I got invited to the Lingua Comica closing reception at the Japanese Embassy in London last night. First time I’ve been to an official embassy function and I guess technically I can now say I’ve set foot on Japanese soil. Well, carpeting. Good fun was had by all, not least because every time I downed my glass of wine a waiter passed by to top it up. You can check out the Lingua Comica collaborations at their website over here. Well worth a look, I’d say.

Oh, go on then – let’s talk about Douglas. Mr. Noble has just begun a new interview series under the catchy title, Let’s Not Talk About Comics. Kieron is the inaugural guest, set the near-impossible task of not talking about comics for the length of almost an entire interview. Does he succeed? Only one way to find out.

I almost, almost, almost got my 24 hour comic finished on time but then didn’t. All the actual art, words and layout were finished by 12:39pm, which was cool, but then I had to drive my housemate to the train station and I still needed to add the registry panels that make the Tarquin Engine work. So I went over by an hour or so all told, which isn’t too bad, considering.

Anyway, take a look see: Never Shoot The Chronopath

Now I’m off to have a shave and then go jump on a train to get to the ICA for my talk at 4pm. Sleep depravation plus public speaking! Yay!

This Sunday I’ll be giving a talk on webcomics as part of ComICA 07 at the ICA in London. Here’s the blurb from the ICA website:

Comica Collaboratories (4pm – 5pm)
Webcomics wizard Daniel Merlin Goodbrey (Last Sane Cowboy & Other Stories) guides you through experiments in online comics, including cutting-edge blog collaborations by Lingua Comica’s participants.

You can get the full low down on all the rest of this year’s ComICA related events from Paul Gravett. I’ll also be taking part in 24 Hour Comics Day starting on Saturday and going through till Sunday, just before I’m due to give the talk. It may be worth turning up just to see what nonsense I come up with following 24 hours of comics enforced sleep deprivation.

I’ve made 24 hour comics three times before (here, here and here) but this will be the first year I’ve participated in what now seems to be the official annual day of 24ing. Hopefully I will not mess up too badly while everyone is watching.