Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 3h

Thank you! If you buy it from my website I get 50% of cover price, and I can sign it for you! That’s for UK customers only. Otherwise simply supporting a local indy bookshop!

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 9h

Thank you!

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 11h

All set up at @ohcon.bsky.social in Stornoway Town Hall! Come say hi and take in the activities and fun!

Photo of a convention table, featuring my Graphic Novel Builder graphic novel. A colourful cover shows teens making their own giant graphic novel

Convention table featuring my graphic novels Gamish: The graphic history of gaming, and Filmish: a graphic journey through film.

Convention table featuring copies of my mini comic Interstellar Taco Truck. A pink, blue and purple colour scheme. We see human and alien kids cooking a delicious looking pudding!

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 11h

Thank you! And you and @firstmadekit.uk too! Loved reading Feed - a really great piece of work and super timely.

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 23h

Extremely happy to be shortlisted for Best Graphic Novel at this year’s Selkie Awards! Surrounded by wild talent!

Selkie Comic Awards @selkieawards.org · 1d

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL

🦭 Graphic Novel Builder by Edward Ross, Alice Oseman (introduction)
🦭 Ruin of the House of the Divine Visage by Eve Greenwood & Spire Greenwood
🦭 Sacred Bodies by VER
🦭 SINK Vol 3: City of Killers by John Lees, Alex Cormack, Shawn Lee
🦭 The Silence of our Fathers by François Giro

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Reposted by Edward Ross

Scottish BPOC Writers Network @scotbpocwriters.bsky.social · 2d

🗣️Help us spread the word 🗣️: Join us for an in-person workshop on turning ordinary surroundings into superheroic worlds, led by comic creator and writer Etienne Kubwabo: scottishbpocwritersnetwork.org/building-sup...

Building (Super) Heroic Worlds with Etienne Kubwabo

An in-person writing workshop about turning ordinary surroundings into superheroic worlds.

scottishbpocwritersnetwork.org

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Reposted by Edward Ross

Tom Humberstone @tomhumberstone.com · 4d

I illustrated this excellent piece by Katie Goh for @natlibscot.bsky.social about libraries in pop culture. Was extremely fun to get to draw the Scooby Gang! Can someone hire me to draw a Willow comic please?

You can read the article here: www.nls.uk/collections/...

An illustration of the five leads from 1985's The Breakfast Club

An illustration of the Scooby Gang from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

An illustration of 1961's Breakfast at Tiffanys

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Reposted by Edward Ross

Hannah Berry @streakofpith.bsky.social · 8d

Everyone who is behind this survey wants your voice to be counted. Everyone who is *boosting* this survey wants your voice to be counted.

Get this puppy filled in before midnight on Monday and be counted!!

ukcomicscreators.org.uk

A graphic for the Uk comics creator survey, saying: we’ve got questions; we need answers. Who’s in? With the URL ukcomicscreators.org.uk over a series of illustrated raised hands

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Reposted by Edward Ross

Hannah Berry @streakofpith.bsky.social · 6d

Now would be a great time to reach out to any comics creators you know who are less online or more remote (geographically and/or emotionally) to make sure they’ve filled this thing in too…

Hannah Berry @streakofpith.bsky.social · 9d

🚨FINAL FEW DAYS!🚨

The UK Comics Creator Survey will close forever at midnight on Monday 6th! Have you submitted your response yet? Or were you, like me*, waiting for the last minute? The last minute is now, lads! Get in there!

ukcomicscreators.org.uk

*I thrive** on pressure
**Exist painfully

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 8d

I was on the libgen database but due to not being registered with the US copyright office, I’m not included on this database (I.e not eligible for a payout despite having my work stolen)

Reposted by Edward Ross

Avery Hill Publishing @averyhill.bsky.social · 9d

Thrilled to share that @julesscheele.bsky.social is adapting Virginia Woolf’s Orlando as a graphic novel biography with Avery Hill! From Elizabethan courts to the present day, a timeless journey reimagined in comics. ✨📚

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 9d

The data from this survey is VITAL for us as a community - helping us see the wood from the trees and argue for what we need as comic creators.

In other words… go fill it in!

Hannah Berry @streakofpith.bsky.social · 9d

🚨FINAL FEW DAYS!🚨

The UK Comics Creator Survey will close forever at midnight on Monday 6th! Have you submitted your response yet? Or were you, like me*, waiting for the last minute? The last minute is now, lads! Get in there!

ukcomicscreators.org.uk

*I thrive** on pressure
**Exist painfully

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 15d

“Ah you’re struggling to find pleasure in reading? Have you considered making it stressful? Maybe adding a pass/fail element into the mix?”

Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 16d

Exclusive: The government plans to introduce a mandatory reading test for year 8 pupils in its upcoming schools white paper, amid fears poorer children are disengaging in the early years of secondary school

schoolsweek.co.uk/year-8s-to-s...

White paper to usher in year 8 reading test

Move to ensure poorer pupils are not shut off from wider curriculum

schoolsweek.co.uk

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Reposted by Edward Ross

Hari Conner @haridraws.bsky.social · 18d

🩸 OUT TODAY 🥀
Disappear into a dark forest and get seduced, devoured, and perhaps escape your job for good, in NIGHT AT THE VAMPIRE CASTLE: A choose-your-own-romance for adult readers

✶ No experience needed
✶ Replayable
✶ Illustrated
& out now www.hari-illustration.com/natvc

Hari holding a copy of the book 'night at the vampire castle' while wearing a suitably vampiric shirt with a ruffly collar - the graphic reads 'out today!'

Photo of an open copy of the book 'night at the vampire castle' where you can see the text and an illustration of an ominous castle on a stormy night

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · 19d

Excited to be off to @comicartfestival.bsky.social for the first time this weekend!

I'll have copies of

✏️ Graphic Novel Builder: The illustrated guide to making your own comics
👾 Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming
📽️ Filmish: A Graphic Journey Through Film
🌮 Interstellar Taco Truck!

Come say hi!

Comics Can Change The World @comics4change.bsky.social · 24d

THANK YOU to creativescots.bsky.social for their support bringing juliecampbelldraws.bsky.social | @tomhumberstone.com edwardross.bsky.social slothcomics.bsky.social barbarianlord.bsky.social & gustaffovargas.bsky.social to @comicartfestival.bsky.social | www.creativescotland.com

Julie Campbell is a guest at this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival thanks to Creative Scotland

Tom Humberstone is a guest at this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival thanks to Creative Scotland

Edward Ross is a guest at this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival thanks to Creative Scotland

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Reposted by Edward Ross

Hannah Berry @streakofpith.bsky.social · Sep 11

Damn, look how many of you have filled in the survey in its first week! (Yes I *have* made a respondent-meter like it’s a village hall fundraiser - let me have my little whimsies)

If you have ten mins to join in the fun, the link is here: ukcomicscreators.org.uk

A meter showing how many people have responded to the uk comics creator survey 2025. So far it’s at 289! The minimum target is 380 to be statistically representative, and 623 responded in 2020

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Reposted by Edward Ross

Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 10

“They want to build a genie to grant them wishes, and their wish is that nobody ever has to make art again. They want to create a new kind of mind, so they can force it into mindless servitude.”

This by @anthonymoser.com goes so fuckin hard

anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

I Am An AI Hater

I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.

anthonymoser.github.io

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 10

“They want to build a genie to grant them wishes, and their wish is that nobody ever has to make art again. They want to create a new kind of mind, so they can force it into mindless servitude.”

This by @anthonymoser.com goes so fuckin hard

anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

I Am An AI Hater

I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.

anthonymoser.github.io

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 10

Super excited to have a comic in this month’s @chemistryworld.com magazine, alongside a great article by Rupo Mapanga. Both are about the power of science comics, with mine offering a guide for scientists looking to translate their research into the comics form www.chemistryworld.com/careers/comi...

Comic book chemistry

The scientists using visual storytelling to communicate their work - and how you can do it too

www.chemistryworld.com

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 9

My book is in libgen AND I won’t be getting any money! 🥳

You needed to have had your work registered at the US copyright office before the suit was filed to qualify.

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 8

Check out my new mini-comic! Available in print and digital on my website.

Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Jul 29

Hey! Check out my new all-ages adventure comic...

🌮 INTERSTELLAR TACO TRUCK! 🌮

Issue 1 is out now for digital download! Or you can pre-order issue #1 for UK delivery when copies arrive.

www.edwardross.co.uk/shop

Cover for Interstellar Taco Truck #1 by Edward Ross.

A colourful illustrated image in a fun, cartoony style. We see a dinky spaceship painted neon pink and blue, landed on a dusty planet. The ship is shaped a bit like a taco, with a smiling face in its headlights and front grill. A queue of alien customers line up - a barbarian bird, a hairy cyclops-sasquatch thing, and so on. Through the access hatch we see the kitchen inside - Kit a bequiffed, elf-like alien skooshes green sauce on a taco. Behind him a robotic fungi panics over a flaming stove. Atop the ship sits human girl Ari who wears yellow overalls and is munching a taco, next to her trusty toolbox.

Comic page from Interstellar Taco Truck #1 by Edward Ross.

We see a dimly lit spaceship bunk room in the background, with human girl Ari poking her head around the door. In the foreground, top lit by roof light, we see five aliens crowding round a table, playing a table-top game with hex tiles and colourful cards. The table is covered in bowls of snacks and cans of drink. There’s a cyclops-sasquatch looking alien, a frog-like one wearing a cap, a sentient tree wearing a yellow jumper, a barbarian bird (birbarian) and a red striped spider-looking creature.

In the final panel we see the birbarian flinging snacks into her mouth.

Text reads: “It’s hard being a human in space. See, we were late to the party. Zysquatches, Birbarians, Froglodytes... they'd all mastered interstellar flight centuries ago. Their species reached out across light years to discover new civilisations, and more importantly... new snacks!”

Comic page from Interstellar Taco Truck #1 by Edward Ross.

We see human kid Ari enter a small kitchen onboard the spaceship. It’s teeming with kitchen equipment recognisable and futuristic, and shelves crammed with colourful packets.

“The food here suuucks, and we're stuck with whatever they packed on board when we set off from Earth. Fortunately, I'm pretty good at rooting out the good stuff.”

She starts raking through cupboards looking for interesting food.

As she pulls cans out of a cupboard, we hear a voice from off panel: "Making a little midnight snack, I see!”

Comic page from Interstellar Taco Truck #1 by Edward Ross.

We see a montage of cooking. Alien kid Kit’s blue hand grabs a pan, sets a pink flame ablaze under it, grabs a knife from a rack, then some marshmallows and a banana.

We see him chopping ingredients. Ari leans over his shoulder: What are you doing?
Kit: What does it look like? Cooking! Don't you cook?

Ari leans on a yellow microwave looking device: Not if I can help it. Oh, unless Quantum-blasting counts?

Kit flips the ingredients in the pan, smiling: It doesn’t!

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 8

Hope you feel better soon and it's nothing major. Take care, bud!

Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 7

Out of curiosity, do most US authors / comic creators submit their work to the US copyright office as a matter of course?

Or are a lot of people going to be shit out of luck like me?

Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 7

This is worth reading if you’re wondering where you stand as an author whose work was ripped off by Anyhropic.

Looks like, as I was worrying, that I’ll probably not get a payout since my work wasn’t registered with the US copyright office.

Tyler King @tyleraking.com · Sep 5

AUTHORS: AG has prepared a detailed explainer on the Anthropic settlement and how it affects us. Full details:

Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 7

This sucks…

In sum, the work must have been:

Registered within 3 months of its first publication (in any format) OR before the titles were downloaded (because the Copyright Act provides statutory (court-set) damages only if one of the two is true); AND
Registered within 5 years of first publication (because the Copyright Act provides a presumption of validity of all of the facts in the registration certificate, such as author and owner for works registered within 5 years).
In other words:

The work was registered within 3 months of publication, OR
It was registered within 5 years of publication and before the download dates (from LibGen in June 2021 and PiLiMi in July 2022).

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Edward Ross @edwardross.bsky.social · Sep 7

This despite the fact that copyright is automatic - but a work needs to be registered to make a claim, and it’s too late in this case.

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