And it’s good to see it’s not without some reward. Although, unfortunately, it’s not really a reward from the comic industry.

Instead, she’s just landed a deal for these:

UK Greetings have commissioned 14 cards in a Lizz Lunney range. This means that very soon you’ll be able to find her artwork nationally in WHSmiths, Paperchase, Waterstones and many independent shops. Great, great news. Now, how about someone steps up and publishes her?

By Lizz Lunney

Lizz Lunney’s comics are always, always a delight to get. Consistently interesting, quirky, innovative, silly, funny, surreal slices of cartooning.

This latest isn’t really a collection of comics though, more a collection of gag comic strips, 80 pages of A6 sized miserableness all featuring that wonderful character of Lunney’s; Depressed Cat.

Here he is, the star of the show:

Don’t you just love him? Now, if only he could find a way to love himself.

It’s quite simple really. He’s a cat. He’s depressed. He does things. Things happen. It rarely works out that well for Depressed Cat, but even when there’s a chink of light breaking through the gloom, he can’t see it.

Sigh

Sigh

Online Sigh

Along the way you’ll meet a few guest stars from the strange and wonderful place that is the Lunney-verse: Watermelon Boy, Keith the Wizard (plus Unicorns), Mr Lemon, and Dullbog.

You’ll see Depressed Cat in all manner of situations; depressed in a number of places, melancholy at parties, blue at work, down at home, generally under a cloud out and about. There’s even a visit or two to the shrink, and a glimpe at previous melancholic felines in an all-star guest artist gallery.

But in the end, the glory of depressed Cat is when Depressed cat is simply being Depressed Cat, a few panels of something and a perfectly timed sigh win the day every time.

The gag just does not get old. You can (and should) get Depressed Cat from Lizz Lunney’s website. Perfectly formed, brilliantly unusual Christmas gifts…. comics are what all the cool kids are giving you know.

Buy it here and give it to someone instead of Dilbert or something similarly horrible this Christmas, you’ll be doing them, the world, and Lizz Lunney a huge favour! Seriously, it’s a perfect little Christmas pressie. In fact, it’s perfect for the office secret santa. Ditch the chocolate, the novelty rubbish – give them something brilliant!

And here’s some more selections of fan art…. see them all at the Depressed Cat mini-site:

Adam Cadwell with a special guest appearance from Lizz Lunney!

Howard Hardiman

Joe Decie

There’s also a Depressed Cat mini-site here, with some lovely fan-art….

Tom Humberstone

David O’Connell

John McCrea

You can order the book online at Lunney’s shop.

And remember, Lunney’s Depressed Cat is available very soon: Online launch this week where Lizz will be showcasing just some of the fan art she’s received. Copies should then be available at Comica Comiket and at Thought Bubble in a couple of weeks. And of course, you can order the book online at Lunney’s shop.

Depressed Cat: Nine Miserable Lives has its online launch the week of the 14th to 18th November where Lizz will be showcasing just some of the fan art she’s received. Copies should then be available at Comica Comiket and at Thought Bubble in a couple of weeks. And of course, you can order the book online at Lunney’s shop.

For now though, here’s a taster…

And you can follow Depressed Cat on Twitter:

More every day at Lizz Lunney’s blog.

All photos provided by Lizz, taken by Hellocatfood apart from screen print photo by Get A Grip. Right, over to Lizz Lunney:

Last weekend was Birmingham Zine Festival 2011- a celebration of alternative publications.

A variety of exciting events took place over the weekend; an exhibition and zine sale at the 6/8 Kafe, zine fair and film showings at We Are Birmingham, after-show party at the Jekyll and Hyde gin parlour with the Sugarfoot Stomp and a zine swap picnic.

The fair tried out a new central location for this year, a more spacious gallery floor which was a contrast to the overheated bustle of last year at The Victoria, this was certainly an improvement in terms of space to look around and see the work on offer (meaning we could fit in more exhibitors and exceed the amount of visitors through the door) but perhaps lacking the underground atmosphere of the previous event.

We had a downstairs room that provided tea, sandwiches and cakes as well as a drawing area and film showings- the main showing being “Isle of Spagg” by The Brothers McLeod. We also had a screen printing workshop by Get A Grip featuring the artwork for this year’s Festival by the wonderful Bunny Bissoux and Goodie Bags with programmes printed by Footprint Workers Co-Op.

(Organiser Lizz Lunney and Howad Hardiman, artist of Badger and The Lengths)

It is hard as an organiser not to be critical of the day and just to focus on things we could have improved so perhaps best review is from the viewpoint of an exhibitor at the zine fair…..Sean Azzopardi:

“On Saturday I travelled to sun drenched Birmingham to attend the second Birmingham Zine Festival. Last year it was held in a pub, and it was a great day but the venue was to small for the crowd it attracted. The venue this time was at the We are Birmingham arts/retail space.

On arrival everyone was setting up and exhibitors were allowed to choose a table which was a refreshing change. There was plenty of space for exhibitors and punters. After setting up my table I helped stuff some of the programme bags as I felt this was getting into the hands on feel of the day. Not that there was any need as there was plenty of involved and quickly the bunting was up and everyone was behind tables ready for the day.

There were plenty of visitors throughout the day; people who were aware of the event or the venue, or curious folks dropping by during a day’s shopping. There was music through the day, and a well stocked tea and cake table (yum) in the basement alongside the film shows.

I personally had a great time. It was good to exhibit with new people, as well as familiar faces and I sold lots of comics. What was noticeable was the number of people attending because they wanted to know more about comics. This has been a recurring  experience at the last half dozen events I’ve attended. A really good development. One that events like the BZF encourages through being a warm friendly accessible and well run event. Here’s to next year.

Sean Azzopardi”

(Dan Berry and Joe List)

(Philippa Rice with copies of her new My Cardboard Life book)

(Luke Pearson, whose beautiful looking Everything We Miss from Nobrow is out now)

You can see more photos of the day around the internet:

BZF Flickr page
Photos of the fair by Hellocatfood
Photos by Sean Azzopardi
6/8 Kafe photos of exhibition!

And some reviews by ZEENE, No Guts No Glory and Katy Acquaye.

We are now already on the look out for a suitable venue for next year- any suggestions and feedback people have on this year’s events are greatly appreciated. Thanks for everyone who helped make this year a success and we hope to see you next time too!

Lizz Lunney

Thanks ever so much to Lizz and Sean for doing that for us. Much appreciated. Like Sean says, it’s good to have as many events as possible like this, and the location of BZF 2011, combined with free entry and a good mix of events and materials really seems to have attracted a good mix of people to the event.

You can follow Depressed Cat here, or see what Lizz Lunney is up to at her website.

Lizz’s mini comic At the Planetarium was reviewed here on the blog by Richard just last week.