Monster Fact #9

Monster fact : Very BIG monsters can fit through very SMALL holes

Monster Facts #8

Monster Fact: Monster breath is terrible. Many beautiful would-be monster relationships are de-railed early on by halitosis*.

(*See also monster diets)

Monster Facts #7

Monster fact: Up to 95% of domestic 'lost sock' incidents are the result of monster activity

Monster Facts #6

Monster Fact: Monsters love ice cream, but mainly when it's somebody else's ice cream.

See also monster diets

Monster Facts #5

Monster Fact: The dark is composed of at least 70% monsters (& at least 10% horrible creepy crawlies) - very much like the percentage of cocoa solids in posh chocolate but much SCARIER!

Monster facts #3

Monster fact : Vegetarianism is EXTREMELY uncommon. Their favourite dinner is invariably YOU!

(yeah, yeah, wear the monster deflective tofu armour if it makes you feel better #futilegesture)

Monster facts #2

Yep, sorry to break it to you kids, I'm not making this up...

Sleep tight huh? x

The Wednesday creature

Monster fact : Bloodthirsty monsters always have Wednesdays off to catch up on laundry / e-mails etc.

Here is a candid pen & ink picture of a monster washing his smalls (the artist was nearly devoured in the process of drawing this, monsters are NOTORIOUSLY touchy - I don't make this sh*t up you know!)

Disappointing sandwich

We've ALL been there.

How to draw Dennis the Menace and Gnasher

Me pulling some stupid faces & demonstrating some drawing stuff & nonsense

PS...this is my REAL drawing face

Silly Name for a Monster!

I just received a copy of 'Silly Name for a Monster' by the very funny Timothy Knapman which I illustrated earlier in the year.
The fact that I laughed out loud when I first received the text was definitely a good start & I thoroughly enjoyed illustrating this. It's a hilarious book with a big scary monster, some cowardly knights & a little boy called Stinkpot. Can he succeed in defeating a monster with such a silly name?

I'm not going to tell you that. You'll have to wait until August 7th until it's actually released so there!

In the mean time, here's a sneak preview...

Full moon tonight! Altogether now... "AAAAWWWWOOOOOOO!"

I know LOTS about werewolves but very little about astronomy but apparently... 

'A full moon coinciding on Friday the 13th is not all that uncommon, occurring every three or so years.

But having the combination of a honey moon and Friday the 13th is rare, last occurring on June 13, 1919, according to the popular astronomy site Universe Today. We'll have to wait until June 13, 2098, for the next one.'

(thank you National Geographic)

(illustration from 'Making Monsters Happy' by Susan Gates)

cat trumpet

The man in the Apple Store asked me what I was drawing.

I explained it was Tuesday morning so naturally I was drawing a cat playing a trumpet.

That seemed to satisfy everyone. : )

Monster on vacation

I spilled espresso on this I'm afraid. Am pretending it's an artistic effect. Shhhhh!

The Diary of Dennis the Menace - Beanotown Battle out now!

The second Diary of Dennis the Menace 'Beanotown Battle' written by Stephen Butler, illustrated by me & published by Puffin books is out now. In this one the boring Mayor has entered Beanotown in a flower comptetition, & you know what flowers attract? SOFTIES!

Dennis & Gnasher have to think of a brilliant emergency menacing plan to save Beanotown from the softy invasion! (warning some of these images may contain SPOILERS!)
In this book I got a chance to draw some of Dennis's friends who might look vaguely familiar & as with the previous book I've been thoroughly enjoying getting to reinterpret some iconic Beano characters again. Stephen Butler's writing is nicely funny & anarchic & great fun to illustrate & again a big nod to Mandy Norman the designer because the books look great!

You can order the book online but why not pop over to your nearest PROPER BOOKSHOP & buy it from there because that's a lot more fun than being hunched over a computer any day!

Group of critturs

Happy World Book Day!

It's World Book Day!

Fat Tuesday!

Yay! Pancakes!

Werewolves, killer tomatoes & mummies...

A werewolf trying to find a job, a sad tomato & a mummy wrapped in pink toilet paper from 'Making Monsters Happy' by Susan Gates.

Splashing into the streets

Wet night in Soho last night reminded me of the line 'The boys just dive right off the cars
And splash into the street' from Time by Tom Waits (very little relevance apart from that but it's always good to have context)