Stooryduster
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stooryduster.bsky.social
Stooryduster
@stooryduster.bsky.social
83 followers 180 following 130 posts
A Scottish words' illustrator, a cartoonist & designer interested in tech, software, art, design, life and the environment. Also on @stooryduster@Mastodon.scot My drawings are at stooryduster.co.uk
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stooryduster.bsky.social
Many truths in Calvin and Hobbes.
A multi panel Calvin (a small boy) and Hobbes (a stuffed tiger who only comes alive for the small boy) comic strip. Calvin enters his front door shouting "I'm ho-ome!" the hall is in darkness and suddenly a gleeful Hobbs materialises flying out of the darkness to tumble and throw the screaming Calvin out into the light where his shoes fly off and they cartwheel through the air over several panels and land in the dust. In the final panel Calvin is lying bruised, dishevelled and exhausted says "Ever notice how time slows down during a catastrophe?". Hobbes reclining nearby musing, replies "Sighhhh… and good times are always over so fast… ."
November 1, 2025 at 8:37 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
I say. Beware those pointing the finger of hate. Examine closely who or what is doing the pointing instead of the the thing being pointed at. That is where you will find the problem. As the Quakers say: “Fear begets hate. Love drives out fear.” Cartoon by Dave Walker.
A cartoon by davewalker.com, titled "Possible causes of your problems" in two columns split down the middle. In the left Column titled: YES possible causes of your problems: Item 1. Drawing of closed youth centre - captioned: "funding removed from local communities"; Item 2. Drawing of a private jet over an arrow signifying distance from small insignificant stick figures underneath - captioned: "growing gap between rich and poor"; Drawing of London finance sector of sky scraper glass buildings with arrow pointing at them saying “not visible: loophole.” with much paper cash entering on the left, one single pound note exiting out on the right - captioned overall: "multinational companies not paying their taxes"; Drawing of Terraced houses -captioned: "lack of new affordable housing"; Drawing of meagre drips dripping onto a desk - captioned: "government not sufficiently investing in schools and healthcare". In the right column titled: NO highly unlikely any cause at all of your problems, don’t you think: Drawing of small boat in high open seas and no sign of land with small stick figures in it - captioned: "people fleeing horrific situations that you and I can't imagine".
August 30, 2025 at 9:39 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My take from a while back. Inspired by the Japanese built in bidet idea with scented water spray and then blow dry your bum toilet bowls of the time.
The automatic in toilet type II bottom wiper with explosive release bolts has an emergency big red stop button at the base of the toilet pan. It also has sliders to set the diligence, authority and softness levels of the wipe. Man with a pink toilet roll in his hand is about to flip a large lever that will disable the auto functions. In Scots: “Ahm switchin aff the auto doup dichter hen. If yer wantin it back oan mind tae dae it yersel.”: doup: bottom, backend of something. In English: “I am switching off the automatic bottom wiping machine darling. If you are desirous of it being active again be sure to switch it on yourself.”
June 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Thanks. I'm off to rest.
I too have an image that I post if I catch myself excessively doom scrolling, in the hope it might give others a break too, before I exit.
Image shows a blonde sitting next to the head of a bald person with spectacles living face down in a field of wild flowers with a clear blue sky. A dog sits at the girls back and is looking into the distance. The caption reads: Doom Scrolling? Stop, go and lie face down in a meadow and take a breather. Or at least go lie down and imagine it.
May 30, 2025 at 8:45 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
if you see this, post your getaway vehicle. The Tardis. But going by her history, she’s likely to become a goto vehicle rather than a getaway. But like the Chinese endless proverb. ‘ it might be good it might be bad.’
Tardis from Dr Who with dark background and electrical discharges
May 2, 2025 at 11:49 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Women winni be wheesht. A war cry meaning #women will not become cowed or silent. If you see this post a #witch.
A feisty young girl with fiery red hair and purple robes wearing a witches hat furiously casts a spell from her fingertips turning a MAGA Trump supporter into a toad, leaving the red cap floating in the air in a blue haze. In Scots: “Dinni tell tae me “simmer doon hen”. Fur yer clack yer a puddock noo. For ah dinni simmer I bile, nor ahm ah a hen. Ah’m a bonnie lassie ahn foreby a bonnie witch. Ya Puddock.” in English: “Do not say to me “calm down hen”. For your slanderous and impertinent discourse you are now become a toad. For I do not simmer I boil, nor am I a hen. I am a pretty girl, and besides that, a capable witch (a name for powerful empowered women who make male based authority uneasy). Ya toad.“
April 28, 2025 at 12:00 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My latest #Scottish word #illustration a week. The bossy big sister and the 'into everything' wee brother – featuring Ribwort Plantain. #herbs #plants #nature stooryduster.co.uk/scottish-wor...
Girl with a handful of botanical posters of clover, devils bit scabious, and narrow leaved plantain yelling at her brother who is lying in the grass among daisies and buttercups admiring the seed heads of rib-wort plantain (scabiosa lanceolata). All on a sunny day. In Scots: "Ye canni ca it curl-doddie, that's for the deil's bit scabious frae the Scabiosa family, an dinni snigger. An dinni be pinging them seed heads at me neither. Nor peltin me wi the stalks." In English: "You cannot call it curl-doddie, that is for the devil’s bit scabious from the Scabiosa family, and don’t snigger. And don’t be firing off these seed heads at me either. Nor pelting me with the stalks."
April 26, 2025 at 11:05 AM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Don’t just hate and wish the object of your hate away. Ask what fundamental things could be done to change the target of your hate so that you don’t hate anymore. Hate is fear in disguise and fear is a debilitating iron shackle.
If you ever hear the phrase "facism is aesthetics as politics" that's what this post is talking about. It's not about being tough on crime, because the absolute toughest most brutal measure you could take against 'crime' as a social problem is to alleviate poverty, and to increase access to education, healthcare, and social mobility. It's about performing 'tough on crime' as an aesthetic by enacting violence against a prop, ie minorities and the impoverished, who are fetished and objectified to represent 'crime'. They are brutalised as punishment for crime, but never with the purpose of alleviating the problem of crime. This is why a lot of conservatives can get straight up angry when you suggest things like reform or social measures to reduce crime. They don't want crime to be reduced, they want an eternal war against 'crime' because it provides an arena for the righteous to demonstrate virtue by brutalising their enemies.
April 22, 2025 at 11:43 AM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My lawn was mown but otherwise, nothing. So I stopped mowing (apart from paths to the washing) raked the moss out and scattered meadow seeds. Two years later I took the photo. Several years later there are now 26 different flowering plants amongst the scant grass. The yellow rattle keeps it down.
Showing a lawn with narrow mown paths that is now a meadow with daisies, ox eye daisies, buttercups, red and white clover, yarrow, yellow rattle, birds foot trefoil, black medic, hard heads, dandelions, plantains, mouse ear, rock rose, plus some early spring bulbs.
April 16, 2025 at 9:42 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My #Scottish word a week #illustration. Since #wildfire incidents are happening so early in the year in #Scotland. Sadly. The world is changing.
Also could be a couple of Scots in another country under the bombardment of weapons from the lucrative arms industry.
stooryduster.co.uk/scottish-wor...
Two women in protective head scarfs and greatcoats with a gas powered heater emitting steam strapped to their backs stroll in front of two brutalist style apartment blocks where a couple with a fire burning in the hallway peer out. Meanwhile ash and dust fall like snow from a blackened sky. In Scots: "Aye, it luiks like the wild fires are getting fliskie again goin by the amoont o suit an smut teemin doon. It’s gey heavy and is coating the groond somethin awfie. Like snaw. They must be on the move again." In English: "Well, it looks like the wild fires are getting restless again going by the amount of soot and smut raining down. It’s rather heavy and is coating the ground something awful. Like snow. They must be on the move again."
April 16, 2025 at 4:55 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My #Scottish weekly word #illustration A 'piece-break'.

I was a child labourer on the tattie fields of #Scotland in the 60s. Piece-breaks couldn't come soon enough to wrap one's hands, manicured by the frozen earth within an inch of bloody, around a hot mug of #tea. Tattie Howkin.
A dolphin on the surface of a calm sea and has red a contraption fitted to its back with wires running from a steering wheel to suckers attached to its flippers. Sitting in the open cockpit of the contraption sits a man with goggles and a snorkel listening to a mermaid that only has her head above the translucent waters. In Scots: "Richt, I've telt Wincel here that come his piece-time he's jist tae dive two minutes at a time fur catchin his fish. That'll gi ye a chance o a gasp o air atween times. Awricht? He'll no forget." In English: "Right, I've told Wincel here that come his meal break he's just to dive two minutes at a time for catching his fish. That'll give you a chance of a gasp of air between times. All right? He shan’t forget."
April 14, 2025 at 1:51 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Post your #spaceart
"You've forgotten the starter key, it'll not start without it."

Pencil and paper and Gimp. #SciArt #Gimp #illustration
stooryduster.co.uk/scottish-wor...
Image shows a pilot at the top of launch tower of eight flights of stairs about to enter a tall rocket with the legend 'our last hope' painted on the side. Two geriatric scientists on sticks and in a wheelchair left behind in the desolate concrete pad at the bottom that is being over-run by the flesh eating thorn-bushes shout loudly up at him.
April 11, 2025 at 9:49 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Apparently it’s #NationalUnicornDay which co-incidentally happens to be the National animal of #Scotland. Who knew? But the one #unicorn to beware of is the wee Shetland Unicorn. It packs a big punch. #Scottish

stooryduster.co.uk/scottish-wor...
Two men in the pouring rain approach a small unicorn grazing with a highland cow by the side of a loch. One is carrying a catching pole and is behind the other who has a sturdy riot shield. In Scots “Dinni be fooled by her pauchliness. Ah’ve seen her pit an ee oot richt through the centre o a monocle. Ahn dangle lone bawbags from her horn. We’ve nae idea whaur the bodies are. She’s a Shetland pony unicorn, the warst kind.” in English:. “Do not be fooled by her small appearance. I have seen her put an eye out right through the centre of a monocle. And dangle lone scrota from her horn. We have no idea where the bodies are. She’s a Shetland pony unicorn. The worst kind.”
April 9, 2025 at 3:22 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
The three horsemen of Ignorance Greed and Hubris making death work hard to keep up seem to go together well in some, and surely they are deserving of hell.
Close up of poster with partial text GREAT AGAIN showing the four horsemen of the apocalypse. One with the tiny rocket of power and waving bean counting scales is famine played by Musk, the creature with a broken giant syringe and banner of unrolled toilet roll is Pestilence played by RFK junior and War wears a crown while holding a pink bow and very short fake golden lying arrows is played by Trump. They are all riding skinny glowing eyed horses of red, black and white who are consuming a sea of dollars with Death as a skeleton on a pale skeletal horse riding behind but catching up fast and about to begin his serious work catching up with the growing task they have set him.
March 29, 2025 at 1:50 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
'Futtle' the name of that AI blue android about to do a 'shave' translates from the Scots as 'inefficient or useless instrument or tool, a botcher'. It's all in English in the alt txt. I do sell the odd mug and T shirt etc but mainly do it now for fun. Old and retired. stooryduster.co.uk/blog/shop/
Man in a barber chair gives his honest opinion on AI to a hairless blue AI android which is preparing to soap him up with a wet soapy foam covered shaving brush while waving about a wickedly sharp cut-throat razor. In English: "I have just told you that it’s only my nose hairs I’m wanting dealt with here. I do know you’re just an artificial intelligence inside that hairless blue plastic head of yours. But there are tools particular to pruning nose hair tufts you know. Did they not program you to use other tools besides just your comb scissors and razor? I think AI stands for Artificial Idiot. For a tool you’re a bit of a tool."
March 28, 2025 at 10:42 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My latest #Scottish word weekly #illustration showing a typical #Scots seaside scene minus the rain. More and more I find Pratchett influences in what I draw.
Seashore scene, seen from the edge of the dunes looking out to sea where a wizard, with a huge ear trumpet to his ear, lies prone alongside a colleague taking notes amongst the dune grasses. The trumpet is pointed at a witch on a broomstick talking to a crescent moon, with a face, just above the horizon. In English: "That witch won't care that it's just your old hearing aid. If we're caught she'll go just as hard on us for using that as she would if we'd used devilish spying contraptions. Anyway I think we should run, I think that crab's semaphoring to the cat."
March 27, 2025 at 2:54 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Being of a certain age and Scottish I was torn between Fireball XL5 and Dan Dare's Anastasia. Love of comic art wins.
Two man spaceship sitting on a hanger floor, forward section with bubble domes for pilot and co-pilot with glass panels above the mess and sleeping area, rear section is a top entry hatch and engine room. It is surrounded by air force personnel and aliens. "isn't she a beaut Dig - just think what she can do for us!" "The best product of Treen and Theron scientific design colonel Dare." "Come this way Earthman and I will show you aboard." "Iam thinking Colonel Dan sir… …I'm thinking there's a lot of glass to polish!"
March 24, 2025 at 10:57 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
If you see this, quote-post your green art. Mowglie in the jungle.
M’oublie in the green jungle sits on the branch of a tree with a wolf looking up at him through the leaves while an ape swings in on a loan à and soggiest a spell out in the open. In Scots: “Look you’re seek an ahm seek o hingin aboot in this scunneration o a shady jungle. So lets swing o-er tae whaur there’s a bare hirsty humple an beek in the sun fur a change. Ah ken the oof, like a dug, is fair fain fur it.” In English: “Look you’re sick fed up and I’m sick fed up of hanging about in this object of our disgust, the shady jungle. So let us swing over to where there is a dry stony hillock where we may bask in the sun for a change. I know the wolf, like a dog, loves it.”
March 17, 2025 at 5:54 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Www.totallylocally.org support your inclusive local community, build a local mutually inclusive supportive community A.K.A. Fight fascism.
Poster showing local farm produce with text: If every adult spent just£5 a week cash in their local shops and businesses instead of online, at the supermarket, or with the huge multinationals. It would be worth £13.5 billion going directly back into our towns which means real jobs, better facilities and nicer places to live. Makes you think.
March 16, 2025 at 11:44 AM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My #Scottish weekly word #illustration, the 4 horsemen & the destitute. For any not as visually literate as some - expositions in the alt txt. I despair at countries with enough riches to feed the whole world forever but choose instead to grow their own #wealth. Meanwhile #climate disasters creeps
Two men, one with a red baseball cap feeding broken pieces of chair into a small fire while above them on a damp satined wall mottled with mould is an equally flaking poster showing Musk with toy rocket and bean counting paraphernalia, RFK Junior with pink toilet roll streaming into the distance and a shattered hypodermic and Trump with nothing but a useless bow acting as the horsemen of the apocalypse with death following on a skeleton horse catching up at speed to reclaim the horses. In English "It’s a sin is it not that a country filled with the ridiculously wealthy also holds the most destitute. And too many of those poor souls are even more destitute than ourselves. And it’s not down to pestilence, plague, conquest or war, nor even the economy, which makes it the bigger sin." Close up of poster with partial text GREAT AGAIN showing the four horsemen of the apocalypse. One with the tiny rocket of power and waving bean counting scales is famine played by Musk, the creature with a broken giant syringe and banner of unrolled toilet roll is Pestilence played by RFK junior and War wears a crown while holding a pink bow and very short fake golden lying arrows is played by Trump. They are all riding skinny glowing eyed horses of red, black and white who are consuming a sea of dollars with Death as a skeleton on a pale skeletal horse riding behind but catching up fast and about to begin his serious work catching up with the growing task they have set him.
March 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
The Daily star follow up cover and a sincere apology. They are so sorry and will donate tins of chum to a charity of choice.
Daily star follow up cover to Putin's poodle that apologises to poodle lovers everywhere for comparing Trump to a poodle, when in fact poodles are all the things Trump isn't, and will donate several tins of chum to a charity of their choice
February 22, 2025 at 3:32 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My one a week #Scottish word #illustration - having your very own personal #extinctionrebellion protester - joy.

I hate how they and their superglue #environment protest got 6yrs in jail & yet none of the farmers & their tractor tax protest even arrested for the same road blocking stunt.
#Scots
Man in kilt waiting holding a poop bag as his dog on a lead strains to do its business. He is shouting at his daughter who looks grim and is sullenly holding a loudhailer and a placard saying there is no planet B. In Scots: "Stop threapin at me aw the time, there's only so much ah can dae for the planet aw at once. So no anither teet frae ye til I'm done or yer no comin on oor dog walk again. Mind, ah DO tak yer point that no fightin Fascism spells certain doom fur the environment." In English: "Stop protesting at me all the time, there's only so much I can do for the planet all at once. So not another cheep from you until I'm finished or you are not coming on our dog walk again. In consideration though, I DO take your point that not fighting Fascism spells certain doom for the environment."
February 22, 2025 at 3:16 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
My latest #Scottish weekly word #illustration based on my habit of constantly having a cuppa in progress by my side at work. And also the conference centre cleaner (she supplied the jammy dodgers), and office messenger joined me and the boss at tea break too.
#coffee #cake #Scotland #cartoon #Scots
A robin, a ladybird and a mouse are having a coffee break with cakes in their office and there is a trail of crumbs from the table of cakes to the robin's desk. In Scots "What is it wi you red breasted burds? Ye canni help but murl a cake iviry time. An noo the flair is aw murlie. And No! Yer no gettin tae peck it aw up." In English "What is it with you red breasted birds? You cannot help but crumble a cake every time. And now the floor is covered in crumbs. And No! You're not getting to peck it all up."
February 14, 2025 at 5:56 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
Cover of the comic of the communist manifesto adapted and illustrated by Martin Rowson with a drawing of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels carrying a red flag.
February 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM
stooryduster.bsky.social
A #graphic I adapted to #illustrate to my sons that their accusation is mistaken that their parents are getting slower with old age. Instead it is an #illusion entirely down to general #relativity.

#Time moves much faster for us than for youngsters.

I don't think I've convinced them though.
Graphic of a deceasing spiral with a curve set to the proportions of the golden mean 1:1.618 or (1 + Square root of √ 5)/2 delineated by coloured squares with a colour key ranged from the largest to the smallest set out as; 1 Childhood, 2 Teenager, 3 Student, 4 Adult, 5 Mature Adult, 6 Old One, 7 Wise Old One, 8 Octogenarian, 9 Nonagenarian, 10 Senilityagenarian, accompanied by the text heading "Perceived duration of one day - 24hrs as experienced in phases by living and how it fits neatly into the golden ratio. (Or the golden plughole as it is referred to by souls about to incarnate.) "
February 10, 2025 at 9:39 PM