Realising your boyhood dreams aren’t going to come true, your hair’s thinning (despite your impressive beard) and that many important people in your life don’t particularly like you is an epiphany that many thirty-something year-old hipsters are likely to experience. But what happens when that feeling of despair is translated into an ambivalent comedy in monochrome? Best ask Babak Ganjei, author of new book Hilarious Consequences…

“I had Daniel Clowes aspirations,” says Babak when asked about the genesis of Hilarious Consequences, “but with my total lack of discipline and a baby to look after I would get bored of whatever story I was trying to write.” And the result of his mid-life attention deficit? A simple, short and punchy comic strip narrative of east London life - in six frames a page, boredom has never been more productive. The art is sketchy and simple, and the dialogue a grammar-freak’s worst nightmare, but Babak sees this as a positive: “Most art and music is at its best in its rawest form and this is what I think this will prove to be,” he says unapologetically. “I'll colour in the next book to make up for the fact that it's rubbish.”

Babak is in a band, lives with a young son and his girlfriend; Hilarious Consequences is about a guy named Babak, in a band, living with a young son and his girlfriend. “It's pretty safe to assume it's autobiographical,” he confesses. “It was written a couple of pages a day with one eye on trying to make my girlfriend, who I annoy on a daily basis, laugh – and it worked. Though it hasn't stopped me being annoying.”

But it’s more than just a book – it’s a book with a CD. “I thought it would be funny to be really lavish and egocentric to make a soundtrack for it... and then I got involved in helping set up the label the book is coming out on (Records Records Records Records), and it was an opportunity to actually make it happen.” The soundtrack features songs from Dignan Porch, The Bronsteins and Wet Paint - bands Babak has known at one time or another. “I just went about finding songs that I felt meant something to the book, from artists I know who are still out there doing it for the love,” he explains. “I think the fact you can check the listings and find most of those bands playing adds authenticity.”