About — CHIP collective

What is CHIP collective?

CHIP Collective is a comic collective run by Ashling Draws and Cat Laird. We create collaborative anthologies with the help of artists and storytellers all across the UK and Ireland, covering a wide range of subjects. The ambition behind the collective is to make positive social impact through our work and publications.

Our priorities include:

Encouraging fair pay for comic artists, particularly across the UK and island of Ireland.
Providing work opportunities for comic artists and illustrators, particularly across the UK and island of Ireland.
Providing and encourage collaboration between artists working in different creative fields.
Creating accessible, informative comics that anyone can enjoy and learn from.
Encouraging open and honest discussion surrounding subjects that need more awareness through de-stigmatisation.

What does CHIP do?

In 2018, CHIP Collective began work on our first comic anthology, “Living With Cancer: Our Stories”. We aimed to raise awareness about different cancer types and treatments while providing a feeling of hope and solidarity to those whose lives have been affected by cancer in some way. We also used this project to raise money for Cancer Research UK. The project was funded via Kickstarter with the money raised used to pay the artists involved a fair wage and get the book printed. The project continues to be non-profit with money from any sales made of the book going directly to Cancer Research UK via our CRUK fundraising page.

Our second comic anthology, “Working in: The Arts”, was created in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to de-mystify the world of working professionally as an artist across a number of different creative fields, including photography, games, graphic design, and more! This project was also funded via Kickstarter, and sales made from the books go towards supporting CHIP’s development.

What is CHIP doing next?

CHIP’s next planned anthology comic will combine the themes of our first two anthologies with “Working in: STEM”! We’ll be talking to people working across various STEM fields and turning those interviews into comics, making the information about their work accessible and entertaining to a wide audience, especially young people interested in learning more about the variety of career options within STEM.

Want to get involved?

If you work in a STEM field yourself and would like to share your story with us in this format, please get in contact via our email at the bottom of the page!

At the moment we are not taking submissions for comic artists or illustrators, but keep an eye out on our “News” page for updates on when we will be!

CHIP Collective is run by Ashling Draws and Cat Laird! Both Ashling and Cat graduated from University of Dundee in 2016 with degrees in Animation and Illustration respectively, before working together at the Dundee Comics Creative Space. Bonding over their shared experiences of working in Graphic Medicine and Information Comics, they banded together to create CHIP!

Outside of CHIP Collective…

Ashling completed her MDes in Comics and Graphic Novels in 2022 and has since been working at University of Dundee as an Animation lecturer.

Cat is a SICBA award-winning freelance comic artist and illustrator. Cat works as a freelance designer at V&A Dundee running design workshops and tours.