Waxing Gibbous - 07.01.25

7 minutes. It was for Crumlin Children’s Hospital by the way.

One thing about me is, I have a pretty great sense of time (short-term). Like my body knows how long seven minutes is and draws with corresponding complexity. This sadly does not extend to e.g. important deadlines weeks or months away. Wish I could find the pen I was using before, a Unipin 0.1 - I’ve been doing some illustrations digitally recently for a secret project that I think are some of the best things I’ve ever done, and the Unipin gives a similar tiny monoline. I had big dreams of making the comics ever more detailed as time went on, but I’ve lost it so we’re back on the chisels (the chisel is also a Unipin, they’re good pens).

Song of the day: Full Moon by Brandy

Whose Soup? 06.01.25

6 minutes. This evening I attended the Food Not Bombs protest outside Dublin City Hall, against the DCC attempt to ban outdoor community food distribution. It’s been a long while since I was well enough to chance an event like this and it feels good to be back. It’s so easy to give in to cynicism (for me anyway) and it’s encouraging to be reminded about great work like this, and the past successes of similar actions. I did not look up a picture of Dublin Castle for the comic so you’ll just have to trust that it looked cool against the moon.

Also by “great hair”, I don’t mean like salon-ready or anything - it’s just that seeing people all standing/shouting/singing together at something like his reminds me how beautiful humans are, because I’m a cheeseball.

Vandalism - 05.01.25

5 minutes. From these comics you’d get the idea that all I’ve done with the new year is walk up and down the hill observing small moments and thinking about my childhood, but actually I’ve also: made dinosaurs out of Play-Doh; watched a 1974 film about dinosaurs*, and taken too many showers.

*it was The Land That Time Forgot, and it’s a great way to spend 87 minutes. We said “this German captain is a very complex character!” at least 8 times as he continually revealed new depths

Potential - 03.01.2025

I think 3 minutes will be the beginning of an uncomfortable period in this habit! You can see where I messed up this comic trying to fix the misplaced hand in the first panel after the 3 minutes were up. I don’t like posting this! But I will embrace the process until I am finally reunited with beautiful comics of 10 minutes and above…

White Deer - 01.01.2025

I’m trying out Sophie Yanow’s Gentle Comics Habit - drawing a comic daily, each day adding 1 minute to my comic-making time. I failed at doing this in under a minute, even though there is almost no drawing in it. I like a daily drawing habit, but the publishing is where I really struggle. So let’s give it a go, see if it can become a routine.

Today’s comic inspired by the fairy ballad Orfeo, especially the version by Anna and Elizabeth, and all the Green Knight/Wild Hunt adjacent folk and fairy tales that take place at this time of year. It’s easy to feel like it’s already too late to make things new by January 1st, but we’re still on the doorstep of the year! And whatever you chase, you’re bound to find yourself caught up in some other (mis)adventure on the way.

This sentiment also somewhat inspired by rewatching 10 Things I Hate About You and discovering that, while no one in the film comes out morally unspoiled, I think there is a certain dignity to seeking and desiring that justifies itself, above simply waiting in the wings “not hurting anyone” (except yourself). It’s good to do things, and try to do things, I suppose.

Relatedly, a few years ago for Christmas I shoddily transliterated a Green Knight-ish tale called Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle into a live reading, starring a lo-res image of Channing Tatum and a lower-res image of the Green Giant from the sweetcorn cans. It will take only one request for me to re-record this and put it on the blog, because I crack myself up.