Comica Comiket and being a mate.

I spent my last Saturday morning over by the Gherkin, trying to find a bank – FYI all banks in the business section are closed on Saturdays. The reason for this was that my little childhood friend, Bex, was selling some of her wares at the independent comic and ‘zine festival Comica Comiket.

I’m not really into superhero stories, but there was more than enough printing, illustration, writing and small novelty items to keep me amused. Which is where I come to Bex’s work: drawing, print, painting, collage and charming little books are her thing. She would kill me for saying ‘charming’. Bex’s books are small and cute (again treading dangerous territory here) but also dry, witty and politically aware – see the naively titled: The Day I Met a Fatty.

So if you like ‘zines, decent illustration (none of that naive-art bull…), and interesting little stories check her out.

Here’s few tiny tasters….

…lovely handmade screen-printed robot cards, and Tick, a book about a little steampunk robot and his quest to find a purpose in our modernised lives…

An excerpt from Rumble - the battle between Mike Bison and Trevor Bearbick (ahaaa..)

Finally a couple of snippets from The Day I Met a Fatty – which taught me that make-up does not make you stupid, and not to be scared of chavs. I wish all helpful life lessons could be learnt in this way…

…more to come from Comica Comiket in the next few days.

Thank you to Miss Bex Bagley for helping me to discover a new genre of doodles.

Koshi Kawachi’s Manga Farming: Broccoli bookmarks.

Ingredients:

1 bag of radish, buckwheat, broccoli, rucola or basil seeds

1 expired manga comic or book

1 daily dose of sun, water and air

Place your seeds in between a few of your favourite pages of your manga comic or book before binding tightly together with rubber bands. Pour a glug of water into the top of your manga, set aside by a window and watch it grow!

Japanese artist Koshi Kawachi uses this method to turn piles of used manga mags into miniature vegetable gardens, both permanently bookmarking her most-loved stories and recycling something that would otherwise go to waste.

Plant cuttings in your chic-lits, grow hedges in your horror stories and sow flowers in your fantasies.