Last Known Surroundings

Brasilian translation, new books, no shows, and general anxieties.

You know, some days I feel sick with worry. I can’t always explain why, maybe it’s a crack in the wall that I can’t stop thinking about, maybe it’s the relentless hot dry weather that I’ve never experienced before. Maybe it’s the changes to the Self Asessment tax process here in the UK. Maybe it’s food prices rising constantly, and the queue of traffic that now runs past my house, and how we’re still told that whatever we do it will never be enough. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t really have friends any more. Perhaps that’s part of becoming a father? Maybe it’s all of that. Maybe it’s something else.

I’ve never been good at switching my brain off to worries. In fact, I find it hard to eat and sleep when I feel worried. I know it exacerbates things but I have never been able to control it.

I’m leaning in to old comforts. Old DVD Box sets, games, music. I’m writing and drawing, but finding everything I start remains incomplete, because my time is not my own, and when it is, the worries bubble to the surface and I find it so difficult to wade through the swamp.

Anyway, here’s my best attempt to focus and keep going; some comic news.

Firstly, I don’t think I shared this here yet, but I’m so excited to announce that there is going to be a Brasilian / Portuguese edition of Haru, coming out with Editora Planeta Brasil!!!

Next, I’ve been working on developing a number of pitches over the past year. One has gone out to a very specific place. Another is going to go out to a very specific place very soon. It takes so long, so much work, to develop these things. I love it, but I also somewhat lose myself in the process. Once this next one has gone out, I’m going to be developing a third one, also to go out to a specific place. I know that all sounds very ominous and secretive, but you never know what things will actually come to fruition, and what will be passed on. So I have more than one thing developing at any time, it’s the only way to never feel totally stuck.

Here’s a page I recently pencilled...

With that in mind, I won’t be doing any more events or shows this year. That means I won’t be at Thought Bubble, or The Lakes. I am very sad to be missing them, and I will miss my comic family. However, I’m exhausted, and I need to take the time to work on the next books, and be present for my family. Each year when I apply to these shows, I also reach out to the organisers see if there’s anything I can be involved in beyond tabling. It’s very rare that anything comes from it, and that’s ok because they don’t owe me anything, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who reaches out, but it has made it feel like I’ve been begging for support and that makes me extremely self-conscious. So I wanted to just not put myself forward like that for a while.

The biggest thing I will miss, however, is meeting people who come to my table. People who have read my books, or just like the look of them as they pass. I’ve had life changing conversations with so many people in those moments.

But this year, I’m trying to heal. Hopefully next year I will be back.

PS. I’ve put my Etsy shop into Holiday mode. Postage rates have changed a lot in the past year and I haven’t been able to keep up. I’d like to move away from Etsy soon anyway, so maybe now is the time? I’ve been considering listing some original comic pages for sale. It just so hard to do it all, you know?