Thumbnails #2

Welcome back for Thumbnails #2! After spending most of the year feeling like I wasn’t getting anything done, it’s been a nice few weeks seeing some of my projects come together or finally get out into the world. October saw the release of Luna and Simon: Night of the Killer Phage, detailed in Thumbnails #1. And November saw the launch of a comic I wrote in collaboration with the Society of Authors and a bunch of amazing comics professionals…

Mental Health for Creative Freelancers

Months ago I was contacted by recent comics laureate Hannah Berry and artist Graham Johnson to see if I would work as a writer on an anthology of advice for artists, discussing themes of mental health and wellbeing. It sounded like an amazing opportunity, not just to write something that might reach out and help artists across the country, but also to have my writing turned into comics by some of the UK’s most exciting artists.

When I first got into making comics as an adult, before I even started on the first Filmish minicomic, I had ambitions of becoming a comics writer. That ambition never came true, at least not as I had expected it to, and in the end I ended up writing and drawing my own work. As such, this comic was the first time I’d get to see my writing translated into comics by other artists.

Setting out to write this, I had three main goals:

1. To succinctly offer advice to the reader about the different themes we had to cover. We drew from the UK Comics Creators research report which Hannah ran as comics laureate, the AOI’s Working Well - Good Mental Health for Creative Freelancers resource, as well as our own thoughts and experiences. In writing this comic, I needed to make sure to boil down this advice to something much more streamlined, while leaving space for the pictures to tell half the story.

1. To make sure each 2-page story was self-contained and entertaining, making sure to give space to character and story, so that it wasn’t purely didactic. In hand with the need to already summarise the information we were working with, this was perhaps the biggest challenge. I proposed using British wildlife as our visual theme, and I set about identifying animals that might appropriately encapsulate the themes of each section. Family focused foxes representing work/life balance, a Mole representing working alone, and so on. Writing these stories, I set aside one page to provide a bit of story and contextualisation - illustrating the challenges artists face. The second page would cover the advice. All told, I’m proud we managed to cram so much into each two page section, credit to the power of visual storytelling and the skills of each artist involved.

1. My last goal was to make sure these comics were fun to draw. I tried to infuse each one with some fun visuals, opportunities for background gags and details, and a range of animal characters to draw. I let the artists know that they should reshape the script as needed to fit the page and their interests - personally knowing all too well how the jump from script to page can pose challenges.

Seeing the outcomes from script to finished page was such a joy, and taught me a lot about how other artists work in interpreting a script. It’s given me the confidence that I’m able to communicate my internal vision for a piece, not just to a page I’m drawing for myself, but also to another artist entirely. It’s a really encouraging outcome, and I’m hoping to continue building my writing experience in the future.

The comic launched on the 14th November, and it’s been amazing seeing such a warm response to it, with artists expressing that the comic spoke to them and offered calm and reassuring advice. Mental health struggles are something that most artists and creative professionals deal with at some point or another. It’s nice to have been able to contribute something towards helping others to deal with these issues.

You can read the comic here. Please share it far and wide!

Many Pots!

Since Gamish wrapped (more than 2 years ago!) there hasn’t been any one major project that I’ve buried myself in. It was the same after Filmish. In comparison to that intense nose-to-the-grindstone sort of work, the bitty work of these last two years has felt less tangible and satisfying in many ways. It’s nice having a Big Thing You Made out in the world. Smaller things and unreleased things don’t quite hit as hard when you think back on what you’ve been doing.

I’m working to fix that. Firstly, by trying to rewrite my guilt and productivity matrix so that I learn to value time spent doing things other than the Big Things. Small projects are a chance to learn and try new things, and a year spent away from the grindstone is still a year of your life you can find joy and value in. And also… work isn’t everything, and I’m learning to better value my time spent on this planet just being human and breathing.

Secondly, I’ve been stirring various pots. I’ve got a first draft screenplay for a horror movie that I desperately want to finish and show to people. I’ve got a script for a kids graphic novel, and some sample pages, that I’m hoping to find a publisher for. I’ve written a short horror comic for an anthology which will hopefully be illustrated with another artist. And I’ve got a science comic on Leishmaniasis almost ready to draw, and another couple of science comics sitting in the will-they-won’t-they zone that may come together next year.

All told I can probably be proud of this year’s efforts, not least for it representing a transition into more writing, and much greater confidence in my skills as a writer.

Coorie in with Video Games for the Cold, Dark Winter Months.

Okay, so these might not be everyone’s idea of ‘cosy’ video games. In fact, they may be no one’s idea of that. But I thought I’d offer three picks of games I’ve played in the last few years which I think offer a perfect ‘snuggle up on the sofa with a videogame and hot chocolate like you would a book’. Bonus - none of these games require any kind of reactions times. In fact, they kind of encourage you to go away and think about them, rather than charge through them!

Return of the Obra Dinn

This game blew me away when I first played it, and I think I’ve given it enough space that I can probably come back to it and play it all over again. You play as an investigator, setting foot on the Obra Dinn, a ship that has been discovered with its entire crew missing. Your job, with the help of explorable freeze-frame flashbacks, is to discover what happened to each member of the crew, and catalogue how each of them died. It’s a mixture of exploration and deduction that is supremely satisfying to undertake. A game that demands contemplation, lateral thinking and a few leaps of logic to get you there.

Gone Home

You’ve come back on a dark and stormy night to your childhood home. Except no-one is home, and once you get inside, it appears that something mysterious and potentially terrible has happened to your family. This touching, personal game allows you to discover the inner lives of your family as you rifle through drawers and explore the house trying to find out what happened to them. An absorbing, atmospheric, but ultimately chill experience, perfect for a cosy afternoon wrapped in blankets!

Disco Elysium

This role-playing game is beautifully smart and dense, placing you in the shoes of a disgraced drunkard cop, struggling to overcome amnesia and solve a murder case in a politically volatile situation, all while wrestling with the many facets of your psyche. It’s a literate, complex work, set in a fascinating alterative European history. And what’s lovely is that it simply doesn’t let you play the hero - here, failure is inevitable, entertaining, and just another part of your story. Whether you read through the dialogue or listen to the gorgeous voice acting, it’s the kind of game you can bury yourself in as the rain hammers on the window.

Let me know your own cosy-not-cosy games in the comments!

Final Recommendations!

A few things I enjoyed this month:

🎵 Midnights by Taylor Swift // 📕 Suzanne by Tom Humberstone // 💬 This comic about weaponised incompetence by Robert the Otter // 📹 Fear of Cold by Jacob Geller