Michi Mathias. illustration & comics.
  • home
  • about
    • now
    • interviews
  • DIY Vegan Cooking
  • Two Shillings
    • synopsis
  • comics
    • Just a Normal Day?
    • Up, Down or Stay the Same?
  • work with me
  • shop
  • contact
Hi, I'm Michi and I've always liked explaining stuff and was told even as a child that I was good at it.
I love making complicated concepts clear to help solve problems for environmental or social projects doing good in the world, drawing in the old-fashioned way​ with pen & ink and watercolour.
 After a distant past of trying to draw "properly", my work has veered toward a somewhat quirky wonkiness whilst still being reasonably accurate and detailed. Which is a lot more fun.

Here's why I came back to drawing after a thirty-year gap... and then started making comics:​
Picture
Picture
So what was I doing instead for three decades? Working with environmental groups, including a few years in Japan, making lost-wax silver wildlife jewellery, renovating old houses, working with community groups, translating Japanese, making vegan sushi, playing fiddle in various bands, and other things which would look terribly random on a CV.  As well as raising two beautiful boys. 

That first little booklet of graphic recipes has led to varied and interesting opportunities working with environmental campaigns, educational projects, small biz start-ups, and others whose work I love to support, including: 
Clients

​- BeFries restaurant    [there! -->]
- University of Sussex
-
University of Cardiff
- Zero Waste Europe, Brussels
- Common Cause Co-operative
- Ministry of Stories
- Oyster Project disability group
- Like the Wind magazine
- Dancing Fox BV,  Amsterdam
- Ashurst organic farm
- Perceptia Press
- East Sussex County Council


Published work

- 
DIY Vegan Cooking (Liminal 11, 2021) ​
Picture

​Illustration for books & magazines


- Escape the Classroom (Perceptia Press, 2020)
- The Environment Project (Perceptia Press, 2021) 
- The Kenya Cookbook (Sussex University - SPRU, 2018)
- Like the Wind magazine #8, #12, #16


Self-published work

- JJ's Graphic Recipes (2013)
- Just a Normal Day? (2016) 'choose-your-own-pathway' comic  46pp
- Up, Down or Stay the Same? (2016) fun science quiz puzzles
- Quick Sketch vegan Graphic Recipes, volume I (2016)
- The Day I Found Out How Much Running Really is All in the Mind and other stories (2018)  
- A Spoonful of Sugar (2018) created for All is Not Well  8pp, A5

​
Speaking engagements and interviews
​

- Graphic Brighton conference, Dec 2017
- International Comics and Graphic Novels Conference, June 2018
Picture
I'm in it!
 Myriad Editions 2018
Picture
- Ideamedic podcast talking about creative work with Tara Roskell, 2017
- Off the Front podcast with Elizabeth Emery, mostly on women in sports. My bit is  the first fifteen minutes, about Two Shillings a Day graphic novel project. 2018
- Talk at Laydeez Do Comics on work-in-progress Two Shillings a Day.  Jan 2020

- Talaterra podcast on environmental education, April 2021 


​I live in Sussex in the UK, where I can be found playing the fiddle or teaching five-string banjo or running on the South Downs when not drawing.
​

Click to see what I'm doing right NOW at this moment...
Picture
Would you like to hear more? And see works in progress? Sign up for almost-monthly update!​


                                                                                                                                                                                  RFM


Michi Mathias     illustration & comics    

Picture