I'm doing another full rewatch of Parks and Rec and let me tell you: Leslie Knope's optimistic politics and enthusiasm for doing good things is a real tonic for the times. And then the episode ends and reality crashes back in.

Ugh, godawful AI Christmas cards for sale in our local post office. Putting artists out of work and destroying the environment for a cheap buck. The true meaning of Christmas…

Holy fuck. Holy FUCK Pluribus is good. The first episode might be the best hour of TV all year!

Great to see how much people are loving Frankenstein. A few months ago I designed the art and making of book and could see the film was going to be great. Del Toro and his team have absolutely knocked it out of the park. Now go buy the book! amzn.eu/d/5q7zFMy

Have my first proper cold since at least May which must be some sort of record for me. I know it’s May because that’s when I started on Methotrexate and you have to skip your dose when you’re ill as it knackers your immune system. Anyway, long story short, I feel like crap.

Why does everyone in that weird Coca-Cola AI ad look like the people in Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun video.

A magnificent piece of work. Comprehesive, revelatory & shocking. Journalism this good is always rare & precious but never moreso than at times like this. Latter day Lord Haw Haws being plumped, preened & delivered to your doorstep in plain sight by a Nazi-saluting goon news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

Somehow she is hogging all of the cushions. Even yours, probably.

It's ok everyone, stand down. I got my Interpol/Bloc Party tickets.

Buying tickets for gigs has become completely impossible. ‘You’ll need a code’, fine, ‘sign up to our app’, sigh - fine, ‘we’ll send a code before the tickets go on sale‘, fine, but I haven’t received a code, and I’ve been logged out of the app and now the app has crashed and I can’t log back in.

Here’s a niche question for any Apple nerds in the audience: my ancient home Mac is running Monterey and sidecar won’t connect to my iPad (on ios26) - the iPad doesn’t even show up in Displays. It works fine on my work Mac (running Sequoia). Are the operating systems too far apart?

Enjoyed the first episode of Welcome to Derry - seems like it’ll be a pretty fearless show with some interesting ideas, but my god I’m bored of CG backgrounds. The whole thing felt like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (ask your parents).

Just noticed that Lynch’s Wild at Heart is on Prime Video for the first time. It doesn’t get a lot of love but I think it’s my favourite Lynch film, and just about one of my favourite films period. No one has ever been cooler or hotter than Cage and Dern. If you’ve not seen it, do yourself a favour.

Gotta say, I’m not sure whose idea it was but the whole ‘no rain for weeks and then all the rain in two days’ thing isn’t really working for me, thanks.

Niche query here but can any artists recommend a seriously low-tack masking tape? Everything I have is ripping the top layer of my Bristol board off. I need something completely non-stick. But also sticky.

Inked up a full comic double page spread, tried to take the masking tape off and it completely ripped the surface of the paper apart. Really enjoying working with brushes and pens but my god digital is easier!

Absolutely LOVED this by @davidmbarnett.bsky.social. A really interesting and clever twist on folk horror tropes. Perfect for the autumn!

@princey5000.bsky.social 😂

Really enjoying my full rewatch of Parks and Rec on U - but I wish they didn’t keep cutting the episodes off before the closing credit joke! Most annoying.

Really looking forward to IT: Welcome To Derry, but if you don't shout 'WIPEOUT!' when the clown laughs over the HBO logo at the beginning of this trailer we are not the same age. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB-0...

This review reminds me of when I used to design fringe theatre sets in the late 90s. Generally they were good but for one show I only had a weekend (and a cracking hangover). Time Out’s review said the cast were only let down by ‘Martin Stiff’s poorly built set’. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Take a few minutes to appreciate Drew Struzan creating the original artwork for THE PHANTOM MENACE. Truly a master at work.

Very sad to hear about the passing of the great Drew Struzan. His beautiful film posters defined my childhood and so it was a thrill to chat to him on the phone when I designed a book of his artwork many years ago. Amazing artist and a lovely man.

Just out of the Frankenstein premiere. Sometimes, working on the art books for these movies, can kind of spoil them as I know the full story and imagery but man, I still enjoyed the hell out of it. GDT is a master of the gothic and the performances, especially Jacob Elordi’s, are exceptional.

What a strangely empty last episode of Peacemaker. Not entirely sure what the point of it was at all.

Man, it’s so great to see all the new Vertigo titles. I was obsessed with that imprint in the 90s and it’s wonderful to have it back. Can’t wait to read them!

It didn’t seem to get much love but I really enjoyed Black Rabbit on Netflix. Jude Law and Justin Bateman are great in it - and it really made me desperate to revisit New York!

Shutterstock, I don't want to use AI and if you don't stop forcing it down my throat I'm going to start using a different photo library.

Genuinely thought Taylor Swift had written a song about the father of modern computing but according to the internet she’s singing, ‘bad bitch’ not ‘Babbage’. Missed opportunity if you ask me.

Loved One Battle After Another. It’s a long film but crikey it whips past. Stuffed full of amazing performances and a hilariously weird script, PTA directs the hell out of it. Old-school filmmaking at its best.

*Draws some comic stuff, feel quite happy with results* *Has a break, checks out social media, sees some truly breathtaking comic artwork, feels completely inadequate* *Goes back to the drawing board feeling deflated* Repeat.

Out for the dog walk and let’s just say I chose the wrong weekend to start playing Silent Hill f…

please enjoy the payday rap scene from community which makes me cry laughing every time

The new trailer for the movie The Astronaut looks good. It reminded me (I'd literally forgotten…) that a while back I wrote and drew a short comic called Building 27, about a quarantined astronaut. You can read it for free here: drive.google.com/open?id=1D6l...

I honestly think Farage looked at that new poll with as much terror as the rest of us. He doesn't really want power because then he'd have to actually do something with it. He just wants to be able to complain about those who already have it.

The new trailer for the movie The Astronaut looks good. It reminded me (I'd literally forgotten…) that a while back I wrote and drew a short comic called Building 27, about a quarantined astronaut. You can read it for free here: drive.google.com/open?id=1D6l...

I quite enjoyed the nonsense action movie Carry-On so seeing how much of the stuff I just assumed was real but is actually VFX is staggering. youtu.be/0QBqb7PFcR8?...

We took my eldest to university up in Manchester for the first time this weekend. Just got back and the emptier house feels quiet and sad. Obviously very excited for her but my god it hurts my heart.

Anyone fancy clubbing together and buying David Lynch’s house? welcometotwinpeaks.com/lynch/david-...

I love Parks and Rec and The Office so the fact The Paper is fine is, well, fine. It’s fine. Just totally and absolutely fine.

Interesting that tonight’s Alien: Earth episode was called The Fly. A million years ago I first watched Aliens back to back with The Fly on VHS, one evening at a mates house.

Every Apple event

Weird how some people are so desperate to waste time messing about developing a perfect AI model when there’s still the NowTV interface to fix.

My government alert went off a couple of minutes after my daughters. Is there, like, a hierarchy of importance for these things…?

I haven’t inked by hand for years, but I thought I’d give it a try in the new book I’m working on. I penciled in Procreate, printed it out in blue on A3 and now testing the inking with a brush pen. Quite like the chunky results but struggling with my old man eyesight and thumb arthritis a bit...

On the same day in the Telegraph:

Watching the new episode of Peacemaker now and I think I have whiplash.

It’s time for the weekly, “Blimey, Alien Earth is a bit good!” post. But seriously, Alien Earth is really good.

My eldest is off to start uni next weekend and we’re all going to miss her terribly - but I think our dog is going to miss her the most. They love each other so much it makes my heart hurt. I fully expect scenes like this when she comes back for a holiday.

If you’re a fan of Longlegs, this earlier Osgood Perkins film, Gretel and Hansel, has just landed to stream on Amazon Video and I recommend checking it out. It’s a creepy little movie, with some stunning visuals.