If you prefer you can download the pdf here.
My unending gratitude to Matt and John Yuan (deputy publishers of 1First Comics) who volunteered way back on issue 1 to proofread (off the back of a plaintive twitter plea) and ending up both being great proofreaders and even better editors - constantly encouraging and giving little notes that never alter the fabric of the story but always help.
Stories this issue:
Notifications, Memories of War, Cold Caller, The Civil War, The Monster, Sign Unseen, Ghosts.
A4 Issue Four Notes!
Gah, two stories with War in the title. So annoying. Hadn't spotted it until now, but there it is. It will be my eternal shame.
There were two things drilled in to me from English lessons in secondary school (which I did rather enjoy, I loved writing, and was told to apply for O-Levels early, so I did, and then I didn't do any work because I was fundamentally lazy - so failed it) anyway, the two things: never use the word got/gotten (I think this was my teachers personal bugbear, with teenagers writing "I got given a book then got a clip round the there and got out of there, before he got me" even I'm uncomfortable seeing the word "got" in anything I write) and never repeat a word if you can help it (obvious "I", "and" and so on are all fine). So two wars. Not good. Am annoyed. (Should point out, this is entirely a quirk of my own making!)
From hereon in there will likely be spoilers!
I had planned on a halloween all horror special - or at least as best as I'm able, but of course, I couldn't quite come up with every single story as a horror, so let's start with the least horror like story:
Notifcations
I suppose this and Ghosts share a very common through line, rejection and knowing the person who rejected you never even thinks of you. For a full exploration of this idea, watch the amazing "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".
Memories of War
There's a lot going on in the world, and much of it can be traced back so far that you'll never find the beginning point (hello from Northern Ireland!) - and the question is, if everyone lost their memories would those wars still continue. (this story optimistically says we'd all stop, I have a horrible feeling we wouldn't)
Cold Caller
Phew! Lighter fair! Actually there's a different story that uses the same sort of idea (the no-hawkers caveat that many people have at their door) I've been sitting noodling as a short comic for a few years (how many? oh man, it's embarrassing to tell - but let's say I first thought of it pre-pandemic) it would be far too long to do as one of these stories, so this slightly different version of it popped in to my head.
I am pretty proud of that title though, it came late - after I'd written a bunch of the stories and I was thinking "gah, now i need a title" and ping! there it was!
I did want to do stuff that was just a smidge lighter than last issue, because I've been told some of this stuff is DARK. I think of it all in the abstract, words on paper rather than real monsters. But we're haunted by the real and the imaginary, I suppose.
The Civil War
I saw a writer (a good writer; it'll be a good book) talking their new Zombie book and it got me thinking, that zombie stories tend to be the ultimate "yeah of course I was the assehole prepping for the end of the world, and look, I WAS RIGHT" and I thought "what if instead of it being zombies, it's that everyone was just really really nice to each other ... oh... those asseholes wouldn't change..."
The Monster
I'll be honest, andI bet readers can tell, I shoehorned frankenstien in too this (because I wanted monsters, dammit)
Here's my orginal story idea from the apple notes app:
He had fragmented himself, Pumping his entire written and audio corpus through AI Large Language Models, and created an army of bots, one for each of the balkanised social media platforms. And he was finally free. Free to get on with work.
Is it better? it might be.
Sight Unseen
This could be policitical satire, I suppose. In the hands of a better writer. Instead it's simply a piece of fiction.
Ghosts
Gotta be honest, I just loved the shape and sound of the story. I love that it works on a couple of levels. It pretty much came out fully formed, and so short. Honestly this is the joy of these shorts, there's not an ounce of fat on the idea, there's no point trying to extend it, and there's a sort of poetic quality to it. Anyway, might be one of my favs.
Hope you enjoy it, I would love to know what you think - you can fire me off an email to pjholden at gmail dot com if you like!
John tells me it’s important Biko’s house backs on to the forest, so he gets a nice house with forest just over the fence, a place where adventure can happen at any moment. I imagine this is at the foot of the mountains somewhere…
This is still the early days of these sketches, there’s a niggling thought at the back of my head that Biko’s house should be a bungelow… we’ll see…
One of the difficulties of doing a weekly strip is making yourself stay consistent, so in order to help with THAT I’ve been drawing maps. Just rough maps of locations we’ll see on the regular (or maybe just the once…) Here’s the Macintosh general area (some names here may change – actually the whole map may change as the stories need arise… take this as a map someone who once visited the area drew but they’ve probably put somethings in the wrong place…)
The whole thing is based on hazy memories of Newcastle in Northern Ireland, imagined locations and the name Black Skull mountains comes from me seeing the location “Black Skull” in Northern Ireland, which is the name of a tiny village (I leave googling the fascinatingly awful reason it’s called Black Skull as an exercise for the reader…)
The three mountain peaks came about because I wanted mountains on the badge, and … one was the Toblerone logo, two was Twin Peaks and that left three. So three it was.
PAGE ONE
This page is an orphan.
This is a seven-panel page, with three tiers; two panels on the top, three across the middle, and two on the bottom.
Panel One
This is the smaller panel on this tier. Here we’re looking at the grotesque face (probably head and shoulders) of a Fiji Mermaid. Horrible, fanged monkey/fish hybrid. Let’s make sure it has enough hair on (whatever bits of it you like) it to make the reader think the title could refer to it. Maybe it has one hand/claw reaching out towards us. It looks terrifying, but also a bit fake and OTT. Needs to have a tag in the case identifying it as a “Fiji Mermaid (19thcentury)”.
There are two balloons from off-panel.
Balloon 1 (off): It’s horrible!
Balloon 2 (off): Hideous!
Panel Two
Here we’ve spun around so we’re looking out from inside the glass cabinet/case which contains the mermaid. We’re looking past its head/ shoulder out at the kids who are stood in front of it, staring and frowning in amazement, interest, and disgust. Evieis on the left, Li in the middle, Biko on the right. Biko is making notes in a notebook. Fort the dog is licking or eating some candy floss or ice cream from a passing child (unnoticed by them). We can see that they are inside an old fashioned tent – this is kind of a P T Barnum type travelling exhibit (https://cryptozoologymuseum.com/exhibitions/is sort of a good ref, but I’m sure you get the idea)
Li, smiling slightly, has two balloons, there’s one FX from Fortstealing the candy floss, and we have the chapter number and title.
Li: I don’t know…
Li: …I think it’s kind of cool.
FX: SLURP
Chapter One: Something Hairy This Way Comes.
Panel Three
These three middle-tier panels are going to be our introduction to each of the three main characters. So, these are kind of flashback panels (at least they’re not set in the “present”), showing each kid in their natural surroundings. Maybe panels Three, Four, Five, and Six all need to be coloured differently to panels One, Two, and Seven?
This panel shows Li sat in his bedroom at a desk/drawing board. There are classic film monster posters on the wall – The Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Zombies, or similar (doesn’t have to be real posters/films, obviously). We can see monster models, a console with cases for zombie fighting games, comics like SCREAM! laying around. Li wearing headphones is furiously sketching a monster (big hairy werewolf, maybe) on a big A3 pad.
There are three captions (maybe in a kind of mock Top Trumps style?).
Cap: Name: Li Wei Leong.
Cap: Expert in: Monster movies, games, and comics.
Cap: Skills: Art, skateboarding, and sarcasm.
Panel Four
Here we have a shot of Evie wearing her scouts uniform, which is absolutely covered in achievement badges. She’s posing with one foot up on a pile of rocks, a heavy stick in one hand which has served on her walking stick on the hike she’s just undertaken. She has a big rucksack on her back, with pans and things hanging from it. She has a pair of binoculars hanging around her neck. Behind her, we can see the green countryside stretching away. It looks like she’s at the top of a hill. Maybe include squirrels, birds, rabbits, etc for extra wildlife/naturalness.
Three captions.
Cap: Name: Evie Ewan.
Cap: Expert in: Campfire stories, local legends, and hidden places.
Cap: Skills: Tracking, camping, and survival.
Panel Five
This is Biko’s introductory panel. He’s in a library (not too modern, but maybe not exactly Victorian either – up to you really), seated at a desk/table. We can see shelves and shelves of books all around him. Biko has a laptop computer open on the desk as well as several books and notebooks, and he looks like he’s researching hard (maybe chewing the end of a pencil as he cross-references. Under the desk (or maybe beside Biko’s chair depending on the angle) we can see Fort the dog dozing.
Three captions.
Cap: Name: Biko Morris.
Cap: Expert in: Cryptozoology, mysteries, and the unexplained.
Cap: Skills: Research, reference, and always making notes.
Panel Six
This panel shows a printed out photograph of the whole gang pinned to a corkboard (in their HQ – which is probably a shed or a tree-house… we’ll get to that). It’s a selfie taken by Li, with the other two squashed in next to him, their arms around each other’s shoulders. Fort is jumping up and licking Biko’s face, so he’s got an awkward/disgusted expression and maybe his glasses are wonky. Also pinned on the corkboard we can Li’s logo which he’s designed and drawn for the group. There might be other photos of the group or individuals, and maybe some newspaper clippings headlined things like MYSTERY OF THE LOST HIKERS, and STRANGE CREATURE SIGHTED, but the main focus is the image of the kids (and dog) and the logo/badge.
Three captions.
Cap: They are the Macintosh Area Cryptozoological Society. M.A.C.S.for short.
Cap: Monster MACS, if you ask Li.
Caps: Because that sounds cooler, and has the word Monster in it.
Panel Seven
Back in the present. This is a shot of the kids turning towards us (away from the mermaid in the case) with a look of shock/surprise as someone shouts at them. Let’s make it extra dramatic as if this is going to be the start of something big. The kids all wide-eyed, but eager as if on the cusp of a new adventure.
Two balloons from off-panel.
Balloon: Hey, MACS!
Balloon: Monster MACS!
every decent sized project I start gets a sketchbook – it’s largely just a collection of sketches/background images that I keep in a separate clip studio file so all the main comics happen in another one.
From now on $5+ subscribers on the patreon get to see all of this background stuff, there may be spoilers (but I’ll try and keep those away) and there may well be some deadends, cool designs we abandon, pages unusued, what have you. But that’s what’ll happen 🙂
Special subscribers only feature!
And finally, we meet the gang.
Stay tuned. Live for everyone on Saturdays, and if you’re a subscriber you’ll get to see it early.
We’re opening with a full colour page, but expect the rest to be in b&w with maybe a monotone, we’ll see!
If we can get the patreon up a bit I’d love us to be able to afford a colourist, and once we get to the end it’s possible we’ll look to get it it all in colour.
This page took an age, because I’m trying to find the voice and I’d gotten so used to adapting tweets going to a full script was a bit more of a speed bump. But I hope you like it!
BUT You’ll get to see it early later today!
US Format, page per week. You begin with a nice big empty clip studio document with enough pages to fill. And you slowly but surely fill it one page per week. (sometimes more)
Some more sketches. Something every day… 🙂
This was the prompt sketch for what’s coming. It’s not the final by any means, but it was sort of the starting point. And, for me at least, it’s the anchor point for how the project will be drawn.
More to come…
