Just posted everything off to Blank Slate now, so they'll mock up a digital proof and get the ball rolling. So that's everything done my end pretty much. Don't know what to do with myself now.

Look what the Elboys got me!

eBay! eBay! eBay! eBay! eBay! eBay! eBay!

Proper cover

here's t'front cover for Proper Go Well high
and here's the whole thing before they put all that barcode and ‘best comic of 2008’ type stuff on the back.

I was pretty down on Proper Go Well High last week. It didn’t really knock me sideways as I expected to feel a little low, finishing a piece of work I’ve been working on since September can do that. But I’ve just sat down and read it through and it’s pretty much spot on what I wanted from my next book. It’s far from perfect and I think my drawing’s still got a lot of room for improvement, and improve it will, but a lot of things that I came to see as broken in Trains Are…Mint have been fixed in Proper, and my mood this Monday morning is all the lighter because of it. I’ve just done two of the four pages I’m re-doing, then I’ve got a dentist appointment where she’ll no doubt praise my fluky luck with my teeth, before coming back to fire another one off. Tomorrow I’ll finish the fourth then make a start on the cover which I’ll finish Wednesday before sending it all off special delivery to Blank Slate. That’ll leave us a week before I go off on holiday to sort everything out. It’s a little tight but all we’ve got to do really is agree on everything I want. I’m always right so this should be easy. It’s just the paper and then I’ll approve a digital proof, hopefully, and they’ll go to print in August.
One thing I’ve learnt from Proper is I can draw a mean duck. Not like a moody one, but a pretty good representation of a duck, mallards mainly. Actually ponds as well, ponds and ducks are my favourite things in Proper at the moment. There’s more people in it than in Trains as well, although I still dislike drawing them I’m just getting them done and hoping for the best.
So all in all Proper’s mint. For now anyway, until I get to the post office and think of all the things I’d like to change before sending it off to the big bad world.

Oh and that Linda Barry book’s amazing by the way. What It Is. Buy it and keep it by your loo. Don’t, however, spend any money on the comics magazine Comics Foundry. Just terrible, badly designed, thin on content, not a good read.

Word kids.

done miss!

I’ll never draw a better swallow in flight, a dog breaks the fourth wall and I get a chilling glimpse into Liverpool’s criminal underworld, and it’s all in this pile here. It was a difficult birth and I reached new heights of self doubt which plateau before I was half way through and are still crippling me now but fuck it it’s done. It’s taking all my will power not to re-do massive chunks of it. Some of it’s brilliant and some it it’s…I don’t know. Out of 149 pages I’ll re-do 4 next week, which isn’t a bad return. Add the cover and inside cover and I’ll be done before the end of next week.
But as for the rest of today and probably the weekend, I will mainly be drinking. I’ll be The Temple if anyone wants me.

Grrrr, comics.

if i knew they were going to blow it up that big i might have drawn something better

I reckon this might be the route I’ll do in Germany, looks like about 50 miles, give or take. Manchester to Liverpool is 33 miles and I did that in three legs with 6-8 hours walking each leg, so I reckon the Polish border is well doable. A border seems the right thing to aim for with the coast just being a bit too far. I’ve got a few polish friends; I’ve been to and loved Poland so it just seems the right thing to do. I’m leaning towards going for two weeks now after a lovely little tax rebate. This’ll mean I can take my time or go on into Poland. Either or’s good. I scanned the Lonely Planet guide and this region is briefly mentioned, being described as flat and melancholic; sounds perfect right? This could be something very good. Or it could be where Trains Are…Mint jumps the shark, I won’t know till it’s done though.

this might be fun