book the gags continue to work, the themes develop, and what you get in the end is some strange mutated traditional comic strip."

and finally;

"With it’s laid back, contemplative philosophising, it’s an attractive and enthrallingly entertaining read. Klaus is a pocket sized delight of a work. You could do far, far worse than to try it as a surprise stocking filler."

Two new cat comics

2011-11-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

I'm not overly enamoured with these ones, which were drawn yesterday. I'm going to start working today on a longer Klaus comic for an anthology submission.

Where They Work

2011-11-25T04:44:00.000-08:00

There are a few photos of my desk and drawing ... area (?) up on Jordan Shiveley's Artist's Spaces tumblr.

Klaus on It's Nice That

2011-11-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here;

"Klaus Richard Short

Klaus is a Cat that looks like a Moomin and acts a lot like Garfield but has a much higher IQ and hangs around with a gang of humanoid rats. His philosophical musings provide the hilarious narrative to otherwise fairly uneventful stories. In this first edition, Richard Short collects together the best spreads from two previously self-published editions and throws in some new material for good measure. Razor-sharp, charming and incredibly well-paced, this is a must for anyone who grew up on a diet of Charles Schulz and the aforementioned stripy feline."

Another new Klaus comic

2011-11-19T03:18:00.000-08:00

A new Otto comic

2011-11-19T03:15:00.001-08:00

A new Klaus comic

2011-11-19T03:13:00.001-08:00

Another new Dieter comic

2011-11-19T03:10:00.001-08:00

A new Dieter comic

2011-11-19T03:08:00.001-08:00

A Klaus tumblr: klaus-comics.tumblr.com

2011-11-16T04:30:00.000-08:00

With just the better recent Klaus comics on it.

Some photos of the Klaus book

2011-11-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

From Nobrow's Facebook page. You can buy it here. My dad has read it (the only book he's ever read, according to my mam) and he laughed (out loud) three times.

Comiket

2011-11-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

Was good. You can hardly see it here, but Nobrow made a polystyrene (?) point of sale out of my drawings. I liked it, even if no-one else did.

The photo was taken by Okido magazine, who also had a table there.

The final old cat comic ...

2011-11-11T03:04:00.000-08:00

Before I start posting up new ones.

The Klaus book should be winging its way to buyers today, and I'm going to be sat at the Nobrow table at Comiket on Saturday (where Kus/Kush (from Latvia) and Famicon will also be selling comics). Ta.

Anotherother early cat comic

2011-11-10T02:29:00.000-08:00

An early cat comic, not in the book.

2011-11-09T02:55:00.000-08:00

An early Klaus comic

2011-11-08T04:31:00.000-08:00

From when I still had Klaus living in a house. This one isn't in the book.

The Klaus book has arrived!

2011-11-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

From the printers in Belgium. I'm really happy that I have a copy in my hands now. Nobrow and the printers have made a lovely job of it. These are some end paper designs I did which weren't used in the end.

An older cat comic

2011-11-07T06:01:00.001-08:00

Another older cat comic

2011-11-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

Nobrow 6 Klaus

2011-11-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

I have a two page Klaus comic in Nobrow 6 (The Double), a very good 120 page illustration and comics anthology (which you can now buy).

An oldish cat comic

2011-11-05T06:16:00.001-07:00

An older Klaus comic

2011-11-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

From the Nobrow book. New comics coming soon. Lots of lols.

An old Klaus comic

2011-11-03T06:27:00.001-07:00

Another not-new cat comic

2011-11-02T04:44:00.001-07:00

Two old Klaus comics

2011-11-01T04:47:00.001-07:00

Two old cat comics

2011-10-31T04:58:00.000-07:00

These are very old Klaus comics, from about two years ago. Neither of them made it into the Nobrow book.

Two old cat comics for Sunday morning

2011-10-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

Another old cat comic

2011-10-29T02:08:00.001-07:00

An old cat comic

2011-10-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post some old cat comics, between now and the Klaus book coming out on 11th November. After that I'll get back to posting up new ones. These old ones were all in the homemade Klaus 1 and 2, which were out at the end of 2010. I think they're pretty much all in the Nobrow book.

A new cat comic

2011-10-28T03:23:00.000-07:00

Which will be the last one for a while, due to other commitments.

A new Klaus comic

2011-10-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Based on a job advert I saw today. I didn't have to change much.

A new cat and mole comic

2011-10-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

Which follows on from previous mole comics posted this week.

A new all-colour cat comic

2011-10-26T06:38:00.001-07:00

My book is now up for pre-order

2011-10-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

And the first 500 people (I'm being hopeful) get this A2 poster to hang above their beds. You'd be an idiot not to buy it.

Another new cat comic

2011-10-25T05:18:00.001-07:00

New cat & duck comic

2011-10-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

In colour and black and white. You're spoilt rotten.

Last week's new cat comics

2011-10-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

New Klaus comic

2011-10-22T07:31:00.001-07:00

Writer's portraits, after Herge.

2011-10-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

Just because I've been reading The Art of Herge over the last week, and I'm trying to get back into drawing people. Cavafy, especially, has a very weird arm. Some more to follow.

New Klaus comics (the game of percentages)

2011-10-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to draw one of these comics a day and I said a few months ago that I'd put them all up, even when they're rubbish. So I can't go back on that now.

Two new cheery cat comics for Friday.

2011-10-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Two Fast Colour #4

2011-10-14T03:59:00.000-07:00

Two Fast Colour 4 arrived in the post today from Hamburg; a lovely looking little black and white anthology with comics by Anna Sailamaa, Gauthier, Estocafich, me, Rui Tenreiro, Inga Saetre, Marlene Krause and Martina Lenzin.

I've contributed six pages of a loose story from the Klaus book, about Otto facing justice. There's a French translation underneath my pages, which for some reason I find funny - "Ce sont des allegations tres graves - et toi, tu viens d' ecloser!". I'm going to try and put some copies of the magazine in Orbital Comics in London at the start of next week.

Nobrow 6

2011-10-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

I may end up looking stupid, but as far as I know I have two pages in Nobrow's new magazine Nobrow 6, a 120-page monster of illustration and comics, with contributions from people like Tom Gauld, who drew the cover above, Gwenola Carrere, Kevin Huizenga, Michael DeForge, Luke Pearson and Roman Muradov. It looks like it's going to be brilliant. It's coming out on 3rd November and there's going to be a launch party for it in east London on the same day.

A Klaus launch party, news from the Comica Festival website

2011-10-12T06:57:00.000-07:00

Launch Party: Klaus by Richard Short

Celebrate Nobrow‘s latest book, the first volume of Richard Short‘s sophisticated, surreal feline funnies.

Paul Gravett says:
Richard Short is another British creator new to me. He kindly sent me two of his self-published “hastily made” minis of Klaus from late 2010. He advised, “I think only around half of these have made in into the Nobrow book.” It takes little time reading them to realise that Short is mastering the four-panel webcomic format with a deft wit and imagination. Klaus is not quite a ‘proper cat’, so for example he doesn’t eat the Great Auk mother’s chick which he hatches but rears it, and sleeps for as much as 16 hours a day - “I’m not your average cat.” The expanding ensemble cast includes the yang to his yin, black cat Otto, and foils Alan/Terry/Barry, the curious rat-tailed homunculi. The cumulative effect is pleasantly mind- and mood-altering. Philosophical, bizarre and funny, often all at once, Klaus is a great addition to the fine feline tradition in comics from Felix and Krazy Kat to The Rabbi’s Cat, and is no relation, by the way, to Gunnar Lundkvist’s existentially challenged Swedish moggie on two legs, Klas Katt.

Where: Nobrow Gallery, 62 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3QR
When: Thursday, November 17, 2011 - 6.30pm to 9.30pm

Two new animal comics

2011-10-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

"When's the book out?"

2011-10-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to draw any new Klaus comics, so here are two old ones with a bit of garish comic colour. The Klaus book is at the printers and will be out soon. I think it's ended up being 68 pages of comics, so there's at least four jokes in there. You should ask your mam to buy it for you.

New gig poster

2011-10-07T09:07:00.001-07:00

For Kicker Conspiracy with Paul White, a hip hop producer from south London.

Strange Maps

2011-10-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Some character drawings for a story I'm writing called Strange Maps, which may turn into a comic. It follows the well-worn idea of tiny humanoid creatures living in a house, which is their entire world, and is mainly influenced by my reading of 1980s 'Anthropology Today' while on the toilet.

A new mole comic

2011-10-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

Based around a story about my great grandparents, on my mam's side. It was actually my great grandad (sat on the couch, with me slouching on him) who knocked out an insulting neighbour. The other neighbours paid his court fine. He was, apparently, a small man with big hands.

A new Kicker Conspiracy poster

2011-10-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

Two new Klaus comics

2011-10-04T07:26:00.000-07:00

From a Klaus two page comic

2011-10-03T02:16:00.000-07:00

Which I've been working on recently; the first time that I've tried taking Klaus out of four boxes. I think I can say that this will be in Nobrow 6, The Double, out in November.

New Klaus strips will start again soon.

Two new cat strips; the loneliness of cats

2011-10-01T01:22:00.000-07:00

Indebted to /appropriated from John Berger's essay "Why Look At Animals?".

Another new Dieter the duck comic

2011-09-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

As it's pretty much the same as the other ones (and I still have a backlog).

You don't get two Garfield a day.

A new Dieter the duck comic

2011-09-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

A new Klaus comic, Dieter and Eddie (ducks)

2011-09-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

Two more cat comics, as I have a bit of a backlog.

2011-09-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

And these ones are pretty stupid.

A new cat comic

2011-09-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

A new duck and moles comic

2011-09-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

A new Klaus comic

2011-09-26T02:38:00.000-07:00

A Dieter the duck comic

2011-09-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Two Fast Colour #4 preview

2011-09-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

Martina Lenzin has put up some photos of the new soon-to-buyable Two Fast Colour #4 on her blog here. You can see a page and a portion of my contribution to it in the photo above. It looks like it's a bit different this time; with a spined cover, just eight contributors and some articles, on Toulouse comics, and interviews (one of them with me). I'm really pleased to be part of this.

Poster for Kicker Conspiracy: Xeno & Oaklander

2011-09-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Meathaus GO FOR THE GOLD! 4, on the Vice website

2011-09-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

With an interview with Chris McD and this review/sales pitch;

#1
MEATHAUS Go For the Gold 4
Edited by Chris McD
Meathaus

Meathaus is the best comics collective ever and this gigantic textbook of sketchbook drawings is basically a who's who of the best current illustrators, animators, and cartoonists. It's fucking great and I should know seeing as I'm in it. James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Mu Pan, Tom Herpich, Arik Roper, Me (Nick Gazin), Angie Wang, and so on contributed pages. This is a must for any art director out there and anyone who’s trying to figure out how to draw. The Meathaus sketchbook anthologies will make you want to draw. This thing is mammoth and good to the last drop.

Two Fast Colour #4

2011-09-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

I have a six page Otto comic in the new issue of Two Fast Colour, a comics anthology from Hamburg, that I've been contributing to since about 2006. It's edited by Marlene Krause and Martina Lenzin, both of whom are very good cartoonists. I think the cover above is by Rui Tenreiro. There's more about the contributors on their Tumblr and I'm sure there'll be some more previews about soon.

A new cat comic; a variation on a theme

2011-09-15T00:38:00.001-07:00

New Otto comic

2011-09-14T02:05:00.001-07:00

A Klaus poster

2011-09-13T07:40:00.005-07:00

A new cat comic

2011-09-13T01:34:00.000-07:00

A new (non-cat) comic page

2011-09-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

The first page, of six, that I've been drawing for a new comics magazine which is coming out next year.

New weekend cat comic

2011-09-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

New cat comic; Klaus and Joe the rat.

2011-09-09T03:37:00.000-07:00

A new Klaus comic

2011-09-08T03:47:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook drawing; Klaus manga

2011-09-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

Rat comic; at the movies with Barry, #1

2011-09-07T08:46:00.001-07:00

A new Otto comic, with Maurice and Jean.

2011-09-07T08:42:00.000-07:00

Klaus in (one) colour

2011-09-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

There'll be more new comics starting from tomorrow, but for now here's something mocked up by Nobrow, from when we first started talking about the book. The one-colour thing didn't work out (something I need to work on) but I think that this one looks good.

A chipper new weekend Klaus comic

2011-09-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

A new Klaus comic; King Leopold

2011-09-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

A Klaus comic for September

2011-09-01T02:13:00.000-07:00

A new cat comic (introducing Glenn)

2011-08-31T03:30:00.000-07:00

A Klaus comic, with a touch of 1970s (British) sitcom humour.

2011-08-30T02:41:00.000-07:00

Bank Holiday Cat Comic

2011-08-29T04:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday cat comic

2011-08-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

Saturday Kat Komic

2011-08-27T02:40:00.000-07:00

Another cat comic

2011-08-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

A preview/review from Paul Gravett

2011-08-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

I'm really happy to be able to post this up, a really nice preview (of the Nobrow book) and review (of my 'home-made' Klaus 1 and 2. Thanks again to (Dr) Debbora Hall for making those Klaus comics up on her (ex) university's printer).

Klausby Richard Short
Nobrow
£15.00

The publisher says:

Visually informed by Short’s love of classic comic strips, especially Charles Schulz’ Peanuts and Tove Jansson’s Moomin, Klaus explores the un-adventures of the eponymous character, a pensive anthropomorphic cat, and a vexatious supporting cast of humanoid rats, inappropriately specie-d romantic interests and Klaus’ libertarian doppelganger Otto. Weaving literary allusions, metaphysical ruminations and physical comedy through crisp, cartoonish artwork Short has transplanted the spirit of the classic comic strip into a new, slightly stranger body.

Paul Gravett says:

Richard Short is another British creator new to me. He kindly sent me two of his self-published “hastily made” minis of Klaus from late 2010. He advised, “I think only around half of these have made in into the Nobrow book”. It takes little time reading them to realise that Short is mastering the four-panel webcomic format with a deft wit and imagination. Klaus is not quite a “proper cat”, so for example he doesn’t eat the Great Auk mother’s chick which he hatches but rears it, and sleeps for as much as 16 hours a day - “I’m not your average cat.” The expanding ensemble cast includes the yang to his yin, black cat Otto, and foils Alan/Terry/Barry, the curious rat-tailed homunculi. The cumulative effect is pleasantly mind- and mood-altering. Philosophical, bizarre and funny, often all at once, Klaus is a great addition to the fine feline tradition in comics from Felix and Krazy Kat to The Rabbi’s Cat, and is no relation, by the way, to Gunnar Lundkvist’s existentially challenged Swedish moggie on two legs, Klas Katt.

......................................................................................................................................................

The full previews on Paul Gravett's website are here.

More cat comics

2011-08-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

New Otto comic for Wednesday

2011-08-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

I've been drawing one comic a day and I'll post them all up, even the awful ones and the ones that my housemate thinks are "too broad" to show anyone.

Something old and some things new

2011-08-21T02:53:00.000-07:00

I think that the latter two, the new ones, are too pat, too sentimental and really too twee, and so they weren't considered for the book. I think I was listening to too much Radio 4 while writing these ones. Beware Radio 4.

A new Klausless Klaus comic

2011-08-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

Another Klaus comic surplus to the book's requirements

2011-08-19T01:41:00.000-07:00