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Cartoon illustration of Peak Oil depletion curve, with arrows showing how it is composed

The making of Peak Oil #1: my choice of topic

I explain my decision to draw a comic about Peak Oil. I describe my aim to make my comic 'the ultimate Peak Oil primer' for uninformed readers.

High angle view looking down onto cartoon man in roller coaster car, showing the ground beneath.

The making of Peak Oil: a list of essays

I wrote seven essays about the various aspects surrounding the 'making of' Peak Oil. This is a list of all seven articles from that series

Cartoon of arrogant man sitting back in chair, with an angry expression on his face

Dinner with a climate denier: the making of my Hendrix Uncle comic

The making-of "Jimi Hendrix vs your climate-denying uncle". I describe my conversation with a red-faced climate denier that inspired me to draw the comic.

Stuart McMillen storytelling style

The unguarded side door: reflections on my storytelling style

I reflect upon the storytelling approach used in my Rat Park comic. Cartoonists like me are creating little 'landing pads' for readers to understand unfamiliar issues. We create accessible ways for readers to absorb new information.

Pie chart: My first 10,000 days of living included

10,000 / 1,500 / 15: Breaking the Silence on Responsible Drug Use

Here's the deal: I'm 27 years old, which means I have been alive on this planet for 10,000 days. During that time, I used alcohol on about 1,500 days. Additionally, I used caffeine (from tea) about 1,500 times. Also during that time, I used ‘magic’ mushrooms 7 times, cannabis 4 times, MDMA 3 times, and LSD 1 time.

My drug period thumbnail - Milton Friedman standing in an alleyway cartoon.

My Drug Period

By 'drug period', I refer to the 12 months I spent researching, writing and drawing War on Drugs and Rat Park. This blog post discusses everything I think and feel about drugs as a result of this research.

Cartoon streetscape with pedestrian looking at homeless man begging for money

Globalization of Addiction: the post-Rat Park research of Bruce Alexander

The 'main character' of my comic Rat Park is Professor Bruce Alexander - a real life psychologist from Vancouver. This blog post describes Bruce's post-Rat Park research, including his book The Globalization of Addiction. If you liked my comic, you will love his book.

Lab rat in cage

A bustle in the cage-row: the making of Rat Park

This is a lengthy blog post about the behind-the-scene 'making of' Rat Park. Includes historical photographs of the actual Rat Park experiment from the 1970s, and interesting tidbits which I couldn't quite fit into my comic.

Dramatic low angle drawing of man standing under tall gum trees

Thin Air reflections: the ‘making of’

This is a reflective essay about my comic Thin Air, about the counter-intuitive fact that trees build themselves from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. They are built from exactly the same stuff that breezes past their trunks! This essay describes my research process, including my view that van Helmont was actually a bad scientist.