I are have been drawing tanks.
Lots of tanks.
Working on episode 1 of a five part Tank story written by Garth Ennis. (Shh! still not officially announced)
This past few months has felt like relentless crunch. Working on Dredd, working on World of Tanks animation stuff for the video game, storyboards for a TV gameshow (WEIRD) and then working on this Tank story. Often concurrently. Now I’ve got two more days of teaching in Dublin (should’ve been the last day tomorrow but the storm delayed everything by one week) rehearsals for a play that will actually be on soon (and thank god, because it’s really eaten in to my Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays – despite being a piddlingly small part)
It’s weird, because this year started with nothing lined up at all. In fact, it was looking pretty grim. (Comics is all feast or famine) I was scurrying around offering free work for every new thing I could think of (ended up storyboarding a couple of unmade short films just to get the experience, teaching in dublin – just for the money, and panicing a lot).
No one teaches you how to manage money in comics. And it’s bloody hard. Your best year financially can be the prelude to your worst year financially. One good year and the sudden tax burden in the next year, triggering of student loan repayments, oh look, now I have to pay back tax credits from two years ago and whoopsie, you’re financially destitute.
Luckily, this year should be a particularly good one, and my aim is just save like a mofo and very strictly pay myself a minimum salary, and keep the rest for tax and unexpected bills (I won’t need it all, and once I’ve paid tax I’m due and bills I’ve acrued, maybe … MAYBE… I’ll actually have some savings, that would be nice)
As it is, I’ve no idea what’s happening after I finish all this tank malarky, come May and it may, once again, be famine time.