A World Cup Journal is a comics reportage project that I undertook in collaboration with William Goldsmith to document the men's football World Cup hosted by Russia in 2018. William and I, both us us at that time residing and teaching in Moscow, saw the opportunity to work together, immerse ourselves in tournament experience, and develop our mutual interest in comics and illustration as journalistic media. In my research, I attended three matches (all, by chance, featuring a winning goal after the 90th minute) and travelled on overnight trains from Moscow to Volgograd, Sochi and Rostov-on-Don. More than football however, the book is a collection of vignettes and observations of people; the visiting fans from around the world, and the locals experiencing this unprecedented influx, with its sense of carnival and connection to the wider world.

The resultant book, published in November 2022 by Sputnikat is a mixture of one-page comics vignettes, observational drawings. scores from the matches, and a three-part essay exploring our process, the experience of being at the tournament, and the context of releasing the book six months after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.