Writer & Artist: Aneurin Wright
Publisher: Myriad Editions
It’s Nye’s birthday. When his Father Neil calls him to wish him a happy birthday, he also mentions that he’s been ‘certified for hospice’. The currently unemployed Nye is the only one in a position to look after his father, diagnosed with advanced stage emphysema. Relocating to the retirement park Nye’s days become a routine of pill counting and medical checks. Along the way he learns a lot about himself, life and his father.
The result of several years worth of work ‘Things to do………’ is an autobiographical tale. Nye here is portrayed by a blue minotaur and his father a blue anthropomorphised rhino. Several other characters are featured throughout most represented by anthropomorphised animals with the exception of the women that feature, which lends an even more surreal edge to the tale. Despite this surreal edge though ‘Things to do……….’ is one of the most real stories you’re ever likely to read.
As the story progresses, there are flashbacks to Nye’s youth as well as dream like sequences. One of these being Nye imagining himself as a comic book style vigilante named ‘The Authorial Persona’ taking on the ruthless CEO of Happy Huff ‘n’ Puff Tobacco Company in the shadowy city of Carcinogenia. The CEO being represented by a aristocratic pig complete with monocle.
Rather than just represent a manifestation of Nye’s desire for vengeance on the corporation responsible for his Father’s debilitating illness, this sequence also works as a meta commentary on itself, as the CEO calls out the hackneyed use of himself being represented by a pig. He also brings forth the point of Nye’s Father being just as responsible for his plight as the tobacco company. It’s an impressively self aware portrayal of the mental anguish and futility that Nye finds himself dealing with.
There’s much more to this story though. An examination of father/son relationships as the two go from bickering over petty things to Nye learning to actually bond with his Father and reconcile over the past and the two, both as emotionally repressed and distant as each other, finally learn to accept each other. It also explores how this impacts other relationships though, like the relationship with his Mother long divorced from his father and Nye’s relationship with his own partner.
One of the most searingly powerful elements of ‘Things to do………….’ is that the reader knows how this story is going to end right from the start. Witnessing Neil’s slow but sure decline is an emotionally wrenching experience. This decline represented by the increaed use of pauses in Neil’s speech bubbles as he wheezes and coughs short of breath.
‘Things to do……….’ is a tour de force of what can be achieved through the medium sequential art. Aneurin Wright’s art is bold and expressive, the minimal use of colour making it more so. With varied use of panels throughout from several per page to one powerful image. It packs whimsical touches, one memorable sequence being when Nye moves house and it’s revealed the house is atop a huge red elephant which leaps off into the distance, alongside powerful imagery conveying the emotional trauma of Nye’s situation, a sequence involving a neighbour oblivious to Nye’s situation being just one example.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast News, David Austin of the British Board of Film Classification used the example of 2012 release The Woman in Black. He noted that upon first viewing the board were keen to give the picture a 15 certificate, but due to pressure from the film’s distributor who intended to market the movie to a slightly younger audience (due to the popularity of its star Daniel Radcliffe) a 12A certificate was given after certain scenes were trimmed. He said the intent of lessening the potential negative impact of the horror upon younger viewers was key. He admitted that more clarity was needed in helping the public understand what this rating means and how it applies to younger cinema-goers. 
The sexualisation of young women in films, as well as other mediums such as music videos, was also determined to be a major area of concern following consultation with the public. There is a sense of continuity here as the list of films which are still banned by the BBFC are predominantly ones which were deemed to contain excessive levels of sexual violence, such as the 2009 Japanese horror Grotesque, and the 2010 American independent release The Bunny Game. 
