Mindless Ones

Makes cool art/music, for example: We Are No Longer Strangers (2024). Official Daredevil enthusiast. Worth keeping an eye on his Instagram, always something going on there.   

Who are you and how did you become a man without fear? 

My name is Watters and I am what many describe as “cool music guy”. Basically I am an Artist who makes lots of cool things all of which are informed around my lived experience as a disabled person.

However what I feel sets me aside from a lot of what is out there when it comes to representing people like me is that what I make isn’t made to be anything in particular and what I mean by that is a lot of your typical mainstream disability programming tends to fall into two schools, the first being inspiration porn which often consists of infantilising disabled and neurodivergent people and presenting us almost like Zoo animals, a good example of this is Channel 4 producing a show called “The Undateables” and then touting it as inspirational programming and representation, it exists purely to make non-disabled people good about themselves. 

The second is the trope of tragedy, that life as a disabled person is miserable, “they can’t do anything” and are often in fiction window dressing/a storytelling object.

What I do and what I make is neither. It is one of the most honest and real representations of disabled life but more specifically my life. Because that’s all it is. It is me unabridged. 

Here’s June’s Cartoon County podchat.  This month’s speaker was Steve Carroll who has been working on Once Damaged, the account of one disabled woman’s ordeals and triumphs. The discussion went into some interesting areas regarding the sensitive nature of the piece. Most vocal in the discussion are David Lloyd, Paul Rafferty, Nye Wright, Dan Locke.
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/stevecarroll.mp3]
click to download

Cartoon County is an association of over 100 cartoonists and comic artists in the Sussex area. Our regular meetings are usually on the last Monday of every month at The Cricketers, Black Lion St, Brighton, from 6 til late. If you’re a cartoonist or a comic artist, or use those particular styles of drawing in your work as an illustrator, animator or storyboard artist, you are very welcome to join us.  next meeting Monday 5th September.
Click here to see some images from Once Damaged