I used to love the Care Bears.

Imagine my sadness when the newsagent in the grim housing estate of 1980s Dublin told me that the Care Bears comic had ceased and was now merged into The Get Along Gang comic. And now imagine my dual despair when she told me, three weeks later, that this new combined comic had also died.

That’s my Crime Alley. I think Clamnuts was born that day.

I always thought that by the time I’d finish school, there would be at least a nascent Irish comics industry to weasel my way into. But there wasn’t. And it still baffles me that my self-published comic MBLEH! in 2004 was the first professional-level Irish comic…

MBLEH! had a barcode, was distributed by Diamond, the works. That’s what sets it apart from the handful of decent xeroxed and artsier affairs that existed in Ireland at the time.

It’s a shame that the actual content was, in fact, not that good, but the flag was planted.

From there, I rode the wave of the many free magazines available around Dublin with the publication of the free, pocket-sized, full-colour comic The SHIZNIT. We had an impressive circulation of 20,000 copies for one issue.

While The Shiznit percolated, I began work on my first graphic novel, Mister Amperduke: a wordless marvel available again through print on demand (the quality is not great in both senses). I’m baffled when I see that book now. I created it just for me. Or rather, the weeping kid who stood outside the newsagents that day.

And then I did a stint in 2000AD with Bob Byrne’s Twisted Tales. I did some really good work there, but the wordless stories just didn’t fit, and it fizzled out.

There was also a webcomic called SPAZZMOID here on Clamnuts, which was mostly hastily drawn autobiographical stories. I plan to someday crudely animate them or at least do a series of read-along videos.

Ahhh…It’s all a swirl of memories to me now, and I look back with a fatherly fondness at that troubled young man.

And now, after all these years, we are back to where we began. I’ve swapped my dark bedroom studio for an orange orchard in southern Spain, but the song remains the same.

Clamnuts is again an independent publisher of books and comics.

There are other graphic novels in production, and submissions are open for Artists and Colourists.

Now, I bring you REAL Nut Cutters. A new 200-page graphic novel, which I wrote and drew.

It’s a doozy. Go get it.

Cheers,

Bob