So, I’ve been looking for a new project to start and have been pitching various book ideas to publishers the past 6-12 months. Two children’s books didn’t impress anyone. But it’s true when they say ‘third time’s the charm’, as my third pitch has been sold!
It’s a new middle grade series, with the first book out next year. I can’t say much about it yet, but needless to say, the past month or so has been crazy. It will only be for the Australian/New Zealand market initially and hopefully sold to other regions in the future. My publisher is really excited about the series and eager to get the first 2 books out as soon as possible, BUT that means they’ve given me a pretty unforgiving deadline and I’m currently smack bang in the writing/penciling stage of Book 1.
I’ll also be starting a new teaching job one day a week in October at a local school in Perth, working with kids and teaching them the power of COMICS! I’m excited about that, being able to get out of the house and into the world instead of being holed up like a creepy recluse all the time.
So unfortunately ZEN PENCILS and LITTLE WARRIOR will be taking a back seat. I’ve penciled and inked Chapter 2 of Little Warrior, but it still needs colouring. I’m still committed to it but it’s going to take even longer to complete now, I really don’t know when the new chapters will be getting released. I hope you understand.
Love you and can’t wait to share the new book with you. It’s definitely nothing like Zen Pencils, it’s straight up for kids – silly, goofy and full of adventure.?
– Gav
This is the sequel to my Strange Like Me comic from over three years ago. The lil’ brow girl (that’s what I call her) is one of my most popular characters and I don’t know why it took me so long to feature her again. I’m not great with capitalising on a good thing!
]]>I don’t have much to say about this one except that it’s a gift to my wife. We’ve been a couple for over 10 years now, and just like any relationship, we have our ups and downs. We’re definitely not the carefree young lovers we used to be. Life, work, money and children have been stressing us out lately, but amidst it all, we can always count on each other.
The previous episodes in The Lovers series:
CS Lewis – To Love at All
A Love Story in Four Parts
Albert Camus – The Middle of Winter
If You Love Someone, Set Them Free
This series didn’t start out as autobiographical, but they most certainly turned out they way. Unlike my wife and I, the comic couple don’t have kids … yet.
]]>Today is the launch day of my new collection CREATIVE STRUGGLE: Illustrated Advice From Masters of Creativity! Besides including creative advice from greats like Einstein, Van Gogh, Curie and Hemingway, it also features an all-new comic by myself. The comic describes my eight tips to be more creative, boiled down from six years of working on Zen Pencils (yes, it’s been that long!), but you’ll have to get the book to read the entire comic (sorry for being a tease). I’m really proud of the collection and I hope you enjoy it.
You can get it from where all good books are sold.
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
INDIEBOUND
AMAZON CANADA
AMAZON UK
AMAZON GERMANY
BOOKTOPIA (AUS)
KINOKUNIYA (SINGAPORE/SE ASIA)
PERIPLUS (INDONESIA/SE ASIA)
Thanks for all your support!
– Gav
Happy New Year! What’s your New Year’s resolution? Travel more? Maybe write that book? Perhaps run a marathon? Take up piano again? Start a Side Hustle? “What exactly is a Side Hustle?” I hear you ask. Well, it’s basically a way to generate extra income without quitting your job. The term was popularised by my friend Chris Guillebeau, whose new book SIDE HUSTLE: From Idea to Income in 27 Days was released a few months ago. He also hosts a podcast called Side Hustle School, which updates every day, with each episode featuring an example of someone’s successful Side Hustle (including a woman who started a cat sitting service, which is where I got the idea for this comic from).
The not quitting your job part is important here. I quit my job back at the end of 2011, before launching Zen Pencils at the start of 2012 (six year anniversary at the end of the month!). Thankfully it worked out for me, but looking back on it, it was insanely risky. I had a supportive wife and no kids, but I did have a mortgage that we got rid of by selling our house and going back to renting for a period (like I said, supportive wife). So yeah, if you do have a passion project or idea for a new business, check out Chris’s book and podcast to get some guidance first before you do something crazy like quitting your job and selling your home like I did.
Speaking of books and paying mortgages, my new Zen Pencils collection is out on the 16th January! CREATIVE STRUGGLE: Illustrated Advice from Masters of Creativity collects creative advice from the likes of Stephen King, Albert Einstein, Vincent Van Gogh, Marie Curie, Brené Brown and myself (I did an exclusive comic for the book explaining my 8 tips for living a creative life). It would mean a lot if you pre-ordered and helped spread the word. All the details are on this page, and if you do pre-order you go into the running to win a Zen Pencils prize pack of signed books and a piece of original art. Thank you and all the best for 2018!
RELATED POSTS
– My previous Chris Guillebeau comic: 11 Ways to Unremarkable Average
– The 5 best Zen Pencils comics of 2017
Jeez, can you believe it’s the end of year already? When the hell did that happen?? How has your year been? Mine has been pretty … steady. Career-wise, I’ve continued to work hard on Zen Pencils – most of the year has been spent working on comics that will form part of my new book collection, which I’ll tell you more about later. Personally things have been great, my daughter is keeping me busy and I’ve been helping look after her more as my wife returned to work. I’ve probably struggled a bit to find a good work/life balance – working from home and having a cute little human running around does mean my productivity has dropped a little. But it’s one of the main reasons I quit my job all those years ago to start Zen Pencils, to have more time for family and life so it’s all good.
I’m really excited about 2018. To be honest, I was feeling a bit burnt out creatively recently and wasn’t sure if I could continue Zen Pencils. After over 5 years and 200 comics I was wondering if I had taken this site as far as I can. But after my recent trip to India, and meeting some amazing readers, that really gave me the kick up the butt I needed. It reminded me that I had built something special and meaningful to a lot of people, and the trip inspired me to keep going. Now I’ve got lots of new ideas to explore next year and I can’t wait to get started (I probably just needed to just get out of the house, I was turning into a cranky cartooning recluse here at home!).
So onwards to 2018! I’d like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years, of if you’re a new reader, then thanks for coming onboard. Zen Pencils turns 6 in February – its become my life, my sometimes enemy and my constant refuge. I hope you stick around!
The most popular comics of 2017
Below are the top five comics of the year, judged solely on traffic. Here’s the list of all my previous top comics.
1. STEPHEN KING – The Desk: Definitely my favourite of the year too. This was a pleasure to create and Mr King posting it on his Facebook page was a real treat for a lifelong fan like me.
2. DAVID BOWIE – Go a Little Further: I really took a lot from this quote. Bowie’s advice of never playing it safe and to keep pushing one self is something I hope to practice next year. Plus, it was fun drawing the coked-out Thin White Duke.
3. AKIRA KUROSAWA – The Note Taker: I admit, I still read in bed Some great books I read in 2017 were Leonardo Da Vinci (Isaacson), Sapiens (Harari), Side Hustle (Guillebeau), Hiroshima (Hersey), The Devil in the White City (Larson), The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway), The Whites (Brandt), Dream Team (MaCallum), Golden Days (MaCallum), Red Harvest (Hammett), The North Water (McGuire).
4. FRIDA KAHLO – Heroine of Pain: It’s hard not to be inspired by Frida’s story and the popularity of this comic shows how much of icon she still is.
5. BRENÉ BROWN – The Eternal Struggle: A sequel to my first adaptation of a BB quote and a fun little story on how to conquer your inner demon.
Have you pre-ordered my new book yet?
The comics above appear in my new book collection CREATIVE STRUGGLE: Illustrated Advice From Masters of Creativity! It’s released on January 16, 2018. If you pre-order before then, you go into the running to win a Zen Pencils prize pack (pictured above) of signed copies of all of my books and an original, one-of-a-kind ink drawing featuring some of Zen Pencils most popular characters. You can see the full details of the book and competition here. I know it’s Christmas and you’re probably down to your last penny after all the Christmas shopping, but I bet you didn’t get anything for yourself. C’mon, you deserve a little gift after making it through this hell of a year, so I highly recommend you to treat yo’ self to my new book
Have a happy and safe holidays!
– Love Gav
This book collects my recent series of comics on creativity, featuring advice from Van Gogh, da Vinci, Hemingway, Frida Kahlo, Stephen King, Tchaikovsky, Kurosawa, Nikola Tesla, Brené Brown and more.
It also includes a new and exclusive comic containing my 8 tips on how to succeed in living a creative life, boiling down everything I’ve learned from the past five years of being a full-time cartoonist. Here’s the first tip:
Battle creative boredom with Tchaikovsky!
Fight writer’s block with Mary Shelley!
Overcome addiction and creative obsession with Stephen King!
This is a small and affordable book that will give you a boost when you’re trying to break through your own creative struggle or makes the perfect gift for a creative friend.
PRE-ORDER TO WIN BIG!
For your chance to win signed copies of all four of my books as well as an original Zen Pencils ink drawing, simply pre-order CREATIVE STRUGGLE before Jan 16th and email or forward your receipt to [email protected] – I will choose a random entry and send these goodies to a lucky reader, anywhere in the world.
You can pre-order from all over the world at these sites:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Amazon Germany
Booktopia (Australia)
Kinokuniya (Singapore/SE Asia)
Periplus (Indonesia/SE Asia)
Please spread the word and help me promote this book. It’s something I’m really proud of. If you work in the media or have contacts in the media who might be able to help, let me know.
As always, thank you for your support!
– Gav
William Blake (1757-1827) was illustrating poems hundreds of years before me. A struggling poet, artist and print-maker, unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered one of the most important figures in English literature. A Poison Tree first appeared in his Songs of Experience collection in 1794. Here’s his original piece.
I’ve done so many inspirational comics … that it’s hard not to repeat myself. After my recent bunch of comics focusing on creativity I felt like doing something different and this poem has been on my mind for awhile. Reader Jen emailed it to me years ago and I had no idea how to adapt it, so I kept it in my “to-do” file. Cut to about a month ago and I saw that Rose McGowan tweeted the poem with no explanation amidst the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal. That gave me a direction on how I could adapt the poem. And then a horrific story broke in my home town of Perth about a father who farmed his daughter out to be sexually abused by various men which made me so angry and turned the comic even darker. I know this might be jarring for some readers. It’s not uplifting, inspirational or zen, but it’s a story that came out of me that I felt compelled to draw.
MORE POETRY ADAPTATIONS
All the World’s a Stage – Shakespeare
What Teachers Make – Taylor Mali
Ithaka – C.P. Cavafy
Phenomenal Woman – Maya Angelou
To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time – Robert Herrick
Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Invictus – William Ernest Henley
It Couldn’t Be Done – Edgar Albert Guest
Your Life – Lang Leav
The Guest House – Rumi
Desiderata – Max Ehrmann
My Spirit is a Roaring Sea
The Monster Named Fear
The Calling
Ah procrastination, something I constantly struggle with. Don’t we all? I’m fighting it right now – I don’t really enjoy writing these blog posts underneath each comic and I always put it off to until the last minute. I know I must do it, but I really don’t want to. As I sat down to write this, my computer was lagging a bit, so I restarted it. Got up to use the bathroom, decided on the way to the bathroom that I needed to fix myself some tea, then paused to read the mail on my kitchen table and of course I had to check the GREATEST PROCRASTINATION MACHINE THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN: my phone. Next thing I know, one hour has passed and I still haven’t started writing.
At least this is not a new phenomenon – Edgar Allan Poe wrote the above words in 1845 and I’m sure an early homo sapien kept putting off a cave painting he knew he had to do thousands of years ago. This passage is taken from Poe’s short story The Imp of the Perverse, the name he gives the creature who forces us to do things we know we shouldn’t. The story is about a man who gets away with murder, and after inheriting his victim’s estate and enjoying his new life for years he inevitably falls victim to the Imp yet again, as he can’t help confessing his crime. Poe conveys it much more eloquently than I do and you can read the entire story here.
Don’t let the Imp get you today, do what you need to get done!
A new Zen Pencils kids book is released next week, collecting the best kid-friendly comics of my site into one easy to read book, perfect for story time or the classroom. You can find all the details and pre-order info here.
]]>This comic originally appeared exclusively in my second Zen Pencils book collection (available from all good retailers!) in 2015. I really enjoy writing these fun poems and wanted to do something special for the book. It features characters long-time readers would be familiar with, but just in case you’re not, here are their original appearances:
Ballet Boy Full-Body Education
Rising Phoenix Ask Yourself
Comedian Great People Do Things Before They’re Ready
Guitarist The Calling
Mum the painter A Lifetime of Learning
I thought I’d post it on the website as I’m currently working on the NEW Zen Pencils book collection and I’m not sure when I’ll be posting new work. I’m really excited about the new collection and I’ll tell you more about it in the upcoming months. Thanks for your patience!
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