One of the things I love most about writing stories is how they unintentionally reveal myself to myself.
It’s much like meeting a new person, who reflects a different part of you back to yourself, depending on the unique angle they hold the mirror; so too does a story have a habit of shining an exposing glare on its author.
Every character in a fiction story — for all of their verisimilitude — is really just one of multiple fragments of the author’s inner personality, loving, hating and having an argument with itself. (In this way, stories are Inception-esque dreams-within-dreams aren’t they? A microcosm of how life is really a single cosmic consciousness, fragmented, arguing with itself…🤯)
My point: a story has a habit of exposing its author, whether they intend it or not, and not necessarily in flattering ways.
This has been the experience for me writing and drawing Absolute Legend, To Be Fair, my graphic novel about men trying and failing to talk to each other.
I began it because I was fascinated by the central image: a man standing naked in front of his friends and saying “I want you to look at me”.
What’s clear to me today is that in writing Absolute Legend, I was really writing to myself: constructing my own myth of transformation through vulnerability, subconsciously preparing myself for my own death and rebirth.
It’s not for nothing that the main character Nick looks like me — even if I did not consciously set out to make a resemblance.
Last year, I was Nick: but instead of clothes, I was stripping away my job, my home, my relationship, my sense of who I was.
And today I stand before all of you — plus an audience on YouTube — saying the same words. “I want you to look at me, I want you to see me.” (You are welcome to draw me, but it’s not required!)
I wrote a story about a man who desperately wants to be seen, recognised, understood…and is willing be utterly vulnerable in order to do that.
And well, here I am. đź‘‹
What the mirror reflects is always honest, but not always flattering.
One note of feedback I have heard several times is how unlikable the main characters in Absolute Legend are. I’ve been told that some of my character portrayals are thin and might even stray into pastiche or stereotypes.
These too, I fully accept, are my own flaws and limitations, laid bare. This is who I can be sometimes: unlikable, maybe even judgemental. Also: not a polished storyteller yet!
But I remain adamant that this is the art the world needs today and tomorrow: unique, brilliant and deeply flawed.
Support my work!
New work: April 2026
Four new chapters!
There are now six chapters of Absolute Legend, To Be Fair available to read for free. This takes us to right before the climactic chapter of Act I. That chapter, publishing on Wednesday, is a delightful comedy of errors.
A quick heads-up that these new chapters contain depictions of non-sexual male nudity and fruity adult language; best to keep away from the kids and colleagues!
Two new videos for my fellow artists
I’ve just published a new video about The Miyazaki Method: how the Studio Ghibli director taught me to get unstuck and how I’ve been creating prolifically ever since. It’s based on this letter I sent you five years ago — a deep cut! — but I build a new idea on top of it: creating in GOD MODE, which I am using to fire-up my own creative practice.
And earlier this month, I published a video documenting my music making process in creating Naturally Dear, Naturally. Buried in there is my artist statement which I shared with you back in February.
In progress: a new short story!
I’ve almost! finished painting a new short story that — pursuing GOD MODE — I pounced on as soon as the idea popped into my head at the beginning of this month. It’s dark but with an uplifting message that you’re going to have to do some work to uncover!
I’ll tell you all about it in next month’s letter — but if you’re savvy enough to use an RSS Reader you’ll be able to read it in a week or so! 👀
Links
Did you know that one of the best things on YouTube isn’t even a video?
Head over to this upload of an obscure Sufjan Stevens B-side called Untitled (Piano). Enjoy the song (it’s lovely) but make sure you scroll down to the comments, where you’ll find a user called becca7045, who felt inspired by the music to share a poem she’d written called ‘the look’. It starts like this:
when i imagine the way i will fall in love it always begins with a single look a fleeting glance taken in the presence of the blind. unbeknownst to me, you have stolen a peek while i was busy staring at the bruises on my knees.
And something awesome that is a video is the singer Callie Day channeling the divine as she performs Hear My Prayer, her car key strung around her neck (wait until she goes low!) — via another incredible singer Vanessa Aldrich.
Both of these serve as reminders to me that there are incredible gems waiting to be discovered in the most unusual places. The trick isn’t knowing where to look (who would think to look for poetry in the YouTube comment section?!), but being open to magic and miracles every minute of the day.
The next edition of this newsletter will dispatch on May 31st 2026!
Until another Sunday soon,
