iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

This week I sent the Cumbernauld Dialectogram to its new home. Can't say exactly where yet, other than I'm excited... Also, myself, @alisonirvine.bsky.social & @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social will bring Concrete Dreams to @natlibscot.bsky.social in Sept. Tickets are free! www.nls.uk/whats-on/con...

Dialectogram packaged for transit to London.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Are you saying that Star Trek Deep Space Nine was a documentary?

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

...BUT, without any apparent knowledge of the end credits-sting, Lena introduces one! All is set for the sequel! Anyway, this was the most fun I've had making anything for a long time. And if Catwoman writer @gronbekk.bsky.social needs any advice, I'm sure Lena would be happy to help.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Anyway, Catwoman immediately gets down to business and puts a stop to the Stinkyhead family's nonsense. And it all ends in a nice cuddle. With love hearts. There had to be lots of love hearts.

Catwoman puts the boot in, and defeats Aunty Stinkyhead.

We both did the love hearts for this one.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Yes! Aunty Stinkyhead turns up and makes a right nuisance of herself, presumably irked at her nephew's downfall. Batman is quick to act by...er...handing Catwoman her whip and letting her deal with it. Lazy, or being a mensch by supporting a woman's aspirations? Only Lena really knows...

Once again, Batman pretends to help. as Aunty Stinkyhead goes on the rampage.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Stinkyhead is sent to jail. Lena demanded a female police woman do the honours so i obliged. So I was all set to draw the happy ending page when Lena suddenly had an idea. Without any prior knowledge of Anglo-Saxon literature she invokes the 'Grendel's Mother' trope & introduces...AUNTY STINKYHEAD!

When will the cycle of violence end! No sooner is Stinkyhead defeated than his AUNTY turns up!

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Batman, who has frankly been doing NOTHING so far, finally assists by procuring a holding conveyance for the loathsome Stinkyhead. Look at Batman, kidding on he's actually contributing here. 🙄

Clearly, Bruce is feeling a wee bit left out...

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

A titanic battle ensues, and we pass the pen back and forth as we struggle to describe the unfolding drama... ...long story short, Catwoman wins!

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

All is fine to begin with. Catwoman is just hanging out with Batman (as you do). And then....Stinkyhead appears! ...If you're checking your Batman comics to find out who that is, don't bother. He's an OC dreamed up by Lena. And she got to draw what he looked like... I mean...the state of him...

Catwoman is NOT impressed by Stinkyhead's antics.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

So the other night it was just me and my (5 year old) daughter for most of the evening. "What would you like to do?" I asked her. 'Make a comic!" she said. So we did. She dictated the story - I would not edit! - and we'd both draw it. And she wanted the main character to be #Catwoman!

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

A 2-year project focused on nomadic space & its histories in two countries, I will engage with the site-or 'tober'-of the ancient Dumfries fairs held on the Whitesands. Watch this space as I deal with 800 years of history, my parent's love life & the rising tides of the river Nith.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

In 2009 the first dialectogram of my home, a Showman's Yard took me on a winding path through tower blocks, music venues, brutalism & urban wildlife. In 2025 me and the dialectogram method I developed return to our roots with Atchin Tans & Tobers. First stop: #Dumfries. #illustration #art

Drawings and diagrams of showground life, by Mitch Miller.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 10) The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

Cover to The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 9) Ducks, by Kate Beaton

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 8) Lines: A Brief History by Tim Ingold

Cover to Lines: A Brief History by Tim Ingold.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Cramming dialectograms into a book can be a PAIN. & yet Gabby Durnan, the designer who worked with me, @alisonirvine.bsky.social & @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social on Concrete Dreams pulled off a miracle here. Check it out… concretedreams.org.uk/book/

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 8)Always Coming Home, by Ursula K. Le Guin.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 7)Maus, by Art Spiegelman

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

FML by @kellysue.bsky.social & @davidlopez.bsky.social is *wonderful*. Sharply, darkly attuned to our times. Female comic creators are the best most vital & angriest voices out there right now (see also: Kate Beaton) & Lopez’s art is stunning (lots of ideas I’d like to pinch…err, pay homage to!)

Cover to FML, by Kelly Sue DeConnick & David Lopez (2024)

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 6)The Panopticon, by Jenni Fagan

First edition cover of The Panopticon, by Jenni Fagan.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 5) The Power Broker, by Robert A. Caro

Classic cover to The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

@scottchantler.bsky.social’s ‘Three Thieves’ series is a great swashbuckling fantasy for older kids. Beautifully drawn and told - can’t wait to introduce it to my daughter! #KidsGN📚💬

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 4) One Hundred Views of Edo, by Hiroshige

One hundred famous views of Edo, by Hiroshige.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 3) The Traveller-Gypsies, by Judith Okely.

Cover to The Traveller-Gypsies, by Judith Okely.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 2) 1982, Janine, by Alasdair Gray.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 4) One Hundred Views of Edo, by Hiroshige

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 3) The Traveller-Gypsies, by Judith Okely.

Cover of The Traveller-Gypsies, by Judith Okely.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 2) 1982, Janine, by Alasdair Gray.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Alright, let's do this... Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, just covers. 📚 1) The Usborne Book of World History, by Anne Millard.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

An esteemed crowd joined us at our @glasgowschoolofart.bsky.social launch for Concrete Dreams on Tuesday. Thanks to all who came along! …and there’s still a chance to get a book in good time for Christmas! Just click the link here… concretedreams.org.uk/book/

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

So that’ll be my great great great grandparents’ circus featuring in the world’s first comic (Glasgow Looking Glass, 1825) 199 YEARS AGO…

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

So among other projects, myself and @lennoxia.bsky.social have been working on #unnaturalwomen, our first graphic novel. Here's just one of our pages, from my pencils, then to inks Kyla Tomlinson's wonderful colours. Will be able to share more soon! #comics

A page from the Unnatural Women graphiv novel, from initial pencils to full colour. Art by Mitch Miller, colours by Kyla Tomlinson, story by Emma Lennox.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

It also makes me think of how ‘Dark Crystal’ and ‘Labyrinth’ flew serenely over the heads of critics and parents, even as the Skeksis & Goblins wormed their way into the dreams of an entire generation of kids who liked to draw and write…

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Thanks to everyone who braved the weather yesterday for our book launch in Cumbernauld! Great discussion & lovely to see so many old friends. If you couldn’t make it there’s still a chance! Join us @glasgowschoolofart.bsky.social on Tuesday 26th Nov- get your (free) tickets: tinyurl.com/5582hw23

Alison Irvine reads from Concrete Dreams.

Concrete Dreams event at Cumbernauld library.

Mitch Miller debuts the dialectogram of Cumbernauld town centre.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Everyone should read this. As a male reader it demanded self-examination and reflection on my part, it confronted but does not condemn. Beaton's understanding of working class masculinity reminds me in particular of Scottish writer Agnes Owens - outside, yet expert. READ IT.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

But it also has moments of grace, beauty and introspection. At its core is sympathy for everyone caught up in the gears of our hunger for resources material and human, all of which comes out through Beaton's careful, meticulous eye for detail.

Kate sees the northern lights. From Ducks.

Scenes of industrial extraction from Ducks.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Kate Beaton's Ducks is the best thing I've read this year. Its elegant lines pull into a compelling, dense & gritty weave, of extraction, exploitation, rupture, and the deep scars this leaves on individuals (Beaton's unflinching account of s*xual assault) and entire communities, and generations.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Myself & @alisonirvine.bsky.social were @lenniesaurus.bsky.social ‘s guests (alongside Jackie Kay!) on today’s BBC Radio Scotland’s Arts Mix programme to talk about Concrete Dreams. We couldn’t resist a not at all geeky selfie in the recording studio… concretedreams.org.uk/book/

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Cramming a dialectogram into book form has frequently proved very difficult! But our designer somehow managed to pull this small miracle off; an almost full-size dialectogram packaged with sketches, photography (Chris Leslie) and words by Alison Irvine. More here: concretedreams.org.uk/the-book/

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Have you read Rebecca Wragg Sykes' 'Kindred'? Best book I've read on Neanderthals, and makes extensive use of traditional printmaking for its illustrations too.

Cover of Kindred, a book by Rebecca Wragg Sykes

Page from Kindred, by Rebecca Wragg-Sykes.

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Dialectographer (Mitch Miller) @dialectographer.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

So I have a new book out! Concrete Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Cumbernauld Town Centre by Alison Irvine, Chris Leslie and myself will be launched on Saturday 23 November in Cumbernauld Library as part of #bookweekscotland. The event is free and all are welcome - bit.ly/40hia6a #illustration

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