The making of Peak Oil: a list of essays

Peak Oil was a major work for me, that took me years to create. To mark the comic’s release, I wrote seven blog posts that described various aspects of the creative process. I used these essays as an excuse to write about my creative process generally as a science communicator comics artist.

Here is the list of the seven articles:

• 
  The making of Peak Oil #1: my choice of topic
  I explain my decision to draw a comic about Peak Oil. I describe my aim to make my comic ‘the ultimate Peak Oil primer’ for uninformed readers.
• 
  The making of Peak Oil #2: storytelling philosophy
  I explain my storytelling philosophy as a science communication cartoonist. I discuss how I avoid writing ‘propaganda’ political comics, with pre-chewed messages for my readers.
• 
  The making of Peak Oil #3: snags and delays
  Peak Oil was released nearly two years after my previous major comic, Rat Park. What caused this delay? I describe the various struggles I had creating my Peak Oil comic.
• 
  The making of Peak Oil #4: my step-by-step process
  I describe every stage of my comics creation process. This includes everything from research, to writing, to storyboarding, to drawing the final artwork.
• 
  The making of Peak Oil #5: evolution of the artwork
  Following on from my last blog post, I use Peak Oil as a test-case. I include ‘before’ and ‘after’ slideshows which demonstrate how the Peak Oil artwork evolved from drafts to final artwork.
• 
  The making of Peak Oil #6: deliberate artistic decisions
  I discuss the artistic decisions that I make when drawing my Peak Oil comic. I describe my philosophy about panel arrangement, page layout, and background art details. I also explain how I used the roller coaster as a way to stealthily educate readers using a ‘graph that is not a graph’.
• 
  The making of Peak Oil #7: what I am most proud of
  Peak Oil is the longest comic that I have published. It is 120 pages long, and took me over 12 months to create. I use this blog post to reflect upon the aspects of Peak Oil that I am most proud of.