After a long absence spent fighting off the nasty humans who wanted concrete over her burrowing grounds, 90s-kids-cartoon-style, the Webcomic Mole returns! …and now she’s more buff, with a headband and possibly an eyepatch… This fortnight she’s investigating ‘Digging for Apples’ and ‘Second Skin’, two webcomics by creator Donna Stewart.

It was hour 20. Stacks of paper with hastily scrawled images and text were scattered on every side of me. I'd been up for over 30 hours and my body was running on caffeine and very little else. My hand was aching and simply wanted to remove itself from the end of my arm, take a nice bath, and lie down. The rest of my body was attempting to start a civil war with the part of my brain that agreed to take part in a 24 hour comic challenge. The collateral damage seemed to be my spine, shoulders and neck. I should explain. The 24 hour comic challenge was invented by comic book scholar and practitioner Scott McCloud in 1990. Any willing participants are required to produce 24 pages of a comic in 24 consecutive hours. No prior preparation is allowed bar a gathering of materials and sustenance. The exercise was a reaction to the length of time he and his peers spent agonizing over single panels. Hours, days, and even weeks fell prey to extended bouts of procrastination and this, McCloud surmised, would encourage a different way of working. It proved to be a wonderfully inspiring, creative task for people who took part and there are now worldwide events based around the idea.