A note from the person behind this site

Why I make
these comics

This project begins with admiration, and with finally feeling brave enough to put my own little comics on the internet.

The work that stayed with me

I’m fascinated by what Steve Tillotson created under Banal Pig, including his work with Gareth Brookes. That fascination is part of why I want to make comics, and I want to acknowledge it openly.

What draws me in is the dry humour, the oddness of ordinary life, and the room a short comic leaves for a pause. A few panels can make a small, apparently unremarkable moment feel wonderfully strange. Sometimes the thing that stays with me is less a punchline than a feeling: awkward, funny, and difficult to explain outside the panels.

That is my response as a reader. It is what I admire in the work, and what makes me want to pick up a pen myself.

Trying it for myself

That fascination has turned into making short comics of my own. I enjoy working with a small number of panels, a modest situation, and the possibility that something unexpected might happen between them.

I don’t feel I can do it with the same skill or confidence as the artists who inspired me. I’m still learning how to make a drawing say what I want it to say, how long to let a moment last, and when to stop explaining a joke. But I enjoy trying. These are my own drawings and stories, and I want to give them room to develop in their own direction.

Finding the courage to share

Making something and letting other people see it are two different things. I think I’ve finally found enough courage for the second part.

I’m sharing these small comics because making them matters to me, even while I’m learning. I hope a pause, an expression, or a slightly absurd moment might give someone else a little of the pleasure that reading comics has given me.

A familiar address, a separate project

I now own the banalpig.com domain. This address has a creative history that belongs to the people who made the earlier work, and I want visitors to understand whose work they are reading.

This is my independent personal project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Steve Tillotson, Gareth Brookes, or Banal Pig Comics. The comics I make are my own work; the earlier Banal Pig work remains the work of its original creators.

If you came here looking for that work, please visit The Banal Pig Archive, Steve Tillotson’s comics blog. I hope you’ll spend some time with the work that inspired me.

And if you stay to read mine, thank you. Sharing them is a small step, but it feels like a big one to me.