"Everything is politics...You don't get to make art in a fascist state"
CMAT delivering, mar is gnách. 👏
(Same goes for sport btw)
#Speirgorm
01.03.2026 08:48
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"Everything is politics...You don't get to make art in a fascist state"
CMAT delivering, mar is gnách. 👏
(Same goes for sport btw)
#Speirgorm
In 2024, I also made this comic ahead of the Paris Olympics about the murder of Palestinian athletes: tomhumberstone.com/comics/the-o...
It was originally for The Washington Post but they spiked it after deciding I was "conflicted out" for having attended pro-Palestine marches.
Like clockwork, the conversation about keeping "politics out of sport" has resurfaced. This time because some American athletes haven't been super pumped to represent a country that executes it's citizens on the street.
I made a comic about this back in 2018: thenib.com/politics-in-...
Thanks Eddie!
A lot of, frankly, morons masquerading as artistic intellectuals, think that in order for art to be worthwhile, universal, and future-proof, it has to be broad and abstract. It’s a miopic and reductive idea of what art can be. This piece, by David Detmer, is a good riposte to it.
Some roughs:
In the latest issue of @currentaffairs.bsky.social magazine, I’ve illustrated a piece about influential political folk musician, and radical left hottie, Phil Ochs. The article is about something close to my heart - a defence of political specificity and topicality in art.
Now watch Ireland thrive and become world leader in the arts.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
graphic reads ‘hourly comics day disability diaries’ with a drawing of me (white nonbinary guy w black facial scruff & short green hair) lying in bed looking shattered. Lower text reads ‘hello. I make comics, and—‘
“This year’s my 10 year anniversary of chronic illness (ME/CFS)” - a small cartoon of me with a balloon going ‘wow!!’ then ‘…wait.’ In an inset past year’s comic, I’m going ‘hopefully later I’ll be well enough to draw a little!’ but end up lying still in bed all day - ‘alas’. “*8 years of my illness being “moderate to severe” = mostly bedbound, unable to walk down the street or prepare a meal without collapsing.”
“I’ve been making a day of hourly comics every February since I first got ill” (some pics of many years worth of hourlies,w ith me waking up feeling exhausted, too ill to sit up)
“It can be hard, but it means a lot to share the reality of my daily life honestly and to hear from others in the same boat. So here’s Hourly comics day 2026” - a small baloon now reads ‘still here!’ next to the same drawing as the first, me now waking up. 9am - “good morning my body feels like it’s been run over by a train’
Diary comics thread for hourly comics day ✏️ intro/9am
#hourlycomicday #MEcfs #ChronicIllness
the idea that making art is embarrassing if you don't do it well enough to make a career out of it is an objectively harmful and toxic brainworm.
Since #bbclaurak is trending, let’s remind ourselves that ONE MONTH ago, the BBC invited Mandelson on for a soft-ball interview on her show. While HIS CLIENT , Palantir’s Louis Moseley appeared as a pundit
Both, as I wrote at time, were ‘abject failures of journalism’
1/
This tells you if your local NHS is using Palantir, and provides you with an email template to speak against it. Takes seconds. Share and sign.
Oracles by @zebko.bsky.social is currently funding on Kickstarter!
It’s one of the most beautiful and moving books we’ve ever made.
Back it here! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ave...
'the UK creative industries — which contributed £125 billion to the economy in 2024 and supported 2.4 million jobs — are being destroyed by an AI sector that... contributed just £11 billion in the same year and supported only 85,000 jobs." www.thetimes.com/culture/film...
"They must not know how to use the Child Porn, Psychosis and Scam Generator. It's the only explanation for why nobody's using the Child Porn, Psychosis and Scam Generator. Free training for all in the appropriate use of the Child Porn, Psychosis and Scam Generator. Twenty minutes should do it."
Sharron Davies ranting against 15 minute cities, because of course she is.
Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph saying she wants to... kill all dogs??
Julie Burchill asking "does it matter if Grok undresses us all?" in The Spectator
Graham Linehan in the midst of his now four-day-long double down on Alex Pretti's murder being justified and fine.
Calling transphobia a 'gateway drug' to the far right undersells it. It's pure accelerant. Grimly fascinating to guess what crankery becomes any famous transphobe's secondary obsession, cos they all have one: 15 minute cities are fascism! Grok noncing is cool! ICE are good! We should kill all dogs!
If you make poetry comics, published or self-published, this is worth applying to!
Every artist wishes they could go back in time to deliver a swat to the back of their own head and say, “Don't do that!”
None of this is universal, but here is a protips thread of some things I (and many of my peers) would try to stop ourselves from doing.
Thanks so much Jess!
A comic titled "I know the way out" in wavy block capitals, in white on a starry sky which fades from deep blue through aqua to fluorescent pink behind silhouetted skyline of tall, dense pine trees. "Chrissy Williams & Tom Humberstone" is written in pink. Next to it are a small pin badge of the same pines silhouetted on a dusky-blue sky, and a bookmark showing a human figure facing away from view, a glowing white silhouette with branching pink lines like roots or perhaps nerves radiating all over their body from the base of their neck. They stand in a pine woodland in shades of blue and black.
Just got my hands on this beautiful poetry comic by @chrissywilliams.bsky.social and @tomhumberstone.com. It's wonderfully written and illustrated and it's an artifact that cries out to be treasured and studied thanks to the way the art engages with it's printing process.
Really chuffed to see I Know The Way Out by me and @chrissywilliams.bsky.social in this @brokenfrontier.bsky.social list of 2025 Small Press Comics.
If you'd like to buy a copy, you can get it online here: tomhumberstone.com/shop/i-know-...
Rockstar now claims it was, in fact, the leaking of “specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles” that led to the firings.
We’re going to have to see the company prove this in an employment tribunal & more than that, it’ll need to prove it for all 31 fired employees in the UK too.
If your choice is between an existential risk to your organisation, vs being a fascist collaborator, and you make the difficult choice to be a collaborator...
...then you are still a collaborator.
If you're looking for Xmas gifts for your tennis loving/poetry loving/AI hating friend or family member, here are some useful Last Xmas Postal Dates:
UK: 2nd Class - Dec 17th, 1st Class - Dec 20th
International varies, but Dec 12th is probably safest.
Check here www.postoffice.co.uk/last-posting...
If you're looking for Xmas gifts for your tennis loving/poetry loving/AI hating friend or family member, here are some useful Last Xmas Postal Dates:
UK: 2nd Class - Dec 17th, 1st Class - Dec 20th
International varies, but Dec 12th is probably safest.
Check here www.postoffice.co.uk/last-posting...
And today is #scottishcomicbookday! So sharing this thread again. #scbd
If you’re in Edinburgh, you can also pop into @lighthousebks.bsky.social, @typewronger.bsky.social , or La Belle Adventure to pick up my new comic!
It's time for the 2026 Comics Criticism Mini Grant!
My family and I are awarding four $250 grants to active comics critics. The application is simple, just your name, email, and two recent clips. Deadline for submissions is January 1st.
forms.gle/Cy8FtCcqVSWa...
I’ll be bringing some of these beauties with me for Gosh to sell at the Golden Rage signing tomorrow!
This is so nice to hear! Also really nice to see Danielle manage to do what I always struggle with: take good photos of a riso printed comic.
