Kev F comic art

I Dropped My Nan Down The Toilet - comics by kids for World Book Week

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 11:36:00 +0000

If it's World Book Week, or more accurately World Book Day plus overspill, then I must have have a packed calendar of Comic Art Masterclasses in schools. Paradoxically this week was slightly less full than the previous week, or World Book Day Overspill Car Park Number Two as we know it.

Book Week began with a special sci fi themed day at Geoffrey Leigh School in Dartford, which I totally forgot was supposed to be sci fi themed until it was over. One of those days where the teacher who booked you wasn't the teacher who was with you on the day, so no-one reminded me, or seemed that bothered. In fact I only realised it was sci fi themed when I came to sign the books they'd ordered (a bumper bundle of 29 books, for which many thanks) only to find everyone had ordered a copy of Space Elain, a book I don't usually take to schools (cos it's not Shakespeare). A conversation from way back last autumn came back to me, where the teacher had spotted Space Elain on my website and thought it would be the perfect thing to offer the kids on this special day. Where I mentioned sci fi at no point.

Staines Library was a one off afternoon class with half a dozen pupils in. Which is really all I can find to say. They were great. I've cheated that flipchart on the back, haven't I? They didn't get a special drawing of their own (a victim of Uncle Kev's mean-spirited "if I have to supply my own flipchart and pad, they're getting a drawing-I-prepared-earlier to open the class with" rule.)

Oak Bank School in Leighton Buzzard, who got me for World Book Day itself by dint of having booked me for a return visit a whole year ago (schools thinking of doing this for 2027, I can confirm WBD and the day before are already taken) included some slightly older pupils, from years 9, 10 and 11. Can you guess which title they came up with? Believe me I had to eliminate a lot of Epstein Island and Diddy suggestions from the pile before we boiled it down to their vaguely acceptable choice.

Millfield Prep was, as you'd imagine, the poshest school of the week. If you've not heard of it, google its alumni. There you go. They had magnanimously accepted being bumped from World Book Day itself to the day after (when I discovered Oak Bank's booking from twelve months ago hadn't quite made it into the right place in my diary), and were rewarded with a couple of my favourite comic covers from a couple of splendid titles. Yes, you know a school's quite posh when their title mentions drop-kicking someone through a conversion post.

The celebrities these seven groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were: Stephen Hawking (twice - I subsequently discovered this was because he'd been mentioned in Epstein Files news that I'd managed to miss), Kim Jong Un, KSI (a Youtuber, I'm told), Michael Jackson, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Colouring Books: Doctors Who, Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop, 1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Royalty, Rom Coms

Book Sales March - live and online

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:41:00 +0000

Above: Me enjoying a record breaking day at Liverpool Book Festival at Box Park.

Live events / classes et al - x books (£x)
Etsy - x books (£x)

D2D - x books ($x)

Lulu - x books (£x)

Blurb - x book ($x)

Live Sales March 2026 = x books (£x)

Mar 2 - Exhall Grange (additional) - 9 books (£126)

9 x Romeo col

Mar 3 - Leigh Academy - 23 books (£139.80)

23 x Space Elain bw @ £6.99

(Forgot it was a sci fi themed day and I'd offered them Space Elains at a special price, so had to order them afterwards. I don't usually offer that book to schools, or usually sell black & white editions).

Mar 4 - Staines Library - 2 books (£26)

1 x Romeo col

1 x Richard col

Mar 5 - Oak Bank - 5 books (£62)

2 x Romeo col

1 x Richard 3rd col

1 x Tales from the Bible col

1 x Space Elain col

Mar 6 - Millfield - 21 books (£221.96)

5 x Romeo col

1 x Romeo bw

3 x Richard col

2 x Richard bw

2 x FM

1 x PODS

3 x MNDT

1 x Space Elain col

3 x Kids comics (2 Sausages, 1 Humpty)

Mar 8 - Liverpool Book Fest - 53 books (£555.74)

14 x Romeo col

1 x Romeo bw

3 x Richard col

4 x FM

2 x PODS

5 x MNDT

4 x Omnibus (sold out)

2 x Space Elain col

1 x Joseph col

1 x Esther col

16 x Colouring books:

- 3 x Euro vol 2

- 2 x Doctors, Royalty (sold out)

- 1 x Cult, Bowie, Euro vol 1, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 20s, Rom Com

Mar 13 - Mary Hare - 13 books (£172)

11 x Romeo col

2 x Romeo bw

Lives Sales Total March 26 (up to Mary Hare) - 126 books (£1303.50)

tbc

D2D Sales: Happiness was clicking on my D2D sales (on Weds March 11th) to find that, overnight, I'd sold 15 copies of my most expensive book, the Shakespeare Omnibus, netting me over 40 dollars in royalties. I think that's more than I've made in any previous month on D2D. Not JK Rowling money, but an interesting and pleasant blip.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Taylor Swift Knocks The School Down With A Tesco Trolley - comics by kids

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 08:37:00 +0000

Here we see the fruits of a week spent in schools, almost all beginning with C: Cathedral, Cramlington, Colne, and Carnforth and an overnight stay in Cambridge, to be precise.

Cathedral School in Lancaster was an opportune last minute booking that served to break the journey perfectly, to a school that was even further north. So I was able to drive up on Tuesday morning, do a two hour class in the afternoon, and continue my drive north to Wednesday's school.

Cramlington in Lancashire came up with a couple of cracking titles that inspired a couple of equally nice cover designs. Fool that I am, I then undertake to colour these in the evening, after my long drive to the next destination, and email them back to the school. I do hope they appreciate all this effort.

Actually I do know they appreciate all this effort, because two schools, one of them being Colne Primet in Lancs, had my comic covers on te wall from my last visit. It's good to know they don't forget you the minute you leave. And, by the way, isn't How To Waste The Time Of A Comic Book Author Who Comes To Your School an iconic title, and prime contender to be on the front cover of next year's annual?

Carnforth High was the fourth Lancashire school in a row, serving as a good reminder of just how large Lancashire is. Having booked these schools thinking "they're all in Lancashire, they'll be close together", they were an average of two hours apart! But the drive between Lancashire schools was nothing compared to the drive to my next day's destination.

Royal Hospital School near Ipswich is one of those schools that works on Saturday mornings, with all that entails. My drive from Carnforth saw me breaking the journey in Cambridge, from where there was still an hour and bit to drive to work followed by a three and a half hour drive home. I'm sorry I've rather dwelt on the least interesting part of my work, which is the travelling bit, but sometimes this will happen. My I've listened to a lot of podcasts this week.

The celebrities these 8 groups chose to star in my demonstration strip were Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Miss Milesi (a teacher), Ozzy Osborne, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Eminem (twice, at the same school), and Claudia Winkleman.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

The Stupid Bunny That Fell In The Bin - comics by kids

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 16:01:00 +0000

A busy first week and a bit of February saw me doing Comic Art Masterclasses in Coventry, Putney, Cranleigh, Derbyshire and Stamford. And what a beautiful bumper bundle of comics the kids and me have produced together, wouldn't you say?

Exhall Grange in Coventry is a school that's had me back a few times now, so I must be doing something right. A couple of spiffing comic titles from them inspired a couple of nice covers.

If it's Half Term then it must be a whole week of classes, beginning with Surrey Explorers, who organise classes in Putney Methodist Church. It's the third or maybe fourth time they've had me. A smashing group of kids made another cracking comic. I even think they're getting to know me down the road at Mailboxes where I have to go to produce the photocopied comic they take away at the end.

Two days in a row in Surrey, this time at Cranleigh Arts Centre. I won't say it's posh, but out of the window I could see a half-timbered petrol station. Genuinely. Bonus marks for the creation, by the pupil who probably spelled it that way unintentionally, of the Lepricorn.

Derbyshire libraries arranged a couple of sellout classes at Alvaston and Mickleover libraries, which were great fun though they had one caveat: the libraries had no photocopiers. They're the first libraries I've gone to with no copier, which is a sad development, for me at least. I hope it's not county-wide, though I have a dreadful fear it might be. They're expensive things and, I guess, people use them less and less. It doesn't bode well for the future of my classes cos I rely on a photocopier to be able to give the kids their A5 comic to takeaway. Luckily these punters hadn't paid for their places (I'm pretty sure) so they shouldn't feel short changed by not getting a comic to take away. They still got their caricatures, all the art they'd produced, and the front cover, once I'd coloured it, emailed to the library (and, I assume, forwarded to them). Fingers crossed nobody wanted their money back.

Friday saw two classes at Stamford Arts Centre in Lincs, and what a couple of smashers to end a top week with. Lots of satisfied customers, and a shedload of driving. Bish bash bosh. Oh, and I sold 80 books.

The celebrities these nine groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Taylor Swift (twice), James Bond, Albert Einstein, Donald Trump, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Jackson, Mr Beast, and Clare Balding.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

The Great AI Debate continues

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:03:00 +0000

With this thread I've now ended up amassing more reads, comments and shares than any post ever, I think. Of course I've tried to capitalise on it by adding links to my books and podcast into the thread. Has it sold a copy or attracted a listener? No, not a one. In the figures above you'll see there's a load of likes, shares and comments from my original Facebook post, and a different set of stats for the identical Instagram cross-post. I now don't know which is which.

Either way, an amazing array of comments, discussions, and let's face it insults, have continued to roll in. Here are some more.

Helen Head

Give over

NO one is paying any artist for a picture like this from an artists ,

It would also be very very hard to find anyone capable of doing this in such good details , and they would charge hundreds for it.

It’s a bit of fun. No one is losing their job because someone has made a fun picture of themselves.

Martin Baldock

Grow up dickhead

Alexander James

Kev Sutherland Are you vegan?

Eating meat is worse for the environment. Don’t be a hypocrite.

Jess Rumsey

Ai doesn't use power and water

Lolli Henrys

I am sure painters thought the same about photographers, art media will always be changing

Steven Walters

I bet painters said exactly the same thing when photography was invented...

Hannah Mahony

As much as I understand the arguments, you may as well stand on the beach and shout at a tsunami to stop.

Kayla Hall

It’s just a little fun!

Isaac Prior

Have a sook grow up mate your life list be so small to have such passion for such a small issue

Jack Ogden

Not that serious pal.

Alex Patton

Everyone who is defending AI in this comment section is showing how truly ignorant they are

Courtney Brumbalow

Everyone thinks their caricature is so unique but they all look the same. Boring. Harmful. Lazy. Fake.

Crystal Maciver

Glad to know i wasnt apart of this stupid trend. I think its just a method of counting how many people still conform and follow like sheep

Holly Louise

No one even thinks about the fact its giving major for info for password hacks

Hannah Phelps

I don’t think it’s taking art away from anyone, at the end of the day you know your own value to your work so why moan about AI ruining things for the art community? There is still a massive difference between a real banksy piece and an AI copy piece of banksys no? AI is just making it easier and cheaper for the average Joe to get something they’re after? Instead of paying an artist hundreds for a personalised picture.. so who actually cares if there is a trend going round. Of course the fresh water usage is an issue, massive issue considering it could be the reason we run low on fresh water

Robyn Livingston

So if 2 artists share the same type of creative spark in their work then everyone will loose their jobs...no. As humans we learn to recognise patterns and learn skills to develop that art...AI learns those patterns too to develop art. They're not stealing, if thats the case then everyone who creates art is stealing from someone else Just salty because even your stick men look wonky

Ronny Pageupdates

AI is unable to draw dogs without their tongues out, and women without massive eyes. It is weirding me out.

Sierra LaShae

Ai is killing creativity!

Roy Sinclair

AI is not killing creativity - it is expanding and adding to it.

Although millions of photos and images are used to train AI, AI is not stealing the work of artists (nothing specific is 'remembered' or reused) - the AI is simply trained to recognise patterns in what it is trained on.

Like it or not, AI is like a huge unstoppable freight train thundering down a track. It is here, and it is here to stay. Standing in front of it with your hands up shouting STOP is utterly pointless.

Me? …I’m an artist and a designer who has seen the landscape changed many times by technology over the years. I never try to stop the train - I jump on board and enjoy the ride

Iain James

To be fair none of these people making a five second image were ever going to go away and commission an artist, so nothing has been lost.

Colleen Taylor

Being a beginner artist (it's a hobby to help me heal a brain injury but darn it, I paint, therfore I'm an artist) I tried drawing myself as a cartoon but because I've only been doing lose watercolor, I really had no talent for it but I'll not be using the chatgp to do one, I'll keep practicing and make one 10 yrs from now, lol.

Kaitlyn Bagwell

Go cry

Ai is used on everything

Ai uses water like every thing that needs cooling lmao literally vehicles use water too

Ai doesn’t steal artwork that’s a lie artists created because artists were losing money

People use ai art because costs money for real artists like a small artwork would be $100+ not everyone has money to use on artwork

You’re on Facebook that uses ai

Your devices use ai too gi to the dark ages if ai is an issue

Maria Roxanna

I'm part of a local gardening group and all the boomers are posting these I'm about to say something. Idc if I get kicked out at this point

Alan Hillhouse

You do know how much any data center uses right?. It's not just ai.

Mark Condon

Well said. I had a business drawing personal and sports caricatures and cartoons and it’s been completely obliterated by ai.

The amount of times I hear ‘why would you pay for that when ai can do it for free even better’ is crazy.

Creativity is dead

Beth Walley

Literally when I started painting and posting before I even had 50 followers some guy put my painting through an AI generator and then tried to tell me it was better, it was literally identical except a tiny little added bit at the bottom, so frustrating because it was literally just plagiarism but dude wouldn't have it

Nicholas Edwards

Yawn. The only people who have a problem with AI are the ones who have no life.

James Wise

It is just a bit of fun, each to their own and all that

Tim Livingstone

The only thing worse than AI is the people who constantly complain about AI.

Lee Mcfarlane

Kinda ironic how you say its stealing art from artists , when you sell romeo and juilet like thats an original idea

Louise Dunmall

Its a little bit of fun and right now we could all do with a little harmless fun! If AI is your biggest issue in life then im jealous as most have alot more to worry about on a daily basis!

Mellissa Whitney Matt

Umm nobody stole the art. Its how people work to. Artists study other pieces of art (they don't buy) to refine their own art.

Ashley Hawkins

Who cares about how it makes you feel, it's like standing in line at your local take away shop and getting angry at the person in front of you for ordering fish and chips because you only like the works burgers..... What has it got to do with you?

Maddison Brisby

I’m so so glad that this is your only worry in life.

Jenny Swindells

My daughter is an artist and she has stopped most of her art work because of the whole AI thing.

Lisa Daisychainz

Okay but how do we meet these artists ?? Xx

Daniel Pearson

You ain't winning this fight

Craig Henderson

Here's a question, what about the disabled person who has hundreds of ideas in their head but can't physically use art tools like brushes and pencils so uses a tool like AI to help them express their ideas that they wouldn't have been able to express otherwise? Honestly the absolute hate towards it is bizzar. The hate that artists throw at people for using it is totally off putting. You're doing more harm to yourself really shouting at everyone. And if you read this you'll probably have a go at me too for "defending" it, I'm not. I'm just offering a different veiw point, not everything in the world is as simple and cut and dry as you would like ot to be. AI is a tool nothing more. Remember the big debate when digital animation over hand drawn came in same arguments "ugh creativity is gone, so many animators are going to loose their jobs" honestly listening to you people is exhausting at times.

Christina Hirons

Yawn… it’s not that deep…

Shannon Nuttall

Can't people just enjoy fun pictures of themselves?

You don't like it great dont use it dont hate on others for their choices that hate nobody ai is based of life and things in reality (mostly) as is art

Sarah Jane

I just don't understand the people who think "its just a bit of fun" even after being told about the damage it's doing

Its one thing to be blissfully unaware but once you're aware.. you're a d bags if you keep using it.

Victoria Humphrey

Genuinely... How does ur life get to a point where you base friendships and life connections on what apps they use. Its a daft cartoon picture, lighten up

Ash Ward

I made one of you, you seem like you feel left out

Kev Sutherland

Ash Ward Aaaaaaaargh!

Louise Hill

I'll keep enjoying myself, thanks for your opinion.

Carl Horton

I bet you're a hoot at parties

Natasha Jones

Geez you must be fun at parties

Mac Pajka

Lol, Artists are not afraid of AI

Dominic Kaye

Get a grip

Jøsh Holliday

I'm gonna use AI even more

LJ Mua

In Texas people are going without clean drinking water because of the AI data centres near their houses… but y’all don’t care unless it’s happening in your home… just wait.

Adele Jackson

They’d have to pay you to draw a pic where as ai did it for free. you can’t be mad a people for doing a trend that doesn’t really hurt you. You just don’t like it. You’ve publicly shamed people like they’ve done something criminal lighten up mate

Kerriann Follett

How has my face thats been turned into a characature be stolen? That my face

Scott Walker

Ive been telling people it ends the life of a dolphin every time it’s used.

They don’t care about the dolphins.

Annieka Morris

Why take social media so seriously? Its a bit of fun

René Whiteley

You can easily tell it’s Ai vs real art. If you can’t then the internet probably isn’t for you

Logan Campbell

I like mine lol and I’m a professional photographer. I’m not worried lol

Nathan Thomas

You realise the servers of things like facebook the platform your using now uses a massive amount of energy and cooling too right..

If you really want to help stop using the internet entirely

Kelly Dyche

AI is here to stay. People need to start getting used to that fact. You can cry & moan about it all you want, but it isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s only going to become more advanced. I personally find it both facilitating & terrifying. But I’m very interested to see where it goes…

Naomi Gelston

I literally had not thought of the AI generated stuff like this. I’ve been concerned about AI generated art but hadn’t thought of this stuff as ‘art’ I suppose! Appreciate the post.

Saz Harper

For info: put “-AI” or “-ai” at the end of your Google search phrase and it will remove the AI input and revert to good old fashioned internet search!

Kirra Morrow

I take peoples art and shove it into ai i really couldn't care

Kate Richards

Have a day off, it’s abit of fun. Nobody is dying.

Tarnee Ryan

Tbh I don’t care

Martin Jopp

I'm away to generate a few hundred ai images just to spite you

Charlotte Marshall

Good god i wish i didnt have anything better to do

Sarah Leigh Smith

Melt

Stephanie Morningstar

Oh god get over it life’s shit people want to have abit of fun

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Book sales February - live and online

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:47:00 +0000

Above: Happiness is getting back into schools and signing a pile of books

Live events / classes et al - 158 books (£1853)

Etsy - 7 books (£43.92)

D2D - 17 books ($20.61)

Lulu - 4 books (£4.03)

Blurb - 1 book (86c)

Live Sales February 2026 = 158 books (£1853)

Friend of Steve (one signed book with a sketch and tiny caricature, above) - 1 Romeo £14

Feb 12 Exhall Grange Coventry - 14 books (£183)

11 x Romeo col

1 x Romeo bw

1 x Richard col

1 x MNDT

Feb 14 Wrexham Comicon - 30 books + caricatures (£346)

4 x Romeo col

2 x Richard col

2 x FM

2 x PODS

2 x MNDT

3 x Space Elain col

1 x Joseph col

1 x Tales From Bible (sold out)

3 x Kids comics (sold out)

10 x Colouring books:

- 3 x Cult TV, 2020s pop

- 1 x Doctors, Bowie, Punk, 90s

Feb 17 Surrey Explorers Putney - 16 books (£189)

7 x Romeo col

2 x Richard col

1 x PODS

1 x Omnibus

1 x Space Elain

2 x Esther col

2 x Kids comics (sold out)*

*The lesson from this and Wrexham above is have more copies of Attack Of The Sausages in stock.

Feb 18 - Cranleigh Arts - 23 books (£302)

8 x Romeo col

1 x Romeo bw

4 x Richard col

3 x Omnibus

4 x Space Elain

1 x Joseph col

2 x Esther col

Feb 19 - Alvaston & Mickleover Libraries- 16 books (£180)

6 x Romeo col

5 x Richard col

2 x MNDT

2 x Space Elain

1 x Joseph col

Feb 20 - Stamford Arts - 26 books (£268)

7 x Romeo col

3 x Romeo bw (sold out)

4 x Richard col (sold out)

5 x Richard bw

1 x FM

3 x PODS

1 x MNDT

2 x Joseph (sold out)

Feb 24 - Cathedral Lancs - 8 books (£112)

8 x Romeo col

Feb 25 - Cramlington - 10 books (£110)

4 x Romeo col

6 x Romeo bw

Feb 26 - Colne Primet - 14 books (£149)

2 x Romeo col

7 x Romeo bw

1 x Richard bw

2 x FM

1 x PODS, MNDT

Total live sales - 158 books (£1853)

57 x Romeo col

18 x Romeo bw

18 x Richard col

6 x Richard bw

5 x FM

7 x PODS

7 x MNDT

4 x Omnibus

10 x Space Elain

5 x Joseph

1 x Tales From The Bible

5 x Kids comics

10 x Colouring books

Total D2D Sales Feb 26 - 19 books ($22.97)

What are the chances? Total D2D books is (was for a few days) 10% of live sales and the total is exactly 1% of live sales ($18.53 plays £1853*). Come on, that’s a glitch in The Matrix if ever there was one. (*Since I wrote this, the site has updated to 19 sales and $22.97, but won’t tell me what the additional books are)

4 x Romeo

6 x Richard

3 x MNDT

2 x Space Elain

1 x Omnibus, Tales From Bible

Total Etsy Sales Feb 26 - 7 books (£43.92)

2 x Hollywood

2 x 80s

1 x 60s

1 x Doctors

1 x digital

Total Lulu Sales Feb 26 - 4 books (£4.03)

1 x Romeo col

2 x MNDT

1 x Sausages

Total Blurb Sales Feb 26 - 1 book (86c)

1 x Eurovision vol 1

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Socks “New Show” at Leicester Comedy Festival

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:01:00 +0000

The Socks have a long association with the Leicester Comedy Festival. We have, in fact, played there for longer than we’ve played the Edinburgh Fringe. (Our first appearance there was in 2006, and we didn't miss the years we missed Edinburgh, making this our 20th anniversary)

But they’ve had a quiet year. Indeed, since writing and debuting Post Office Scandal The Musical at Leicester in 2024, I’ve not written a single bit of new material for them. (Dean Friedman and I did some adverts for a windows company that summer, so that would be the Socks last new stuff). So, I thought, setting myself the target of a New Show this month would give me the incentive to blitz a whole new load of stuff. I even put a shout out to Socks fans online asking for suggestions.

But by the time of our Leicester appearances I’d written nothing. Well, one feeble bit of dialogue about the song New York Groove. Nothing else.

We had a 20 minute mid show slot on a comedy bill in Nuneaton on Friday night (on with Karen Bayley, Steve Gribbin, and MC James Cook) which was in itself the Socks first gig of any sort since The Lakes comic festival show back in September, so there were cobwebs to be dusted off and a reminder needed that we could still do this. The gig went perfectly, and I felt great.

For Saturday in Leicester, the first of two nights, I had assembled a Best Of selection. Which, given how well my Best Of 20 min slot had just gone, I felt would be a satisfying hour. But one odd element of Leicester was that I had a small audience (only 27) and more than half of those were fans who’d seen us before. So, while the newbies were laughing out loud at the top notch classics, I could tell that the regulars weren’t, so much, at stuff they’d heard before.

And nobody laughed at the New York Groove rubbish. I only did that on the first night, replacing it the next night with Halloween. Which, because I hadn’t rehearsed it, I promptly forgot most of!

All that said, both shows were good, and the audiences seemed to love them. They were full of praise after both and it was only my self-critical-ness, and a mix of flop sweat and actual sweat, cos the venue Kayal was boiling, that had me coming away feeling a bit bad after Saturday. I felt a lot better after Sunday (which had a smaller audience of only 20). But ultimately I was disappointed that I’d listed a New Show and hadn’t delivered one.

I feel I have squandered a lot of goodwill with this show, and am doing little to attract new audiences. I really have work to do to get the Socks back on track.

Above: Thanks to John Shaw in the front row for this clip of a Sock suffering a wardrobe malfunction during Go To Greggs, not intentionally.

The running order for the alleged New Show was:

Opening gags inc lines from Roll Up (2019)

Ship In A Bottle (from Telly 10, & Space 13, main comedy club set)

I'm A Sock (as featured in every show ever, since 2006)

(Sat only) New York Groove (new, died)

(Sun only) Halloween (from debut show 2007, main comedy club set)

I Change The Key (Return 08)

Magic (Telly 10, & Roll Up 19, main comedy club set)

OG wordplay (WorldCon show 24)

Word Association (Hollywood 09)

4 Horsemen (Boo Lingerie 12)

Pagliacci (Roll Up 19)

Go To Greggs (Roll Up 19)

(Sat only) Earth Song (Hollywood 09, main comedy club set)

Bucket List (Boo Lingerie 12)

Always A Bastard (Telly 10, And So Am I 14)

Star Wars (Hollywood 09, Space 13, main comedy club set)

Sweary Poppins (Hollywood 09, main comedy club set)

So I didn't use any material from Post Office Scandal (24), Eurovision (22), Superheroes (18), or Shakespeare (16), which are the four best-shaped stand alone shows, or anything that was new from Minging Detectives (15), And So Am I (14), or Space (13) none of which seemed to lend itself to a fresh airing out of context. It's pleasing to look back and see how much material I do have, but disappointing that I fell back on a show which was composed of my main comedy club set (which adds up to nearly half an hour) and nothing new.

It reminds me that shaping a good hour long show takes a lot of work, spread over six months usually. The traditional pattern, which I managed to do almost every year from 2007 to 2019, was Leicester Comedy Festival would get a work in progress show, including lots of stuff that I'd done as Youtube videos over the preceding six months, then there'd be Glasgow Comedy Festival in March, which would have lots of fresh stuff, then a series of previews across the early summer, usually including Brighton in May, so that when I hit Edinburgh at the start of August I'd have an hour I was confident in. By the end of August this hour would be the best show I'd ever done and I'd tour it the following Spring.

That model broke in the pandemic of 2020, where I briefly enjoyed a new career online, which is where Eurovision and a whole raft of songs, that are my current pre-show playlist, came from. I think I took a bit of a knockback when Britain's Got Talent half-happened at the start of 2022, which drove our last visit to Edinburgh. Then Post Office Scandal The Musical two years ago was a surprising return to form, proving to myself I could still do it, with a show that was written in a fortnight and went down went on the few touring shows it played, but which never got the full development treatment, and I couldn't afford to take to Edinburgh.

Sorry if I sound a bit down. The Socks just played three good shows in a weekend and entertained some people, but I feel I haven't got their mojo back and don't quite know what I'm going to do with them next. I'm sure inspiration will strike when I least expect it.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

The Great AI Debate gets nasty

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:37:00 +0000

The Great AI Debate began, for me, with this story: "They Made an AI Ad Out Of Me".

It continued with the following Facebook thread:

I’ve had to do it again. Posting on a friend’s FB to “tell them off” for doing the Ai caricature trend. Here’s what I wrote: “I hate to be that guy, but you do know that a lot of us have a problem with Ai art. It’s been trained on art stolen from real artists, and its use takes work from artists. And its use of power and water is a genuine concern.

“I know, we all feel like King Cnut standing against the tide of this popular trend but I felt I had to say something. “

This is the most constructive way I have of reducing my number of Facebook friends, when they immediately unfriend me.

(This post becomes my most seen post, apparently 25,000 people have seen it, my most liked at 465, and my most commented on, with 132 comments and growing, and shared by 96. Here are some comments and discussions).

Stefan Pejic

Kev Sutherland Didn't unfriend you, eventhough you used me as the main point of this status and used my name and photo lol so here's my reply to comment you left incase you missed it

As an artist who sells hand drawn and painted pieces myself, I totally get the frustration with how technology has impacted the commercial art world. However, I want to be clear that this post was just for a laugh! No one is profiting from this it was purely for entertainment and to see what the internet’s data thinks of me. Why not have a little fun with it if it's a trend that is already clogging up my news feed?

As long as you don't use it it's fine. But my facebook is my facebook dude, nobody dictates what I can and cant post.

Peace xx

Kev Sutherland

Stefan Pejic Sorry I didn’t edit your name off the screengrab. I’ve done that now.

Gordon Rennie

Stefan Pejic

Ahh, the old “just for a laugh…” shite excuse

Darran Hepworth

Stefan Pejic "Just for a laugh" isn't a defence. I've seen people who have done some pretty awful things use the same phrase in attempts to defend their actions, too. Personal entertainment has never been an excuse for behaviour that hurts other people.

Every time you share AI, whether it be for profit, engagement, or "just for a laugh" you're validating its existence and promoting its use. You're making it acceptable in the eyes of less informed people. Your other justification, that it's a trend...well, it wouldn't be if people like yourself refused to use it. You're making matters worse for artists. This isn't just a laugh for them.

I've no idea who you are, and berating strangers on Facebook friend's posts isn't something I'm particularly keen on, but I'm so tired of this attitude of 'I know AI is bad, but I use it in the good way.'

Stefan Pejic

Darran Hepworth go eat a snickers dude.

Darran Hepworth

Stefan Pejic Don't worry, it was just a laugh.

Stefan Pejic

Darran Hepworth I wasn't worried

Gordon Rennie

Stefan Pejic

Are you also getting AI to write your shite comebacks?

Stefan Pejic

Gordon Rennie So out of interest, how many of you "liking" or commenting have actually bought one of Kev’s pieces?... I only replied because my name was being used on an image of my private profile ( since edited off after I commented) as a potential punchbag for people like you lot looking to score points and virtue signal to get that quick dopamine fix.

Also, the hypocrisy here is staggering. I guarantee that those commenting would have used ChatGPT or versions of it to help you "write something" without a second thought for legitimate writers and shared links in private messages of AI videos without any thought for comedy writers, directors, producers, actors, etc. Exactly.

I don’t know any of you & therefore you do not affect nor impact my life in any way whatsoever. I owe nobody anything but let’s be real it’s easy to be bold behind a keyboard. This is my final response cas I keep having notifications. So this is a more indepth response once and for all. Much love xxxx

Darran Hepworth

Stefan Pejic Now you're playing the victim?

People doing the right thing and calling out others for perpetrating the theft of artists' work, isn't virtue signalling. The fact that you think that doing the right thing couldn't possibly be done altruistically, and could only be a PR exercise says a whole lot about your values.

As for guaranteeing that the people commenting have used ChatGPT.

I don't even know whether it's used via a website or an app, let alone used it myself. You're so incredulous that other people have moral values and act accordingly, aren't you? Again, your own values are being laid bare by your inability to comprehend that other people actually do the right thing.

I don't support the Ai theft of artists'/writers/musician's work, so I don't use AI. I don't share it. I don't engage with it.

Crazy, huh?

Anyway, go eat a snickers dude

Liam Mc

Bro I'm an artist myself. I don't have to buy anyone's art to think AI art isa best cringe and a waste of time and at worse actively harming the environment and taking jobs away from creatives. What a laugh

Stefan Pejic

Darran Hepworth Calling 'victim' is such a tired, predictable retort when you’ve run out of actual points. Anyone with the intelligence to read my original comment knows I’m an artist exploring how algorithms and data interpret my profile out of pure curiosity. It’s a creative experiment on my own page not on Kevs or yours so I can do what I want. I also know that the art I create and comissioned for has no threat or rivalry by AI but already sympathised for those who feel it may. If you’re this desperate for my attention though, come see me at a gig you can use other things you hear me say then like my comments above back to me, how flattering. Full brownie points use them wisely. I have also now worked out how to mute these notifications so I’ll let you have the last word since you clearly need it. Enjoy, babes. xxxxx

Kev Sutherland

Stefan Pejic And I'm really sorry I roped you into this. I feel I've led to you being personally targetted, and that is entirely my wrong doing. So sorry.

Kev Sutherland

Gordon Rennie Not what I wanted, everyone piling in for a cathartic ganging-up on one person, out of thousands!

Stefan Pejic

Kev Sutherland It's all good Kev, totally unfazed, you know me I love dealing with hecklers

Jem Jenkins Jones

I think my main worry at the moment, because I know it's pointless now to try to fight it with the artistic merit reasoning, is the environmental impact of it all. I need to research more into that first though as I don't know enough yet.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

A nil Desai I’m with you on that Kev Sutherland - It’s become a disgusting landfill trash of posts to see so many jump on this bandwagon this morning!
A complete ‘turn off’ which reeks of a desperation to ‘do what everyone else is doing’

Its not cool! It looks hideous! And has put a spotlight on so many “artists” and people having zero originality in their lives.

How the F did this catch on so quickly ? Its like wildfire burning through my newsfeed

And the fact that it steals and takes away from legitimate caricature artists like yourself makes it even more soul less!

Bishop Jones

But real artists have always been influenced and borrowed from existing art. Initially we borrowed from nature, now we borrow from the past works of others.

Is it really that different when it’s a machine doing the borrowing??

Gill Rockatansky

Bishop Jones They're not borrowing, people have been able to identify elements of their own work. Note how you said "real artists" when referring to humans. AI art isn't real art, it comes from a database of stolen work rather than inspiration or invention.

Dan McCloud

Bishop Jones yes. machines can't put their own unique spin on anything, they have no soul or personality. anything it makes is just a regurgitated combination of whatever they've stolen off the internet, unlike human artists who only use what they've seen or read as a starting point to create their own unique vision

Gabriele Fratus

Bishop Jones humans get inspired. Machines copy. AI steals.

If it isn't that different, why you need a machine to "borrow" for you?

Stuart Wood

Bishop Jones Yes it is massively f*ing different

Arabella Donnelly

Bishop Jones please do not spout this bs

Ryan Anthony Mooresky

Bishop Jones influenced by ≠ ai generated

Sarah Burgess

you know the general AI system is open AI and not one person "owns it?"

what sources have you used to get the information that generating AI content uses water and natural resources?

Sam Sandars

Sarah Burgess OpenAi is a business name which is owned by multiple investors, Microsoft owns 27% share as an example.....

Joseph Kenan Kockaya

Sarah Burgess Open AI still has to use data centres that require a vast amount of water for cooling. A single typical ChatGPT conversation uses 500ml of DRINKING WATER for cooling.

David Hughes

In this case, though, these people probably weren't about to commission the services of an actual caricaturist, so it's difficult to see how this is actually taking work away from freelancers.

Dan McDaid

David Hughes but AI is theft from both ends, it doesn't just steal future work, it robs work that's already done. AND has deletorious effect on the environment, and looks like banal shit etc.

Sarah Green

It was the same sort of thing with photography when digital came along, I hated it (during my photography degree) it took away an art.

The thing is that times change, music is the same, from vinyls to Alexa, it's not going to disappear, just evolve.

Kayleigh Griffin

I don't think people realise how bad ai is for the environment either. And you can't even search for evidence without ai rearing it's head

Davy Francis

Are you allowed to say Cnut on Facebook?

Jessica Rose

I don’t think people realise how affordable commissioning a real artist can be. On Etsy there are loads of options for fully rendered art that are £10-20 or even less for sketches. Simple art styles like chibi are also very affordable.

I don’t understand not supporting real people and it’s fun that my dumb thought of wanting to see myself as a deer is supporting someone’s business and the art looks amazing too. This one cost me £60 as a waist up from a popular artist (Syronica) and I am very happy with the result

Shane Chebsey

Only artists are taking about it unfortunately. Those not exposed to artists have no idea what's going on.

Darren Worrow

Roybot Lichtenstein I calls 'em! Well done for calling it out, I think I should follow in your wise footsteps.

Kris Flynn

If you hate to be that guy, don't be that guy and keep scrolling. It's people having fun. Not one person was going to hire someone to do the caricature so it's not taking work away from anyone. Everything advances. You took a photo on your phone? Then your taking work away from someone with a real camera. Watching netflix? It's your fault that video stores closed. Let's ban all forms of electronic music. Every cord is music was used by someone else previously so no new music should be allowed use them. We all use technology everyday. We watch videos to repair stuff. Everything advances. Get over it

Carl East

Keep it up Kev. People need to know that this “oh it’s good enough” attitude to this slop is not shared by everyone.

Steven Morrison

You know using the internet in general also uses power and water?

Jenn Gee

Steven Morrison so why the hell would you want to make the problem 10x worse/accelerate it???

Stuart Wood

Steven Morrison oh wow what a gotcha

Anja Renberg

I hate AI “art” but I’m too scared to say something even fb friends use it. Should start doing it I suppose. Doesn’t affect me directly as I’m not an artist and can’t draw to save my life, I just think if you’re not an artist don’t pretend to be and, it’s all the same and sooooooo dull!! We’re all becoming one incredibly dull entity aren’t we?

Tom Hart

It’s amazing the amount of people willing to effectively give their likeness over to a AI training database for free in return for an image they might laugh at for a few seconds and never think about again.

Worse yet some of them you are essentially transferring ownership of the image you are supplying them with

Al Mackay

Most people wouldn't pay for this, hence lots of people are doing it for free. It's not that deep

Lewis Farley

You imply they were ever going to commission someone to do this work in the first place. They are only doing it because it is free... No money or jobs were lost in the making of this meme.

Andrew Lines

You cant put it back in the bottle. I started life as a signwriter making my living for a number of years up a ladder on shopfronts and in greasy garages lettering vehicles, using high quality brushes made from the tail hair of a pine marten only found in Siberia. Safe in the knowledge that they could never make a machine to do what I do. and the they did. I had to move on or become a poor dinosaur. I'm now using Ai to illustrate my first book, because although I can draw, I'm no illustrator. I'm no author either, but Ai is giving me the chance to do something in my retirement, that I have neither the money nor the skills to do myself. Everyday is a school day and I love it. But otherwise I still create art using my design skills. As someone very famous once said 'before they had CAD, Computer Aided Design, they didnt call it Pencil Aided Design.' ie; Design is s function of the brain, just the tools change. Get over it.

Gary Northfield

Andrew Lines The difference between ai and the other examples you give, is that ai steals other people’s art and repurposes it. Computer programmes making fonts paid the creator of the font. Ai does no such thing. Illustrators will not be bullied to “get over it”.

Andrew Lines

Gary Northfield Yes they will.

David Leach

Andrew Lines Only the shit ones. Any self decent artist will see that Ai Slop isn't art, it's theft, it's not original, it's not even good. Anyone, especially a creative person who promotes Ai is an arsehole.

Andrew Lines

David Leach I hear you. But what will you actually do about it?

(Kris Flynn posts Ai image of David Leach crying. I will not share it. I have blocked him)

Gary Northfield

Andrew Lines “Yes they will” be bullied? Really? Wow.

Andrew Lines

Gary Northfield You get as indignant as you like, but in reality what will YOU do to stop the use of Ai. and lets be clear its not just illustrators that have 'had there work stolen', its photographers, scientists, designers, inventors, engineers, authors, and indeed anyone that's ever written or thought anything. And yes they will have to get over it, and move on. But I'm OK, I've still got my canal boat and spinning jenny shares to fall back on. I've also got some machine made lace for sale, that faithfully copies the designs of Welsh cottage dwellers.

Lauren Marsden

Imaging telling someone off for what they post on their own Facebook get a grip

Jonathan Smith

Sad man

James Summerson-Hollywood

Welcome to the future! Strap in

Phillip Garfield

Rather look at that art then yours personally.. and coming from someone who worked at the bbc for decades your opinion is invalid an no Ai would steal your art to learn from as anyone is capable of basic doodles

Linda Moon

God you're boring

The Great AI Debate continues here.

etc etc. I have only shared a selection of discussions and posts. It seems this Culture War divide will rumble on. On one side "it's a bit of fun, stop being a killjy" and on the other "it's doing damage and is morally wrong". It would seem there is no middle ground for debate, and why did I ever think for a minute there would be?

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

They made an AI ad of me

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 18:00:00 +0000

The good news: they’re plugging my classes in Putney this month

The less good news: looks like they’ve used Ai to do the drawing of me on the advert

I stress I had nothing to do with this. I send out my usual promo photo, and logo, and images of comics by kids, and often design a poster for clients myself. This is a first for me.

UPDATE: I have sent the following email, and the amended artwork you can now see.

"Looking forward to my class on Feb 17 in Putney, and thanks for all the effort you're putting into promoting this.

One small problem I've spotted, the online advert appears to have used generative AI to draw the illustration. It's in that generic style that Ai does, and I hope I'm wrong but it looks like that's what it is.

First, if it's a genuine illustrator, please tell me who they are and congratulate them and I apologise. If it's AI though, I'm afraid I can't really have it on my poster. In the comics and illustration biz, Ai art is our worst enemy at the moment, and anything that made it look like I was condoning it, or encouraging its use in a class where I'm teaching kids how to draw, would be the worst thing.

I've attached a drawing of me, by me, which I'd prefer your designer used, if it's not too late to do so. I've done a mock up with my image dropped in, though I realise it's not as finished as the version you've already published.

I'm sorry, I hate to be that guy, but if as I suspect it's Ai art, it can't appear on a poster advertising my art classes. I hope you understand.

Still looking forward to the classes, all the very best..."

My post on Facebook (above) attracted much discussion.

Marc Jackson

I hope you’ve been in touch with them, Kev! I’d be fuming!!!

Mike Collins

ehhhhhh

Lew Stringer

Yikes! They seem very out of step with what the artistic community feels about this slop.

Steve Roberts

It’s incredible that somebody could be so tone-deaf as to book an artist and use gen AI to promote them.

Mark AP McIlmail

The irony is off the scale.

John A. Short

The general public are mostly unaware of the controversy surrounding AI slop among illustrators as the mainstream press don't seem to covering it. Good for you, for putting your foot down. I'll be interested to hear their response.

Shane Chebsey

Good on ya for calling them out on it and educating them

Tony Aloysius Amis

Great & right stance to take Kev.

Steve Bull

Omg this is wild

Louisa Gummer

I think you add Ts&Cs to any contract stating they cannot use Gen Ai to create any promotional material.

David Leach

Great bit of Ai art, well done, Kev. It's good to know someone is at its vanguard.

Play your cards right and it'll probably be able to do your job.

Steve Keyworth

Some interesting choices in the copy too. Much loved what?

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Biskie & The Inkie Dragid - comics by kids

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:24:00 +0000

My second batch of comics from kids in my Comic Art Masterclasses already this month, which I was thinking of as a quiet one for schools, and already I've been to Edinburgh, London, and Pontypridd.

Fairley House School is virtually in the grounds of Lambeth Palace, right by the Thames in London, it could hardly be more central. And the main thing I knew about it before I went was that it's an independent school. I'd been told something about special educational needs, but thanks to the teacher who'd booked me delegating me to a second teacher who was then on maternity leave so I was dealt with by others, no one quite went over with me the details of the class and the pupils. So we breeze ahead with my usual class, with Year 8s who were lovely. But when it came to coming up with a title for the group comic, I did notice a lot of them had rather shakey spelling. I didn't dwell on it, but we did end up choosing one title which was deemed funny because it hadn't come out like they'd intended. The pupil had been wanting to write Biscuit and the Incredible Dragon, and had ended up writing Biskie & the Inkie Dragid. Which everyone found hilarious.

It was only when I got home and looked up the details of the school that I saw, right in the first line of the school's description, that it's the leading school in London... for dyslexic pupils! None of the teachers seemed bothered that I seemed to be encouraging teasing someone for their spelling, but it made me feel quite bad afterwards.

This spring season is shaping up to be one when I'll be doing an inordinate amount of travelling. My own stupid fault, I agree to do these things. But I could really make them more cost effective if I tried. All I can say is I'm glad these classes, at Craigmillar and Oxgangs libraries in Edinburgh, weren't on a doorsplit. Because it turns out a Saturday morning in January is not the best time for getting kids to a class. At Craigmillar in the morning I ended up teaching two people, one of whom was a Mum who'd brought in their toddler for a storytelling class, which was also a bit quiet as it happens. The second class, in Oxgangs, was a sellout, and they bought books too, which was nice.

But if I subtract the cost of the plane, the airport parking, the overnight hotel, and a couple of trams and busses, from my usual fee (yes, I charged the same as if I'd been going to Swindon) I don't come away with as much as I do at most classes. But, hey, I got to see Edinburgh for the first time in a year, which was nice.

Half a day working with kids in a special school in Pontypridd rounded off the month's classes, and was a treat.

The celebrities these five groups chose to appear in my demonstration strips were Mr Beast (twice), David Attenborough, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, and Chase Stokes (an actor, I'm told).

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Richard The Third review, by Vivienne O Olivier (?)

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:53:00 +0000

Out of the blue this arrives in the email:

From: Vivienne O. Olivier oxxxxx.expert@gmail.com

Hi Kev,

Richard The Third is Shakespeare with the volume turned all the way up, and the footnotes gleefully set on fire. From the first page, it’s clear this isn’t a dutiful retelling but a joyful, anarchic remix that understands both the original play and exactly how to make it irresistible for modern readers.

What stood out to me most was how confidently you lean into contrast. High Shakespeare collides with slapstick, villainy becomes cartoonishly exuberant, and somehow Richard’s wickedness feels both ridiculous and perfectly on point. The humor never undercuts the story, it becomes the way in. Turning one of Shakespeare’s darkest characters into something readers want to follow is no small feat.

I also loved how accessible this feels for younger readers and reluctant Shakespeare fans. Pairing sharp comedy with visual storytelling creates a genuine gateway into the plays, without ever feeling like homework in disguise. It’s clever, energetic, and clearly made by someone who loves both comics and Shakespeare equally.

If this resonates, I’d love to hear what you found most challenging, or most fun, about translating Richard III into this comic form, especially when deciding just how far to push the comedy without losing the bones of the original.

Warm regards,
Vivienne O. Olivier

I shall reply and see where this came from.

Update: The reply contains the paragraph: "...If you’re open to it, I’d love to explore next steps around the book, whether that’s discussing its positioning, reaching new readers, or thinking through marketing approaches that align with its tone and audience. I’d be happy to share a few ideas and hear your thoughts."

I might not bother.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Book Sales January, a quiet month

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:09:00 +0000

January is famously a quiet month for me and book sales. There are next to no comicons (one this month), and the schools are slow to kick in at the start of term. That and my inability to make much happen online, and we can expect this to be the lowest tally of the year. In Jan 2025 I was very lucky to have one school that bought 54 Richard The Thirds, so that wasn't too bad a month, but in Jan 2024 I recorded next to no sales, and as recently as Jan 2023 I wasn't even expecting to sell books, so I shouldn't grumble.

Live events / classes et al - 56 books (£632)

Etsy - 6 books (£49.15)

D2D - 9 books ($8.46)

Lulu - 2 books (£6.54)

Blurb - 62p (1 books)

Live Sales January 2026 = 56 books (£632)

Jan 20 - Fairley House school - 9 books (£81)

9 x Romeo & Juliet black & white

Jan 24 Craigmillar & Oxgangs Libraries - 7 books (£98)

7 x Romeo & Juliet colour

Jan 26 Rye Hills School - 7 books (£56)

A school who'd ordered books when I was there in November and I missed the email. They chased me up and I signed and sent them today

3 x Findlay Macbeth

3 x Hamlet Prince Of Denmark St

1 x Midsummer Nights Dream Team

Jan 29 Ty Castan Pontypridd - 3 books (£27)

3 x Romeo bw

Jan 31 Exeter Creed - 30 books, + caricatures (£370)

6 x Romeo col

2 x Richard col

3 x FM

2 x PODS

5 x MNDT

3 x Space Elain col

2 x Attack of Sausages (sold out)

7 x Colouring books:

- 2 x Doctors, Cult TV

- 1 x 60s, 20s, Bowie

Above: My table at the first comicon of the year, in a cold cattle shed in Exeter. I'm beside Pig Pennage. None taken.

Live Sales January 2026 = 56 books (£632)

(Jan 2025 = £490, Jan 2024 = £32.95)

Live totals =

13 x Romeo & Juliet col

12 x Romeo & Juliet bw

2 x Richard The Third col

6 x Findlay Macbeth

5 x Hamlet Prince of Denmark St

10 x Midsummer Nights Dream Team

3 x Space Elain col

2 x Attack of Sausages (sold out)

7 x Colouring books:

- 2 x Doctors, Cult TV

- 1 x 60s, 20s, Bowie

Etsy Sales January 2026 - 6 books £49.15

2 x Eurovision vol 2

1 x Romeo col, 80s, 60s, Tales From Bible

D2D Sales Jan 26 - 9 books $8.46

4 x Romeo bw

1 x Joseph, Esther, Elain, Richard, Bible

Lulu Sales Jan 2026 - 2 books (£6.54) Revealed Feb 14 approx

1 x 60s Pop

1 x Punk (direct from Lulu)

Blurb sales Jan 26 - 1 book £0.62 - I don't know why I bother listing these, but best had, eh

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Comic book sales in UK last year - I'm not doing badly

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000

This table of book sales in the UK, for the first half of last year, makes me feel pretty good about my sales (as listed here). If you look at that second column, which is comic books and graphic novels excluding the "big boys" Jamie Smart, Dav Pilkey, and John Patrick Green, you see a list where you can get into the top twenty by selling 1353 books.

Now I know that's a six month list, and I know my best selling book only sold 999 last year, and I know I wouldn't make this chart anyway because those 999 books were mostly sold by me, over the counter face to face. But it rather suggests to me that, were I to get my books out there into proper shops with some proper marketing, I could be registering on that chart too.

I keep trying. Here's to a breakthrough year.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Romeo & Juliet on sale in colour - Socks return to Leicester

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:49:00 +0000

It is with the greatest pleasure that I can announce my new graphic Romeo & Juliet is now on sale on Amazon in both its colour and black and white editions. Because I publish my books through Lulu, it is by no means guaranteed that Amazon will carry them. But happily this time they do. And here's where you can get it.

Romeo & Juliet colour edition on Amazon - £20.81 (free postage with Prime)

Romeo & Juliet black & white edition on Amazon - £9.49 (free postage with Prime)

Romeo & Juliet colour edition signed by me - £14 (+ £3 postage)

Romeo & Juliet b&w edition signed by me - £10 (+ £3 postage)

I'm also pleased to remind you that The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are returning to the Leicester Comedy Festival on Feb 7th and 8th at 5.30pm at their favourite venue Kayal. Tickets are on sale here, and already going fast!

It's called The New Show and will feature a mix of new material and some favourites from over the years. Over how many years? Over twenty year would you believe? The Socks first appeared at the Leicester Comedy Festival in 2006, the year before they made their Edinburgh Fringe debut, and they have appeared every year since (with the exception of 2021, for reasons we all remember - but they did play there in 2020, which was pre-pandemic, fact fans!)

After which I think a tour is long awaited, I'll see what can be done about that. Stay tuned for news. If you'd like to join the Socks mailing list, you should be able to do so here.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

First cancelled school of the year

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:17:00 +0000

Dear Hxxxxx,

I have to write to say how very disappointed I am at the cancellation of my scheduled booking to visit you with my Comic Art Masterclasses on Weds 21st Jan.

When we had a face to face Teams meeting in October, I thought nothing could have confirmed the booking more solidly. Our emails following that seemed, to me, to double confirm it. I put it in my diary and it remained confirmed as far as I knew.

You sent an email on 16th December with timetable details, which I didn't reply to until this week, which was possibly an oversight on my part. Though, as I say, I would be happy to do what you had timetabled.

For you to tell me that you are suddenly cancelling my visit because I didn't reply to an email sent in the run up to the Christmas break is unprecedented and unbelievable.

Obviously I made no written contractual agreement with you in advance so can claim no compensation for this short notice cancellation, or the travel expenses I've accrued. However I shall make steps to be better prepared in negotiations with new clients in future.

I am very sorry I wasn't able to visit the pupils of Cxxxxxxxx School, all the very best

Kev F Sutherland

COMIC ART MASTERCLASS

http://kevfcomicartist.com

The Great Ai Debate Continues

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 16:19:00 +0000

The Ai debate rages on on my Facebook (and, yes, that's how I write the initialisation of Artificial Intelligence deliberately, so I can tell the difference between it and a guy called Al. How I differentiate between Information Technology and the clown from that Stephen King TV series is a different kettle of fish.)

Above we see just one of a group of metal plaques on sale at Topsham Antiques Centre. Before we get to my and my friends' opinions on those, let's look back over this week's discussion of the subject.

Jan 15: Today in Ai, on just one first-scroll-of-the-morning. So what do I say to my good friend and top comic, a charity I approve of, and local small businesses who’ve all used Ai to make their ads?

I’m reminded of my lifelong support of CND. 40 years ago the likes of Ronald Reagan were saying to me “why should I lag behind in the arms race because you dispute the morality of the weapons?”

Now it’s my local small business asking me the same question.

Star Man

Tell them they are using soulless imagery.

Awful.

Adam Smith

Generate an AI Brendon Burns live set and watch that.

Stuart Robinson

"Prompting is harder than it looks"? Is that because it requires people to know how to write and use words? Don't worry, soon A.I. will be able to respond to illiterate grunting and vague bashing of the keyboard, making everyone a creative genius. .

Lew Stringer, Cartoonist

Perhaps if they want to entice customers to their pub and restaurant they could prompt it so that there's more than bowls of chicken nuggets on the menu. Or beans. Or Golden Nuggets cereal, or whatever that mess is supposed to represent.

The comedy poster looks like it's nicked Adi Granov's style but made it seedy and soulless.

All crappy AI slop.

Craig Johnson

Most common comment I see now is that large numbers of people -- perhaps a majority -- just don't care about AI being used for this sort of thing. i.e. the battle is lost effectively. Now the AI Cat is out of the bag is it ever going to go back in?

Dan McDaid

They all, all of them, look like shit. But to the undiscerning eye, they're fine, and that is of course what these are aimed at. So yeah, we're probably sunk, good enough is good enough, and I hope everyone who wants to get into this line of "work" from now on is independently wealthy.

Shane Chebsey

I just don't support or partake in any company or individual using AI in this way.

It they steal from artists they don't get my business or my friendship... Simple.

I don't post this slop in my feed either.

Jan 16: Today in Ai, again from just one FB scroll, we have the discussion group for an actual comic convention, a local music event, a beloved and trusted comedian, a company selling Doctor Who and Harry Potter trading cards, and one of dozens of independent authors, all using Ai to produce their art.

Yours, with his finger wedged tightly in the moral dyke

Benjamin Bankole Bello

Kev your post was brought to my attention by a friend. I don’t get the point of your post, I note one of your friends has already criticised my ear, perhaps an understanding of why so many people use AI would be a great start. I am doing my best to promote a forthcoming show the real poster is attached

Sean Mason

Here's the thing, yeah, there are a chunk of people who don't care but there are a lot more that do. It is worth pointing out Meta is going all out on AI so you'll see a lot more of it and as you're interacting with AI art posts it'll show you more. It's a problem yes, but doomerism isn't going to help.

Kev Sutherland

There’s a heartfelt discussion of the subject on my podcast next week, from a voiceover artist whose work is being tangibly and constantly stolen by Ai.

I would like to see justice, and recompense from the developers. In the case of artists and authors, the organisations I’m members of, like DACS, Society of Authors, and Equity could campaign for every one of us who’s had work published and broadcast could be reimbursed, constantly and ongoing, by the Ai companies. Like boatmen in London used to get whenever a new bridge was built.

As for closing Pandora’s Box, that’s harder to do.

Sean Mason

which I get and is all very worthy but as someone who is aware of how widespread it is, hates it and is also really trying to stay motivated at a time when a lot of my life's pursuits are constantly in the balance I don't need to see this shit in my feed every day because it feels like doomerism and for my own sanity I need to avoid that. So I'm going to unfollow you. Its not osterichism, its for my own mental health.

Jan 17: Today in Ai: metal signs for sale in local antiques centre. I’ve been asked why I share this stuff, since it upsets and depresses people. My reply (to Sean Mason from an earlier thread) is:

I’m trying to balance the ostrich effect. On this thread, or an earlier one, my friends have genuinely suggested I should block friends who use Ai (I guess that would include the family member who had an Ai picture of their dog as Chewbacca on their Xmas card) and stop doing business with people who’ve used it (including two comicons I’m going to, a podcast I’ve been on, and comedy clubs where I’ll only spot it on the poster when I arrive).

We have to be aware how widespread this is, who uses it, and why. Not stick our fingers in our ears and go “not listening”

There’s a heartfelt discussion of the subject on my podcast next week, from a voiceover artist (Louisa Gummer) whose work is being tangibly and constantly stolen by Ai.

As for closing Pandora’s Box, that’s harder to do.

Steve Roberts

They’re awful, particular the garbage text on the Players one and the bizarre extra engine on Memphis Belle. Clearly there’s no quality control, it just go directly from an AI prompt to sign manufacture with no human oversight between. Did you say anything to the shop?

Kev Sutherland

What should I say?

“One of your vendors (it’s an antique centre on four floors, in Topsham if anyone fancies starting the confrontation for me) is selling plaques they bought from a wholesaler who uses Ai art on their products to get round copyright?”

And what response do you think I’ll get from the octogenarian behind the counter?

Steve Roberts

Well than being directly confrontational, you could say “Given the good reputation your business has, I’m really surprised that you’re risking that reputation by allowing your vendors to pass off AI generated tat as authentic art.”

Kev Sutherland

Yeah. I could.

“That’s nice dear”.

I’m betting that’d be the reply. I’ll never know, I’m in Exeter now.

NB the record section did a good line in bootleg albums. Again, if anyone’s interested.

David Lloyd

You're taking this far too lightly, Kev. Sure, an octogenarian - if he is one - might not have the energy or concern to address the situation, but at least you could bring it to his attention with a seriousness you're not showing here. That ' horse has bolted ' stuff will always triumph if you and everyone else uses it as an excuse to move on and do nothing.

Stuart Mitchell

I don't think it's necessarily inherently bad, I just think its badly quality controlled and I think there needs to be something that allows you to spot a better done one in terms of deepfakes etc, I think it can have a place but as a tool rather than an end product, I say as a graphic designer that most people care about the end product not the journey - when we work in the arts I think we forget that not everyone sees things the way we do - and if it's good enough it will take over - but it's not there yet but it might get there, I think we wont put the genie back in now so regulation and quality control are what will make the difference, is there art is framing the correct ai prompt as there is for the perfect google search?

David Lloyd

Er... yes, Stuart. It is inherently bad.

Chris Chopping

irrespective of the arguments for or against AI, what I can’t get over is the number of people who put in a prompt, get out an image full of spelling mistakes, bonus fingers and random objects sticking out of peoples’ sides etc and instead of thinking “oh dear, that hasn’t worked!” They clearly think, “that’ll do!”

Because all too often they put it out into the world with all the mistakes still there.

Edward Knight

It is inherently bad to fake up antiques by using an AI platform to make bogus vintage artwork.

Chris Chopping

I don’t like generative AI. I worry about the environmental impact and the effect on creators.

That said, a friend showed me how she made an AI poster and I can totally understand why she would. It allowed to her quickly and easily make a poster that lookers slicker and more professional than could be easily knocked up in Canva without a lot more time and effort.

Plus she showed it to me and there were no extra fingers, alien words or freaky smiles etc. I’m sure she’d have tried to fix it if there had been.

I suppose from one point of view you’d say a little local comedy night has no budget to pay a graphic designer to put a poster together so this is just simplifying what a promotor would have done on Canva or photoshop or whatever. So it isn’t directly costing anyone work. I’d still sooner avoid it though.

Edward Knight

South American magic realist literature and French post-structuralism have long predicted the wholesale replacement of reality with a fake version that people prefer when offered the choice. And here we are. It now infests education too. At the same time as my superiors want me to customise 500 lessons in a year to the peculiar quirks of my pupils (they call them 'learning needs'), they urge me to use A.I. to rewrite published texts and generate comprehension questions, even though that may make teachers obsolete within 10 years.

Annette Tweed Lanckmans

It was an Ewok

Jan 18: Today in Ai: your opinion sought - Ai or not?

I’m now doing hallucinating all of my own. Yesterday in Exeter I saw these posters and I think they’re drawn by Ai. I think I can see artefacts and tell tales. But I could be wrong. In fact two free online Ai-checkers tell me they’re not Ai. So, am I right? You tell me. I may have overdosed on trying to tell fake from fact.

Also all those “Donald Trump gets someone else’s trophy” memes. Are they Ai or Ok?

Jan 18: Very good article on the subject by Jessi Frey.

Me: Oh gawd, this just what we needed, nuance!

Very good article on Ai by Cory Doctorow, well worth a full read.

In short: be optimistic.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Gabe Itches - first comics by kids of 2026

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:47:00 +0000

The year has begun and I've been into schools and taught kids comics. I shall rinse and repeat this process for the next twelve months, all going well and, if the past two decades are anything to go by, I'll end up having spent between 80 and 120 days teaching kids how to do what I do. The first comics of the year involve a fair bit of travelling, of which there may also be more to come. Who knows?

These are the final two comics of 2025, from the only classes I did in the whole of December, at Heron Hall in Enfield, or Potters Bar. I've referred to it being in both places whenever I've been there and no one seems to either correct me or care. So let's assume Potters Bar and Enfield are interchangeable. (I've just looked on the map and they're 17 bloody miles apart. Heron Hall is in Enfield, in Middlesex, or the other side of the M25 from Potters Bar which is in Hertfordshire. Why has no one ever noticed what I write on the front of these comics I give them to take home?)

First school of 2026 and, hopefully not starting out as I mean to go on, I agreed to do half a day (so for half the money) at a school, on a Saturday morning, in Sussex. Near Ipswich. That's three and a half hours there and three and a half hours back, for just two hours of teaching. Am I mad? Clearly. Anyway, it was obviously great fun cos I'm going back again next month like a masochistic idiot. Being topical, I drew Homer Simpson being arrested by ICE agents on the cover. When I asked the kids if they knew what ICE stood for, someone guessed Ipswich Council. I just said yeah, that's what it is.

I was delighted to be invited back for a two day stint at Cheshire College in Chester, where I've been three or four times now. These two groups were delightful, and gave us the first fun title of the year. I struggled for a while to work out why they were all in stitches when I read out the title Gabe Itches, but then it dawned on me and ho ho how satirical. I had fun drawing the cover, based on a Dutch renaissance painting, and I think the colouring's come out particularly nicely.

Day two at Cheshire College included an ESOL class. That's pupils who have English as a second language. In principle at least. In practice most of these students, who were supposed to be teenagers but, by dint of their moustaches and facial hair, all seemed to be much older, spoke no English whatsoever. And, you may be surprised to hear, I speak no Kurdish, Pashtun, or whatever language is spoken in South Sudan, so we had quite a struggle trying to make my very word-heavy class make any sense whatsoever. Amazingly I think we may have got away with it, and they certainly seemed very appreciative at the end, when they left with their caricatures and various other things I'd drawn. I did a lot more drawing on the board than usual, having dispensed with much of the content of my usual class. A two hour session driven by me getting laughs from the funny things I say very quickly stops working when nobody can understand a word of it.

The celebrities five of these groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip (I won't count the last two groups of last year, as they've already been totted up and added to that year's Most Popular Celebrities chart) were Ronaldo, Ariana Grande, Al Pacino, Bob Marley, and Donald Trump.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

The podcast's back, with all that entails

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:53:00 +0000

I've revived my podcast, Comic Cuts The Panel Show. I'm not completely sure why, I think I just feel it keeps me in touch with people, and might be useful for networking. Certainly when I did the first season, of 19 episodes back in 2021, I then found I knew people when I met them at conventions. So it's a calling card, and it's also good fun to listen to. Mind you, it's a real time-consuming thing to do and I'm already starting to realise why I stopped the first time!

Look at those listening figures. Does that make it sound like something worth doing? Well, I'm told there are people who get fewer listeners, so I mustn't grumble. What I've done so far is this:

Tues 6 and Thurs 8: I recorded my first four episodes, with Scott Agnew & Mitch Benn, Alex Milway & Marc Jackson, Helen Quigley & Paul Savage, and Louisa Gummer & Paulus The Cabaret Geek. And already I felt I'd let myself down in a couple of ways. First, in season one I vowed never to have an all-male episode, and I managed it for all 19 of them. Then for my first two, purely as a result of how many fewer female contributors I have to choose from, and then who was available, I ended up starting off with two all-male shows out of four. Let's see if my next batch improves on that.

Next up I think my recording quality isn't as good as it could be. As I went along last time I learned more about recording, and bought myself a proper microphone. This time I went back to using the headphone cable mic and I think that was a mistake. I'm sure nobody else thinks the episodes sound as bad as I do, but I do.

The thing that I'm remembering, that I'm sure made me stop last time, is how long they take to edit. Getting two episodes in the can took two hours, that was the easy bit. Editing them then seemed to take me all of the following day. So four episodes have taken most of four working days. Which, for something that generates no money, is not the most productive use of my time. It is, essentially, a fun hobby, and I have to enjoy it as that. It was easy to do during lockdown, but when there's proper work to be done, which involves travelling round the world or drawing comics at my desk, it's going to take a lower priority. I have one more day of recordings lined up, then that may well be it for season two.

As a bonus, as I was editing up my initial shows, I found some old cassette tapes that have been in boxes hidden away for years, and on them I found interviews with Steve Dillon and Alan Moore. I also found a tape-to-mp3 converter that Hev had bought me years ago, probably a decade back, that's never been opened, and opened it. As a result of which I had myself a ten minute bit of Steve Dillon which I edited and uploaded as a little novelty teaser for the new season. It's fun, and something I was glad to be able to do. It's virtually unlistenable to quality wise, but it's a great thing to have found. Here it is.

I also dug out the only photo I appear to have ever taken of Steve Dillon (who very sadly died a few years ago). It's from sometime in the mid 90s, and is cropped in from this shot...

The full series of Comic Cuts The Panel Show is here, and I'm also putting episodes on Youtube, starting here.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Comic Cuts The Panel Show - Season 2, the images

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 12:11:00 +0000

In the podcast Comic Cuts The Panel Show, my guests bring in a frame from a comic strip, we try to guess where it's from, then we chat. These are the images chosen by my guests for Season Two Of The Show.

Season 2 Episode 1 - Scott Agnew and Mitch Benn. Youtube version here.

Scott's image zoomed in (above) full page (below)

Mitch's image zoomed in (above) and full panel (below)

And bonus image brought in by Kev...

Season 2 Episode 2 - Louisa Gummer & Paulus The Cabaret Geek. Youtube version here.

Above Louisa's image, below Paulus's

Season 2 Episode 3 - Alex Milway and Marc Jackson

Above Alex's image, below Marc's

Season 2 episode 4 - Helen Quigley and Paul Savage. Youtube version here.

(above Helen's image, below Paul's image)

Season 2 Episode 5 - Angie Belcher & Roland Moore. Youtube version here.

Above: Angie's image, close up. To see the wide shot, check out the Youtube version of this episode.

Below: Angie and child, dressed as the comic character in question.

Below: Roland's image, in close up. See the wide image in the Youtube version.

Season 2 Episode 6 - Mike Collins and Ali Cook. Youtube version here.

Above: Mike's image in close up. To see the wide shot, see the Youtube version.

Below: Ali's image. A second page appears in the Youtube version.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Updated colouring books and belated stats

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 16:03:00 +0000

In the early days of the year, before work has started properly, I allow myself the indulgence of working on jobs that probably aren't 'real' work. And one of those jobs is fannying about with my colouring books. As you can see above and below, I added new pages to the 2020s Pop Star and the Cult TV colouring books, and ordered fresh copies of them, as well as topping up my stock of other books.

Which led me to counting up some figures I'd failed to do at the end of the year, namely the numbers of individual colouring books I'd sold. I'd clustered them together in the sales of the year, but as it happens I do keep a record of which individual titles sold how many. Would you like to see the chart?

Colouring Book Sales 2025

Doctors Who - 105 (sellouts - 10)

60s - 34 (so - 3)

Euro Vol2 - 29 (so - 7)

Cult TV - 27 (so - 7)

Bowie - 22 (so - 7)

80s - 22 (so - 7)

2020s - 21 (so - 4)

70s - 18 (so - 6)

Euro Vol1 - 15 (so - 3)

Punk - 14 (so - 6)

90s - 11 (so - 4)

80s Superstar - 10 (so - 4)

Christmas - 9 (so - 3)

Royalty - 6 (so - 1)

Hollywood - 5 (so -1)

RomCom - 5 (so - 2)

Best Of Euro - 4

ScotPop - 2 (so - 1)

A significant sidenote in all of those figures is the number of sellouts. That is times when I'm at a live event and I get to the end of my stock. By golly it happens a bit too often, doesn't it? An average of half a dozen times for the top ten books, and ten times for the Doctors Who books. Suggesting that, had I kept my stock topped up and always made sure I have at least two or three of every book with me, then I'm likely to sell more over time. I mean it might not turn out that way, and I fear I have been guilty of feeling satisfied when I go home with a lightened load, having exhausted my stock. But I'm sure there are many times that those sellouts would have become extra sales had I planned ahead better.

The oddity in the list is the 1960s colouring book, which seems to sell most of its copies via Lulu and Etsy, hence having fewer sellouts. Anyhooe, extra stock is being ordered now, as I line up the festivals for the year, and let us see if makes any difference as the year progresses.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

My Predictions for 2026 (and how badly I did last time)

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 07:41:00 +0000

Every year I, and many others, try and predict the future. I’m always way more wrong than I am right. How badly did I do last year? Let us see (then we’ll have another stab at feeble futurology, so keep reading)

Kev F's Confident Predictions for 2025

Strictly won by Rosie Jones - WRONG

Cancelled: next big inappropriate-behaviour star to get cancelled is female, from ITV daytime - WRONG. We had Gregg Wallace, a couple of Strictly dancers and no one else big springs to mind.

Musk dropped by Trump before the summer, is the easy prediction. The bolder prediction would be WHEN Musk gets dumped. I say April 28th. - VERY CLOSE. It was May 29th

Neil Gaiman makes triumphant return and nothing more is said on the matter. - WRONG. He sued someone for breaking their NDA (stay classy Neil) then kept quiet

No Doctor Who Christmas episode, and show's future in limbo into 2026 - SADLY CORRECT

Youtube Drama - Someone makes a well written drama that, despite its low production values, becomes bigger than anything on the streamers or broadcast TV. - NOT SURE. I’m told Ai microdramas are a new sensation in China. And Italian Brainrot, does that count?

BBC goes subscription. The Corporation moves to an NPR model - NOT YET. But they have just been sued for $10billion by Trump, so next year’s funding model could be penny for the guy.

Bad Enoch saves the Tories. Despite Reform winning a byelection, Kemi Badenoch succeeds in uniting her party and by the end of the year she's more popular than Keir Starmer or Nigel Farage. - NOPE Reform did well in local council elections, Tories did worst, Labour middling.

Syria: Freedom Fighter who's not a terrorist turns out was a terrorist all along. Newspapers stop bigging him up. - FAR FROM IT. In November he was guest of honour at the Whitehouse.

Ukraine: war ends, nobody's happy with the solution. NOT YET

Israel manages a ceasefire in more than half the countries it's firing at. PARTLY, SORT OF, BUT NOT MUCH

Electric cars work out a way of actually being feasible. NOT REALLY. Tesla sales plummeted when Musk went full Nazi, which didn’t help.

New TV: PG Wodehouse Universe,

Young James Bond;

first successful British studio audience sitcom in years is made for Youtube and is big hit;

Netflix buys one of US TV's biggest broadcasters

- I GOT ONE RIGHT!

Netflix bought (or have started to buy) Warner Brothers Discovery. And young James Bond is not out of the question after Amazon bought MGM in early 2025

Weather: White Christmas, hot dry summer, no major flooding. ONE OUT OF THREE

Grand National won by horse named after a meme (eg Deez Nuts, or My Name Is Jeff). NOPE. Unless Nick Rockett is a meme I’ve not encountered.

So that was last year’s failure rate. Here are this years predictions

Kev F's Confident Predictions for 2026

New category, contestants in Celebrity Traitors:

Victoria Coren Mitchell

Richard Osman

Rosie Jones (Traitor)

Tess Daly

Jimmy Carr

Sarah Lancashire

Chris Packham

Professor Hannah Fry

Graham Norton

Miranda Hart

Chris Hoy

John Richardson

Gabby Logan

Sophie Ellis Bextor

Eddie Kadi

Tamsin Grieg

Tim Vine

Gbemisola Ikumelo

Bob Mortimer

Lucy Worsley

UK Politics:

- Labour leader will still be Starmer

- Badenoch will be replaced, probs by Jenrick

- Reform will lose more MPs and councillors than they gain

- Greens will win lots of polls but no seats of value

- Your Party will collapse and disband

US Politics:

- Trump will still be in power

- War with Venezuela becomes real and deadly. Other South American countries join in

- Midterms will be disrupted by military action and won’t happen as they should

- Trump will drop libel case against BBC

- Epstein Files will amount to nothing and be forgotten

Media:

- New comic shop chain launches, centred around The Dogman Shelf and young readers

- No new Doctor Who apart from one off Christmas special, starring Billie Piper as The Doctor

- New Doctor Who showrunner named. It will be Charlie Brooker.

- iPlayer amalgamates with ITVX , Britbox and Channel 4 to create new popular streamer

- First Ai feature film to get big ratings and critical success. It’s by Disney.

Ai (LLM slop art) will also appear on packaging in supermarkets by big company, eg Kellogs, and TV advert. In fact my big prediction is that we, the artists, lose our battle against Ai slop big time, and it is embraced widely and ubiquitously. "Real art" becomes an elitist quality-based thing that "normals" don't understand the point of.

New Strictly presenters: Zoe Ball and La Voix

Cancelled: One of those big Youtubers that the kids are all over. But then they go MAGA.

Revived or remade TV shows: The Prisoner, 1984, Tales Of The Unexpected, The Good Life, Doctor In The House, Mary Mungo & Midge, Seaside Special

oh dear I seem to have run out of ideas. Any suggestions?

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

My Comic Strip Review Of The Year 2025

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 15:33:00 +0000

Here it is, my comic strip review of the year. I started this tradition back in 2010 (see below) and I've managed to keep it going ever since. And, as you might see I've mentioned, I've also kept up a hand-written diary all year. It's the first time I've done that since 1995! So, did much happen this year? Let's break it down...

Romeo and Juliet was on my to-do list from the start of the year. I resumed writing it in March, was ready to draw it in May, drew it through the summer, and was able to write "all drawn!" on September 30th. At which point I launched the Kickstarter, thinking the colouring bit would be perfunctory and I'd have it published well in time for Thought Bubble in November. 180 pages turn out to take a long time to colour, its arrival coming at the start of December meaning I won't get to foist it on the world until the new year.

Richard The Third was, in fact, one of the things that had held up Romeo and Juliet, because I really felt I had to produce a colour edition. I completed that in March and went on to sell 250 copies through the year. Kids in schools continued to be offered the cheaper black and white version. I have a couple of schools in particular to thank for a lot of those sales: one in Edinburgh took over 50 copies, and one in Bristol took 80. Schools took about a dozen on average, some took more, some took none. But those accounted for the bulk of my sales, along with appearance at cons and a few, a very few, online sales. New year resolution: sell more books online somehow.

The books I created back in 2020, my debut graphic novels, continue to sell pretty well. It's all relative, I know, and me selling about 150 each of my books is piddling compared to many of my contemporaries (this is, after all, the year when Jamie Smart's Bunny vs Monkey passed the 2 million sales mark). But I realise it's actually better than a lot of self-publishers do, so I don't care if feeling proud of my meagre achievements makes me look a little pathetic. Five years ago I had no books to show for myself, and now I have a raft of them that kids actually buy and actually enjoy. I know, cos they tell me. I have repeat customers, would you believe. I'd love to be playing with the big kids, and I do still have an actual genuine agent (I am with United Agents, though I struggle to believe it myself), and it was with their blessing that I self published Romeo and Juliet rather than waiting for a publisher to bite. But I want to approach those publishers again cos, dammit, some of my stuff is actually pretty good!

It was the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's quietest year ever, since their creation about twenty years ago. Once more it seems Edinburgh will remain unaffordable, and though I'd love to, I'm worried my mojo might have gone. They did increasingly big sellout Edinburgh runs and tours from 2007-10, then steady runs and bigger tours from 2012-19, a brilliant burst of lockdown shows in 2020 and 2021, which led to their most recent Edinburgh run in 2022 and tour in 2023. But since 2024's Post Office Scandal The Musical, I've not written or recorded a single new thing for them. The books have taken over my creative space (even though, as I ought to keep reminding myself, I can make more from one sellout Socks' show that from a month's worth of book sales*)

*The devil's in the detail there, but let's just say the Socks show at Chorley Little Theatre in April paid me more than I took in book sales in December.

As I've already detailed, I sold what feels like a lot of books. As I pick over the bones of it now, I'm talking myself out of feeling so triumphant, realising self-publishing books might not be as profitable as other things I do. But I am so proud of my books, and so pleased that kids like them and (via their parents) buy them, that I'm going to continue feeling chuffed. Poor but chuffed. These books, if we were able to scale up their sales, really feel like the best thing I've ever done. (Though I currently have Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet voices in my ear reminding me how much I can earn per hour doing them instead!)

It gets dark around this bit of the page, doesn't it? I saw only my second dead body this year. The first was Mum back in 2018, the second was next door neighbour Kyle, who I helped his landlord with, when she found him. We called the police and went through all the rigmarole. Not the biggest event of the year, but one that's stayed with me. I've also drawn the car breaking down on Christmas Eve, which really does suggest I had an uneventful year. Maybe I did. Hev did a lot of reading and researching which should, I hope, be turning into writing soon. She's also lined up something for next year's Fringe Arts Bath, which should be a welcome return to her artwork. In the first draft of this page I showed her in hospital earlier this month, but she didn't think that was a good representation of her year, and I must say I agree.

And in conclusion there's me and King Lear, who's one of the partly-started books I did 20-odd pages of in 2024 (in order to impress publishers who were duly nonplussed). The others were Romeo and Juliet, obviously completed this year, Twelfth Thing, and a new version of Midsummer Night's Dream. Will one of those get finished in 2026? Your guess is as good as mine.

Here's to a 2026 as unpredictable as all its predecessors. On which subject, if you wondered how I've captured the last fifteen years in cartoon, here's your answer...

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Questions on Ai and other recent ramblings

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:52:00 +0000

For the record, Hev Tweed decorates the best Christmas tree. No contest.

****

I was asked, by John Charles, about Ai, and here are my answers:

What was your initial reaction when AI-generated art first began appearing in your field or online?

Mockery. I posted a lot about the six-fingered drawings I was seeing online. Immediately I joined the artists’ backlash against our work being stolen to make this art, and how it was being used to replace us.

Has that reaction changed over time?

Only in as much that I’ve become resigned to how widely it’s been accepted. Only one Christmas card this year has been done by AI (a relative, a ‘normal’ if you will), but I bet most people have been getting many more. It’s possible only artists are showing any resistance to it. It’s become ubiquitous on posters and adverts, basically where clip art would once have been used.

In your view, what does AI art offer to creative culture, if anything?

I need to learn more, because I don’t know enough. My information on the subject ranges from newspaper articles that try and explain LLMs to me, and I almost get it, and podcasts that describe AI hallucination but without much of a solution to it, to the scare stories. Right now I read more scare stories - the power usage, water usage, theft of original art (though I feel that battle is lost), and how AI could become uncontrollable and destroy the world (but that’s moved beyond art) - than positive stories. Positive stories come from the business pages, scare stories from the ecology and culture sections.

Conversely, what do you see as its greatest risk or drawback?

It has moved to fast to tell, so far. If AI can do things I want, I’ll no doubt be using it without thinking before the year is out. If it doesn’t, then I won’t. I feel total resistance is futile, but sensible caution is advisable. I also feel artists and creative types are the outlier, and that ‘normals’ are embracing AI, especially in art and music, faster than us. Maybe that’s how it will replace us.

*****

Article about digital photos disappearing.

Smugness alert. I got my digital photos printed out at the local Copyshop for a few years, and collected them up in display books, exactly as I’d done with 35mm photos before them. Then, in 2012, weeks started getting them printed in books (by Blurb).

Admittedly they could all go up in flames or get thrown in the recycling when someone eventually clears the house. But for the time being, our futile photos of friends and family, and nonsense we thought was worth snapping at the time, are still there on a shelf. Being ignored.

***

Dec 20: Just saw David Walliams referred to as Roald Lidahl and it’s made my morning

Dec 8: Compare and contrast two movies, Tinsel Town and The Roses. We took a gamble on the former. It was sooooooooooooooooooo bad we bailed after 16 minutes. The Roses, in contrast, had us laughing half a dozen times in literally the first two minutes. It ended up being that good throughout.

A couple of caveats. You will notice very quickly that one location is pretending to be another (I won’t spoil the details for you), and a couple of casting decisions are a bit off. But a great way of reminding yourself how good the comedy writing, acting, and direction of The Roses is is to watch just a few minutes of Tinsel Town first.

*****

Dec 6: Report from a provincial newsagent, in this case TG Jones in Chepstow. I can confirm there’s lots of comics, well displayed. The “proper comics” section has indies including Pilgrim and Quantum, as well as an impressive range of Commando Picture Library (I bought the new one drawn by Mike Collins of this parish) and a lot of Marvel reprints. No DC to be seen.

On the junior shelves Beano has a few titles, with no sign of The Phoenix. But check out the books: heaps of Bunny vs Monkey and other Phoenix titles. And the new Dogman in hardback for £7.99.

There is also a large section of baby “comics” with toys in plastic bags (their Lego Avengers costs a staggering £6.99) but I’m not lowering myself to showing those.

A healthier state in the high street comics biz than I’ve seen in many many years. I do hope it’s not TG Jones over-investing in stock for tax purposes when it comes to closing the company at some time in the next 18 months. That would be too cynical even for me!

Nov 29: For fear that anyone thinks I only watch superhero films in order to slag them off, I just watched Superman and loved it.

In marked contrast to the Fantastic Four, it was a joy throughout, with terrific use of humour and pathos, hitting the action beats spot on every time, and telling a cracking story that made you care about the characters despite, and sometimes because, of their inherent silliness.

Whereas FF introduced players (like Natasha Lyonne) then gave them less than nothing to do, Superman gave every minor character a moment of their own. From Luthor’s girlfriend and Jimmy, to Hawkgirl to Elemento, and it gave a blooming starring role to the dog.

Perfect story structure, great callbacks, perfectly made. Whereas FF may have had slightly more visual originality, Superman beat it in storyline a hundredfold. A delight. I hope it was the winner in the box office (knowing how wildly wrong I get these things, I bet it wasn’t)

PS: Interesting 50/50 split in comments so far on FF v Supes. We literally agree to both disagree and agree.

Supes to me was like the superhero movies I’ve liked before, eg Guardians of the Galaxy (I know, same director - the needle drops in the desert camp fight scene were joyous), Iron Man, Captain America, Avengers Assemble, Ant Man, Dr Strange, Flash.

FF was a different kind of script. I don’t know maybe if it had more in common with anime, which I also don’t quite get?

****

Nov 23: Finally watched Fantastic Four last night. What a soulless, superficial, unengaging, disappointing and silly waste of an immense amount of money that was.

The pictures were very pretty, and the designs were undeniably impressive. But it was window dressing for an empty shop. The story was worse than poor, it was just rubbish. A six year old using ChatGPT would have written a plot with more surprise in. It had all the twists and turns of a stair rod. And the characters. What characters?

The lack of characterisation, where people aren’t so much introduced as described, and whose inexplicably unlimited powers mean they can do virtually anything thus removing any peril or jeapordy, reminded me of how comic books were written before Alan Moore came along.

Older viewers will remember how Alan Moore revolutionised comic book writing, with the simple premise: “imagine if superheroes were real people”. This growing up moment, 45 years ago now, started with Marvelman and culminated with Watchmen. After this gear change, comics upped their game, and a higher quality of character and story writing became the name of the game.

It was this spirit of superheroes living in a realistic world, with rich and well realised characters, that underpinned the Marvel movies of the 2000s. From Iron Man, through the excellent Avengers and beyond, the authors gave us characters you believed in and cared for, to whom, despite the fantastic nature of their lives, you could relate to.

The Fantastic Four abandons all this and gives us a kids cartoon but without the fun.

(Sorry had to rush off to work before I could finish my rant. So I’ll never get round to writing about the fluid-and-drama-free childbirth in zero gravity; the way they’re able to meet Galactus then run away from him in minutes and hope it’ll take him weeks to follow them; how they go from only being able to teleport an egg to being able to teleport a (checks notes) entire planet in a matter of days; how big G goes from being god-sized to being a bloke the size of a skyscraper who can get dragged along by Sue’s “apparently can do anything we think of next” magic powers; how come they live, without any staff (apart from a cartoon robot) in an empty skyscraper in the middle of a New York which varies from being quite busy to totally deserted on a whim; where their sodding money comes from?; and why anyone would trust them to rescue a cat from a tree when they demonstrably fail at everything they’re sent to do …. I can’t go on.

I can’t quite fathom what its supporters see in this film, but it passed me by. )

***

Nov 27: You can’t win with tax. Especially on house values. We had a good example of it this weekend when I did a party at a house in St John’s Wood.

Hev looked on Rightmove and saw it had a slightly smaller floor space than our house in Chepstow. It cost literally ten times what ours did!

Their council tax bill is the same as ours.

****

Nov 20: So when did we start using the phrase “in theatres”?

Not “in a theatre” but “in theatres”. In one of my favourite podcasts, What Went Wrong, they regularly refer to seeing a movie “in theatres”. Plural. Even if they only saw the film once.

How did this start? When? And why? And how widespread is this?

At yesterday’s school I was bunting!

*****

Nov 15: As someone who started in comics 40 years ago, before any tech existed, I’m reminded how much letterers really worked back in the day!

There was no cutting and pasting text for the likes of Artie Simek and Tom Orzechowski. Unless you mean how they physically cut the balloons out , after they’d lettered them by hand, and pasted them on the page.

If you want to see the real thing, today at Thought Bubble: in Harrogate I have pages by Mark Buckingham and myself circa 1995-8 with pasted-on hand-lettered balloons. See what real hard work looked like!

Nov 13: Fun takeaway from the Rest Is Politics podcast: both Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart were asked to be in Celebrity Traitors but they both turned it down cos neither of them had ever watched the series and had no idea what they were being invited onto.

Series 2 contenders?

Spotted this when we were visiting the Arte Mundi exhibition at Cardiff Museum. Because it was in the area of a particular installation artist I assumed it was part of their show, but I instantly recognised it as Ai.

It opens up the debate further. Hev has noticed how I’m able to instantly spot Ai , like our generation were able to tell the difference between film and video on TV, but how many people can’t.

PS: Why doesn’t everyone write it as “Ai” rather than the easily-misread-in-san-serif “You Can Call Me” AI?

So what the hell is this song about? You know when you’ve known a song for 50 years, then you realise you don’t know it at all? What does Don’t Make Me Over - particularly the phrase “don’t make me over” - actually mean?

I listened to it with Hev and we both had different ideas of what Don’t Make Me Over means. Is it:

a) Don’t make me “be over”, ie end our relationship *

b) Don’t do/screw me over **

c) Don’t give me a makeover, ie change my appearance ***

* This is what I assumed it meant

** Hev thought it meant this

*** Neither of us thought it meant this, but now I think it might

What do you think?

*****

Nov 6: Happiness is pedantically correcting a podcast. I emailed Insiders: The TV Podcast to put them right on this. Can you spot their error?

Peter Fincham (talking about Bruno Brookes):

“His unique distinction is that he was the last person to interview John Lennon alive…

… I think I'm right in saying, he flew to New York, interviewed John Lennon, great length, in the studio, gotten a plane back with the tapes. And by the time he landed at Heathrow, John Lennon very sadly died. So he had the exclusive, of all exclusives, that is literally the sum total of what I know about Bruno Brookes”

And the error was? (Answer below)

From Insiders: The TV Podcast: 31 Oct 2025

https://podcasts.apple.com/.../insiders-the.../id1807814349

Answer: It was Andy Peebles. Bruno Brookes didn’t join Radio 1 till 1984, four years after Lennon died.

****

NOv 5: Two excellent finales this week, Slow Horses 5 and Blue Lights 3. Both recommended.

One very much with a foot in reality, one increasingly leaning into its inherent comedy and downright silliness. In fact Slow Horses 5 buckles under the pressure of any Fridge Logic. As soon as you begin any question about it with the words “but what about..?” you’ll find the plot of SH5 unravels quickly.

Blue Lights has been stunning, making me well up more than any other show, and being true and consistent with its characters throughout. Truly sticks the landing. And there are directorial touches that you don’t even notice at first but really lift it above the rest. Quality.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Merry Christmas from Hev and Kev

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 10:16:00 +0000

Here it is, our Christmas card, as sent to family and friends. Scanned from a comic in my collection, with our heads added in the didn’t-take-long style that, once upon a time, we were the only people to do. Now everyone with access to free Photoshop can do it, and ain’t it grand.

Interestingly enough, this just popped up when I was looking through stuff on a shelf, the family card from 50 years ago, Christmas 1975. The first time Mum let me draw the card.

I know. Awful in every way. But back in those days we were the only people who did a home made card like this. Mum did her first as an art student and kept it up every year for fifty years. This was state of the art photo editing in 1975, and I’m not sure how she did it. I think it’s letter press, requiring a metal block to be cut. Rarified, and expensive, stuff.

Now I can do a card like ours, and even amend the heads when Hev doesn’t like the first version. Which, I must say, I prefer.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

My Book Sales of 2025 - all the stats

kevf.sutherland@virgin.net (Kev F Sutherland) — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 17:10:00 +0000

And what a year that was, eh? I may not have found a major publisher, yet, and my books might not be in Waterstones and TG Jones and selling two million like Jamie Smart's, yet, but I've not done badly for someone who's made the vast majority of his sales hand to hand and over the table. Yes, almost every one of these books was signed and sold personally by me. At comicons, book fairs, and at a lot of schools, I sign and sell my books, and this year I did it with 2316 of them.

The graph's a bit distorted at the top. The big column shows the 999 Richard The Thirds I sold in total, and below that I've broken it down to show the 750 black and white editions (the ones that, mostly, school pupils buy), and the 249 colour editions (which sell best at live events). Next year, all going well, I'll be doing the same thing with Romeo and Juliets, which haven't really had the chance to be sold in schools yet (12 lucky pupils in Durham have a copy, and a librarian in Potters Bar, along with 38 Kickstarters and a couple of friends). Let us see what the future holds.

Meanwhile all my other major books have exceeded their previous years sales:

Colouring Books 396* (2024: 298, 2023: 379, the big dip last year coming from the loss of online sales which continue to decline as Amazon continues to de-list them). The biggest seller is the Doctors Who book, which I've updated several times through the year, followed by Cult TV, and the various Pop Star volumes. I have about 20 different titles on the go, hence their collective place in the chart.

*Full breakdown below

Findlay Macbeth 176 (2024: 86, 2023: 133) Boosted by a half-tone colourised edition of the book which I launched with a Kickstarter in the middle of the year

Midsummer Night's Dream Team 169 (2024: 155, 2023: 125) Ever the popular favourite, still pulling the crowds

Space Elain 169 (2024: 85) Doubled last year's debut sales, going strong in b&w and colour editions

Hamlet Prince Of Denmark Street 147 (2024: 91, 2023: 143) Sales bob up and down year on year, always the bridesmaid

Others various 90 (2024: 54) I should really separate these out as they include Book Of Esther, who'd rank well, and the new Socks Do Shakespeare, which sold a bunch at The Lakes. Also the kids comics collections (Attack Of The Sausages etc) which always sell well when I remember to bring any.

Shakespeare Omnibus 53 (2024: 29, 2023: 13) Given that this is my most expensive book, at £19, it sells surprisingly well. I should display it more prominently maybe. Or offer it to schools?

Romeo & Juliet 53. As noted above, I didn't get any copies from the printers till the start of December, so it won't get its chance to shine until 2026. You watch it go!

Joseph & Ruth 33 (2024: 31) Now in colour as well as black and white

Tales From The Bible 31 (2024: 21, 2023: 27) Another one that would sell more if I'd remember to stock it. Being A4 it's the wrong shape for the graphic novels on the table and merges with the colouring books.

(Some of these columns don't actually add up, cos I got bored updating them. But the gist is correct).

*Colouring Book Sales 2025

Doctors Who - 105 (sellouts - 10)

60s - 34 (so - 3)

Euro Vol2 - 29 (so - 7)

Cult TV - 27 (so - 7)

Bowie - 22 (so - 7)

80s - 22 (so - 7)

2020s - 21 (so - 4)

70s - 18 (so - 6)

Euro Vol1 - 15 (so - 3)

Punk - 14 (so - 6)

90s - 11 (so - 4)

80s Superstar - 10 (so - 4)

Christmas - 9 (so - 3)

Royalty - 6 (so - 1)

Hollywood - 5 (so -1)

RomCom - 5 (so - 2)

Best Of Euro - 4

ScotPop - 2 (so - 1)

(This only comes to 359 books, and elsewhere I've reached a total of 396. Dammit, I have no idea which is right!)

And for comparison here's last year's graph. See, I even have a better graph this year too.

And while we're at it, I've rounded up and updated the Book Sales At Cons Graph. It doesn't quite match up with the book sales, cos I've drawn this graph based on money taken which, at some events, includes a lot of caricatures at £2 a pop. Either way, the chart looks like this...

So the best places to make money selling books and drawing caricatures in 2025 were:

1 - Cardiff Showmasters in October (one day of which shares the top slot alone, two days of which beat all)

2 - Swansea Stars Of Time in April (one day only, sharing the one-day-takings top slot)

3 - Creed cons various (Gloucester, Bristol & Plymouth all top £400 a day. Only one, out of 9 in all, dips below £350)

4 - The Lakes, Macc Pow & Thought Bubble (Lakes has the biggest single day of the three 'proper' cons, TB the biggest combined two days, Macc Pow's one day beats either individual TB day)

5 - UKCGF and book fairs various, all doing better on average than previous years

2025's Sales via Draft 2 Digital (graph above) is slightly deceptive in that a bunch of those "sales" are free giveaways as part of promotions. But they give a fair indication of which books are popular online, when you can get them. The Top Ten looks like this:

1 - Shakespeare Omnibus (33)

2 Richard The Third (31)

3 - Midsummer NDT (24)

4 = Hamlet PODS (18)

= Sweet Smell Of Sockcess (18)

6 - Space Elain (17)

7 = Tales From The Bible (15)

= Punk (15)

9 - Book Of Esther (13)

10 - Who Notes (11)

The Estimated Royalties for the year puts Richard The Third first at $26.19 and Omnibus second at $25.55, Space Elain third on $10.90, Socks Do Shakespeare fourth on $9.57, and PODS fifth on $7.91.

Draft 2 Digital may not be the best for sales, but they're the best for graphs and stats. While Lulu won't tell me how many books I sold in a year (I work out it was 89), D2D tell me I sold 66 via D2D print, earning $80.76. I also made money from Kobo ($13.47), Everand ($10.03), Apple ($5.10), Tolino ($2.58), and Barnes and Noble (59 cents).

Lulu won't tell me, in a helpful single place, how many books I sold in 2025 (it was 89) or which was my best seller (and I can't be arsed to work it out), but they do give the list above, which is money paid per month. My total income from Lulu in 2025 was £127.19, and you'll see that features two months where I earned nothing at all from them. Lulu ain't what they used to be.

Onwards and upwards, thankyou for reading this nonsense, if indeed you have.

My Books And Where To Find Them...


Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard The Third (bw)

Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay Macbeth	Prince of Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain

Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess

Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

2025 - This year just gone	2024 - A year flogging books
2023 - A year of books	2022 - The move to Chepstow
2021 - Coming out of Lockdown	2020 - The Lockdown Year
2019 - Kibworth, Kylie, and Nina Stibbe	2018 - Losing the studio, and Mum
2017 - Venice	2016 - Shakespeare, Dandy, Sitcom Trials
2015 - Comics, classes, Detectives, glasses	2014 - Bananaman, Pansy Potter, & Samson
2013 - Bananaman & Socks In Space	2012 - Adelaide
2011 - 4 weddings and a 50th	2010 - Socks, and Dad's funeral