Ahoy ahoy

Bear Guts, wow! version 2.0

After over one week's preparation, Bear Guts, wow! version 2.0 launched to essentially no fanfare! Coming hard on the heels of the preceeding handsome but sparse iteration, this super duper in extremis website is much better. Gone is the one page of some images and nothing else, and here instead is a lot of pages of images and a degree of editorialising! Brace yourselves for innumerable and sporadic updates to Bear Guts, wow!, the bridge that bridges the bridgeless gap between Britain as is and Finland as was.

Also, there's an RSS feed that so that you can get this junk delivered directly to your whatever.

Annabelle Vepsä signs up with Bear Guts, wow!

Putting the "fine" in Finland, artist and fashion illustrator Annabelle Vepsä is the latest addition to the Bear Guts roster.

Tired, she says, of fraternising with more successful and employed friends, Anna has kindly turned her attentions to us with generous offers of unpaid articles and occasional drawings. Expect to see more from her all over in the next few days.

On a more sincere note, Annabelle's work is uncomfortably better than anything else currently on the site and we are very happy to have her. We thank her for lowering her standards and say welcome Anna! It is also worth mentioning that she is also excellent and hot.

Bear Guts tees on threadless.com

The first couple of designs by Bear Guts resident Stephen Glove have been accepted into the running on threadless.com.

For those of you unfamiliar, threadless.com is a website that offers artists and designers the opportunity to submit designs for t-shirts.  Approved designs are then put up publically on the site for visitors and members to vote on over the course of 7 days - win enough votes and your t-shirt is not only printed, but the designer awarded with a whole host of goodies including a ludicrous sum of prize money.  Ever eager to whore his talent, Glove has worked slavishly over a huge number of designs, the first two of which have just gone live!

Voting is open for another 7 days from now, take a look, be critical, and if what you see hits your eye give us your support!  (Click on any of the images below for direct access to Stephen's designs on threadless)

Annabelle Vepsä on Bear Guts, wow!

Fashionably late, as befits an artist who's lived in most of the places around the world that you can, Annabelle Vepsä finally takes up her residency with us here at Bear Guts, wow.

Short, chic, witty and yet funny in so many ways, Anna is an artist who troubles a lot of us by being able to combine the innovative and the eminently saleable.  A background and degree in fashion design, coupled with a love of the aesthetic is what gives Anna's work its unique style; underpinned in all with a frequently sharp, ironic take on the subject matter, what Anna gives us is beautiful, subversive and incredibly sylish.

Annabelle's gallery can be found here, along with contact details and a little bit of biography.

Upcoming Bear Guts developments

Now that our artists are settled in, we are moving our attentions across to our upcoming publications and the Bear Guts store.

The store we our hoping to have open in the next couple of weeks, and from there you'll be able to pick up back copies of our previous publications, and also a little merchandise, such as our flipbook notebooks and pin badges.  It will also be the best place to get our next batch of artbooks and magazines, which will be popping out throughout the rest of the year.

On the subject of publications, we currently have a tonne of them in development.  Paper Pig, issue two was opened up to public submissions today, and should be available to buy from the end of November.  Also on the way before the end of the year is issue two of Dirty, a second small format artbook from Stephen Glove, featuring a collection of all original pieces and strips from the man himself.  Details of the rest we're saving for when they're closer to publication, along with the launch of Bear Guts prints and our forthcoming postcard books.

It's all happening kids, save your pennies!

Bear Guts business

The Bear Guts online store remains quietly in development whilst we're working on the new issues of Paper Pig and Dirty; so please bear [guts] with us.

If you are interested in a place in the next Paper Pig, please drop us a line at beargutsmail at googlemail.com and let's see what you've got for us.  Room is limited, but if you're up to the task we want you involved.  The current line up is us, a handful of staff artists and a slew of talented strangers.  Early submissions have been rolling in nicely, so don't hang about!

For you frequent visitors - the RSS is slow going but is on it's way; expect convenience shortly.