peep_blog

First Bishi Bashi Flyer for Exhibition at the Black Swan Arts Centre. Bishi Bashi comes, Bishi Bashi Goes.  Here are the other two flyers from the night. I returned with my stall and all issues were going on sale ! this was a huge success in my mind ! Bishi Bashi. Returns to the Black Swan !  We returned to the Black Swan bigger and bolder than ever !  I think I sold every copy of Freak Daddy.  I also sold two T-shirts on the night. Brilliant night and brilliant cause, bringing a buzz back to Newcastle comic fans. 

Bishi_Bashi Exhibition at the Black Swan Arts Centre Bishi_Bashi Freak_Daddy at Black_Swan Arts Centre, Newcastle Here are the first Flyers for our Exhibition at the Black Swan Arts Centre, Newcastle. It was a really cool night meeting other people and artist's into fanzine creation, illustration and comic art. A guy called Andy Smith, basically put the entire thing together, along with his girlfriend Martine . Excellent job and well done for a creating a buzz within the North East. We were all definitely onto to something here...... If we could keep it going ......

Cliff_Sainsbury holding Freak Daddy Comics Newcastle upon Tyne.  This was me, planning my next issue. I was also sending images to 2000AD , but never heard back. I reckon the work was just a bit too dark for their publication. I continued selling my independent magazine throughout Newcastle and further afield. I was then approached by Bishi Bashi to collaborate on an Exhibition at Newcastle Black Swan.  peep

Final Freak Daddy Flyer  At this point I was printing around 300 copies per month. I was also selling the comic in more places, such as pubs and established comic book outlets. I was also featured in Newcastle's Evening Chronicle ( The Chronicle) trying to gain a bit of publicity for my work. I contacted Project North East for advice , they were very impressed with the publication and offered me £200.00 to cover costs of my next print run , which was to be  Freak daddy part 2. 

Another early Freak_Daddy promotional Flyer. I was still trying to work out a marketing strategy as I was pretty new to distribution and networking. Looking back on this experience, it gave me a good grounding in where to place your time and when to fully research the market. Saying all that, I  wouldn't  of changed anything. The Freeserve website was designed by a good friend called Mark Robson. It was full of sound bites and slideshows. Mark went on to study  Scientology and got offered a job in London.  The stories were getting pretty wacky at some point and I had a great time doing them. I have attached a few examples of the Freak Daddy issues, along with some of the exhibitions I was involved with at the time. 

Back in 1999 I embarked on a journey of self expression and creativity. I planned to create my own Graphic Novel called Freak Daddy.  I quickly realised that local magazines were not interested in my work so needed to execute a plan of attack. My influences at the time were the IceBerg Slim books written by the late Robert Beck. I began reading his best seller - Pimp, from cover to cover and soon devoured his whole collection, everything from Trick Baby to Doom Fox.   My story was to be loosely based around a pimp called Freak_Daddy who lived in Chicago around the mid 60s. I cobbled a little story together which went something like this... Freak Daddy accidentally kills his twin brother, he does a small amount of time in jail as he is released by a secret benefactor called Claude. Claude was a police commissioner and had scores to settle on the 'streets' thus , Freak Daddy would be a perfect 'shakedown' person for the job.  The only thing was , is that Freak Daddy n...

First Freak Daddy Flyer. Available only at the Trent House Pub Newcastle. I spent spent around three year completing three issues. I had a full time job at the time and every night was spent on my floor with a can of beer, paint brush, jar of water and black Guage paint. That's all I needed !  Honest !