St Austell Festival of Childrens Literature.

I had a wonderful couple of days down in Cornwall at the St Austell Festival of Childrens Literature. 

On Friday I visited Newquay Junior Academy where the kids & staff gave me a lovely welcome (& I also met their lovely school dog Nelly!)

(my drawing of Nelly the dog, a talking cat, a seagull with its bag of chips & a dog eating a sausage)

During the event I talked to the kids about how I became an illustrator (via roadying for bands among other things!)  & introduced our graphic novel Poo Crew Adventures: Journey to Poo-topia, a fast-paced adventure, which brings together clever, funny storytelling with lots of amazing facts and taps into kids’ fascination with all things poo-related & I PROVED that poo is THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT IN THE WORLD!

We also had a game of ‘Poo or True?’

A draw-a-long of the book’s protagonist Ploppy with some great drawings from the kids!

I also gave a behind the scenes look at what goes into illustrating a narrative non-fiction graphic novel, answered some great questions from the children & signed LOTS of books.

On Saturday I took part in The Big Draw Off - A Graphic Novel Showdown Like No Other! with author illustrator Steve Webb which was brilliantly compered by JoJo Silva from Capital Xtra.

We both talked about our work & then were set various drawing challenges getting prompts from audience members & also creating characters based on audience members with hilarious results - a really fun interactive event (& not often you get to shout 'poo!' in a church!)

Big thanks to everyone involved to make it such a brilliant festival! I hope I'll get invited back!

If you'd like me to visit your school or your festival please contact me on info@stevemay,biz

 (in training for The Big Draw Off)

(A pictorial Steve (May) & Steve (Webb) in the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, St Austell)

(The two Steves & JoJo our compère)

Mr Dilly Presents - Journey To Pootopia

James Turner & me got to be among one of the 'Magnificent 7' authors for a Mr Dilly Presents event on the 12th September which went out to schools from Canada, Nigeria and the Baleareic Islands! 3,000 kids tuned in during the live show!

Along with authors Swapna Haddow, Anna Fargher, Justin Somper, Lucy Strange & Lisa Williams We got to talk about our new book Journey To Pootopia & some of our influences & favourite childhood books too. I also got to do a Professor Poo drawalong for 3000 kids (& managed a few doodles too!)

You can watch again here

 

'Better Than Batman. Steve May.'

(Illustration from 'Supernan's Day Out' by Phil Earle pub Barrington Stoke)

Is this is the BEST HEADLINE EVER?!?! : )

Thanks so much to LoveReading4Kids for featuring me in their Illustrators Spotlight this month where I describe what '4 year old me' might think of 'fifty something year old me's' life choices, influences & the essential mischief of being an illustrator, including drawing poo for a living for my new graphic novel with James Turner Poo Crew Adventures - Journey to Pootopia

https://tinyurl.com/4bfm4wt4

 

Skater Dogs!

 Skater Dogs!!!! Available NOW as a an artprint on my Ko-Fi

#SkaterDogs #Dogs #DogsOnSkateboards

Gorilla in a Dodgem Car

 

Matt Millz On Tour by Harry Hill - published today!

Matt Millz on Tour! the 3rd in the hilarious series by Harry Hill & illustrated by me is out today  (Thursday October 17th) published by Faber & Faber This time Matt is taking his act to the Edinburgh Festival! You can order it here!

Matt’s dream of becoming a stand-up comic is fading. Six months on from his success at the Apollo, the gigs have dried up, and it’s back to the daily drudge of schoolwork for Matt and his pals. But then his twelve-year-old manager Kitty has a brainwave: if they can persuade their teachers to take a school play up to the Edinburgh Festival, they could hold a comedy night too.

But Matt’s got a rival new school-mate Jamie who is pushing to be in the comedy line-up. And Jamie is good. But is he too good to be true?

Drank The Ink Water Again...

The perils of confusing your water vessels whilst drawing (illustrator problems)

Diary of Dennis the Menace - available now!

Some time in early May last year I was contacted by my agent to say that Puffin were looking for someone to give a 'new illustrative approach' to Dennis the Menace for a series of books written by award winning children's author of 'The Wrong Pong' Steven Butler.
I paused from sipping a large gold flecked martini on my yacht, waved away a palm frond bearing serving girl & thought '...hmmm, draw one of my childhood heroes...HELL YEAH!'

*montage of furious scribbling, various life events, getting an invite to the Beano 75th birthday party, uplifting music etc.*

...& so, the first book, The Diary Of Dennis The Menace is published today, it's very funny, keeping the right level of mischief & chaos (you bumfaces you!) nicely designed by Mandy Norman, & the pictures ain't too shabby either.
Has been an extremely enjoyable job, I dearly wish my mum was still around so I could proudly present her with a copy.
Here's a few of the pictures (I got to draw a few other old favourites too! : )

(Puffin Books, TM © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.)