In 1875-6 he drew a series of lithographs for a local newspaper, which were later published as a book entitled Sketches and Scenes from Buxton in 1879. He gave up his architectural work and joined a new weekly Manchester-based comic paper, Comus, launched in October 1877, and relaunched as Momus the following year. His cartoons and caricatures were a large part of the magazine's success. In 1881 he wrote and illustrated a two-part account of his family's trip to Antwerp, and created the character of Silas E. Choodle, whose adventures he wrote and illustrated in subsequent issues. He also drew a series of illustrations of characters from Shakespeare and Dickens, which were published as a book, Studies from Shakespeare and Dickens, by Cartwright & Rattray in 1885.