When I was 27, and before I had anything but a couple of small press credits I went to my pal Mal Coney (a Belfast comics stalwart and at one time the writer on a bunch of image books, like The Darkness) and ask did he have a complete 24 page script I could draw because I was convinced that I needed to be able to draw a monthly book (again this is BEFORE I had any sort of career) I just needed to know I was capable of doing it.
He gave me a very silly strip called The Simply Incredible Hunk, which was a camp carry-on movie version of the Incredible Hulk.
I drew it in 25 days. While working a full time job.
And from that I deduced, that, yes, I could draw a monthly book.
Now, I’ve never really been tested on that front, but the lesson stayed with me. You need to know if you’re capable of the job you’re looking to do (no point me looking for deep sea diving work when I’m deathly afraid of drowning)
So this year I’m trying to focus on writing. But the truth is the Terran Omega script that I’m currently drawing was written around august, so I actually haven’t written much since then. Well, that’s going to change. I’m about to embark on a somewhat mad exercise of writing Terran Omega as if it’s an ongoing comic. That means at least one script per month.
I mean at the pace I’m drawing it, that will mean I’ve got scripts to draw for the next twelve years too.
The thing is there’s a couple of problems with this idea, number one I just really don’t know how to write that much work. Even the Terran Omega I’ve written has so many draft documents it’s a messy file system. So I’m sticking a simple file system on my computer Terran Omega -> Issue 1/Issue 2/Issue 3/etc.
I sat and worked out the rough contents of twelve issues (actually ten, if you count the two I’ve already done) and now I’m going to slowly go through them and see if I can write ten comics. Some of the stories are two issues (as is the first one “The Ghosts of War”) then a three issue (because I need to be bolder) a one issue thing and finally a four issue thing. Just to build the writing muscle.
Here’s the (working titles)
#3 – The Seed part 1
#4 – The Seed part 2
#5 – The Seven part 1
#6 – The Seven part 2
#7 – The Seven part 3
#8 – The Journey
#9 – [untitled] part 1
#10 – [untitled] part 2
#11 – [untitled] part 3
#12 – [untitled] part 4
The Seed I’ve been writing in my head for a bit. My process is write down some cool visuals or twists or something interesting, then try and figure out how to tie them together and then hammer in on the themes and what it’s about, and strengthen that in a rewrite/edit process.
Usually, I’ll try and visualise the entire story on a long drive to my Mother-in-Laws, it takes about an hour and by that time I’ve often got some really good milestones for the story locked down.
Because I’ve never tried anything this ambitious in writing before my brain has hopped about all over the place on the stories, so I’ve bits and pieces of all twelve, but nothing solid.
The Seed was a follow up I thought about doing even before I’d started the Ghosts of War, but as conceived it was an 11 page short and I thought, but maybe I want to do another 48 page novella, what then? So I mulled it over and realised this story was a great way to get in to a little bit of Terran Omega’s past and by doing that I could turn a short into a two parter. A thing I think I learned from the musical episode of Buffy, where it should be a throwaway silly episode that you can enjoy because MUSIC! But turns out it has some of the biggest reveals in the series (notably the moment the gang all find out where Buffy had been when she was dead [spoilers for a episode that’s what 25 years old?])
The Seven was also vying for a second place story, but it’s a bigger story and more ambitious and I felt I needed to get some more pages under my belt before attempting it.
The Journey was just a very quick idea that I thought, yes. A reward for me, in some ways. An important character piece, which would be a bad one to start with but actually sitting in between longer stories it feels right.
The last one – [untitled] – is actually titled, but the title feels spoiler ish, and so I’m keeping it to myself in the mean time. I have a start for it, and a reason for it, and the world that it’s in, and I kind of know the sorts of things I want to explore and actually I’m keen to get to it. We’ll see.
Today On Social Media
Speaking of writing, if you want to go away and read this you can do, but it is tiem well spent – a blog post that basically tells a great little creepy short story but in a form of a blog entry that’s an exploration of the changing english language the story is really just a hook to hang that exploration on, but I love it. I love it all. I love the story. I love that you’re told what’s going on and I love that it explains all of the language changes.
How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change Link here.
It’s by Colin Gorrie.
