POD THREE

I went back to the flat the next day and Kerry/ Ceri was gone. I didn’t do anything foolish like destroy all her things, smash the place up etc. No, I just stopped going to work and started getting drunk a lot. I thought this was the worst thing ever (a year later I found out the worst thing ever is watching your father die painfully of a cerebral tumour).

After a week of wallowing in self pity (and having some fun nights out with Ralphie when drunk) a work colleague called Kev whom I’d really only just met, suggested I move into the bedsit house he was currently living in. It was cheap and the landlord’s rep in the house was his friend Alison, who really didn’t care if/when I paid rent.

It seemed like the perfect solution so I moved there. It was an utter shit hole. Brighton has a very seedy side and this place represented this perfectly. I spent six months there during which time Kev and I got drunk every single night and ate nothing but Grubbs burgers (the best burgers known to man).

I became very prolific with my comic creations during this period, both writing and drawing. I loved it. I would not eat or drink for days whilst I created my mini masterpieces – resulting in the time I started to piss blood. I was getting good reviews in the comic review mags and I felt like I was part of something (no matter how pathetic).

It was during this time that I wrote this comic. It is probably about 80% true. The 20% that wasn’t so true was that I adored Ceri/Kerry. You know what it’s like as a relationship dies, you start to hate one another. She just met someone before me, that was all. I just wasn’t grown up enough to properly understand. Ten years on practically the same thing happened again with another woman, only this time we were both a more grown up and we split reasonably amicably.

I stopped writing comics after my father got ill. Nothing seemed important enough to write about. I didn’t start writing again for about five years.

What happened to the players? John is still my best mate (along with edwaado). Ralph I hear from on occasion, mostly when he sends his comics to me, typically addressed to ‘The very gay Hergé smith’. He’s really matured.

Naz and Yvonne I sadly lost contact with. They'd move to Brighton primarily because of the gay scene, especially in Naz's case. She was on the run from her family, strick Muslims who due to her sexual orientation, wanted to kill her. Charming. I spent most of the summer in '93 with them, going on picnics, clubbing and going to gay bars/ pubs. They were utterly brilliant and really helped me sort myself out. I dunno why I lost contact... I think because after a few months I did start to see the Sam in the story, and you know how it is when you meet someone new...

As for Ceri… now a good friend, and ironically the only ex I am friends with. She is a really good writer/ editor and works for those trashy magazines that I often slate/ take the piss out of.

Funny how things work out.