THE National’s cartoonist Greg Moodie is to publish a new book of his collected comic strips – as long as “slackers, deviants and the unstable” help.
Moodie aims to produce a 144-page colour book of his weekly Moodievision strip in this newspaper, with a foreword by author AL Kennedy, to help chart Scotland’s journey to “inevitable” independence.
However, the self-published title – his fourth book – will only go into production if he can raise £7,500 to cover costs. The Dundee artist has now launched a crowdfunder on the indiegogo website appealing to “slackers, deviants and the unstable” to help. He told potential donors: “I know you mostly all fall into one of the categories above, but if you could take time off from your demanding loafing schedules and see your way to sharing this campaign as widely as possible, I might be able to continue with this cartooning business.”
Moodie rose to prominence with his satirical take on the independence campaign in the run-up to the 2014 vote. His unique technicolour cut and paste style sees Gordon Brown appear as a political dinosaur, Nicola Sturgeon as a leather-jacketed rock star and Iain Duncan Smith as a fez-wearing monkey.
The Striptease collection comes within a month of the release of Borrowing Burns, which covers the creation of Tam O’Shanter-inspired murals in the Torphichen Inn. Moodie – whose previous works also include Greg Moodie Versus The Union – used images of pub-goers to create the tribute to the Bard’s work at the East Lothian bar.
Donors to the project will receive a copy of the release, with additional perks including signed prints and copies of Borrowing Burns. Moodie said: “It’s been an incredible year for political stories. Striptease takes off where Election Dissection left off – we see Jim Murphy and the collapse of the Labour vote."
On his depiction of failed Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith, Moodie said: “I always portray him as an undertaker because he strikes me as the guy who is presiding over the funeral arrangements for the Labour Party.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here