Today I stumbled upon a real treat. Well, more accurately, a treat stumbled its’ way to me. I received an email from an illustrator & cartoonist called Grant Gilliland. He said some nice words about our site, but more importantly, when I went to visit his site I loved what I found!

Based out of Boston, USA and going under the name of The Gross Uncle, Grant’s done a stack of really great work covering children’s book illiustration, customs and editorial stuff. And you can even get your hands on very reasonably priced hand-drawn original drawings and hand-customised trainers on request!!!

So if you have five spare minutes today then we can’t recommend enough a visit to Grant’s blog to see his drawings, a trip to Hand Painted Customs to see his mod’d trainers and definitely a trip to Theo In The Making, where Grant talks through the process of creating his first book, and shows stacks of ace storyboards, character illos and process pics!

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ammo magazine was released to the world recently, a pocket sized, illustration filled little mag, (it is more like a small book than a magazine really) but packing a pretty strong punch. With 4 in depth interviews and then a wide range of illustrations covering the rest of the pages. It gives a good balance of how the contemporary illustration scene is looking, and how it could look if one of the talented but relatively unknown guys break through.

“…We don’t care whether the artwork’s been created using the humble pencil, mighty fineliner, Mouse, felt tip pen, crayon, Wacom pen, paint brush, fingers or any other method – we want to see it…”

So, load up those creative guns with this inspirational ammo and buy it now! If your one of these rising stars of illustration, needing a platform for your work, then look no further, submit!

Oh, and while your browsing the lovely new ammo magazine, (that you’ve just bought) please have a little look at page 49. Cheers, yours gratefully ;) … Oh, and coincidently, the awesome Camelia Dobrin, (whose also in the magazine) has just been featured here on TC, and fast becoming one of our favourites (keep your eyes out for this illustrator).

The list of all artists featured: Andy Council, Colin Hood, Mr Penfold, Whyisbox, Aaron Miller, Al Murphy, Anke Weckmann, Camelia Dobrin, Christine Mann, Gemma Correll, Ill.Design, Jeffrey Bowman, Karo Knitter, Katari, Matt Pattinson, Messy Msxi, Mr Millerchip, Natalie Ratkovski, Rathinan Thaijareorn, Rod Hunt, Scott Pollard, Stephen Chan, Taylor White, Yuta Onoda

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During the last 2 weeks there has been a wonderful little exhibition happening at the inspiring Cafe Pause in Tokyo. Run by the writer Jean Snow, this little place holds regular Art and Design exhibitions, live events and talks. The latest destination for the Urban Paper Exhibition is this lovely place.

The exhibition features a load of Thunder Chunky’s favourites and friends, including Ben the Illustrator | Dolly Oblong | Josh McKible | Kenn Munk and Maarten Janssens. Finishing after this weekend, we advise people to fly over ‘right now’ and pay a visit.

“…Paper toys have been around for almost as long as paper itself, but what’s new is that paper toys have recently become a medium of choice for young designers. Because paper is cheap, light and recyclable it has become a populist alternative for artists who previously might have released their toys as collectible vinyl figures…”

The list of all artists showing work: Marshall Alexander, Christopher Bonnette, Matthew Hawkins, Ben the Illustrator, Jack Hankins, LouLou, Nick Knite, Josh McKible, Maarten Janssens, Dolly Oblong, Kenn Munk, Matthijs Kamstra, Jerom, Sjors Trimbach, Ringo Krumbiegel

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Shortly after discovering Brandi Milne’s ‘So Good For Little Bunnies’, I thought my good luck can’t get better than this, but that day was a lucky day, a very lucky day indeed. A golden light suddenly appeared out of nowhere, glimmering in the corner of my eyes. I reached out and picked up this shiny object, and gasped, it was the Super7 ‘International Toy Pirates Book’.

Firstly, that gold foil stamped Slip Case is just too beautiful, and the price, ¬£12 (originally ¬£25), Its was opened from its plastic wrap and the edges were slightly scratched, but other than that, in perfect condition. No thought was needed after that, it felt like it was my birthday. The layout, photography, and collection is perfect, unrivaled in its detail and content. It’s my new favourite book (or mook, as they call it) and very very hard to put down.

“The term “mook” has long been used to describe printed material that is neither a book, nor a magazine, but the ultimate fusion of the two. Super 7 has elevated this form to the highest possible pinnacle with the new redesign of their magazine. Elegant to the extreme in a slip cased black and gold Flexi-bound, this beautifully designed and immaculately photographed title is a museum quality “catalogue” for collectors, aficionados or self proclaimed “toy geeks”. Super 7 ‚Äì International Toy Pirates takes you on a nostalgic journey to the endless days of youth and summers spent watching Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan battle for world supremacy.

Click through for more content (my photographs does not do this book justice) and purchase your own at YouWorkForThem.

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During the weekend, I was scouting around forbidden planet for a nice birthday present for a friend, and came across this book, ‘So Good For Little Bunnies’. I opened it up and my inner child suddenly jumped out and in to this surreal and dream like world, each page bringing a smirk to my face.

Self-taught and emotionally driven, the uber talented Brandi Milne produces such beautifully sweet work, sugar coated, very addictive and makes your eyes drool. She published ‘ So Good For Little Bunnies’ back in the summer of 2008 with Baby Tattoo Books (their website has a lot of these little gems).

It was a great discovery which I really wanted to share, a nice book for your collection. Brandi’s work is also featured in both written and online publications such as Hi Fructose Magazine, Babyboss Magazine and juxtapoz.com.

More of her products can be bought through her online shop.

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The guys at Nobrow very kindly sent us a copy of their first publication ‘Gods and Monsters’, which is a limited edition two spot colour magazine featuring a whole bunch of great artists. Just a small selection are… McBess, Ben Newman and Reuben Rude. The mags in oversized format and has an awesome feel and finish to it and the use of just two colours ties it together perfectly. Well worth purchasing and you can grab it off the Nobrow site.

If you've got an interesting link then contact us.

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We posted previously about the brilliant work of Matt W. Moore, the man behind MWM Graphics, and he’s back again with two new self-published books. Shown above is MWM Alphafont 3.0, which showcases his new digital vector font, which celebrates his love of abstract geometry. He’s also just release MWM B/W B:5 which is a collection of hand-drawn black & white illustrations, which he produces every winter. They all come signed and numbered too, and there’s loads of additional pics on the product pages, so check them out!

If you've got an interesting link then contact us.

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