I'm the head of a matchstick, I'm a number seven, I'm a...

This week I’m just making shapes. I’m the head of a matchstick, I’m a number seven, I’m a box of Cuban cigars on an ageing dictator’s desk.

As the Boosh’s Vince Noir says it’s all about image over content. “Who cares about the music as long as you’ve got nice hair?”

Although my hair is bad at the moment and Will compared me to Robinson Crusoe the other day.

“You look like you’ve been on a desert island.”

If only I had been. The beaches, the blue sea, the Wi-Fi coconut bar. I can see myself sitting there with a Mac writing my next cartoon being served tall cocktails by a Mexican dwarf with angular teeth.

There was a nice review of Me and Mickie James in Time Out this week. Once again my book was compared to a cartoon.

“Me and Mickie James’ unfolds in a flurry of cartoonish adventures, each more extravagant, unlikely and enjoyable than the last.”

(Gaydarnation also compared me to a cartoon.) This is good, I am the thinking person’s Hong Kong Phooey. (He was quite a guy...)

Cartoon was what I was aiming for. Belleville Rendezvous, Wallace and Gromit, Ratatouille are some of my favourite things. (I love the smell of courgettes in the morning.) It’s all fun, fun, fun. Except for this work thing.

I’ve worked out that if I do an hour overtime at the end of each late shift I can get back an extra 12 days annual leave over the course of the year. That’s 12 more days to write. I am itching to write at the moment, making notes, but scared to start because then it takes over your life. Like a Mummy.

Imagine if you had to look after an Egyptian Mummy? That would take all your time, wouldn’t it? The days you would spend hunting down scarab beetles for their nightly feed. The elaborate excuses you would have to make to friends. The unexplained murders that always seem to happen around your house. Mummy’s traditionally kill people don’t they?



Luckily we could enjoy together listening to BBC Radio 7. My favourite things at the moment are the madcap adventures of the zookeepers in The Boosh, and the surreal town of Spent in The League of Gentlemen.

It makes me want to write a radio series.

P.S. I have updated my website this week - you can see it here.

Currently (still) reading - Fiasco, The American Military Adventure in Iraq

Currently listening to - The Boosh