What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?
I guess my highest-profile thing, cartooning-wise, has been adapting Jim Henson's unmade TV project, The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow, as a graphic novel. The thing I've enjoyed the most is probably sketching – I've found a loose, free style when I sketch that I'm really happy about, and I'm keen to apply it to something substantial in the future.
What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?
John Allison's Bad Machinery, Fantagraphics' Barnaby reprints by Crockett Johnson, Laura Park's internet postings, Jim Woodring's Fran, David Quantick and Shaky Kane's Maybe It's Because You're A Robot, Rob Davis' The Motherless Oven, Roman Muradov's (In A Sense) Lost and Found. David Hine and Mark Stafford's The Man Who Laughs was the Mark Stafford book I've been waiting for for 20 years.
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?
Music: Big thing right now would be the music of Gary le Strange (Waen Shepherd) – which is to David Bowie and 80s synth-pop what The Rutles were to The Beatles. Not just funny, but great songs too.
TV: Peter Capaldi's been an excellent Doctor Who so far. Matt Berry and Arthur Mathews' Toast of London. John Morton's new sitcom W1A. Reeves and Mortimer's House of Fools. Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. Outnumbered by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin.
Radio and podcasts: I discovered Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver's The Bugle podcast this year and have been bingeing on past episodes. John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on BBC Radio 4. Kevin Eldon Will See You Now. Isy Suttie's Love Letters.
Books: Eleven by Mark Watson. Ben Aaaronovitch's latest, Foxglove Summer. Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton. Several books by Tom Holt.
What are you looking forward to in 2015?
Working on a new long-form Fred the Clown story, a tribute to the films of Buster Keaton, which I'm planning to serialise on the web before eventually finding some way to get it into print. I've been promising myself I would do this for a decade, and the stars have aligned to allow me a window of opportunity to make it happen, so I'm going to jump on it before it gets away.
