Back in Business

Page 5 of "Leash."


Yesterday was a really good day. I woke up and just sat around and thought, something I've not done in a while -- I always seem to be busy doing something (usually comics or school).

When I found out that the project on which I'm currently working wouldn't be serialized and would be instead presented in its entirety, I abandoned my initial plan of six 24-page chapters. But I'd hit a big snag in the scripting process; I had the plot, but some of the details weren't flushed out, and I was having trouble figuring out what came next.

Anyway, I realized that even though the story won't be serialized that doesn't mean that I shouldn't stick to the original structure anyway. I wrote the plot out with that rise-and fall pattern of a cliffhanger, and I should execute it as such.

Anyway, with this in mind, the details started flowing because I now had a point "A" and a point "C" (point "C" being page 24... actually, I have the last page of each 24-page section thoroughly planned out), and all I had to do was map out point "B" (the twelve pages I was missing). They're now scripted and thumbnailed out, and the book has taken off again! I also got five pages completely inked and ready for press over the past couple of days. My ink cartridges came in, which helped - I had a day and a half of no productivity due to no ink. But now I'm set for a while!

We were talking about the Jeff Smith-edited Pogo collections that Fantagraphics will be putting out the other day, and I naturally thought of my grandfather. He was a HUGE Pogo fan (along with Peanuts and Asterix) and it is very probable that had he not been such a lifelong admirer of the form that my dad wouldn't be, and that I wouldn't be doing what I do. My dad has a painting that my grandfather did of Pogo hanging in his office. I had him send me a photo of it. Here it is:



Lastly, I went over to Hunter's yesterday and showed him my thumbnails for the story which I'm doing for the Indie Spinner Rack anthology book, "AWESOME." He (correctly) pointed out that my ending was sad, something that I hadn't intended. We threw some ideas around, and thanks to his input the story is ready to go into the penciling stage (I'll try and get that done tomorrow). He also gave me an extra copy that he had of the Alex Toth "Zorro" collection, and showed me about eighteen gazillion obscure comics and sketchbooks (obscure to me, at any rate), really inspiring stuff.