Karrie Fransman’s Comics

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Hi there,

As we all know the digital era is upon us and Jonathan Plackett and i have been working on some exciting digital projects that use these new technologies to tell beautiful, visual stories. We’ve just finished a short ’Tilt Comic’ application for the iPad and iPhone called ‘The First Witch’. In order to view each frame of the comic, the reader ’tilts’ the iPad up and down, giving the illusion of looking through a window into another world. You can get your own hand-drawn tilt comic for a mear £1.19!
 
iPhone version: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-first-witch/id386649061 
iPad version: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-first-witch-hd/id385259441

Here it is in action on youTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPUBeJerD_g
 
Karrie x

Hello again- i’ve been busy finding lots of new ways to tell stories; from clay comic sculptures to cutting edge digital comic apps for the iPad and iPhone.

Firstly i’ve just finished another comic sculpture as part of my ‘Sequential Art‘ series. It’s called ‘3 in a bed’ and shows the same girl sleeping besides 2 different boys before finally finding happiness with the third. I’ve used dolls-house beds as ‘panels’ to show the sequential narrative.

Secondly i’ve been working with the wonderful Jonathan Plackett (who’s digital work has been covered everywhere from The Wall Street Journal to Wired Magazine) on a short ‘Tilt Comic’ application for the iPad/iPhone called ‘The First Witch’. In order to view each frame of the comic, the reader ’tilts’ the iPad up and down, giving the illusion of looking through a window into another world. You can see a video of the app in use by clicking the image below.

That’s all for now. I hope to be exhibiting my Sequential Art pieces this October and will fill you in with the details. More news to come too! Hope you’re all good.

Karrie x

Karrie x

I’ve just finished another comic sculpture entitled Behind The Mirror. It’s my biggest piece in my Sequential Art series to date. I gutted and re-built my childhood dolls house (thanks to my dad and uncle for shlepping it down fom Edinburgh via Derby!). You read the story by looking at the scenes through the windows from top left to bottom right (as you would read a ‘waffle-grid’ comic). It’s all about images of women and is also based on the ‘Bloody Mary’ ghost myth (or the 90’s Candyman horror movie if you’re more into popculture!).

(As it’s difficult to photograph through the window here’s the story: A pretty dolls-house girl looks at herself in the mirror. Behind this one-way mirror is a scary woman called Mary. We see her crouching in the corner of her lair. Next we see the pretty girl reading a magazine. In the lair Mary has covered the walls with drawings of the pretty girl. Finally we see the pretty girl’s room has been smashed up and the mirror has been broken. We look through the last window and Mary is looking straight out at us. On the back wall we can see what terrible fate has befallen the pretty dolls-house girl)

I have a page from my Times story ‘The Night I Lost My Love’ exhibited in The Cartoon Museum.  We went along today and checked out their other great exhibits. They have a Viz exhibition on which is worth a visit.

I was really excited to be shortlisted for a generous grant from The Arts Foundation  this month, that would allow me to spend next year working on my first graphic novel. Thanks to Ian Rakoff for nominating me and the judges Posy Simmonds, Pat Mills and Paul Gravett for shortlisting me! I gave a presentation at the Institute of Contemporary Arts the other week and had a wee exhibition of my work. I’ve stuck in some photos by the brilliant Helen Boobis and wonderful Andy Konky Kru (aka Andy Bleck)- a big thanks to them! Hope the rest of you are all well. Karrie x

My Times graphic story got a shout-out from the brilliant director Nicolas Roeg (Don’t look Now, Walkabout etc.) on Radio 4 last week. I remember being terrified by ‘Don’t Look Now’ as a kid (although not sure if it was by the ending or the sex scene!). You can hear my (brief) mention here- 21 mins in.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00mq7nt/Front_Row_23_09_2009/

I have just finished building a comic sculpture entitled ‘Death Do Us Part’. It is about a lady who, unable to let go, turns her dead husband into a hat stand. Comic academics Will Eisner and Scott Mccloud defined comics as ‘Seqential Art’, and so i’ve been experimenting with this term and moving comics off the page. I have a few more projects along these lines so keep an eye out!

If you’ve not been to the Secret Garden Party festival you really should. I’ve been for the last 4 years. This year the lovely folk that run it were nice enough to give me a ticket in exchange for a comic review. Click here to see the results… or visit it on their website here.

Ooh…and here were the costumes we made.

Love is in the air and i’ve been asked to do a few wedding invitations. These two use the same idea- portraits of the couples with a boarder of flowers entangling personal items that are symbolic to the couple’s relationship….don’t ask about the Viking’s helmet!

If you’d like me to do one then get proposing and then give me an e-mail at karriefransman@hotmail.co.uk

Pevious episodes of The Times story- The Night I Lost My Love will be available to view online next week on Monday 29th June. They will come out on the web a week after they appear in print…so if you want to know what happens next- go buy the paper!

Karrie x

I am excited to announce my graphic stopry starts today in The Times newspaper’s Times2 section, page 6. The story is a 20 episode serial called ‘The Night I Lost My Love‘, with a new episode coming out in the Times2 supplement each Monday.

So- what’s the story about? It’s a psychological thriller about a girl who looses her boyfriend at a bizarre party and journeys through the murky night to find him. On the way she meets a host of eccentric characters and uncovers a web of clues that hint at what has become of him.

So…hopefully a lot to sink your teeth into! The art work is a lot more swish than the scribbly Guardian style (which means a lot more hard work!) but i’m loving the space to write a bigger, ongoing story. Anyway- look out for it next week. Hopefully the episodes will be appearing a week later on this site if you miss one.

That’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted,

Karrie x

Hey Folks,

I’ve not posted for a while so thought i’d update you on some of the manic creating i’ve been getting up to lately. I made my sister a reversible doll for her birthday. It’s the kind of dolls you get with another upside down doll hidden up her skirt. I find them really creepy. You get children’s ones of Cinderella and the witch hidden up her skirt. But i quite like the symbolism of two sides of the same person- maybe all Cinderellas have a wicked witch part to them? Anyway- i made my sister and her alter ego- a detective…Don’t ask!

Hey people,

I’d just like to say thanks to everyone who wrote in on my departure from G2 this month. It’s been such a pleasure to see how many people, from such a wide range of backgrounds, related to the strips. As a thank you i have stuck in a one off,  previously unpublished My Peculiar World strip. Hope you enjoy it and maybe remember some stories of what dangerous things you got up to as kids!

Another bit of good news is i am working on a fictional graphic story that should hit the papers in June. I’ll release more details nearer the time so keep checking the site.

Hope your weekends rock,

Karrie x

Hey Kids,

Sadly, due to the dastardly recession and cost cuts at G2, my My Peculiar World  strip will be ending this Friday. I’ve had a brilliant 8 months there and really appreciate The Guardian taking a chance on my unconventional scribbles and all the lovely people who’ve written in and read them. It’s been the most fun anyone should have while being paid! I’m currently working on a proposal for another paper so I’ll keep you all posted.

Next bit of (vastly overdue news) is that several of my comic stories featured in an exhibition at Zinefest on 24th January. I also did a wee talk on how to make comics and was filmed for an interview on women who self-publish (i’ll stick in a link once i get it). It was all really inspirational.  Zines are self-published magazines with articles, comics, poems and pictures  that give voices to political or non mainstream opinions. There were everything from anarchist zines to zines dealing with fat politics. Some good ones to look out for are Pamflet and Colouring Outside the Lines. Nice to see girls getting out there and giving counter-culture opinions to the mainstream mags.

Hope you’re all good.

Karrie x

Exhibition at zinefest

The very clever, and most wonderful, Mr Bob Pickle has designed a very clever little thingamyjig with which to create your own comic using my Sequential Art pictures. Have a play here and see what you get.

http://www.plackett.co.uk/consequence/

May the gods of storytelling smile upon you!

Karrie x

 Here’s some more snaps for inspiration. Hope ya’ll doing just fine. x

Fear not. I am not up on the first, hangover-less and enthusiastically tapping out my newest blog. These babies are post-dated. Either way. Happy 2009! I’m working all holiday on a couple of projects, so in the mean time here are some photos i’ve taken out and about. Hope you find some inspiration or ideas in them…or at least your way to the nearest fry-up making establishment x

Merry Christmas my little Christians. I am cursing the terrible day last week when i learnt to make gingerbread. Thought it would be cool to make a batch of gingerbread Karrie Christmas Cards. But then i got (erhum…) ‘karried’ away and made a gingerbread bride and groom for my cousin’s wedding and an entire family of gingerbread Fransmen for my family and then helped make more for my boyfriend’s family. Ugh. I am so sick of gingerbread. It’s all about the cupcakes now. Anyway, here’s the first batch… x

Hello once again. Here’s a sample of the one-panel project i’ve been working on called ‘Stranger than Fiction’. Each one is a wee, true story from real life. They’re looking for a home so contact me at karriefransman@hotmail.co.uk if you’re interested. Karrie x

Hello friends. I’ve been working on a one-panel comic full of story-ettes called ‘Stranger than Fiction’. Each one is a wee, true story from real life. Here’s a sample. They’re looking for a home so contact me at karriefransman@hotmail.co.uk if you’re interested. More another in my blog next week. Karrie x

Hi peeps,

I was interviewed by the lovely Matt Badham for Uk Indi comic website Bugpowder. Lots on my working methods and loads of recommendations for other comiccy types to check out. Read the results here. And a PDF version here: bugpowder-interview1. Hope things are jinggling along merrily for ya’ll.

Karrie x

Howdy!

Another ensemble of sketchiness for you….

Karrie x

-There was an old lady who swallowed half a dozen small, fat men.

- I love !950’s Chinese advertising. Where Eastern traditionalism meets Western consumerism. My house is full of these posters.

-I imagined these flamingos in a little animation. Their long necks would all twist and tangle in time to some scratchy old music. Kinda like those creepy, old cartoons (another obsession) that go round on a repeated loop. Now…where to find an animator…

Hello my jelly babies.

I don’t just draw stories. Sometimes i also draw pictures. Sometimes those pictures turn into stories (or at least picture stories). Um…so…not sure what my original point was…but here are some bits and bobs i pulled out my sketchbook. Hope your week’s being kind to you!

Karrie x

-A wee sketch i did that turned into the ‘Boy with the big mouth’story. It was in my illustration class and i was thinking about how some people are predominantly governed by one sense.

-This is Mr Longinthetooth. I find him pretty scary. By night he chops small children to pieces. But it’s morning now, he’s spent hours cleaning his teeth and he’s off to bed.

-yes- i don’t just draw cartoons!

Hey there,

I was in thelondonpaper last week in Em’s comic strip (written by the delightful Maria Smedstad). Yup. There is another British-based-female-autobiographical-comic-strip-writer-and-artist out there. Her stuff is witty and smart- a lot more text based than mine and nicely reflective of life in London for the 20 somethings. Check it out.

When i first decided i wanted to go pro i got in contact with Maria and she gave me some tips and a lot of enthusiasm. We met up for the first time a month or so ago. It was funny to be able to chat to someone about aspects of the job such as the ethical dilemmas of autobiographical strip writing (ie. do you sell your own mother for the sake of a gag? I’m still undecided- i’d sell my own mother for a doughnut some days). Later she told me her idea for the strip below, i sent her a wee drawing of me. The results are below.

Hm. Reckon i could get used to hitching free rides on the back of other people’s comic strips. Maybe one day Steve Bell will let me appear in one of his comics dressed as a penguin. One can but only dream. Karrie x

Published in thelondonpaper

People oft tell me i don’t really look like how i draw myself in my cartoons.

Nonsense say i!

Why just the other week, while on the train returning from visiting my aunt, i was spotted by a girl with an old copy of my strip in that Friday’s Guardian. O.k, so that’s the first time that has ever happened, and she may have guessed it was my strip as i was busy scribbling my next strip. BUT i would like to believe it was the simple fact that I bare a striking resemblance to my cartoon self. Wouldn’t you agree?

Hello cherubs,

People are always asking me how true my comics are, so a wee while ago i put up some proof that my My Peculiar World comic strips are indeed autobiographical. I’ve been collecting a few more so here are the latest…

Fig 1: Yes. My parents did indeed give me a pop-up sex ed book;

Fig 2: Yes. They do put security stickers on the smoked salmon in my local supermarket:

Fig 3: Yes. I have one phenomenally large calf muscle. Please do not mention it on meeting me: (actually this fact appears to be a bit of a lie as the photo clearly shows it’s a humungous right calf. Moving on, moving on…).

Fig 4: Yes. I did have a teacher who sang ‘Don’t call Maggie a bitch…’ songs: Actually, after this strip was published my old teacher, Nancy Nicolson, got in contact with me having randomly recognised herself in the strip. It had been 20 years so I’d long forgotten her name to credit her, but it was brilliant to hear from her.  She’s lovely and has many equally brilliant political and Scottish songs. Click on her picture below for her website.

Figure 4: Yes, my ex did have an affair with the Orange Answerphone lady. (At least he did…in my mind)

O.k, o.k- i know you believe me by now. But i’m Jewish. I have a persecution complex. Till next time mein khaver!

Karrie x

Hello kiddiwinkels,

Remember Where’s Wally? Or Kit Williams with his picture books full of hidden animals? I loved those dudes and thus have been secretly ripping them off by hiding things in my MY Peculiar World strips. SO…if you’ve got some time that needs wasting and a keen eye, then see if you can spot the following things hidden in the strips. Let me know if you get them all!

Can you spot…

Hello Kittens,

Welcome to my NEW website. A big thanks to Phil Spence for patiently getting me there and to Jon Plackett for the flash, er, flash. So…what to expect on the new site?

@ A new, weekly blog (updated every Thursday) with news/pictures/sketches/info on other artists doing their thang…and a sizable chunk of me yapping on about what i ate for breakfast.

£ A regularly updated gallery.

% An exciting, new zoomy mechanism to view my Comic Stories in all their messy glory (or just to add a movie element to my comics by doing ‘extreeeme close-ups’!).

$ An easy-to-read Comic Strip section for my Guardian comic strip ‘My Peculiar World’ Comics (updated every Sunday) complete with Archive.

+RSS feeds for my blog and Comic strips so you’ll know by computery magic whenever i add anything new.

* A Guestbook…so we can chat more!

Please link to me, pass on my site or let me know feedback on how the new site’s doing. Thanks!

Karrie x

Spent a lovely last Saturday at the comic creators convention: Caption in Oxford where I sat on a Panel discussing the state of the small press UK comic scene and got to catch up with lots of passionate people creating some really great things.

I am now uploading My Peculiar World comic strips each Sunday (about 10 days after they’ve appeared in G2) in case you missed them. Check them out here.

This week The Guardian’s G2 section is launching my autobiographical comic strip ‘My Peculiar World’ which will appear every Friday (in glorious Technicolour) on the back page. There’s also an interveiw and 4 more strips on pages 14-15 which are on the articles/press page. I am rather chuffed about this new job and hope ya’ll enjoy it too.

I received this rather nice review in Red Eye magazine for my comic stories.

I’ve just finished a 5 week, Saturday drawing class at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. It’s very much back to basics with a lot of line, tone and colour work. But it’s good practice for someone who spends too much time drawing from her head!

Finished my ‘illustration workshop’ night classes at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Mighty good fun and got a lot of work out of it.