Opening Salvo

Good evening,

What a time to be alive am I right? If the past Months have taught me anything it’s that I might live to be a member of the first generation to grow up with Social Media as well as one of the first to see its downfall. I had a messy 20s, so you know, nice to see SOCIAL MEDIA have one too.

Social Media, I am here for you if you need to talk.

Did you know that Mozilla, the not-for-profit that created the Firefox browser, has run an annual Internet Health report? In 2018 they released their report in the shadow of Cambridge Analytica and announced the biggest threat to the internet was the Monopolisaton of social media. There can be no competition in software anymore as all outlets are controlled by the same five big tech companies (Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft). Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation described as the internet as "oligopolized". We have seen new platforms emerge though, since 2018 TikTok has become a big player on the social media market (big enough to get banned in over two dozen states in America), and I was speaking to a marketer this week on TikTok trends and apparently it has completely upset the landscape regarding audience connectivity. The same approaches people took to Instagram and Facebook no longer apply to TikTok. You have to embrace it in a different way, and it has created new stars off its back. Unfortunately its created some really weird shit, and only served to speed up the internet’s assault on your senses. Its been linked to anxiety, sleep disruption, and the premature thinning of the brains exterior cortex. TikTok being the bastard child of all social media on meth is a different blog post in and of itself, but the thing that blew my socks off was the impact its had on the psychology of young female users, including a possible correlation between it and the rise in Tourette’s in that demographic.

Its also weird how much of internet engagement relies on us having a shit time. There are reports going back to 2010 about facebooks "Emotion Lab" that manipulates the content people see in order to monitor the impact it has on their emotional state. In 2010 Frances Haugen, the famed Facebook Whistleblower, revealed that Instagram purposefully directs younger users to disturbing content. The artist and writer James Bridle has spoken at length, and devoted a chapter of this horrible book to, how Youtube is littered with disturbing content aimed at children. In Philip K Dick's book A Scanner Darkly a shadowy organisation sells both a drug and the rehabilitation for said drug. This is the internet at its most cynical: making us feel like utter shit in order to build us back up again through clicks, adverts, and purchases. The internet has become a strip mall of products, with the same people selling us ideas across all platforms, whilst trying to whip us up into a frenzy of sadness and rage to trap us in its labyrinthine hallways. I'm obviously no better than them because the last few paragraphs have been pretty damn depressing. But at least for this week, there will be no adverts.This is going to be my regular place to post from now on. It’ll be around monthly, or more frequently if I have things to talk about. I want to write a bit about title sequences next week. People’s absolute passion for Evil Dead Rise’s title card has made me want to get excited about title cards, especially in relation to comic books.

Are you in the Leeds Area?

If so opening this Thursday (May 9th) I have some a piece in an exhibition at the Wild Craft Bakery in Meanwood. You should come by, the opening is from 6pm until 9. For those not coming the work is pictured below:

I’ve recently got really into Monoprinting, the process of making a single uncopyable print from a Perspex plate. Its a fun and pretty immediate process which I have really been enjoying leaning into and this is one of my favourite pieces from my recent batch. I think it looks a bit like Sylvia Plath.

I am running quite a few art projects in Leeds as of late, and as I develop them more I will tell you about them here. If everything goes to plan at the end of the year I’ll be starting my Doctorate, which will be researching the impact of programmatic arts as a form of mental health treatment. Despite the above paragraphs about the incredibly depressing world of the internet I am feeling very optimistic about the effect that real world making and doing can have on people. There is no greater joy in my life than the one I get through art, so I’m going to be going out into communities, teaching art, running clubs, and trying to make people feel good about themselves.

I am aware that most of you don’t live in Leeds, but hey; maybe it’ll make a nice day out.

I also make comics.

if you follow me on Social Media you probably saw that I didn’t get into Thought Bubble this year. Its a pretty heart breaking feeling, and what makes it worse is the fact everyone else is out there celebrating about how wonderful it is to be there. It makes you feel like a jerk when someone else’s happiness makes you feel unhappy. This will be the first time since 2015 I won’t be behind the table selling comics, and because I put out four books last year it leaves you feeling a little bit like you’re just not good enough, like there is something you’re not doing right.

Well to that I say: No thanks.

The plan is to get weirder and more niche with my work. Last year I made a book about a giant egg making people see psychedelic visions in a wasteland. This year, I’ll just keep getting weirder and weirder and more personal until I have alienated every last one of you. I promise this with my whole heart.

So expect updates on my comics every month as well as the massively delayed second issue of Black Dragon. In fact lets have an update on Black Dragon right now.

I cut my God damned finger off.

I released the first issue of Black Dragon in 2021 at Thought Bubble and people really dug it. For those not in the know its a Science fiction comic about a continent sized cosmic dragon that flies through space. Its unique biome causes a crystalline substance to form on its scales that has an overwhelmingly positive effect on human physiognomy. The comic tracks the people who fly submarines through the dragons blood stream in order to extricate the crystals from the giant reptile. Its a critique of the gig economy, monopoly, rampant greed, and social media. I was pumped after the success of the first issues launch and started work on it immediately. Then in January 2022 I went rock climbing for the first time in twelve years.

So rock climbing is incredibly arm heavy, and as a man who runs a lot and cycles a lot, my arms are really neglected in the exercise department. The day of the exercise my arms were incredibly tired. The day after my fingers were entirely useless. After a run, I was preparing my nutritious lunch chopping vegetables, and my incredibly sharp Christmas gift from my mother slipped from my hands. The gift: a stainless steel Sabatier knife. It slid through my left index finger like it wasn’t there and save for a few millimetres of skin below the nail the tip of my finer was no longer attached to me. I bundled it a dish towel and asked my neighbour to drive me to hospital where they forgot to give me painkillers as they reattached it.

The issue here was it broke my concentration. All enthusiasm for the project left me and my attention drifted to other projects.

In January of this year my girlfriend sat me down and helped me write a plan for my projects with dates and goals and things. We have been using organisational software and let me tell you I have got some shit done. I have fully written a script and thumb nailed out the whole thing, and have started on a new cover in order to restart my approach to it.

Expect a new Black Dragon later this year alongside a few other things that I will talk about in future news letters. My finger is still misshapen and odd. It has no feeling in large parts of it and at time of writing is ridiculously cold.

Thanks for listening to me talk about my finger.

Talk soon.Nick