Creative pals, we need you! A group of us are running an auction to raise funds for the Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan. Sudanese people are dealing with the worst humanitarian crisis since records began. Can you donate mentoring/art/signed books etc? SIGN UP HERE: www.sudancoup.com/auction

Something I keep thinking about is how I saw Citizen Kane when I was 16, and it gave me an impression that, whilst deeply flawed, the super wealthy would be capable of some measure of emotional depth & interior life, when the reality is that Musk’s final words will be something like ‘Le epic bacon’.

Thought Bubble Festival starts today! A week-long celebration of comics held across Yorkshire! With social events, workshops, talks, and loads of comic goodness for you to enjoy. See the full programme of events here: www.thoughtbubblefestival.com/festivalprog...

Man, visited Manchester again recently and I can’t stop thinking about how much they’ve turned that city round since I was young. It’s amazing.

Billie Piper announced as the new BBC Director General but we've got to wait until next Christmas to find out why.

Just for bleedin’ one I’d love to see prominent voices in comics not treat children’s comics as an afterthought.

Art of Alice in Wonderland → buff.ly/5dpcxRr #animation #conceptart #modelsheet #characterdesign #visdev

Genuinely don’t have words for this. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

I’ve got a sale on my pen store until midnight on Monday. Use the code TENTENTEN for 10% off your order total. thingsbydan.myshopify.com

I recently had an absolutely *amazing* pitch meeting, which I interrupted to convince an editor to start watching The Traitors, and I really hope that they are drawing up the contract as thanks.

Hats off to The Traitors editing team. Absolutely amazing.

Shin Godzilla vs samurai

This is really excellent data journalism... Elon Musk has declared war on the British government, it just doesn't realise it.

Here's an interesting new study exploring whether LLMs are able to understand the narrative sequencing of comics and... even the best AI models are *terrible* at it for pretty much all tasks that were analyzed aclanthology.org/2025.finding...

Well, accidentally bought an Apple Pencil Pro instead of the regular version, and lemme tell you it suuuuuuucks.

Well done Zohran! And of course the real victor of the day - typography.

Well that’s nice news. It’s a damned shame that we don’t have any frontline left leaders over here who are as naturally gifted as Zohran is.

It’s 100% either the SIS Building, Thames House or maybe GCHQ Cheltenham. Like, they would be the most fascinating places (& people!) in the country to be around for 40 years.

I really don’t get why a music streamer hasn’t bought the rights to Vib-Ribbon yet, and integrated it into their platform.

Amen to all of this. One of the joys of working in comics is that, in this country, the medium’s roots are intrinsically entwined with working class identity. So I feel little conflict being part of this sector of the arts, and being working class.

There’s a few brilliant comics in there too, and, as with picture books, it makes zero sense - unless you’ve got a silent picture book or comic, they specifically work because of the interplay between the two. It’s great to see them listing comics, but it needs a rethink.

Like… *swoons*

Strongly considering running for PM so that I’ll get gifted Lego from other world leaders.

Okay, so I’m going to go as transparent as I can here + give wider context of what a career in publishing can look like: - There’s a tipping point you can reach in publishing where your early books have earned out, and you have royalties coming in + advances for new books.

Just catching up with Strictly, and: OH MY GOD Lewis & Katya’s dance.

Unboxing my comp copies of Commando Comics: The Lions of Ypres, which is out this week (08/11/25). In this story, I wrote about an almost forgotten part of WW1 history, where Indian soldiers helped the British army against the German army. Available from newsagents and TG Jones nationwide! #comics

I saw a fairly well respected cartoonist saying that he was wrong about his philosophy for comics for most of his life, and that he’s come to realise that being a successful comic creator is 95% about writing. It’s really frustrating to see a creator completely misunderstand the form.

I really wish that they were keeping the Absolute titles separate, and not trying to do universe/event building stuff. The problem is that they’ve got 2 absolutely brilliant comics, 1 dopey but super fun one, and then 3 others. And it feels like they’re going to end up lessening the top 3 with this.

It will never not be funny that America has a bunch of sports with things like ‘World Championship’ in their league titles, when they’re the only country playing in it.

Jesus. I’m a reasonably big film fan, yet - idiot that I am - somehow I didn’t know until today that Margaret Qualley is Andi MacDowell’s daughter, and (worse still) that Jamie Lee Curtis is Tony Curtis’s daughter, despite them both looking so much like them & the latter literally having his name.

I bloody love this time of year, because it’s the two best holidays of the year back to back. Like, there’s the few weeks of run up to Halloween, and then them BAM, next day it’s straight into Christmas season.

By god that's Norman Osborn's music

Halloween is the best holiday because it's all about people giving neighbors and strangers treats for free and telling kids how awesome they are.

happy halloween to what many people believed was the greatest tweet of all time

Oh god, I’ve just realised that there’s a chance I might be able to do seasonal versions of one of the current projects I’m working on, and I’m so excited! I might finally be able to do Christmas & Halloween projects!

I wonder how much money Nightmare Before Christmas has ended up making? I saw it in the cinema when it first came out, and there was barely any merch for about a decade, but now it seems to be a juggernaut.

Okay, hopefully out of spoiler zone now - the banishment speech on last night’s Traitors was one of the best TV moments of the year.

I’m *SO* excited about a new project I’m working one, however in the last week it’s prompted the following responses: - ‘Why do you do this to yourself?’ - My wife - ‘Mark never likes to make his life easy’ - My agent

Probably a bad idea to have put A House of Dynamite on as a non-diverting background watch whilst working today.

Cannot think of a funny self-effacing way to say this, so: Donut Squad has been shortlisted for WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR whaaaaaaat 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Judge rules George R.R. Martin and other authors can sue OpenAI for copyright infringement • Said ChatGPT generated 'Game of Thrones' content similar enough to infringe copyright • OpenAI’s motion to dismiss was denied

A couple of national press snippets so far this week of our National Folklore Survey, which I've been working on as Co-Lead with @nfsengland.bsky.social colleagues. Some of our stats here about supernatural belief in The Observer and The Daily Mail, no less! #folklore #spookyseason #halloween 👻🎃💀

Love this! Said this many times before, but: There’s no other medium that so routinely plays with both form, and the reality it constructs, as comics. I think that sense of play is fundamentally part of why children love the medium, and why publishing dropped the ball for so long in not making them.

Godammit - this is such terrible news for not just the people there, but the whole industry. On a personal level, they’ve published some of my favourite children’s books of all time. I hope that the staff and creators affected by this quickly land on their feet.

This is absolutely right. It’s about creating a permission structure for violence, whether that violence is conducted by the state directly or simply permitted by the state.

Saying this as an ex-smoker: Quitting drinking Diet Coke is infinitely harder.

Okay, strongly considering making this into a t-shirt.

God, this country is going to feel so inextricably grotty & insidious by the next election.