A Return

In which the author announces his return to cartooning, reports on having exhibited at a comic convention for the first time in seven years, and briefly outlines the troublesome (mis)delivery of a reprinted book

I’m Back!

Yes, yes. In the latter half of 2019, after the publication of The Many Not the Few (in print as of writing, as copies still linger with the distributor) and some subsequent tinkering with the old pages of Killjoy #2, I took an extended break from cartooning. I took a Brotberuf in the financial sector shortly before the Covid lockdowns began; after over a year of trying, I eventually managed to find more congenial employment as a video game writer and narrative designer.

Killjoy #2 Redux is here (but wasn’t at LICAF).

Earlier in 2026, I returned to part-time comic-making. The second part of ‘The Great British Summer Holiday’, the story begun in Killjoy #5, remained unfinished, and unfinished business weighs upon me. (Killjoy #6 is still a work in progress, to which I’ll return in a future post.) I’d also never released a long-promised reprint of Killjoy #2, the first run of which sold out in 2017; that had been a tricky issue with some regrettable artwork that I’d long intended to improve. I’d already done most of that rework in 2017 and 2019, but it took some time to work up the courage and conviction to get it back on the drawing board after my extended moratorium.

I’d been accepted as an exhibitor at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF) in October 2026, which I set on as the time and place to release the redux edition of Killjoy #2.

LICAF 2026

I now live in the Netherlands, so tabling at UK events requires international travel. Strangely, it didn’t occur to me quite how costly and time-consuming this would be (especially compared to such cheap and easy experiences as my jaunt to 2013’s Bristol Comic and Zine Fair), but I’m still happy with my decision to return to fayre-going at familiar events.

Day 2 at LICAF 2026, having sold out of The Many Not the Few.
Photo taken by Karin Diamond (Re-Live)

LICAF 2026 was, overall, a pleasant experience. Unfortunately I didn’t have copies of Killjoy #2 to sell (more on that below) – which cost me at least one sale from a punter who didn’t want to buy an incomplete series – but I still managed to sell some Killjoys, as well as copies of Portraits of Violence and The Many Not the Few (I sold all the copies of the latter that I brought with me). Perhaps being long away from the festival circuit has made my work fresh to some newcomers – and I was happy to make some new acquaintances. I was also happy to see a bunch of familiar faces and be welcomed back into the fold. (Steven Ingram thought I’d become one of those people who suddenly disappear from the scene, leaving their work unfinished – and I suppose I had been, temporarily.)

This was my third time tabling at LICAF. While I missed the festival’s Bowness-on-Windermere years, the Comics Market taking place at the Westmorland Campus of Kendal College (above the Westmorland Shopping Centre) instead of the old town hall made this year’s event somewhat different to my previous Kendal experiences. It’s always a fairly quiet event, especially compared to a behemoth like Thought Bubble, but the flow of visitors through the fayre-appropriate venue felt somehow more lively and consistent than the relative sedateness of the erstwhile location, as I remember it (or perhaps there were simply more visitors this year). It wasn’t more fiscally successful than my last LICAF, but I’m not complaining about my takings; as I was telling my lovely table-neighbours from Re-Live, I have a very low bar for success at cons – as long as it beats my miserable experience of selling only two copies of Killjoy #1 at the Exeter Comic Expo in 2012, one of which was to a close friend that accompanied me to the event, I don’t despair.

To my mind, LICAF is a festival first and foremost – the various events involving special guests are the protein of the programme, which I enjoyed partaking of when I previously visited as a non-exhibitor (Eddie Campbell’s 2014 talk ‘Living in a Comic’ being a particularly memorable example) – with the convention aspect being an accompaniment: integral, but secondary. Thought Bubble boasts a substantial timetable of events, of course, but its convention is a mighty thing, central to the proceedings.

Thanks to everyone that dropped by the modest stall and helped reassure me that I’m still an inveterate natterer when in proximity to my table.

The Failed Debut of Killjoy #2 Redux, or A Parcel Saga

The weekend before LICAF, I finally finished reworking Killjoy #2. This mostly consisted of little tweaks – deleting and redrawing the odd line, face, figure, or background… Only four panels were entirely removed and replaced, one of which was entirely rethought as three smaller panels. As with my redux edition of Killjoy #1, I’d planned to simply reuse the existing cover with only small textual changes, but I didn’t have access to the original computer files or the original art for the background figures, so I rescanned the main linework and recreated the cover with redrawn elements and a somewhat different approach to colouring.

Overall, Iʼm fairly content with how it all turned out; perhaps I spent a more-than-necessary amount of time and energy on it, but I finally feel the artwork is up to a standard that leaves no lingering cause for shame.

I pulled my first all-nighter for many years, sending the artwork to the printers with a couple of days’ buffer for production or delivery setbacks. Unfortunately, the courier failed to deliver the parcel to the LICAF venue on Thursday, then misdelivered it on Friday – as I later learnt, to a campus of Kendal College that was closed on the weekend. So I arrived at LICAF on Saturday morning with the parcel nowhere to be found. I must offer my gratitude to LICAF’s Chris Medcalf for going above and beyond in his (unfortunately fruitless) attempts to recover the absent box o’ books.

The errant parcel, safely misdelivered & sitting on its side.

Tangled threads of communication between me, the printers, the couriers, the LICAF team, and the Kendal College staff finally led to the parcel being located and ultimately forwarded (by a different delivery company) to a family member for safekeeping until Thought Bubble. Just minutes before writing these words, I had a video call with my sister (ta, Lucy) confirming that they arrived at hers in a saleable condition. Rejoice! Although vestiges of disappointment remain, I can at least rest somewhat easily in the knowledge that I don’t need to order yet another reprint for TB2026.

And Other Things

And now, on to (hopefully) completing Killjoy #6 in time for Thought Bubble! See you there, perhaps?

In other news, I’ve set up a new Instagram account, @rb.comix, dedicated solely to my comics work. I decided it was time to finally bifurcate my cartooning and personal posting, which were mingled rather awkwardly in the past. Follow me, yer sods.

(Also, I’ve removed all the PayPal payment buttons from the Shop for now. I’m still deciding how to proceed with e-commerce. If you want to order any comics from me, drop me a line via email or Instagram DM.)