Guiding Principles

Hello from my bed, where a bout of sickness and time alone with my thoughts has induced self doubt. However, I've been pleasantly surprised to find that a couple of objectives I put in place early have kept me going completely overboard.

(P.s. Look at that sick new logo from the very wonderful Andriy Lukin. Based on Vicky's original designs. )

In Production:

• PuddleJumpers - Clear Skies 1-shot

Working On:

• PuddleJumpers - PROJECT Strange Fish

Thinking About

• PuddleJumpers Outline
• PROJECT - Tumult
• PROJECT - Overrun

Before I committed to getting this comic produced, I read a lot of different creator and practitioner takes on what the 'right' thing to do is when making your first comic. I put those in italics because there's no right way to do something like this, but the wisdom and insights of those who have gone before you is always useful and often makes the final experience a better one.

Off the back of that reading I started this project with a couple of objectives that I hoped would function as my true north. They were:

1. Not very much, done very well.
2. Create a playful vibe
3. Hint at a larger world

I don't know where I first read objective number 1, but when I first heard it I knew it was key. I'm lucky that I can - with disciplined saving - afford to self-fund a comic in full once a year. But I'm not so flush that the saving doesn't take significant time, and also takes funds away from other things I'd like to be doing. So anything that does get made has to inspire pride and the desire to share it. For me, that means belt and braces. It means hiring:

• An editor
• An artist
• A letterer
• A graphic designer.

And there's rightly cost associated with getting good people who buy in to the project. Which brings us back to the 'not very much' part of that objective. I'll admit I've tested my own limits here. The original intention was a 10 page story but grew to 14. An increase I can just about manage, but only once I was confident (through the support of editor Claire Napier) that the extra 4 pages weren't the result of lazy writing.

With that said, 'NVMDVW' actually can quite quickly help you identify how much page space you've got to work with once you know your budget plus the price of your contributors ^[1] and boundaries - for me at least - serve as an energising writing tool. And then of course, once you start getting that 'Very Well Done' work back from your collaborators, that's basically creative rocket fuel. You want to just keep going at that point.

Of the three, objective one is the only one that is limiting in any way. The other two are expansive. Giving me something to do within the boundaries of the sandpit that objective one has created. 'Playful vibe' informed everything from the nature of the scene to the way the script itself got written. 'Hint at a larger world' gave me a reason to really examine each panel for opportunities to add richness, both in what was being said and what was being shown in the background.

I wrote at the top that I was in the throes of doubt. Mainly that I'd made the wrong choices. But writing this post has helped settle those nerves. Because I think, as Vicky keeps sending through page after page of banging art and I see all these little ideas and suggestions that started on the page come to life, or inspire other new suggestions from Vicky, that there's a larger world outside of these 14 pages. And the way the people who've seen page 3 cackle at an expression one of the characters pulls is a sign that they are finding it playful, and the general look, and feel of the work that's being sent back to me is absolutely, positively Very Well Done. I'm looking forward to sharing more.

PROJECT - Strange Fish

Clear Skies serves, as a one-shot, to introduce two characters of a larger story that I'm still working through, and PROJECT: Strange Fish does the same. I quite like these as a format, kind of like an 'issue zero' that gives people a chance to take a dip into the world and get to know a character. You read a lot in the prose world about 'getting coffee with your characters' and that's what this feels like. Doing this is a fun way to learn someone's voice and mannerisms, but also ask yourself questions that you may not even answer in that script, but instead make their way into the larger project.

I have at least one more of these standalone scripts in mind after this one, all feeding into a larger story for which I know the beginning and the end... sort of. But hey, that's why they're in the 'thinking about' column.

You'll notice one more new thing in that 'thinking about' section. PROJECT: Overrun. This is an idea that's now repeating on me for the third time. Which is normally a sign that there's something there to explore. Watch this space.