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John Allison

@badmachinery.com
7.7K followers 379 following 5.9K posts

Cartoonist in Leeds, UK. I brought you such comics as Steeple, Bad Machinery, Giant Days, Scary Go Round, Bobbins, Great British Bump-Off and Solver. The nation's favourite. badmachinery.com

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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 1h
This was my Britain. It's never coming back. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDG...
youtube.com
Don Amott Commercials-1.avi
YouTube video by Tutbury Ram
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 18h
Burn her as a witch 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.
badmachinery.com
Burn her as a witch
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 28/09/2026
The same glass 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.
badmachinery.com
The same glass
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 27/09/2026
First look:
Sid James on a chopper
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 26/09/2026
Website redesign is live! 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…
badmachinery.com
Website redesign is live!
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 25/09/2026
I've been reading about the MSNBC rebrand. I dimly remembered the "MS" standing for Microsoft - which was correct. Apparently it now stands for "My Source". But for the 13 years in which Microsoft had no stake in the news station, MS stood for "Metal Soup"!
THE MORE YOU KNOW graphic
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 25/09/2026
Emollient (II) 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.
badmachinery.com
Emollient (II)
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.
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SKTCHD @sktchd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The most unexpected of things debuts on SKTCHD: a monthly review column! It's The Monthly Readcap, where I will write short reviews of ten comics and graphic novels each month, and this time, I highlight everything from Batman: Bad Seeds - Sunset #1 to Punk'n Heads and Record Journey Vol. 2.
sktchd.com
The Monthly Readcap: Quick Thoughts on September's Comic Book Reads - SKTCHD
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...
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 24/09/2026
As I head into late-2026 convention season, I've decided to write a guide to trailing around town post-show with seven friends trying to get a table at a restaurant on a Friday or Saturday night; three are vegan, one is pescatarian, another is on a barbecue diet, and two are crying. It's 8.12pm.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 24/09/2026
It's the best day of the year, always observed in this house
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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 24/09/2026
I don't want to buy these comics, but the sight of all those corner box indicia lined up like that gives me a very peaceful easy feeling
A nice neat pile of Dreadstar comics
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 23/09/2026
6 weeks ago I booked a writer's retreat in order to "have all my great ideas for 2027". It goes without saying that after booking I immediately had all my great ideas. Now I have had to make up something to do during an isolated week in Shropshire. It's not the image below but it's nearly as stupid.
Desmond Fishman and the dream of the enormous Findus Crispy Pancake
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 23/09/2026
What shape it takes 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.
badmachinery.com
What shape it takes
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 22/09/2026
Whenever I talk to students or young artists, I tell them, whatever else you do with it, put your webcomic on your own website you own that you made yourself. Then no one but you can take it down. It is easier than it has ever been to make your own website.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 22/09/2026
17 years... gone in the blink of an eye.
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Kate Beaton @katebeaton.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
REBECCA - written by me, illustrated by Sydney Smith. It comes out tomorrow. I am very proud of this book, and greatly indebted to Sydney, who took a personal story and made it timeless. I hope you like it.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 21/09/2026
FREE POST: It's your chance to have your say, plus boomerang anecdotes, strange coincidences, and JUSTICE www.patreon.com/scarygoround...
patreon.com
The Roor Joor | John Allison
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
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 21/09/2026
I'm reading David Koenig's book Unshot Columbo and I have to say I am surprised by my own appetite for the details of unmade episodes of this show, the awakening of a terrible demon within I fear. In all seriousness: a great book for writers dissecting the process of failure.
The cover of Unshot Columbo by David Koenig, depicting the dishevelled detective in classic finger-pointing mode
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 21/09/2026
Emollient (I) 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.
badmachinery.com
Emollient (I)
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 19/09/2026
It's Batman Day and everybody loves Batman (I am told) so this is my chance to remind you that I created, if not the greatest Batman comic of all time, then easily one of the top two or three, in Giant Days x Batman, which you can read for free. scarygoround.com/giantdays/in...
scarygoround.com
Scary Go Round Comics: GIANT DAYS
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 19/09/2026
My best work is often done in the shadows these days
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 18/09/2026
One of my favourite records brilliantly dissected
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 18/09/2026
The roasting 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.
badmachinery.com
The roasting
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.
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Reposted by John Allison
Jeffrey Rowland @wigu.org · 17/09/2026
Here is the entire saga of the Toilet Bear! Bidets rule.
Panel 01
Jeffrey Holly and Weedmaster P are in the woods behind a bush.
JEFFREY: Oh shit a bear! What do we do?
HOLLY; If it's brown… shut it down?

Panel 02
JEFFREY: No wait… if it's black, get back?
HOLLY: If it's –
WEEDMASTER P: IF IT'S YELLOW LET IT MELLOW

Panel 03
We can see the back of the bear
JEFFREY: That's pee, bro! That's the rule about pee!
WEEDMASTER P: WELL WHAT COLOR IS THAT?
HOLLY: It's.. blue:

Panel 04
JEFFREY (from behind): Oh goddammit it's a toilet paper bear.
Toilet paper looks miserable with bits of toilet paper stuck all over his matter fur.
TOILET PAPER BEAR:Help me…

PANEL 05: JEFFREY and HOLLY speaking to a TOILET PAPER BEAR in the forest. TOILET PAPER BEAR COVERD IN SCRAPS OF TOILET PAPER.
JEFFREY:  What can we help you with, toilet paper bear?
We go in way over our heads with the toilet paper company, man.

PANEL 06: TOILET PAPER BEAR turns around, revealing a horrible wad of toilet paper and poo on his butt. The image is censored because it's so gross. JEFFREY KNEELS. HOLLY is exasperated.
 TOILET PAPER BEAR: They say we have to use all this toilet paper but… there's a problem
JEFFREY: I know exactly what you need!
HOLLY: Jeffrey no


PANEL 07: JEFFREY and TOILET PAPER BEAR speaking
JEFFREY: You need a bidet!
TOILET PAPER BEAR: What's a bidet?

PANEL 08: JEFFREY and TOILET PAPER BEAR speaking
JEFFREY: The water cleans the poo off your butthole and then you use you use just a *little* of toilet paper to pat it dry.
TOILET PAPER BEAR: But we bears poo in the woods. How would that work?
JEFFREY: Leave that to me!

PANEL 09:  THE NEXT DAY. Jeffrey is injured and disheveled with a moose bladder and hose hooked up to a stump.
… so you fill this moose bladder with water and when y ou're done pooing you stomp on it and it'll squirt water out of this stump

PANEL 10:  TEN MINUTES LATER. TOILET PAPER BEAR is clean and JEFFREY is  handing over a ringing cell phone.
TOILET PAPER BEAR: I've never felt so fresh! Thank you kind sir!
JEFFREY: Phone ca…
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 18/09/2026
The roasting 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.
badmachinery.com
The roasting
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.
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Reposted by John Allison
Tiffany Babb 🔜 NYCC @explodingarrow.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
guess what? (it's time to click on the button) www.kickstarter.com/projects/tif...
kickstarter.com
Coming soon: The Comics Courier, A Comics Criticism Journal [Issue 5]
A newspaper-format journal dedicated to in-depth comics criticism edited by Tiffany Babb
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 16/09/2026
Questions? 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.…
badmachinery.com
Questions?
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 15/09/2026
If I ever need to come up with a lot of ideas in a hurry for a series, I find it very helpful to use the episode titles for a show I haven't watched. I file away good ones. Here's one I just found, Welsh early-80s cartoon Will Quack Quack. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wil_Cwa...
en.wikipedia.org
Wil Cwac Cwac - Wikipedia
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 15/09/2026
The first one of these was great, looking forward to the second.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 15/09/2026
POV: You wake from a coma after 30 years. When informed of your long slumber, you frantically grasp for the enormity of the change three decades have wrought. One question dominates your bleary mind, and, unhesitatingly, you voice it. "So is... is... Dean Cain still Superman?"
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Andi Watson @andicomics.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Original art and printed version. You Tell Me comic. andiwatson.bigcartel.com
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 14/09/2026
Whether we like it or not Rural intrigue. badmachinery.com/comic/2026-0...
badmachinery.com
Whether we like it or not
Rural intrigue.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 13/09/2026
It's Sunday morning so I can show this without getting in trouble. I did a riso workshop yesterday and had a lot of fun but the print I made - my first, after all - had to be the most riso riso print ever. I felt the hand of history on my shoulder.
Riso print with the words TOB SAYS: RISO IS NICE-O, PRINT YR DREAMS

Tob is a print fair man
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Catsuka @catsuka.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Trailer for "Animation Mavericks: The Forgotten Story of UPA", a documentary on the studio founded by former Disney employees after the animators' strike of 1941. Directed by Kevin Schreck ("Persistence of Vision"). Premiering at film festivals in 2027. animationmavericks.com
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 11/09/2026
New free post - "Early Blight sketches" www.patreon.com/scarygoround...
patreon.com
Early Blight sketches | John Allison
My current story, Blight, started in my sketchbook during my sabbatical. Here are the very first drawings: The question with Destroy History
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 11/09/2026
No-see-ums 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" -…
badmachinery.com
No-see-ums
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 10/09/2026
Pick only one from Boots' 1983 offerings here. I'm going with George Benson's In Your Eyes, it's got "In Your Eyes", "Lady Love Me (One More Time)", and many more incredibly smooth jams certain to ensure a cromulent night's lovemaking. Produced by Arif Mardin!
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Lachlan Fetterplace @fiskeforbrains.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
It’s well known that finding reviewers is increasingly difficult. Yet I often meet researchers—especially ECRs—who’ve never or rarely been asked to review but would like to. Is that you? Natural History Notes are the perfect place to start. Aquatic & terrestrial ecologists welcome—get in touch!
Screen shot of Austral Ecology Journal with the journal title at the top. And below header text saying Editorial - An Austral Ecology 5 year retrospective on Natural History Notes: A compelling case for curiosity. Author - Stephanie K. Courtney Jones
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 09/09/2026
I think the BBC should give me £5 of my license fee back for writing "in school" rather than "at school" on this ad. I've developed a new line on my forehead over this.
BBC Sounds: Lily Allen on how her vocal talent was spotted in school
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 09/09/2026
I love writing the copy for the backs of books but I fear one of these days I'm going to leave the fake blurb on.
With a little help from her friends (and problem-solving
associates) Claire and Glenn, former teen detective
Charlotte Grote has got back her missing mystery mojo.
And she is going to need it, as a dangerous figure from
her past manifests to cause havoc for all three. Why is
someone who looks just like her besmirching her name
all over town? And why is she dressed as a skeleton?
Come on! Isn’t that a bit, you know, obvious?
From Sheffield to Edinburgh (via an Alpine ski lodge) and
back, Lottie must reckon with her past if she and the
Solvers want to live to see the future!
________________________________________________
From the Eisner-winning creator of GIANT DAYS,
BAD MACHINERY and STEEPLE!
“Warm witty and wise - and that’s a fact”
- QUOTESY QUOTABLE
(BLURBS ANONYMOUS, PUFFERY QUARTERLY)
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 09/09/2026
I have found evidence of a more technologically advanced civilisation where our blighted nation now stands
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Tiffany Babb 🔜 NYCC @explodingarrow.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
are you wondering what cool comics you should be picking up this month? wonder no longer! the comics staple staff has your back, and you can pick up their thoughts in print or digital now! ko-fi.com/s/6a738b9049
ko-fi.com
Print copy of The Comics Staple Issue 1 - The Comics Courier/The Comics Staple's Ko-fi Shop
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 ...
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 09/09/2026
When you’re done 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.
badmachinery.com
When you’re done
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 08/09/2026
Isn’t this drawing great?
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 08/09/2026
Yesterday's re-run page on @officialgocomics.bsky.social (from Dec 2022) was a good one, and I would say an outlier, a discourse on cheques. I am trying to think when I last had to write a cheque. A decade ago? Longer? I know in the US the "check" clings on on certain sectors.
A page of Solver wherein Charlotte Grote doesn't know what to do with a cheque, then someone comes in with a very bloody apron after cutting up a stag.
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Thought Bubble Festival @thoughtbubbleuk.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Calling all comic artists!! Our guests are hosting drop-in portfolio review sessions at this year's convention! Take advantage of this free opportunity to speak one-on-one with an experienced comic book professional who'll review your work, give tips and personalised advice.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 07/09/2026
I live for this stuff
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 07/09/2026
A proper look 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…
badmachinery.com
A proper look
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.
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John Allison @badmachinery.com · 06/09/2026
I learned yesterday that animator Pete Kleinow who worked on various huge films (Empire Strikes Back etc) is the same 'Sneaky' Pete Kleinow who was a founder member of the Flying Burrito Brothers. His Wikipedia page is testament to astonishing achievement en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneaky_...
en.wikipedia.org
Sneaky Pete Kleinow - Wikipedia
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