A screenshot of the cover for Fish + Chocolate. I’ve been doing all sorts of nice things recently like getting back in contact with the printer (my old estimate of completion date was October 2010, remember that? HAHAHAHAH *fail*) and doing the cover and inside stuff, and laying things out, and so on and so on. I’m getting pumped because I can see the end of this…! It will just be crazy to finish it all. I’ve been working on it for so long, considering how short the actual book is…

Almost, almost, almost there……….

Still wading through the mire of F&C… I’m getting there, though. Every now and then I see the faint light at the end of the tunnel, haha! I might start posting snippet-style previews… but then when I think about doing this I can never pick which bits O_O; Anyhow, you must believe me that I’ll be flapping all over the place once the book is done. (I’m looking forward to HOLDING it!)

So I’ve done a few long-term projects now, and I’ve started to notice a bit of a loose pattern forming around each project. I have no idea if anyone else goes through this (lemme know if you do – I’ll feel like less of a freakish rollercoaster of woe) but here’s my “Graph-Type Thing of Completing a Graphic Novel, shown in terms of Time Spent on the Project Vs. Emotional Output or Something” …

The blue cross is where I’m at right now. The red wiggles heading off the end of the Time Spent On Project bit is to allow for panic & self-doubt in the printing stages of the work.

So yeah. Anyway! I’ve been enjoying reading the articles on The Comics Bureau recently! Check it out – it focusses on the UK stable of creators, and asks nice questions, rather than just the ol’ “Who are your influences” type of crap.

Oh god, I’m… dead under all this. I just have a little bit more to go on Fish & Chocolate… but I think I’m out of my first, second and third winds already. I’m desperately trying to find a fourth.

10 min sketch ’cause I’ve not had time to draw anything for weeks and I don’t feel right when I don’t draw SOMETHING.

I’m really looking forward to going to a secluded cabin for Christmas (this is actually happening) and spend a bit of time in front of a fake fire with Paul & my lovely friends… but I know I need to really chill the fuck out for a couple of days before I go, or I’ll just be a juddering lump, which won’t be fun for anyone.

(So… obviously missing a lot of production notes due to the database deletion. I’m just going to continue).

Finished the pages for The Piper Man, the first story in Fish & Chocolate (though it was the second story I drew)…

Meh. I had a hard time with this one. Had one of those “yeah that’ll look awesome!”-times in drafting it, and then getting round to actually drawing some of those “awesome!” things was… like, not so awesome. More like headache-inducing. I test-coloured a couple of pages at the beginning, though I’m not really sure if I like how they came out. They’ll prbably look a bit better with text on. I’m really not sure I like that first page much at all, anyway. Oh jeezuz, here I go with the happy XD

A little bit about The Piper Man! So, I think this is technically the newest story to add to the bunch. It’s about 3 years old now? It’s been through a few drafts. Not too many. I had one of those “complete visions” of the idea for it one night, and had to write the whole thing down in case I forgot. At one point it was going to go in an anthology, although that fell through. Kinda good in a way, as I get to mash it together with the other two F&C stories, and it sits quite nicely alongside them.

I’m going to be interested to see what other people think about it. I have a firm idea of what it’s about, although when I showed the draft to Paul, he found rather different things to say about it. I think that’s cool. I will be fascinated to see if people see it from his point of view, or my point of view, or a totally different thing.

Anyway! Currently, I’m about 10 pages into doing roughs for Matryoshka. So, 30-odd pages to go, then I’m done with the pencils! Woo!