Another preview of new 'Notel' artwork

Happy new year everyone.

Just a quick update to remind you what your patronage is supporting at the moment.

I'm still in the process of stockpiling artwork of the sequel to my Notel comic, about the effect of television on children in a remote Canadian town in the 1970s.

Attached is a recently-completed four-page spread. You can see how I am trying to add elements of 'science communication' to the artwork, by showing the graphs and charts representing the data from the experiments.

Day by day, I'm completing more and more of the artwork, so will be able to publish this comic sometime in the coming months.

Cheers,

Stuart

PS: a number of my international readers have reached out to me to ask whether I am under threat by the Australian bushfires. The short answer is that my city of Canberra has itself not yet been burnt by the fires, but many of the surrounding bushland, and coastal townships have been burnt in many cases. The air quality has also been poor or hazardous for most of the last two months, which has made day-to-day life unpleasant.

We are in the middle of a heatwave, with a major fire currently burning in the national park south of Canberra. My city currently has its first declared state of emergency in 17 years, so have our fingers crossed that the damage will be as minimal as possible.

Meanwhile, I and many others are dismayed that the conservative Australian government is responding to the crisis with an attitude that dismisses the links between climate change, and drought and bushfires. Rather than seeing this as a moment to reconsider their non-existent climate policies, they are pushing forward with an energy policy that doubles down on coal, gas, and fossil fuels. Choosing to fail on climate change and making a virtue of it, as one writer put it. Australian Parliament reconvenes on Monday after a two month summer break, so it will be interesting to watch the Prime Minister face the music.