christmas toast

Ah yes, my Christmas card! Sorry if yours hasn’t arrived, I was a bit patchy this year about sending them out, and I realised I forgot to tick off names before I posted the first few batches. Durr. Keepin’ it simple, oh yeah.

Merry Christmas from Vern and Lettuce, and hugs and badly sung carols and lots of toast with jam.

Gary, Lauren and I had our festive Christmas bubble tea studio lunch, then Gary got some prezzies for himself at Deptford Market and I bought a bunch of cheese.

Here are some lovely drawings from the drinks party my agent, Jodie Marsh, threw for us in Clerkenwell. The one on the left was drawn by David O’Connell and written by Sally Nicholls and Jamie Smart drew the one on the right. Jodie thought they were fab. (If you can’t read it, Sally wrote: Hmm… I’m not sure we can sell post-structuralism to ten-year-olds. Have you thought about adding some zombies?) Jamie’s is easy to read.

I’ve just been having a cup of tea and re-reading this lovely book, The Christmas Truce sent to me by one of my very favourite illustrators, David Roberts. The guy had about two weeks to make this book and didn’t even have time to send in roughs, just finished artwork, but true to form, he’s totally nailed it. David Roberts rocks. The Christmas Truce itself is pretty cool, too, when a bunch of German and British soldiers in WW1 put down their guns for a little joint party session, sing-song and football.

And Kate Beaton rocks, too! If you don’t have her new comics Hark! A Vagrant, then it’s high time you did. She makes funny comics about history, but also slips in a lot of literary stuff, often books I remember reading when I was growing up, such as Nancy Drew. I love how she took a bunch of Nancy Drew books and spun each cover into a comic strip. Here’s an excellent interview with her that I just found over on the Forbidden Planet International blog:

(Here’s the YouTube video link if it’s not showing up.)

(An excerpt from this Crusoe series by Kate Beaton)