December 2024: All Change

Hey folks,

As is tradition around here, this month’s newsletter will be a bit of a 2024 round-up – a look back at the year that’s just been and a look forward at what’s to come. Minor spoiler alert: I’m afraid this month may be a bit of a depressing one, so I hope you’ll bear with me…

The Usual

Looking back at 2023’s piece, there were already blinking red warning lights on my mental dashboard – I talked about shortening my project list to avoid burnout and the challenge of trying to keep creating in the face of a continually worsening economic and political situation. On the plus side, I ticked off every item on my project list from last December;

Brigantia Vol. 2 art was completed, the Kickstarter was successful, and at time of writing I’ve fulfilled 91% of the rewards to backers (with progress stymied mostly by Christmas).
Secrets of the Majestic came out at Thought Bubble and has weirdly been the most successful book I’ve ever done, with an accompanying exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate, radio interviews on BBC York and an in-studio interview on BBC Radio Sheffield (a real thrill) and a ton of sales at Thought Bubble – having two debuting books obviously helped but I had the most successful con I’ve ever had on the selling front by a large margin.
I exhibited at a couple of cons – Coco Comic Con in March which was a lot of fun, and (obviously) Thought Bubble in November. I applied to LICAF and didn’t get in this year but that’s fine, two was probably my limit given everything else that’s been going on.
Powerhouse released our new EP with a launch gig in Sheffield that sold 143 tickets, a pretty staggering number all things considering (we then followed that up with another Halloween Ceilidh at the same venue which sold 131, so it’s probably fair to say we have a good local fanbase…) Ba’al also released our new EP (Soft Eyes) and had a great response to it, and we’ve started making serious inquiries about labels for the album so things are progressing on that front.
I played some gigs in a couple of new cities – Glasgow, Swansea, Shrewsbury and Bristol and a festival in Bromyard. Not as many gigs as previous years but the overall quality of them was generally better – next year is looking pretty sparse on the gig front right now but notably, Ba’al are playing the second largest stage at Bloodstock (the Sophie Lancaster stage) which will be the biggest show I’ve ever done. To say I’m excited for that would be an understatement!

…but on the minus side, all this busy-ness joined forces with the depression and anxiety which spent a solid chunk of the year kicking the shit out of my mental health and completely burned out my ability or desire to write or work on comics. One of the main catalysts was probably when I sent out a pitch early in the year for a project that felt like my strongest and most emotive work (No Space Like Home), only to get a rejection back – the rest of the team for the pitch are all established and in-demand creators, so I naturally took that to mean I’m the weak link in the chain and it was a rejection of me and my ideas. Whether that’s true or not doesn’t really matter, because that’s what my brain is telling me and it’s very difficult to argue! Plus, there seem to be very few publishers worth pitching to (based on the horror stories that regularly circulate on social media around most of them), so having the most suitable one pass on a story I’d poured my heart and soul into was, to be blunt, a massive kick in the bollocks. It means that there doesn’t feel like any point working on anything new – nothing I pour time and effort into will ever get picked up by a publisher, which means my only choice is to self-publish. And I’m sick and tired of tipping money into funding entire books only to make a fraction of that back – I can’t burn any more of my savings, I’ll never have a Kickstarter mega-hit, and the landscape has changed so much in the past year or so (let’s not get into the absolute shit fire that is social media now) that funding anything feels like an impossible slog.

So the simple and logical solution, in a world where there’s no pathway to reliably making comics, is: to stop making comics. I have one project on the docket for next year (Sengoku, with Andrew Browne) and then I can comfortably say that I’m done with pissing away money, time and effort on it all. I’ll stick to lettering stories for other people where I can, since that’s much easier than trying to bring my own into the world.

I’m also making the decision to reduce this to a bi-monthly newsletter – I started it all the way back in 2020 as a way of holding myself accountable and keeping track of my writing progress, so I would feel an impetus to keep working on projects. But since I haven’t written a single page this year and have completely omitted the “The Record” section in the last few editions, that seems unnecessary now and I don’t want to waste your time when I have nothing to share! So bi-monthly it is for now, with the hope that it’ll result in a more interesting read and not something that I crank out for the sake of it.

That got a bit depressing, didn’t it? Apologies, here’s the part where I write about music and try to be a bit more cheerful:

The Tunes

As is tradition, the first half of this month’s playlist is tracks I’ve enjoyed this month while the second half comprises my favourite tracks from my top 5 albums of the year. We kick things off with Deafheaven – New Bermuda remains my favourite album of theirs, thanks mostly to some utterly gorgeous clean leads like the ones in this song. I listened to the entire album whilst walking around a snow-covered Pittsburgh in 2016 and every time I put it on I’m transported back to that magical time and place. Yoko Shimomura is up next – I haven’t been able to find out if this album is a soundtrack for anything or just her making music for herself, but it’s got some beautiful and evocative orchestral and choral sounds. I haven’t played any Fallout this month but I had the urge to listen to the soundtrack, and this one by Bob Crosby & the Bob Cats remains a banger (albeit with some very tenuous rhyming going on). Lowen are a fantastic prog/doom band from the UK with utterly mesmerising vocals from Iranian singer Nina Saeidi – the best way I can describe them is that they sound like the end of the world if it was happening in the middle of an ancient Persian temple complex. Lastly from this month, we have Ulcerate – progressive death metal and very, very good at it. This album has topped a lot of 2024 AOTY lists and I’m looking forward to seeing them at Fortress Festival next year!

Now, over to the AOTY section – first up we have the title track from the new Nile album, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As a history nerd I’ve always loved the stories and concepts that Karl Sanders (Nile’s primary lyricist) throws in, and on this album the band are in truly savage form. It might not be quite as phenomenal as their older material but it’s still miles better than most other death metal bands could dream of. Next is Gaerea – I came to this album a good while after everybody else did, but it quickly rocketed up the list to establish itself as an AOTY candidate. Lots of beautiful, reverb-drenched lead lines and an incredible production, plus rich, mature songwriting all adds up to the best atmo-black album of the year by far. Blood Incantation are another band that people have been raving about this year and once again, it’s justified – their new album is a cosmic prog-death headfuck masterpiece, calling to mind (for me) the seminal 2112 by Rush (if they’d gotten really into gnarly distortion pedals and Neil Peart had done more blastbeats). Terminal Nation are up next with the ultimate anti-police brutality anthem of 2024 – it’s not especially complicated (when compared to some of the stuff on this list) but it is very effective, and the refrain will get stuck in your head. And lastly, something completely different – this album from Laura Cannell sounds like the aural equivalent of a drug trip through Tudor England, with traditional instruments and monophonic melodies reinterpreted through a modern lens. Very lush and contemplative, so perfect for a walk through the forest.

Top 5 Things

We’re bringing it back! In no particular order, my 5 top things from this year:

1. The Ocean playing Pelagial at Damnation 2024 (gig)
My favourite band, playing my favourite album in full for the final time? It was enough to get me to buy a ticket for the first night of this year’s Damnation Festival despite not being hugely bothered by any of the other bands, and I’m pleased to report it was everything I could have hoped for and hit me right in the feels.

2. Alien: Romulus (movie)
I know there are some mixed reviews on this one, but I forked out to see it in IMAX and hoo boy, am I glad I did. It might not have reinvented the wheel but it absolutely nails the Alien aesthetic, with incredible set design and some genuine horror bits – I don’t like a couple of the choices they made but on the whole, I thought it was a great movie.

3. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 (game)
Burn the heretic, kill the mutant, purge the unclean! The previous Space Marine game (10 long years ago) was a favourite of mine, so I was hyped for this sequel – and it did not disappoint. Cutting through vast swathes of Tyranids and Chaos hordes has never been more satisfying, and I was able to play through the campaign co-operatively with my battle-brother (and best man at my wedding) Martin which made the whole thing even more enjoyable. I’ve even dipped into the online modes, which I very rarely do because I don’t usually play games with other people. For the Emperor!

4. Janelle Monae at Aviva Studios, Manchester (gig)
I actually won free tickets for this show through work, which was great because I adore Janelle and her music – I took one of my oldest friends who still lives in Manchester and we had a fantastic night. It was also very shortly after we adopted our new dog Max so I hadn’t slept properly and was incredibly, health-ruiningly stressed out – so I think spending a few hours just luxuriating in great music and the strong LGBTQ vibes of the show really helped.

5. The Secrets of the Majestic exhibition
I know I’ve mentioned it above, but this has to go down as one of the top experiences of this year (and indeed my life) – I’ve never put on an art exhibition before so had no idea what to expect, but it was great to be able to showcase the fantastic work of the creators in the book and just chat to friends about the whole thing. Plus we had a massive turnout for the opening, and it’s continued to have legs in the months following – radio interviews and all!

And that was 2024! A year of ups and downs with a somewhat somber ending, and that’s without even digging into the weeks I spent in therapy for crippling anxiety or the continuing slide into enshittification of our society and our culture. 2025 probably isn’t going to be much better (and probably much, much worse) but let’s keep looking out for each other and doing what we can. On a personal level, I’ll be looking forward to a trip to India for my day job in Jan/Feb, the aforementioned Bloodstock slot and some more fun gigs and festivals – so definitely some things to get excited about at least!

Have a good evening and take care of yourselves and those close to you – and all the best for the coming year!

Cheers,

Chris

November 30, 2024

November 2024: Mad World

Hey folks,

It’s been an interesting month (to say the least)! A few things to recap, so let’s get right into it.

The Usual

We’ll start with Thought Bubble, as usual – this year was something special. Obviously I’d spent a lot of time building up for the weekend with Secrets of the Majestic and the exhibition along with it, so I was hoping to have a big one – and I’m happy to report that this year was by far my best ever in terms of sales and general positive vibes. The exhibition opening on the Friday night was a lot of fun, and absolutely packed for most of the 2 hours it was happening – it was great to see so many friends and to share the joy of having comic pages up on the walls of a legitimate art gallery. On top of that, I spent some time before the opening doing some press photos and video with the North Yorkshire Councillor for Arts & Culture, Simon Myers(!) for the council’s press team to fire out. Here are some photos:

Me attempting to explain toilet comics to a councillor…

A photo of me actually smiling? Incredibly rare!

Love this shot of someone appreciating a page from mine and Chris Wildgoose’s story from the book!

The Saturday and Sunday were both hectic and busy – a lot of backers were picking up their copies of the toilet book but I also sold a lot of copies, and it was truly surreal to see people running up and down the aisles with their copy of the book out to try and hunt down signatures from the creatives within. Not an experience I’ve ever had before! Brigantia Vol. 2 also sold well, but the weekend was always going to be about the very Thought Bubble-centric book on the table – the lesson here is don’t debut two books at one con, but I was determined to get Brigantia wrapped up this year so I didn’t have much choice. That aside, it was once again delightful to catch up with pals and shoot the shit for a weekend.

Both Brigantia Vol. 2 and Secrets of the Majestic are available now from my webstore, btw..!

Anyway, after Thought Bubble is when my month went from fun and fulfilling to ludicrous – I got a message asking me to dial into the morning show on BBC Radio York to talk about the exhibition and the book, so I woke up early for that. The same day, the producer for Toby Foster’s show on BBC Radio Sheffield (which also covers Leeds and York!) contacted me asking if I wanted to come down to the studio and have a proper interview that afternoon! I obviously wasn’t going to refuse, so I got to sit in a BBC studio and talk about comics and Thought Bubble for a good 15 mins – a truly unforgettable experience and a bucket list item for me. You can listen back to my segment here, at about 2 hrs and 18 mins in:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0k136rl

It was a wild 48 hours – I’m not expecting anything to come from the whole endeavour but it was nice to feel important for 15 minutes!

The Record

7 pages lettered for Of Ichor and Bone

We’re rolling on with pages for Asa and Sammy’s project; it’s lovely getting to see JP’s colours before everyone else too.

I mentioned it to a few friends at TB but I currently only have one project on the go (which is Sengoku, and a bunch of pages for a pitch/preview), and that’s intentional – this last month aside, it’s largely been a year of disappointment and personal failure on the comics front and I am very tired of constantly pushing a rock up a hill only to have it roll back on me. I’ll get to the end of 2024, take some time to review my feelings and make a call on my future endeavours at that point.

The Tunes

We’re starting things off with a song from Anaal Nathrakh that encapsulates the only comment I’m going to make about politics this month, because quite frankly I can’t cope with any of it and I’m prioritising my mental health over rage/doom-scrolling. Sic Semper Tyrannis indeed. Next up is new Linkin Park – the album is a lot of fun, and sounds like classic LP from the Hybrid Theory/Meteora era in a lot of ways. The new singer was never going to replace Chester but she’s doing a great job of paying tribute to him. Gaerea are up next with a big slab of atmospheric black metal, and they’re followed by the crushing psycho/space-doom of Morpholith. The new Opeth album is another fun entry – it’s never going to reach the lofty heights of their classic era, but it’s fun to hear Mikael going back to the growls (albeit too sparingly for my liking). Harvestman was a Spotify discovery this month, and I listened to all three of the albums that make up this ‘Triptych’ project before I realised that it’s one of the guys from Neurosis doing it all. Still enjoyable psychedelic/droney/proggy/ambient stuff! Sojourner remain one of my favourite bands and I’m itching to hear some new music from them – it’s been 4 years since this album, plz give me more of it. Songs for the Deaf is (IMO) the best Queens of the Stone Age album, and I particularly like this track (and not just because I am partly deaf, and I like the idea of a song just for me..!) Lastly, we’re closing out this month with some nerdy shit – a trip-hop cover of a track from the Lord of the Rings which is good if you want some relaxing background music, and a rock/metal cover of the Imperial March, because we watched a great John Williams documentary this month and I think he’d appreciate it.

No links or movie recs from me this month – I’ll save those for next month and hope I’ve mustered up the energy for a “best of 2024” situation.

Thanks for reading and see you back here on NYE!

All the best,

Chris

October 31, 2024

October: (Not So) Spooky Season

Howdy folks,

It’s Halloween, and while in previous years I have wholeheartedly embraced the Spooky Season (with a month-long programme of horror movies and a general sense of joy and excitement), this year has been decidedly un-spooky.

The Usual

Given my absolute lack of time for anything this year, I gave up on doing a Shocktober programme pretty early – I didn’t have the wherewithal to curate a month of horror movies, design a booklet and actually sit down to watch them all. By my count, I’ve watched a grand total of 4 horror movies this month – Matriarch (which was great), the Hammer Horror version of The Mummy, The Rule of Jenny Pen (which I saw as the secret movie at Sheffield’s fantastic ‘Celluloid Screams’ festival and which was absolutely fantastic) and Immaculate (which I also enjoyed). I’ll talk more about those a bit later on!

On the plus side, things are feeling a bit less overwhelming – I had my assessment for the Data Analyst apprenticeship I’ve spent the past 13 or so months working on alongside my day job, and found out that I passed that with flying colours and a Distinction, so that’s a big weight off my mind. I’ve largely completed the fulfilment for Secrets of the Majestic (and have just sent an update out about that) and can hopefully relax a bit now and get excited for the launch shenanigans at Thought Bubble, and all the Brigantia Vol. 2 books are printed and piled up in my house so I can start fulfilling that campaign in earnest. Essentially it’s just admin work to be done on both those projects, and that’s great because I can switch my brain off a bit and just get things packaged up!

Currently the only thing on my slate for next year (and beyond) is SENGOKU with Andrew Browne – and that’s all written, so we just need to get a pitch together and see if there’s any interest. I’m excited to see how the pages come together (and looking forward to running yet another Kickstarter campaign for it because no publishers are interested..!)

The Record

• Logo designed and 12 pages lettered for Of Ichor & Bone (Asa Wheatley/Sammy Ward/JP Jordan)

Asa’s shared the cover with my logo design on it and pages for the story will be hitting his Patreon, so head on over and subscribe to that if you want to read a chivalric fantasy/horror one-shot comic influenced by Dark Souls, The Green Knight and more. We’ve made some strong stylistic choices with the lettering so I’m hopeful that it works for people!

Cover for Of Ichor & Bone by Asa Wheatley, Sammy Ward, JP Jordan, Chris Mole and Claire Napier. A female knight is wrapped up by a plant-like tentacle monster.

The Tunes

We’re starting off a bit softer than usual with a new track from Canadian “nicest man alive” Devin Townsend, from his new album ‘PowerNerd‘ (great title, fun album). Next is a blast from the past with the remastered version of this track from Mastodon’s excellent Crack the Skye album – I know the original back to front and this definitely sounds a bit crisper and bigger. Blood Incantation are up next with a track off their (wild) new album – I’ve listened to it twice and I still don’t really think I can describe it effectively! Haunt are up next with some throwback heavy metal and a suitably spooky album cover, followed by my favourite track from my favourite band’s best (IMO) album – I’m incredibly excited to see The Ocean playing this (and the rest of Pelagial) live tomorrow at Damnation Festival, it’s basically a perfect album for me. MASTER BOOT RECORD are up next to pound the cobwebs out of your brain with their very heavy electronica/chiptune death metal, and they’re followed by Japanese “brutal blackgaze” from Kokeshi – a Spotify discovery that I’ve enjoyed a lot this month. Woe are an American black metal band that I supported with Ba’al this month in London – very nice guys, and mammoth tremolo picking skills on show here. Lastly, we’re closing things out with two softer cuts – the BBC Proms version of Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine (I highly, highly recommend you watch the full Symphony of Lungs performance on iPlayer/YouTube because it is absolutely spellbinding and had me tearing up more than once – a truly magical experience!) and some classic Pink Floyd with Comfortably Numb, after a friend put it firmly in my head. Definitely not the worst pair of earworms to have to contend with!

Quick Hits

It’s a new section! I’m going to do some micro-reviews for the horror movies I watched this month, because this is my newsletter and nobody can stop me 😤

Matriarch (2022): definitely a slow-burn/tension horror rather than a jump scare one, but very effective at it – Kate Dickie remains undefeated in the category of “terrifying and eldritch mother figures”, capping off a trifecta that includes The Vvitch, The Green Knight and now this. I enjoyed the folkloric elements too, and some gross practical effects to boot.

The Mummy (1959): You know exactly what you’re getting with a Hammer Horror picture, and Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee never disappoint. Not scary in the slightest, but Lee does a great job using his physicality and size to overpower his victims and certainly looks creepy enough!

The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024): This absolutely fucking shook me. Set in a care home in New Zealand, where an arrogant and self-important judge (played by Geoffrey Rush) has been sent after suffering a debilitating stroke. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone because it’s so new, but John Lithgow is incredible as one of the other (creepy doll-toting) patients. The utterly crushing horror of essentially being jailed in your own body, reverting back to childlike behaviours and wasting away at the end of your life with nobody listening to you or believing you ruined me. It could have done with about 25 mins shaving off the runtime, but I wholeheartedly recommend that you seek this one out!

Immaculate (2024): Sydney Sweeney stars as a young American nun who travels to a sinister convent in Italy for a new start. Not as much OTT Catholicism as I might have liked (but my bar for that sort of thing has been thoroughly skewed by the Blasphemous games, which I love) but it definitely ratchets up the unpleasantness as things go from bad to worse. Sweeney is also very good – I think this is the first thing I’ve seen her in although she seems to be everywhere at the moment, and she throws herself into the more gruesome bits with gusto. The last scene in particular is HEAVY (in a good way!) Overall a solid movie, and at 89 mins it didn’t overstay its welcome at all.

That’s all from me for this month, I’ve rambled enough – enjoy your All Hallow’s Eve whatever you’re doing with it, and thanks for reading!

All the best,

Chris

July 31, 2024

July 2024: Proof is in the Pudding

Howdy, folks!

If June was a depressing month, July has largely continued that trend, and I write this a day or two after a full-on anxiety attack that is leading to me finally seeking actual medical help for the anxiety and depression that I’ve been ignoring for the past few years. That isn’t especially relevant to the rest of the newsletter but I wanted to provide some context in case I don’t seem like my usual chirpy self, online or otherwise! Anyway, here goes:

The Usual

We’ll keep solely to the comics side of things: after sending out the digital copies to all our backers, I now have boxes and boxes of SECRETS OF THE MAJESTIC sitting in my spare room, ready to be packaged up and sent out. Rich (Surname?) at Comic Printing UK has once again done an incredible job – the book looks fantastic, the art is gorgeous throughout and it has a very “prestige” feel (for a book about toilets). Here’s evidence of the great unboxing:

Turns out it's really not difficult to video a PILE O' BOXES (even when you have a very curious rottweiler baby staring at you). UNBOOOOOXXXXX @ComicPrintingUK!! pic.twitter.com/7VSBTfeWVU
— Chris 'Human Cryptid' Mole ☀️ (@ChrisManji) July 29, 2024

I’ve given myself plenty of time before the official launch at Thought Bubble to sort out fulfilment, which is nice because it means some of the pressure is off and I can take my time getting the books packed up.

In the meantime, it’s time for a hard pivot into BRIGANTIA land – I’ve just received Hassan’s letters for the final part of the story in my inbox this morning, and the pages look absolutely fantastic. I know I’m biased, but to me it’s an artistic team firing on all cylinders (and now with an Eisner-winning letterer in the mix for some added sheen!) To prove I’m not just blowing smoke, here are a couple of exclusive sneaky peeks:

Brigantia gazes out at the ruined Otherworld.

Brigantia gazes in horror as the legend of the Fomorians unfolds.

Veteris towers over Anna, unleashing his fury at her.

Lines: Alaire Racicot / Colours: Rebecca Nalty / Letters: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Lastly, here’s something that’s very much still in the slow cooker – Andrew’s completed his pencils/roughs for the opening sequence of SENGOKU, our samurai story about war, family and the cult of bushido. We wanted to open the book with the sort of classic showdown that you’d see in a chanbara movie before starting to deconstruct things. The current goal is to complete this intro sequence then probably try funding the full book through KS – it’s a 64-page one-shot graphic novel so hopefully that’ll be achievable.

Here’s a sneaky peek, anyway:

The Record

The only creative thing I’ve written this month is this newsletter, and it’s debatable as to whether that counts. Oh well!

The Tunes

I’ve spent a goodly amount of time this month playing Dredge, a very satisfying (and creepy) cosmic horror fishing sim, meaning that this opening track has been firmly stuck in my head. That leads us into some new Childish Gambino, from the final album – a fitting send-off for a project that has produced a lot of fantastic music. Next up is new Pijn, the passion project of Joe Clayton (nicest man in metal, who we recorded the latest Ba’al release with) – this whole album is just a sumptuous joy to listen to. If you watched the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics you probably saw Gojira absolutely melting some faces off – they’ve been one of the best bands around for a long time (this track is a banger off their third album, from 2005) so it was great to see them get such a big stage. Staying on the topic of “2000s metal”, here’s a new remixed/reimagined version of the classic Laid to Rest by Lamb of God & HEALTH – it goes harder than it has any right to (and the original song goes pretty hard!) And because I’ve been listening to a lot of comfort food music, a couple more classic tracks for you – my personal favourite Turisas song off their best album (The Varangian Way) followed by a complete pop-punk 180 courtesy of The Offspring. Lastly, we’re into a closing trip of “more obscure shit” – Belore is a one-man band making big symphonic/atmospheric black metal and recently got announced for the one festival I’m planning to go to next year (Fortress Festival), so I’m excited to see them on stage. Hail Spirit Noir’s new album is great – not as catchy and immediate for me as their previous releases, so more of a grower, but it has some real standout tracks. And finally we have Wormwood closing things out with some melodic black metal (and some rather sub-par album artwork, but we’ll let them off)!

The Links

Going to share something inspiring/hopeful today – I was vaguely aware of The Ocean Cleanup project, but I had a nosy at their website due to a link in a work email and they’re honestly doing great work. The oceans are so important to the overall health and climate of our planet, so cleaning up the massive amount of plastic pollution that gets poured into them is a mammoth task but they’ve been grinding away at it and making real progress – go and have a browse and remind yourself that there are a lot of very smart and good people hammering away at trying to make the world a better place:

https://theoceancleanup.com

And that’s all from me for this month – have a great August and let’s hope the Kickstarter fulfilment gods smile down on me!

All the best,

Chris

June 30, 2024

June 2024: Blink and You’ll Miss It

Howdy, folks!

As the title suggests – this June feels like it flew by, plunging on a downward trajectory into a very shitty abyss. I’ll try not to be too maudlin or woe-is-me, but I’ve spent a big chunk of this month being very depressed and that combined with various other things has really impacted both my productivity and my joie de vivre. Let’s get into it!

The Usual

After my high spirits about a new puppy in last month’s newsletter, that idea quickly crashed to earth when the Dogs Trust told us that they considered our house/neighbourhood too busy for the dog we were particularly interested in, which was honestly pretty crushing for both of us given the emotional investment we’d already made into her. I can’t blame them for wanting the best for each dog, but I do think they were being a bit overly cautious. Anyway, after a few weeks of being thoroughly miserable about it we dusted ourselves off and have now adopted a different dog from a different kennels – Max the Rottweiler, who is a big gangly soppy ball of affection and has already begun following me all over the house like a canine shadow. He is a Very Good Boy and I would kill and/or die for him.

On the work front, this month saw a formal rejection from Mad Cave for the NO SPACE LIKE HOME pitch I put together with Tango and JP Jordan at the start of the year. In all honesty I’d been expecting the rejection due to the very long delay in their response, but it’s still gutting to see it in black and white – especially considering how much time and emotional energy I’ve put into that story. I’m terrible at judging my own work (because I tend to think everything I’ve written is shit, to a greater or lesser degree, and no amount of positive affirmation has ever managed to shift that belief) but I firmly believe that issue #1 of NO SPACE LIKE HOME is up there as one of the best things I’ve ever written and having the whole story thrown back is a huge knockout punch to my self-belief. I don’t want the story to just sit on the shelf never getting made, but it also seems crystal clear to me that I’ll never be good/desirable enough to get anything picked up by a publisher from the very-small pool of publishers that aren’t predatory/awful. Which means self-publishing, as brutally expensive and draining and stressful as it is, is my only recourse. And frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn any more.

For the time being I’m slapping a great big ‘???’ over that project (and anything else I had in the pitching stages) in favour of just getting my few in-flight projects (the toilet book, Brigantia Vol. 2) cleared off the table. After that, at the end of this year, we’ll see – but it definitely feels like the depression is winning and I’ve reached the end of the road on the comics front.

In lighter news, the digital/backer PDF of Secrets of the Majestic is 95% finished, and should be 100% very soon – if I can tear myself away from trying to settle in the aforementioned Very Good (but also Very Anxious) puppy. All the design pages are done and the layout is locked in, so it’s just a case of compiling the whole thing and then getting it out to our very patient and kind Kickstarter backers. I’m very happy with it overall – I know every anthology editor raves about the stories in their book but I genuinely think there’s a great spread of fantastic tales in here, and it’ll have a nice professional sheen to it. Because when I set out to make a stupid book full of toilet puns, I do it properly 😤

The Record

• 8 pages lettered for The Phoenix
• 7 pages lettered for Secrets of the Majestic

Just lettering this month, although I have also written various bits and pieces for Secrets of the Majestic as part of the book design work – mostly gently trolling Rich from Comic Printing UK in the acknowledgements, tbf. It’s hard to try and write any outlines or pages when you’re convinced that everything you write is shit…

The Tunes

As per my mental state this month, the playlist is very full of “comfort food” tracks. Starting things off, it’s one of the greatest rock songs ever written from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s favourite movie (seriously, ask him about School of Rock, he’s watched it about as many times as I’ve watched Pacific Rim (approaching triple figures at this point!)) followed by another of the greatest rock songs ever written courtesy of Prince. After that we take a hard turn into power metal territory with Twilight Force who are cheesy fun, and then summer-time black metal with new Alcest. I’ve never really rated Alcest, and I still don’t get all the hype, but this track does have a nice sunshine feel and lovely, soaring clean vocals. Modern Technology are an Adlai recommendation who are very very good – a 2-piece with just bass, drums, a filthy sludgy tone and lots of shouting. Inherits the Void (atmospheric/melodic black metal) and Ulcerate (melodic death metal) take us into the extreme section of the playlist, before Janelle Monae takes us back out of it – I scored some free tickets to go and see her in Manchester at the start of July (on the same night as the general election, to be precise), so it’ll be delightful to come out of a Janelle Monae gig and find out just how brutally the Tories have lost. The Deku Trio produce smooth jazz versions of Zelda songs which is just delightful and relaxing, and to close things out we have some medieval lo-fi hip hop courtesy of Thaehan – I discovered that there’s apparently a medieval-themed LoFi Girl channel (https://www.youtube.com/live/_uMuuHk_KkQ?si=HPG_dZIf39uE0JpI) and honestly I’ve never seen anything quite so tailored for me in my entire life? Except maybe that Japanese Samurai Gourmet show on Netflix. Anyway, this is my hole, it was made for me, etc etc.

The Links

Just the one link this time – my good friend Asa Wheatley is currently in the Kickstarter mines running a campaign for book four of his Sagas of the Shield Maiden series. We’re into the final hours of the campaign, and they have a solid chunk of ground to make up. I contributed some positive blurb about the series, and have backed every book because they’re beautifully put together and Asa (and all the artists he’s worked with) have poured their hearts and souls into it. If you haven’t backed it already, please go here and chuck in some coins so we can get this thing over the finish line:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asawheatley/sagas-of-the-shield-maiden-book-four

In my (probably not that controversial) opinion, the Kickstarter comics space should be for books like this – the sort of thing you wouldn’t see in the direct market, with a strong creative vision behind it. Every time I see an established publisher with a dedicated PR/marketing department raising millions of pounds on KS I die a little inside, because it feels like they’re sucking all the oxygen and attention away from the smaller projects which still look professional and on par with anything a publisher might put out, but are being managed by one/a few people. Anyway, rant over..!

And that’s that on that, as the saying goes. Have a good rest of your weekend, keep your eyes peeled for a digital PDF in the next few weeks if you’re a Secrets of the Majestic backer and try to stay hydrated. I should really take my own advice…

All the best,

Chris

May 1, 2024

April 2024: Summer is Icumen In

Howdy, folks!

It looks like we’re (finally) turning the corner into some warmer weather here in the UK, which is sure to have a real impact on my mood – I’m very tired of being freezing cold all the time (because I’m too Yorkshire to put the heating on), so the mercury rising will hopefully lighten me up a little..!

The Usual

Coco Con in Lancaster at the start of the month was lovely, with a bunch of good people hanging out in a nice venue and with great footfall to boot. I did much better than I was expecting sales-wise, and had some great conversations with people while there (both exhibitors and punters). I’m looking forward to the next event the Coco team put on already!

The main focus of my time at the moment, however, is a (relatively) big piece of news – the Brigantia Vol. 2 campaign is being assembled, and we have a pre-launch link! Go here to sign up – I’m aiming for a mid-June launch, and will get all the layout/design work done on the book around then so it’s ready to send off to print as soon as the campaign wraps. Cast your eyes downwards for a reveal of the front cover, by the prodigiously-talented duo of Alaire Racicot and Rebecca Nalty (who have also illustrated all the pages in the book):

The cover for Brigantia Vol. 2. Brigantia is menaced by the evil Veteris and Balor of the Fomorians. — Art by Alaire Racicot, colours by Rebecca Nalty

I’ll be banging the drum as loudly as I can for this one – it’s the concluding part of Brigantia’s story, and I think it contains some of my best and most emotionally affecting work yet. Plus the artwork is absolutely gorgeous and I’m excited to share it with people! I’ll share a few more sneak peeks in the coming months, so watch out for those.

Most of the stories for Secrets of the Majestic are now complete, with a few that’ll be done in the next week or two – all the creative teams have been fantastic about meeting the deadline and/or keeping me informed about their progress, so it’s been remarkably straightforward keeping this on track. I have some layout work (and lettering) to do for the anthology as well, so I sense that I’m going to be spending a lot of my evenings and weekends over the coming months glued to the computer..!

I was inordinately proud of this toilet roll caption box for a Secrets of the Majestic story…

The Record

• 6 pages lettered (Secrets of the Majestic)
• Various bits of design for the Brigantia Vol. 2 Kickstarter and book layout and the Secrets of the Majestic layout

Once again, no pages written this month, but I’ve come to terms with that – I’m going to stop beating myself up about it because I have more than enough on my plate as it is. There’s no value in forcing myself to write for the sake of it – if the desire to do so comes back then great, but I won’t chase it.

The Tunes

I was obviously going to put a Final Fantasy 7 track on here – but annoyingly the Lifestream theme which has been embedded in my head isn’t on streaming yet, so this is a worthy second choice! New John Carpenter is always something to celebrate, and the master of synth doesn’t disappoint with this track. I realised the other day that I hadn’t listened to Blood Ceremony in ages – this is off their latest album, a lovely little slice of witchy psych-rock with flutes. The John 5 album this next track comes from is one of very few guitarist solo albums that I like because he actually wrote a bunch of songs, not just incessant shredding – and all the songs are serial killer themed, for the true crime heads out there. I was getting frustrated with difficult videogames this month so I decided to replay Ocarina of Time, which is why we have Dragonforce with an intensely nerdy song full of Zelda references up next – delightfully cheesy. Sonja came out with one of my surprise favourite albums of 2023, so I’m excited to hear more music from them – this continues the claustrophobic, kind-of sexy heavy metal vibes of their debut. Beginning the black metal section of the playlist, Vorga make huge, atmospheric BM with fantastic production values and a cosmic theme – all things I love! They’re followed by some classic Watain with a song that I go back to on the regular (when I feel like I need a bit of that there Satanism), and then a new Zeal & Ardor track which goes in a very different direction. Lastly, I’m putting my own band Ba’al’s new single on here because I can – Ornamental Doll is off our new EP (‘Soft Eyes‘) which comes out on May 3rd. I’m extremely proud of the three tracks on the EP, and we’ve had some great reviews for it already – if you’re interested, we’re having a listening party over on the Ripcord Records Bandcamp page this evening where you can hear the EP in full and chat to us about it. And you can pre-order the album or grab it on Friday (Bandcamp Friday!) – either digitally from the Ba’al Bandcamp, or as a lovely physical CD from Ripcord Records.

The Links

First, a couple of promotional shout-outs for friends – Asa Wheatley is running the next Sagas of the Shield Maiden campaign next month, and you’re not going to want to miss this one – every book is a polished selection of fighting viking tales, and a joy to look at. Go here to sign up for the pre-launch!

Nick Bryan is also gearing up for a stint in the Kickstarter mines with The Collected Letters of Courier Z – I had a sneaky advance look at this and it’s a lot of fun, a collection of whacky sci-fi shorts about a very frazzled planet-hopping space postie. Hit the sign-up link here!

Next up, something a bit more intellectual – this was a very interesting long-read article about the history of Arab Jews and their solidarity with Palestine: https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24122304/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestine-arab-jews-mizrahi-solidarity

I know embarrassingly little about the history of the middle east (because I’ve never studied it academically, and never felt the inclination to go and learn about it outside of those studies) so I learned a fair few things from this article that resonate quite loudly, considering what’s happening in the region today.

Thanks for reading – please sign up to the Brigantia Kickstarter, check out the new Ba’al release and have a great month. Summer is icumen in!

All the best,

Chris

February 29, 2024

February 2024: Island Time

Howdy, folks!

February has rolled inexorably to a close (with an extra day this year, which really threw me off when I was typing this newsletter up!) and while I took a chunk of the month off for a very deserved break, some other stuff has been happening around the margins. Let’s get into it!

The Usual

I’m conscious that I’m in the incredibly privileged position of having parents who are quite well-off, which is the only reason I was able to manage the holiday I did this month – I spent a week in Barbados staying at an apartment they own the lease on and therefore didn’t have to pay for any accommodation (big phew!) That aside, it was an absolute godsend for my stress levels – I’d reached what felt like a breaking point at the end of January, with the stress of day job/an additional data analysis course on top of the day job/two bands regularly practicing/comics stuff all conspiring to make me feel like an absolute desiccated husk. A week soaking up 30° heat and sunshine, eating lots of delicious seafood, drinking rum, splashing in the sea and sending a grand total of 2 emails (I tried to stop myself!) was absolutely what the doctor ordered, and I feel much, much better for it. The rest of 2024 needs to watch out because I’m back, baby 😤

A photo of palm trees against an ocean, at sunset — The view from the road next to our apartment

That aside, I don’t have much to report on the project front – pages are starting to come together for SECRETS OF THE MAJESTIC, and I had a very exciting email relating to it last week which will be excellent if it all comes together, but BRIGANTIA VOL. 2 is still sitting with our hyper-talented letterer Hass to fit into his schedule. At the moment I’m still on course to have both books ready for Thought Bubble in November – the Brigantia KS will be in a few months once the whole book is finished, so I’ll spend about a month before launch date pushing the campaign link in everyone’s faces. Keep ’em peeled!

Also, because it’s a Leap Day today – I’m running a one-day-only sale on my webstore. Head to www.chrismole.bigcartel.com and use the code FEB29 for a 10% discount, today only!

The Record

– 4 pages lettered for The Phoenix
– 4 pages lettered for Secrets of the Majestic
– More emails than you can shake a stick at

Again, no writing progress this month – but that’s fine, I’m focusing on getting some of the projects which are already in motion cleared and out into the world before I start writing anything new. Know your limits!

The Tunes

Hell of a mixed bag this month! We’re starting off with something light from The Offspring, purely because “you gotta keep yourself hydrated” was stuck in my head for the entire holiday. Next up, it’s the ultimate cheesy power metal band Dragonforce covering Taylor Swift – A+, perfect, no notes. They’re followed by some heavy shit, starting with new solo material from black metal maestro Ihsahn (of Emperor fame) and followed by some antifa BM from Woe, a band that Ba’al have recently bagged a support slot for in London later this year. Next up is some excellent atmos black metal from Sunken who most of the band absolutely adore, and then we’re onto Ellende who also scratch that atmospheric BM itch. Last up in the run of heavy shit is a new track from Borknagar, one of my favourite bands and possessed of a distinctly unique sound. We then take a massive 180 – I finally watched Barbie on the plane over, so I now know and appreciate the song I’m Just Ken in all it’s glory. Finally, we’re closing out with my two favourite tracks featuring Barbados’ number one export, the mighty Rihanna (who they’re so proud of, they’ve made an “Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador”) – Bitch Better Have My Money, with a message we can all appreciate, and her cameo with The Lonely Island as a bank-robbing stunner saddled with Andy Samberg’s useless Shy Ronnie. Ha-haaa!

The Links

With thanks to Ritesh Babu who originally shared this one: https://vajra.me/2022/03/17/the-extractivism-of-setting-and-the-traitors-text/

It’s a bit of a deep read (and I’ll need to read it a few more times to fully grasp it), with a specific focus on speculative fiction and non-native authors playing in a jungle they can only lay claim to through colonialism, but I found this piece useful for interrogating the use of setting in your (my) own work. It’s something that has been at the forefront of my mind recently, with finishing the script for SENGOKU and the arrival two days ago of the new Shōgun series (which I am INCREDIBLY excited for) – how to tell stories set in a specific place/time that you have no inherent connection to without indulging that colonialist mindset? I hope I managed to arrive at the same conclusion as this article with SENGOKU, but time will tell (once I’ve found a suitable Japanese sensitivity reader to give me their take on it..!)

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That’s all for this month – thanks for reading, enjoy your weekends and let’s hope spring starts to roll in properly next month!

All the best,

Chris

December 31, 2023

December 2023: Time Goes By

Hey folks,

It’s that time of year again! As is tradition, this month’s newsletter will be more of a “2023 round-up” one – a place of reflection on what I’ve done this year and some thoughts for 2024.

The Usual

Re-reading last year’s entry for December, I was clearly in quite an introspective mood, but I feel confident in saying that I’ve taken my own advice to heart – I deliberately tried to avoid focusing too hard on what I have and haven’t achieved this year, and while my list of comics-based “wins” is shorter as a result, I can still point to a number of items ticked off the proverbial to-do list.

All this is in the face of a world that seems to continue sliding into the shit, both here in the UK (where we’re still, somehow, suffering under an utterly corrupt Tory government) and across the rest of the planet. War in Ukraine (still), attempted genocide in Palestine, the ongoing climate crisis and the continual existence, somehow, of fascists in every corner of the globe. It’s overwhelming sometimes, and it’s been a real struggle to keep trying to write and create against all of that noise and a continually worsening economic background here in the UK. Hopefully we can kick out the Tories this coming spring (and replace them with a Labour party who are almost as bad, wheee, isn’t it fun not to have a viable left-wing party to vote for??) but even with that, I don’t know how many more comics I have left in me. I’m definitely shortening my mental project list and trying to focus on what’s achievable to stave off burnout.

On the agenda for next year:
– Crowdfunder for Brigantia Volume 2! Very excited to share this one with folks!
– Complete and release Secrets of the Majestic at Thought Bubble 2024!
– Exhibit at a couple of conventions
– Hopefully release two EPs (one with Powerhouse, one with Ba’al) and potentially even an album, if we can secure a good record label for it…
– Play some gigs in places I haven’t played before!

The Record

Pages written: 62 (2022 total: 71)
Pages lettered: 84 (2022 total: 78)
Anthology pitches: 1 (not counting the one I’m running myself!)
Miscellaneous: Ran two successful crowdfunding campaigns (the Art of Professor Elemental, a hardback collection of a huge chunk of comics written/edited by me and Secrets of the Majestic, a very niche anthology about a toilet). Recorded one album and one EP with Ba’al (totalling about 90 minutes of music) and one EP with Powerhouse (another 30 minutes). Played multiple festivals with both bands, plus went on tour with Ba’al in October across England, Wales and Scotland.

Again, my lettering output has outpaced my writing this year thanks to a chunk of work for The Phoenix and a few anthology shorts (including, for the first time, one that I didn’t write!), but I’m quite pleased that I’ve finally managed to finish up a first draft for SENGOKU – given how long I’ve been working on/thinking about it, it feels good to finally have a completed story, much as it will need polishing up and refining. My next challenge will be to find someone suitable to edit/act as a sensitivity reader – it’s very important to me that this story feels authentic, and doesn’t make the kind of mistakes that many stories about Japan written by white people make. That means this one will stay in the pot for a little while longer yet..!

The Tunes

The playlist this month is a mixed bag – some of it has been on my rotation for December, the rest comprises tracks that I’ve particularly enjoyed this year. We’re starting off hard with metal from Naeramarth, Svalbard, Atheist, Crypta and Wounds of Recollection, before it segues into synthier territory with Gunship (this song is impossibly catchy), Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan and The Ocean – we then close out with Naoki Sato’s phenomenal theme from Godzilla Minus One and a big finish from Masayoshi Soken (from the FFXIV soundtrack).

2023’s Top 5 Things

Because I had fun with this last year, we’re bringing it back – my top 5 things of the year, whether a movie, comic, album or an experience. Let’s go:

5. Golden Rage Vol. 1 (comic) – Here’s a thing that people may not know about me – I really, really like Golden Girls. We started watching it a little while back for some wholesome sitcom entertainment and it has quickly endeared itself to me (plus the theme song is a banger). So when I saw that the pitch for this comic was “Golden Girls meets Battle Royale”, well… I don’t think I’ve ever slapped my money down faster. The writing is fantastic, it’s great to see a collection of older female protagonists, and Lauren Knight (who I collaborated with on a story for Sharp Wit & The Company of Women, which is now in Previews, AHHHHH) knocks it out of the park on art duties. Get on it!

The album cover for Unicorn by the band Gunship

4. Gunship – Unicorn (album) – I’ve listened to A LOT of albums from this year (around 207, to be precise) but this one is squarely at the top. Synthwave beats and a truly stellar list of guest stars (including Carpenter Brut, John Carpenter and HEALTH) are the starting point, but this has stuck with me because it’s absolutely rammed full of extremely memorable hooks and uplifting choruses. The production is beautiful (big, glistening, neon-soaked) and it keeps serving up bangers well into the runtime. Don’t sleep on this if you haven’t already heard it!

The poster for the movie The Saint of Second Chances

3. The Saint of Second Chances (movie) – I was curious about this purely because I’ve enjoyed a few movies about baseball in the past, even though I don’t really follow the sport – little did I realise that it’d leave me an emotional, sobbing wreck on the sofa. It’s a documentary about Mike Veeck, the son of a famous baseball owner who invented the concept of promotional nights (most notably the ‘Disco Demolition Night’ for the Chicago White Sox that ended in a riot) and later went on to run an independent team in Minnesota. I won’t spoil anything else about it here, but I can’t recommend this enough as a story about second chances and trying to do the right thing.

2. Blasphemous (game) – I’m a bit late to the party with this one, but what a party it is. Blasphemous is a Metroidvania type game (where you run around a 2D map, exploring, platforming and smiting enemies) – what makes it unique is how incredibly gothic and Catholic it is. The premise is essentially that a mysterious Miracle has unleashed judgement on a medieval world tormented by a corrupt Church, turning it into a hellish domain full of tortured souls seeking repentance or oblivion – and you, as the Penitent One full of clemency, must embark on a pilgrimage across this land. Honestly, the worldbuilding in this game is intoxicating and I love how incredibly grim it is – it’s full of phenomenal writing and characters that made me go “what the fuck is THAT” on multiple occasions. If you’d like a challenging (somewhat Dark Souls-like) gaming experience in a truly compelling world, I can’t recommend this highly enough. Now watch Blasphemous 2 be in this list next year..!

A photo of a band on stage lit up by blue lighting as a crowd cheers them — Ba’al on the main stage at Sheffield Corporation for the Heel Turn Festival

1. Playing gigs – I’ve been trying to figure out which gig this year was my favourite, and honestly, there are a number of strong contenders for that crown. Playing some big folk festivals (Whitby and Towersey) with Powerhouse was a lot of fun and meant I got out to rock some very big stages, while a number of Ba’al shows this year hit the triple sweet spot of great venue/big crowds/solid performance. So instead of choosing just one, I’m giving this slot to the overall experience of playing live – much as I sometimes feel shattered afterwards, I love playing gigs and connecting with an audience. It’s a chance to embody the emotion in the music and manifest it, and I sincerely hope I can continue to play bigger and better shows next year.

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And that’s a wrap on 2023, folks! Thank you as always for reading my rambles this year (if you made it this far) – I hope you’ve enjoyed them. As another chapter of the heavy, heavy book of history closes, remember: you made it to the end of 2023, and that means you can do ANYTHING.

I’d like to close things out with one link for you – a list of actually good things that happened this year, because while it’s important to be realistic, it’s also important to have hope for the future: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/12/28/24003198/10-good-things-that-happened-in-2023

Have a good evening, whether you’re celebrating or tucked up at home with a good book, and we’ll speak again in 2024!

All the best,

Chris

December 1, 2023December 31, 2023

November 2023: The Neverending Pile

Howdy, folks!

It has once again been a hectic month and I’m rather feeling the strain of it – turns out that running a Kickstarter remains a stressful experience, and rather more so when a) it’s an anthology, so there are a lot more people you want to succeed for and b) you’re doing it in a climate where social media is utterly broken and there are at least two major conflicts currently going on in the world, so spending all your time shouting about toilets feels a little bit ridiculous..!

Add to that a general feeling of impending burnout on the band front (this year, with two bands, I’ve recorded an album and an EP, with another EP on deck next week; played several big festivals and done a UK tour) and I feel a little stretched… like butter scraped over too much bread.

Thought Bubble was also a weird one this year – I was forced to do a truncated appearance due to a family wedding on the Sunday, and it meant that I never really got into the swing of things. It was a fairly quiet day sales-wise, but I’m happy to attribute that to me not really having anything new on the table, and only a half-table at that as much as it’s down to the con being much more insanely busy than I remember it being the last few years. Still, my tablemates were a delight and it was lovely to catch up with friends, albeit for less time than I would normally do. Next year I should have both the anthology (more on that below) and Brigantia Vol. 2 to launch, so hopefully it’ll be a big one!

A large group of comics people cheering while sat on the bench in the toilets of the Majestic Hotel — Still managed to do this though – huge thanks to the contributors to Secrets of the Majestic (as many as we could round up) for indulging me!

Thankfully, my last creative endeavour of the year (an emotionally charged gig with Ba’al at the Heel Turn “For Absent Friends” all-dayer) is scheduled for the 16th of December, and after that I can take a bit of a break until 2024 rolls in. The current plan is to eat cheese, watch a lot of movies and do basically (pardon my French) fuck all. But before that, let’s crack in:

The Usual

November was toilet book month, with Secrets of the Majestic rolling along on Kickstarter. The campaign closes today, and I’m very glad that we’ve made it over the finishing line, with (at time of writing) 327 backers – a record high number for me! It’s been extremely gratifying as ever seeing people pull for this book – obviously the creative teams are all fully on board with the Majesticus Cultus, and their enthusiasm has buoyed me throughout a sometimes difficult campaign, but seeing other people who aren’t directly involved with the book wave the banner for it has been really touching.

Anyway, now that the funding hurdle has been passed, we get to do the fun bit – making a bunch of stupid toilet comics! I’m very excited to get stuck into that (and to see what kind of magic Chris Wildgoose can produce from our script). I’ll be sharing more as development progresses, of course!

The Record

8 pages written – SENGOKU

I’ve made some more progress on SENGOKU, the samurai story I’m putting together with Andrew Browne. Everything is in place for the last act of the story, I just need to dive in and get the first draft nailed down. It’s a much more contemplative, character-driven story overall than you might think given my love of samurai action and katana duels, but the last act is where we get to cut loose and have some ridiculous Takashi Miike-esque fight scenes. I’d also like to get it finished and written before the new FX adaptation of Shogun (one of my favourite novels) comes out in February so I don’t end up accidentally cribbing from that…

The Tunes

This month’s playlist is fairly short and sweet! We kick things off with a cut off the new Gunship album, featuring Power Glove – not to be confused with the videogame metal band Powerglove, but a great collaboration nonetheless. Next up is some synthwave gorgeousness from Ocoeur, which I picked off the excellently named “POV: ur in an 80s film driving at night” playlist on Spotify. We then take a turn into some upbeat thrashy metal, with new Gama Bomb up first (I haven’t listened to a lot of their stuff, but I appreciate throwback thrash now and then) followed by Singaporean grind monsters Wormrot (who are apparently playing Sheffield next year with Napalm Death, Pig Destroyer and Primitive Man, a bill designed with surgical precision to reduce the entire city to nothing more than smoldering ashes). Next up we take a trip into atmospheric black metal country with Blaze of Sorrow and their viola-heavy blastbeats, followed by a new track from the king of BM Ihsahn where he’s leaning very heavily on the orchestral elements (and I dig it). Michiru Aoyama is a mini-swing back to lighter territory with a laidback, wintry ambient piece, followed by Canadian royalty The Tragically Hip. I learned at Thought Bubble that my Canadian pal Jordan Collver, a phenomenal artist, is actually from Bobcaygeon and I was truly blown away by the news – it’s a small world! Lights is next with a big blast of synth pop and soaring vocals, before the playlist closes out with the immense and undeniable riffs of Pijn. Pijn’s guitarist (Joe Clayton) is also an incredibly talented producer, and Ba’al worked with him this summer to record a huge chunk of music, so it was a must for some of us to head down and catch up with him when his band played Sheffield earlier this month – as you might expect given his ear for great tones, they sounded incredible, and this track got the whole crowd moving.

A picture of a frame from The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe's character saying "Look at ye. Postin'" — Thanks, Rogue Print Co

No links this month – I’ve spent the whole of November spamming people with the Kickstarter (and checking it incessantly) so I’m going to take at least a week off postin’ after today. Thanks for reading, and for backing the campaign if you did – and have a great weekend!

All the best,

Chris

October 31, 2023

October 2023: Toilet Season

Howdy, folks!

First off: a happy All Hallow’s Eve/Samhain to all who observe it! I’ll be spending this evening in a spooky ghoul mask playing ceilidh tunes with Powerhouse at a new venue in Sheffield, so that should be fun, as gutted as I am to miss out on the usual tradition of watching a horror movie and welcoming trick or treaters. A few things to cover in this month’s edition, so let’s crack in:

The Usual

Cover by Laura Helsby, colours by Dearbhla Kelly

The Kickstarter page is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrismole/secrets-of-the-majestic-anthology

We’ll be launching tomorrow, on November 1st! Please do hit the notify button, check it out, tell your friends – I firmly believe it’ll be a fun book of stupid toilet comics and well worth your time.

Oh god, I haven’t mentally prepared for the Kickstarter campaign stress 😬 I will probably be a hollow husk of a man by the time December 1st rolls around, especially if we’re struggling to reach the goal…

The Record

3 pages written for an anthology short

8 pages lettered for The Phoenix

I had hopes of doing more writing this month, but it’s amazing how much being on tour demands your attention – even with various very long car rides to and from Scotland I didn’t have the spare brain capacity to sit down and work on anything. On the plus side, no notes back for the anthology short so that’s all good to go. Next month can be a writing month – I have the final act of SENGOKU planned out (and came up with what I think is quite a neat way to dovetail the two strands of the plot together, wrong-footing the reader slightly in the progress) so I just need to knuckle down and finish the first draft.

The Tunes

It is (as ever) a mixed bag of tunes this month, with a slight bias towards some of the bands we played with on tour. Kicking things off is some ultra soothing piano in this Ghibli cover from Spirited Away – perfect relaxation music if you’ve had a stressful day. Surprising nobody (given my well-publicised love of Taylor Swift), next up is the new version of Blank Space. 1989 was the first album of hers I listened to and it remains (IMO) her best, so you’d better believe I’ll have Taylor’s Version of it on loop the next few weeks..! It wouldn’t be an October playlist without some spooky tunes, so here’s master of horror John Carpenter with one of his synthwave tracks – he’s done a few albums of these and they’re all highly recommended! Hail Spirit Noir are next with their own disco/synth/theremin groove (which sounds very little like their previous album, but I’m here for it) and then we’re into a real 90s nostalgia blast with Fatboy Slim. You can thank an episode of Derry Girls for getting this song stuck in my brain this month..! Myrkur marks our turning point into metal territory – this is from her new album, which is great, but not as strong (for me) as the masterpiece that was Folkesange. Sulphur Aeon are a recent discovery but this album slaps – big cosmic death metal with a lot of interesting atmosphere. Defod opened for Ba’al at our show in Liverpool, and I was very impressed with their sound – hints of Saor, classic Dissection and Primordial but a unique mix. Hopefully we can share a stage again at some point! This Borknagar track from their latest album is an absolute earworm which was in my head for the entire drive up north (see what I did there..!) And lastly is a track from Ofnus, our Welsh touring partners and possibly the nicest atmospheric black metal band you’ll ever meet. They made the whole tour a delight (and they write excellent tunes as well!)

The Links

I’m just going to drop the one link this month, alongside my hopes for a ceasefire and for cooler heads to prevail. I don’t feel at all qualified to discuss the complex geopolitics of the Middle East but I know that what’s happening right now is truly horrific.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/648292

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Sorry for ending this month’s entry on a bit of a downer, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable ignoring the situation outright! Thanks for reading, please check out the Kickstarter tomorrow and pledge if you’re able and have a happy (and safe) Halloween.

All the best,
Chris