Monday 13th January 2025: Interview with The Mollusc Dimension 2/2

Hi everyone!

Hope you’ve enjoying my interview with The Mollusc Dimension, I’m so happy he’s decided to join me again for a few more questions. If you haven’t read last week’s blog, now is the time to catch up on that.

The Mollusc Dimension is a British-born East Asian Diaspora comics artist and writer, who joined the Queer Neurodivergent Writers’ Group in 2023 (I think!). His comic memoir, The Weird and Wonderful Surviveries of Squid Horse was recently published, with the support of Arts Council England. Based in Essex/London, The Mollusc Dimension is an artist, musician, educator, author and maker of beautiful, heartfelt and hilarious autofiction-comics. Find out more in our interview.

All images included are © The Mollusc Dimension, 2024-2025.

7. Comedy

In ‘Another Day’, you talk about having been a stand-up comedian, leaving that world behind because it is “too cold.” You’re incredibly funny in book-form and I bet you were amazing on stage. I also left stand-up behind after 9 years. Would you like to expand on why you chose to quit stand-up? 

Thank you! You might change your mind after you see some of my stand-up videos LOL!

Stand-up felt like a really cool direction way to share some of the cruder and ruder stories and also develop a suitable persona as a vehicle to do this. It was challenging to me to enter a mainstream (by which I mean white cishet majority) space, which was a bit surreal having been largely exploring LGBTIQA+ and QTIBIPOC/ BIPOC spaces. It was a really interesting experience and I learnt a lot and connected with friendly people and thought the teachers were knowledgeable, helpful and understood my position.

The weird thing about being trained as a performer, being neurodivergent and being QTPOC is that you get used to feeling uncomfortable. It can be hard to know whether being out of one’s comfort zone is helping one grow and heal in the long term or whether there maybe are more comfortable and enjoyable growth options out there.

I really agree with that – I quit stand-up when I knew it was only making me miserable.

After a while, I realised that there were a few things that didn’t feel as enjoyable were being on stage with just a mic. Having performed with a piano or keyboard since I was 7, I guess even though that was generally also terrifying in a different way (especially with Classical music), there was something sensorily soothing/reassuring/familiar about being able to touch the keys, and face the keys instead of the audience. Also to sit down.

Even if I’m performing songs with just a backing track and a mic, at least I’ll have prepared the track (usually original music) and hearing that is also grounding and brings a sense of familiarity into the situation.

I really admire stand-ups for duetting with the audience!

It took me ages to realise that over the years, I’d probably been masking my neurodivergence anxiety by stimming with music practice and performance. People who haven’t had the chance to perform sometimes express astonishment that I say I’m shy or anxious. Performing music creates a safe space for me because of the structure around timings, material, creating moods and telling stories. Even if there is some spontaneity, I can handle it because I’m feeling relaxed!

8. Work

In ‘Guilt’, ‘Work’ and ‘Deadline’, you engage with that endless sense of not-having-done-enough. I find it difficult to fall into creative modes of thinking, having to spend so much time organising myself. ‘Work’ is easier for me than ‘Play’. I find it really difficult to not blame myself for lack of productivity, be it creatively or professionally. How is that for you? Has writing this book helped you be more in touch with your sense of play?

This is a brilliant question and I fear that my answer will disappoint you!

Working on the book has been tremendously exciting and rewarding. I really relished connecting with people and continue to be surprised by the support I’ve received – from my team, friends and new audiences. There has been a sense of play in many of the interactions however there were a number of logistical nightmares which were immensely stressful and sadly I’m still haunted by them! One of the difficulties that is actually common to a lot of people actually, is that I feel it’s “unprofessional” to talk about challenges, well at this stage anyway.

Maybe one day in the future, I could make a comic about them…!

You haven’t disappointed me at all; someone wise once told me life’s a marathon, not a sprint. In any case, I’m a sucker for compliments, so I got what I needed, cheers.

9. Being a weirdo

As an artist, you are writing a lot about your own experience – neurodivergent, queer, trans, diasporic – that distinguish you from the mainstream. I’m interested in the particular artistic voice that comes from your sense of being outside of that mainstream. Do you believe us weirdos just make for better artists?

YES!

There is an artist called Weird is the best and I have to say, I agree.

By the way, the photo is of the time in lockdown when like a lot of people, my mental health was chaotic. I was obsessed with documenting all the deliveries in great detail, including the packaging. SquidMum ordered a bird bath and I did an impromptu fashion shoot.

Ok… so a longer answer would be… Even though it always seems like I’m mired in some unbearable challenge or another, this past year is the first that I’ve finally found communities / spaces and felt more resourced: 

Bi Poets online

LDComics global monthlies

London Writers’ Salon

Neurodivergent BIPOC zoom group

QND – Queer Neurodivergent Writers Group – thanks to YOU JORIK!!!, Luke, Sinead and Out on the page where I believe you first had the idea… and Walki for telling me about it – several times because I have ADHD and need multiple invites! (Aw shucks, thanks! I didn’t pay you for product placement, right?)

Shaded Writers QTIBIPOC writing group

Space to be Audacious

WIP Comics discord and zoom group

10. Family

I love how you represent your mother and father – the Owl and the Lion. I don’t want to spoil the narrative, but your mother goes through a lot of development throughout the book. What did she think of how she was portrayed?

At first, I was going to say,”She hasn’t read it yet!” And then I realised that occasionally when we’d meet up with family friends and relatives, she’d say very demurely, “Some things in there didn’t happen.”

I didn’t show it to her because I was worried about a negative comment putting me off going through with the printing. I wonder if she’s holding off reading it because she’s waiting for me to properly invite her.

I think particularly want her to read the parts about when we went to look for my dad. I feel self conscious about the parts where I am criticising my parents.

Actually, despite the issues I’ve had with my parents, they have actually always been fairly respectful of my space and privacy. They never read my diary nor did they poke about in my many sketchbooks. On some strange level, they understood that creating was vital for my mental health.

After we broke up and he moved out, I told my ex that I was diagnosed with ADHD and that I think my mum (who I refer to as SquidMum) is autistic. To my utter surprise, my ex said he thinks she also has ADHD. It blew my mind that for all these years, our behaviours were just normalised and the difficulties we/I had were not explained to us, nor did we find accessible ways to live.

SquidMum is a big Snoopy and the Peanuts fan and she usually laughs at and reacts positively and understands the little comic sketches that I draw on to household notes/ reminders etc. However she told me she finds comics hard to read because “There are too many things! There are all the pictures and also all the words.”

I haven’t yet had the capacity to properly introduce the book to her but I might do it via a story or two at a time as I suppose I am curious to know what she’d make of the stories about my dad. I suspect she will object to my depictions of her but I think she’ll like the drawing of her and the dog.

I loved your father, the Lion. He seems like a wonderful human being, though with his own limitations. He really comes alive in the character of the Lion, I felt. How did it feel to draw him, and to write the music that’s intimately connected to his story?

I think I’m still figuring that out. It’s funny… As someone whose parents rarely if ever asked “How do you feel about…” I try to ask it more but am still learning to access my own emotions when it’s addressed to me. On one hand, he was very loving but he also struggled with pride, asking for help and anger. I found it healing to hear other QTBPOC and queer/trans people convey positive emotions or memories around or despite difficult relationships.

As mentioned in the comic, I wrote the song in the taxi on the way to the airport to try and find my dad.

CRINGEY ANNOUNCEMENT… It’s on a (particularly!) experimental EP that is a little bit criiinge and I just “unhid” it on my Bandcamp just for this interview. If you’d like check out the song here. 

That crackly sound is meant to sound like an old record because my Dad loved Italian, German and French opera and German Lieder.

I also realise that nothing I do will ever be as cringe and awful as JK R*wling’s transphobia. By the way, there’s another song about that and it can be downloaded for free on Bandcamp or streamed there and on Spotify.

There’s a lot more I’d like to say about my family and music but I feel like this I’ve gone on for too long already, so maybe that’s for another time!

11. Where can we buy your books? How can we support you in other ways?

One of the things that means the most to me and makes me feel happy is knowing my work is out there reaching people. I would be ever so grateful if you’d order The Weird & Wonderful Surviveries of Squid Horse!

Find out how to order The Weird & Wonderful Surviveries of Squid Horse

Homepage: https://www.themolluscdimension.com
Instagram: Squid Horse Comics & Zines (@squidhorsecomics) • Instagram photos and videos,

Right everyone, off you pop, show’s over. See you for the next blog, sometime soon!

The Mollusc Dimension, thank you very much!

My pleasure!