It’s a classic night drive down the lost highway (to Hull). Production note: on the picture of the sign to Hull Docks that I used as reference had been vandalised to read “Coc s” (sic). Knowing the delicate sensibilities of my audience, I restored the original wording. Second production note: I think the last panel is a definite career peak. The day after I drew it, drained, I succumbed to a terrible weeks-long cold.
NO WAITROSE NO INTEREST
I have a request for help that will not cost you any more than your hard-won influence and social capital.
While I am lucky to have a robust, engaged and enthusiastic audience here, in 2026 it is near-impossible to grow it on a website like this. My work does not lend itself to the virality of social media. This isn’t a problem now, but five years from now it definitely could be. I put everything into what I’m doing with my comics and even modest growth in the readership would go a long way towards keeping things sustainable. Word of mouth is the only promotion that has ever worked for me – it has been vital at every stage – and I need your help with that.
Since the end of last year, Solver has been running on webcomic platforms Webtoon and Tapas in the mobile-friendly long vertical scroll format they use. These are reruns, starting from Circus Windows, so if you’re reading here, I don’t suggest you now go and read there. But if you have a friend, colleague or younger family member who uses Webtoon/Tapas to read webcomics and if you think they’d like my work but you can’t sell them on prehistoric desktop website-based webcomic formats, this could be the answer.
SOLVER on Webtoon
SOLVER on Tapas
Thank you!
On my Patreon, I did a free Q&A post that included a PDF that shows where you can read (or can’t) everything I’ve published on my various websites or with book publishers, excepting anthology appearances. I feel like this could be of interest to people who’ve arrived later at my work, or people who’ve forgotten things. I put myself in the latter category. If this is of interest, take a look!
The site has had a minor spruce-up for 2026. NEMS parts 2&3 and Savage Sword of Susan have been moved to the story archive – you can find them in the menu at the top of the page (under “my old comics”), or on the Scary Go Round site where you can also find Bad Machinery, Kit + The Wolf, Giant Days (Self-Published) and more! I’ll add It’s The Nineties, Get Used To It to this archive when I get chance.
The plan for this year is twelve months of Solver, so it’s time for the old masthead (knocked up in ten minutes nearly five years ago, IIRC) to go. I hope you like the new one. Mildred must feature, of course – she got two whole issues of Solver, after all, and can always return to stir up trouble when she’s needed.
Once again, same as it is every year, my albums of the year. Only one more year to go to achieve 40 years of chart lists (see them all!). I didn’t get quite as much listening done this year due to some demanding extra-curriculars, and it felt like an “off” year generally, but last year was so rich for new music for me that a drop-off was inevitable. There were a few reissues that gummed up my 2025 deep listening time too. But I still found lots of new things that I really enjoyed, especially in the final third of the year.
1 BALLOON BALLOON BALLOON – Sharp Pins
2 BLEEDS – Wednesday
3 NESTED IN TANGLES – Hannah Frances
4 PHONETICS ON AND ON – Horsegirl
5 LIFE, DEATH AND DENNIS HOPPER – The Waterboys
6 RASPBERRY MOON – Hotline TNT
7 MORE – Pulp
8 IT’S A BEAUTIFUL PLACE – Water From Your Eyes
9 WHEN I PAINT MY MASTERPIECE – Ada Lea
10 GETTING KILLED – Geese
11 JOEY – Joey Joesph
12 EURO COUNTRY – CMAT
13 THE BERRIES – The Berries
14 MICHELANGELO DYING – Cate Le Bon
15 BURY THE KEY – TOPS
16 INSTANT HOLOGRAMS ON METAL FILM – Stereolab
17 BURNOVER – Greg Freeman
18 NEW THREATS FROM THE SOUL – Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band
19 SWITCHEROO – Gelli Haha
20 COTTON CROWN – The Tubs
21 GRASS – Grass
22 SONG SHARDS – Peter Stampfel
23 MARAVILHOSAMENTE BEM – Julia Mestre
24 UP LATE WITH DUMBELLS – Dumbells
25 SPRING GROVE – The Ophelias
26 BUGLAND – No Joy
27 SOUNDS LIKE… – Florry
28 TOMORROW COMES CRASHING – Smut
29 LUMINESCENT CREATURES – Ichiko Aoba
30 2 – Foxwarren
31 SNOCAPS – Snocaps
32 I LOVE PEOPLE – Cory Hanson
33 ANTIGONE – Eiko Ishibashi
34 LOVE CHANT – The Lemonheads
35 SPRING BOARD – The Chills
36 BUYER BEWARE – The Men
37 ALL CYLINDERS – Yves Jarvis
38 SINISTER GRIFT- Panda Bear
39 ANIMARU – Mei Semones
40 TIMELESS WORLD FOREVER – Graham Hunt
One record arrived too late for consideration (last week) but I am sure would have made the list given time to bed in, it’s a good one:
HOLO BOY – This Is Lorelei
I’ve stopped using Spotify this year but I know a lot of you still use it so I’ve done a playlist of a song from each album (bar the one where the artist had taken their music off). You can listen here. I’ve also done one for Tidal.
There are limited stocks of Savage Sword of Susan and NEMS 1968 at Topatoco. If you’re in the UK or Europe you can find them at Page 45 along with all my other currently in-print books. I will be reprinting NEMS #1 and Savage Sword (which I have none left of at home) in the new year.
