Now obviously, no one is actually calling me anything of the sort. But if someone wanted to call me that, they now officially could. Because yes, I am finally and officially Doctor Daniel Merlin Goodbrey (DDes). Wooooooo! The minor corrections I did on my thesis over the summer were agreed by my lovey examination team (thanks so much Roger Sabin and Paul Williams!) and so I can now share my finished thesis with the internet in general.

The Impact of Digital Mediation and Hybridisation on the Form of Comics has received it’s own page at E-merl, which you can read by clicking that little ol’ hyperlink I snuck into the start of this sentence. You can either grab the whole thing as one handy PDF, or digest it in leisurely chaptered PDF chunks. I’ve also included links to the comics I made as part my thesis and uploaded a new video of Black Hats In Hell for your viewing pleasure. I hope academic folk who are interested find the whole thing useful, and that non-academic folk who read it will forgive the rather clunky writing style that the form demanded I adopt.

Hey folks! It turns out E-merl is not dead! When I wrapped up Dice With The Universe back in May last year, I didn’t expect it would be quite so long before I made another post to the site. But it’s been a busy year-and-a-bit here at E-merl Towers and sadly comic-making has had to take a back seat for most of it. However! E-merl is now back in operation with a spiffy v8.1 site update, a new webcomic series and this little ol’ news post to explain what I’ve been up to.

The first bit of business keeping me occupied was finishing my doctoral thesis on “The Impact of Digital Mediation and Hybridisation on the Form of Comics.” Catchy title, right? Thankfully I’ve now passed my examination and completed the minor corrections on the text so *fingers crossed* that should all be taken care of. I’m keen for folk to be able to read the whole thing so, as soon as I hear official word that I’m allowed to publish it, I’ll pop a copy up online for all to see.

The other thing that kept me busy during the last year was a rather sudden and unexpected promotion. Last September I took on the role of Joint Programme Leader for the Digital Animation and Games Programme at the University of Hertfordshire. This meant a big step up for me in terms of responsibilities and duties, along with an associated uptick in stress and “argh-oh-gods-what-do-I-do-now” moments. Thankfully nothing vital exploded or caught fire during my first year in the job and *fingers crossed again* hopefully that success rate will continue on steadily into the future.

Somehow during the last year the world in general also didn’t explode/catch fire, despite the sterling efforts of Trump and Brexit voters. In the spirt of the glorious end times in which we now find ourselves, I offer you E-merl’s new weekly webcomic: Ghosts of the Great Mistake. I would like to say that it’s a series full of hope and optimism but what it’s actually full of is ghosts, regret and the occasional aardvark. It’ll be updating with a new episode every Tuesday, thermonuclear war allowing.