I’ve been creating custom comics since 2012. I have a custom comic studio called Make Me A Comic. I spend my working days brainstorming and writing comic stories for clients — from personal love stories to full-blown fictional superhero worlds. I write and design all the comics, then work with an incredible art team who bring those visions to life. I suppose creative director is my “official” role, but I prefer “professional storyteller”. Over the years, I’ve also created custom comics for businesses including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google. I sincerely LOVE what I do; it doesn’t feel like work.

I began casually mentioning the idea to friends, and almost everyone said the same thing:“I’d buy that”. One introduction led to another, and before I knew it, I was interviewing people. It all happened very organically, a spiderweb of information as the island’s community started to open up to me. From the start, it always felt like Ibiza wanted this story to be told because the information flowed to me so easily. But I quickly understood that it had to be done in sync with the rhythm of the island. Slowly, steadily, organically.

It’s been very much about making friends, having coffees and cocktails, having lots of fun, and doing a lot of dancing. Connection was key, face-to-face. Showing a genuine interest and love for Ibiza - I didn’t want people to think I was sitting in an office in London just regurgitating information I found online and then planning to cash in on it. No, I wanted to hear stories firsthand from the very people whose story it was. What intrigued everyone was the format, a comic book. One that tells the “entire” story. This was new, this was fun - I mean, who doesn’t want to see themselves drawn in a comic?! And what better format to tell the Ibiza story than a comic book?! After all, pictures do say 1000 words. One of the first people I told was Dan Prince, one of founders of Mixmag. I could tell he thought it was a great idea, but it wasn’t until a couple of years later, when we finally met in person, that he said, “So…you really are mad enough to do this then?”. Turns out, yes. I am!

if you have read enough and want to buy Book 1, please click here to purchase.

This project tells the history of Ibiza, starting from when the island rose from the ocean 155 million years ago. Ancient history is condensed, and from the 1950s onwards, the story becomes more detailed.

Ancient history was, of course, taken from books, but from the 0s onwards, the narrative was built primarily from people’s memories taken firsthand by me. Then the gaps were filled in through countless hours of research across books, blogs, social media, and film. I’ve researched, written, and designed the comic, with illustrations by Rodrigo Cardama, a professional illustrator and member of the Make Me A Comic art team. Yes, there will be things we missed, some information might be wrong - it relies heavily on people’s memories, which fade and get embellished over time. Plus 1 story can be told 1000 ways. 

I’d like to take a moment to mention Martin Davies, who spent a lot of time with me correcting historical facts. Martin is a well-respected Ibiza historian; his input has been invaluable to the comic. Martin is also an editor, and he was very quick to highlight that I can’t punctuate to save my life (LOL). So thanks to Martin, at the 11th hour, Rodrigo and I spent many days re-editing the book. I hope it’s correct!. Thankfully going forwards Martin will edit the rest of the comic series (thank god). 

Storytelling is as old as time. In a world where everything now moves so fast, it’s more important than ever to record history before it’s all forgotten. Given Ibiza’s very unique history, if we don’t record it now, whilst those memories are somewhat “fresh”, in decades to come, the story will seem so unbelievable that it could easily become a myth, because no one can actually prove it happened. This comic book series keeps the memory of Ibiza and its people alive. 

Book One of We Love Ibiza was financed for the first 5 years through the sale of custom comics from my business, Make Me A Comic. I didn’t have enough money to print, but I just knew a solution would reveal itself. That solution came in the shape of a friend, who expressed interest in the project and became an investor.