Prawn Zine: Hand-Drawn Comic about a Welsh Prawn's Art Journey

Lisa Derrick

A story of a small Welsh prawn’s unintentional journey away from art and how they found their way back again. Featuring a dastardly art teacher, a bunch of late diagnosed chronic illnesses and a message from the universe through the letterbox.

The zine explores the very real barriers to accessing art that exist for many working class people across the UK. It also spotlights the very real benefits of art on our wellbeing and is a rallying cry for anyone who wants to make art, to go right ahead. Prawn’s impassioned view is that art is for everyone.

A 16-page comic zine I drew from scratch using my human hands, coloured pencils and a digital pencil. The story text was typed + printed + glued + scanned. 100% sticky intelligence, always 0% artificial.

Printed by Leeds based printer Print.Work on 100% recycled paper. The front cover is finished with pen-colouring by Prawn’s very own pincers, so that each zine will be slightly different.

Content note: mentions of endometriosis, Crohn’s disease, and body dysmorphia.