28 posts from 2007

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:

So I have been offered the chance to pitch an idea to go in a new children's comic. I am very nervous about the idea of having to produce something good enough that someone would actually pay me for it, and to make matters worse it looks as though if I did somehow manage to get the job I might even be able to (dare I say those four magic words?) quit the day job. Words do not exist to describe how mind-bogglingly wonderful such a situation would be, and as such I have now gone from nervous to flat-out terrified.

I really don't know what I'm going to try to send them, and this had got me in what could politely be described as 'a bit of a tizz'. They contacted me because they like Beaver and Steve, so I should probably play it safe and send them something Beaver and Steve-ish, right? (though that would probably mean no more B&S because I am not sure I could write two comics that are exactly the same.) But then they say submissions could be up to 5 pages long and possibly serialised, so perhaps I should send something a bit more story-ish (I've had an idea floating around in my head for a few weeks now that maybe possibly could sort of work, but it is not really in any kind of coherent form that I could present to anyone). But then of course maybe neither of these ideas is any good and I should do something else altogether: the problem is I am just making these ideas up. Who is going to pay me for stuff I am just making up out of my head? That would be silly.

So mostly I am just running round in little circles saying 'ohgoshohgoshohgosh' to myself and not really deciding on anything, and I have a terrible feeling that I'm going to let this whole opportunity slip by without even giving it a go. I'm not sure I'd ever forgive myself if I did that, which only serves to make me even more panicked.

Really I need some time off work to get this thing done, and while I do have a week off booked for the start of November I am convinced that will be far too late (even though there isn't really a deadline), but according to HR we have to give five weeks notice if we want to book a week off. Five weeks! Who on earth is that organised? I may have to just slip in an extra holiday request anyway and just hope they don't notice. Did I mention how incredibly nervous I am? Glerp.

Oh and I have a pay review for my real job coming up tomorrow, because apparently I am not worried enough right now. Half of me is hoping that they just tell me to sling my hook because at least then I'd have some spare time.

and breathe...

I'm a little annoyed this morning because someone who bought two of my t-shirts has claimed that they didn't authorise the payment, and so paypal has taken the money back. I don't know if someone used a stolen credit card to order Beaver and Steve t-shirts or if someone just decided they didn't want to pay for them and so asked their credit card company for the money back, but either way they got two free t-shirts that I had to pay for. Yah-boo and sucks to them!

This week I am trying to do a big push and finally get book 2 completed, so I didn't do a comic today, but here are a few pages from my sketch book that I scanned in just for YOU:

INTERESTING FACT! the little square guy and the guy with a triangle for a head are called 'Elvis and Boxy'. They are the precursors of Beaver and Steve that I used to draw in my university days.


INTERESTING FACT! dinosaurs are the COOLEST


INTERESTING FACT! I have a hair in my scanner.

I think I just remembered why I don't post pictures from my sketchbook. They are entirely unfit for human consumption