Writer, graphic designer, typographer, illustrator, comics writer/artist, and photographer Rian Hughes rejoins the show to celebrate the US release of his fantastic novel, The Black Locomotive (Pan Macmillan). We talk about how he wanted to follow up 2020's XX with something more plot-driven & less philosophical and wound up celebrating his love affair with London while getting in touch with his inner JG Ballard. We get into his integration of prose, typography, and graphic design in the new book, what he's learned about writing (and the new novel he's working on), the nature of font-design (and the real difference between sans-serif & serif fonts), and what he thinks about AI image-generation and its impact on creative fields (and what it says about popular tastes). We also discuss Rayguns & Rocketships, the recent book of his collection of vintage science fiction book cover art, the collector impulse and how to short-circuit it, the fun of writing the song for a fictional club of train aficionados & having his sister set it to music (and then hearing it remixed by Scott Hoffman), his fear of accidentally kicking off a flamewar among stream-train enthusiasts, and a LOT more. Follow Rian on Twitter and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack