Bravefart: The Definitive Comic Take on Scottish Independence, takes a humourous spin on Alex Salmond’s rise to power culminating with him being crowned King of Scotland.

The book is written by Helensburgh man David Weir, with Vale man Mark Haining part of a team of three people providing the illustrations.

Mark, a former Vale of Leven Academy pupil, says drawing is something he’s always had a passion for. He told the Reporter: “We have been working on it for about eight months, in the end the comic was too short so we had to re-start it. David sends us the story ideas and we all take characters each, draw up some storyboards and send them back to him. It’s all finished now and it’s actually in some of the shops. It’s on sale in Dumbarton, the Vale, Helensburgh and Clydebank.

“I have always drawn as a hobby but it was just last year David advertised looking for illustrators.” The 31-year-old is part of a team called Clyper Productions who last year released The Clyper, a comic looking at life in Helensburgh. He continued: “It’s been a big learning curve for me, it’s definitely something I’d like to do more regularly.

“It’s been very tricky to try and get the comic in the shops because it’s not a regular series. Shops like Asda take such a huge percentage off what you sell that it’s not worth it to sell it there, so we’ve been selling it on a sale or return basis.” Mark says so far, because of the subject matter, there have been some positive and some negative reviews on the book’s Amazon page. He added: “It’s not going to change anybody’s mind about the referendum, it’s about letting off a bit of steam.

“People do take it very seriously, and they should do, but this is just about taking a lighter look at things.” You can buy a copy of Clyper Productions’ Bravefart: The Definitive Comic Take on Scottish Independence on Amazon.