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Esther has gone full Fox Mulder. These were my favourite drawings of the first half of the story. Unlike snakebite and black, the chupacabra was invented in about 1995. I once made a print with a chupacabra on it, alas the artwork is lost to history.

I had to do some research on the origins of "snakebite and black" for this comic, and find out when it emerged. Wikipedia said it was popularised in the 1980s but like power-ups in video games, every time I thought I'd found the earliest instance, I then found an earlier one.

The Bad Machinery site has had a major spruce-up. I've been working on this for ages. AGES. There are a few story banners still to design but I'll get to them. Hopefully everything works, but I'm bound to have messed up somewhere. I was finally able to discard the ancient ComicPress theme, and I've done my best to make things as easy to use as possible. I'll keep an eye out for anything that immediately collapses.

Esther has long been one of my favourite characters to write because she is so confident. She's largely untroubled by anything other than transient concerns. She's very sure of who she is, a magnificent and spooky manifestation, and this gives her a certain benign power over people.

Welcome to The Monthly Readcap, a new, hopefully monthly column here on SKTCHD where I’m going to do something very atypical for me: review comic books. One of my most frequently asked questions is wh...

I had a good go with the last panel, I got out my 1950s copy of Black Bob - The Dandy Wonder Dog, but I spent so long just reading it that the pastiche may have suffered.

I have been summoned for jury duty. I've moved it to the start of the new year, but while I deliberate in seclusion with my fellow judicial

The night time is forever Esther's time and no one tells her what not to do when it comes to her nocturnal wardrobe. The results are inevitably baffling.

My parents' kitchen in the mid 1970s was magnificently orange. As is so often the case, if I portrayed the exact luridity of something in the real world in my comics, I would be accused of being over the top.

My parents' kitchen in the mid 1970s was magnificently orange. As is so often the case, if I portrayed the exact luridity of something in the real world in my comics, I would be accused of being over the top.

A newspaper-format journal dedicated to in-depth comics criticism edited by Tiffany Babb

One of the dangers of this story was giving Esther a bun, because I worried that she'd end up looking like Lottie. Their designs aren't so different, Esther is just longer and pointier. Though they have very different energies in my head. But I had to make her look bookish and severe. Esther is a charmer but she is also capable of being very severe when she wants to be.

Rural intrigue.

My current story, Blight, started in my sketchbook during my sabbatical. Here are the very first drawings: The question with Destroy History

In 2008 I took a trip to the USA and had to buy some insect repellent in Philadelphia. I was excited to see that it promised to ward of "chiggers and no-see-ums", which is a promise no British repellent has ever made me. In the UK, these flying pests are known as "Jamie and Spencer" - but may not be exactly the same animal. Learn more about these made up animals created as a US psyop.

The Comics Staple is a sixteen page, black-and-white zine for anyone who wants to stay in the know when it comes to comics. Each issue of The Comics ...

When I was drawing this page, I had to look at a lot of pictures of cows' eyes being examined, it was gross, some of those eyes were in poor health. And this song played in my head the whole time I was pencilling this page: A camel isn't a cow, it's the ship of the desert.

I don't know what to day about the composition of this page, other than that I don't think anyone's ever tried a handshake corner cutout before, and for good reason. Anyway, time to meet some loveable new relatable characters, some of whom I failed to assign names to. Enjoy concocting your own until I get round to it.