Jam, Jam, Everywhere

Making A Mess Of The Charts

Well DONUT SQUAD: MAKE A MESS came out last week, and… it seems like it is going pretty well? Did I mention that it was NUMBER 1 ON THE INDIE BOOKSHOP CHART? Because it was!

Which just goes to show, indie bookshops are the best, but then you all knew that already.

I spent this Saturday walking around Central London branches of Waterstones (uh, also the best) signing books - so many, many books - and my colleague / new pal Chris from DFB made this fun comic about my adventures:

It’s like you were there! Anyway, I will merely give you a gentle encouragement to buy the book if you haven’t already, and move us onto regularly scheduled newsletter business…

UPCOMING EVENTS!

ITEM: THIS SATURDAY, 17th JANUARY, 10:00 AM! I will be doing a Phoenix Digital Workshop, MAKE EXPLOSIVE DONUT SQUAD COMICS WITH NEILL CAMERON, and YOU can join me! Details and tickets from the Phoenix site. Please note, if you sign up you’ll get sent a recording of the session afterwards, so even if you can’t make it at that time you don’t have to miss out!

ITEM: Sunday 8th Feb! I will be at Stepping Into Stories festival in South London! And this is a really fun one, because I will be doing a joint workshop with the brilliant Tor Freeman (Boss of the Underworld, Grandma Toad, SO MANY MORE)!

And as if that wasn’t exciting enough, I will THEN be taking part in a Big Comics Celebration / show / thing, with Tor again, but ALSO with the incredible Thiago de Moraes (Age of Stone, Let Sleeping Gods Lie) and Sheena Dempsey (Pablo and Splash). A GALAXY OF STARS!

This sounds amazing, and is also FREE??? Should be an absolute blast! Details and tickets from the Stepping Into Stories site!

ITEM: Saturday 28th February! I will be doing a BIG MAD DONUT SQUAD SHOW at Conway Hall in London. Flying solo for this one, just me and my donuts! I have mentioned this before but I believe there are some tickets left so dash it all I am MENTIONING IT AGAIN. I think it will be very fun, come along! Details and tickets from Waterstones!

Okay, just one more for now but it is a big one!

ITEM: 25-26th April, Oxford: it’s PHOENIX FEST 2026! They’ve just announced the line up for this year’s event and GUESS WHAT I AM AT IT! (Yes! I am at a festival dedicated to the comic I work for, that is held in my home town. I know, it is VERY SURPRISING!) The full programme and all the information has gone up as of today, and tickets will be going on sale soon! Go read all about it and please bear in mind not to ask me any questions about it all, because I will NOT KNOW THE ANSWERS. All I know is, they’re trying to do it in a way that ensures maximum fairness and maximum numbers of kids being able to come along and take part. But, again, DO NOT ASK ME ANY QUESTIONS. There are whole teams of brilliant and dedicated organisers and customer service people involved, and I am NOT ONE. Good luck, and hope to see many of you there!

Are you sick of looking at my face yet? I SURE AM! Okay, time instead for some GOOD COMICS!

SOLVER: CIRCUS WINDOWS by John Allison - it is perhaps redundant in the year of our lord 2026 to make the observation ‘John Allison is very good at making comics’, but you know what I will anyway. Funny, wonderful characters, perfect dialogue. LIKE ALWAYS basically ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SHUK & DOODE by Simon Harrison & Tim Crowfoot - Baffling, incomplete, honestly barely-comprehensible. But good lord, that ART! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CONTEXT FREE DONUT SQUAD PANEL OF THE WEEK

Okay thanks bye xx