Published! Printed!

It can't be so. It is so! Finally, after a year "my" cartoon book (or should I be terribly up-to-date and say graphic novel) Doin' It For The Kids, is "a thing". An entity. A real book, that can be picked up, thumbed through and put on coffee tables, or in outside toilets around the globe. I still can't quite believe that it's there: a cartoon book, drawn by me (a non-cartoonist) and co-written with my very good friend Christopher Dawson (a true master of dialogue and the vernacular). The vagaries round the process of publishing a book still lead me to wake up in the middle of the night bathed in a cold sweat. Luckily we left that to the good offices of THEME publishing who battled heroically with printers on our behalf. But what the heck. After nearly 15 years (FIFTEEN YEARS) of deliberations round plots, character, visual scenarios and the last - and most labour-intensive - phases, drawing (all done freehand I must emphasise) and layout. It's now lying in front of me and in good company (if the picture I have posted is anything to go by).

Chris posted a few pages from the beginning of the book for your titillation here. And a sneak peek on our new project too. We had a riotous publication party in London back in January in Clerkenwell for the (sold out! Gadzooks!) hardback and intend to launch the paperback in the North of England, where we both hail from. A train journey between Manchester and Sheffield, with sandwiches and flasks, and a jolly up with some modestly well-known deejay pals of ours in Sheffield (no telling yet). Doin' It For the Kids is a book set in Lancashire and it would be churlish not to celebrate its Northern roots.

But there we are. I may need to lie down after posting this as the reality still hasn't sunk in. Maybe I'll just go and stare at my copy one more time. Who said print was dead?