Hello from the basement of the Waterstones on Sauchiehall St, where I am hiding from the squalls with a slice of cake.
Bear with me for a moment, let me wring myself out and I'll fill you in on what's happening.
In progress
PuddleJumpers #1 (so close to done)
PuddleJumpers #2 (first draft)
Thinking about
New stories (two of them)
Tumult (can't stop, won't stop, no idea how to stop thinking about it)
Today's headline, PuddleJumpers Issue #1 (#0? I go back and forth on this) is all but complete. The only thing it's missing is a front cover, which Vicky is booked in to produce in July. That means I'm most likely looking at some kind of release in August/September time. Both Vicky and Buddy have done fantastic work with the script and I'm really optimistic that people are going to enjoy reading it. I'm very excited to introduce these characters to everyone.
In the interest of suspense I'll be keeping the lettering mostly secret, but with some tasteful blurring I can still give you occaisional insights into the vibe.
This issue was originally written as a stand-alone, and it does work that way. But I enjoyed this process so much that I already have a draft for the second issue and rough-outs for issues three and four. How far it goes beyond that I'm still figuring out. I have an end point (or at least a closing point for the arc), but I've not decided how many issues I'll use to get to that point. Right now I'm leaning towards between 6-8, which I know is daring for a first venture into comics. But hey, the whole thing's self-funded so I can do what I like I guess, short of bankrupting myself.[1]
There's been a shift in my thinking about what drives the series as well. When it started out it revolved, like a lot of my ideas, around setting. I find place functions as a really compelling way into stories for me. It puts some ground under my feet and lets me feel the gravity of what's going on. This approach has always helped me write first drafts, and I guess first issues, but I'm learning that it isn't my favourite way to do longer-term planning. Setting alone isn't enough for me to hang an extended narrative off, so I've shifted my approach. I ask myself what kind of a situation I want to put my characters in, and then work up a setting that lends itself to that situation.
In the case of issue #1 that meant putting my characters in the middle of nowhere with only enough resource for one of them to use at a time. For issue #2 it's meant putting a thing one character wants somewhere they absolutely do not want to go. It sounds simple, and it is, but it's a good change for me. It still lets me play with place and make it a part of the story in a way that I enjoy, while also pushing me to do more character work and put in the time to build relationships I think people will care about and carry the series in the long-term.
The second issue introduces three more characters, so there's plenty of potential there for interesting relationships, and I can't wait to bounce them off one another in entertaining/agonisingly awkward ways. I'll be producing some mood-boards for each of them in the coming weeks. That'll perhaps be something I write more about as I go.
There's something that feels back-to-front about writing all these posts before the comic actually gets released. Like I'm writing to an interested audience before you've had a chance actually be interested by what I've done. I think about all the newsletters I subscribe to myself and they're all established practitioners because that's who I like to learn from. In so many parts of my life I've made it a rule to emulate people I admire, but here I'm bumping up against the difficulty of that. I can only make so many posts about process when I'm still figuring out the process myself.
But hey, here you are, reading this, so maybe it's working? If there's something you want to hear more about or have a question, ask away. I'll get back to you, promise.
Alex.
Very short ↩︎