NEWS

Hi everyone! In the UK and Europe we are coming out of a Hell Week of Heatwaves and our clownish political instability of the past decade+ continues with Yet Another Prime Minister Resignation.

Anywayyyyyyyyy…

I’M AVAILABLE FOR FREELANCE WORK!

I forgot to mention this last time, but I’m available for freelance work! I’m always up for being on a panel, a speaking engagement or delivering a comics/zine workshop, but for the first time ever I’m actually also available to take on writing, comics production and comics commissions!

For comics production I can offer flatting, inking and editing for your comics projects. Hit me up with your project and your budget and we can make something work.

If you’re an artist who likes the way I write and has an idea or wants to collaborate on a brand new project I’m particularly interested to hear from you! If you like my art style, you can commission me to draw stuff for you. And if we are friends/follow each other on social media and you have a short comics script you think I would be a good illustrator fit for, reach out!

Get in touch at oliviahickscomics@gmail.com if you’re interested in collaborating or commissioning me for something!

CORPORATE LEECH AT NEW BRIGHTON BEACH

I have a new comic coming out!!!!!

It’s a 16 page xxx comic about an alien leech (or 3), a Classic Ollie Hicks Hapless Butch™️ and a glove on a stick. It also features 👏🏽shower 👏🏽cap 👏🏽representation. 👏🏽

It’s a very weird, very freaktastic time, and if you’re nonbinny butch/t boy I think there’s a good chance you might resonate with it, and if you’re a nonbinny butch/t boy supporter/lover/peeper you’ll probably love it too. Freaks assemble!

And it’s riso printed!! In flouro pink and medium blue!! I’ve seen a couple of progress shots and it looks AMAZING. It’s a physical only release, available from me in person only at present. Thanks to the herculean efforts of my talented bestie Kay who kept my riso-date with Crooked Neck Studios after I had an emergency come up, it will indeed be on sale for Alternative Bazaar XXX this weekend! Swing by and check it out!!

SECRET COLLAB

THIS MONTH I WROTE A COMICS SCRIPT!!!!!!

I have been collaborating with the TALENTED BRILLIANT INCREDIBLE AMAZING SHOWSTOPPING NEVER SEEN BEFORE BUTCH LESBIAN COMICS POWERHOUSE THAT IS MF’ING REN STRAPP!!!!!! And this month I wrote the script for the project!

This has been such a fun collab (artists, cough cough consider this my hinge profile for working with you)! Ren and I have been vibing with each other’s work across the Atlantic for a few years now and I got to edit Invasive Species, Ren’s collab with Mel Gillman for Succulent, which was a great time. And so, like any no-good writer, I began to think… wouldn’t it be fun if Ren and I worked together?

I reached out and Ren graciously took a call with me, and we basically just said out loud every thing, genre, media, trope that we were currently enjoying, discussed our availability/bandwidth and talked workflow. I love to have calls as an collaborator because I’m A) a yapper and B) collaboration is chemistry, baby!! I know this because my usual collaber is Emma Oosterhous, talented brilliant incredible amazing showstopping never seen before butch lesbian powerhouse and we got MARRIED. Calls like this, for me, are about finding out if you’re going to be a good fit, because as a writer, you are putting one miniscule grain of sands’ worth of time into the project compared to the artist so you want them to have fun, right? I’m incredibly grateful to any artists who ever want to work with me and I want to make sure we’re a good fit so it’s as fun for everyone as possible.

I also like to collaborate on the actual stories! People sometimes think writers are the Source of Story and artists are just grunts who illustrate it but that’s just not realistic to how many people work and its definitely not how I like to work. I think most comics creative pairings have the artists’ thumbprint all over the story, not just the art. Even the most famous scripting example, of Watchmen, when Alan Moore wrote an extremely detailed script - if you look at Dave Gibbons’ copy you can see all the things he decided weren’t relevant!

So how did this collaboration work? Ren and I made an email chain where we put thoughts, feelings, vibes and character references and then I copied all that into a word doc like a weirdie and used it as a bible when I was writing the script. If I was making this comic by myself it literally wouldn’t be the same story, because some really key stuff came in from Ren’s end. Major Things like Genre/Characters’ jobs (which is also therefore the set up and also, in this comics’ case, Theme) all came from Ren.

Similarly GRAND SLAM ROMANCE could only be the way it is because Emma poured so many thoughts, feelings and ideas into it. Seriously, look at the stuff I write by myself and then look at my collabs with Emma… you can just Tell when Emma’s involved. It’s the way she pushes me to write so much more vulnerably and have so much more emotion. Camp Righteous is the way it is because I’d already been dragged kicking and screaming to Feelings School by Emma over three years of writing GSR.

So it’s fun to collab! The script is done now, and it’s over to Ren and I’m excited to yap about it more in the coming months.

By the way Ren has a new comic up for preorder right now… with boots 🥵

NOVEL???? OMG????

Hi yes hello I have actually been working on a novel since Christmas 2024 and this month I decided to set myself the wildin’ challenge of finishing Draft Two (so… writing/editing something like 90-100,000 words) by the end of Summer. I think I can do it if I write 2000 words a day 😬 Can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen in July’s newsletter as I reckon with this.

People have started asking me ‘how I do it’ in regards to my output and the answer is I worked around a full time job for many years and so became very fast within the limited time i had to work and now I have a part time job its SONIC HOURS BBY but also I do need more income so again, if I may direct your attention to my freelance availability.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Some new events have dropped onto my schedule! It’s gonna be a busy July!

ALT BAZAAR XXX Sunday 5th July, Sub Rosa, Liverpool

AN EVENING WITH QUEER AS COMICS Wednesday 8th July, Quentin Blake Centre, London Join online or in person! Tickets here

QUEER MART Saturday 25th July, BACKLIT, Nottingham

PRIDECAF, Saturday 19 September, Sparks, Bristol

THOUGHTBUBBLE Saturday 14 & Sunday 15th November, Harrogate Convention Centre, Harrogate

GAY PERSUASION

The way Emma is halfway through penciling one of my FAVORITE SCENES???!!! HOWLS

AUSTEN FREAKS KNOW WHAT WE’RE GEARING UP FOR

WHAT ELSE HAVE I ENJOYED?

I SAW MARINA LIVE IN GLASGOW AND SHE WAS F'CKING AMAZING AS ALWAYS

Marina is my NUMBER ONE, my A-STAR DIVA, my Cher, my Diana Ross, my Heart (other than Emma). I’ve been her ride and die fan since before her debut album came out and this was my third time seeing her live. How amazing it is to grow older with a musician you truly love. There’s always new things to rediscover and reflect on in their discography, and new music for you to fall in love with. Having someone’s music in your life for over a decade is such a beautiful thing, here’s to the next 16 years, Marina 💖