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)

World Goth Day 2025

 Goth regretting feline colour choice on World Goth Day

Plastic Skeletons in a Car

 “I couldn’t safely get a pic but this morning I passed a car so full the driver couldn’t see out the rearview mirror of (plastic?) skeletons and I’m sad it would be weird to follow and befriend her”

(I read this on BlueSky from https://bsky.app/profile/katyrex.meatjacker.social & loved it so much I thought 

"I must draw this!"

I did.

Chocolate Tuesday

We've had Easter Sunday, Easter Monday & today's 'Chocolate Tuesday' - when Jesus & the disciples scoured all the supermarkets for discounted eggs!

#Easter #ChocolateTuesday

Arena Illustration 2025 Showcase

Proud to be among a stellar cast of top notch illustrators on my agent Arena's 2025 Showcase!

“From sci-fi to science we couldn’t help but chuckle our way through the Poo Crew Adventures, expertly illustrated by comic genius and talented animator Steve May. Featuring panel illustrations throughout, this hilarious dive into the world of poo brilliantly showcases Steve’s exceptional talent for visual storytelling, perfectly tailored to the project’s target audience. His work is endlessly engaging and full of fun, we can’t wait to see what comes next.”

Bookmark Project 2025

I'm always happy to contribute to Sharon Hattersley's Bookmark Project For this year I've contributed an original pen & ink drawing, one of many bookmarks produced by a variety of authors, illustrators & celebrities which will be auctioned in May to support Katiyo Primary School in Zimbabwe. Do have a look & bid generously!

Keir Starmer's Meat Waistcoat

 Keir Starmer's waistcoat was completely made of meat.

And every time he ventured out, dogs chased him down the street.

He tried to run, he tried to hide but poor Keir was mistaken.

There's no escaping hungry hounds whilst wearing that much bacon.

(Poem by my friend Dylan Cole)

The Bathtub Of The Devil

Even Beelzebub himself likes a good soak!
 

This is available as a signed print (or treat yourself to the original artwork!) in my Ko-Fi shop

World Book Day 2025 at Dallington School

Had a lovely day talking about books, drawing, reading with the kids from Dallington Primary School in Clerkenwell for World Book Day this year! I kicked things off with a whole-school assembly, sharing insights into the world of illustration while the kids challenged me to draw various animals & foodstuffs including a cat eating fishfingers & a capybara eating chocolate (never drawn one before, I was fairly pleased!)

I then conducted draw-alongs with all the classes who drew some great pics from our graphic novel Journey to Pootopia (one pupil also drew a rather brilliant portrait of me too!)

I always love the energy from primary school visits, if you'd like me to come & visit your school please get in touch info@stevemay.biz

A capybara eating chocolate

Some of the pupils' drawings

(a rather wonderful portrait of me drawn by one of the children! : )

 

How To Draw Professor Poo & Ploppy from Journey To Pootopia

I'm going to show you how to draw Professor Poo & Ploppy from the new hilarious graphic novel for kids Poo Crew Adventures - Journey To Pootopia by James Turner & me! Join Ploppy and his fearless guide, Professor Poo, as they boldly venture into the Secret Intestines of the Universe to discover answers to the most important Digestion Questions … Why do we chew? Why do we fart? Why do cows have so many stomachs? And … what will happen to Ploppy AFTER he’s been flushed?! If you’ve ever used the toilet, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU! https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/journey-to-poo-topia-poo-crew-adventures-james-turner?variant=40642344190030

Breakfast Comic Strips

As an exercise I’ve been drawing automatic 'breakfast comic strips' this week - no preplanning, just seeing what comes out.

I usually have extremely vivid dreams & have been suffering from awful anxiety & dread when I wake up in the mornings so this has just been a way to distract myself & to force myself out of it. No rules, but none of them been allowed to have taken more than about 30 minutes to draw (because I have lots of PROPER work to do!) They're extremely variable in quality but I thought some people would be interested to see them. They probably say a lot about my subconscious & obsessions but I'll leave that for you to work out!

Tuesday 10th September

Wednesday 11th September

Thursday 12th September

Friday 13th September

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

 

POO-BLICATION DAY! Poo Crew Adventures - Journey to Pootopia

I'm FLUSHED with excitement to announce that 'Poo Crew Adventures - Journey to Pootopia' by James Turner & me is published today by Harper Collins Childrens

It's a funny, fast-paced graphic novel aimed at 7-11 year olds filled with facts about the human body, digestion & various animal poo facts (did you KNOW that wombats do square poos*?!?)

My initial thoughts were "you want me to draw a book about WHAT?!?!" but I thoroughly enjoyed bringing the educational & anarchic together in this book - it's not every day you get to draw fatbergs the size of large bungalows, poo car hybrids & bacterial hamsters* amongst MANY other things!

James' text is so funny & challenging to illustrate & I really enjoyed the collaboration between us, not to underestimate the contribution of Liam Drane & Melissa Fairley (senior graphic designer & publishing director repectively) Also a big heads up to Caroline Thomson my agent at Arena for keeping me sane! 

The authors as poos.

"The hilarious new graphic novel series packed with facts – perfect for fans of A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You, Bunny Vs Monkey, Dog Man and InvestiGators! "Poo is the most interesting and important substance in the entire universe!" – Professor Poo In an ordinary toilet, on an ordinary day, a small poo called Ploppy lands with a splash. Just an ordinary poo about to be flushed . . . But Ploppy is anything but ordinary. He's a TALKING POO! And he's about to go on the mission of a lifetime . . . Join Ploppy and his fearless guide, Professor Poo, as they boldly venture into the Secret Intestines of the Universe to discover answers to the most important Digestion Questions . . . Why do we chew? Why do we fart? Why do cows have so many stomachs? And . . . what will happen to Ploppy AFTER he's been flushed?! If you've ever used the toilet, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU!"

Fatberg & poo-car!

Prehistoric poo-ing.

*I TOLD you wombats do square poos!

Three large elephants!

EVERYONE thinks farts are funny!

(*Aforementioned bacterial hamster)

Skater Dogs!

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

#SkaterDogs #Dogs #DogsOnSkateboards

Caterpillar Soup and Flying Frogs

This came out a couple of months back & was a rather nice job to illustrate & I was given a great amount of freedom to draw some weird & wonderful stuff for a non-fiction book!

Caterpillar Soup and Flying Frogs by JD Savage from Oxford University Press, shows 7-8-year-olds some of the weird and wonderful changes animals go through and the utterly odd things they have to do first - from dwelling underground for 17 years sucking tree roots, to partially turning into living soup with a memory.

'The Readerful imprint is designed to motivate children to read more, choose a book to read by themselves, boost their vocabulary and develop their knowledge of the world around them - including, I hope, a sense of wonder and curiosity about the nature marvels all around them.'

My 'get up & go' just got up & went!

 "My 'get up & go' just got up & went!" 

(pen, ink & wash on A6 300gsm watercolour paper)

"There's Some Days You Just Can't Get Rid Of A Bomb"

 As you might have noticed, Batman has become rather a theme in my work of late, but I think he's always been a recurring motif in my drawing since I was a kid. He's always there lurking under the surface somewhere! 

Ghost Pants!

 

Happy International Panic Day!

Happy International Panic Day everybody! Your cast iron excuse to run around screaming for no discernible reason!

Witch Hunt! (Merry Walpurgis Night!)

 It's a witch hunt!

Merry #WalpurgisNight (also known as 'Walpurgisnacht' and 'Night of the Witches', is a pagan festival celebrated each year on 30 April.)