the Erudite Baboon

Ok, I think things are close enough to fruition to reveal what's going on - the project I'm working on (which you can see a snippet of a few entries back) is for a new children's comic called the DFC, which is launching at the end of May. I've spent the last 2 weeks at home, finishing off my first 11 week storyline (I say finishing off - I have been working every night this week, and still have two more to colour) and I've surprised myself with how non-crappy it's turned out.

It is an incredible amount of work though - I worked harder in the last two weeks than I have in years (but don't tell my boss that), and while I really enjoyed doing it, now that I'm back at work I'm not sure how I'm going to keep it up. They want me to do 2 pages a week for my next storyline, and while this means more money it's not enough to give up the day job just yet, so I'm going to somehow have to combine my day job with doing 20-30 hours of comic work a week. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage that without collapsing in a frazzled heap after a couple of days - I think my only hope is to ask my manager very nicely if there is any way that I can work part time and get a day or two off every week, but I'm really not sure how that's going to wash. They did give me the last two weeks off with basically zero notice, so there is some hope. Fingers crossed!

The other obvious casualty is going to be Beaver and Steve - the last few weeks I've been mostly relying on guest strips, and the one comic I did manage to produce was just not fun at all to make. Unless I can get some serious time off on a regular basis I am afraid Beaver and Steve might have to come to an end, or at least a lengthly hiatus. I really hope I can figure out a way to keep it going as well - I still have a pile of ideas lined up for it - but right now I don't see how that's going to be possible, which is kind of sad after putting so much work into it. Beaver and Steve will never die though, as long as we keep them alive in our hearts. Or in some sort of suspended animation.

More updates as they come...

Yesterday I went to a science talk about ampakines (yes, I go to science talks in my spare time. I am that cool), and it was really interesting in an intensely creepy sort of way. See ampakines are smart drugs, that is, drugs that make you smarter. They gave them to a rat and it was able to learn patterns in half the time it would take a normal rat. They then gave the rat some more and were able to teach it things that it is not possible to teach a rat. Yes, they created a super intelligent (and almost certainly evil) rat.

After that they ran human trials and found that people's performance in memory tests also improved. And I found myself thinking, yes, I would like some ampakines now, where can I get the pills that give me terrifying new brain powers? I think it is pretty excellent that we are approaching a point where we can take a pill that makes us maybe more than human.. but also utterly terrifying in a fantastic science fiction sort of way. It's sort of creepy, but yes, if the pills were available I think I'd give them a go.

Of course they still haven't fully explored the possible side effects - I'm assuming they will include the awakening of uncontrollable psychokinetic powers. Here's hoping.

Last week I got my first editorial feedback on the two rough strips I have sent to the publisher - my first feedback as a (sort of) professional comic creator! Ooh! The verdict: 'you have to do these again'.

Ok, so it wasn't as bad as all that - they liked the script (yay!), and they liked the drawings (woo!), but (and I know I am pretty much always guilty of doing this on Beaver and Steve) in some of the panels I had so much text that it squashed up the pictures, and that has to change.

They don't want me to remove any of the dialogue (I know I have a tendency to be a little verbose in my scripting, which is what usually causes this problem, but they seem to like it) so I need to figure out a way of rebalancing things - maybe making some panels smaller to allow others more room, or spreading the story out over more episodes so I don't have to cram as much in per panel. But however I deal with it I am going to have to face my greatest fear: redoing work that I have already finished.

I hate hate hate going back to something that I thought was finished and redoing it from scratch, but I just don't know if there's any way I can salvage the work I've already done (two weeks of work) - perhaps I can reuse a couple of panels, but I think most of it will have to be completely redrawn. Oh fiddlesticks. Of course a lot of this pain could have been saved if I'd, you know, actually planned the layout of the comics in advance, but really, who's going to do a thing like that?

Oh well, back to (quite literally) the drawing board...

P.S yesterday I became 30. THIRTY. As if I do not have enough problems already.

Well I've got 3/4 of the first episode pencilled, which is not really on schedule exactly, but at least it means I am approaching the fabled 'zone'. Soon unstoppable drawing power shall be mine!

Plus I would have done more, but I went to a question and answer session about environmental policy at the houses of parliament yesterday. I've never been inside before and I hadn't realised just how old it was - parts of it date back to medieval times, but it's still in constant use. However the image of austerity was somewhat ruined when I realised that the welcoming glow in the giant fireplace in the next room was just a red light bulb under some plastic logs. I'm sure in medieval times this was cutting edge stuff, but these days we can do a bit better - perhaps a flatscreen tv with a dvd of a blazing fire playing on it? I know that's what I want my taxes to be spent on.

I also made a point of visiting the toilets, so that I could imagine that I had peed in the same spot as Winston Churchill. The hand dryers were a bit rubbish though - I bet Churchill had to wipe his hands on his trousers afterwards.

As deadlines for the super secret comic project loom I am finding it hard to actually sit down and concentrate on getting it done. I'll get home and think to myself, 'oh I'll just check my email / flip on the TV / read this comic I have read 10 times already first, and then I'll get started' and before I know it 3 hours have passed and I'm ready to fall asleep without ever touching pencil to paper.

It's infuriating, and it means that I spend the whole next day at work wishing I could get home and catch up on the work I missed out on the previous night - only by the time I actually do get home I just want to slouch in front of the TV all over again. At the moment I am just about on schedule - I have about 2 and a half weeks to produce the first 3 episodes, and I have half an episode done, but I have had weeks and weeks to work on it and I should be much further ahead than this. I am my own worst enemy.

I think I need to start practicing yoga so I can learn to kick myself up my own backside.

It's good to see all the local businesses getting into the restive spirit around here - why, even the brothel behind my office has a light-up Santa face in the window. Festive!

Ok, after spending all day in bed I finally decided to get up and do something productive and redrew the neurosurgery shirt design from scratch:

I think this one has a lot more potential - what do you folks think?

I have periodically been getting requests to join Virgin Wines in my inbox, each with an offer more generous than the last (first case half price, and comes with a free corkscrew made of diamonds that can predict the future!) and usually they just get deleted automatically. Earlier this week however, I got an email titled 'reasons not to join' which piqued my interest just enough to get me to open it and see just what they were up to. And so it was that I got a chance to read the email's opening pitch:

Dear James

I am not a sensitive person by nature, but I have to say that I am feeling a little hurt. I have invited you to join our Club over and over and you have clearly decided not to.

Needless to say I felt terrible! The lovely Rowan Gormley (none other than the founder of Virgin Wines himself, and so surely a very busy man) had been personally writing me all these messages, and all I do is throw them straight in the bin. No wonder I broke his little heart! By the end of the email he'd clearly begun to lose his temper with me:

So why don't you join us now and find out what it's all about for yourself? Not next week, but right now, before I decide not to invite you again.

The hurt I'd caused him was only too clear from these words (I imagined he typed them as tears coursed down his cheeks), so I thought the least I could do was send him a reply and try to smooth things over:

Dear Rowan,

I had no idea that you'd take it so personally - I really feel terrible for hurting your feelings like this. I really admire your determination, how you keep on trying to win me over despite how I continually ignore your advances - to be honest I'm quite flattered! Look, if it would make you feel any better, how about we meet up for a drink some time to make it up to you? You can bring some wine (I hear you've got one or two bottles lying around), I'll bring a pizza, it'll be fun! Maybe we could play a game of monopoly too?

Hope that's cheered you up big feller, and if ever you're feeling down in the dumps again you know you can always drop me a line.

hugs

James

I did wonder if maybe I'd been a little forward, but lo-and-behold, this morning I got my reply:

Oh, and I forgot to post the last member of the team: Agent 'K'

I'm not sure there's going to be any comic at all this week, not because I have been working on this project though, just because I am useless.

So, I'm back at work today, but the 'project' is almost finished. One of the cool things about this project is that I'm going to be working with another great artist - while I love doing the pencils I've always hated inking (it's basically like drawing everything you've just drawn all over again, and you can't rub it out if you make a mistake) and I'm terrible at colouring, but fortunately my pal Brandon swooped in and offered to do all the boring parts for me (haha! The fool!), so here's a look at what he's done to my characters:

I think they look great - I can't wait to see what he does with the final piece! I've made sure to put in a tonne of tiny fiddly details in it just to really make him really hate me.