Gareth's comic: Sausage Bean Melts

Friday 30th August 2024

A comic drawing of a man frantically throwing food into his mouth, next to the text 'Sausage Bean Melts'

The final instalment of Gareth Cowlin's monthly mini-comic about stammering.

Every month for the last year, cartoonist and STAMMA member Gareth Cowlin has kindly contributed a comic strip exclusively for our website. You can read the twelfth and final strip, 'Sausage Bean Melts' below. (Go to Features to read them all.)

To wrap up his project, Gareth has written some words which we've added underneath. You can read more in the Your Voice article Gareth's written, all about his relationship with stammering and drawing.

In Gareth's words

Hi, My name is Gareth Cowlin and I’m the person who's been drawing the 12 mini-comics for STAMMA over the past 12 months. I have been mildly disfluent since childhood, Part hobby, part therapy for my stammer, these short comics started out as a little challenge to myself, to see if I could draw a story each month, while still juggling my job at Staffordshire University. The work I do doesn't leave me much spare time, but I love drawing and find it very cathartic.

A man standing against a brick wall, smiling, with an inset of a comic version of the man

Gareth (and his comic alter ego)

These stories were only ever intended to offer a fleeting commentary on the subject of stammering, acceptance and the way we view language, as the topic is clearly more complex than a short comic will allow. If you're interested in a longer story, please let me know and I'll pick up the proverbial pencil again. Email garethcowlin@gmail.com

I made an anthology of the 12 comics to sell via the Cartoon Museum in London this August, and I've called the collection 'D-D-Disfluent' (see the picture below). I may make a downloadable version available too.

A comic's front cover, next to an open comic

Gareth's collection, 'D-D-Disfluent'

You can follow me on social media (@garethcowlin). Apologies for the slow content, though — I'm currently going through a mollusc drawing phase. It'll pass, probably."

Read more about Gareth's passion for drawing, and his theory about creativity in people who stammer, in his Your Voice article 'When I'm drawing I can control the narrative'.

Here at STAMMA we'd like to thank Gareth for very kindly contributing his work especially for our site.

Have you created something stammering-related that you'd like to share? See Submit Something For The Site or email editor@stamma.org