Free Comic 2008!!

Traditionaly, once upon a time, to a small group of us, May 5 meant National Cartoonist's Day... a day on which folk heaped praise upon their favorite Cartoonists. and thanked them for the joy that they bring others.

For some reason, though, a day of praise for Cartoonist's just couldn't compete with another country's holiday that Americans celebrated with much drinking of beer, and the eating of many Mexican foodstuffs, including heaping plates of Nachos.

How to compete? Somebody, somewhere, had an idea. A great idea. Let's take National Cartoonist's Day away from May 5, and place it on the weekend closest.... and give away FREE COMIC BOOKS!!

Yes, a new Holiday was born, and you, the reader, get free stuff.


Not to be left behind, we here at HappyGlyphs Comics have once again decided to offer you FREE stuff: Our first true comic book story!


HappyGlyphs Comics is proud to announce the completion, and immediate availablility, of The WOlfman of Beckenham, Kent! Yes, it's been over a year in the making! Okay, it's been over a year of procrastination, but we've been busy. But here it is, in full black and white 7 page glory, the first in a collection of stories collectively known as "John's Shorts", The Wolfman of Beckenham, Kent takes you to a small town in the south of England where things are not quite what they seem. There's a mystery here, and it's up to you to gather the clues, and solve it. You'll have fun in the process, we'll promise you that.

So, here it is:

The Wolfman of Beckenham, Kent .



While you're there, you may want to check out our other fine offerings, including the very beautiful cover to our new story, which is available as a fine poster print. Here's a small preview of that cover.



For more of the back story, please check out our other blog, The Travelling 'Toonist.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

A Funny Thing Happened...

Somehow or another, I started calling myself an Illustrator, instead of Cartoonist. I've been a Cartoonist for a long time now, but suddenly, my Freelance work has pulled me into new directions, somewhere between illustration and fine art. As much as I hate to admit it, but Freelancing pays more than my cartoon and cartoon book publishing does, at the moment, so most of my time goes in that direction.

The funny thing is, though, that I saw Freelancing as a way to expand myself as an Artist, and especially as a Cartoonist. My cartooning actually improved, for awhile, but now it's so hard to tell because very little of what I am currently doing is cartooning.

Am I complaining? No... I like creating, and mentally, art is art. Creating something that is nice to look at, or has something to say, or both, is very rewarding. And trying someting new and actually succeeding at it? Good stuff. And getting respect for your work, which Cartoonists very rarely get? Nice.



Then again, creating an entire world where your own characters interact within their own continuity, and events that you initiated start running off on their own, well... that's great too. Really great.

And then there's the smell of ink, and the feeling you get when you ink in panel borders and realize that you've just opened a window into that other world, and any minute now your characters will be there to share a laugh.

Yeah, that's great, too. :0)



Cheers, JOHN :0)

On my iPod right now? Echobelly - People Are Expensive

The Travelling 'Toonist

What's up with me? I started a new blog, and completely forgot to mention it here! Yes, I'm calling myself the Travelling 'Toonist, now... at least I am over at my other blog.

If you've been following the HappyGlyphs Comics blog, you may recall that I wander from cartoons and illustration to travel and history to recent movie reviews. That's a bit spread out for a blog that's supposed to report the news from The HappyGlyphs Studios, and discuss art and creativity.

So... we've spun-off. We'll try to focus more on art and creativity here, and I'll move all the travel and travel related talk to the Travelling 'Toonist. I've decided that I'll add illustrations and photos to those blogs since I am a Cartoonist, and two of my books have been travel related.




So even if you're more interested in the art side of things, the other blog will still have much to interest you. Also, It seems I'm posting a lot more over there, since I've got a huge backload of travel to talk about.

Please take a look, and join in any discussions. And as always, let me know what you think! When I develop a logo for that blog, I'll post it here.

Cheers, JOHN :0) The Travelling 'Toonist