I've been a huge fan of zany British comic superhero Bananaman for as long as I can remember.  I grew up reading comics such as Nutty, The Dandy and The Beano and it's within the pages of these DC Thomson publications that I came to admire the wacky storytelling of Steve Bright and engaging art of the late John Geering.  Both were undoubtedly a strong influence when developing my own comic style.

I've amassed many comics, collectibles and memorabilia over the years, ranging from Bananaman's debut in issue one of Nutty, dated 16 February 1980, to present day, and to coincide with Bananaman's 45th anniversary, I decided to launch a fansite from which to share my collection with like-minded people.

I'll be adding new content regularly so please do check it out if of interest to you.

I am delighted by news today of Billy the Brave - The Comic winning Best Charity Comic in the ComicScene Awards 2025.  It's mind-blowing to think what was originally intended as a personal gift for a poorly little boy has gone on to win a national award.

​On Monday 4 March, Beano comic writer Ned Hartley (Bananaman) put out a plea on social media for comic artist friends to draw something to help brighten the remaining days of a young reader with a terminal brain tumour.  Fellow Beano writer Nigel Auchterlounie (Dennis the Menace) and I (merely a life-long fan of The Beano) answered the call.

In November 2023, 4-year-old Billy Thompson of Great Bookham, Surrey, was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), an incurable brain tumour that primarily affects children.  Despite such devastating news, Billy’s parents Jamie and Ellie managed to quickly raise an incredible £225,000, which enabled them to take time off work to care for him full-time.  It also afforded Billy’s family time to make special memories with him during his last months.

Fundraising efforts were given a huge boost when Queen rock star Sir Brian May saw footage on social media of Billy playing air guitar on his way to radiotherapy treatment and recorded a personal video response to say how impressed he was.  Reported on by the national press, Billy subsequently received special messages from acting legend Dame Judy Dench, and former rugby player Jonny Wilkinson.

Through correspondence with a family friend, I learned that as well as reading The Beano, Billy also enjoyed dressing up as Marvel and DC superheroes.  With this in mind, I decided to surprise him with his very own superhero comic, in which he would star.

​In my spare time, I created an eight-page full colour comic for Billy to enjoy.  Titled Billy the Brave, it comprised of a four-page comic adventure, four pages of jokes and puzzles, one Billy the Brave poster, and a selection of “free gifts”.  Ten copies were produced so that Billy could share his special story adventure with family and friends.

Sadly, Billy Thompson died on Easter Sunday 31 March.  Unsure as to whether the comics got to him in time, I received a touching message from Billy’s mum Ellie, on Monday 29 April, which revealed Billy had received and read his personalised comic on the day he died.  It was the last thing he read, and it made him laugh; the true measure of my career.

Several commemorations for Billy took place in July, including the unveiling of a bench at the school he attended (featuring Nigel Auchterlounie’s contribution; coincidentally, a superhero drawing of Billy).

A sponsored walk took place, with Billy’s school friends and their parents dressing up as superheroes for the occasion.  Delighted with the comic I had produced, Billy’s parents got in touch with me prior to the walk to request 30 more copies - but with one notable difference: a collage of photos on the reverse of the poster, showing Billy in good health, enjoying happy occasions.  These were distributed to the children on the walk, for them to enjoy and keep as a memento of their heroic school friend, Billy the Brave.

Much has happened since my last blog post about the Tales from the Quarantine (TFTQ) comic anthology.  None of it good, I’m afraid.  The Kickstarter campaign remains unfulfilled, with no one receiving a physical copy of the book or refund, and monies not going to charities either (the legitimate ones, that is).
 
With charity being the driving force behind TFTQ, at least £37,000 was raised in 2020 thanks to 400 comic creatives the world over, including writers, artists, colourists and letterers (more than 100 of which being Eisner, Emmy, Hugo and Ringo award winners and nominees), promoting and contributing to the campaign for free.  However, a multitude of excuses ranging from feeble to preposterous have been given as reason for delay since the initial publishing and distribution deadlines were missed and more than FOUR YEARS ON it's no wonder most people involved have run out of patience.
 
If you follow goings-on in the UK indie comics scene or were unfortunate enough to be one of the many hundreds of people to back the project, you will undoubtedly be aware by now that Frazer Brown, sole proprietor of Red Cabin Comics (despite his claims of being a CEO with business premises, staff members, etc.), has shown himself to be deceitful, evasive and dishonest about production and mailing of the book and demonstrated prevarication regarding what has happened to the money raised.
 
Brown’s Kickstarter updates (146 of them at time of publishing this blog post) are now few and far between, provide no meaningful information and seem issued only to meet the bare minimum required from him as campaign creator.  He ignores questions and concerns emailed to him or posted on the TFTQ campaign’s comments section, even blocking backers to hide public queries and criticism.
 
Akin to a schoolboy claiming his pet dog ate his homework, Brown has resorted to claiming long periods of illness without providing a shred of evidence, while simultaneously posting contradictory content on his remaining Instagram and TikTok social media accounts, showing him frequently enjoying day trips out and such.  Unsurprisingly, the likes of X, Facebook and BlueSky are rife with scornful comments so he's not active on these platforms.

Several comic review websites have reported on Tales from the Quarantine and Brown’s dubious conduct, including Bleeding Cool, 3 Million Years and Broken Frontier, the latter of which published a 3-part series of articles which I contributed to here, here and here.  As revealed in Part 3, I initially parted with several hundred pounds to obtain copies of the book for myself and family and friends but eventually formally withdrew my artwork from the project and began court proceedings against Brown to get my money back. 
 
Despite a reasonably positive result for me personally, my heart goes out to everyone affected by Frazer Brown’s continuing disgraceful conduct, particularly those who backed the project due to my involvement.  It’s clear to me that he has done lasting damage to the trust necessary for crowdfunding and good people with great projects have been impacted as a result.  I hope Kickstarter will seek to take action against him and will review their business model to prevent others from exploiting the concept in a similar fashion.

I can only conclude TFTQ was first and foremost a vanity project designed to use the work of others as a springboard to propel Brown to the forefront of the comics industry, with his interest in delivering the project rapidly diminishing once he realised he was well short of the much-publicised 200+ pages needed to claim the anthology was “world record breaking” .
 
Notwithstanding so much negative coverage, for some reason Brown bizarrely continues to invest time and energy in Instagram and TikTok posts intended to keep up the pretence that Tales from the Quarantine is an accomplishment.  Of course, comments are turned off, accompanying images are either deceptively staged or AI generated, and most of his followers are fake paid-for accounts considering such low engagement.  One thing's for certain though: the internet doesn't forget and the indie comics community will be ever ready to hold him to account should he resurface with something new.

In late 2022 I designed a series of posters for the Balls To Cancer charity, which communicated information about how to check oneself for signs of various cancers, provided details on how to get advice and support and advertised ways in which one could support the charity's work. 

Capitalising on such an assertive name, my designs were intentionally forward in order to grab the attention of passers by and stand out on fast moving social media feeds.

One such example is included here and others have now been added to my website's gallery.

Released in January 2023 as a year-long campaign, my designs saw an immediate sharp increase in engagement and this remained consistent for the duration.  Phased out in early 2024 for a much more neutered approach, my artwork nonetheless continues to be talked about online to this day, such was the impact.