Thumbnails #4

It’s been a while.

The first couple of months of the year have been a bit slow. As I chronicled in my last post, we were taking care of a little Spanish manetto dog, who was looking for a home. At the end of January she moved in with her new family down south, just in time for me and my partner to catch Covid. So after a month of dog disruption (and sweet cuddles!) we rolled straight into three weeks of coughing and weariness. I think only now am I feeling back to something like normal, though some days are better than others.

Shaking Hands With a Pterosaur

At the very start of the year, when I still had hope that I’d be up and running once the kids were back in school, I emailed Steve Brusatte at the University of Edinburgh. Steve is a noted palaeontologist, known for his fantastic book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, and for working as a dinosaur advisor on Jurassic World: Dominion. I showed him my work, and he invited me to come visit his department and show his students what I do.

It was great getting back out talking to students about my science engagement work. While books like Filmish and Gamish are what I’m most known for, my science communication comics are a major part of my income, and provide me an opportunity to learn new things, try out new approaches to my art and storytelling, and share some amazing science with readers.

Making a dinosaur themed comic would be a dream to me. I’ve loved dinosaurs since childhood, and would relish the chance to tell the story of how palaeontology shapes our understanding of these awe-inspiring animals. Sadly, on this occassion, it doesn’t sound like there’s any money kicking around for a public engagement comic, at least at Edinburgh. As Steve put it, dinosaurs kind of sell themselves.

Still, I think there’s space out there for a comic exploring not just these amazing creatures, but the science that actually tells us how they lived, what they might have looked like, and what the world was like so many million years ago. The science of this is really exciting - taking in knowledge of present day animal life, chemistry, data science, evolution, climate science, and using tools like MRIs and 3D modelling software to see inside the rock and rebuild the skeletons inside.

The highlight of the day was getting to meet palaeontologist and palaeoartist Natalia Jagielska, who introduced me to an amazing pterosaur fossil they’ve been working on. This was discovered on the Isle of Skye, poking out of tidal rock. They carefully extracted it, discovering that it was a previously undiscovered species of pterosaur, and an exceptionally well preserved and complete one at that.

It sounds cheesy, but getting to touch the bones of a creature that lived more than 145 million years ago really was a humbling experience, a moment of incredible smallness and bigness all at once.

I don’t know what’s next on my dinosaur journey. Maybe I’ll try contacting some other palaeontology departments and see if there’s interest. Or maybe it’s time to start thinking of a book to pitch…

In the meantime, please enjoy these dinosaurs I drew in the run-up to the talk.

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New Website…

Over the holidays, I finally put together a website for my work. I’ve been sitting on the domain for like 8 years or something…

Anyway, please go have a look. I’ve collected together PDFs for a number of my science comics, as well as pages for Filmish, Gamish, and some other projects from over the years. Plus I have a new store attached, where people can now grab signed copies of my books as well as digital downloads of some of my minicomics.

Final Recommendations!

A few things I enjoyed recently:

🎵 Maladapted - a warm, funny, trans-led podcast about book to movie adaptations // 🎬 Censor - Prano Bailey-Bond’s horror set during the 1980s Video Nasties moral panic // 🎮 Hitman Freelancer Mode - roguelike mode for my favourite game of all time, and I have no one to talk to about it. (It’s amazing!)