Three people dead and more in hospital after a stabbing in Reading and the troglodytes on Twitter were bouncing with nervous energy. They needed a name, a nationality, or least a skin colour, before one side would be able to claim the high moral ground. Was it a white nationalist and a member of antifa? […]
Continue ReadingOne of the unintended consequences of publishing that book earlier in the week was that it forced me to think about the collection of new cartoons I was considering put out there. Turns out that this isn’t going to be as easy as I’d hoped… It’s not so much the work – so much work! […]
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A product of my Gag Machine but also, I thought, the best way to end a week which began with a filthy cartoon about Philip Schofield, then developed into a three-day exercise in republishing a book of slightly vulgar but hopefully funny tales (current sales: a hardly surprising zero), and which ended with my experimenting […]
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Whilst looking for some old work which I thought I might as well archive here before I lose it (and discovering that I might have indeed lost it), I came across a directory of old monk cartoons that never made the finished book. I keep finding these directories so I never know which I’ve made […]
Continue ReadingI never take selfies. It’s a rule I have but, I confess, this FaceApp fad I’ve spotted on Twitter did make me wonder what I’d look like as a woman. Yes, yes, I know. Stop the giggling at the back and don’t claim you’ve never wondered about the whole opposite-gender thing yourself. I didn’t exactly […]
Continue ReadingI’m not sure how or when “truther” became the go-to word to describe people who routinely spread lies, but I suspect it’s going to be a word we hear a lot in the coming months. (Quickly checks the OED. First use: 2005, in the alt.fan.gene-scott usenet group, during a discussion about the government’s “involvement” in […]
Continue ReadingIt’s been a busy day. I wrote a new piece for Reaction, about the disclosures in John Bolton’s new book. Link here. I’ve also added a link to that other book I shall not name over on my Books Page. It still feels weird putting this book back out there. I’ll probably regret it in […]
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Just a cartoon I drew a couple of weeks back. Figure it helps me get me back on track… This is another of the cartoons I draw for my personal file. They’re a bit too out there to go to a magazine, though also my cartoons which aren’t “out there” still don’t get in magazines. […]
Continue ReadingYou’ll be glad to know that my slight detour into the world of erotic fiction is over. All 42,656 words of the “book” (plus one illustration) are now published and will reappear in the Amazon store within, I think they said, 72 hours. That’s assuming it passes the review stage. There’s nothing in it that’s […]
Continue ReadingI found myself cursing Uncle Ben’s yesterday. Not because of the news that they’re about to undergo a name change. I’d bought their Spicy Mexican rice not realising that I wanted “Mexican-style” rice. The difference is sweetcorn, a substance that was put on this earth simply to torture me. I’m not sure why it exists […]
Continue ReadingI’m not sure this book is generating much interest on the blog (yes, it sounds crap until you “get it”) but I want to publish it anyway. I should never have unpublished it years ago but I certainly shouldn’t leave it lingering as a file on my PC. I also wrote the damn thing and […]
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So I drew the cover. Not what I initially planned, which was more outlandish and crazy but really beyond me. This is a straight cartoon and I would have preferred to shift into illustration, an area where I still feel weak. I browsed some book covers I liked and thought probably scale back my ambitions […]
Continue ReadingThe humidity has finally eased and the weather is fresher, which means it’s dipped below the threshold above which I struggle to work. Monday I wrote solidly. My piece appeared on Reaction yesterday [click here]. Tuesday, however, was a wipe-out, except for my proofreading my old book. I really want to get back to other […]
Continue ReadingI got no drawing done yesterday. I was asked to write a piece on US politics so I got side-tracked until very late. Hopefully, it will appear sometime today. If it doesn’t, it will eventually appear here. I might not get much drawing done today either. Last week I mentioned that I’m putting together a […]
Continue ReadingWhy Dunciad.com?
It’s a cool domain name and it was available. Yes, I know. Available. Crazy, isn’t it?
Really?
Yes. It also helps that it’s also my favourite satire written by Alexander Pope, one of the most metrically pure English poets who also knew his way around a crude insult or two. If you’ve not read it, you should give it a try.
So this is satire, right?
Can’t deny it. There will be some. But it’s also an experiment in writing and drawing, giving work away for free in order to see how many people are willing to support a writer doing his thing. It’s the weird stuff that I wouldn’t get published elsewhere in this word of diminishing demands and cookie-cutter tastes.
