When Pigeons Weep

Ahem

2009-06-17T19:32:00.000+01:00

Badger Doesn't Get Out Much | Cute But Sad

I know I've not updated this in ages, but look here! Badger has a new home!

Join the Cute but Sad Mailing List, if you would!

2009-01-14T07:23:00.001Z

Rather than continually spam my blogs with Badger stuff forever, I'm setting up a mailing list for a monthly newsletter thing about Cute But Sad stuff so I can get back to blogging about adventures and stuff like bathroom tiling. As such, if you want in, can you email cutebutsad at gmail.com to let me know and then you'll get something cute but sad in your inbox every month. Otherwise, I'm going to start doing weekly updates on cutebutsad.co.uk too!

2008-12-31T08:43:00.000Z

Happy New Year!, originally uploaded by zombiecoterie.

If I've been a bit quiet online this last month or two, it's not because I've been in a depressive fug but just that I've been working hard to keep on making new comics and learning all kinds of things about space at the National Maritime Museum. Fear not, I'll have lots to tell you about once I've got some more work actually finished.

Thanks so much for being brilliant all this year.

Cute But Sad Website

2008-11-28T11:51:00.003Z

I've updated the website for Cute But Sad Comics and will keep on adding new stuff on there. There's even a working shop that will let you make orders and won't charge you postage for each item but just once for each order! It's all very exciting. Do tell your friends and have a look and let me know what you think. I'll be updating it with photos from the Greenwich exhibition and will be sure to add something to it each week.

This may well mean I won't be updating this site nearly so often, so subscribe to the RSS for that site instead!

http://www.cutebutsad.co.uk/

Badger at Home

2008-11-27T22:35:00.001Z

Badger at Home, originally uploaded by zombiecoterie.

Like Badger, I just got in from the rain. It's been a very strange week. Jonathan's father passed away last Friday morning, which was a whole world of strangeness. I'd never realised all the strange logistical things that go into that.

This week, I started my new job at the National Maritime Museum and have been trying to get my head around the work I'll be doing there and also around the whole idea of having an ongoing job again.

Yesterday, I think I agreed to do some outreach type work for a local charity that looks like it might be an interesting bit of work to get involved with and today I've been spending the day taking teenage girls around the Robin Rhode exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and being slightly sad to hear how so many people say they can't draw or that all the joy they have in drawing gets drained out of them in art classes where they're having to stick to a curriculum that says a good drawing is a good likeness.

It's a shame that art at school has to live with those constraints. I got a D for art at GCSE and that very nearly put me off making artwork. It was only that I wanted to write poetry but didn't like reading it enough to do English Literature that I wound up at Art School where I slowly re-connected with some sense of confidence in my ability to produce visual art. I wish more people felt happier with the idea that a drawing isn't necessarily about a likeness as it can be about a feeling, a movement or something emotional rather than feeling like you've failed because you're not inspired by spending ages cross-hatching fruit.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I just got in from doing a radio interview for a comics podcast and radio show - luckily I only talked about pterodactyl porn once we weren't recording any more. I'm not sure if heckling him was such a great move, but we'll see, eh?

Anyway! On Monday, I've got to hang an exhibition of my work at the Greenwich Picturehouse Cinema so I'd better pull my finger out about that, eh? Funny how two weeks ago I didn't have much of a job and suddenly I have three apart from the comics stuff. It's very exciting!

Cute But Sad Comics Shop

2008-10-24T10:09:00.009+01:00

The Cute But Sad Comics shop has moved!

You'll now find it in a much nicer and more sane format over here:

http://www.cutebutsad.co.uk/Shop.html

Birmingham International Comics Show

2008-10-06T16:36:00.000+01:00

Exhausted now. Got home quite late after a very full weekend at the Birmingham International Comics Show, so just updating now. On balance, I am pretty sure I had a good weekend but I've come away with mixed feelings.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first: the tables were expensive enough as it was without turning up to find out that you're in a room that's on the other side of a science museum from the main room of the show. It felt very unfair to those of us in the smaller room because there were far fewer people around and we'd paid the same and had no say in where we were placed. Add to that the decision by the organisers to have a map that listed the names of the people present instead of the promised little graphic and link on the website that would have let people understand the layout by the work and not by the creator and I can't help but feel like a got a bit of a bum deal with the event.

Turns out that while there were publishers and fans aplenty, the publishers present were all about the superhero action stuff for the main part and there weren't really many opportunities for someone like me who writes stuff where the most action is a leaf falling from a tree. As with The UK Web Comix Thing, I seemed to sell most of my stuff to women and they were in short supply among the fanboys.

Come Saturday night, I was feeling a bit despondent about the whole thing and probably would have given up if I had any idea what that would mean any more.

Sunday, however, left me feeling markedly better by the time we left - more people were browsing and chatting and we got to meet some lovely creators and artists who made the event feel worthwhile. Here's a quick round-up of the people I fell in love with in Birmingham:

Tpcat produced Prick, a beautiful collection of adorable philosophical stories about woodland creatures pondering the mysteries of love, sex and the onion messiah. Her work made me very happy.

The guy from Reaper Comics showed me his badger, who was a space hero with a bulging groin and a rocket launcher. I think that my badger would be a little bit scared, but the creator was friendly and lovely and told me to email him, so I should!

I swapped a copy of badger with Willie Hewes, who created Amaranth, which I've not read yet but I notice is published by Itch Publishing, which says it's comics that are girl-friendly, so I'm having a nose at their submission policies!

Manga's not normally something I like, but I read Origins: an IndieManga anthology and loved the stories, particularly Anna Fitzpatrick's short about a boy who follows his mother into the afterworld to find her and learns a lesson about life.

I love Calorific, the latest creation from Lonely Panda, a beautifully-produced tale of cupcakes. Sweet, in every sense.

Dave: a day in the life of a zombie made me very happy and I've looked back through it a few times. It's a diary of a slightly unlucky zombie who locks himself in a cupboard. Short but very cute.

I hadn't realised that the guy from Ninja Bunny did other stories too - A Fictional Tale of Young Love... and Old is heart-wrenching!

Naniiebim's Here Be Demons had me worried about the manga thing, too, but turns out to be a book I really enjoyed! It's about a girl who can see through a hawt indie boy's glamour and sees him for the demon he really is. Then tries to hit him with a frozen turkey.

The New Think publications had me in awe. They're baffling little mazes of tiny gifts and board games and stickers and really push the boundaries of what printed things can be.

It was also lovely to see Jess Bradley again - I just hope I have more money when I next see her stuff. She'd really make Christmas for me.

Jimmy Bott who made Half Dead did me a lovely Catwoman drawing that I'm chuffed with and he was friendly and encouraging and chatty, so that also made me really happy.

Whoops, I think I've just put up more links to work than you'd find on BICS' website.

I also found out that Thought Bubble is getting a bit of a good vibe going on with the littler people like me, so I'm actually really rather looking forward to it now. I have been told that Bristol is far more popular a con with small press fans and girls in particular, so I think I should get on and book myself a table there! Any other tips or hints would be very welcome to cheer me up even more!

Whoops!

2008-10-03T08:45:00.001+01:00

Eep! Off to Birmingham today for the International Comics Show. Slightly scared. Will you come and say hello if you see us? I'm listed as creator Howard Hardiman which makes me sound like a god. Cthulhu might get jealous.

http://www.thecomicsshow.co.uk/

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Respect Me!

2008-09-11T13:29:00.000+01:00

Badger Book Now Available!

2008-09-05T13:25:00.001+01:00

Badger, the story of a lonely badger who lives in my old flat in South London, is now available from the lovely people at the print-on-demand service, Lulu.com.

I'm really excited about this and think we may have to have a party so I can thank everyone who helped me make it and so we can all coo at badger and make little "aww!" noises at the sad bits in the book. There may also be other Badger-related stuff going on there, too!

Anyway, I'm off to have a cup of tea and calm down. Go take a look at it and order a copy if you feel so inclined, or just tell me you think he's cute and give me a hug.

Here's the link!

Badger.

Um...

2008-08-26T18:31:00.000+01:00

I'm off to Burning Man tomorrow - I have a feeling that will inspire many, many pigeons.

All images on this site are available as framed originals for just £20 or £35 for the larger images. Please contact me on hhardiman at gmail.com for details. You can also buy When Pigeons Weep postcards and stickers the same way.

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Maintaining Perspective

2008-08-25T21:13:00.002+01:00

Okay, so I've been a bit occupied with working on Badger this last month or so, but I've now finished his story and can now spend some time with my much-neglected little Pigeons. We'll be at the Comics Show in Birmingham in October. Will you come and find us?

All images on this site are available as framed originals for just £20 or £35 for the larger images. Please contact me on hhardiman at gmail.com for details. You can also buy When Pigeons Weep postcards and stickers the same way.

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© Whenpigeonsweep.com

Lessons in Life

2008-07-09T20:32:00.000+01:00

Wall

2008-06-30T09:42:00.001+01:00

I lied.

2008-06-25T13:38:00.000+01:00

You Will Learn

2008-06-24T08:35:00.000+01:00

Lip Balm

2008-06-23T09:52:00.000+01:00

We Found a Mouse

2008-06-22T08:53:00.000+01:00

Moog did it!

2008-06-17T09:05:00.000+01:00

Still not released?

2008-06-15T18:32:00.000+01:00

Apple Release A Snow Leopard

2008-06-13T07:31:00.000+01:00

The Karma Clown

2008-06-13T07:22:00.002+01:00

Through an outward projection of chaos it is
That I have found a sense of peace.

This image, as with all images on When Pigeons Weep is available framed for £20 (larger images £35). Please contact me on hhardiman at gmail dot com for details.

No Drama.

2008-06-06T07:47:00.000+01:00

What's Badger Been Doing?

2008-06-05T19:06:00.002+01:00

No, this isn't an autobiography, honest. I've been posting these over on Flickr, but thought I should share them with you lot, too, my beautiful coterie. I'll post five of these once a week (although more often while I get you up to date with the Flickr lot) so you can keep up to date with little Badger's adventures.

Since I'm destitute, this might be a good moment to remind you that I do also sell my drawings and prints and can also do custom artwork. Let me know if you want a comic book collection of the pictures or an original piece of framed artwork.

Comic books are £1.50 each or two for £2.50 there are two volumes, you see?
Small (3"x3") pictures are £20 framed and they look lovely!
Larger (a4ish) pictures are £35 framed and they look lovely and impressive!
Postcards are £4 for five and will make your friends happy!
When Pigeons Weep stickers are £1 for a sheet of six, lucky dip stylee!

I'm sure we can work out something sensible for postage or for bulk orders and the like. I'm still hoping that some lovely publisher somewhere will want to do something with all these, but in the meantime, it'd be great if you could help me out by buying stuff or by helping to market all this stuff. Mention Badger or When Pigeons Weep on Facebook or over a cup of tea with your friends, list it on stumbled.upon or b3ta or all sorts of other little websites like those. Just think, you could be my big break and I'd be in your debt forever and I'd send you lots of love.

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What was I thinking?

2008-06-05T07:54:00.000+01:00