after the first rain
the smell of earth filled the air
& the tree of lungs inside me
ozone tickled my senses
as every fibre reached & thrilled
i could not get enough of it all
after the last pain
i put her memory behind me
tho’ saddened i faced a new day
& now i’m learning to live again
now i’m learning to breathe again
after drought the rains always come
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2021
The first syllable rises from my tongue
As I twist it in a knot
Evoke
There are frogs singing in the darkness behind my house and
Today of all days, the day of my unmaking
You came in to my castle, broke the walls down and
Sent me spiraling into my own vortex
You can fall into yourself just like
A corpse can tumble headlong into the trenches under heavy gunfire
War and relationship
And endless false prayers for peace
We twist about interminably
But in the end, we always soldier on
by PAUL! LANG
© All rights reserved 2023
Mr Zombie and Ms Werewolf were the cutest couple at the ball. Their ‘Wednesday’s Dance’ was so weird and cool that they performed it three times for the encore. Then for the finale they pulled Sir Gnome from the crowd and performed a rendition of the dance scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Bande à part’. The standing ovation was loud and rapturous! (It helped that there were no chairs in the dance hall.)
That evening, Mr Zombie, Ms Werewolf and Sir Gnome tried a three-way, but it didn’t work out. So, they exchanged numbers, bid farewell and parted ‘til next Halloween.
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023
Back in 2006, I began a little comic strip about anthropomorphic piggies. I was a rabid, bible-thumping christian at the time and my aim was to anger Jewish folks with a cast of unkosher characters talking about in-your-face spiritual stuff. I honestly thought that they would be incensed. Yeah! I’d show those filthy Christ killers and deniers!
Needless to say, nobody noticed (which I now realise was precisely the appropriate response). Not only did the strips I produced fail to touch on religious themes, they also proved to be quite bland and uninteresting. You could even call them ‘safe’. That’s the worst thing any cartoonist can put out into the world. And whatever the hell I was putting out there wasn’t even being done very well.
Many years later, Tati asked me how these contradictory ideas and creative approach could coexist in one head. Was I trying to fit in with my fellow believers by showing how much a ‘soldier’ for Jesus I could be? Of course, never mind that it was a Jew who began the whole christian religion in the first place, but why let piffling details like that get in the way of self-righteous bigotry? I was taking on the whole goddam heathen world with my misguided scribbles, baby!
What the actual fuck, Tony’s brain?!
Anyway, in 2019 I was no longer a christian, and Tati and I had the idea to revisit this comic strip. We would rewrite and redraw it from the ground up. And this time, it would simply be about some silly piggies living their lives in that universally awkward way that many of us around the world do, no matter our colour, race or creed. Life is messy and unscripted for all of us, and we’re all just trying to do the best we can.
You can find ‘Trottersville’ on Tapas, Webtoon, Ko-fi and our Patreon. We’d love it if you’ll maybe consider supporting us?
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023
a black bird, wrinkles around its eyes
looks at me closely without blinking
asks why it can’t be the voice of reason
for generations of lost deplumed
i say maybe it’s ‘cos you look scary
like plague doctors of old who’ve lost their hats
and snip their beaks at prancing corpses
at generations of lost deplumed
that black bird, a noose around its neck
clears its throat, hysterically coughing
says it cannot die ‘cos it has wings
to spite generations of lost deplumed
i say maybe it’s ‘cos you haven’t tried
i’ve vast experience from which to teach
of dying and rising and decrying death
through generations of lost deplumed
and so the black bird shrugs, and it sniffs
it asks me if i have crumbs to feed it
i say metal ones, and then i shoot it
for the generations of lost deplumed
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023
unbolt me 