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   :)

After that unscheduled interruption

Paper Jam is back! Meeting in person again - tentatively - monthly at the Bridge Hotel, working on some projects and attending events.

In terms of events, first up, we'll be at the return of the Make and Mend Market on Saturday 27th November

Then we'll be at the Christmas Market on Saturday 4th December at George Street Social

If you're interested in attending these events, or the meet-ups or getting involved in any way (and you're not already on the mailing list), just drop us an email.

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).

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.

Bad Decisions ...And That

The Paper Jam Comics Collective are proud to present their fifteenth anthology, Bad Decision ...And That!

A bumper collection of bad-decision-themed comics from: Anton Brand, K. Ben Clarke, Brittany Coxon, Jennifer Coxon, M. Duckett, Daniel Fitzgerald, Steven Flanagan, Michael Gonson, Dave Green, Brett Halliwell, Noah McKenzie, Janis Meißner, Gemma Moody, Eltje Müller-Stewart, Oscillating Brow, Paul Thompson, and Terry Wiley.

Job applications! Pheromones! Fish dirigible carnage! Unwise tattoos! Pop music! Existential angst! Cats! All this and more is explored within these highly (ehhh, maybe) insightful pages.

This kind of foolery:

We can't guarantee that after reading it, you'll be making good decision, but we feel you'll at least be slightly more knowledgeable about many and varied bad ones.

We're making the good decision to launch this beauty at the lovely Tyne Bank Brewery art/vinyl/comics market on Saturday (21st October) from noon.

As well as the new comic, we'll have our other comics anthologies (themed around food, history, making stuff, Newcastle and adventure), plus art and comics from creators including Britt Coxon (paper cut art geometric shape kits and mini-comic bundles), Jennifer Coxon (custom art masks), Eltje Müller-Stewart (expressionist Geordie kitchen sink adventures of the irrepressible Johnathan and his pyromaniacal best mate Declan) , Oscillating Brow (a bunch of tiny daft comics about cake, heartbreak, dance-offs, etc), Paul Thompson (monster-themed art book Invisible Beasts, fantasy noir comics), The Analogue Press (music-themed comics anthology Radio On), Gemma Moody (supervillain romance comics) AND we'll be running a bunch of drawing games for everyone to get involved with - PREPARE TO COMIC JAM!

This kind of quality stuff will be available:

 

        

It's going to be mint, get along!

Tyne Bank Brewery market shindig

You know what goes great together? COMICS and BEER. This is a proven fact.


On Saturday 16th September we'll be around at Tyne Bank Brewery. They make beer, we make comics. I mean, to be honest, they're a bit more professional about making beer than we are about making comics, but it still feels an excellent combination. Their brewery tap (just on the outskirts of Ouseburn) is a lovely space (with great beverages, obviously), so why not come and check it out.


As well as hawking a load of splendid comics, we'll be running drawing games and just generally chatting on to folks (mostly touting our very-nearly-complete-and-super-excellent new anthology Bad Decisions ...And That, out soon).


And you know what else goes well with COMICS and BEER? MUSIC, ART, and FOOD! That's all covered too! There'll be a Long Play Café vinyl sale and DJ sets, Mushroom Works and Nowt Special artists, and filthy burger specialists Fat Hippo.


All grand stuff - get it in your diary.


Ooh, also, our Amazing Adventure Comics Machine ...And That anthology was recently reviewed by Andy Oliver over at Broken Frontier - "a welcome reminder of the grassroots community spirit of the small press" YEAH! THAT'S HOW WE ROLL!

Pocket Geek / Small Press Day 2017!

Saturday 8th July 2017! It's Small Press Day! It's Pocket Geek convention at Gateshead Library!

Paper Jam will be celebrating the former by being at the latter!

Check out some top quality comics and art from Brittany Coxon, En Gingerboom, Paul Thompson, and more – including Paper Jam’s latest team anthology The Amazing Adventure Comics Machine …And That. In addition to having wondrous things for sale, we’ll be demonstrating our verbosity (or just making fools of ourselves) taking on the Anime Attacks crew in another session of daft panel game ‘Just A Comics Minute’, and we’ll be running collaborative drawing games throughout the day, hoping for participation from everyone – whatever your level of experience, everyone can do comics!


Of course, there's tonnes of other varied interesting stuff afoot at Pocket Geek - Gaming! Anime! Cosplay! Workshops! Including one on visual narrative by En, which is sure to be superb:

Amazing Adventure Comics Machine ...and that

It's true: our fourteenth anthology, in glorious full colour, is now out in the wilds.

The Amazing Adventure Comics Machine ...And That is our second foray into comics aimed specifically at kids (the first being the classic, and now out-of-print, Space Monkey).

This time we have a loose theme of 'adventure' (and perhaps 'mind-bending metaphysical comic-creation' too).

Featuring stories by Anton Brand, Brittany Coxon, Cuttlefish, Hannah Potter, Jenny Coxon, K. Ben Clarke, Mike Duckett, Oscillating Brow, Pauline Holland, Paul Thompson, and Terry Wiley.

It's got a dual launch at two of our favourite events: Canny Comic Con last weekend and Maker Faire on 1st and 2nd of April.

Get to it! If you want to check your puzzle answers or see the secret list of all the comic ideas depicted on the cover, you just need to... look very carefully.

Paper Jam's Spring Plans

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

The Paper Jam Comic Collective is ten years old.

Our new anthology - the Amazing Adventure Comics Machine - which will be A4 and in full COLOUR (a first for our anthologies) is almost ready. More info soon.

Paper Jam will be at:

Biblio-Con. Gateshead Central Library, 4th February, 2-7pm.

Dunfermline Comic Con. 11th March, Pittencreiff Park.

Canny Comic Con, 18th March, Newcastle City Library, 10.30am.-3.30pm.

Wonderlands 2016

Paper Jam Comics Collective will be at Wonderlands - 'the UK Graphic Novel Expo' in Sunderland this Saturday, 28th May, 10am-6pm (two minutes walk from 'University' metro station).

Wonderlands is a comic event really focused on the sequential art medium and the application of it in publishing (eschewing merch, cosplay, etc), with loads of great talks and workshops. Oh yeah, and it's totally FREE.


PJCC will be selling our very fine comics (including our most recent Making ...And That) at very reasonable prices (including bumper discounts on some of our older titles, while stocks last). Plus, er, hey, Sunderland locals - buy a copy of our Newcastle ...And That anthology and we might deface it for you to your preferred specifications!

Food ...And That

<trumpet!> The eleventh (ELEVENTH!) Paper Jam Comics Collective anthology, Food ...And That, has landed!

Oh yeah! Thirty-two pages of food-themed comics goodness. Featuring work by...

 



Anton ‘Biltong’ Brand
 ‘#’ Brown
refried Britt Coxon
Cuttlefish ‘Calamari’ Cuttlefish
Lucy 'Deep Dish Doughball' Dorothy
mouldy Michael Duckett
cruelty-free Jack Falafels
frost-free Michael Gonson
Emily ‘Porridge Oats’ Lambert
‘Piri Piri’ Maughn
Ian Mayor (boned and rolled)
lightly pickled Oscillating Brow
sprouted Sigmund Reimann
Paella X. Thompson
Dunkin ‘Gluten-Free’ Biscuits
family-sized Terry ‘Jolly Rancher’ Wiley
juicy James Wilkinson
Lydia ‘Allergic To Pumpkin’ Wysocki

It'll be launched at this fine event, happening on Saturday:

Where PJCC will be in full effect, along with all that other super exciting comics/zines/talks/film screening/bands/vegan cake action!

Subsequently, Food ...And That will be available from Travelling Man Newcastle's small press section.

PJCC at Sunderland Comic Con

Breaking news! The Paper Jam Comics Collective will be representing at the inaugural Sunderland Comic Con this weekend - 21st/22nd February.

We might even have copies, hot off the press, of our latest food-themed anthology..........

Friendship Festival Redux

The PJCC were at the International Friendship Festival in Washington last weekend: Britt, Paul, Martin, Gary, Oscillating Brow, Stacey and Christian Kerr were all out and about.

This is a really great event, and we were in a tent with a combination of book sellers and craftspeople selling fantastic cakes, dolls and the like. Thanks to Leonie O'Moore for helping us get organized, and thanks to everyone who stopped by our table and checked out our comics.

A fair few comics were sold, and were really pleased that Space Monkey went down well as it was conceived at the same event last year, when we discovered that we had embarrassingly little of interest to kids.

We also made some new friends: Made in Newcastle and the Newcastle Crafts Mafia - more on these fantastic people shortly!

Here are some pictures of ourselves and our table, as is customary, and also kites on a sunny day, which is less common:

International Friendship Festival 2010

The P.J.C.C. will be out and about in Washington this weekend at the International Friendship Festival.

We had a great time there last year, when despite having a great time, we really didn't have much to interest kids. This year, everything changes: as well as our usual collection of comics and zines, we have the excellent SpaceMonkey Anthology.

It runs from Eleven till Five on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of July. You can find it here:


View Larger Map

EGO - A Celebration of Differences

Daniel, Britt, Jack and Paul attended the EGO festival in Durham, sold some comics, met some lovely people and presided over a lot of young people drawing comics, courtesy of Jack and Daniel's Comic Book Workshops who now have a blog! Some very interesting, original and occasionally alarming characters and situations were devised.

EGO festival, Durham

The PJCC will at the EGO festival on Sunday 27th of June - a daylong event celebrating unique North East talent and held at Durham live lounge.

The EGO festival is a free family event with performances such as dance troupes, youth theatres, fashion shows and music as well as stalls displaying Artists work including our own fine comics.

Jack & Daniel's Comic Book Workshops will also have lots of comics worksheets - so everyone can join the fun!

• Keep up with the event on facebook.

P.R.E.S.S. at Washington Arts Centre (follow-up)

There was a whole crowd of Paper Jam members at the P.R.E.S.S. event at Washington Arts Centre yesterday. Andy and Gary were minding the stall all day, with support and nattering from Paul, Martin, Oscillating Brow and Mike D.

Business was slow (as is usually the nature of these things), but everyone who came was enthusiastic for the cause of independent publishing, and we made a few sales and had a lot of nice chats with people. Other stalls included comics, independent book publishers (of everything from poetry to horror fiction to children's books), and gorgeous art books (literally - books made into art). Mike D also produced and set up a wonderful zine trail especially for the event, which had inquisitive parties scouting the building for pages of a miniature zine.

Representatives of top London comics and zine team We Are Words + Pictures were there selling copies of their anthologies and individual works. It was a pleasure to have a natter with them and force them to buy some of our stuff.

Here's the obligatory photo of our stall...

...why we keep taking the same damn photo at every event is beyond me. The covers look nice, though!

Big thanks to Leonie at P.R.E.S.S. for organising the event and inviting us to come aboard.