The Tide Turns

 It's been a weird few years, and things are hardly great again, but Paper Jam, as a comic-making entity is BACK. Believe it, fools!

Under The Restless Sea is a zine of sea-themed comics and art, made as a kind of warm-up to get back into the swing of making stuff, before we make a full 'And That' anthology in early 2023.

Featuring work by Torgo Wells, Jon Sapsed, Steven Flanagan, Jack Waugh, Michael Duckett, Grace L, sidestep, Oscillating Brow, Sara Qaed and Michael Dodsworth - it's awash with loads of lovely aquatic imagery with a dark surreal edge, and will be available for spectacularly cheap.

Paper Jam will be running stalls at a load of great this weekend, including:

Saturday 10th: Kendal zine fair (er, can't find details online, but it's in the clocktower during the day)

Saturday 10th: Lubber Fiend Market (Newcastle NE1 3PZ, from 12pm)

Sunday 11th: Star & Shadow Christmas Market (Newcastle Shieldfield NE2 1BB, 11am-3pm)

  

Where you'll be able to get all our gear, including Under The Restless Sea. We'll also hopefully get some copies in Travelling Man comic shop (in Newcastle) soon!

If you're based anywhere near Newcastle and are interested in getting involved with Paper Jam, we're open to all, meet monthly, and there's perhaps just time to get involved with the main sea anthology. Go! Go! Go!

People Are Doing Interesting Things

It's understandably been pretty quiet on this blog for some time, but it's worth highlighting a few things that members of Paper Jam have recently been up to!

Daniel has recently released his self-published novel on Amazon. It’s called Abigail and Caurinus: Plague’s Beginning. The story sees the young Abigail Winters alongside the Plague Doctor, Edgar Caurinus, as the two of them work together to stop a deadly plague that spawns terrible monsters. Check it out: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Z7689RM

Sara has been working on an illustrations series with DerStandard: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000134154222/sara-qaed-karikaturen-zur-pandemie

Britt has brought back Newcastle's finest craft market, the Make & Mend Market, on the first Saturday of each month in the Grainger Market: https://makeandmendmarket.co.uk/ (Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makemendmarket)

Torgo Wells is working on several projects - an album cover for a local band, their own comic Stardozer, and a strip for the Comic Creatives UK anthology due out in August. https://www.instagram.com/torgowells/

Alex is also working on strips for the CCUK anthology. (CCUK is a friendly Discord server primarily for UK-based comic creators - of all levels of experience - to chat, share tips and collaborate: https://discord.gg/gyAHqaG5tB)

Mike has been making a comic about the Tyne and Wear Metro, and several other Paper Jammers have also contributed to the project. 10,000 (yes, repeat: TEN THOUSAND COPIES) will be out and available to pick up for free before June is out.

 

Paper Jam itself will be back touting its wares to the unsuspecting public at various events, the next of which are:

- Make & Mend Market, Saturday 4th June, Grainger Market 9am-5pm https://www.facebook.com/events/319936713539676/319936723539675/

- Handyside Market Pop-Up, Thursday 9th June, Split Chimp micropub, 6pm-10pm https://www.facebook.com/events/3250687495210407  (which also replaces our next monthly meeting)

Finally, whilst Paper Jam hasn't published an anthology since 2019's You Need A Holiday ...And That , loads of comics and drawings have been done by the group, many of which, you can see over on Paper Jams (the bit of our blog for comics, sketches etc). Hopefully, if we can sell a few comics, more physical anthologies will follow soon. 

If you don't already own our fine anthologies and would like to, you can get them (at bargainous prices) from us: at events where we have a stall or usually in the Travelling Man comic shop small press section or from our online shop   :)

You Need A Holiday ...And That

Life, eh? Been getting you down? Same old thing day after day? You know what you need? A SELF-PUBLISHED COMIC ANTHOLOGY FROM NEWCASTLE'S FINEST COMIC-MAKING ART COLLECTIVE!

The Paper Jam Comics Collective's latest masterpiece has arrived, just in time for summer. You Need A Holiday ...And That is an anthology that features insightful experiments in sequential art on the theme of needing a holiday from: K. Ben Clarke, Brittany Coxon, Michael Dodsworth, Mike Duckett, Daniel Fitzgerald, Steve Flanagan, Emma Friel, Michael Gonson, Lauren Matthews,  Oscillating Brow, Sara Qaed, Paul Thompson, and James Wilkinson.

The very first opportunity to obtain this wondrous tome will be at the Make & Print Market at the Grainger Market this Saturday (29th June, 9am-5pm). There'll be loads of other cool and interesting self-produced art of various types, so come and check it out.

Then! 13th July, in honour of Small Press Day, we'll be having our 'official launch' at the Canny Comic Con Summer Comics Jam event at Tyne Bank Brewery. There'll be ALL the finest locally made comics, collaborative drawing games, street food, beer, DJs - everything you could want from a laid back Saturday afternoon/evening. (13th July, 12pm-12am).

Make & Print Market and Baltic Self Publishing Artists' Market

We're going to have tables at two exciting events in the next few weeks.

MUCH PAPERY EXCITEMENT!

First up, the inaugural Make & Print Market: Saturday 30th March, 9am-5pm, within Newcastle's Grainger Market. It's a spin-off of the successful long-running 'first Saturday of the month' Make & Mend Market, which is always full of interesting art and craft works, and this special event (set to run quarterly) is focused more specifically on print media, so is sure to be full of all kinds of quality gear.

Then in April, it's the Baltic Self-Publishing Artists' Market 2019: 27th April,11am-6pm, in the BALTIC gallery just on the Gateshead side of the Tyne. We had a great day at this last year and are again expecting excellent varied work from a wide range of creators.

Pretty cool and highbrow eh? Come to both events, they're free entry and they'll be class. And come and say 'hi' to us (we'll be the ones bringing the tone down).

Paper Jam: some stuff we did, 2018

2018! A bit of a stupid year in many ways but Paper Jam did some good stuff.

We released two anthologies! Weird Romance ...And That and Super Spooky Scary Stories ...And That. Full of quality!

  

Sadly, long time Paperjammer and general small press comics legend Terry Wiley died this year. Weird Romance was the last of our anthologies to benefit from a contribution from him.

Terry enriched the group and our comics over the years, and if you'd like to read some of our older anthologies, featuring work from Terry and many many other Paperjammers past and present, we've made several of our out-of-print anthologies available to read free on t'internet. Now including our all-time bestseller, Newcastle ...And That.

In other 2018 news...

Paul invented a Lego robot that draws randomised comics page panel layouts (became an instant favourite with young 'uns at events it was exhibited at).


Connected to that, we won an award! Us! An award! It was a prestigious 'Maker of Merit' ribbon at the Maker Faire:

Mike ran an arts residency in the Grainger Market for most of the latter half of the year, organising all kinds of exciting projects - including a 12-hour comic challenge that several of us took part in.

We attended many varied events in 2018, including: the Baltic Small Press Artists Market, Maker Faire, Glenrothes Comic Con, Bensham Grove's Midsummer Magic and Night Market, the Make & Mend Market (on Small Press Day), the Great Exhibition of the North Family Expo, Tynemouth Market Book Fair, Kommunity Night Market, our own Halloween party comic launch, Grainger Market Night Market, and the Verbal Remedy Festival of the Zine.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat, do some drawing, buy some of our dumb comics; you're fabulous.


2018 was also the first full year that Paper Jam has been based at Bar Loco. It has proved to be just the home we were looking for when we moved from Travelling Man.

Illustration by Steven

If you're interested in getting involved, meeting artists, contributing to anthologies (artistic finesse non-essential) then come and say hi: every second Thursday of each month, Bar Loco, top floor, from 6.30. First meeting: 10th January!

Weird Romance ...And That! Plus: Baltic! Maker Faire!

Paper Jam is go for 2018!

Our new anthology is here! Yes, taking on the themes of both 'weirdness' and 'romance' (and, let's be honest, romance is often pretty weird, right?) in one 40-page beast of an anthology, it's WEIRD ROMANCE ...AND THAT

Featuring comics from...
Anton Brand,  K. Ben Clarke, Callum Costello & Beth Chrisp, Brittany Coxon, Jennifer Coxon, Mike Duckett, Adam Fallows, Dan Fitzgerald, Steve Flanagan, Michael Gonson, Brett Halliwell, Pauline Holland, Noah McKenzie, Eltje Müller-Stewart, Oscillating Brow, Terry Wiley.

Where can you get this beauty? Well, our webshop and at Travelling Man at some point soon, but we'll be launching it at two events:

ONE! The Baltic Self-Publishing Artists' Market http://baltic.art/whats-on/artists-market

This Saturday, at the Baltic, a whole load of excellent artists, free.



TWO! The Maker Faire https://makerfaireuk.com/

Saturday and Sunday 28th & 29th April, at Life Science Centre, a whole load of excellent scientists and makers-of-things of all kinds. Always full of mind-blowing technological fun.


And this year, Paper Jam is going high-tech! Paul Thompson (artist, long-standing paperjammer, general awesome dude) has constructed... A PRINTER MADE OF LEGO THAT WILL PRINT A RANDOM PAGE LAYOUT OF COMIC PANELS:




See yous then.

2017: A Year in Things We Did

It has been a year. A good year.

Here are some things that happened. 

January

We turned 10.

The Paper Jam Comics Collective is a decade old this month. A DECADE. Alex blathers a bit: https://t.co/gNIETjrINc (RTs would be nice, thx) pic.twitter.com/C43JpkrjWK

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) January 10, 2017

The Paper Jam Comics Collective celebrated 10 years of comics making fun.

February

That @mrmrduckett has been up to it again, drawing. Here's what he drew at our last meet. pic.twitter.com/1LOsNOsMrI

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) February 13, 2017

That @terrywiley_idcm is showing us paintings that will be for sale at @CannyComicCon -18th March. pic.twitter.com/LU9hBRwpJ4

— Paul Thompson (@Paulxthompson) February 23, 2017

And we attended Biblio-Con, we made some great friends there.

March

We invaded The Exchange in North Shields for their Originals event, a great afternoon of local songwriters.

The @PaperJamCC at The Exchange in Shields. There is music and beer. Come visit! pic.twitter.com/oLQyvfeKfO

— Paul Thompson (@Paulxthompson) March 5, 2017

Oscillating Brow took PJCC on the road, all the way up to Dunfermline Comic Con.

We launched our first full colour comic, Amazing Adventure Comics Machine ... and that. A comic aimed at younger folks. 

The comic was launched at the one and only Canny Comic Con. 

We had a super nice time in Newcastle. Hope Canny Comic Con is on again next year! #cannycc pic.twitter.com/m8joSAyBGu

— Panels Publishing (@panelscomix) March 19, 2017

April

Maker Faire. We love the Maker Faire. 

Playing with the format! #MakerFaireUK pic.twitter.com/SGM8wD8mOp

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) April 2, 2017

We made some great mini comics, then announced our new anthology.

Hot news! New anthology title: Bad Decisions and that. More details soon.

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) April 13, 2017

May

On the road again, to Scribblecon. This time thanks to Mike D.

Had a great day at #Scribblecon with @gogorobotendo and @paizybones only a small haul, but had a fun time 🤓 pic.twitter.com/p47MTbKUhG

— Jojo El Jobby Ozzy (@kickmeiamadog) May 14, 2017

More things took place at The Exchange in North Shields.

We're at Oxjam at The Exchange, North Shields with @Paulxthompson @RadioOnTheComic @alexiconman @BrittCoxon canny! pic.twitter.com/NnSjaAMIPO

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) May 28, 2017

June

Wonderlands! A great day with amazing comics creators and best of all, just one city over.

We also started to see the first pages for our next anthology. Bad Decisions... and that. This one's by Mike D.

July

And tonight on #comicsinthepub I'm reminded by @PaperJamCC of the importance of the democracy and vital self-expression of the small press. pic.twitter.com/tKUyIQfUa9

— Andy Oliver (@AndyWPOliver) July 6, 2017

Paper Jam celebrated Small Press Day 2017 in good company at Pocket Geek, a funky little convention in Gateshead.

August

What happened in August? The deadline for Bad Decisions was reached and we got to behind the scenes work to print it. And we got a lovely review in Broken Frontier for Amazing Adventure Comics Machine.

September

A week on Saturday we'll be at @TyneBankBrewery! Sellin' comics and runnin' drawing games. Much else interesting also afoot. Will be tops. pic.twitter.com/3jqlLuoLzb

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) September 7, 2017

Much fun was had.

October

By now you've noticed that we should have been talking about these things all year round. We're not the best at keeping our blog updated. If you want the most up to date happenings you should probably follow us on Twitter.

Anyway, back to October. 

We tackled the hard stuff, drawing hands and feet. Feet are harder.

And we launched Bad Decisions ... and that.

Specifically, we launched it at our second appearance at Tyne Bank Brewery's market.

And we got another review! This one from a younger reader.

"Brilliant anthologies, would happily throw them across the room again" (JT, 2yrs) nice seeing y'all today! pic.twitter.com/z2HDj9cuiV

— Mikey T (@Skippa23) October 21, 2017

Plus Steven Flanagan drew us while at the Tyne Bank.

Rough sketches from @TyneBankBrewery today, where @PaperJamCC launched their new anthology,"Bad Decisions ... and That". pic.twitter.com/XJHNQ52YmG

— Steven Flanagan (@StoverFandango) October 21, 2017

November

We held our first full meeting at Bar Loco, it's a lovely place. And I finally got round to putting our new anthology on the web shop. 

Wondering where you can buy our latest anthology? Bad Decisions... and that is now up on our Comicsy: https://t.co/eW9R4asUdG pic.twitter.com/N7as5wrrLC

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) November 10, 2017

And we got a new folder.

December

We uploaded some cracking 24 minute comics and jam comics to our jams blog.

Various Jams - have been uploaded to our comic jams blog including the one below.https://t.co/u72WhDO47L pic.twitter.com/55uJ3UDmB5

— Paper Jam Collective (@PaperJamCC) December 15, 2017

And we schemed and plotted the next anthology. We're not 100% sure what it's all about yet but it appears to have a romance theme.

---

So that was it. That was 2017. PJCC has accomplished many things. Surviving its 11th year and now into its 12th. What adventures will 2018 hold?

Well, our first adventure is the first meeting of the year, 11th January. In Bar Loco from 7ish. Top floor.

Paper Jam at York GeekFest

This Saturday the Paper Jam Comics Collective will be at York GeekFest. How cool is that?

You'll find us in the Exhibition Centre at the University of York. Table 9 - Saturday only.

We'll have our latest anthologies and a few good rare finds from our archives, including the now very limited and thematic Halloween and that. Wooo.

But, you're reading this on Sunday or a date even further in the future? Well, you can get our comics sent to you in the post. We've now got an online shop, all our currently in print comics are available there. This is truly the digital age of delivering paper comics to your door. Yes.