The Curioseum & Writers Week

Next Friday (7 March) I’m going to be in Wellington, taking part in the Writers Week Festival. Of course my main priority is to catch a glimpse of Alison Bechdel (maybe I’ll be on the same plane with her, like I was with Morrissey!) but I’ll also go to the launch of The Curioseum, which I designed and illustrated last year. Right now the Te Papa digital team are busy making animations out of some of my drawings, which is super cool.

To tell you a bit more about The Curioseum – it’s a book designed for 8-12 year olds, and some of New Zealand’s best children’s authors have written stories inspired by objects at Te Papa. I got to riff off writing by legends like Joy Cowley, Margaret Mahy, Bill Manhire and Elizabeth Knox to name a few. I’m going to be running an illustration workshop for kids at 11am on Sunday 9 March, which is free.

Another thing I’ll be doing down in Wellington is taking part in the Reading for Readers session. My role is talk about reading comics. I’m going to decode them for novices, break down the genres, and enthuse about some of my favourite graphic novels and comics.

Anyway, if any of you are there, come up and say hi! I may look stand-offish but I really do want to meet you.