A 9 minute long BBC documentary, originally broadcast 15 April, 1964.
Cathal O'Shannon reports from the shores of Shetland, where television has arrived for the first time. How will this impact traditional life on the islands? Will the hand knitting industry be irrevocably damaged? Local residents give their views and an official from neighbouring Orkney gives a stark warning.
This is an example of the weekly content that I will now be sharing, a...
2025-05-29 20:51:59 +0000 UTC
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Just sharing a quick life update for my wonderful Patreon supporters.
A couple of months ago, my wife and I became parents for the second time. The labour happened very suddenly one night, and we were back home for breakfast the next morning, which is a sign for how uncomplicated the birth was for my wife and baby.
Everything is going great for little Sean, and Luke is doing a good job of...
2025-05-23 06:20:29 +0000 UTC
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Hi Patreon supporters,
It's time to give you an update as to what I've been working on!
Rolling a whole bunch of miscellaneous news into this big post, broken up under the headings below:
Parenting / life update
As you probably gleaned from my earlier Patreon updates, 2023 was a year where I largely adapted to the task of being a first-time parent.
This involved lots of hands-on time looking after our son, including lots of days where I was the...
2024-04-04 20:14:40 +0000 UTC
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Hi Patreon supporters,
You might have seen this info through my regular email list, but I thought I'd post to Patreon regardless.
I have just released printed versions of Energy Slaves, Peak Oil, War on Drugs, and Supernormal Stimuli. This is the first time that these titles have been in physical form (excluding a very small run of WoD back in 2013).
It is g...
2023-11-09 09:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Hi supporters,
A quick note to let you know about a new option that I am offering to my Patreon page.
You can now choose to pay for your Patreon support to me on an annual basis. It’s a great way to show your support to me, and in return, you’ll get a discount of 10% when you change across from monthly to annual subscriptions.
In ad...
2023-08-04 00:21:24 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
I'll get it out of the way: my big news is that I am now a first-time dad!
Actually, my wife and I welcomed this wonderful arrival a number of months ago, but we've been spending 2023 largely in the 'baby bubble' mode. It's definitely a big change to our lifestyle, but things are going very well! I am taking the time to appreciate this unique and special pe...
2023-07-27 07:59:13 +0000 UTC
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Today I am proudly announcing that I have signed a contract with Scribe Publications for my debut graphic novel The Town Without Television.
Here is a video that I just published to my public YouTube channel explaining the news:
2023-03-27 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
I spent the bulk of this afternoon writing a submission to Australia's new National Cultural Policy.
Australia has effectively had no national arts/cultural policy since the last days of the Keating prime ministership in 1996(!) The reason for this? A series of conservative/neoliberal governments.
However, the newly-elected Albanese Labor government seems interested in implementing something that broadly fits the wishes of the arts industry. Th...
2022-08-22 07:25:33 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
A short update about a few things that have been happening here.
Rat Park in college English textbook
My comic Rat Park is being included as a reading in a new textbook aimed at U.S. college students.
All in all, my comic takes up 11 pages of the textbook, (the 40-page comic is printed as four-to-a-page), with accompanying questions for students to respond to. Some photos:
2022-04-01 01:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Some good news: I have just published The Town Without Television, Part 2!
Here is the blurb and link to the comic on my website:
The Town Without Television, Part 2: Unitel
How are children and adults impacted by watching television? This comic outlines the effects of television on individuals, as found by the Notel experiment from Cana...
2021-08-30 22:04:36 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
It took me a little longer to wrap up Part 2 of The Town Without Television than I expected. Part of the reason is that it is the longest comic that I have yet published, with 144 pages in total.
I spent the last few weeks making lots of little artwork tweaks here and there. This was combined with the disruption of the current Australian Capital Territory Covid-19 lockdown that began two weeks ago, which I can't see lifting...
2021-08-25 21:01:01 +0000 UTC
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As with past years, I am using this as an opportunity to declare my favourite books that I read during the past two years. Here’s my Top 5 countdown of the best books that I during the period 2019-2021:
#5: Working Class Boy (2016) by Jimmy Barnes
Jimmy Barnes is well-known to Australians as the frontman of Cold Chisel, as well as a solo artist with the 2021-08-02 21:01:00 +0000 UTC
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I have now mailed all of my postcards to my Patreon supporters who are on the 'postcard' reward tier. Australian supporters have probably got their cards in the mail already. Non-Australians will probably get their cards next week.
See the five postcards' artwork in the short video attached with this post.
If you're not currently on the postcard reward tier through Patreon, and would like to get one of these cards, please donate to my current Tannis MacB...
2021-07-21 21:01:00 +0000 UTC
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A video from my living room. A look at my work-in-progress on Town Without Television, Part 3.
I had gotten to the point where I had too many ideas to keep track of, and needed to physically move around sentences on a table, using sticky notes.
Thanks for supporting my work already via this Patreon donation. To make a one-off donation to my current Tannis MacBeth Memorial Fund, pledge via 2021-07-20 22:09:19 +0000 UTC
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Hi again Patreon supporters!
I just wanted to tell you about an unexpected series of events that occurred in the past two weeks. Here is a brief timeline:
• Tannis MacBeth, the scientist behind the Notel experiment, died on 15 June. (I told you about this with my recent blog post.)
• As an unexpected surprise, the family and colleagues ...
2021-07-01 21:01:01 +0000 UTC
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I am saddened to learn about the passing of Professor Tannis MacBeth, who died on Tuesday 15 June 2021.
As you know, I am covering her work through my non-fiction comic The Town Without Television, which I am publishing online at http://TownWithoutTelevision.com/
2021-06-17 13:24:50 +0000 UTC
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As promised in last month's post, I have just published Part 1 of my Notel project, which I have renamed as The Town Without Television.
The Town Without Television, Part 1: Notel
A classic study into the impact of televis...
2021-05-19 09:42:49 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
It is Thursday afternoon here in Australia, and I'm about to go away for a four day family Easter holiday.
I just wanted to share a short 6-minute video that I just got back from my video editor. It is about what I've been working on lately, and what you can expect from me in 2021.
In short, I have two major projects that are getting closer and closer to publication: Notel, and Basic Income Comics.
2021-04-01 05:39:52 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
As mentioned last month, I am in the middle of a project titled Basic Income Comics, which will be profiling experimentation into universal basic income. The first major study that I will cover will be the Mincome Manitoba experiment that occurred in Canada during the 1970s.
This is the project that I have been focusing on for the past half-year. As well as stockpiling artwork for this project, I am...
2020-10-29 08:34:24 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone, I just wanted to thank you for your ongoing Patreon donations, and to share some works-in-progress.
These are scenes from an upcoming series of comics that I am creating called Basic In...
2020-09-28 06:17:00 +0000 UTC
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Hi Patreon supporters,
Just messaging you to cover a handful of things.
Sales tax information
From July 1, Patreon will begin charging sales tax on certain pledges that supporters make to creators via its platform. This is Patreon catching up to laws requiring them to collect this tax on behalf of various national governments around the world.
However, Patreon have been really good at allowing creators like me to reduce the tax that patrons l...
2020-06-26 01:40:23 +0000 UTC
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Hi supporters,
I just wanted to write a short note to thank you for supporting my work during this current coronavirus pandemic.
So far, I haven't had a single Patreon supporter cancel their pledge since the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic on 11 March. That is a testament to the value you see in my work. As with other artists and charities who rely on support from donors, thank you for holding the course. I know that other artists have seen their income opportunities dry ...
2020-03-19 06:30:46 +0000 UTC
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I've just released a new comic to my website:
Doing It All Alone
Many successful people view other members of society as irrelevant to their own personal fortune. Those who "did it all themselves" overlook many important ingredients to their success.
http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/doing-it-all-alone/ [18 pages]
Keen-eyed ...
2020-02-27 06:22:04 +0000 UTC
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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 fr...
2020-01-31 05:44:21 +0000 UTC
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Hi Patreon supporters,
It's been a couple of months between posts, so I thought I'd update you on what I have been working on lately.
Notel comic
In short, I have been completing pages of my comic Notel, which I will release in early 2020. This is my comic about the town that didn't get television until 21 years after the rest of North America, and the psychologists who studied the...
2019-11-22 05:44:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi Patreon supporters,
Last weekend I participated in an Open Day event here at my Canberra art centre. 13 of us artists opened our doors to allow members of the public to see inside our art spaces. Here is a look inside my studio, as I spoke to a visitor:
Merchandise: greeting cards and art prints
Anyw...
2019-11-22 05:42:15 +0000 UTC
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Today I am releasing my new comic What the Dumbwaiter Hides:
What the Dumbwaiter Hides
Thomas Jefferson invented the dumbwaiter to hide the slaves that he used to run his mansion. Today, we use the ‘dumbwaiter’ of globalisation to hide the dark parts of our supply chains.
2019-09-30 02:51:38 +0000 UTC
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New blog post: Did you know I've been cartooning full-time since 2011? That I love Led Zeppelin? This is a list of 12 things you probably didn't know about me.
I wrote this piece for another publication, so decided to share it here also.
http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/12-things-about-me/
2019-09-11 07:57:19 +0000 UTC
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I was interviewed by podcast Utopian Horizons about the life and work of Buckminster Fuller, who I profiled in my Energy Slaves comic. I discussed his utopian vision of a future, as well as his host of inventions such as the geodesic dome and three-wheeled Dymaxion Vehicle.
It was nice to reflect on Buck...
2019-08-08 23:27:55 +0000 UTC
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Top book recommendations
As with past years, I am using this as an opportunity to declare my favourite books that I read during the past two years.
Note that these are all 'pleasure reads, and have nothing at all to do with the topics of my comics!
Here’s my Top 3 countdown of the best books that I during the period 2017-2019:
...
2019-07-31 23:18:03 +0000 UTC
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