You have died of dysentery

Dizzy eggs and spotty balloons...

Hey Hobbies,

It’s coming. I can feel it. Apologies to the summer lovers amongst us - and double condolences because it’s been a bit of a rainy one here in the UK - but I’m so happy that I can see autumn on the horizon. I love the in-between seasons.

And autumn in the UK is all the more satisfying because of that lovely back-to-school vibe. I don’t know if its because on a whole I enjoyed school (do people who hated school get these back-to-school vibes?) or if its sheer muscle memory, but the start of September just fills me with so much excitement and (it doesn’t sound conducive but it is) calm. I want all the new notebooks, super sharp pencils, a schedule, and the promise of learning something new. It’s a very organised season, and it makes me very happy.

If you wanted I could easily fight autumn’s corner as the best season of the year - I’ll take on all the spring, summer and winter lovers - but, dear readers, I won’t hold it against you.

The school holidays have meant a bit of a hiatus from the usual routine, and I’ve not had much time at all to draw. I attempted some illustrations of scenes from The Jungle Book as part of an Instagram challenge, but didn’t love them enough to share them. I’ll see if they grow on me, but I might try them again using a different technique.

Instead I’ve been trying to absorb as much as possible. I really do believe that our creative output is as much about what we put into our head as what we make with our hands. So I’ve been getting inspired:

You, Me & the Balloons by Yayoi Kusama at Factory International, Manchester

David Hockney and LS Lowry at Cartwright Hall Gallery

Big Kid found this funny little book in the little free library phonebox next to our local play area. It’s a level of order, sometimes over the top, but sometimes very right.

Die Kunst, Aufzuräumen by Ursus Wehril

Whilst in Manchester we visited Power Up at the Science and Industry museum, a room full of computer games, and let the kids discover all the old games we used to play back at the dawn of the golden age of home video games. I was a little disappointed that only one of the first 5 computer games I ever played was there, but Big Kid and Little Kid spent a blissful 3 hours journeying through the many iterations of Sonic and Super Mario. The first 5 home computer games I ever played:

Sonic, Robocop, Paperboy, The Oregon Trail and Fantastic Dizzy

Sharpen your pencils, pack your bag, and ease into the new term with:

1. Books rule. Full-stop. don’t get me wrong, I adore film - especially ones with beautifully considered cinematography or stunningly rendered animation - but book reading is mind reading.

2. Longterm readers will know my obsession with early illustrated manuscripts and incunabulum for their obvious beauty, but here’s why else they can’t help but appeal.

3. Cataloguing and indexing like a 17th century buccaneer, which is not only poetic but makes much more sense if you like connections, and more publications should adopt it.

4. I’ve linked to articles about libraries in previous newsletters, but the fight to keep them is still ongoing.

5. Loving this wiki dedicated to the identification, observation, and documentation of visual schemata.

6. I’ve never really thought much about the shapes of animal pupils and how they serve very specific purposes.

7. This dancing.

8. This knitted dinosaur stop motion short.

9. I love ND Stevenson’s substack, especially his latest comic - hit an all too true chord. Also check out his graphic novels and TV shows (big cheer for Nimona).

Harnessing the back-to-school vibe I love so much, I’m going to be focusing on making this newsletter even better over the next few months. So I’d be eternally grateful if you could help me with some reader feedback.

Love,

Question of the month: What are the first 5 computer games you remember playing?

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