This is magnificent, Jordan! Really top-notch comicking!

Comic cover with the title "What Does HIV Mean?" by Jordan Collver & Jaime Garcia Iglesias featuring a patchwork quilt.

Comic Page 1: A young man accompanies his boyfriend in a clinic waiting room. His phone pings with a reminder for an upcoming Queer Sewing Club session. He kisses his boyfriend goodbye outside the clinic and arrives at the sewing club, holding a Vintage City bag and waving to the instructor. He pulls out an old denim jacket from the bag and and excitedly tries it on. It's covered in badges/patches and a bit tattered but still cool. He feels good in it, but the instructor notices and appears shocked with recognition. TEXT: Most gay men in the UK have been touched by HIV in the UK in some way, whether they live with the virus or not. A central strand running… through the community… but unique to each person. Today, people with HIV can live full and healthy lives. Although there is still no cure… [background sign]: CLINIC thanks to medication like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and effective anti-retroviral treatments, HIV is a preventable and manageable condition. [phone message]: Reminder: Queer Sewing Club - 1hr And people living with HIV can’t pass on the virus. [building sign]: CLINIC ENTRANCE For many young gay men who have grown up having these options, it’s the only reality they’ve known. [handbag]: VINTAGE CITY “When I first came out… coincided with PrEP becoming more available.” (Caleb, 30, white, HIV– on PrEP) Clinic visits for testing, prevention and treatment are part of everyday life. “The issues of sexual health […] lots of people in the queer community go through as a rite of passage” (Tyler, 35yo, HIV neg) Seen as a matter of routine and responsibility. But it wasn’t always this way.

Comic Page 2: A colourful 80s flashback of the instructor as a younger man wearing the same jacket... it was his! He looks up anxiously at an imposing hospital building and is ushered in through the back entrance by medical staff in PPE. He sits alone in the waiting room. We next see him standing in the middle of a lively dancefloor surrounded by men dancing and chatting. He turns to his right and sees a man unravelling like a spool of thread, followed by a closeup of him stitching a badge onto his jacket with that same colour thread. He turns to his left to see another man in a different colour also unravelling, followed by another badge in the same colour. He is left holding several different coloured threads with a jacket covered in badges. Now he is sitting at a table with a small group of other men who are happily painting some protest signs. Some chat, while one lovingly puts some paint on another's nose. TEXT: Far from it, when HIV was first identified in the early 80s… [sign]: HOSPITAL it was a matter of life and, very often, death. [sign]: STAFF ONLY [sign]: DON’T DIE OF IGNORANCE For many gay men who lived through the 80s and 90s, HIV represents fear, loss, grief – “The AIDS Crisis.” “Literally loads of my mates died in the eighties… I was just going onto the scene at that time and the people that you would bump into…” “…suddenly they just wouldn’t be there…” “and no-one really talked about it.” (Brian, 56yo, white) “It was a fear-filled time… But…” “…there were still times when people showed incredible love to each other… I think it would be wrong to see the whole of the 80s and 90s in one big black cloak of doom and gloom. It wasn’t that.” (Paul, 64, white)

I've just been given the go-ahead to share the new comic I made with @jgarciaiglesias.bsky.social about his research!

"What Does HIV Mean?" 1/2

That is straight up publishing snobbery and I do not like it one bit.

You don’t deserve to benefit from this zeitgeist until you do a full-throated Tarzan yell of the word ‘comics’.

Ha, yes! (Slap an AI tag on Clippy and relaunch him to the masses…)

I BLOODY WISH.

It’s exactly that kind of definition they want to consult on, I think! Especially as some of these tools being used unwittingly.

If only Stalin had lived to see it!

A *paid* job, I mean

Absolutely. Taking a job from someone is a hard no, IMHO

Yeah, you make an excellent point. ‘Is it OK if Margery from Lincoln uses AI for colour flatting’ is different to ‘is it OK if Marvel uses AI for colour flatting’, isn’t it?

This is for the SoA’s new Human Authored scheme where you can register your works as being, well, human authored. Currently open to text only works, but they’re consulting on illustrated books so they can include those too

Flatting was what I was wondering about too, but I don’t colour digitally so didn’t feel qualified to chip in!

Mrs Doyle’s response to the teasmade is my go to reaction when it comes to GenAI ❤️

Excellent, thank you!

Yeah, little hard to avoid that shit sometimes, isn’t it?

Beyond the Book Festival | Join the Literary Celebration Today Discover Beyond the Book Festival in Brighton with inspiring talks, panels, and events celebrating storytelling and community. Join us for an engaging literary experience.

The schedule for this year's @beyondbookfest.bsky.social in #Brighton is up!

Featuring a panel of #comics makers: @streakofpith.bsky.social,
Ian Williams the Bad Doctor,
@andyrileyish.bsky.social,
Rhys Wootton,
and me!

We'll be discussing comics' unique power when it comes to storytelling.

Can I interrupt you all for a super quick brain pick? Are there any tasks in comics creation for which people could conceivably use AI as a tool for assistance which would be minimal enough that it wouldn’t diminish the creativity/authenticity of the final work?

Opposition leader Péter Magyar at a rally.

Orbán's electoral crushing is a far greater achievement than most people outside Hungary realise.

He systemically consolidated power for 16 years, fixed the electoral map, abused govt power for political purposes & censored media.

The hurdles that Hungarians overcame for this moment were immense.

“Flotsam in lipstick” ☠️

Comics artists! You’re all doing this, right?? If you’ve got any work published in something with an ISBN or ISSN, register with this payback scheme and simply receive free money later in the year. It is that simple. Do it! Love you.x

Sincerely hope you’re not sick of me and my stats already because there’s a whole lot more where this came from

Home - UK Comics Creators Survey UK Comics Creator Survey 2025 The project is designed to provide the most up-to-date snapshot of who is making comics in the UK today, what obstacles they’re facing and what they need in order to thri...

Source? This! ukcomicscreators.org.uk
Full report out this month… 👀

It's not a like-for-like comparison, but the median for traditionally published comics creators in the UK is between £5,000-£10,000. (Prob much closer to the lower end of that bracket TBH)

Only 11% earn over £20,000, meaning 89% earn well under national minimum wage.

Illustrated poster for inQ! London's Queer Comic Fair. At the top, the text says "London's Queer Comics Fair is Back" There is a circle on the top-right corner that says "Free Entry" in it. The image has a person with their back us, wearing a leather jacket. The leather jacket has inclusive, LGBTQ+ and progressive patches on the sleeves. On the back of the jacket it has the text "26 + 27 Sept 2026. inQ! London LGBTQ+ Community Centre. 60-62 Hopton St. SE1 9JH. 10:30am to 5:30pm. The person is reading a comic. In the background is the London landscape.

London’s Queer Comic Fair is back with a WHOLE WEEKEND of queer comics joy this September 26th and 27th 2026. Double the comic fair fun!

Entry is FREE. We’re family friendly so bring all your friends. Tell everyone! Get excited! inQ! is BACK!

[Poster by the brilliant @kitsuneart.bsky.social]

🙌

That’s where we watched them, but I don’t think they’re there any more! I see internet strangers are suggesting watching them on YouTube with a VPN*

*which of course you must not do within 30ft of a child or it will contaminate them

Oo, putting that on the list right now!

Run don’t walk to Taskmaster NZ!

LOUIE! Deadloch s1 was probably my favourite tv series of recent times and I am beyond excited for s2!!
(Also did you ever watch NZ Taskmaster? Madeleine Sami 💚)

“Hannah you’re holding back people who can reach wider audiences with their creations!”

No, I’m asking creators not to devalue their own work with a half-arsed shortcut. If you respect your readers at all, pay real experts.