I’ve just heard that ‘What am I doing here’, the book I’ve contributed cartoons to is now available. It is published by Church House Publishing – the page on their website is here.

Church House Bookshop contacted me this morning to say they have it in stock – see this page. They do mail order. It should be available in lots of other places as well – the ISBN number is 9780715141618 if you want to order or search for it somewhere.

There are about 8 cartoons I think – one for each of most of the chapters. I’ve posted one below. I’ll admit that at first I was hesitant to do the cartoons for this book as I was stressed with other things at the time, but when I read the manuscript I said yes. It goes through a typical Anglican communion service and explains why we do what we do. I think it could be a really useful book to (for example) give to newcomers who are not used to church services and all the strange things that happen in them. I’ve posted the publisher’s description below.

Have you ever wondered what church is all about? Ever found yourself in a service wondering what on earth is going on? And what the point of it all is?

Whether you’re completely new to church or have been coming to church for a while, this little book is here to help you!

With a down-to-earth style and subtle humour, What am I Doing Here? takes you through an Anglican Holy Communion service, demystifying what happens – and why.

Subjects covered include:

* What are you doing here?: The need to meet your maker
* Worship: The need to celebrate and count our blessings
* Confession: The need for accounting procedures and a clean slate
* Sermons: The need for wise words and challenging questions
* The Creed: The need for a basic belief system
* Prayer: The need to engage with the wider world and ask for help
* The Peace: The need to live in right relationship with others
* Holy Communion: The need for strength, comfort and delight
* Being sent out and the after-church chat: The need to share the journey

Hilary Brand is the best-selling author of Christ and the Chocolaterie and The Sceptic’s Guide to the Bible. As an ordinary pew-dweller rather than a church leader, she’s in an ideal position to empathise with newcomers.

Dave Walker is one of the best-known Christian cartoonists in the UK. He runs www.cartoonchurch.com and contributes the weekly ‘Dave Walker Guide to the Church’ cartoon in the Church Times.

Posted by Dave at 12:31 pm on June 13, 2008 and filed under Books, Cartoons, Church, My books, Religion.

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I notice that the webpage for one of the projects I have been working on is now up: What am I Doing Here? – A Beginner’s Guide to Church by Hilary Brand. It is published by Church House Publishing.

I’d tell you more, but I’ve a train to catch.

Posted by Dave at 11:04 am on April 24, 2008 and filed under Books, Religion.

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This is a rather belated mention for Nicola David’s Grove booklet ‘Publicity and the Local Church‘, which uses my ‘The problem with the church‘ cartoon on its cover. I haven’t seen the book yet – I’ll take a look next time I’m in Church House Bookshop, who do, it must be said, have a very good selection of Grove booklets. Anyway, well done to Nicola, who reads this site and would comment more if it were not for the fact that my site mysteriously eats her comments.

The thing I like about Grove booklets is that they are short and to the point and cost about three pounds. It means that you can afford to investigate a subject without a huge amount of investment and getting approval from the PCC. Interestingly I note that one of the other new titles is about Online church, based on experiences gained through the St Pixels project.

On a semi-unrelated subject I was really very surprised to see at the weekend that the big Waterstones in Piccadilly still has ample copies of the Dave Walker Guide to the Church on prominent display in both the ‘Waterstones Recommends’ section and the Humour section. Quite remarkable.

Please note: I wasn’t especially looking for it – I just happened to glance my head to the left slightly when passing the shelf where it had previously been. It must be emphasised that I really do not spend my weekends travelling the country attempting to spot copies of my book in various bookshops.

[Disclosure*: Church House Bookshop is part of Hymns Ancient and Modern Limited, who pay me to do drawings.]

*I’m going to try to write one of these when I recommend something that might, directly or indirectly bring me financial benefit. I’ve read elsewhere that it’s something I should perhaps do.

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on January 27, 2008 and filed under Books, Religion.

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Your eyes do not deceive you – this is indeed ‘The Mills and Boon Guide to the Church’.

Click ‘read the rest of this entry’ to find out more about this book.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Dave at 11:52 pm on January 17, 2008 and filed under Books, Church, Religion.

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A short series featuring some of the reference books I use in my day to day work. Number one:

My wife brought this back from work as it was surplus to requirements. It had been in a cupboard for (and I quote) ‘hundreds of years’.

Posted by Dave at 11:43 pm on January 16, 2008 and filed under Books, Cartooning, Church, Religion.

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Cartoonist Darren Harvey-Regan, creator of ‘Bold’s Fold‘ has a second book out called ‘Bold’s Fold – a second helping’.

Darren’s cartoons are all about the charismatic branch of Christianity. If you are, or have been, involved in that side of things I think you will enjoy this book.

Those who have been reading my website(s) since the early 2000s might remember that we featured some of Darren’s cartoons on Wibsite.com. At the time Darren was the cartoonist for ‘Christianity and Renewal’ magazine. ‘Renewal’ was later dropped. I can’t remember why exactly. Probably because, as all library-goers know you can only renew something about eight times before having to take it back and choose something else. Failure to do so will incur a charge of 20p a day.

Posted by Dave at 6:07 pm on December 18, 2007 and filed under Books, Cartooning, Church, Ecumenical matters, Religion.

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This is the belated fifth and final cartoon from my Cartoon Challenge Night. I got there eventually. I changed the concept rather, but it is based on the suggestion by Mary in a limited sort of a way.

I will add this and one or two other cartoons to the downloadable area before too long so that subscribers can use them. It might be Monday though as I am behind with things and we are going out.

Talking of cartoons the Church Times is available free online for this week only owing to the postal strike that is currently happening here in the UK. This means that there is a rare opportunity for non subscribers to see my latest cartoon for this week, entitled ‘Clergy Advertisements‘. If you’d like to see the fruit of my latest blood, sweat and tears every week why not subscribe to the Church Times. It is currently £65 for Uk subscriptions and £95 in the USA.

Talking of various things, I mentioned a few weeks back that my book was temporarily out of print, but then forgot to say when it was in print again. So, to set the record straight, it is in print again. The calendar is also selling well apparently – Rhys sent me a link yesterday to Christian Marketplace, who are recommending it as a Christmas present. Who am I to argue. The book and calendar are both £5.99 and if you were to buy one you would be helping me out right royally. Thank you.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Posted by Dave at 1:11 pm on October 5, 2007 and filed under Books, Cartoons, Church, Religion.

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Church House Bookshop are doing the book and calendar together for £8.99 until the 1st of October. Non-UK readers can take advantage of this offer too.

Posted by Dave at 10:27 pm on August 20, 2007 and filed under Books, Religion.

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As hinted at the other day the The Dave Walker Guide to the Church 2008 Calendar is now available.

It is published by Canterbury Press, costs £5.99 and is subtitled ‘Things to do in your church’. Each month contains a page of different drawings of events that one might (perhaps) choose to celebrate in one’s church during that month. All the material is brand new and hasn’t been published anywhere else, except for December which is a Christmas cartoon I did as a half page Church Times one that I was quite pleased with. The calendar artwork pages look a bit like the one to the right, but bigger. The calendar ‘dates’ pages have plenty of space to write things in and contain important ecclesiastical events. Each copy of the calendar comes with a strong envelope to put it in.

The calendar is available from the following places:

• Direct from SCM-Canterbury Press
• From the Church House Bookshop – the actual shop or online. They are doing a special offer – book and calendar for £8.99 until 1st October
• From the Church Times tent at Greenbelt*
• SPCK (Currently unavailable from SPCK)
• Through Anglicanshop.com (Already in their ‘Top 10′ apparently)
• If you quote the ISBN number 978-1-85311-815-9 I think you should be able to order it through other bookshops*

*I’m fairly sure about these options, but will confirm them as soon as I can. If you know of other places stocking it please let me know.

Posted by Dave at 11:00 pm on August 9, 2007 and filed under Books, CartoonChurch progress, CartoonChurch.com newsletter, Religion.

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My copy of ‘Shaggy Blog Stories’, the UK Bloggers Comic Relief book has arrived from the Lulu publishing company. This is the first time that I have ordered a ‘print on demand’ book from the internet. For this and other reasons it is terribly exciting.

It looks like it is going to be superb. One of my entries is in it, but that is an aside really. If you enjoy humourous blogs then I’d advise buying this book as a means to discovering a lot of new ones that you don’t yet know about. Thanks again to Mike for all his hard work.

Unfortunately I have no time to dilly dally in front of the computer reading it at this moment. I have dilly dallying to do downstairs.

Advertisement: Cartoons that you can paste into your blog without it costing you a dime.

Posted by Dave at 9:47 am on March 22, 2007 and filed under Books.

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This is a contribution by the UK blogging community to red nose day. Mike at Troubled Diva and several assistants have worked very hard in only a few days to put a book of humourous blog posts together together and it is now available to purchase from Lulu at the following link:

http://www.lulu.com/content/739873 (or www.shaggyblogstories.co.uk should take you there).

The book contains comedic blog posts from some of the best and funniest blogs in the UK, including:

• Jonny B’s Private Secret Diary
• Little Red Boat
• Diamond Geezer
• petite anglaise

…and a heck of a lot I have not heard of. Oh, and one of my posts, though I did choose it literally one minute before the Tuesday 6pm deadline, so it might not be my best piece of work ever. A full list of the bloggers included and other sundry information is here on Mike’s site.

All money raised by sales of the book is being donated to Comic Relief. The cover price is £8.96, of which £3.63 will go to Comic Relief once external manufacturing costs have been deducted.

Please note that the book may contain strong language and/or content unsuitable for all ages etc etc.

Posted by Dave at 12:14 am on March 16, 2007 and filed under Blogging, Books, Make Poverty History.

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I am currently working on my calendar for 2008.

Those who know me will be perplexed by this, as usually I begin work on the calendar on around the 31st of December, or perhaps the 24th of December if I am giving copies as Christmas presents. However, I am pleased to be able to tell you that my calendar for 2008 is going to be published by Canterbury Press, the people who published my book and is going to be done properly unlike my usual ones. It will have entirely new drawings – none of it will have appeared on the internet and over 90% of it will not have appeared anywhere ever.

There is a small taster here on the Canterbury Press website.

The scheduled publication date is the 31st of May 2007 which Is around the same time as the Christian Resources Exhibition.

Posted by Dave at 10:15 am on March 12, 2007 and filed under Books, CartoonChurch progress, CartoonChurch.com newsletter.

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