It's free. It's cool. It's 36 pages of Magic.

And as always, the latest issue of the Free and Cool zine is exclusively available right here for download.

This issue features a whole slew of artists you'll want to meet: Aphte, Conor Keller, Anton Weflö, Maxime Francout, Rmk, Fafé, Fanny Claude, Florentin Bodet, Club Muscles, Corey Thompson, Anke Weckmann, Mathieu Lambert, Rand Renfrow, Aurélie Grand, Tristan Pernet, Jesse Robinson Williams, Connor Annal, Yohan Sacré, Bosque Studio, Antoine Orand.

Download your free copy, and then join them on Facebook.

Back in uni days, I was lucky enough to have illustrator and comic artist Simone Lia as my tutor and just look at her work and you’ll see exactly what I mean by lucky.

Simone’s work is a constant source of inspiration for me, I love her way of seeing the world and how she visually translates her observations perfectly both in her illustrations and comics.

Her body of work is so consistently rich in narrative and packed with humour. I’m particularly fond of her heart warming graphic novel Fluffy, and her Jesus as she saw it when she was six years old is absolutely priceless…

Every week I look forward to her blog updates but I also thought it was about time to catch up properly and asked her a few questions especially for this post. Here it goes:

It's nice when someone doodles a picture for you. But holy smokes, imagine if that doodler were sitting snug inside a human-size vending machine!

The DoodleVend is a clever little project by Sally Leach, encouraging artists to interact with their audience in an instant, playful way. Local illustrators take up residency inside the custom-built DoodleVend (think cubbyhouse meets carnival... with a token slot!) and you can chat to them through a bright red funnel, or peek in the window as they get busy doodling.

The DoodleVend takeaway menu includes party hats, badges, and cupcakes (edible ink!) - all doodled on as per your request. I love how the silliness of this project makes it so approachable. There's just no shying away from a custom party hat!

DoodleVend is popping up around the UK, but even for us non-locals, their Facebook page is good fun!

Read on for more photos and a little interview as DoodleVend maestro herself, Sally Leach, shares a little more about the project...

I’m so thrilled to start my guest writing here by showing you some never seen before glimpses of Simon Wild's sketchbooks. His work is so vibrant and full of energy.

I met him recently when he came down to London to meet us at a graphic art fair and it was great to browse through his moleskine while we were having lunch by the river. I noticed his fab website doesn’t have a sketchbook section and asked him for a few spreads and a few words on the relevance of his sketchbooks with relation to his working process.

Here’s what Mr. Wild had to say... (click to read and see)