Recently the streets of Manchester have seemed a little more dreary now the rain has made it's appearance, and I've found myself running a little low on inspiration. So on the 14th of September I packed up my dreams and headed down to the shining lights of London town to seek my fortune... for the weekend anyway...

Every year the UK's capital city becomes home to the London Design Festival, a huge event spread over ten days and 300 venues! Obviously, as the owner of my own design company (and editor of this awesome design website!) I figured I really needed to pop down and see what all the fuss was about! I scooted on down with my fiancée Ann on Friday evening and booked into my room (executive suite standard - or at least on business trips anyway, lol), before heading out for a look-see.

I'd like to say that we took in a show, or whiled away the evening in some fancy bar somewhere, but to be honest we were both pretty bushed from work and we knew it was going to be a pretty hectic weekend, so after a quick meal and a wander round we headed back. On the way home though we did happen to come across a familiar face from the last business trip we took together (that time in Boston) in the form of a Johnny Cupcakes shop!

I first came across Johnny Cupcakes a few years ago when I was in Boston launching one of my books at the Comic Con. Ann loved the fact that it was Cupcake themed (as she owns her own cupcake business, My Fair Cupcake), and I was in awe of how clever the branding was. Now just to set you straight here, Johnny Cupcakes sells t-shirts, not cupcakes. The shops however are set out like a bakery with the t-shirts on display in ovens and in chiller cabinets. It's sounds odd I know, but it's totally awesome - plus the t-shirts are pretty cool too! Not long after seeing Johnny Cupcakes in Boston I was listening to Jeff Finley's Threads Not Dead on audio book where he holds Johnny Cupcakes up as the guy who did it right in the indie apparel industry, and I kicked myself for not grabbing a t-shirt when I had the chance! Now here I was again and the shop was shut! To be fair though, it was about 10:30 at night.

Day One - The Old Truman Brewery

I figured I'd try and split my time in London between big high brow design events and the smaller indie scenes. Day one was indie day so we headed down to the Old Truman Brewery in East London's arts and media quarter where the world famous Renegade Craft Fair was being held.

I'll be honest and tell you that the Renegade Fair was more Ann's idea than mine (handmade indie crafts was to my mind definitely more the realm of a fair trade cupcake lady than a stone cold designer), but as I wandered around I was actually amazed with how much awesome stuff there was to see that was relevant to me.

...Read the rest of the article over on the Design Range!

Hello again... fancy seeing you here! Welcome to the Hunting Town Autumn Quarterly Update. Did you miss the Summer Update? Yeah me too, sorry about that, we've been really busy here and lost track of time. But don't worry about it, we have lot's to show for it!

The main thing I really want to talk to you about is the brand new Hunting Town Design Range. The Design Range is an online resource full of tips and advice for other designers and creatives looking to improve their business and earn more money from doing what they love.

"So what does that have to do with me? You're suppose to be the designer right?"

Fair point. As clients of Hunting Town you may well be a little perplexed about why I'm telling you about this when it's aimed toward other designers? Well the answer is pretty simple really. As I've been writing these articles I keep thinking things like "this would be good advice for the new Sapper Lot advertising campaign" and "I really should tell guys at the Octagon Theatre about this". In short, there is a lot of good advice on the Design Range that can be applied to any company, and there is a tonne more of it to come. Sure you may still need us to create your next awesome logo, but by reading our post on 12 Things to Keep in Mind When Designing a Logo, you'll be ten steps ahead in the planning process and that'll no doubt save you money in the long run. Likewise, whilst our article on Why Lowering Your Prices Won't Make You More Competitive is aimed at designers, a lot of the messages in it ring true for almost any business.

So with all that said, I hope you don't mind me sending you a few updates from the Design Range every couple of weeks. If after a couple of months you feel it's it's not for you then you can unsubscribe at any time by following the link at the bottom of each email (don't worry- you'll still get your quarterly updates from Hunting Town!)

My Fair Cupcake is a start-up cottage industry that really couldn't be closer to home for Hunting Town, as one half of the duo that is My Fair Cupcake is also fiancee to Hunting Town owner, Alex Singleton! Ok- so fair enough, we really didn't have to fight too hard for the contract to create a brand for My Fair Cupcake but we couldn't be prouder of our results!

The ethos of My Fair Cupcake is based on the core principle of creating ethical cupcakes for a greener world ("greener than a Gremlin, fairer than Snow White" as they would say), so we really wanted to get that message across in the branding. The solution we opted for was a classic cupcake in cupped hands, to help bring about connotations to fair trade and world conscious imagery. We tied this in with our very own hand drawn style to keep everything looking very home-grown, and not too corporate. All of the packaging is on classic brown recycled card (which is actually really hard to find!) and all the logos are hand stamped rather than printed so that each and every one is more unique and personal.

The London Horror Festival is a fantastic event held every year in our nations capital, and for the last two years Hunting Town has worked with London based design studio Chaotic Creations to create the branding and illustrations for the event. Last year we opted for the theme of zombies, and we created a great two tone design in black and yellow of a horde of brain eaters wandering past Tower Bridge!

The design was so well received that Hunting Town was invited back again this year to create a similar styled illustration, this time to the theme of giant spiders!

The event isn't until November this year, so I can't show off the design just yet- but keep an eye on Hunting Town for updates!

Earlier this year we had the privilege of developing a brand and logo for lifestyle consultancy Your Total Image Matters as they opened their debut clinic. Recently, we were contacted again by YTIM, this time to develop their online presence.

YTIM really wanted to push their company colour of gold with the website, although were concerned that they would lose the prevalence of their logo by doing this (as this also had elements of gold in). Our solution was to use a series of gradients and shadow effects to keep the gold dynamic and alternating throughout, so that the website and logo didn't blend into one another. This also allowed us to give the website a really great sense of depth.

As always, the website came fully loaded with a user control panel, SEO panel, social media integration and a comprehensive blog.

Now, I'm not sure if you've noticed yet, but you've had the good fortune in being born into a largely digital age. Whilst this doesn't mean that you can throw out that chunky A3 leather-bound portfolio you've been carrying around since university, it does mean that your online portfolio is probably now just as (if not increasingly more) important as your physical one.

How a Client Sees Your Portfolio

When a potential client is looking through your portfolio they're trying to establish what you're really good at, what your skills are and most importantly; how you might handle their project. But that's not all they're looking for, what they really want to see, what they're really looking for is confirmation. Confirmation that they're putting their project in the hands of someone they can trust. Confirmation that other people have been where they are right now and walked away happy with a product clutched in their hands.

What they really want to see, what they're really looking for is confirmation

Think about it. If you're anything like me, when you're buying something on Amazon or eBay you always check the reviews section. Even if you've done all the research on this item in the world and are utterly utterly convinced that it's perfect, you still read the reviews. Why? Because you want the security of  knowing that people have already made the decision that you're about to make and that they have been happy they made it. You want confirmation that you're making a good call.

What So Many Designers Do

Now when I'm looking through other graphic designers portfolios a mistake I see again and again is that they're not providing this confirmation. Their portfolio is just a flat image or two for each project and maybe a bit of a blurb, in some cases they may have a quote or reference from the client about how happy they are, (and that's really good) but they could be doing so so much better.

But... wait, you don't have an image of that printed up either? No no... It's ok... we totally trust you

Say for instance you put together a sweet t-shirt design for a band and you made up this crazy awesome illustration to go on it. Obviously you show your illustration off, but that's it? I mean, yeah, it's very good and all, but are we to just take it as read that this ever made it onto a t-shirt? Oh, it says in the blurb that they used the illustration on their CD cover too, great! But... wait, you don't have an image of that printed up either? No no... It's ok... we totally trust you. We don't need to actually see it do we?

What You Need to Do

They're called product mock-ups and they are VITAL! If you design a cover for a book, then show it on a book! If you design a logo for a business card, then show it on the business card! Our online portfolios suffer from a major lack of tactile response so you absolutely have to do everything you can to show your work in situ, to show that it actually exists.

Read more...

"That's really cool" you might catch through the haze, or perhaps a "wow, I'd love to be able to draw like that"

It's a throwaway comment sure, but they stack up, building and building until one day they break through that mist of billing reports and conversion rates and you genuinely ask yourself,

"what am I doing working here with a talent like this?"

A light shines down on you from the heavens above as you march over to your boss and hand in your notice declaring that "from this day forth, I shall be a Graphic Designer!" (click to Tweet this!).

Sound familiar? Well it does to me, because that's exactly what I did. I was fresh out of university and had leapt straight into the job with the highest salary I could find. After almost two long years and a mountain of (vastly improving) sketches I threw in the towel for a brighter future in graphic design.

Big mistake.

What little savings I had soon got swallowed up by rent, tax and food as I quickly scrambled to find enough clients to keep the lights on. I could do the work sure, but I had no idea how to find the work, how to deliver the work and how to get paid for doing it, let alone what I should actually be charging!

With the Benefit of Hindsight

Looking back now it seems painfully clear what I should have done and what I'll recommend that you do if you find yourself in that same position.

Read more...

I started Hunting Town way back in 2010 after leaving my job as an Art Director on a national magazine and haven’t looked back since. Today Hunting Town has a long list of international clients and a growing portfolio of work I couldn’t be more proud of. I’m constantly looking for ways to improve the work that we do at Hunting Town whilst increasing the productivity of the business.

It was out of this desire that the Hunting Town Design Range was born. The Design Range is a place for me to talk about all the things I’ve learnt since moving into the graphic design industry and hopefully provide some helpful advice to anyone else walking the same path. As I said, I’m always looking for ways to build on what I have, and so the Design Range is a much a place to tell you about my successes as it is to warn you of my failures (and hopefully help you avoid making them yourself).

There is a lot of mystery surrounding the graphic design industry in terms of how to actually manage the business side of things and as a result, a lot of new designers set out on their careers with no idea of how to run their business or even what to charge. I know from experience how frustrating this can be and so I’ll try to be as transparent as possible in the advice that I give and try to shed a little light on how to set up a design business, what prices you should be charging for your services and what you can expect from a graphic design salary. Likewise, if you’re already in business, hopefully the Design Range can offer up some new ideas and new thinking on how you can improve your business and generate more sales and a higher income. For this launch week only I'll be posting new articles every single day such as

• How to get into freelance graphic design with no risk
• Where to sell your artwork online
• 6 steps to a wireless workspace
• How procrastination can land you a new client
• 12 things to keep in mind when designing a logo
• One secret that with dramatically improve your online portfolio
• 10 inspiring quotes that will get you designing
• What is a graphic designers salary?

The Design Range is absolutely not some set up for a product or service that you have to pay for, and all of the advice I’ll be offering is totally free and as complete as I can make it. If it sounds like something you might be able to benefit from then check it out at www.thedesignrange.com and sign up to the newsletter to keep updated every fortnight with a whole load of new articles and advice.

Cheers for taking a few minuets out of your day to have a read through this, and please make sure you introduce yourself in the comments section!

Thanks again

-Alex

Since I very first started Hunting Town my big inspiration has been a company in the US called Go Media. If I could emulate any company with Hunting Town it would be these guys, they absolutely have the direction and the work ethic that I want for my business, and as anyone who has worked with me will tell you, I'm am constantly looking to them for inspiration. Whether it's how to best lay out my portfolio, how to interact on my Facebook page or even the best way to write a tutorial, I always check to see how these guys have done it first.

One of the greatest assets these guys have produced is the GoMediaZine. A blog chock full of great articles on everything from how to use photoshop to how to do your taxes. It's a page I check daily and have pulled countless nuggets of advice from.

With that said, having an article actually published on the Gomediazine has always been one of my landmark ambitions for Hunting Town, up there with 'work with an international brand' and 'hire my first employee'. So hopefully you can grasp some concept of the absolute delight I feel in directing you to this tutorial writen by ME and published on the Gomediazine!

Hell yes.

Tick.

The tutorial covers a 'how to' from brief to completion on how I created the illustrations for The Northern Mist concept art project. There are loads of images, so even if your not a photoshop geek like me, you can quickly scroll through to get an idea of how a piece like is comes together. Happy reading.

Earlier this year my fiancé; Ann Challenor came to me with the idea to start-up her own cupcake business. I happily took up the roll of developing and designing the branding, and as I was pretty much my own client on this job I thought it might be a good chance to write a guide through the whole brand development process.

USP

Ann has always made really great cupcake and I've often told her to try selling them professionally, however when she first told me that was what she intended to do, I quickly made clear that great cupcakes weren't enough. Whilst it's true that one of the best things you can do for your business is provide a quality product, you'd be naïve to think that there isn't someone out there that does it better (or if there isn't now, there soon will be!). The very very first thing you need to think of when starting a brand is "why?", or rather "why would a customer choose me?" in other words, what makes you unique? We call this a 'USP' (Unique Selling Point), basically it's what you have that nobody else has. In time your USP may be copied or imitated by rival businesses, but so long as you have a strong enough brand, the customer locks the USP to your company and nine time out of ten will always choose to come back to you. There's a reason Coca Cola hasn't been surpassed by another Cola manufacturer and it's because we inherently associate Cola with that brand. Think about it; you can type Coke or Cola into Google and it'll return Coca Cola products pretty much universally, but one is a brand and one is a product.

In the past Ann had made special gluten-free cupcakes for some of our friends and suggested that this might be a good USP for the business. Sure, gluten-free would be a great USP, there aren't many cupcake manufacturers out there that specialise in gluten-free cupcakes yet and there's definitely a market, however, you have to think about the size of the market. More often than not, it's not about how many people there are in a niche, but how many you can reach with your product. Getting the message out to all the gluten-free cake eaters of the UK would be a nightmare, but the idea did show us that perhaps Ann's USP lay in the way the cakes were made?

We decided to settle on a USP of using only fair trade products in the baking of the cupcakes. This was something that Ann already did for the most part and would be simple to implement. Fair Trade products are getting really great press at the moment and the appeal and demand for them is growing year on year. In fact, it's fair to say that the is a huge 'green' movement at the moment and so it would be good to associate the brand with being eco-friendly, recyclable, rainforest alliance and organic.

Business Name

The next step was finding a name. Ann had originally envisioned the business being called 'Cupcake'o'Clock' and whilst this was a fantastic fun name, it didn't really convey her new USP to the customer. Naming a business is so important as it has to covey not only what you do, but what personality your company has.

A great example of this is Virgin, the name originally came about because Richard Branson thought of himself very much as a virgin in terms of business expertise, however it's connotations to sex and risqué nature mean it sticks in your head whilst giving the impression that they are fun, fresh and modern.

The great Virgin logo however came a little later...

If your really stuck for ideas, then the natural thing to do is to ask your friends. However, in today's age of social media, that can mean hundreds of people. Announce that your starting a new business on your Facebook page and say that you need ideas of a name, this creates the dual purpose of getting you loads of fresh ideas and letting everyone know about your new enterprise without sounding like an advert. Just make sure you reply to all the responses you get! The last thing you want to do is to put people off by ignoring their suggestions, plus if you reply it counts as a comment and bumps your discussion higher up the Facebook news feed.

This is exactly what I did with Ann and she got loads of responses from people, not just about the name, but about the business in general, like how much would stuff cost and when she was launching! One of the name ideas we got back was 'My Fair Cakery', it was a fun play on words that got across the playful nature of the business, plus it had the word 'fair' in it which was a fantastic link to the USP. We tweaked 'cakery' to 'cupcake' to help define Ann's product and we were done, My Fair Cupcake it was!

Ann also took it upon herself to bake a special cupcake present for the person who suggested the name and posted a photo on Facebook, which was a really nice touch!

Once you decide on a name make sure you let everyone on your Facebook know about your decision, so that when you come to launch the Facebook page for the business, people are already expecting it and are more likely to respond to your invitation.

In part two of Branding your business we'll discuss the creation of a logo and branding standards.

If you want to know more about My Fair Cupcake, sign up for the newsletter here: myfaircupcake.co.uk
Or join their Facbook page here: facebook.com/myfaircupcake

How are we already over a quarter way through the year?

Hello. You're reading the first of what will be an ongoing quarterly update on the happenings at HuntingTown. Lucky you. I don't want to spam you, but I do like to show off, so I figured quarterly was a good call. Basically it's just a quick run through of some of the stuff I've been working on over here from print media and illustration to brand developments and website creation. That, and to just say "hey" and "how's it going?". I really hope you enjoy this quick flick through January to April.

Alex Singleton

Part time ladies man, Part time mans man, Full time designer

Peter Pan

Illustration
The Bolton Octagon theatre contacted me recently to produce an image for their 2012 Christmas production; Peter Pan. The Octagon has a history of putting quirky twists on their illustrated advertisements and really wanted me to put my own spin on the J. M. Barrie characters. My solution to was to create an image based around my take on Peter Pan and Captain Hook, drawn in a heavily sketchy cross-hatched stlye. Pan was made to be a cheeky blonde with American Indian style war-paint, where as Hook's appearance was based on a Spanish Conquistador and his hook was turned into much more of a prominent feature.

"This looks great! I'm loving Peter Pan!"

Northern Mist

Illustration
Cohort Pictures got in touch with me originally to work as a storyboard artist on their upcoming UK horror film, The Norther Mist. However after a few exciting meetings we had decided that I would produce a series of illustrations based on specific scenes and characters in the movie that could be used to pitch to investors. With such a strong concept and reference to work from these illustrations really came to life all by themselves and the results are truly fantastic. Using a mix of digital colours and copic watercolour style shading I was able to create these really detailed illustrations whilst keeping that gritty grungy look that would come across in the film.

"These are amazing- each one would make a great teaser poster!"

Gospel Rock

Website
Last year I worked with Joseph Belibi from Gospel Rock to create a new look for their event programme. Joseph was so delighted at the results that he asked us to do the same again this year and to completely overhaul the Gospel Rock website! I decided to go for a full screen slide show background to really show off the artists involved in Gospel Rock, as well a multimedia blog, twitter integration and respective contact, audition and booking forms for the website.

"The difference is like night and day!"

Sherlock and Young Winston

Print Media
With the flurry of Sherlock Holmes interest in the media today, author Mike Hogan decided that now was the perfect time to launch his take on the classic IP. Hogan's stories however have the twist of including a very young, but very ambitious Winston Churchill who decides to follow in the footsteps of the famous detective and involve himself in the 221B Baker Street agency. I've been commissioned to produced several covers for the books in the series but the first was probably the most important as this was the readers introduction to the characters appearance. Thankfully I managed to place Mike's thoughts onto paper a produce a fantastic first cover!

"I have naught more to say about these characters except that they are exactly what I want."

Ladysmith

Illustration
In today's housing market sellers are always looking for that extra edge to make their home stand out, for property developers this can be doubly difficult as they often need to drum up interest in their property months before it's even built! To help sort out this issue I was approached to create a 3D rendered illustration of this Ladysmith property from nothing more than blueprints. Using architectural grade software and state of the art 3D rendering programs, I managed to produce a series of images that could be used to help market the property, including several overhead cutaway images that you couldn't even get with a completed house!

"These are fantastic, just what I'm after"

Illuminato Design

Brand Development
Illuminato Design are one of the UK's foremost technical lighting designers and have recently completed some amazing jobs such as Manchester's major Spinningfields development as well as countless other projects around the country. However, despite all this, Illuminato hadn't really developed a brand design of their own, getting by instead on the recommendations they had received for their fantastic work. They approached me to help put together a branding package that both used light in some primary way, whilst still playing on the words similarity to the cryptic Illuminati group. I came up with a puzzle inspired logo that used light to show up the company name when shone through a filter of incomprehensible lettering. Along with this I produced a series of professional stationary that helped define Illuminato as the industry leading company that they are.

"That's brilliant, thanks so much"

Office Revamp

The Hunting Town office has been getting an overhaul recently. Since video production company and good friends Banter Media moved into their new premises, I've had loads more space open up to me a the current office so I've decided to give the place a lick of paint and some new carpet to get it up to scratch. There's still plenty more to do such as setting up a dedicated drawing and inking area, indoor photography studio and client meeting area as well as a few other little tweaks, but hopefully once I'm all done Hunting Town HQ should be a fantastic place to meet with clients new and old, and while away by days doodling in the sun.

Engagement

On a less business related note, I'd like to announce that I'm engaged! My beautiful fiancé, Ann Challenor actually proposed to me on the 29th of February (who else knew 2012 was a leap year?). With the help of a few friends she lured me to Ikea (I love messing about in Ikea, which on an unrelated note has made this office revamp a real effort!) where she had staff hand me a top secret document containing a series of clues in Latin and ancient Greek! I actually have a degree in Ancient History, and am I huge fan of Indiana Jones and Uncharted, so by that point I was very giddy. To top it all off, each clue led to a series of cupcakes each with a letter on top spelling out 'will you marry me?'. I of course said yes, and was treated to a very cool engagement ring made from Bethlehem olive wood (very cool), and missile grade titanium (even cooler!).

2011, you have been a lot of fun, you have been a teacher, a compatriot, a lifeline and a kitchen sink. 2011 you shall be missed. 

To simply list off all the fantastic projects I've worked on during 2011 would be a little long for a blog, but to leave them unremarked would be a worse crime still. So, with that in mind I thought this might be a worthwhile forum to mention a few of the more eventful ones. If your name doesn't pop up at any point then please don't feel blue, I cannot name a client that I haven't loved working with this year (much to the disappointment of www.clientsfromhell.com), this is mearly a snapshot of the projects winging their way around my head, and trust me, they all get a turn.

41

Probably the longest project I've worked on, which came to a close late last year was the graphic novel 41 by Bob Frantz. I won't sit here and make out I'm the next Jim Lee in the comics world, but I do have a soft spot for them and always do my best to have at least one story on my books at any one time. If ever there was a piece of work that showed the progression of an artist it was 41. Not one page was drawn where the following one wasn't its superior. Don't get me wrong, the pages were all good but by the close of the last issue I can safely say that I was a far more competent artist for having the opportunity to work on the book.

BigDog

Speaking of comics, how could I ever sidestep the stunning BigDog! I remember first reading the brief; I could barely believe my eyes. Joseph Bondaryk, creator of the real life quadruped robot BigDog wanted to produce a comic based around his creation! If you haven't yet seen a video of BigDog in action then please, get yourself over to YouTube right now! BigDog heralded my first foray into the land of the Comic Con as Joseph insisted I fly out to Boston to help him launch the first issue! Not only was Joseph gracious enough to let me stay in his home during my dip into the American dream but I was also treated to a guided tour of Boston Dynamics Robotics Lab where BigDog is being developed. Sometimes I really need to do a double take on what's comic book fantasy and what's real life!

Motovudu

Whilst we're on globe trotting it's well worth mentioning my mission to Andorra and Aragon with the team from Banter Media. Working as a storyboard artist I helped plot out the shoot for the Motovudu instructional Superbike video, with none other than Moto GP star Simon Crafar! Long days in the sun followed by great meals with the crew was a great way to earn a living, even Keith Flint from the Prodigy turned up to run a few laps Round the track! I'm planning to write another blog going into much more detail on the Motovudu job so watch this space!

The New Subalterns

One of my great great loves of this job is when I get the chance to create new characters. Clients come to me with briefs on how they want their characters to look and feel and I get to pull something great out of the ether and trap it on paper. There is nothing I love more than to not only capture what people were seeing in their own head, but also show them something new about the character, almost like they've just got to know them a little better. This year I did just that for Rikk Salamat's New Subalterns. A group of eight assassin style characters with a slightly comedic undertone, the illustrations I produced were to be the online counterpart to the Radio show that Rikk was producing. Author Joel Nafatli too contacted me to flesh out his Cyber Skunks characters and create a promotional portfolio that he could present to production companies in the hope of transferring his characters from his book to television!

To be perfectly honest I could go on writing this blog post for days, from the concept artworks I've been working on for Patrick O'Briens new film The Northern Mist to the range of t-shirts I produced for the MMA event Takedown, there isn't one project I've worked on that I wouldn't want to talk your ear off about. With that said, all good things must come to a close and I'll have to put the lid on 2011 at some point.

So here's looking to an amazing 2012. Anyone who has read my blog previously might recall that I share an office with a video production company called Banter Media, however these guys are moving in February to a pub of all places, which means that my office will be getting that much bigger! I can finally move in the death ray and start plotting. I've just agreed to work on a new project with Mark Aldridge, the producer from 51st State, so keep an eye out for that unfolding. I'm going to be helping a new cupcake company set up their branding and very first shop from the ground up. I'm also planning on producing my own range of t-shirts and other various items plastered with very cool designs after being thoroughly inspired by Jeff Finleys 'Threads Not Dead'...and that's just the tippy top of the iceberg.

2012, it's a pleasure to meet you.

Anyway, the point is that this realisation didn’t come without a… realisation… another one, yeah… so two realisations. What’s another word for realisation? Epiphany? Understanding? I’m getting off point again.

I realised that after finishing these two comics I have no more comics! I’ve spoken with both the writers and publishers of the respective comics and both are happy to continue with future issues, but the whole thing is very dependant upon the current issues sales. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to rejoice at the prospect of no more comics. They eat up a massive chunk of my working week and sometimes even prevent me from taking more profitable smaller jobs. With all that said though, being a comic artist is awesome, it’s something I dreamed of being since I was a mere child, although in that dream I pretty much exclusively drew Sonic the Hedgehog comics. I dare say that in some point in the future I’ll take on a comic again, but if things don’t work out with BigDog or 41 then maybe, just for a little while, I’ll take a bit of a break… either that or draw one of my own comic ideas I’ve had tucked away! Glutton for punishment or what!?