3×23: Ollie Hicks

Can you sum up your work in 3 words?

Funny, gay, energetic

What comics plans do you have for 2023?

So much! Possibly too much! My debut graphic novel is out! I co-created GRAND SLAM ROMANCE Book 1 with my wife, the unbelievably talented Emma Oosterhous and it’s finally coming out in the UK in June 2023. It’s a ridiculous, funny, sweaty, sexy story about softball lesbians and magical girls and long-lost love! So we’re launching that, and soon (very soon -like this week!) I’m going to sit down and start writing GSR Book 3!

I’m also co-editing a smut anthology with the amazing Tab Kimpton and Niki Smith called Succulent, which is opening submissions soon and I’m SO EXCITED to edit it!

I’m also working on solo stuff! I debuted Butch Bros Vs The Skate Park in Short Box Comics Fair 2022 and just fell completely in love with the characters – two butch himbos who are ride or die for each other but keep falling out over sexy supernatural creatures – and so I made a sequel, Butch Bros Vs The Resignation Letter, which is out in April. I really love this comic and I’ve really pushed myself as a colourist making it, so I’d like to do a third and final instalment, but that’s going to probably be 2024 because I somehow have another comics project this year! This final project is a solo comic, a little longer than my usual 24 pages, and a bit more reflective. It’s a story that’s been brewing inside me for ten years at least, and I’m excited to start writing it. But that one’s a secret for now!

Up to anything else exciting this year?

Laughs feebly Nope! Just comics!!! I’ve had a really exciting* couple of years with the pandemic where a bunch of life stuff happened and making comics sort of went on the back burner, except for Grand Slam. I’m really happy and grateful to have a few months this year to be more creative and draw more.

*Absolutely soul crunchingly awful

You can order GRAND SLAM ROMANCE BOOK 1 here. Or go here for a list of UK queer indie bookshops that you can request it from.