I was up at Caption both days this year, accompanied by Elyssa who also did a fine job wielding a camera for the weekend. Unfortunately we spent about three hours on the motorway (the journey would normally be one and half hours) so we arrived quite late on the Saturday, but nipping into Costa to use the loo I saw Dave West, Colin Mathieson (Accent UK) and Shane Chebsey, so joined them for a nice cup of tea before going on to the venue (the Oxford Community Centre).

I had my talk later that afternoon which went okay. I wasn't totally pleased with it - I'd decided to concentrate partially on the journey from self-publishing to being published by a mainstream book publisher, and the changes to publishing in that time (from photocopying to the internet to print-on-demand), but most of my audience were already well versed in these changes and I did a lot of talking before bringing in my slide show, and felt things were perhaps a little stodgy up until that point. As soon as I started talking about the images and using those to spring subjects from, things livened up, so that's a lesson learned for any future talks I might do. I thought people might be bored by some of the minutiae of my story and art development, but actually I think it went over quite well. I'd also been very unsure about the cover I'd drawn to volume two, but getting a positive reaction from its first public airing has given me more confidence in it. It was also really nice to have Tim Jones from Egmont there to contribute.

For dinner we went to Lan Kwai Fong and had dim sum and noodles, surrounded by a little groups of comic creators at other tables. On ours we had Elyssa, Dave West, Neill Cameron, Colin Mathieson and Tony Hitchman, with Sarah McIntyre joining us from her table afterwards. After that we went back to the venue for Tony's annual comic quiz (this year's theme was robots) along with tea and some delicious Caption birthday cake.

Elyssa and I stayed at the Days Inn on the M40 services, which was cheap and, well maybe not cheerful, but certainly functional. Sunday was a lovely day with what was possibly the highlight of the weekend for me - Sarah's fascinating and very well presented talk on children's picture books and their relationship and crossover with comics (see her Caption report here). This was followed by another great talk by Asia Alfasi on her life and work in which she made some excellent points about the uniqueness of every creator - something I've always believed in (so many creators compare themselves unfavourably with their colleagues, forgetting that no one will ever do what they do in the unique way they do it). We had lunch with Asia, her brother, Sarah, Neill Cameron (who had been sketching everyone as pirates with dinosaurs) and David O'Connell.

It was also great to see Ellen Lindner and Stephen Betts, fresh from their trip to India and I was slightly bowled over to meet Jason Little whose work I absolutely love, having followed his adventures of Bee online for quite a few years now. At first I didn't believe it was him as it was so unexpected to meet him at Caption, far from his home in Brooklyn. I also had a great chat with Al Davison about his martial arts experience - which is an astonishing story (we both do karate, though that's not his main martial art).

I met so many great people, I always do at Caption, and I have not mentioned half of them. I'm aware that sometimes these reports can just turn into a list of links. This was the first time I was out with The Rainbow Orchid and I sold a good number of copies over the weekend. Thank you so much to everyone who bought one - the support and positive comments I'm getting mean so much to me and I take every one to heart. Elyssa and I had a brief walk into Oxford to stretch our legs and have an ice cream, and then we drove home in much better time than our journey up. Enormous thanks to the Caption committee for yet another terrific weekend.

While I'm here, a few notices. A lovely Rainbow Orchid review from Rol Hirst. And Pàdraig asks a handful of comic creators what they think of the term graphic novel.

Better late than never, here is a short report on The Rainbow Orchid book launch that happened on the evening of Monday 3rd August 2009. The delay, I'm afraid, is due to the fact that the day before this event I came down with a bit of an unpleasant illness, and while I managed to rally on the day, I deteriorated again afterwards and have been out of action for well over a week.

But we won't dwell on that! The evening was something of a blur, but a pretty fantastic blur if my hazy memory is anything to go by. It took place at the Gallery on the third floor of Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road, London, where a marvellous job had been done by Egmont in making up some stunning A1 boards of various bits of Rainbow Orchid artwork and sketches, which all went to give as good an impression of the book as was possible.

I got there a little early to be interviewed by Alex Fitch for his Panel Borders show for Resonance FM, and by the time we'd finished the gallery was starting to fill up with friends, colleagues and other invited guests, not to mention a strong showing from both Egmont, my publisher, and Blake Friedmann, my agents.

I'm going to avoid listing everyone who came, because a) there were quite a lot of people, and b) I'd hate to miss anyone out. But I must say how enormously grateful I am to everyone who showed up, especially those who travelled from a fair distance outside of London - I was genuinely flabbergasted and touched by the support on show and that is my main memory of the evening.

Tim Jones gave a very flattering speech about me being at Egmont and I'm afraid I gave a fairly vanilla list of thanks at which I was unable to convey my true appreciation of everything everyone has done to help get me this far with the book. I'm sure I left out a few people, but one person I'm absolutely sure I didn't mention, and who certainly deserves the most praise, is my wife Elyssa. Believe me, especially recently, if it wasn't for her there probably wouldn't be a Rainbow Orchid to be published - and that goes for volume two especially.

You can see a very nice gallery of photographs of the evening over on Facebook, and there are a handful of people who managed to be far more industrious than I and get their reports up the following day, including Alex Milway, Murray Ewing, Sarah McIntyre, John Freeman, Joel Meadows and Julian Friedmann.

I believe my Panel Borders interview will be available as a podcast next week some time, and you can also see a short clip of me being interviewed by Iyare of the Fantastic Realms vidcast on the evening.

While I'm writing, a couple more links... some nice Rainbow Orchid reviews at the Financial Times, Comics Bulletin and Down the Tubes, and a short video version of Linda Wada's interview with me from April.

And not content with one book launch, I am having another on Friday 21st August at The Bookshop in East Grinstead - see here for details. Anyone is welcome to come along. And in the mean time, I'll see you at Caption in Oxford tomorrow!

It's here at last - The Rainbow Orchid volume 1, published by Egmont UK, is now available. And if you'd like a copy, you're spoilt for purchasing options! Besides your local book shop (in the UK) you can order it from Egmont and get some badges, you can order it from me if you want it signed and sketched in, or you can get discounts at Amazon and Borders.

I also now have t-shirts available, and not forgetting the lovely giclée prints that have been up on the shop for a few weeks now.

There's a very nice interview with me, conducted by David O'Connell over at his Scribblehound website. I say it's nice because David asked some interesting questions that I really had to think about! And I should also mention all the events I've got coming up - but I'll just point you towards the new events page for that.

I will pick out two - if you visit Foyles gallery this week (from Tuesday, at the shop on Charing Cross Road) then you'll be able to see an exhibition of artwork and sketches from the book. And I'll be doing a talk at Caption about The Rainbow Orchid and some thoughts on self-publishing and being published - that's on the the Saturday from 5.30-6.30 pm.

And finally - don't forget you can sign up to the free Adventurers' Society and print out your very own membership card. If you see me and bring it along, I will stamp it with the official Society stamp!

A few things that have come my way recently, and I would heartily recommend that you bid them come your way too. Go and check out Paul B. Rainey's excellent Book of Lists, a long-time comic classic on the web and now in lovely digest book form. And also get yourself a copy of issue 3 of Rol Hirst's PJANG, back to the multi-story format and looking better and better with each issue.

And great news that Red Eye is back. Now as a PDF download, full of news and interviews (including me) it's a whopping 115 pages and really nicely put together - well worth the measley £1 download fee. If you like comics you have to get it! (it's available from August 1st).

Although the official launch date for The Rainbow Orchid is next Tuesday (4 Aug), I've heard from a few people today who have received their books after pre-ordering through Amazon. Also, if you take a look at the Borders home page, you'll see my comic featured there - I think for this week only (and with a bargainous price too).

I've also got some events to tell you about... Next week, from 4-7 Aug, you can see an exhibition of Rainbow Orchid art, sketches and behind-the-scenes notes at the gallery at Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road. The following weekend (15-16 Aug) I will be at Caption in Oxford where I will be giving a talk on the Saturday afternoon about The Rainbow Orchid and some thoughts on self-publishing and being published. There's a really great line-up of talks and workshops for Caption this year, including creators such as Sarah McIntyre, Asia Alfasi, Jon Spira and Jimi Gerkhin to name but a handful.

On Friday 21 August (7-9pm) I'm having a local book-launch event in East Grinstead at The Bookshop on the town's High Street. Anyone is more than welcome to attend - if you're on Facebook, please feel free to add yourself to the event page there. And on the following Monday 24-29 Aug, the Rainbow Orchid exhibition will be appearing at the East Grinstead library.

But it doesn't end there! Moving ahead into October I shall be sharing a table with the Accent UK chaps at the British International Comics Show (3-4 Oct). And the following weekend I shall be on a panel at the Cheltenham Literary Festival (10 Oct). Then at the end of October I have a table at the London Movie Comics Media Expo (24-25 Oct). I have one more event booked for now - a table at Thought Bubble in Leeds, on 21 Nov.

You can keep up to date on all these event over at the aptly named events page, and if there's any new ones I'll add them as things go along.

If you're a member of the Adventurers' Society, make sure you log in and print out your new membership card - you'll find it on your membership details page. If you're not a member - it's free to register! It'll give you access to competitions, the newsletter and other goodies (and if you see me and have your card, I'll stamp it with the official stamp!)

There have been some very nice preview-reviews of The Rainbow Orchid.

Richard Bruton writes on the Foribidden Planet International blog, Tim Pilcher writes a review on his blog, Jeanette Towey interviewed me for The Phantom Zone, and Win Wiacek writes a review at Now Read This!

By next week I should have my shop in order and, as well as books, there should be t-shirts.

It's two weeks until The Rainbow Orchid is launched (I hope you've pre-ordered your copy!). But it has been available before, of course. Have you got all three editions?

The Egmont edition has given me the opportunity to tighten up the dialogue, re-draw the occasional panel, and even add two extra pages - so that's the one to have!

Edit: oops, should have been more clear - the two earlier editions sold out and aren't available any more - sorry!

I flicked the 'on' switch over at the shop, and while some parts remain dark, and some with the lights slowly flickering into life, one section is brightly lit and fully functional... prints!

I have two A3 prints for sale to begin with - the cover to volume one (sans lettering and logos) and the Tayaut Soviet poster (which also appears in the back of the book). These are not just churned out on my home printer! These are lovely high-quality giclée prints on 308gsm Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper with ink that will keep its pictorial depth for 70-80 years or more. Each print is hand-signed by me as well. Visit the shop here.

Another quick post, just to point you in the direction of a couple of very nice write-ups on The Rainbow Orchid (only a month until launch date).

On Tuesday, author Jeannette Towey dropped in for a chat about comics and art and writing and things and then went and turned it into a very thoughtful article over at The Phantom Zone.

And I was delighted by this detailed review that was brought to my attention yesterday. Some lovely observations and generous praise in both these pieces - thanks so much (edit: and to Warren Ellis too).

Not much time to blog recently, so I just thought I'd post this rather marvellous panel from DC Thomson's Adventure no.1398 (Nov 1951) which I was looking through earlier today.

It's from Strang in the Underworld (by Dudly Watkins, I believe, more famous for Oor Wullie) and I think it's probably best left without too much explanation.