OMNIPATHY is a periodical comic by illustrator, animator & (apparently) comic book artist Joe Sparrow. Check here for previews and updates.
Issues 1 and 2 are currently available to buy from Orbital Comics and Gosh! Comics in London and Travelling Man in Leeds. Alternatively, you can purchase them online through PayPal, using the links below.

SKETCH / WIP BLOG : blog.joe-sparrow.com

TWITTER : twitter.com/torpordust



Thursday 4 October 2012

Autumn 2012 and Issue #3 Update

I know very few people look at this blog but I feel like this is pretty much the most "official" place for me to write about OMNIPATHY at the moment. This might actually be the last post I make here before I jump ship to tumblr where all the cool kids seem to be setting up shop. Once issue #3 is done I'm going to be promoting it a lot more than I've done in the past, and it seems like tumblr generally gets a lot more traffic than blogger these days, at least on art blogs. All the reposting stuff makes it seem like people can sort of spread the word on things.

I haven't been too forward on promoting OMNIPATHY outside of my facebook, twitter & blog yet because I have a real block about trying to promote something I don't think is up to my "standards" as a creator. This happened with my final film at university (which I still refuse to submit to anything despite people seeming to think it looks ok) as well as a handful of projects I've worked on but haven't worked up the courage to show people. I think the reason I have this mentality is because I want people to see me how they see my favourite artists - as confident and consistent. Consistency is something I've never found easy in art, because I'm lazy and opportunistic in the way I make things.

With OMNIPATHY, especially issues #2 and #3, I feel like I'm fighting this. It feels like one of the few things I do that's very much me, and I hope I can get it out there and get people to like it as a result. Even if they don't, I don't mind. The fact that I've kept the same name without changing it is a pretty huge thing by itself! 

But, yeah! Enough of me telling you how inexplicably proud I am of my own work. The main point of this post is that work on issue #3 is well under way now - but unfortunately it won't be done for the October MCM Expo in a few weeks, so I'm not booking a table this year.

For the last year I've managed to use the MCM expo as a place to "launch" comics, and the fact that they're bi-annual meant I'd hoped to keep coming back and launching new comics at each one. But I actually don't spend even half of my time making comics (I make them in a stupid laborious way so they take ages) - I spend most of my time doing animation work for people who pay me money. So when the expo comes around each half-year I try and leave myself a month or two beforehand to write and produce a comic, and if I do it that way then it ALWAYS comes out rushed. I spend the bare minimum on character design and writing - and even though I'm sort of pleased with the stories in issue #1 and #2, I think it's pretty obvious they're rushed to shit. 

I don't want to keep working like that, so instead of rushing to get a sub-par comic out for the October Expo I'm just going to work on it some more, and make it really good. I'm not booking a table because it feels like admitting defeat if I go back there without anything new to sell.

SO to conclude our main points: I am a whiny artist lacking in both talent and confidence; I'm not at the MCM Expo this October; do please consider shelling out the modest fee for any or all of the current issues. Keep watching the skies.

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