Phatcomics

(Stratford-last day of day job)

This morning I decided to write about my move from London to Hull.

I arrived in Hull 16th April after living in London for 35 years. It was a difficult decision. Everything I’ve worked for in my 52 years was in london. To give up my friends and all the contacts I’d made, the option of travelling into town to go to Gosh/Orbital or to exhibitions, gigs. Then there was the memories, a sense of place with in my own history psychogeography.
The decision to relocate had been made a few years earlier, so it wasn’t a completely random move.

Still, leaving London…

I was living in a flat that in a couple of months time the contract was being renewed and rent would have increase by another £200. I had a fine balance of working part time for minimum wage, allowing time to make my comics. To continue living in Crouch End in this place would have meant taking on a full time job. This would lead to less comic making time. I could have moved to a cheaper place, but there would have still been the same financial problems. But the real point is that I am 52 and I really don’t want to waste more years going through the same process that the last 12 years involved.
Working and squeezing out some comics in the spare hours.
This is not throwing shade at other creators, I’ve done this for long enough, worked some really shitty jobs to support my comics. I understand the emotional ups and downs that are part of this process. When I reached the grand old age of 35, the decision was made that to have one more go at being a cartoonist. Give it a year, and if nothing happens move on. Starting late has made me aware of how quickly time evaporates, seventeen years later I’m still at it, still worrying that I’ve less years than the previous one.

Moving away from London to Hull has involved me taking on a studio space in HubA.

Tomorrow I will be posting about studios old and new.