The Daily Telegraph’s Matt Pritchett is arguably Britain’s funniest and most consistent cartoonist. His work, and approach to cartooning has been inspirational to me, and I was very excited to find out that he would be attending the Hay Festival this year, as was I.

They say you should never meet your heroes. ‘They’, once again, are stupid and wrong. You should definitely meet your heroes – Matt was modest, warm and encouraging, and it was great to chat cartooning with one of the masters of the craft.

However, you should NOT trust little old ladies to take a decent photo of the event on your iPhone…

That *is* my bald head, honest!

Research: This little lot should keep me busy for a while.

Ymchwil: Pentwr fach handi i gychwyn fy nhaith…

For the rest of you, there’s an introduction to Aneirin’s poem, Y Gododdin on wikipedia.

In addition to historical and literary research, I’ll be spending a fair amount of time developing a visual style able to sustain a long-form graphic story. I’m currently studying the following artists as a starting-point for developing my own Gododdin visual language: Dave McKean, Craig Thompson, Katsuhiro Otomo, Margaret Jones, Utagawa Hiroshige, Ferdinand Hodler, Aled Rhys Hughes, JM Whistler.

Mae’r ‘iaith’ weledol yr un mor bwysig â ’r testun mewn nofel graffig, a dwi’n awyddus i sicrhau fod peth o naws a chyfoeth ieithyddol y gerdd wreiddiol yn gael ei adlewyrchu yn fy narluniau. Mae’r artistiaid yma, am wahanol resymau (lliw, cyfansoddiad, gwead) yn sefyll mas i mi – yn enwedig cewri’r byd comics, McKean, Thompson ag Otomo. Dwi’n gobeithio y byddai’n gallu dysgu oddi wrth eu gwaith nhw, heb golli arddull unigryw ac effeithiol fy hun.

[Note to non-welsh speakers. I’m too lazy to say everything twice, so, often, these welsh bits won’t be direct translations of the preceding english paragraph. If you want to get the jist of it, Google offers reasonably robust translation from Welsh to English.)

Chi’n gwbod siwt mae’n gweithio: aros am lansiad am oesoedd, a ma 2 yn troi lan ar yr un penwythnos!

Nos wener, mae’r hyfryd, swynol Gwyneth Glyn yn lansio’i thrydedd albwm, Cainc. Yn fy marn cerddorol cyfyngedig i, hi yw’r cerddor gore sy’n gweithio yn y Gymraeg ar hyn o bryd, ac felly braint oedd imi gael y cyfle i greu’r llun ar gyfer clawr y CD. Dyma siwd mae’n edrych:

I weld, wel, clywed, mwy, dewch i’r Fuwch Goch, yn Stryd Womanby, nos wener am 8.

Yr ail lansiad yw llyfr diweddara’r Lolfa yn y gyfres ‘Hiwmor…’, sef ‘Hiwmor y Cymoedd’, gan Cennard Davies. Eto, dwi wedi cyfrannu clawr, a darluniau am y llyfr, sy’n edrych ychydig (wel, lot), fel hyn:

Mae’r llyfr yn cael ‘i lansio fel rhan o ddathliadau’r Bedwen Lyfrau, sy’n digwydd trwy gydol dydd Sadwrn yn The Gate, yn Y Rhath. (Eto, yng Nghaerdydd – sori i’r non-kairdiffians mas fyna!). Hefyd yn y Fedwen fydd y digwyddiad yma:

“Lluniau Llafar: gwerth straeon stribed; ail-ystyried llenyddiaeth yr ymylon. Dr Siwan Rosser yn sgwrsio gyda Dafydd Jones (Dalen).”

sy’n swno’n ddiddorol IAWN. Iawn. Straeon Stribed yw dyfodol llenyddiaeth Cymru. FFAITH!

Un peth bach arall, gan fy mod i’n blogio yn y Gymraeg am chenj, dwi ar Wedi 3 Dydd Iau yma yn siarad am comics, nofele graffig, straeon stribed ayyb – tiwniwch mewn i weld fy hairstyle newydd!

Jocan. Dwi dal yn foel.

At the Piazza Garibaldi, high on the Janiculum Hill of Rome, is a gathering of busts commemorating the martyrs of the struggle for Italian statehood. And their magnificent beards. One mild September morning, I drew them.

These bust-sketches have been collected into a book, titled ‘Le Barbe Della Rivoluzione’ (The Beards of the Revolution), and a very very limited run of 24 printed. There will never be any further print runs. If you want to get your hands on a copy, get in touch asap, as I’m selling 15 only, for £9.99 each.

I have also created a poster featuring these handsome sketches, which is available for £15.99, and looks a little bit like this (but glossy and A1-sized):

Buy the book (postage £1.15, this button redirects to a secure payment site):

Buy the poster (postage £2.10, this button redirects to a secure payment site):