They played mostly classics, with only one track from the most recent album but they played a lot of my favourite songs so I was happy regardless. As a band, they're very tight and put on a good show. Surprisingly, they didn't rile up the crowd like they've been known to do in the past (mainly by encouraging people to start circle pits), perhaps they're calming down a bit as they get older?

Bowling For Soup closed out the evening. They're a band whose discography I've only really dipped a toe. I know their most well-known songs and a few more random ones, I was glad to hear them play some of the songs I was familiar with (including the theme song for Phineas and Ferb).

Despite it being a good show overall, I'm going to risk sounding like an old curmudgeon by commenting on the sound levels.

The support act and Less Than Jake sounded fine to me. I had earplugs in, though evidently not properly considering my ears are still ringing, so I was able to hear the music really well. For some reason, once Bowling For Soup hit the stage they seemed to crank up the volume. There were definitely moments where it just felt like wall of sound, unable to discern any individual component perhaps bar the drums.

I know live gigs are loud but sometimes they can be unnecessarily loud and I think organisers should take a bit more responsibility in making sure they get the right balance of the live & loud experience without potentially causing any adverse issues to hearing.

If you deafen your crowd now, you're killing your future crowd...

You can have 12 months of results or 12 months of regrets

This feels like it's more apt at New Year but as is said in the film Vanilla Sky, "Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around" so don't wait for new year to start that project you've been itching to start.

Get going. Start making. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Get back up and try again. And again. And again.

(PS - This feels more like a reminder to myself but if anyone out there benefits, it's a bonus!)

A couple of weeks ago, I randomly discovered they'd opened up their selection to Premium users. There were a whole bunch of books already on my reading list available for me to listen to so I excitedly started adding them to my library. It's been a few years since I read The Count of Monte Cristo and since it's an epic book to read, I figured an audiobook would allow me to make progress with the book whilst I'm doing other things.

15 hours in, the audio stopped.

I opened my phone to see:

Having not read a press release or anything, this was a bit of a surprise to me and also came with some frustration. I could either pay £10 for a further 10 hours of listening time, or just wait until next month (Spoiler: I'm not paying the extra £10).

Now, I'm assuming Spotify are setting their sights on stealing some of the Audible market share. They started out pretty well at getting this particular user almost completely hooked in. I've got a bunch of Audible books I've bought over the years but it's not an app I look at regularly so I forget it's there half the time.

Spotify gets used almost every day for music so I'm easily reminded that I also have audiobooks saved.

The sticking point is the listening limit.

For me, Audible's problem is that it's not included in Prime by default, which I'm already paying for, and the monthly fee effectively only gives you one new book a month to listen to.

For some reason, Spotify have rolled out a similar model, most books I've got saved average at around 10-15 hours to complete.

I've obviously no idea about what agreements they have in place with publishers so I don't know if there are restrictions at the publisher level, or whether it's just some arbitrary way to try get people to cough up more cash.

As a Premium customer, I can listen to ad-free music all day long with no restrictions. I often have sleep playlists going all night so the sudden restriction on audiobooks is at odds with my mental model for what Premium allows access to.

Audiobooks are "Included in Premium" but then they sort of aren't.

I blasted through the 15 hours over the course of two days. I got very invested in The Count of Monte Cristo and would likely have kept on going had I not been stopped. I've since gone back to spending most of my day listening to podcasts in Overcast, that's a good chunk of time Spotify could be snapping up.

If Spotify want to take away some of Audible's market share, they're not going to be a threat by offering similar restrictions of service.

Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

I bought this book for my wife a few years ago. She's a fan of the Poirot TV shows but I don't think she'd read any of the books. Despite this not being the first in the series featuring Poirot, it's probably the most well-known so I started here.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It took a few pages to get into Christie's writing style, in particular her fairly regular use of French (which doesn't get translated) so that sometimes tripped me up. I can feel the cogs in my head trying to figure out what it might mean which sometimes interrupted the reading flow.

That said, the plot of the book is straight forward and easy to follow. The slow drip of clues and details of the murder case slowly being revealed to the climax where Poirot solves the mystery (spoiler).

I also bought Lu the book of Death on the Nile some time ago so I plan to read that at some point this year too. Who knows, maybe it'll kick-start a Poirot murder mystery reading marathon!

As an aside, after reading the book, I re-watched the 2017 film of the same name. Some details were changed but overall it was a pretty faithful adaptation. If you've seen the film recently and fancy reading the book, give it a little break. By the time I read the book, I'd all but forgotten how the film ended so it was like reading a brand new story.

Raw Drawing: Spontaneous and Carefree Drawing, Alessandro Bonaccorsi

I picked up this book at a reduced price, just a few quid. Once I started reading, it became clear that it was really aimed at people who are just starting out on their art journey. I read it all the same in case there were any little nuggets of gold but ultimately, I didn't get much out of reading this. I'm holding on to the book for now in case I come across anyone who might benefit from reading it.

The Sketchbook of Loish: Art in progress, Lois van Baarle

I got this book for Christmas along with Loish's first book and I struggled to put them both down.

Both books are filled with thoughts on process, hints and tips which really gives you some insight into how Lois approaches her work which I found very inspiring. These books are definitely ones which deserve regular re-reads, even if just picking out certain sections.

Her third book will be getting purchased and read at some point this year.

Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters: Vol 1-3, Chris & Laura Samnee

For the last couple of years, it's been somewhat of a small tradition for me to get a new volume of this series for Christmas. As it's been nearly a year since I last read volumes 1 and 2, I decided to re-read them to give me a bit of a memory refresh before starting volume 3, which (sadly) concludes the series.

A really great adventure comic featuring huge monsters, lots of action and a story of a family broken apart by the appearance of said monsters. It's got bloody lovely art throughout too so it hits all the right notes for a comic.

Turning Point: 1997-2008, Hayao Miyazaki

This is the last book completed in January and I'll be honest, it was a bit of a struggle at certain points. I'd bought it assuming it'd be somewhat closer to Loish's books in that it would give real insight into the process of this Japanese animation legend. Which it does for some parts many of the topics enclosed go a lot further afield than just animation and the creative process.

I imagine if someone's studying Miyazaki in an academic sense, this book will be a treasure trove of quotes and insights into his thoughts on various parts of Japanese history, society in general, consumer culture, nature and environment etc.

For a regular joe reader (like me), this book really could have been streamlined. There are lots of repeated ideas, given that much of the book consists of interviews with the director where the interviewers asked similar questions and frankly, some of the topics of discussion didn't really interest me personally. I know Miyazaki has a life-long interest in aviation and you definitely get the sense that he's very knowledgeable on the subject, but it's just not for me and when there's a whole interview spanning 10+ pages on that subject alone, it becomes a bit of a struggle to get through.

I don't think I'll ever re-read this book again cover-to-cover but the sections where it delves into his films or his thoughts on animation will get a look over again at some point.

That's it for this month. I've got a few books on the go at the moment that will spill over into February, some will go into March and possibly April but I'll write those up in the coming months.

If you want to keep up with my reading more in real-time, you can follow me on Goodreads.

During his episode on Disney+, it shows him doing free solo climbing prior to El Capitan and one portion had Alex dubbing a voiceover where he says:

The correct way to manage fear is to gradually broaden your comfort zone until your comfort zone includes things that seemed previously impossible

I noted this down because I think it applies to many aspects of life, including art and I tend to sit within my comfort zone when it comes to creating art. I felt this might serve as a reminder to keep broadening my horizons. Stop being afraid of watercolour, of trying different styles.

Get comfortable in the uncomfortable.

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.
~ Kurt Vonnegut (Threads link)

As time goes on, I'm opening up to the idea of just doing creative things for the sake of doing them. Sometimes there'll be a result to show, sometimes it'll end up in the bin but I'm beginning to appreciate value more in the doing and finding enjoyment in the flow of creative energy and seeing where that takes me.

I feel in the age of AI, people opening themselves up to these sorts of experiences will be more important than ever in the coming years.

Why?

In the post linked above, I realised the reason why I wanted to try out daily(ish) comics is a way to get my brain thinking about ideas. Every day.

Working on longer comics projects, I get into a sort of "execution" headspace, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, there's a lot to be said for keeping the brain working on coming up with new ideas on a regular basis.

If you want to be a better writer. Write.

Not sure who said that but this is the crux of the why is this. By working on new ideas every day, even though they're short, it adds up to the collective experience and just keeps the idea generating part of my brain ticking over.

Another added bonus to drawing daily comics is I'm not restricted when it comes to the idea. I have a simple framework I have to work within:

• Single page of a 5x5" sketchbook
• Stick to 4-panels or less (unless the idea really needs more)
• Drawings cannot bleed to the edge of the page
• Ink pens and biro - no colour
• Bad or mediocre ideas are ok. Good ideas are better, though
• Must be fairly quick. Under an hour is ideal. Over 2 hours is too much.
• No really bad swear words, just in case my kids read it

Aside from these rules, I have complete freedom. One day, I can do a random Pokémon-related comic, the next I can do a Lord of the Rings-inspired piece. It can help break the monotony of working on the same set of comic characters.

Having this freedom keeps things fresh every day. The short-burst nature of it means there's no time to overthink or second-guess, there's no time to worry about creating "perfect" art (that's a whole topic of its own) and in just a few short weeks, there's a body of work starting to build up which helps keep the momentum going. I'm now finding myself fighting really, really hard on days when I struggle to get an idea. I don't want to miss a day.

How?

For anyone interested, I just thought I'd write a little bit about the process.

First is the sketchbook. As some of you know, I started making my own notebooks last year and now, having changed the paper stock I use, also make my own sketchbooks. I'll not go into detail about that here so getting back on topic, I knew I wanted a square format since Instagram would be my primary place to share online and I happened to have a 5x5" sketchbook just sitting there on my desk as though it was waiting to be called up to bat.

I created a basic 4-panel stencil which I used to go through all 24 pages with a faint pencil line to set out the core layout.

From there, it's down to the daily practice. Try to think of an idea, any idea. On a day where an idea doesn't just pop into my head, I have to shift to a sort of observational mode in my head. Not necessarily to pay attention to what I'm doing at any given moment, that just happens but more observing what's happening in my head.

I might read a passage in a book or hear something on a podcast which sparks a random thought. If I'm not paying attention to those thoughts, potential ideas just drift away.

When a spark of an idea hits me, I figure out if I can make the idea work in 4 panels or less. If not, I'll make a note for a different project but so far, I've managed to whittle down an idea to it's core essentials so it can be told within the framework.

You might be wondering what I consider is a good or bad idea. As I mentioned earlier, either can go into the book but as a general rule, if something makes me smile or if an idea just keeps coming back to me, that's usually a good sign. I'm doing this project first and foremost for myself so I allow my own opinion or sense of humour guide what ideas I press on with.

Once I have an idea which I think will work, it's then all about getting it down on the page.

First job is writing any words. First, they help me start to visualise how the structure of the story or the gag is taking shape.

On a more practical level, doing the lettering first then allows me to see what available space there is left to do the art, which is the next stage.

Once pencilling is done, I break out my pens. I typically start with a brush pen and set down the core solid lines of the artwork. That way I can rub out the pencil and get a feel for how the final piece is shaping up before going in with fine liners and increasingly often, using biro to add shading.

Once the art is done, I drop a date on it and that page is finished!

What's next?

At the time of writing, I've only a day or two left of this first sketchbook. That'll be 24 short comics finished. Part of me wants to wait another month or two to release a collection but part of me also loves the idea of doing a short print run of each individual sketchbook so I'm just getting some quotes on that.

So all that's really left to do is create a cover, maybe write an intro and see what quotes come back.

Watch this space...

You need to start to develop a habit of coming up with ideas, it doesn't necessarily mean good ideas, you just need to have a habit of regularly being creative.
~ Danny Gregory

I've been working on a small project of daily(ish) comic strips for almost a month now and when I set out doing so, just before Christmas, I didn't really know why. I'd heard artist Michelle Meeker talking about it (incidentally, on Danny's podcast) and it just felt like something fun to try. Short bursts of creativity which will slowly build up to a body of work over time.

I heard this quote and it hit me. This is why I'm doing the daily comics. It's not necessarily about producing a great visual piece of work. Of course, I try to make good art but it's not essential for this project.

What matters is building up the habit of creative thinking. Trying to come up with an idea for a 4-panel comic every day, a punchline to a gag, figuring out timing, being efficient with the number of words.

It's mental gymnastics.

Pushing my brain into answering the question "What comic shall I draw today?".

Honourable mention

If you want more good ideas, have more bad ideas
~ Seth Godin

By pure coincidence, this quote came along right after I wrote down the Danny Gregory quote and I feel it's entirely relevant to what I'm doing with my daily(ish) comic project. Accepting that bad ideas are inevitable but having faith that good ideas will also come.

I don't think I'm going to do a break down of each book. I'll still be writing this post in Summer. What I will say is there's not been anything I've read which I've not enjoyed so I'll leave you with the link to my 2023 in books over on Goodreads, most of the books above are listed over there.

Perhaps I ought to start drafting My reading year, 2024, now so I can write little breakdowns for each book...

TL;DR

• Actually finish and publish some comics this year
• Keep up the reading habit, beat last year's attempt of 29 books read
• Reduce phone screen-time
• Start rock climbing again

Comics

Ok, comics is the big one. Last year, when I made the goal to release a few books I had one issue which was almost complete but then after re-reading, I decided it wasn't working from a story perspective so I went right back to the beginning and started writing the story all over again. This included revising character designs, changes to my overall process and a lot of learning along the way, which took way longer than I'd hoped.

I start 2024 with the new Splorers issue 1 in an almost finished state. I've got fewer than 10 pages left to colour, then I need to letter it and put together the cover. In an ideal world, I'll get colouring finished in January, lettering and cover done in February so I could be heading towards publishing in March.

Just before Christmas, I started a small project of drawing daily-ish comics. Just small, single pagers with up to 4 panels. Most of them gag strips. I'll write more about why I started doing it in a separate post but at the time of writing, I'm 4 days away from finishing a 24-page sketchbook. From the outset, I had no intention of colouring the pages so aside from scanning, a bit of clean-up and adding a cover, that's a book nearly finished already.

I plan to make more daily comics so if I continue with this rate of finishing a 24-page sketchbook inside a month, I'll have plenty of books to put out into the world this year.

Reading

Last year's goal of 50 books was missed by 21 books. 29 books isn't bad by any stretch so this year, I'm keeping it simple. I've signed up to Goodreads and entered the 2024 Reading Challenge, which is 30 books. If I can just read one more book than last year, I'll be happy.

I've recently made some habit changes which allow me to make better use of time in the evenings for reading. Time I'd have otherwise spent scrolling through my phone. Which leads me to...

Reduce screen-time usage

Regular readers will know I've had issues with the amount of time I spend using my phone and I'm trying to focus on using it less, specifically in those quiet moments when my default is to just scroll through social media.

My target aim is to keep screen time to less than 3 hours a day. I'm not going to beat myself up if I go over that time occasionally, as long as the reason isn't just mindlessly wasting time on socials. If I watch a film, or watch some YouTube tutorials, I'm letting myself off with that.

Maybe a secondary goal should be to focus just on the time spent on social media. I seem to average 1.5 hours a day at the moment so maybe aim to reduce that to less than an hour by June and see where I am halfway through the year.

Start rock climbing again

I've tried picking up skateboarding again and while it's certainly fun to cruise around, I'm not sure it's a sensible sport for me to do regularly. If I break my ankle, the day-to-day knock-on effect will be huge.

I still do need to get some form of exercise and I think rock climbing is the way to go. I really enjoy it and find a sense of achievement when you finally finish a climbing route. It's really just a case of figuring out when I can book in some climbing time.

When covid lockdowns began to ease off, I was managing 2 or 3 times a week at the climbing gym so I think that's got to be the target going forward.

That's all, folks!

I think that's about it really. Similar to last year - make comics, read more and get some exercise - but I think I've got a bit more of a plan to put into action.

Wish me luck!

Comics

On the comic front, I didn't hit my goal of publishing two comics. One comic project (Splorers) I ended up completely rebooting, going right back to the beginning of the writing process which has taken a long time to moving. I'm still not finished but I'm edging closer with that one. I feel I've done a lot of learning with this project too which has slowed things down but ultimately will benefit my process going forward.

The other comic I mentioned last year is still in an unfinished state but I still think it'll be a fun little comic to put out so I'll be returning to this once Splorers is done.

On a more positive note, in December, I started doing daily-ish comic strips in one of my handmade sketchbooks which I'll write about more in a future post but for now, I'll just say the nature of them being short-burst, stand-alone comic strips is allowing me to flex my creative brain every day whilst keeping the work required to a minimum so they're more fun than mentally taxing.

Reading

I set myself a reading goal of 50 books in 2023 and towards the end of the year, it became apparent that I wasn't going to hit that goal. I ended the year on 27 books, which isn't all that bad, considering I'd not really read many books in the previous 3+ years.

While not hitting the goal sucks, it has got me in the habit of reading again. I've always got one or two books on the go at a time so there's always something to read and it's a habit I'll be continuing in to this new year.

Exercise

I failed miserably on this one. Aside from going for occasional walks with the family, I didn't really do any physical activity at all in 2023 which is absolutely not a good thing and I need to address this as I slowly approach the big 4-0.

For the first few months of the year, I posted regular updates with stats on podcasts and films so to wrap up this post with the final stats.

Podcasts

I listen to podcasts. A lot.

I listen while I'm driving, while I'm doing chores around the house/garden, and while I'm working so it's no surprise that the related numbers are fairly chonky:

429 episodes, 19.6 days

19.6 solid days worth of time spend listening to podcasts which equates to 5.1% of the entire year. Pretty crazy when you think about it.

Films

I don't watch as many films as I thought I did. If I had films running in the background while working, the number would be much bigger, I'm sure, but then if I'm not actually watching them, would they even count? Anyway, here's the breakdown:

74 watched, 6.2 days

It's a little strange looking back through the list because it shines a light on how quickly the year has gone. The first film I watched in 2023 was Glass Onion and that doesn't feel like it was a year ago at all!

I think that's about it for the year in review. A massive failure strictly looking at the goals, but lots of good stuff happened and lots of interesting stuff listened to and watched.

Now I can have a think about 2024...

I wrote back in October about taking my camera out more to rely less on my iPhone which I'll admit, I'm finding harder to remember when I can just walk out the door without actively seeking out my camera but this time I did remember it... except I forgot to charge the battery last time I used it so I managed only a few shots before it died on me. Below are a mixture of both my Nikon 1 and iPhone.

Working on my comic remains my main focus but the reality of life means I can't work on it every spare minute of the day. In the past, when I've not been working on the comic, it's weighed heavy on my mind and a large part of that is because I feel I'm wasting time by not really doing anything creative. At the same time, I felt like turning my attention to something other than my comic would make me lose focus. It hasn't been a particularly good mindset to have as it's rooted in negativity.

The thing that can't be escaped is that when creating a comic by yourself, it takes a lot of time and effort. By definition, it sometimes feels like a very long slog and it's hard to see the wins when you know you've still got a lot of work ahead of you. I've been working hard to try see the small wins add up to much larger wins and that mentality has bled into these other pursuits.

Writing a journal entry. Adding to my illustrated journal. Making a stack of hand-stitched sketchbooks. These are all small, bite-sized projects with definitive endpoints.

Getting these smaller dopamine hits have taken pressure off the feeling of not accomplishing much with the comic and in a fun twist, has topped me up with creative energy which I've then been able to take to my desk and keep working on the comic.

As humans, we so often feel helpless in our own smallness. Yet we still find the resilience to do and make beautiful things and this is where the meaning of life resides.

Nature reminds us of this constantly.

The world is often cast as a purely malignant place but still the joy of creation exerts itself and as the sun rises upon the struggle of the day, the great crested grebe dances upon the water.

It is our striving that becomes the very essence of meaning, this impulse, this creative dance that is now being so cynically undermined must be defended at all costs and just as we would fight any existential evil, we should fight it tooth and nail.

For we are fighting for the very soul of the world.

I sat in the Summer sunshine for way too long and decided at one point I needed to wander around The Piece Hall and have a look around. I ended up wandering into The Book Corner where I spent a fair bit of time looking through their offering (and cooling off in the shade the shop provided). Amongst all the books that piqued my interest, The Creative Act by Rick Rubin jumped out, helped by its simple, minimal cover design surrounded by colourful and sometimes lavishly designed book covers.

The book had been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for a long time so I decided to treat myself.

At first, I decided to tackle the book a bit at a time which explains why I've only just finished the book, despite buying it back in August. Reading just a section at a time was my attempt to really take in what I was reading but this was before I started using a commonplace book to write down quotes or notes on what I was reading. When I realised that reading a section at a time wasn't improving my retention rate, I decided to just get on with reading but from about the halfway point, taking down notes on small index cards to go over at a later date. At some point, probably next year, I'll re-read the book and take notes on the first half too.

The book itself is really just a collection of thoughts and approaches to creating art, which Rick Rubin has learned from years in the music industry. While he often cites scenarios specifically around music, the book is still mostly agnostic of any discipline so can easily be applied to any form of creative pursuit.

There are some thoughts which struck me as a bit fanciful to someone like me, a lone creator whose artistic work resides in the realms of a hobby but there were also many nuggets of truth, at least to me. I found myself nodding along with many ideas which is why I need to go back and take notes. I distinctly remember the nodding, even if I can't quite remember why.

I'd really recommend giving it a read. It's certainly made me reassess my thoughts on what "success" means, as well as how I look at my own methods of creative expression, changing my perspective on creativity as a deeply personal pursuit and trying to put a pin in the idea of commercial gains, particularly while I'm in the middle of working. Sure, it can't be entirely ignored all the time, but sometimes it's good to remind yourself that there's value in just creating. Enjoy the process, relish the explorations, embrace the mistakes and what possibilities they might open up.

Sometimes it does you good to be content just doing the work and not worrying about whether it even has an audience. Blissful ignorance.

If we can tune into the idea of making things and sharing them without being attached to the outcome, the work is more likely to arrive in its truest form.