This zine is a series of creative writing and thinking activities/lessons that you can use to have some fun, whether it’s in a classroom, with your kids, or rolling solo one lazy afternoon.
My idea for the zine was to create fun activities that spark relativity, and maybe also spark content for your next adventure, or a story you could create. It could be for teachers, but also players and DMs, and creative minds, and anyone who digs fantasy RPGs.
Click the link and look at some of the sample pages and activities, and share it with any creative nerds in your life who think will get a kick out of it.
On the last weekend of January, I was honoured to have DEER EDITOR, my comic with co-creator Sami Kivela, win a Comics Arts Award of Australia – there are three tiers of awards where the best of Australian Comics can be honoured and we took home a Silver Ledger.
DEER EDITOR is a book that lives close to my heart. It’s a collaboration with Sami, who is one of my favourite people. It’s a weird book and something that I did with my whole heart – an anthropomorphic lead, in a crime/horror mash up, also a journalism newsroom story, and one that’s as much about the world around us as it is the main character and their journey. I cannot thank Sami enough for coming along on the journey with me – as well as Lauren Affe for the colours, Jim Campbell for the letters, Chas! Pangburn for bringing it across to Mad Cave Studios, and everyone and anyone who ever read a copy.
If you are interested in the book, please ask your local comic shop to order you in a copy [or if you see me at a convention this year, I’ll probably have one].
The award now lives on a shelf alongside other gongs, and a full display of everything I’ve ever had published in any form.
I read more in 2025 than I have in a long time. Part of it is the job [English teachers need to read], part of it is dedicating time to it, part of it is the kids getting older so I both have more time to read [toddlers are constant input/output machines, and I was never good at disconnecting from that] and I think modelling good reading is important to growing kids [the more they see you read, the more they will read, and reading makes the world a better place], and part is just because I love reading.
Here’s my StoryGraph 2025 round up of books read.
Tricky to pick a Best Book of the Year – I reread IN THE SKIN OF A LION by Michael Ondaatje and it probably remains my favourite book of all time, and I also reread THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy, which is a staggering work.
But I’d probably elevate:
HANGSAMAN by Shirley Jackson because her control on the page is phenomenal
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner as it’s just brilliantly written in both prose and structure
A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN by Lucia berlin because some of these short stories are just all timers
KING SORROW by Joe Hill because for 24 hours of audiobook, I was gripped!
I watched 310 films in 2025 – that’s more films than I have watched in a calendar year for as long as I can remember [I never really counted before, though Teen Ryan probably landed somewhere close, room-dwelling screen goblin that he was]. I track my films on Letterboxd because it’s the only social media that matters.
TRAIN DREAMS was far and away my favourite film of 2025 – beautiful and with a heartache that’s difficult to achieve.
For 2026, I’m setting myself a goal to watch more films directed by women. I’ll also continue to push into foreign film.
This solo journaling rpg is a sci fi building crawl – you roll a d8 and go up on evens, down on odds, and you’ll statistically end up lost forever before you reaching the ground floor ever again. Plus, if you don’t leave the ground floor with all 4 Aces, then you’re dead anyway.
While you are crawling along your way, you’ll draw from a 52 deck to encounter attacks, items, and even memories because like all good journaling games it’s actually more about crafting a charcater and getting to know them than anything else.
Also: dig that Sami Kivela cover art – he’s amazing and he smashed it out of the park with this one.
So please have a look, share with a fellow solo rpg journaling game nerd, and have a little fun.
My latest creator owned trade paperback lands on May 8 – Deer Editor from me, Sami Kivela, Lauren Affe, Jim Campbell, Dan Hill, Chas! Pangburn through Mad Cave Studios is our antler noir comic that we think you are going to love, and love so much you’ll want to own your own copy of the tpb, and you’ll want that so much you’ll preorder it from your local comic shop today, and they’ll be so intrigued they’ll preorder 5 extra copies because they know it’ll sell damn well for them.
But don’t take my word for how good my comic is, listen to these fine people instead:
If you want to hear me talk about Deer Editor, and other things, you can listen to:
The Cryptid Creator Corner Podcast – part of the Comic Book Yeti network. This one goes deep into inspirational texts and quality Aussie stuff.
22 Panels Podcast – an excellent chat about Bucky, and just so many other things.
You can also be swayed by the social proof of these reviews:
“This a captivating, energetic first issue, moving at an unstoppable clip…a must buy for everyone who loves a hard boiled mystery.” 10/10 – Theron Couch at Comic Watch
“Deer Editor delivers Fletch with a deer.” possibly my favourite pull quote, from Brett Schenker over on Graphic Policy
“Like an antlered version of Edward R. Murrow, Bucky is determined to use his talents to better the world.” and “Similar to David Aja’s work on Hawkeye, Kivelä’s thick black lines and dark shadows add to the noir elements of the story, making Deer Editor a graphic, deer-journalist version of Carol Reed’s The Third Man—and John Doe is Bucky’s Harry Lime.” both make me smile, thanks Ben Boruff over at Comic Bastards
“Honest reporters is almost as fantastical an idea as a talking deer!” Johnny “The Machine” Hughes makes me laugh with a 10/10 over on Comic Crusaders
Or maybe you like to hear from creators you trust. We’ll, here’s what some kind people had to say about Bucky.
The DEER EDITOR tpb is out in May [MAAATE!] and getting a preorder in now with your shop ensures they’ll have a copy set aside for you so you won’t miss out.
Within The Kind Red Building has 12 hours left over on Kickstarter – this is your last chance to get my biggest rpg ever as a print edition, or with some digital deals.
We’ve had an amazing February with nearly 200% funding drawing closer as a final ending place, and over 150 backers, so maybe you can help us hit 200 backers and go beyond 200% funded!
This solo journaling rpg is about a sci fi building crawl where you flee from one threat into the multi-levelled endlessness of so much more/worse/more and probably won’t ever make it out to live another day.
The pledge levels vary – you can buy in from $3, or go as high as $60 – it’s completely up to you.
I have to say: I had no idea how this campaign would go. I usually make comics and Kickstart comics, so it was a little bit scary to step into a different arena. It’s been really nice to have so many people check out the game, reach out with kind words, and support me to such a huge success. This month has been a real eye-opener for me and it’s energised me to keep creating and playing in rpgs alongside the other usual stories I write.
I also find every time I run a campaign I have someone message me within days of it closing saying they only just heard about it, so hopefully that’s not you and this message lands in time. If you want to share it with like minded mates, absolutely go for it.
The campaign ends on Thursday night [my time here in Aus]. It’s been really heartwarming to see the campaign continue to catch eyeballs and interest all month, as that’s what things like Kickstarter and ZineQuest should do, they act as a beacon and a hub and people come in for it all.
As a reminder: if you like these types of sci fi, then this rpg is for you:
This is the final 12 hours – so if you’ve been thinking about this writing game, then now is the time to click across and see which reward level is for you.
I got a stack of Deer Editor #1 delivered recently and they make a pretty stack. I’ll be taking them to conventions early this year, the first being the Geek Markets in Goulburn on March 16.
If you missed the single issues in stores – #1-2 are out already, and #3 drops on the 20th of this month – then you can prepare yourself for the TPB launch coming on May 8.
Bucky is finally going to be available in trade paperback collected form this May. All 3 issues, plus a bunch of back matter material, will be in the tpb. You can preorder this through your comic shop today so they put one aside for you when it lands on May 8th [otherwise known as the date, MAAATE! which is perfectly Aussie].
A John Doe slaying lures a journalist into a world of political intrigue, a wi-fi-enabled grotto, and a station locker full of secrets. For Bucky, an editor of the crime beat at “The Truth,” it’s all in a day’s work…
…but he also happens to be a deer.
Will he chase down his last story in this antler noir series? Deer Editor is perfect for fans of Blacksad and Chinatown.
Illustrated by Sami Kivela
Coloured by Lauren Affe
Lettered by Jim Campbell
Written by Ryan K Lindsay
Edited by Dan Hill & Chas! Pangburn
Published by Mad Cave Studios
The DEER EDITOR tpb is out in May [MAAATE!] and I’m going to push this as my biggest tpb launch ever because this is what readers deserve [and then maybe we’ll get more Bucky stories in the future!].
Make sure you tell your local comic shop to preorder and set aside a copy of the collection for you in May. If you read the single issue then you can tell them how much you dug the book and that they will sell a bunch of the tpb to those who slept on it, or were trade waiting.
You can also buy copies for birthday presents. Just have a lazy stack of 10 Deer Editor tpbs sitting around and then when a birthday rolls around, BAM!, it’s comic present time. Or, maybe your book club needs a new read. Buy a copy for each member and then talk about the crime genre influences and consider the book through a critical reading lens [a Post Colonial lens could yield all kinds of interesting discussion points].
I always appreciate the support, and it means a lot to me that anyone ever checks out my writing, so thank you.
I love going to the Lifeline Book Fair. It’s making money for a great charity. It’s a warehouse full of books. I never quite know what I’ll find.
This past week was no different, so here’s what I brought home.
The big win here for me was finally finding a copy of Michael Chabon’s MAPS & LEGENDS, which I’d never been able to find in the wild before.
Scoring the very slim early stories of J.D. Salinger for $1 is good value – it’s 3 previously uncollected stories.
I love writing rules, so having a copy of Elmore Leonard’s very specific, though often very helpful, 10 Rules of Writing is nice to add to the shelf. It’s a well prresented collection.
That cover for A CLOCKWORK ORANGE definitely caught my eye. Especially since I lost my copy years ago in the Great Book Box Misplacement Fiasco of [unnamed year], wherein I lost a bunch of Stephen King books and a box that I assume had a shelf of really good books on it and the main one I notice in absence is my copy of THE WANDERERS by Richard Price. I fear I’ll never find that book again.
The last one I’ll point out is the old pulp sci fi by Leigh Brackett. It’s great to find her old sci fi stuff, and it’s a popping cover.
Happy new year – 2024 is nearly here. I don’t know why, but typing 2024 seems really strange and futuristic to me, in a way no other year has for a very long time. I expect 2025 to be even stranger as we hit a quarter century down.
As usual, this round up is a series of things of things I imbibed and dug this year. I offer them up as something I advocate for you to try, also.
Also as always, I did a poor job of keeping tabs on what I consumed this year, and there’s every chance I’ve missed something pivotal. I’m sometimes decent at this – my Letterboxd has been tip top this year, and my Story Graph is also up to date, but I am not tracking my tv at all. Plus, my comic reading went way way downhill. I don’t know why. With this in mind, here’s the stuff I remember really vibing in this year, 2023:
COMICS
Who knew two digital comics would be the winners on the horizon for 2023 for me.
FRIDAY
This comic from Marcos Martin & Ed Brubaker continues to excite and shake me every time a new chapter drops. The story winds from an old school YA teen investigator tale into some really interesting swerves and curveballs, and every twist only layers on more awesome and intrigue.
Then there is Martin’s illustrations, with Muntsa Vicente colours, that bring the world to life in this stylised way that feels so specific that the other day I saw a lamp and instantly thought “Oh, that looks like Martin drew it.” Stunning worldview stuff.
This massive graphic novel has been slowly serialised by Niko Henrichon and Brian K. Vaughan on their newsletter over the past 2 years. It’s a story about a ghost watching the world after a women died in a mass shooting. It’s nasty in its violence and open in its sexuality and ultimately fascinating in what it shows us about the world around us through the present and the future storylines.
It’s got about a year to go, but I have found myself absolutely loving every week when a few pages fall into place.
I also really enjoyed the end of Chip Zdarsky’s run on Daredevil, and Phillips/brubaker dropped RECKLESS: FOLLOW ME DOWN in January which I loved, and their WHERE THE BODY WAS has landed, but I need to get my copy asap.
NOVELS
COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER by Michael Ondaatje
I got lost in this book. The story is interesting, as is the story behind the story. Michael Ondaatje reading about the history of jazz and coming across Buddy Bolden and how he went mad at a parade and then records on him did not cover much at the time.
From this, Ondaatje draws out a wild mostly fictional tale of Bolden and his life and it’s utterly fascinating. The musicality of Ondaatje’s writing, using repetition and polysyndeton in a pacing way above all concepts of syntax and context, is so well expressed. It had me absolutely falling for this book and feeling in each moment.
I’m slowly working my way through the works of Ondaatje, and each book I sample just makes me consider his mastery of language and emotion in complete awe. I would put this up there with In The Skin Of A Lion as one of my absolute favourites of his.
EMERALD CITY and other stories by Jennifer Egan
I picked this short story collection up the other day for $1 at a charity stall and it is short so I thought I would slot it in before the festive season began and I could then travel with a larger book. This is the first Egan I’ve read, and there were 3 stories in this book that are fascinatingly brilliant. I think there are 1-2 that didn’t land with me, and the rest are super solid.
Overall, that’s a win of a collection, but I’m also glad to have stumbled across those few that are truly dynamite. It’s also nice to expand my reading into some slice of life instead of the usual genre-heavy stuff I read [especially short stories].
Teaching Novels with ‘Salem’s Lot and The Catcher in the Rye
I unlocked a really interesting angle on Stephen King’s tale of small town vampires. This is his Great American Novel. Except, the way he sees it, America is no longer so great [if it ever was].
The keystone to this was the prologue – it’s set after the events of the novel and it robs a whole mess of the dramatic tension that horror novels normally rely upon. We know the two who live, we know nearly everyone else dies, and we know the vampires really messed things up. By taking this tension away from the reader, king is signifying that the book isn’t really a lascivious horror novel [which King knew he’d be typecast as by writing about vampires] and instead it’s about the town, about the people, about America.
He then proceeds to show us how terrible America is as everyone in the town feels trapped in their lot in life [pun probably intended] and most of them are truly horrible – the main offenders victims of systemic sexism, and capitalism.
With this in mind, I loved teaching this novel again this year.
Whereas with The Catcher in the Rye, the best moment was getting the students to consider Holden Caulfield once they were about halfway through the book. He’s wildly annoying and fairly horrible and pretty much the whole class hated him.
I then got them to unpack *why* he is this way, what has made him into this person. Everyone could understand he was sad and scared and he ultimately just deserves pity – but they can barely give it to him even with all that in mind.
It’s fascinating to see Salinger presenting this absolute masterpiece of a Terrible Person, and then trying to connect up why he’s done it. I don’t believe he’s punching down on The Youth. He’s showing how bloody hard it is, and how no one will care, not even your readers.
A brutal lesson, especially when you realise you’ve actually fallen into the camp/trap of hating him, too. Which, I’ll admit, my first reading as a Certified Youth left me disliking the book because I hated Holden, but now as an Aging Man of Minimal Erudition I just feel incredible depths of sorrow for Holden, and I think Salinger putting this small fella up on the page in the shadow of WWII where teenagers were suddenly a new [and scary] social concept was a stroke of genius [though I fear a lesson perhaps not always yielded].
TV
???
I don’t know if I watched anything truly boss in the realm of television this year. I watched FARGO S4 and it was good, but there was something that didn’t land for me. I kept feeling like Schwartzman was out of place somehow. The overall Miller’s Crossing vibes and winding and intertwining plots kept me going until the end, but it didn’t feel as classic as the other seasons.
I didn’t yet catch the new season of THE BEAR or ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING. I did really really enjoy THE AFTER PARTY [was that this year?]. I’m also keen to watch MONARCH. Oh, and I finished BARRY S4 this year [I also think that was this year]; it was very bloody good.
MOVIES
This year had a whole mess of movies, I nearly hit 200 flicks for the year [I’ll try harder next year]. My trick to so many films was two-fold: have my kids discover quality cinema and constantly want to work in a film and one I’d want to watch with them; watch movies while I exercise. I got through a bunch, but I’ll separate into the new stuff, and some old classics [some of which I finally saw for the first time].
My absolute favourite film of the year was:
THE FABELMANS
Hot damn, this film scratched an itch within me. To see the creative birth of Steven Spielberg on the screen was one thing, but to have him do it in such a captivating way was a whole other level. I was captivated from the start to the end, everyone is acting at their peak, and it genuinely made me cry. A real cinematic experience [I only wish I’d gotten the chance to watch it on the big screen].
Other contenders from the year that was were:
ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Now there’s just so much pressure for them to stick the landing on the third one to have the very best trilogy of all time.
This film pops just as much as the first, which is saying something huge, and seeing the Spot get the props they deserve on the big screen was wild. I also didn’t know this was going to break and roll straight into the next flick, so when I felt like we were nearing run time and there was no way the story could be resolved it was quite the internal shock in the cinema.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
Ah, what a true joy. The film just oozes charm and laughs and thrills effortlessly. That they captured the spirit and mechanics of a good session of D&D is wild. I really hope more comes of this – and I agree, having a whole new party in a whole new adventure is probably the way to go, with call backs to some of these characters along the way.
BARBIE
Insanely well put together. The ludicrous and the sublime somehow intersect in ways that almost shouldn’t work, and yet the result is one of the most thoughtful and also hilarious films of the year. It’s very Message First, but that doesn’t get in the way of the actors getting to crush it, the laughs landing, or the overall feeling of the film getting to land. Also: feels like this will be highly rewatchable.
CONFESS, FLETCH
Does what it says on the tin. Captures the charm of the book/character, gives Hamm room to breathe, and is a bloody good time from soup to nuts.
BARBARIAN
Bonkers. And 85% of this flick is perfect. The ending is a bit of a mudslide, but it doesn’t negate the quality. I’m glad I went in very very blind to this one, made it all the better.
TALK TO ME
This is good stuff. Low key Aussie horror, very well shot, and the nasty moments really pop. I just love that teens find a ghost communicating hand and use it to enliven their parties and this logically actually makes complete sense.
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
It’s strange and unhinged and wandering, but once the narrative truly gets into gear the film clips along and has something interesting to say.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
This has a decent kick to it. I think I wanted it to be drastically better than the book, and it is, in parts, but not in some. The acting is wildly top shelf across the board, and some of the moments are stunning cinema. It is very good, but there was a little something missing that I still cannot define that just held this back for me. I’m keen to watch it again and see how I feel about this brilliant story unfolding.
And some of the oldies I discovered and loved:
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
I’d never seen all of this in one go. The songs are so catchy, but the whole thing is beautiful and brilliant.
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
Had somehow never seen this in one sitting. It holds up so well and it’s riveting from opening to close. This exploration of the pointless nature of war is so well put together.
SORCERER
Finally [FINALLY!] found a copy on Blu-Ray. It’s a good flick that sits alongside plenty of these older flicks as needing one thing to also think about: consider the context and technology of the time in which it was made. Much like rewatching 2001 this year, you have to unpack just how difficult or groundbreaking these things were and see it through the eyes of this spectacle.
METROPOLIS
And talking about trying to watch it through the prism of its time – this film is interesting. We watched the extended cut with the lost extra parts put back in, and it makes for a bloated film, but there’s some real shine underneath/within it all. Definitely worth our time, though I cannot see me revisiting all that often.
SUNSET BOULEVARD
Not only had I never seen this, but I completely had it mis-genred. I think I thought this was some kind of old Hollywood drama, about an aging screen queen, and that was maybe as deep as it went. In short: I’m an idiot who gets blinkers on sometimes.
This flick is a pulp delight that’s weirder than I’d have imagined, and completely captivating.
PODCASTS
HOW OTHER DADS DAD with Hamish Blake
This show continues to be phenomenal as Hamish chats with dads and they discuss modern parenting in a way that always has me laughing, but more so has me thinking.
Good fuel for moving forward in life.
Here’s to what 2024 brings – I’m planning on reading more and maybe hitting 200 films. Big goals!
Without Fear 