Mea culpa
I should have written a column last week, but I didn't. Probably you never noticed and I shouldn't have mentioned it. No one would have been any the wiser.
I would have still seemed like the sort of ambitious cartoonist keen to grow their audience and who keeps their promises regarding newsletters. The sort of person who promised they were back on the newsletter wagon a mere couple of weeks ago. I said I had cleared a bunch of deadlines and I wouldn't be distracted. No more erratic newsletter production, I declared confidently (at the time). Every Wednesday. Well, maybe every other Wednesday. No excuses!
Funny I should mention it, but I do have excuses. Soon after I got back from a literary festival in Italy I came down with a cold/man flu/flu/covid and felt like absolute garbage for two solid weeks. My first foreign trip in over two years. My first proper cold/man flu/flu/covid in over two years. Coincidence? Unlikely. Perhaps it's not too surprising despite wearing an FFP2 mask on Italian public transport.
Some may say it serves me right and was the price to pay for foreign travel/pastries/seeing innumerable churches, piazzas and palazzos. I paid that price by sitting at home for a fortnight doing nothing but feeling sorry for myself. A writer more gifted than me might have spun this tragic situation into literary gold. On the Nature of Mortality. Or: More Anecdotes From My Trip Abroad That I Am Still Going On About Even Though It Was Weeks Ago Now. Or even: Here's A Dozen Out Of Focus Photos Of An Aperol Spritz At Sunset (Sorry, I Am Not Much Of A Drinker And Was A Bit Tipsy At The Time).
Instead I sat wrapped in a blanket drinking tea and eating yoghurt and cereal for a fortnight with cotton wool for brains. What little grey matter I could muster went into catching up on my accounts. Not the sort of stuff that inspires one to flights of fancy in the newsletter department. I also finally signed a thing that had been on the back burner for months and I might be able to talk about in a newsletter at a later date. That, I think is known in the trade, is a teaser. I just need to remember to follow up in future or else it's known in the trade as waffle.
Basically I haven't done a vaguely interesting thing, even by my standards, since the middle of September. Although, at my lowest point, I did finish off the stale cereal with chocolate flakes in it that has sat in the kitchen cupboard for aeons that I normally wouldn't touch with a barge pole. So I had a couple of Ws between the Ls.
Phil and I were on holiday before I attended the festival. She meets real life people all the time through having a life/job and was completely unaffected by the germ that savaged me. She was very patient with the patient. At least for the first week. Perhaps I imagined it, but after that the sympathy seemed a wear a little thin.
What can I say? Mea culpa. I am weak. A mere mortal. A snowflake cosseted from everyday immunity by sitting in a room alone inventing made up people. Now I am approaching full strength, the leaves are falling from the trees and the nights are drawing in I will renew my vow. Regular newsletters henceforth. Wind or rain or snow. Every Wednesday. Well, maybe every other Wednesday. No excuses!
I'd better hope I can get a slot for my boosters.
Here's a comic strip from last November to make up for my irregularity. I post one of these every Thursday at my patreon.
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Manifestations
I rarely leave the house, in fact I rarely leave my seat, but when invited I will attend:
LICAF. 14th-16th October.
Sunday 16 October Noon - 1pm Old Laundry Theatre
The Comedy of Anxiety with Matthew Dooley and Andi Watson
Andi Watson is the acclaimed creator of ‘Book Tour’ and ‘Breakfast After Noon’, both bleak but brilliantly comic tales of anxiety and depression. Matthew Dooley’s debut ‘Flake’ was the first graphic novel to win the Wodehouse Bollinger Prize, and is a tale of ice cream wars in North West England. Between them, Andi and Matthew are masters of tragic banality, the Alan Bennett's of graphic literature. Join them as they draw live and explore the humour that twinkles on the fringes of the wasteland of the human soul. Presented by Paul Gravett.
Followed by a signing session in the festival bookshop
Shameless capitalism
Paris, the fairy tale romance beautifully drawn by Simon Gane and written by me is out now from Image comics The handsome hardcover features twenty new pages of art and extras from Simon. If you enjoyed the book please leave a positive review online. That really helps us.
Order from the fine folk at OK Comics and you get an exclusive bookplate signed by Simon and me. Thx to OK for the photo.
Books signed by us both can be bought directly from Simon and from me.
Sunburn is the next book from Simon and me. Due out at the end of November. Please pre-order online or from your local comic shop or indie bookstore to avoid disappointment. Simon has done gorgeous work on the colours of this book and I hope everyone who wants a copy can get their hands on one.
Order from OK Comics and you will get the book with a signed exclusive bookplate.
Order from Page 45 and you will get the book with a (different) signed exclusive bookplate.
We're very lucky to have wonderful retailers who support our (and many other authors) books so please support them if you can.
Patreon
I have a patreon which I update regularly. Tuesdays and Saturdays I post sketches and behind the scenes stuff such as Punycorn colour pages. Thursdays I post a one page comic story (the most recent was a gripping four-part Tap Quest story). And this year I am posting a review of the book I have read that week every Sunday.
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I still have books out in the world, Kerry and the Knight of the Forest & the awards nominated The Book Tour. Support my efforts through my store – digital comics – patreon or by leaving a positive review online