Our Team.
Dr. Jac Batey
Associate Professor in Illustration
University of Portsmouth
I’m a practice-based researcher who creates artists' books and zines under the brand Damp Flat
Books. My serial zine Future Fantasteek! (ISSN 2399-3022) visually explores anxiety through
satirical social commentary. I created the University's Zineopolis art-zine collection and have
transitioned from illustrator to academic practitioner-researcher via a practice-based PhD. I have
sought to extend the academic rigor in the field of illustration by showing how this practice can have
its own agency. My research methods include drawing and creating visual narratives to engage in
social issues. My illustrative practice includes artist’s books, zines, animation, and interactive ‘deep
drawings’. I was awarded a ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ Arts Council Grant called ‘Future
Fantasteek in Motion’. This is to explore the space between animation/illustration, challenging the
passivity of the still image through motion, and Augmented Reality. My work in developing innovative
responses using new technologies during the pandemic, was recognized with a Vice Chancellor’s
Recognition Award (2021). Most recently (2022) I delivered a keynote talk ‘Click-Other’ about Arts
Practice Research for ASWARA, Malaysia.
Visit my blog for more information: www.futurefantasteek.blogspot.com
Nicolas Verstappen
Lecturer
Chulalongkorn University
Lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Among other objectives, most of my courses aim at the development of visual & multimodal literacies, and at the production of graphic narratives exploring social and humanitarian issues (refugee experience, psychic trauma, sexual abuse, racism) by using constrained comics composition (for students without particular art training). A large selection of my students' works is displayed on a dedicated website: https://from-dusk-till-drawn.com/
My academic researches mainly focus on the History of Thai Comics, Comics as a Language of Psychic Trauma, and Constrained Comics Composition. My 288-page monograph "The Art of Thai Comics: A Century of Strips and Stripes" was released from River Books on June 2021. I'm the editor of the "GAP" comics zine series and the "XeroXed" interview-zine series, and an occasional panel moderator, radio show co-host, exhibition curator, workshop organizer, and Comics Art consultant.
Jonathan Scott
Illustrator - Coordinator
I’ve been working in the comics and sequential art field since my graduation from the University of Portsmouth’s BA Illustration program in 2015 and have worked with such clients as Act Against Abduction, The International Federation of the Red Cross, Portsmouth Comic Con, The Philippines International Comic Festival and Soaring Penguin Press.
After the completion of an MA in Illustration from the University of Portsmouth I began to focus on the wider values of story and visual structure – producing workshops at the University of Portsmouth and more recently performing a series of comics fundamentals workshops at Harrow International School in Bangkok. Through the fostering of my passion from sequential artforms I have expanded into exposing the wider comics sphere to the UK through a series of “International Initiatives” in partnership with Portsmouth comic con. Moving forward I’m balancing furthering my practices through interactive sequence and an organisational role that aims to help highlight new and idiosyncratic talent.
​
To find out more visit: www.jjscottillustration.com
