The screwball romantic comedy ‘Lady Eve’ is available to stream on Channel 4 for a few weeks. Barbara Stanwyck steals the whole ripping show. www.channel4.com/programmes/t...

I'm back to writing (and roughing out) pages today, it feels a lot better when I've taken a decent break from whipping myself up and down the street. The panel below was my favourite of the day but I guarantee that rendering this "properly" will be a living nightmare next week.

New comic: "How To Be A Pythonista" badmachinery.com/comic/2026-0...

A new Solver is in the world www.patreon.com/posts/read-s...

Wonderful. This is one of the best comics panels ever drawn. It - and the pages around it - rewired my brain and changed the way I talked about and understood art and storytelling. If there is any book I would recommend unreservedly to creative people, it’s Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics.

It's tough sometimes being a bachelor, but there's nothing better for we single men than the start of the year when the new Cup A Soups are announced.

I love drawing "Marvel corner box faces"

I'm in the process of tidying up the Bad Machinery website ready for a new year of comics, so Savage Sword of Susan gets its own little subsite. scarygoround.com/savagesword/

Social media is going great, in order to make a living, we’re forced to make our own free commercials for the things we’re making until the most of what we’re making is the commercials.

SOLVER: LITTLE DAYS starts on Monday badmachinery.com/comic/2026-0...

Two weeks left to apply for a table at the inaugural SCARF (Sheffield Comic ARts Fair)! The form will close on Jan 15th so don't miss out!

A free post with news and a load of quick drawings www.patreon.com/posts/hny-so...

It's January 1st, the day of the Turner Classic Movies promotion play-offs 1st round. Who will replace the relegated Ben-Hur? Ernest Saves Christmas v The Burbs (3PM, BBC1) Das singende, klingende Bäumchen v A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (7.45PM, ITV1)

Gondry probably made all my favourite music videos, but this one is my favourite because it is also about what a music video represents www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQlA...

Glad to see Charlotte Grote agrees with me on the true hunk of the X-Files!

Solver is back on Monday, but reruns continue, from Circus Windows on, at @officialgocomics.bsky.social www.gocomics.com/bad-machiner...

I'm still pleased with the four postcards I drew for sale at Thought Bubble this year. I hope to do more with old-fashioned pen and ink this year, the era of genAI art seems to demand it.

A few times when I've done signings in shops, they've asked me to do a a playlist. I did one in a Forbidden Planet which had a good sound system and I've never felt a song change the retail vibe like this one did. The total attendance for the signing was 4 people. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkeR...

I rode in a hotel lift in San Diego with Lyle Lovett in the early 2000s. I'm not invested in Lyle's career at all but it was still a thrill to see that one-off face at close quarters. Our relationship ended when I disembarked. If you're out there, Lyle - good to know you.

I'm pleased and proud to announce next year's Scary Go Round Governors, voted for by our Gold Club Members. Dennis Fishbeak Susannah Zink Sir Ivory Coast Jenina Broadwoodwidger OBE Please join me in welcoming them, as they help steer your favourite comics universe through 2026's choppy waters.

Christmas may be over but here's one last gift, Steely Dan's unused ad jingle for Schlitz beer. It will have you "reeling in the beers" but avoid drinking them from "bad beakers" etc etc www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL0m...

Christmas is one of the few times now I get to sit down and draw in earnest in my sketchbook, I did a lot of mad drawings that could never happen working digitally, and this was a particular favourite.

No new Solver this week (it's my week off) but reruns at GoComics continue, and today's is one I remember being very pleased with. Additional note: I slipped a disc drawing this page while sitting on a "bad chair". www.gocomics.com/bad-machiner...

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2025 badmachinery.com/2025/12/27/a...

It wouldn't have been 2025 without the return of good rock n roll errr music so thanks to The Velvet Sundown for bringing authenticity - and burgers - back to the pop scene

Kit + the Wolf by John Allison @badmachinery.com

"Twelfth Night Till Candlemas" The story of a forty-year book-quest and of its remarkable ending My popular seasonal post from last year: emptycity.substack.com/p/twelfth-ni... Now with a couple of footnotes one year on: emptycity.substack.com/p/twelfth-ni...

Final comic of 2025: "Without the Beatles (NEMS pt 3 concludes)" badmachinery.com/comic/2025-1...

It's a rare Tuesday comic from me; to think, once upon a time I commemorated every Tuesday with a new page. A different time, a simpler age.

It's all Stanwyck all the time at my house

He's m ng ist He’s check ice He find ou naught ice Norman Collier is comi town

I was reminded today of a very specific sort of British shopping bag that precedes free "disposable" plastic bags. It was made out of a sort of mesh, with metal handles. I wonder if anyone still makes them. They seemed near-indestructible.

New comic: "It would have taken a lot longer" badmachinery.com/comic/2025-1...

New comic: "That’s her gift" badmachinery.com/comic/2025-1...

Some recent Steeple drawings

Looking forward to spooking up my mind with this

B. Walsh, A. Hammond, H. Willoughby, A. Carr: no. I have no real interest in Strictly but I have watched it with my mum many times and I feel that the only way to keep the ship up is to employ Amelia Dimoldenberg and Ania Magliano as the new hosts. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

New comic: "We never got to do it" badmachinery.com/comic/2025-1...

Last day for Xmas Topatoco orders. I note that there are two (2) copies of NEMS 1968 left in my store (topatoco.com/sgr)

It's time! Behold the Christmas hedgehog! From Verdun, Bibl. mun., ms. 0107, f. 008. Our thanks as always to @etreharne.bsky.social who found her.

I'm reissuing a classic - no bonus tracks

New comic: "The queen of boogie-woogie" badmachinery.com/comic/2025-1...

NEMS 1968 and Savage Sword of Susan now available at Topatoco badmachinery.com/2025/12/16/n...

If you're a Webtoon user, Solver has now been running there for a couple of months in a phone-friendly format. Please tell your phone-friendly format friends. www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/so...

When I interviewed Spinal Tap and Marty DiBergi this summer, none of them broke character, for the whole hour. Except Rob Reiner, once, losing it when Michael McKean's David St Hubbins talked about minimalism. I didn't use this in the feature and hadn't published any audio, but this is joyful.

These are great, very well researched pieces, a bit like Stereogum's "The Number Ones" for old computer games. Excellent reading.

New comic: "Back back back" badmachinery.com/comic/2025-1...

I repost purely because it is one of my very favourite things from my time in comic books: Lottie and Claire on the @gurihiru.bsky.social variant cover for the 2020 series Wicked Things.

I've found the perfect ad copy. It's so soothing that I think it would cure you without your having to buy the remedy described within. I give you: Blue Jay Corn Plasters

New comic: "Bip Bop" badmachinery.com/comic/2025-1...