Thumbnails #1

Welcome to Thumbnails! - my new news newsletter! There’s no hiding the fact that this was prompted, in no small part, by the weird 'last-day-of-school’ atmosphere over on Twitter. When everyone around you is screaming and running for the lifeboats, the least you can do is set up a newsletter, and hope that it will keep you afloat.

But, really, I’d been considering the idea of a newsletter for a while, since it’s a nice neat way to get in touch with people when you’ve got a new project to announce, and is not beholden to the whims of the algorithm.

Why ‘Thumbnails’?

No lie, I sat there scratching my head for ten minutes trying to come up with a name other than ‘Edward Ross Newsletter’. Thumbnails struck me as perfect though…

For those not in the know, thumbnails are the little drawings cartoonists do when planning out a comics page. They’re sketchy wee ideas - messages from the mind’s eye to the page, unbothered by whether they’re good enough or not.

They’re a first step to making something bigger and more refined, but funnily enough, Thumbnails often contain gems of perfection that get lost during all the refinement on the way to the finished page.

So, here we have the Thumbnails! newsletter: a place for me to show works in progress, gather some thoughts, recommend some movies and games, and share some stuff I’ve been interested in… unbothered by whether it’s all good enough or not. I hope you enjoy it!

“Wanna see something really scary?”

Me and my long-time collaborator (and even longer-time friend) Jamie wrapped up production on our second Luna & Simon science short a few months ago, but life got in the way (in a lovely baby-shaped way) of us promoting it until now. I spotted that Hallowe’en was coming up and realised it might be an idea to promote our Hallowe’en set comic about antimicrobial resistance.

In Luna & Simon: Night of the Killer Phage we take the conceit from our first Luna & Simon comic (that kids love dressing up as bacteria, and know more about science than most adults - both probably true) and expanded it into a loving horror movie homage, paying special tribute to John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978).

As ever, the story comes bundled with an important message and some cool science. Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to humanity that needs to be taken seriously, lest we all die from papercuts and other minor injuries. Meanwhile, the scientific stars of the show are the bacteriophage - naturally occuring viruses that directly target bacteria, and can be harnessed by scientists to both learn more about microbial life and fight back against bacteria that antibiotics won’t reach. It’s all very cool and interesting, and it was fun getting to know this science while drawing kids in goofy bacteria costumes.

You can read both comics here, and please spread the word to friends, families and schools about our work!

“Pom!” Horror & not Horror, with One Cut of the Dead.

We jumped into Hallowe’en early this year and for once didn’t burn ourselves out on too many scares too soon. As a result I managed to log 44 horror (and horror adjascent) movies into my Letterboxd between late August and now. It was a great ride, and now I’m thoroughly desensitised to violence and scares, though I do shy off of particularly nasty stuff and those tolerances remain untested.

Some hits:

Midsommar

While most of what I watched these last couple of months clocked in around a neat 90 minutes (leaving space for an episode of the brilliant Hannibal afters), Midsommar is a long ‘un. But deserved, I think. I feel like Ari Aster is following up the perfectly pitched tone of Hereditary with something a little more focussed. A really sinister and daylight-beautiful look at death and mourning, and an unsettling interpretation of what it means to have a meaningful life and relationship with those around you.

Nope

Seriously some of the best night-time cinematography I think I’ve ever seen, truly capturing the desaturated gloom of night, while keeping things beautiful to look at. Jordan Peele’s third feature is his least obvious, and maybe most rewarding film to date. Fascinating themes, ideas and reflections simmer under the surface, ready to spark excitement hours after watching as the connections form in your head. Plus, it’s a really good balance of horror and sweeping adventure that somehow evokes Spielberg’s Jaws, while never feeling like pastiche.

One Cut of the Dead

I went into One Cut of the Dead with very little knowledge, other than the fact that everyone I knew loved it. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I recommend you go in with an empty and open mind. It’s such a lovely thing, a magic trick that I never saw coming, and delights every time I think about it. Pom!

His House

What a time to watch this film, as our government doubles down on cruelty to migrants, refugees and anyone else in search of a better life. A movie where the horror of our malicious asylum system is more upsetting that the strange forces that haunt a refugee couple. The way council houses and council estates take on the uncanny quality of a haunted house, ala The Shining, is an inspired touch. Brings to mind Candyman for its investigation of horror tropes in regards to class and racism. You can catch this on iPlayer and recommend you do.

Hope for Humanity in Children of Time and Station Eleven

I’m becoming a reader again, thanks to our wonderful libraries, which provide free access to audio books on my phone. Hard to find the time for an epic sci-fi at the best of times, but many dog walks a day has opened up a new way for me to read.

Both the Children of Time series and Station Eleven recently delighted me.

Children of Time, in the manner of the best sci-fi, sounds like nonsense to explain, but is one of the most rewarding books I’ve read in a long time. An exhilirating mash-up of sci-fi genre tropes, it is nonetheless something very fresh and quite important. The story of a future humanity struggling across generations to find a new home, and the species of sentient spiders they have accidently unleashed on their last-great-hope planet. It sounds stupit. It is wonderful. A necessary reflection on compassion and finding the strands of humanity (the wrong word) that link us when our worst natures do their best to divide us.

And same goes for Station Eleven, which, as a card carrying fan of the fictional post-apocalypse, managed to suck me in with its detailed evocation of the collapse of civilisation to a deadly plague (what?!) — but more than that, was a book hopeful that art and creativity signal a positive future for our species.

UNTIL NEXT TIME…