“When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy, the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material.”

When it was reported earlier this month that astronomers had captured the “spaghettification” of a star that had been captured and annihilated by a black hole, it reminded me of one panel in a comic book I made almost a decade ago. So I thought I’d share it with you!

This was for a college project, and also the first comic I decided to actually get printed. I took out a copy a little while ago and found I don’t absolutely hate it (I’ve thrown away 99% of everything I’ve ever made in disgust so this is quite an achievement for me).

It’s a short ditty about beings that are bred to explore space. It’s also written for the most part in Scots, so may well be impenetrable. I apologise for the THICK SCOTTISH BROGUE!

I’ve always preferred restricting myself to a limited colour palette, and if I recall correctly, I’d always planned to screen-print this book. My college didn’t have the facilities, however. Instead I made a print run! Most of which are still in a box under my having survived four apartment changes. When they toss my body into the bog tell them to throw these in with me.

The destruction of a star by a black hole – a Total Disruption Event – are rare, occurring once every 10,000 to 100,000 years in a galaxy the size of our own Milky Way. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) spotted one back in 2019 for the first time. I think my interpretation of the event was quite nice; though not incredibly accurate to reality.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my comic. As always you can find my work on Instagram, at @craigwardscott.