A perfect Sunday with... Colleen Douglas
Chicken and split yellow peas, retro reads and problem-solving in nature
Every week, a top writer, artist, actor or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Today, it's the turn of writer Colleen Douglas.
Colleen's perfect Sunday… brunch
It’s kind of funny, since I grew up with soup on Sundays in South America, that tradition tends to stay with me. I usually make chicken and split yellow peas, adding seasoning and some kind of spicy pepper, fresh herbs, vegetables and ground provisions. It’s a rich explosion of flavours and beyond delicious, sometimes I might make homemade bread to go with it.
Colleen's perfect Sunday… read
Right now I am reading retro with Dick Francis: The Edge. He was very popular in the Caribbean, and our parents and grandparents would read these stories to us.
Rereading hits differently when you’re older, plus you get to see all the tactful omissions that were made.
I am also reading Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200 by R.S.A. Garcia in Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Three, which is a riotous “palaver” as they would say in the Caribbean, about a goat called Ignatius and his interaction with technology.
I am a multi-genre reader, but especially fantasy, horror and sci-fi: my all-time favourite is probably Brian Lumley’s Necroscope series.
Colleen's perfect Sunday… comic
I am currently reading The Hive from A.J Lieberman with art from Mike Henderson and Godhead from Ho Che Anderson.
I like a lot of Greg Rucka’s work like Queen and Country, Lazarus and his last outing The Forged, mainly because I think that man loves women (not in some odd way.) I feel he really understands female characters and writes them very well.
My favourite comic outside of Rucka is Scream Queen from Ho Che because at heart, I am a horror writer, and monsters are my bag.
Colleen's perfect Sunday... movie
I love animation, some Ghibli and I can’t say more than Esma Movies on YouTube. They make brilliant little shorts as they are a French animation school whose students tend to produce an animation as their final assignment.
My favourite is Achoo, not only for the sheer triumph of the story but for the quirky fun little details (tattoos in places a respectable judge should never have one!)
I also tend to gravitate to indie creations, such as Ronal the Barbarian and old classics like the movies of Sergio Leone or adventures like The Mummy or King Solomon’s Mines.
I have always been drawn to big epic adventures, which probably stems from going to the cinema after chores on Sundays as a kid.
Colleen's perfect Sunday... TV binge
My binges tend to be eclectic. I binge-watch comedy from Trevor Noah, and I love re-watching old favourites. As a child I was raised on Westerns and some of my comfort shows often reflect this, For a Few Dollars More or anything Sergio Leone and there I go.
Right now I’m re-bingeing Crazy Head.
Look it has demons, and I love and write monsters. What do you expect?
Colleen's perfect Sunday… podcast
I am not really a podcast person mainly because I tend to zone out after a while. It’s not the shows, it’s me!
I have to be fully immersed, or else nothing. However, from time to time, I do catch up with Rodney Barnes’ Run, Fool! and recently listened in to Adrian Tchaikovsky and Emma Newman’s Starship Alexandria.
Colleen's perfect Sunday… album
My chill-out has always been an eclectic mix of blues, cosmic jazz, and rock, incorporating artists like Buddy Guy, Lenny Kravitz, and Sun Ra.
I have been known to switch a bit of Mongolian Rock from The Hu and opera from Leontyne Price into the mix, depending on what I'm doing at the time.
Colleen's perfect Sunday… treat
I’m fortunate to live within walking distance of Portobello Road and Hyde Park, so on good weather days I love a nice walkabout. It's a great way to decompress and escape the pressure of work and social media. It’s also healing to be near the swans and a great creative place – a lot of problem-solving comes to me when I’m wandering around in nature.
Shakespeare's Vampires by Colleen Douglas is debuting from FairSquare Graphics this weekend at MCM London.
Romeo and Juliet did not really die in the traditional sense. The night they tried to commit suicide, they were turned into vampires. This changed everything. And for the past 400 years, they've been at war with each other. Looks like their relationship went beyond "it's complicated." And now, in modern-day London, two sisters are at the centre of a centuries-long conflict that could reshape the underworld forever…
Colleen Douglas is a 2023 Ringo! Award nominee and a comic book creator, editor, and writer. She served as Editor-in-Chief for Amigo Comics and edited for Sally Books in Malaga from 2017 to 2020. Colleen is the Curation Editor for SHOOK! Vol. 2: Songs of the Dark Sirens, the sequel to the groundbreaking SHOOK! A Black Horror Anthology from Second Sight Publishing and Dark Horse Comics. She is historically the first Black woman to be published by Caliber Comics in its 35-year history.
Originally from Guyana and now based in West London, Colleen holds a PhD in Ancient Monetary Systems. Her eclectic interests include rock, metal, opera, cosmic jazz, funk, and all things supernatural, cosmic, esoteric, and strange.