Dregs of Rudetown comic by Chris Barker

The next publication from Peakrill Press (after this one) will be the comic Dregs of Rudetown by Chris Barker. We're making copies of the comic ridiculously cheap on Kickstarter - £5 including postage for a 40-page comic.

The comic covers the everyday exploits of nineties folk – featuring everything from landlines to indie discos, fruit machines to smoking in pubs. More on that below, but first a little on the comic's author and illustrator, Chris Barker.

You may not have heard of Chris, but there's a good chance you've come across his work. He is probably best known for his annual Sergeant Pepper-style tributes to dead celebrities, which started in 2016:

sgtpepper2016. See also sgtpepper2017, sgtpepper2018, sgtpepper2019, sgtpepper2020, sgtpepper2021 and sgtpepper2022

He also knocks out satirical images with astounding frequency, honed by many years' entries to the weekly b3ta photoshop challenge. The first of these to go viral was a fake Sky News graphic which generated so much outrage that Sky had to put out a press release denying it. Nowadays Chris seems to have a humorous response to every political scandal posted to his Twitter account within minutes of it happening.

In 2017, Chris's response to the Grenfell Tower fire was picked up and used by the New European newspaper. They subsequently commissioned Chris to create many of their cover images, to the extent that his covers have almost come to define the magazine's brand:

 

 

Most recently, Chris's "Brush Strokes - the Fine Art of Light Entertainment" images were exhibited at London's Museum of Comedy and published as a book.

     

 

Chris also has a day job as an art director on prestigious magazines including Campaign, and he was responsible for designing every one of 2012's daily Olympics and Paralympics programmes.

 

Chris has also written a series of kids' novels proving that, infuriatingly, he can do words as well as pictures.

Over 20 years ago, I remember Chris hawking around some half-finished comic that he'd been working on. I didn't hear any more about it, and assumed that Chris had got bored/busy and binned the idea. Turns out he'd just been gestating it. Now, more than 23 years after the end of the 90s, Dregs of Rudetown is finally ready for publication. Here's a preview of a section which covers the defining moment of the 1990s (click panels to embiggen): 

     

I'm really proud to be working with Chris on this, and can't wait to see it in print. Reserve your copy here.

“Scientific proof” and “self-help”

The sun rose today, but will it rise tomorrow?

I mentioned in my last post that Peakrill Press is branching out into a variety of non-gaming related content. I will also be blogging more about random stuff. If you're here just for RPGs, that's cool: there'll still be plenty, and you can skip the rest. But I hope that, if you enjoy my writing about games, you'll appreciate my writing about everything else under the sun.

Below is an example of such other stuff. I'm thinking of writing - bear with me here - a self-help book. I already posted what I guess you could call some advice on productivity and, after 53 years struggling to stay cheerful and get things done, while also managing Bipolar Disorder, I feel I have useful advice to offer.

The passage below will be part of the book, either an introduction or an appendix. I'd especially appreciate any scientists giving it the once-over. As for scientismists, I'd love them to read it, though it may bring them out in a rash.

Any good scientist will tell you that there is no such thing as "scientific proof". What this inaccurate but handy phrase is shorthand for is “a scientific theory that has a lot of evidence that appears to back it up”. As the great philosopher David Hume teaches us, even the theory that “the sun rises every morning” is one we can never prove to be true, because: what about tomorrow morning?

There are folks, I’ll call them scientismists, some of whom believe that scientific proof is a thing, and almost all of whom believe that if a thing doesn’t have at least “a lot of evidence that appears to back it up” then it’s not worth doing, perhaps even dangerous. What a joyless approach to life!

What scientismists appear to forget (even though they often use the term!) is a thing called the “Placebo Effect” which basically means that even when a thing doesn’t work, it works! There’s a belief out there that if something - say, for example, homoeopathy - is “only” as effective as the placebo effect then it’s bunkum, to be avoided at all costs. What a wrong-headed approach to doing good!

Some of the stuff I’ll suggest here - in particular the habit of “gratitude journaling” that forms the heart of this book - have “a lot of evidence which appears to back them up”. Other stuff, like drawing trees or counting the number of petals on a daisy, probably don’t. That shouldn’t stop you from doing them. 

(Disclaimer: not everything untested is as good as a placebo. For example, the theory that jumping out of a plane without a parachute is better for you than jumping out with one has not yet been tested, and I don’t advise you to be the first to try).

By the way, there are some very good books out there which go into detail on which “self-help” practices appear to be more effective than the Placebo Effect -  I recommend starting with Richard Wiseman’s “59 Seconds”. But do bear in mind that all you need to do in order for something you do to do you good, is to believe that it does you good.

I say “all you need to do”. Forcing yourself to believe something is a tough nut to crack, especially if you’ve cynical tendencies like mine. But it is doable. Just remember: the Placebo Effect exists. And it’s magic!

New stuff in't store

 

Gespenwald

A very quick post to say that I have added two new products to my online store and both are currently on special offer: Learning to Draw Trees is a 44-page book documenting my attempt to, well, learn to draw trees. Contains drawings, photos, thoughts and tips. Gespenwald, meanwhile, is a free-form TTRPG adventure, my entry to the Forests of Another Name game jam for Cairn. 

Nanodeities

 

A small god by Richard Tingley

Have you seen my Twitter bot, @deitygalaxy?

When the nose of Iohraï-ses, god of turtles in the hamlet of Nether Opthowichmoor-by-the-Water, grows significantly more turtle-like, it is usually a sign that they are feeling perceptive.

Iohraï-ses is needy. Reply to him please? #Iohraïses #turtles

— All the Deities (@deitygalaxy) January 27, 2022

 Deity Galaxy, AKA All The Deities, invents new gods, goddesses and goddexxes. Tiny, eeny-weeny deities. Deities so small that they may not even have any followers. Deities who are desperate for somebody to notice them, accept them, worship them. The idea was inspired, in part, by the Terry Pratchett book Small Gods, in which the Great God Om finds himself without any divine powers, due to a distinct lack of anyone who is the slightest bit interested in him any more.

I'm happy to announce that I am planning to publish a book based upon Deity Galaxy, called nanodeities. Nanodeities will contain a collection of small gods, all of them generated at random by the bot. For each there will be a portrait by Richard Tingley, a descriptive backstory written by me, and a set of stats, should you want to include this deity in your D&D or OSR game.

Look Mum, I'm on Kickstarter!

 

Who's afraid of a toad?

I have just launched my first ever Kickstarter project, Mostly Harnless Meetings. It's a zine full of whimsical random encounters in the countryside, inspired by English flora, fauna and folklore. Here's a an example:

Oak: A circle of twisted, ancient oaks. The ground inside the circle, and the bottom halves of the tree, are covered in soft, thick moss an almost unnaturally bright green. This place has a good feeling about it, and would be an ideal spot to camp for the night. Anyone doing so sleeps very deeply, as will anyone who tries to stay awake and keep watch. They will awake feeling more invigorated than they have in years. However, in the night, fairies have been playing practical jokes, a different one on each person who slept here. They may find their shoelaces tied together; their hair plaited with nettles or braided together with somebody else's; clothes may be swapped around, or altered with incredibly fine needlework: perhaps sleeve-ends are sewn up, gussets are removed or tightened, or the words "KICK ME" embroidered upon somebody's back. A very detailed search may reveal the fairies sleeping in acorn cups scattered among the trees.

For more examples, and to pledge me your money, head over to the Kickstarter page:   https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dansumption/mostly-harmless-meetings-a-zine-of-countryside-encounters 

What We Have Left

Some time ago I wrote a series of short stories. Here is one of them. They will be published as a book, once they are edited. That should be some time before 2030.

If you would prefer to listen to the story (and I recommend that you do) you can hear me reading a slightly older version of it on my Soundcloud.

Here is What We Have Left: