A companion to the BBC Radio 4 series of the same name, this book recounts the strange, and often hilarious, events of Steven Appleby's life, such as encountering Death, meeting aliens, and much more.
Steven Appleby is a British and Canadian cartoonist, illustrator, writer and visual artist based in London, whose comic strips are best known for their absurdist humour. Appleby studied graphic design at Newcastle Polytechnic (1978–1981), then illustration at the Royal College of Art of London (1981–1984), where they met future major collaborators George Mole and Malcolm Garrett. Appleby cartooning work first appeared in the magazine 'New Musical Express' in 1984 with the Rockets Passing Overhead comic strip about the character Captain Star, later featured also in 'The Observer', as well as other newspapers and comic magazines in Europe and America. Other comic strips followed in many publications, including 'The Times', the 'Sunday Telegraph' and 'The Guardian'. In particular, the strip series Steven Appleby's Normal Life made into a radio series for the BBC. Appleby's debut graphic novel Dragman (2020) was awarded the Jury Special Prize at the Angoulême Comic Festival, in 2021 and the award for Best International Comic Book at the Erlangen Comic Salon, Germany in 2022. Appleby’s illustrations and paintings have appeared in numerous exhibitions and on a number of album covers for pop-rock bands, such as Duran Duran and Pixies. In 2008 Appleby came out as transgender. In 2021, Appleby stated to be "relaxed about pronouns," going by both "Steven" & "he" and "Nancy" & "she."
This was a fun quick read, it reminded me of tales from the far side. I liked the alien plotline and the games they played, the aging gun was funny and the theory about why children had greater attention spans a generation ago. I enjoyed these philosophical thoughts on life and death, a pleasant half hours distraction from everyday life!