Robot's Return - a new long story!

It's been a while since I did a long story on People I Know. There was A Familiar Face that started in October 2013 and A Wizard's Woes in April 2013 but before both of those, there was Hello Future in September 2012!

Hello Future ended with Robot's head being torn off by Bleepo and ever since, poor Robot has never been the same!

So, months later (starting 24th March 2014) I am finally going to try to get Robot a new head... but obviously, it won't be that simple... OR WILL IT?! You'll have to read it to find out!

This is the longest story I've written and I tried to keep you on your toes. There's a bunch of familiar characters and maybe even a few new ones! I hope your favourite characters make an appearance!

I'm looking to have the story printed if everyone likes it - although it'll probably be split across two comics due to size issues. That works quite well though as the story has two distinct acts, as you'll find out! MWAH HA HA HA HA

Robot's Return will run until the beginning of July on my regular Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule.

IN OTHER NEWS: I'm going to work on a longer SPACE BABIES story! If you like SPACE and/or BABIES then you'll probably enjoy it

Stay out of trouble
TWx

SPACE BABIES!

Hello!

If everything goes to plan, I should be starting a brand new, pretty intense new story line in People I Know next week. I've been working on it for a while in one way or another and I don't want to say too much about it now... except that it focuses on the plight of Robot who has been without a head ever since Bleepo (the future version of myself's pet robot) tore it off... but, in a shocking twist, I've actually thought about the story so it isn't just about that! Well, not if I've done my job properly!

At the moment, this story will last for more than 10 weeks and it's not the only new project I've been working on. Oh no! I've also been working on a new project in a new world with new characters! I've even tried drawing hands for it!

The project is called 'SPACE BABIES' and is about stuff in space. I've drawn a few one-pagers and have written out a longer story too... but I wanted to show you a bunch of the one-pagers before the robot story begins... otherwise I'd have to wait for a few months before I could say anything!

I'll upload three SPACE BABIES one-pagers to www.timothywinchester.com - one on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There's no background you need to know about it except that it's set in space.

From an artistic point of view, I've really tried something different. So different that I'm actually a little nervous about posting it on my website! The aim of it all is to collect the one-pagers and the story into a cute Risographed comic... Risographing it means I can't use a lot of colours and that I've got to think a bit more how I'm doing everything.

I bought two lovely Posca Paint pens for all my sketchbook tests so that's been additional fun. Here are some photos from it for you to look at! If you click on them, they should appear larger!

I hope you don't mind SPACE BABIES taking up space in your RSS feed or whatever. I also hope I get this Robot story finished in time to start next week!

In other news, I hope you're all well and having a nice 2014. Have I missed anything interesting?

Stay out of trouble
TWx

People I Know: The Book Is HERE!

Hello!

Remember when I wrote about the People I Know book? Well, good news! It has finally arrived! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee! Check out my shop if you don't believe me!

So, here are the details:

It is A5 size

• IT HAS A SPINE!!!
• It is FULL COLOUR!
• It has over 250 pages
• It has a soft cover that has a sassy spot varnish on it. Not sure what a spot varnish is? It just means that bits of the cover and shiny and other bits aren’t. It’s cute, trust me
• It includes a lot of comics about from the start of the webcomic up to the end of Boyfriend Week
• It doesn’t have any of the Murder, She Wrote or celebrity-themed comics…
• Also, I haven’t put some of the *really* rude ones in it
• There are some bonus bits and bobs in the back of the book – information on how People I know started, drawings of Halloween costumes and those ‘deleted scenes.’ ALSO! There is a four page bonus strip about… well, you’ll have to read it.

The book is ready to pre-order now and will continue to be so until December the 12^th. Then I’ll go on a mega posting binge! Hopefully that means you can have it in time for Christmas! YAY!

If you pre-order the book from me then you’ll also get a copy of Toby’s First Zine. It’s an A6, full colour comic by Toby the dinosaur. He made it about some of the awful dudes that have broken his little dinosaur heart. I only made 100ish of these though so get in there quick.

BONUS PRIZE! I found some old People I Know comics from before I made webcomics. They are black and white and … uh…  rather different from what you might be used to. But I thought it would be nice to maybe include some into random orders. If you definitely don’t want one then let me know in the ‘notes to seller’ box.

Speaking of the ‘notes to seller’ box – if you want me to doodle in the book or make it out to anyone then please let me know and I’ll do my best!

Right. I think that’s it. It feels really exciting to type this out as I’ve been working on the book for so long now. I really hope you like it as much as I do!

Thanks in advance

TWx

November!

Hi there

Look! It's a blog post! Full of vague details about what I'm up to and the like!

First off, I can confirm the rumours that I *did* get a new haircut and *yes* it did involve losing my beloved fringe. I'd be distraught but someone said it was "sexy" so now I'm just confused...

Next, I'll be at Thought Bubble this coming weekend. If you're anywhere near Leeds then come and visit. Even if you don't stop by my table, there are some AMAZING people there so it's really worth a look! Plus, I'll have some new tote bags!

Unfortunately, the big book hasn't arrived in time. Booooooo. But as soon as I've had confirmation that it's being shipped then I'll activate the pre-order!

Also, I'm preparing to announce the next themed-week. We've had Wizard Week, Jessica Fletcher Week(s) and Boyfriend Week... so what could be next. It should happen a little before Christmas if that helps?

2013 is nearly upon us so I'm putting my thinking cap on about what to do next. So far I've got some sassy ideas for two new mini-comics and a storyline about Christina and how she's coping now that Toby has a boyfriend.

I'll wrap this blog post up with some fan art I've been working on. It's possibly one of the most complicated things I've made for a while - but it was really good fun to do! It's fan art for the new comic book series 'Saga.' It's created by Brian K. Vaughan (the man behind Runaways!!!!) and Fiona Staples (my new favourite drawing person) and is an epic space opera about family and war and cats. I really can't do it justice. The first trade paperback is out now and I cannot recommend it enough.

Anyways. Here is my fan art! I really hope you like it!

Happy 3rd Birthday... and the PROJECT

Guess what!? It turns out that it was my website's third birthday a few days ago... and I totally forgot. Well, I didn't forget but I guess I was just distracted on other things like getting 'Hello Future' sorted and getting more webcomics done. So yes, happy third birthday to my website. I hope you are enjoying the comic!

To celebrate, I figure that now is a good a time as any to write about the PROJECT.

For a long time, I've been thinking about putting together a big book of People I Know comics. Don't believe me? Look at this comic from last year! The main problem was working out how to put together something that felt like something more than just a bunch of webcomics plopped together. Is there a way to give it a bigger story or a new reason? Well, the answer to that presented itself during Boyfriend Week 2012 - it made sense that a People I Know should begin and end with stories about Toby's relationship.

The next hurdle was finding the time to put a book together - I wasn't under any illusions that it would take a while to collate the comics I wanted to include, think about how to design it and all the extra bits and bobs to out in... Luckily, I was allowed to take some unpaid time off work to get it all done and... well, here's the front cover!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee! And there's a back cover too! How mysterious!

So yeah - the book got done. For future reference, there are lots of things to consider when making a book. If you ever make a book, give yourself plenty of time! I sent the files off to the printers and the sample arrived. Here is a photo of it!

The actual book itself will look a little different in regards to the finish and stuff but that's pretty much it. After three years or webcomics, and what feels like three years of planning and preparation, I finally have a People I Know book to be proud of.

It should be back from the printers by December but I'm hoping that it will be here in time for Thought Bubble in November. Fingers crossed. I'll do another blog post later on about the exciting bonus comic and information that goes with it and the comics it includes and even the SUPER EXCITING MINI COMIC I've made for people that get it early on... Oh who am I kidding, I can't keep the last one totally under my hat. Here is the front cover for it! Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Wow. This was a pretty epic blog post. So yeah - happy third birthday. Thanks for sticking with me and I really hope you're as excited about the book as I am!

Stay out of trouble
TWx

Hello Future. Goodbye Future

Hello!

For the last few weeks, I've been uploading a longer story called 'Hello Future.' You can read the first part here. The story came to an end yesterday and I just wanted to write a little blog post to say "hooray," and "I hope you enjoyed it" and also "here is what I was thinking."

Hooray!

I hope you enjoyed it!

I enjoyed making it because I had plans and rules for this story - which is something I haven't tried before. Normally I just make whatever I want and see how things evolve. Wizarding Wednesday has been a great example of this and I'm really proud of it.

Firstly, the story had to be interesting to people that have read People I Know before without alienating a new reader. That's always tricky with webcomics. Some people see a huge archive as an obstacle to endure before they can start enjoying the latest comic. Even though People I Know only has 550ish comics in the archive, I wanted anyone who found my website for the first time to be interested in what was happening, without having to gallop through the archive. Yes, gallop. Like a comic-devouring pony.

The story also had to push things along in terms of future story lines. Believe it or not, I do actually think about character development - even though my webcomic is just a series of jokes and tears. 'Hello Future' introduced us to two new characters (Future Me and Little Robot) as well as showing us existing characters in a new light. SPOILERS! Toby the dinosaur spent a bunch of panels kissing his boyfriend. The Evil Sun and the weird green blob both got taught different types of lessons. Curly sort of stood up to Jones. Christina was nowhere to be seen (you'll find out more about that later on). The Robot got his head ripped off! So yeah - now we get to see what effect (if any) that has on future comics.

On a slightly boring note, I also set myself the challenge of making sure that each comic was the same size - in this case: A5 landscape. Sometimes there's a temptation to make a comic longer, thinking the extra space will make it better. So for 'Hello Future' I set the size challenge to make sure I never went crazy and just drew really big comics.

It was also a good excuse to touch base with a bunch of different characters that we don't see much of. Rainbow Chicken, the Sunday Science League and the Sleeping Hag all got some screen time because I'd like to do more stuff with them. And because I don't want you to forget about them! I feel like they all have something different to offer the comic. We've already established that Rainbow Chicken wants to find a gimmick... where will that take us next?

On a personal level, I made this story to give myself some breathing room to work on the PROJECT. You'll be familiar with the PROJECT if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram. I don't want to reveal what it is just yet but the sample arrived this week and I'm pretty excited about it all. I'll do a mega blog post about it soon.

In other news, I hope you're all well and having a nice time. Have I missed anything exciting?

New Badges! YEAH!

I think these are the new badge designs! The old sets have all gone to better homes so I hope you like the new batch! There are SIXTEEN designs this time round! I've even given the wizards their own badges - no more sharing for them! You might be a little surprised/confused to see the Science Lady on there since she's only ever appeared in *one* comic...but I really like her. I have plans for her! Unicorn goes in because everyone loves unicorns!

The only catch is that I couldn't decide how to group them together. I thought about doing them all randomly so you wouldn't know what characters would appear in your pack. But then I worried that...well... I just worried. So, instead I've put them into the following groups:

So this way, every pack has a nice mix of well-known characters and um...other ones!

AND! In special bonus news - I have designed this giant badge! The above ones are 25mm but this one is something crazy like 58mm!!!! WHAT THE WHAT!

The Caticorn was super popular so now it gets a badge! I'm not getting many of them so make sure you come and visit my table. All of these badges should be ready for Thought Bubble! HOORAY!

I hope you're well! Have I missed anything exciting? Are there characters that should get badges next time?

Feeling Faint

Merry Tuesday! My Monday was a mixed bag. My original lunch plan went wrong but I met up with a pal and we grabbed some food at a nice restaurant... except we were the only people there and the place was playing romantic music... It was a little awkward, but the food was ace. In the evening I put the finishing touches to the first ever People I Know posters!!! YEAH! I'll be the first to admit that the designs are a *little* weird (my friend called them "disturbing")...but I hope you like them. I'm sending off the designs now so fingers crossed they turn out alright.

IN OTHER NEWS: Today's drawing is a terrible pun. Sorry! Especially after the witty heights of yesterday... but I promise to make up for it tomorrow when we begin the first ever PEOPLE I KNOW VALENTINE'S CROSSOVER!!!!! Stay tuned!

MORE BONUS NEWS: I did a guest comic for Left-Handed Toons!!! I hope you like it!

The Bee's Knees

I have a real soft spot for those slightly odd sayings - "the bee's knees," "the proof is in the pudding," etc etc So here's a cute drawing about the knees of bees. Isn't it cute? I think it's cute. The cuteness rating says "yes."You better think it's cute too!

Anyways - I just worked a lot today - but in a good way. And I did a lot of exercise which must be a good thing, right? It made me super hungry though...

EXCITING NEWS: Remember how I was harping on about all the new stuff I'm hoping to sell at MCM Expo? Well, People I Know: The First Year arrived in the post today. Without blowing my own trumpet or anything, it looks lovely. It's in full colour! FULL COLOUR! It's not just black and white - there are reds and yellows and whatever colour tears are. It's really raised the bar for me in what my comics should look like.

Which is just as well since I started work on People I Know #12 tonight! Just a rough plot outline but here's a clue: there might be crying!

IN OTHER NEWS: There's an amazing comic shop in Nottingham called Page 45. They launched their website today and it is incredible. If you like comics, what are you waiting for? Check. It. Out.

Underwear (and some exciting news)

It must be really tough to be a Pussycat Doll. I mean, not only do you have to sing and dance *ahem* but you have to do the whole thing in your knickers. And not even your nice, comfortable knickers... No, no, no. You have to do it all in really sexy and impractical knickers. Ugh. How depressing.

Anyways - I was going to go on a rant about how terrible and shameless the Pussycat Dolls are - but I'm sleepy. I had mini panic this morning about my printing but it looks like it should arrive in time for MCM Expo after all. PHEW.

And to celebrate this, I have a sort of exciting reveal. If you go to the comics section of my website, you can see all the nice covers of the stuff I've been working on.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW RIGHT NOW:

1. All the mini comics are now A7 sized and therefore much cuter
2. The new mini comic is called Twins and is about being twins with someone. I think two of my real friends make cameo appearances in it...
3. I've updated the covers to the collected volumes for no other reason than I hated the old ones
4. People I Know: The First Year is a collection of my favourite drawings from the first year of my website - IN FULL RUDDY COLOUR!
5. People I Know #11 is not in full colour but it's still super cute. Toby and Christina return! You might remember them from #1, #4 and #9 as well as the website... Christina bumps into an ex but something isn't quite right

Happy First Birthday!

So...it turns out that I started uploading drawings to my proper website a year ago yesterday! That's a whole year of website. How exciting.And although I've only recently started doing daily uploads, there are something like 200 drawings up there!

I was pretty late to the whole "getting a website," thing, even though I've been making my print comic for a while... But I've really enjoyed uploading drawings and seeing how they've been received. And the nice thing is that there are some super nice people out there who actually like my stuff! Thanks guys! I totally promise to keep trying my hardest. BFF FOREVER!

Speaking of trying my hardest, I start my new job this week. I bought myself a fancy notebook! Fingers crossed.

And since it's my website's first birthday, I have an exciting thing to reveal.

YES! That's right! I got tote bags made up! They are super cute and bright orange. Plus there is an owl on the front. And a pun. I'm pretty sure that this is the recipe for greatness.

The owl bags will be coming to MCM Expo, Comiket and Thought Bubble... so come along! And say hello.

Wizarding Wednesday #2

It's Wednesday again...which can only mean one thing: it's Wizard Wednesday! It was brought back by the persistant demands of a baboon and Lizz Lunney. And by "demands," I mean they left comments about wizards. In case you ever want stuff, just leave me a comment and don't be a spambot.

So here you go! It's Wednesday! There are wizards! And yeah - I know it's a little gross but I think it's rather funny.

FUN FACT: I changed the young wizard from last time so he is actually just Colin Creevey. I'm glad that Colin is finally moving on from Harry...

IN OTHER NEWS: I might have finally placed my order for some fun stuff... but I won't tell you what it is yet in case it all goes wrong.

Honey! I'm Home!

This is one of those drawings that I worry about since I think it's super funny...but maybe it actually isn't? I mean, why would anyone like this? There's no Lady Gaga! Maybe I should just draw her in?

ANYWAYS! The weekend has been and gone. I spent most of it reformatting lots of my comics for printing. I'm making the mini comics smaller - from A6 to A7...and they'll have colour covers! So if you're coming to MCM in October, please feel free to make impressed noises at how cute they all look.

Oh! And don't forget that there is a Facebook page you can like now! Thanks to DC for the link!

How are you?

Superman? Super Awkward!

Hello! It's Monday...which means that another weekend has been and gone.

*sigh*

I did a bunch of personal stuff and then I tidied stuff up. I hate tidying stuff but I even went as far as hoovering! Wowsers. And as for the personal stuff, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out...

Also, I don't know if I've already mentioned it but I'll be at the Birmingham Zine Festival next weekend. Pop along and say hello if you want. Oh! And I even answered some questions in an interview. Check me out!

The Ballad of Barbara - page 5

So...The first week of Project: Long Comic is over. It has been an interesting week. It's been a bit cringey to post old drawings but I think it holds up OK. My initial feeling is that it works better in print but maybe that's because this comic has a pretty slow start. If I was to do it again then I'd make sure that each page was a lot more jam-packed.

IN OTHER NEWS: I'll be helping out at an event! Can you believe it! It's in London and all about Hypercomics. I'll be drawing stuff and you could draw stuff. We could draw stuff together! Come along! All the information can be found here.

IN OTHER OTHER NEWS: I'm working on new covers for some of my mini comics with an eye of sending them off to shops. Maybe. I don't know. Probably not. But it means that it should be printed in time for MCM in October...or at least Thought Bubble in November. HOORAY!

Have a lovely weekend!

Coming Soon: Wizards!

 

This is what I'm working on next... This is meant to move or something but I did it in a rush and what not. It's still pretty cute though, right?

The Super Virgins: Part 2

Here is the concluding part of the introduction comic to The Super Virgins. Hooray! I hope you like them - because I think we'll be seeing more of them...

In other news: I went to see the Professor Layton movie and it was AMAZING! I should probably save my blurb about that for some other time. I'm still super behind on sorting out emails but I have two (!!!) new ideas for new comics. I won't give too much away but one is about a wizard and one is not about a wizard.

Also - it is MCM Expo this weekend! I am buying a new suitcase for it! Also - I made up a dance routine for it. I'll post it up on Thursday. If you come find my stall and do this dance routine then I'll be super impressed!

The Long Weekend of Awful Jokes #3

And now it's Monday...which means that this is the last official bad joke from The Long Weekend of Awful Jokes. It has Toby and Christina in it - I feel bad for neglecting them.

I'll probably bust out some more Awful Jokes soon. Be prepared.

IN OTHER NEWS: I have been really busy with drawing this weekend. You've got lots of things to look forward to, including (but not limited to):

• Hats
• Ke$ha being totally wild and out of control
• A dance routine
• Your new favourite band

EXCITING TIMES!

New Comic (because I'm stupid)

So my computer is buggered and my head is all over the place but I decided that I needed a new mini comic to take to the MCM Expo at the end of May. 

Possibly not the best idea ever but I worked hard and am sending off the files to the printers tomorrow! That isn't to say that it will actually be printed in time - but fingers crossed.

ANYWAYS! Here is the front cover! It's in colour and the comic is the smallest one I've ever made. But it's cute! And doesn't really have a plot. Or anything really. But it's cute and it has a colour cover so make sure you buy a copy.

The Coolest Gang In Town...

 

Face it. Mystery Inc. are totally the collest kids in Coolsville. I'll post a comic with them solving an important mystery at some point this week...but until then, check this (poor quality YouTube clip) out: