Space Shrimp

Who is Killie?

Killie is an original character whose novel (Throw Your Heart Over) will be out sometime in 2026. In the meantime we have a lot of webcomics to offer while we all shake him like a chew toy.

he's an angry little racehorse jockey with an unfortunate psychic connection to his rancid racehorse frenemy (O Holy Thunder), a redemption-arc relationship with his nice nerdy boyfriend (Derek), an elusive twin brother (Charlie) and a messy, rambling family of horse-obsessed weirdos who are overly-invested in the fascinating, complex, dirty, problematic and unhinged world of horse racing.

Killie is a short athletic ginger jock like an angry wet cat, who is always getting injured, and we love him for this. He is a terrible person who has done problematic things - but what's important is that he is so, so loved.

It's hard to work out what's going on! - Sorry, but also, don't worry too much about it! A built-in part of the Killieverse is the collaborative Tumblr storytelling part, so a piece of content often starts by someone asking "What does Killie think of the new pope?", I write a comic in response, someone else responds something hilarious, and I write something again. Maybe your prompt will get a sweet-and-sad snapshot of a polyamorous family during a school run or a very silly set of low-effort Halloween costumes. So "canon" consists of layers of community-guided fun, and is sort of twisting and winding by nature.

The first book in the series is going to come out in 2026. If you want, I can send you an email when it does.

Super-Fast Facts

Killie is from County Meath in the Republic of Ireland.

His mother is a posh English foxhunting Tory wench, and his father is an Irish former champion jockey, now trainer and heir of the Tiernan racing dynasty.

Killie's in his late thirties.

He's about four feet ten inches, wears a UK men's size 4, and has his suits hand-tailored.

He has psychic horsegirl abilities, but unfortunately, his closest horse friend is also an awful person.

His life is largely defined by an early tragedy; in a terrible moment, he turns on his own twin brother, Charlie, when Charlie comes out as bisexual.

When we first meet Killie, he's unfortunately very conservative.

(He gets better.)

If you hold Killie down and apply labels to him forcibly, with some kind of staples, he would be labelled as bisexual, demisexual, and neurodivergent. Killie would immediately rip all the labels off and bite you.

Best-of Comics: Killie Himself

Killie teaches Derek to sit on a horse.

The (somewhat shorter than average) Merman (a complete Mermaid AU comic). Derek meets a merman and his meat-eating horse.

Killie and Derek have their own definition of "romance."

Killie's fated to die at forty, which probably isn't a problem.

Killie and the Hellhorse (a satire on The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse)

The demons of insecurity find it a challenge to get ahold of Killie.

"What's Killie's full name?"

"It's like Billy with a K"

in which you try to get antibiotics for Killie's cough.

Best-of Comics: Charlie Himself

First Aid for Existential Crises on Mountains (Charlie as a young man, recently having left his family, and his friend Ken manage an existential crisis on a mountain.)

Unicorn (a glimpse into how Charlie's unconventional polyamorous-triad-and-lots-of-children family unit came together.)

Charlie's Introduction to Project Management (in his day job, Charlie is actually a respectable adult with some vaguely relevant leadership skills.)

"someday's still out there." (Charlie and Ken might hike the Camino de Santiago. Someday.)

Grey horses are called that because they're born grey (Charlie would've been a good vet probably.)

Trying to get to know Charlie better.

Best-of Comics: Miscellaneous

WHY WOULD HORSES EAT MEAT (Ken and Derek learn Fun Facts about Horses!)

Miles, one of Charlie's kids, is secretly working through his own puzzle pieces of Belonging to the Horse Dynasty that he doesn't know about.

"What if Charlie was the twin who stayed home, and Killie was the one who left?" AU.

Sometimes I draw the characters as centaurs, for silliness purposes. Here is Charlie-centaur whose legs fell asleep.

Species-swap: if Killie was the horse and Thunder was the jockey.

Uma Musume Thunder part one and two

Greyuncle Era

If Killie should escape his fate of dying young in a riding accident and marry his lovely nerdy American boyfriend, they will become the "greyuncles" of Charlie's descendants. Here are some longish comics about that happy ending.

Gold from the Old Millennium

Rescues

Killie + Textposts

Killie + Textposts Part 1

Killie + Textposts Part 2

Killie + Textposts Part 3

Killie + Textposts Part 4

Eggs for Killie

Have you got a creative project of some kind that lacks accountability, deadline or just a little push to cross the threshold from "hanging around" to "finished"? You can submit an ask to @eggsforkillie, an independent fanblog run by patheticprogrammingperson, and get to work! In one month you'll be asked if you managed to meet your goal, and if you did, Killie gets an egg. You can burden him further by doing this.

Tags

Killie : literally everything including the kitchen sink.

Killie By Friends : Fanart and fanfiction goes here!

Killie and Oholythunder : Thunder's tag!

Killie and Charlie : The tag with Charlie in it.

Killie and Derek: the tag with Derek in it.

Charlie and Ken(dal Mint Cake) : The tag with Ken in it.

Throw Your Heart Over : Novel and series developmental stuff.

The Straight and Narrow : Charlie's plot doesn't have MUCH to do with racehorses.

Eggs For Killie : the original #eggsforkillie resulting in 150 eggs.

Jockeyposting : Horse racing has several thousand years of history, and today is a modern tangle of organised crime, disorganised crime, chaotic crime, things that aren’t crimes but should be, crimes that haven’t been invented yet, and felonies. Stuff about the general sport - bad and good and interesting - goes here.