➝Comics

The Department

Co-written with James O'Dwyer, this comic strip is set in an undisclosed British university and revolves around the lives of a handful of PhD students.

The Real World

This is a comic strip about two characters and their gradual understanding of the world in which they live. Like true scientists, their journey of discovery is motivated by experiment and accident.

Today's Lesson

There a some things in this world that seem to pass us by un-noticed or un-questioned. Every so often one of these delightful little pieces of science drops in your lap and it makes you wonder how you got by for so many years without realising. This little series is still in it's early days but will be growing into a collection of little gems of knowledge - in cartoon form.

Christmas Time

A four part story about a boy waiting for Christmas.

Random Comics

All the other comics that haven't made enough friends to form a series end up on this little pile. Though having said that, there are a couple of mini-series in this lot:

Headlines - Ever misread the news headlines? I do all the time, although it's probably because BBC News online seem to deliberately try and make the headlines misreadable. Anyway, they often conjur images in my head that I thought I'd start illustrating. That's the idea behind this series.

Nursery Rhyme Comics - This little series of comics is based, perhaps suprisingly, on nursery rhymes!

Homages - I occasionally like to pay homage to some of my favourite webcomics out there, including Dinosaur Comics, XKCD and Bug Martini.

Frequently asked questions

I'm kidding of course, no one has ever asked me any questions, but if they did I'd image they might want to know the following...

How do you make these comics?
I've documented my process in "The making of...", which takes the comic Dogs and Cats as a case study. In summary, though, I use a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet and typically draw my comics in Flash.

Why don't you update more often?
I ask myself this very same question on a regular basis. Partly it's because it takes me a long time to draw them, especially the big ones. Also, as much as I'd like to spend all my spare time drawing it just doesn't seem to happen - damn you television!

Are they supposed to be funny?
That probably depends on your sense of humor, some of them are supposed to be at least mildly amusing, many of them are just supposed to make you think, and the rest are just there to make the others look good!

Can I buy a comic?
Well, not at the minute, but who knows, if there's enough demand then I just might have to start selling them.

Which is your favourite?
You can probably tell which ones I like the most by the amount of effort that goes into them. One of my favourites is The Equation of Time, I think it's because the physics involved is just so subtle no one ever normally considers it. I'm also quite pleased with Fear, which was actually originally inspired by misreading a news headline "Middle class parents' drink fears", but felt the concept was too great for one of my one panel news headline comics.

Do you intend to do any other series?
Yes, if I ever find the time I'd like to create a sci-fi series. I have a very rough idea for a story, the name, and some preliminary panels, but I need need some more specifics and good characters before I can get going on it.