Rickard Sisters

What would YOU do for a free meringue? Thank you @hayfestival.bsky.social for having us (and feeding us)

We went to Hay Festival and talked about Protest in Graphic Novels with @myfanwytristram.bsky.social and it was so much fun! We were so grateful for the opportunity and met loads of interesting people on a very hot day. Great day out, would recommend!

Let’s make a room and fill it with things! Detail that can be a casual paragraph in prose requires proper planning and attention to detail in narrative art. It’s so much fun

Here’s a bully appearing before your eyes This is a page from This Slavery graphic novel. The writing on the wall in the last panel is singing from protesters outside, filling the room with unignorable noise

Creators often ask ‘how long does it take to make your books?’ Here we’re talking with @myfanwytristram.bsky.social about the process of making graphic novels, and how long it can take. You can see us hanging out with Myf this summer at Hay Festival and Leeds LitFest, links in the thread 👇

Remember when we had a big do in Queen Street Mill, Burnley? This film is from way back when we were scouting the joint. Readers of our graphic novels This Slavery and No Surrender will recognise that big weaving shed

Fancy a nice cup of tea? But what have we forgotten…

We’re excited to be bringing this kind of chat with @myfanwytristram.bsky.social to Hay Festival! 🗓️ Weds 27th May 11.30 🌳 Meadow Stage 🔥 Placards & Panels: graphic novels as protest” we’d love to see you there! @hayfestival.bsky.social @selfmadehero.bsky.social

This Slavery, our latest graphic novel, was adapted from a novel written Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and published in 1925. Our Ethel was incredibly cool, and a great example of an ‘activist artist’

This is how we fill a town square with busy little guys

A glimpse into our silly little process - the birth of a grand house, from idea to the page…

Everything you need to know about Wordsworth in 1m 40s 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼

Have you heard the one about the man who doesn’t like his own dog? This is a kind of origin story

All hail @nationaltrust.org.uk making art and splendour available to all! Here’s Petworth House - and if these glimpses don’t tempt you to visit I don’t know what would Also PLEASE can someone tell me why that statue has a tiny tail?!

When you’re enjoying a wuthering walk in Yorkshire, there’s only one family saga that springs to mind …

Who’s the REAL main character of our graphic novel This Slavery?

Imagine being so annoyed that you wrote an influential book which made everyone else annoyed - that’s dedication

What’s it like working with your sister? When you have a whole life time of ‘history’ with your colleague you know one another almost too well…

Here’s a glimpse of the day This Slavery brought a crowd to Queen Street Mill in Burnley and filled it with art and song and resistance ✊ @commonerschoir.bsky.social @jenniferballads.bsky.social @jennyharper.bsky.social @selfmadehero.bsky.social Thanks to Huckleberry Films

This is the stage between the script and the art of a graphic novel - and although we tend to do it quickly, some of the most important decisions get made at this point. Where the page turns fall, what we’re looking at when people deliver key lines, small panels or whole pages etc etc etc

This fever-dream of a double page spread from This Slavery is an homage to the William Morris utopia story ‘News from Nowhere’ Have you read it? I have some strong opinions…

It’s getting increasingly difficult to believe what you see on the internet when you’re searching for image references, but there are ways…

Come and look around the Royal Brighton Pavilion, the extravagant party palace of George IV (the one played by Hugh Laurie in Blackadder)

This is the bookplate we designed to come out with our 2022 suffragette book No Surrender. At the time it felt like the suffrage colours were being co-opted by anti-trans activists, so we made something that was very clear about equality and dignity for everyone, undefined by biology or gender 🏳️‍⚧️✊

Here we are talking with @myfanwytristram.bsky.social about making graphic novels and the right to protest - a little preview of the kind of thing you might hear if you come to see us in conversation at this year’s Hay Festival 📚

Hope your Sunday includes a book and a dog, if that’s your cup of tea

This Slavery: shortlisted for Book of the Year (Graphic Novel) at the Nibbies

It’s hard to explain the excitement and trepidation of that moment when people get to read the book you just spent years putting together…

Here we are location scouting for This Slavery graphic novel - I’ll think of a prize for anyone who can name the town from these clues alone…

This Slavery is a book about the nature or work, and it centres the domestic kitchen as a workplace in a matriarchal ‘economic unit’ (or as we think of it, a family) Drawing that kitchen thirty billion times doesn’t seem to have put Scarlett off

What percentage of museum visits should you be allowed to touch? Find out where Scarlett draws the line (and where Sophie would hide contraband) at Macclesfield Silk Museum

What’s the best time to mention the grand piano to the artist in a graphic novel project? The second best time is now…

Jip does not appreciate having his toes dried

This Slavery is a book about women and work and weaving - but it’s also quite a lot about BURNING EVERYTHING DOWN 🔥

A family day out in sunny BLACKBURN! We saw the whole world that day (feat. our brother Jacob) Please correct our woeful misunderstandings of both Latin and physics in the comments…

Scarlett loves drawing cars (so long as they were made before about 1964)

Turns out it’s not about art, we’re just looking out for each other’s mental health

Realism & the kitchen junk drawer. What do you keep in yours? 🐕 🍪

Have you read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists? Here’s the graphic novel version - the whole story told in cartoons. You can still enjoy the story without reading the 255,000 word original text And there are lots of horses and bicycles to look at

Before we put pen to paper there is a research phase - and this time we went on location with an old map Once again, the world proved to be full of friendly and kind people. Don’t believe the news - go outside!

Here’s a moment from the scripting stage of This Slavery graphic novel where I was tripping over my own adaptation choices, and had to make repairs. Please note the pingu ‘seal of approval’ on my laptop made for me by someone who really understands motivation

This is Lancashire’s Elizabethan Gawthorpe Hall, with a radical textile connection and some excellent contributions from Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (famous for the Houses of Parliament) One feature appears prominently in This Slavery graphic novel but I’ll give you my hat if you can name it

There are so many behind-the-scenes stages of making a graphic novel. Here is an example of the many ways the EDITOR improves the quality of the finished product. Making books is such a team sport

Ahh who knows when and where we shall strike next! With a national trust membership the possibilities are boundless but here’s one from Quarry Bank Mill in the meantime…

Have you ever been to Petworth House in West Sussex? It’s huge and bursting with art, including some famous ones. We had a great time, and thanks to @nationaltrust.org.uk we can all sniff the aristocratic toys whenever we like! This art belongs to the people ✊

What’s the main difference between you and your siblings? For us it’s the lines 🗒️

Does your house look like this 📶 or like this ♒️ or like this 📈 or maybe even like this 🏘️?

Can you imagine a whole graphic novel expressed in the form of song? You can now! Here’s @commonerschoir.bsky.social singing their original composition This Slavery in Queen Street Mill, Lancashire

Everything in the news is awful, so have a nice calm video of drawing a raging inferno - put the sound on for birds tweeting and the ASMR sound of the pencil on the glass

Here’s a tiny wedding to look at, from our graphic novel This Slavery. You can see Scarlett drawing, colouring, shading and lighting every cobble stone - and the expressions on the people’s tiny faces that tell you it’s not a happy day for them…

Macclesfield Silk Museum is FULL of surprises! Here are all the bits that were not silk - Content Warning for taxidermy and human remains, we were not kidding about the surprises…

Join us on a field trip to a scene from This Slavery graphic novel. It turns out if you draw first and visit later, you get lots of surprises (including a mistake a whole quarter of a mile long)