Have a very...

This image pretty much sums up what I’ve had to deal with since school ended a week ago. But I’m not complaining. I’m lucky to be able to spend so much time with my boys (he mutters as he picks shrapnel out of his scalp). We’ve had a lot of fun, and the dials still aren’t in the red. Yet…

I send you all my warmest Christmas wishes, dear reader/friend/passer-by, and if you don’t do Christmas, well, you can have my warmest wishes anyway. I’ve been warming them all year:)

Have you seen these hedgehogs?

Designing a Character

These sketches and colour test show me looking for the sense of a character. It’s too early to say what he’s for, but I will say this is the first time I’ve worked with an author for ages. And there’s no doubt being an illustrator is slightly easier when it involves working to someone else’s specifications. Unless those specifications are crazy (happily not the case here). There’s such a thing as too much freedom.

Odd the difference between how someone looks in my head, and how they turn out on the page. Why is it I can’t just draw what I see in my mind’s eye? What is it about putting down marks that changes my intentions? Answers in the comments please.

This character is intended to be a cross between a dismal but kindly uncle type and a strong-arm butler. Someone you’d want with you in a dark alley, but not so much at a party. It’s the 1920s.

I finally get to draw a Homburg! Unless the author tells me not to.

Comic Books

For years now I have been drifting back towards the comic book/graphic novel mode. I say ‘back’, because it does feel like I’m coming home. As a teenager I always drew strip cartoons and comics, and it seemed like that was what I would always do. Until all of a sudden it wasn’t. The fact that this happened while I was at art school is no coincidence, but I can’t really blame anyone else (not even Batman) -- the fact is, it just didn’t seem to be something I could build a career on. I talked myself out of it.

I won’t bore you with the epic journey round my navel that has brought me to regret that decision. But I would like to share some of the landmark graphic books I came across on the way. And just in time for Christmas too.

La Théorie des Gens Seuls (or any of the Monsieur Jean books) by Dupuy & Berberian

When I moved to France I was pretty down on comic books. But Bandes Dessinées are a big deal over there, often the most popular section in bookshops, and it didn’t take me long to latch on to Monsieur Jean as something a bit special. These are the stories of a frustrated twenty-something (then thirty-something) Parisian writer as he tries to steer a course through modern life. They should strike a chord with anyone who has struggled to understand the opposite sex, been perplexed by their friends or wondered how to be a good parent. Do you know anyone like that?

Plenty of humour, moments of pathos, and lots of sitting in cafés with self-doubt and small cups of coffee. France in a book! But available in English too.

  

Rébétiko (La Mauvaise Herbe) by David Prudhomme

When I first read Rébétiko, I thought it was nothing less than the best graphic novel I’d ever seen. Even now, having discovered some real treasures, I still think this is the case. The book feels drawn in a way few graphic novels do, as if it was taped together from fragments torn from someone’s sketchbook, and the story (set in hard-line Greece during the 30s) reads like true experience. But the greatest thing in this book is the music. I don’t mean that to sound gimmicky, simply that this tale of musicians, whose music has been proscribed by the state, is shot through with sound, energy and dance. It’s a masterpiece.

I don’t think Rébétiko has been translated into English, but really, you don’t need to read it all. The book would be worth owning just for the art on pages 57 to 66 alone. Get a taste of it here.

Rupestres! by various (see link)

Okay, another French one, but I’m trying to keep this chronological. Rupestres! is the work of six comic book artists as they make a tour of the prehistoric painted caves of Southern France, paying homage to, and trying to connect with, the earliest ‘cartoonists’. The six styles vary wildly, but are tied together by shared experience. The book is based on a real trip (there are some photographs too) and will take you deeper into the mysteries of the prehistoric mind and the origins of art than any textbook on the subject.

Rupestres! isn’t available in English, but again, it’s the graphic statement that really matters. And that’s triumphant. For anyone who cares about drawing.

Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks

Prompted by my good blogging friend Rachel Fenton, I finally got round to reading Hicksville only recently. With a narrative that runs on several levels, through different comic book genres and stories, Hicksville might have been too tricksy for its own good, if it weren’t so full of good humour and humanity. And this tale of artists, searchers and tea-lovers is like an introduction to the world of comics itself, and the lovely people it seems to attract. 

The perfect cure for anyone who thinks comic books are just about superheroes and big-eyed manga girls (*shudder*). And hey, it’s in English:)    

 Nelson by various (see link)

Newly published, Nelson acts as an anthology of contemporary British comic art, and that’s why I bought it. But in just a few pages I found myself drawn into the story of Nel, as she grows up without her twin, Sonny. The constantly changing styles didn’t upset the story as much as I thought, and the journey through Nel’s life is packed with period details and ‘how we used to live’ charm (the music! The hair!). I wish this book had been available while I was still at art school. Grown-up content, but the perfect surprise Christmas gift for anyone who likes telling stories in pictures.

All proceeds go to Shelter.

 

I’m always on the lookout for new books to read. If you’ve read a comic/graphic book recently and want to share it, please leave a note in the comments.

On Finishing

Yesterday I sent the line edit back for Haunters. Since then I have been wrestling with a very odd feeling: the dawning realisation that the bloody thing’s actually finished!

Now, obviously there’s going to be some comeback from the last edit, and I’m sure I’ll be tippexing the screen right up to the end, but right now -- and for the first time in the three years and seven drafts it has taken to reach this point -- I honestly can’t think of anything else I could do with it.

When I signed the contract, my agent gave me some very sound advice. In response to my flapping about how craptastic the book was probably going to end up, she told me… well, first she told me to get a grip, but then she told me that the only way to protect myself from critics, detractors and one-star Amazonian book demolishers was to be entirely sure that I had done everything I possibly could to make the book as strong as it could be. If there was a stop, I had to pull it out. If there was an extra mile, I had to plod down it, hacking at the nettles -- yes, even in the rain. I probably looked like a frightened rabbit when she told me all this, but I took that advice to heart.

Of course, the book could still be utterly craptastic. But objectivity? Well, that’s a whole other subject.

Being Edited

I am currently working through the line edit of my Science Fiction thriller Haunters (blogged about before as ‘The Ghost Effect’ and due to be published by the Chicken House next May). For those who don’t know what a line edit is, it’s the part of the editorial process that involves the most red ink, the part where the text is scrutinised line by line in search of errors, inconsistencies and crapness. My editor has cut 6,000 words. That’s a lot of crapness. Here is some of it:

1. Purple prose. Of the ‘behold my literary sensibilities’ variety. I don’t know whether to be grateful or embarrassed about this, so I shall be both.
2. Repetition. Saying it clearly the first time means not having to say it loosely again and again.
3. Waffle. My book isn’t set in Belgium. And even if it was, characters should never be allowed to sit about in comfy chairs, explaining the plot to each other. At least not in front of the reader.
4. Un-warranted non-verbal communication and other narrative ticks. Such as staring, gasping, sighing, eye-rolling and arse-scratching. Actually, no-one ever scratched their arse in my book, but if they had, they wouldn’t be doing it now.
5. Seeming. When things patently are.   
6. Many instance of the word that. On the whole I think that this is a good thing.
7. A policeman. Yes, a whole policeman. He was a rubbish policeman anyway. I like to think that he’s now in the next street, scratching his arse.
8. Repetition. Oh…

I’m told some writers actually go ahead and publish their own e-books without any input from an editor. Don’t do that. 

Harry Potter and the Good Cause

Okay, okay, I know. But at least this time it’s for the benefit of others. I have donated a book with a signed sketch in it to Team Hannah. Please take time to visit the site.

I've seen these sell for 4 figures in the past (not for my benefit, I should add), and since I don’t often do this kind of thing, there could be the chance of a rare and unusual Christmas bargain here. And if you can’t bid, you can always spread the word…

Thanks.