Reflecting on 2023

Click to enlarge image to see it more clearly.

 

I had hoped that this review would have been more uplifting than recent years and that my traditional end of year post could be more optimistic. Sadly not, so those of you who can't bear "negativity" will no doubt stop reading now, but I hope most of you will stick with it. I'll try to be as optimistic as I can.

I'll get the bad news out of the way first. After a routine blood test to check on my diabetes (which I have under control now) some anomolies in my white blood cell count led to more thorough tests. In June it was confirmed that I have CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia). It's a type of blood cancer that one can live with for years without symptoms or needing any treatment. Unfortuntely my white blood cell count is continuing to climb, so my consultant tells me I may need chemo in 2024. At present I feel perfectly fine and apart from the high cell count and slight swellings in the lymph nodes in my neck, I have no other symptoms. However I have another hospital appointment in February where they'll decide what to do next. CLL is incurable but it is treatable, although the survival rate depends on each person of course. At the moment it's like being in limbo; they won't start chemo until absolutely necessary because the treatment can be so delibitating and dangerous, but they don't want to leave it too late when it'll be ineffective.

Many of you already knew this as I'd discussed it on my private Facebook page but I thought I'd go public about it because cancer is still spoken of in hushed whispers and I believe we should demystify it and talk about it so people can understand it better. If you want to read more about CLL the best info is at the NHS website at this link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-lymphocytic-leukaemia/

As for other matters, I haven't had a lot of work on this year. At a time when I really needed it, most mainstream comics work dried up. Not where I expected to be in the 40th year of my career. This year has broken me financially and broken my spirit, (as the saying goes, the comics industry will break your heart, folks) but I am very grateful to my editors on Doctor Who Magazine, The Dandy Annual, The77, Haunted, and the other bits and bobs that helped me pay my bills. Big thanks also to all of you who placed bids on my eBay auctions to buy my old pages, and to those who commissioned sketches at conventions. It's no exaggeration to say that I simply would not be here now without your support.

Anyway... trying to be more upbeat... the things I did enjoy about this year were catching up with friends locally and all over the country at various comic cons. I feel privileged to know the best people I could ever imagine to hang out with and your friendship and thoughtfulness means the world to me. The photo collage at the top of this post shows some of those fine folks (plus an inclusion of CLL as it's a significant part of my year, but it's outnumbered by the happy moments). Have fun spotting the comics creators in the pics. (Click/tap on the picture to enlarge it.)

Moving forward... January is busy because I'm currently working on ideas for my Daft Dimension strip in Doctor Who Magazine No.600, then drawing a page for a one off comic, and drawing a ten page story for an American publisher. Hopefully there'll be work on The Dandy Annual 2026 in a few months, but it's a regular strip I really need. I will be selling more of my old artwork on eBay soon, so keep following this blog and my social media posts for updates.

Thanks also to everyone who follows my blog and for getting through this long post (at least I hope most of you are still reading!) and may I wish you all good health, happiness, and prosperity for 2024.