Tempest

I won't be doing that again, until I do that again, vows Dr Wobbly

When did we last speak? April. I had just published the first part of my three-part Conan comic. Of course, as you may know, a cease-and-desist order from the trademark holder meant that I had to, ah, unpublish, that work in a hurry, and throw away multiple dozens of unpublished pages. I also had to reply to a lot of emails and social media posts where people asked if I could just change his name to “Generic Barbarian” or redraw him with a moustache/blonde hair/a crash helmet on every page. The answer to the first question was “that won’t stop the pursuit once it has started” and the answer to the second question was, “if I could, I would. But I couldn’t.”

In the end I fired out one last Solver story, to prove I was still alive, then took a few weeks off to rebuild my mind. I am now somewhat restored, but also: I have learned the value of rest. I’ll be honest here, I wouldn’t have made any of the copyright-teasing comics I made over the last few years if I hadn’t been stone cold solid gone. These were bad professional decisions, and they were not the only ones. The fringe towns of my comics kingdom had been long neglected, and now the problems had reached the moat. The tower fell. (This is a good metaphor, isn’t it? It’s medieval.) In the midst of major and painful life events, I could not simply soldier on like I did in my twenties and thirties.

But you are not here for my solipsism

Basically, what I am saying is that I should probably take the odd week off, and that the person this vexes most is me, so get over it son. It still annoys me that I don’t publish five pages a week any more, or a daily webcomic and a monthly comic book, but those were not good situations because I am not a powerful supercomputer (this metaphor is more science fiction and could win me a Hugo Award).

Hot J. Allison comics news

So, since I last sent you an email…

ITEM! There is a whole new Solver story, “100% Cuddles”. Where did this title come from? I am not allowed to say but it’s a real thing that a real person said, without irony. The story starts here.

ITEM! A new story has begun, a 24-page pilot for a new series, IT’S THE NINETIES, GET USED TO IT. Like Giant Days right at the start, it is in protean form and needs some thinking time, but I think you will enjoy it. Faces old and new, something for everyone. ITNGUTI starts here. My Patreon subscribers can read the whole issue in full in a luxury PDF format.

ITEM! I’ve made a Solver collection. Currently it’s only available from a few UK shops, when I make it more widely available via Topatoco, I will do a special post to the mailing list. But it’s exciting to be self-publishing again. As I like to tell people, over and over again, to quote the publisher Felix Dennis, “overhead walks on two legs.” I’m very lucky that I can do everything myself if I need to.

ITEM! I have restored a number of my webcomics (Giant Days, Kit + The Wolf, Steeple, Destroy History, Bobbins (2013)) that had been taken offline by a malware attack. They’re all hosted here on the Scary Go Round site.

Nail that coffin shut

My next project will be to finish the Wicked Things story. If you read that series (in which case, thank you), you know that it contained an overarching murder case plot that the book’s cancellation did not let me finish. My hope was initially that Boom!Box would let me and Max finish it, perhaps when the pandemic dust had settled. This proved very optimistic. So I will write and draw a multi-part conclusion myself. I have mentioned it before, it’s called “Wobbly Head”, and I have now had four years to think about it so I promise it will be as good as I can make it on my own.

I also promise that, while it will be exactly the same length, it won’t just be the Conan story with Conan’s name changed to “Dr Wobbly” and with Dr Wobbly’s face drawn over Conan’s. Dr Wobbly is not a real character. Do not write to me about Dr Wobbly.

That’s the end of this email.

Sincerely,
Dr Wobbly, MD