In last month’s letter I said “I am asking you watch me, in a very real sense, naked”.
This is my commitment to you to be vulnerable, earnest and to fail publicly in the pursuit of the mystery.
This month, I’m beginning two journeys that prove I’m serious about this, both figuratively and, yes, somewhat literally.
No big spiel this time, I’m just going to share what I’ve been making.
Support my work!
New work: March 2026
Both of these pieces involve major vulnerability, I almost don’t know which one to give top billing. But I think it should be this:
I have written a graphic novel!
Exactly two years ago (wow, today!!), I started drawing what I intended to be my debut graphic novel. My life being what it’s been, I have barely mentioned the project since, but I have been quietly working at it most mornings for a long time.
Today is the day to share it with you.
It is called Absolute Legend, To Be Fair and it’s a comedy-drama/crime caper about four British men who would rather do anything than talk about their feelings. Here’s the elevator pitch:
Nick, Ed, Will and Ollie haven’t spoken since a tragedy none of them have the courage to confront. In a desperate bid to save his friendship group, Nick invites them to take part in a life-drawing class. But there’s a twist: he’s the model. “I want you to look at me” he tells his stunned friends, “I want you to see me and I want you to draw me.” But Nick’s hopes for healing are about to be dashed when two hapless jewel thieves burst in and take them hostage. With its unique mix of gangsters and male nudity, it’s Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels meets The Full Monty!
Getting this story into the world has been a journey. My original hope — to have the book published and sold in stores — was swiftly rejected by the small pool of agents who care for graphic novels. Plan B — to publish on a major comics platform like Webtoons and Tapas — hit the dust when the book was banned (!!) by both sites within hours of me uploading the first chapter (a rather prudish sensitivity around nudity, even the non-sexual kind.)
And so, grimly determined to give these fellas their stage, I rapidly built a website last weekend to showcase the story.
A reminder that if no-one will give your story a home, you can always build one yourself.
I’m publishing a new chapter every Wednesday for the next six weeks. I’ll write more about the story and what I put into it (and how much it took out of me) next month.
After 9 years…I am back on YouTube!
A couple of weeks ago, I sat down in front of a camera and started filming myself talking.
I almost didn’t register in the moment quite how (personally) momentous this was — I was making a video for my YouTube channel for the first time since 2017. If you have been here a long time, you’ll know I abandoned the channel after a creative failure knocked me into a period of creative bereavement.
To hit the upload button and show my face again is a moment of exposure that asked a lot of me, a very real threshold crossed.
You can watch the video here — I’ll be uploading two videos every month for as long as I can!
The comments beneath the video and the emails I have received this week have warmed my heart, thank you.
I’m adding some non-committal ways you can support me and my work. Right now, you can buy me a coffee, buy a zine or give a one-off donation via PayPal. 🙏
Support my work!
Links
Occasionally I’ll share links to other people’s work — the bar will be high!
There was an exciting time online about 15 years ago when designers were pushing the limits of CSS and making individual blogposts more visually interesting than they needed to be. For their brief existence they were called blogazines and evolved into the stunning editorial interactives of today.
This creativity was flattened out by the likes of Medium and Substack, but I still love it when I see someone putting insane effort into making a single blogpost beautiful. This page by Henry Desroches, detailing a new years eve road trip, is a wonderful example, and Anh is always doing something unique and clever on her website. Click on the lamp! — via their RSS feeds (of course)
Expect the next email from me on or around April 26th!
Until another Sunday soon,
