Who’s coming to LICAF this weekend? If you are interested in art/visual storytelling/creativity and you can get yourself to the Lake District, you should! It’s a fantastic, truly international festival and v good value - programme & tickets at comicartfestival.com @comicartfestival.bsky.social

Drawing the title page of This Slavery graphic novel It’s a story about wage slavery, marriage, working life, family life - all of it in the shadows of Lancashire cotton mills, yet uncomfortably relevant to our modern lives

The steep streets of This Slavery graphic novel, with their terraced houses and cobbles, make a very distinctive setting. Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, who wrote the original novel, lived and worked in Great Harwood. If you know it, you’ll spot some familiar landmarks in this book

It’s all a corporate sham - the dinner in a castle, the faux outrage, the war, the cover-ups - it’s either protecting or greasing the wheels of profit at every stage. Imagine if we were able to put this much effort into improving quality of life for regular folk

From our graphic novel No Surrender: an ineffective, vacillating cabinet minister overwhelmed by an uprising of civil disobedience and protest (the suffrage movement)

How about a nice egg at this difficult time?

What’s this? A page from the Clitheroe Advertiser showing ‘local craftswoman’ @buffybatik.bsky.social and little Rickard Sisters, who have been drawing mills since 1981 The cobbles (and the cat) feel v familiar Wave if you live in Abbey Corn Mills, Whalley, Lancs (which is now converted to homes)

It turns out there are some things that are harder to draw than others, and it’s not until you start drawing a 360+ page book about a fiddle player that it really sinks in 🎻

It’s hard to keep up the cheerful tone when all about us we see a slide into fascism What can we do? We can continue to make art and understand each other, we can remind each other that most people are not racist or hateful, and we can peel some spuds for tea

Happy 158th Birthday to Marx’ Capital - which stars in This Slavery as part of the reading that expands the minds of the workers beyond the boundaries of the factory

Rehearsals for #WeAreTheLionsMrManager start next week! 📅 Rehearsed reading: Sept 27 | Willesden Green Library 7.30pm 👀 Preview: Oct 11 | North Edinburgh Arts 7.30pm @northedinarts 🎟️ Tour: Oct 14–18 | Lantern Theatre @TheLanternSheff ✨ Tickets: townsendproductions.org.uk

Astoundingly good, even by the stellar standard set by their previous books. I laughed, cried and raged whilst reading this. It feels like a vitally important tale still, today. I really can't recommend it highly enough. Chapeau @rickardsisters.com and @selfmadehero.bsky.social 👏🏻❤️.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that George Orwell was one of the greatest writers, yet anyone quoting him online tends to be an unappealing character who has misunderstood his politics. However…

Come see us at #LICAF2025 on the 27th and 28th of September! We'll be at tables 39 & 40, just by the left entrance - and you might see some familiar faces there too... @bobbyjosephcomics.bsky.social @bryan-talbot.bsky.social @martinrowson.bsky.social @rickardsisters.com @lucysullivan.bsky.social

This panel is high art. It expresses the grief and trauma of waking with a hangover and realising one is late for work

Our new graphic novel This Slavery takes place almost entirely in Lancashire’s cobbled streets, canals and cotton mills - except for this exotic bit in the docks of New York!

🎉publication day! 🎉 You can buy This Slavery from us, or even better, you can ask for it at a real-life, tax-paying bookshop from knowledgeable friendly booksellers on real wages ✊ And if you see it out in the wild, living a good life, please send us photos!

Completely unrelated to any current events, I've been reading an excellent comic about how capitalism and patriarchy murder loads of people every day and nobody really cares. It's officially out today, go buy it: rickardsisters.com/product/this...

So, #ThisSlavery is coming out tomorrow - but, @RickardSisters.com, what's it all about? 🔗 buff.ly/ufVrYSX #selfmadehero #indiecomics #graphicnovels #publishing #newbook

Publication day for This Slavery is tomorrow! To celebrate, here’s the answer to the question we get asked the most: what’s it like to work with your sister?

How do we know what to draw for historical fashions and interiors in our books? An eclectic photo reference library pulled from all over the internet…

Elon Musk book launch. @goshcomics.bsky.social @sevenstories.bsky.social goshlondon.com/the-gosh-blo...

Out this week - This Slavery by @rickardsisters.com. It adapts a 1924 novel by social pioneer Ethel Carnie Holdsworth supplying "emotionally strong personalities, well defined surroundings and a real sense of purpose". @selfmadehero.bsky.social theslingsandarrows.com/this-slavery/

The only way you could ever take in every quirky detail in our busy busy double-page spreads, is for Scarlett to take you on a tour. Are you ready for some minuscule surprises?

The thing about making books about the working poor in the 1910s is… recognising the same scams and patterns of precarious work today Anyone who’s done this kind of work-from-home knows the life of an Edwardian matchbox folder

Are you busy next week? See ppu.org.uk for some fun opportunities to make friends and influence people around the Excel Centre, if you’re at a loose end…

UK comics creators! Please check out this industry survey - whether you're a seasoned pro, a student, someone who does it on the side or anyone who makes or even plans to make comics for public consumption! ukcomicscreators.org.uk?fbclid=IwY2x...

“Read it & join a union” We love this ✊

How we steal entire houses and keep them forever, trapped in a book…

1 week to go until #ThisSlavery's UK release! 🏭🏭🏭 Don't worry, readers abroad, the North American release is coming up on October 7th! @rickardsisters.com 🔗 buff.ly/B1KfOqx #selfmadehero #indiecomics #newcomics #graphicnovel #publishing #newbook

A date for your diaries! Comic creators David Hine, Mark Stafford and Wayne Snooze are showing off their “arty stuff” at The All Good Bookshop in North London soon (8th September – 3rd October), with a celebratory party an element of the exhibition…

Ooh if you happen to be a premium & rewards member at Barnes & Noble you can get 25% off pre-orders of This Slavery. It’s not out in North America until October

Fangirling…

It’s hard to explain the feeling of sitting here, knowing that people are reading the book you spent the last 3y+ putting together. The actual publication date is not for another week, but here they are out in the wild!

"It can be a continuity nightmare..." Scarlett of the @rickardsisters.com on all the angles and details that go into deigning just one room in #ThisSlavery! 🔗 buff.ly/ufVrYSX #behindthescenes #comics #illustration #howto #graphicnovel #selfmadehero

This phrase was everywhere in 1910 when The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists was written, and in 2020 when our graphic novel adaptation came out. Can @zackpolanski.bsky.social and @zarahsultana.bsky.social offer a new generation with a different attitude something hopeful to vote for?

The tiger He destroyed his cage Yes YES The tiger is out

People sometimes ask us about the historical research for all the details in our graphic novel adaptations. Here’s how it’s done: one chair at a time…

Elon Musk: American Oligarch. Preorder it now.

@rickardsisters.com on this Where's Wally illustration from #ThisSlavery, which arrives next week on September 11th! (Or Where's Waldo to our American readers, who can read This Slavery on October 7th!) 🔗 buff.ly/B1KfOqx #selfmadehero #indiecomics #publishing #bandedessinee #graphicnovels

Lancashire is a very wet location to set a graphic novel, it turns out

Hey, happy Labor Day to all our friends living and working in the USA! This message has never felt so real and vital 👇

Draw the mill … then burn it down 🔥 (Sound up for a peaceful ASMR experience)

How did the suffragettes become terrorists the establishment approves of? Because their aims have been accepted? Or because they were morally correct? Perhaps because some of them were extremely posh? It’s hard to remember what a bold campaign of chaos they laid on

By the way - im always on the hunt for new Teatles (no later than 1970 please. Im a Beatle purist). If you spot one, please let me know!

“There will always be washing in this room” is a small thing that makes a made-up world feel real and richly textured

Debbie Harry knows what’s up

One of us writes crowd scenes (quick, fun, exciting) One of us draws crowd scenes (arduous, detailed, complicated) writers 🤝 artists