Macclesfield Silk Museum is FULL of surprises! Here are all the bits that were not silk - Content Warning for taxidermy and human remains, we were not kidding about the surprises…

Follow Buffy everyone! She’s a British eco-socialist artist who does magical things like grow actual food and knit actual clothes. I’m wearing something she made right now. She has an adorable collie dog. She gave birth to us both. Add her to the friends who live in your pocket!

To resist oppression, and continue to protest for basic civil rights in the face of powerful authorities, is heroic. Every change begins with a small group of determined citizens. The future has not been decided yet, let’s make it better than the past. Let’s stick up for one another ✊

Join us on a field trip to a scene from This Slavery graphic novel. It turns out if you draw first and visit later, you get lots of surprises (including a mistake a whole quarter of a mile long)

this is a health and safety broadcast for artists and illustrators:

Have you ever thought about where silk comes from? Come round Macclesfield Silk Museum with us for a rapid review: from wiggly worm to the president of Ghana…

In November, @commonerschoir.bsky.social sang their new song This Slavery in Queen Street Mill textile museum as part of Trouble At Mill - there was barely a dry eye in the house

Happy New Year! 2025 was the year This Slavery came out, and here is a glimpse of the launch event Trouble At Mill. There are more, longer films at RickardSisters.com

Merry Christmas Eve eve folks - time to stop wrapping, for tomorrow we peel the spuds Wishing the smoothest of journeys to all travellers, and the jolliest of customers to all retail and hospitality workers

The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics is looking for book reviewers. https://downthetubes.net/journal-of-graphic-novels-and-comics-seeks-reviewers/

It’s time for some good news! 🌱 🌍 (1/3)

How’s your Christmas shopping going? Would these tea towels help at all? rickardsisters.com/product/post...

Happy Birthday Aunt Jane! Here’s that time we went for a nosy round her house, it’s a great day out

Here we are researching and immersing ourselves in cotton weaving life, for the making of This Slavery graphic novel We’re at Queen Street Mill Textile Museum in Burnley, where we went on to hold the launch event when the book was made

For the avoidance of doubt, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists graphic novel is definitely a Christmas movie - it has a whole chapter dedicated to wholesome family festivities

**this video contains spoilers** but tbf this story was first published 100 years ago Here’s an introduction to This Slavery graphic novel’s stoic and steadfast sister (and a terrified dog)

Mince pie season is the best, and I for one think they should be freed from their December shackles and made available all year round 🥧

This is well expressed 👇 Click through (if you have the stomach) for the screenshot of the shameful Home Office tweet that prompted it

What would you like for dinner? An overbearing, aggressive husband, judgy guests and an apologetic mother? Mmmhm delicious This dinner party is from our graphic novel This Slavery. Scarlett takes about 1 day to draw a page like this, working from very rough paper roughs you can see at the start

Who knew one page could contain quite so much? Zooming in on the overhead spreads in This Slavery graphic novel is full of surprises…

“130 steep and slippery steps in confined spaces” - you can’t put us off exploring that easily This is the mysteriously named Giant’s Cave under the Camera Obscura overlooking the best bridge in Britain

Anyone buying books from us this week is getting festive recycled packaging, instead of regular recycled packaging 🎄

Here’s a crowd scene from This Slavery for you to pinch and zoom - we loved setting fire to everything for this book 🔥

Wanna see Robert Tressell’s original manuscript in his own handwriting? It’s on display at @lselibrary.bsky.social near Lincoln’s Inn

December the first means opening the doors on your advent calendar and getting excited about a tiny drawing of a shepherd Or open this thread to see Chapter One headers evolve through three books…

Come round East Riddlesden Hall with us, and wonder at the clock, the carving, the china and the… massive cow? @themerl.bsky.social we need you to investigate

We feel “at home emotionally, politically, and artistically” in this book, it’s true

So far today instead of writing a book I have … called HMRC and bought back some missing years for my pension, got a flu jab and purchased a massive cabbage. Would you like to procrastinate with me by admiring my cabbage?

Lovely write-up of This Slavery for @tribunemagazine.bsky.social - written with affection and admiration for Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and the Lancashire that made her possible Thank you @traveloguer.bsky.social @selfmadehero.bsky.social www.tribunemag.co.uk/2025/11/reco...

Grumpy activist relatives who are difficult to buy for? Here’s a solution… Available from all good bookshops (in person or online), or even from us at RickardSisters.com

Do people understand what they are saying about themselves, when they denounce people as ‘antifa’? bleedingcool.com/comics/comic...

Who knew a dog could be so useful? Happy National Collie Day (US)! There are loads of collies in our lives, but the most recent one is fictional

Jip is a very good dog to stand still while Mother dries his toesies

Should any of you be contemplating Christmas shopping for graphic novels, we have a cheat code for you! Here are the books of the year compiled by the experts at Gosh! Comics goshlondon.com/the-gosh-blo...

A reminder that "Pets Tell Tales: Ancient Egypt" makes a great gift for the little history buffs in your life. Over 200 pages of fun, educational comics, narrated by cartoon animals. Ask for it at your local bookshop and be the cool aunt/uncle etc. this Christmas! 🎁

the kitchen is the heart of the home, and this kitchen is the heart of This Slavery graphic novel

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This award gives emerging writers a free course, retreat and mentoring. You need to be unpublished but it closes on 30th November so get in quick. Details in link. Please share :)

@jordancollver.bsky.social is it you and @rikworth.bsky.social who have a Hocus Pocus cover image with a skull hidden in the negative space? I’ve been looking for it to show Scarlett. (ps congrats on handing in your Pets art, what a great feeling)

If you wanted to see a Very Good Dog getting a treat, this would be the ideal way to do it - through Bristol’s Camera Obscura

Phew! What a big weekend we’ve had @thoughtbubbleuk.bsky.social with @selfmadehero.bsky.social! We’ve chatted to squillions of lovely people and enjoyed the bubbling and fizzing of creativity all around us

This was a brilliant thing to be a part of. Singing in the smoke-filled weaving shed was incredibly atmospheric. I wish I could have seen the other performers. Go buy their beautiful book if you can!

Last Saturday we took over a cotton mill, and subverted the workplace by filling it with music and art and drama - This Slavery came alive before our eyes… rickardsisters.com/news-post/tr...

Are you coming to @thoughtbubbleuk.bsky.social this weekend? We’d love to see you there! Come to SelfMadeHero at Comixology D14, enjoy the 1st Graphic Novel Award entries, and 10-12 each day we’ll be there to draw dogs all over your purchases 🐕

Thank you SO much to every single person who took part in or attended Trouble At Mill yesterday - everyone had an absolute riot, and every single one of you played a vital role in bringing it about

It’s Trouble At Mill day! We’re all ready for action, set-up went smoothly and we absolutely didn’t cause any drama or get into trouble 😬🔥 We can’t wait to see you all for a noisy riot later!

Today we’re journeying North to our ancestral homelands…

It’s *so good* to see to hopeful news from America, having become used to waking up to new horrors every morning. Democracy, civil connectedness and voters can defeat fascism. The future hasn’t been decided yet, we can change course by taking action 👏

Happy 65th anniversary of our grandpa getting into trouble with his boss…

Before we announce the winner of #HowManyHorses, we need to honour some wonderful runners and riders…