who needs sleep anyway?

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...