new year things update

BOYCOTT COCA-COLA

First new work of the year in support of the ongoing BDS boycott of Coca Cola products, and in recognition also of Coca-Cola’s murderous repression of union organisers in South America.

In 2017, Coca Cola donated $14000 to the extremist Israeli far-right organisation Im Tirtzu, which aims to “promote Zionism” by attacking and delegitimising Israeli left-wing and human rights groups and individuals. Coke also operates facilities in Atarot, an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Coca-Cola has been accused of having union organisers murdered in several countries. In Guatemala City, while workers at a company bottling planet fought for their jobs, including occupying the plant for 13 months, three General Secretaries of their union were murdered and five other workers killed. Four more were kidnapped and have disappeared. Torture and intimidation were also used against union members. Coke also had at least a dozen union organisers killed in Columbia.

In Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, Coca-Cola started stockpiling ingredients in order to circumvent sanctions. When there was a public backlash to the news they announced they would be halting operations in Russia, but all they did was start selling it through their subsidiary Multon Partners. Which reminds me of how Coke invented Fanta so they could keep selling drinks to the Nazis during WWII.

And that’s all before you get into the company’s awful record on environmental pollution, being the single-biggest plastic polluter on the planet, their decimation of water supplies around the world, and historically their support for apartheid South Africa and their history of racism in the United States in both marketing strategy and employment practices. And I’m not even touching the health problems.

All in all, it is a hideous company, your body is better off without their products in it, and the world is better off without your money in their pockets.

2023 ZINE

I’ve started work on a zine of all my work from 2024, which I’ll be sending to my Patreon backers next month.

If you’d like one just sign up for £3.50+ a month on my Patreon, the cost of half a pint, and I’ll send you a copy of this and if you didn’t get the 2023 zine I’ll throw in a copy of that too. (NOTE: Please don’t use the Patreon app on iPhone as Apple will then take a cut :/)

If you have been backing me on Patreon and haven’t received your 2023 zine please reply to this and let me know!

As ever a massive thanks to everyone who has supported my work either through Patreon or getting stuff from my online shop or anywhere else. It is literally the reason I’m able to rent a studio, keep the Hell Bus on the road and plan bigger, angrier, and more sarcastic projects in the future. Thank you so much x

HELL BUS OFF-SET

In order to offset the carbon generated by the Hell Bus tour around England in 2023 I said I would pay someone £1 to not buy a bus and not drive the bus they didn’t buy around England for a month. This is basically just how carbon offsetting works.

Turns out the market really can solve everything!

I’m doing another offset certificate for the Hell Bus in 2024, to be in with a chance of winning yourself the solemn responsibility of not buying and driving a bus around, as well as this fetching certificate (and £1!), you just need to buy a raffle ticket from my website shop- £1 per entry. Last entry for the 2024 offset is the 31st of Jan. Then I will randomly select the offsetter and send them their prize.

HELL HOODIES

I’ve done a new run of Hell Hoodies, with a slightly smaller print size but the pockets that join together in the middle. Order them from my website shop here, I’m also doing a 15% discount until the end of the month with the code HAVEANEWYEAR

SUPPORT WEIRD SCOTTISH CINEMA?

I also wanted to tell you about a film one of best friends is making. Danny McConnell is not just one of my favourite people on the planet, he’s also been making a bonkers sci-fi film for the last few years, it’s now almost finished and he’s trying to raise the last bit of budget through a crowdfunder. I’ve backed it myself but he is still well short of his goal, with 3 days to go. I really want to see this film out there in the world, and I thought it would be up the street of people who like my work.

It’s set on a spaceship en route to Pluto which has been painstakingly constructed to resemble the inside of a Glasgow tenement flat. That’s enough for me to watch it if I’m honest, but have a look at the video below where Danny explains the plot in more detail.

I know myself that finding funding for unusual art from official sources is next to impossible, and I had my first proper break when folk backed my Join the Army comic crowdfunder back in 2013. Danny has helped me so much over the years, whether rolling up his sleeves to help build the Museum of Neoliberalism or the Hell Bus, but also in his critical feedback when I’ve been making art and videos. If you want to support brains like his making beautiful, funny, outsider sci-fi, please consider backing this film.