Storm in a petri dish

Second coming A comic makeover for Tim Minchin’s stormy atheist beat poem follows its animated video

Comedian Tim Minchin’s dinner-party argument with an alternative medicine fan became part of his show. Find out why it’s now a graphic novel…

Comedian Tim Minchin’s poem Storm started life in his stand-up show. It was a 10-minute tirade against ‘evidence-free thinking’ of all stripes, based loosely on a real life run-in with a vocal fan of homeopathy.

It’s a playful account of an evening meal that sees the wine-fuelled Minchin character singing the benefits of humanism to the astrology-loving Storm, although even Tim initially had his doubts about it. “I always wondered if it was funny,” he says, “it’s barely comedy! It’s sort of its own genre.”

It struck a chord with artist Dan ‘DC’ Turner and producer Tracy King. Having caught his 2009 show Ready For This? they cornered Tim at a party and suggested animating the song. “Storm is the best summary of the way I feel about the world, about science and rationalism,” says DC, “and it needed to be seen as well as heard.” Having created an animated film based on the poem for free, DC has just revisited the ode to humanism with a graphic novel, out this October.

“Dan talked about his animation style in terms of it having a jazz, smokey feel,” says Tim about the film, which can still be seen on YouTube, “but what I didn’t realise is that the book would be such a huge leap in detail and texture.”

While Tim admits that Storm may be preaching to the choir, he says that, “What we think we can do, as science communicators, or anyone that cares about this stuff, is get the swing voters.”

Storm is on sale this October. Find out more here: http://ifxm.ag/storm-ifx.

Tim questions Storm’s stance of remaining ignorant to facts that are just a Google query away.

Tim appears as himself in the novel, reacting to Storm’s ‘hippy’ diatribe against science and medicine in the 21st century.

Tim’s epic poem has been adapted to the graphic novel format, with his words either appearing within panels or, as in this case, over one large illustration.

A dinner party with a few of Tim’s friends provided the perfect platform for Storm and her views.