End of 2023

Not such a bad year. Definitely better than 2020 - 2022, which were brutal.
I'm grateful to the friends I have in Berlin (and beyond) - they know who they are - and to the people who like my comics. I feel like I'm making progress, even if it's glacially slow.
It was good to get back into the Berlin comic scene which is a supportive place these days, at least at the grassroots, street level.
Currently I'm trying to decide what to focus on next. I'll probably do some short projects and then see which I feel most inspired to continue.
Meanwhile I'll have a story in Blab issue 2. That book should be coming out in spring 2024 from Dark Horse. 
Right now I'm finishing the art for Blab issue 3. I think this story is the best comic I've done.
I'm thinking of doing a weekly diary comic in 2024. Just to help me loosen up and be more spontaneous and as a kind of therapeutic exercise. Like a page a week or something. Just posting it on instagram. We'll see.
I'm still adding new material to the fossil book, and colouring it when I have time. This is how a finished page looks like.
There were some really great, inspiring books in 2023, plus good podcasts, youtube channels, zines. Despite the wars, mass murders and recessions, the comic scene survives and is even in good shape - at least creatively. 
See you in 2024!

Reynardine

Last Saturday I shared a table at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele for the Graphic Novel Day, which was part of the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin. I wanted to have something new on my table so I made a mini comic especially for the festival. The comic is an adaption of a folk ballad that dates back at least to the 1700s. Reynardine is a little 28 page comic (A7 size). If you want a copy you can PayPal 5€, $5, or £5 to richardcowdry@gmail.com and I’ll send you one.

I’ve scanned the last page of my graphic novel. I still have lots of colouring, corrections, editing, tweaking, etc. It seems endless!

New Publications

This month (June 2023) my comics appear in two of the “K” anthologies, KUTI and KUTLUL. KUTI is a quarterly comics magazine from Finland. The theme of this issue (68) is witchcraft, magic, paganism, and the occult. There are some lovely pages in it. My favourites have a kind of meditative, poetic quality.

A cool thing is that my story has been translated into Finnish, and the lettering is fantastic. It just looks so good! If you are not already a subscriber you can download it or read the comic on their website: https://kutikutisf.wordpress.com/2023/06/15/kuti68/

KUTLUL is a comics magazine published in Germany and Holland. This is issue 15 which is sadly the last issue. Edited by Dirk Verschure and Joost Halbertsma it features a massive 128 pages of contemporary comics (132 pages including covers). If you like alternative, underground, personal, funny, expressive comics you'll find plenty of good stuff. I was happy to find strong work by artists I can't believe I didn't know about already. More info on my Instagram page.

PechaKucha

Tonight, 7pm at StattLab - Drontheimer Str. 34 (U7/U8 Osloer Straße) in Berlin. 15(?) comic artists will present their work. 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide. I like the concept. Lets see how it works! Event by @antoniocastello at @stattlab

What I’m Up To (May 2023)

Still finishing my paleontology graphic novel. Just a few pages left to draw but LOTS of corrections and colouring to do. Hoping to finish it by the time the schools close in July. I really hope people like it. I hope it connects. I hope it’s a fun read. A big question for me now is : what to do next??

My little exhibition from 2021

What I’m Up To (January 2023)

Basically I’m working on finishing my paleontology graphic novel. I’d like to have it done and dusted by this summer (2023). I’m writing and drawing the last chapter right now, then I have the epilogue to draw. After that I have a few one pagers that need to fit into earlier parts of the book. Meanwhile I’m scanning pages, cleaning them up & colouring them. It's fun seeing how the pages look different when the colour starts going on - how certain parts of the drawing get emphasised, etc. I’m also about to start working on a story for the third issue a very cool comics anthology. More about that later… Best wishes.

The Historical Comics Collective

This is a coin I drew for The Historical Comics Collective who are a group of international artists put together by Geri E. Gallas. We are all drawing history based comics. The coin is for a poster being made for this year's @spxcomics on September 17 and 18.

The Secret History Of The Comix Reader

The alternative comics newspaper I founded and edited. Read All About It!!! But here not here.

Fossil Folklore on youtube

This is a short "film" adapted from a 2 page comic which I made last year for ComicInvasionBerlin. It's simply made, just using iMovie, but I kind of like it.

 

Berliner Fenster Comics

 A few years back, some time before 2015, when I first lived in Berlin, I saw the comics of Marc Seestaedt on the Berlin U-bahn. They were shown as a slideshow, instagram-style, on the double television screens that you see in each carriage of the U-bahn. One screen displays information about your route, while the other, where the comics appeared, features mainly news stories and advertising. I thought this was great and wondered how he was able to organise something like this.

Marc must be good at organising things: he is the founder of Berlin's annual comics festival ComicsInvasionBerlin... some people are able to do this stuff.

I have great memories of tabling at the early ComicsInvasion's. They were the most fun I ever had at a comics festival. Plus the artists and guests in attendance seemed to genuinely appreciate my Comix Reader anthology, which made me feel really good about being involved in comics.

When I moved back to Berlin in 2019 ComicsInvasion had grown from a DIY, punky, alternative thing into a bigger, more established festival. The festival was also running "seasons" of Berliner Fenster comics to be shown on all the U-Bahn screens. Any comics person in Berlin could submit strips. I drew one and sent it. Hooray! But then ... Corona.... I'm not sure if that season ever happened but there was a new call for strips in 2020. This season did happen. I waited a long time for my strip to be shown and the day it was finally scheduled I was heading out of town. But I had like a 10 minute journey on the U-bahn to get to the train station. Perhaps I could still see my strip...??? I didn't see it... although I THINK I might have caught the last panel of the strip for a split second just as I got on the U6. NB the photo I posted here is fake, I just pasted my art over the screens.
Anyway, I just submitted a strip for a NEW season of Berliner Fenster comics. So maybe I still have a chance to see my comic on that screen. Then I will really feel like a Berlin Comic Artist.

I have an exhibition in Berlin.

See the bizarre and colourful theories used by early scientists to explain fossil bones and extinct animals. 

This exhibition presents selected pages from a documentary comic series about the prehistory of paleontology. 

Written and drawn by Richard Cowdry. 

 30 August - 30 September 2021. 

Bibliothek am Luisenbad, Berlin. 

 Facebook event

 https://comicinvasion.de/events 

 https://comicinvasion.de/event/wunder-und-kuriositaeten/ 

 https://www.berlin.de/stadtbibliothek-mitte/bibliotheken/bibliothek-am-luisenbad/

I made this video to introduce myself at ComicInvasionBerlin 2021. I never made a film before!

In The Days Before Dinosaurs

The Head continued....

 

Corona Comics : Home School / Home Office.

A strip drawn for Pandemic Healing Arts.