Last of the Chickenheads is FINISHED!! I'll talk about it more once I've collected my thoughts :)

Edit: Okay, the evening of the day after, and my head has stopped spinning....sort of. :)

So, finally, my graphic novel, all forty six pages of it, is finished. I started it in February 2007, and finished it 7 months later. That's not bad going, seeing as I've been trying to keep to a personal deadline of 6 pages per month, and I've scripted, pencilled, inked, coloured and lettered all of it myself in that time.

How do I feel after finally getting it done? Well, obviously there's the huge sense of satisfaction that comes from finishing any major undertaking, and 'Last of the Chickenheads' (LOTCH) is the largest single project I've ever tackled. Before that was 'Dimo' which I'd scripted to be an 80 page + magnum opus, but which ground to a halt after the self-imposed '6 frames per page' dogma became too constraining. I only ever drew 26 pages of that one, including covers, and left it largely unfinished. Which leads me to my second overriding feeling...one of relief. Yep, relief that I can actually stick at something and see it through to the end.

Then there's the slight feeling of unease that comes from having grafted non-stop for 7 months, drawing LOTCH every spare moment God sent...then suddenly that's it, kaput...it's done. Well not quite, as I still need to get a presspack ready for Birmingham's convention mid October, and also a double page spread introducing LOTCH Bk II. Yes, that's right...there's more! I've already written the 2nd story's synopsis, and will script it fully soon. But I want to prepare a double page teaser, introducing main themes, new characters, and future twists, to show potential publishers that I really mean business with the LOTCH story arc, and with the characters themselves.

Ah yes...finding publishers. That prospect triggers yet another feeling to add to the mix. The feeling of 'what the **** do I do with LOTCH (as well as with myself!), now that it's done?' I'm not really renowned for having a business brain.

Well, off the top of my head, I'll be sending it off to Dark Horse and 2000ad for sure. I'll also be hawking it around the convention in October, trying to drum up some interest. There's also the avenue of self publishing to explore, because I truly believe in LOTCH as a standalone story, and also as an ongoing series of books. But do I go headlong into book 2 and keep myself out of the mainstream? It takes time to put such a project together, time I could be using in a more orthodox way, to send off samples to various publishers in order to get freelance work drawing other people's stuff. Then there's 'Jack in the Box' another original story that I'm itching to get started on, this one possibly needing collaboration with a writer with a flair for subtlety. Bloody hell....not enough time in the day!!

As I said, before I so rudely interrupted myself, I guess I'm just feeling the effects of having focused so long and hard on one thing, then having that focus taken away...and without any real conclusion to any of it. None of the traditional validation you get after slogging yer guts out, with some gaffer saying: 'Here's a few thousand squids for all your hard work!'

Is this what it's like being an aspiring author, then? :)

Anyway, I'd love to post some of it on this site soon...or do I create a LOTCH dot com, and go to town on the LOTCH hype there? One thing's for sure, I could probably do with a day or two away from the whole thing, to recharge my batteries...and it probably wouldn't hurt to talk to some comics people, just to get some outside impartial advice --

Calling The Comics Ombudsman!! :)

Wow, another milestone reached. I passed the forty page mark a few days ago, and am now pencilling p41. Forty pages! I don't think I drew forty completed pages of comics even in the productive time before I gave up drawing.

It's been slower progress, this last batch of pages, and after making such rapid gains with the couple of batches before that it's been quite frustrating. The last few steps to the finishing line have seemed a little bit like running through custard, with lead Nikes on :)

This is mainly due to the time of year. The kids' summer holidays are now well and truly upon us, and with our child-minder only really starting to help out next week I've been juggling entertaining the kids, day-job internet stuff, and drawing, all at the same time. The kids and work take priority, and the kids' demands mean that the annual slowing down of webdesign during summer is a welcome phenomenon for a change. It happened at my old firm, and is following the same pattern here, with people going on their hols or conversely becoming too busy themselves to worry about updating/ starting their websites.When I'm not updating or creating sites I'm off fishing with the kids...a new interest for all three of the Wicks boys, as I've not fished in donkey's. Or we're down the park, or the library, or town, or in the paddling pool when the bloody thing isn't spontaneously puncturing itself from its inside seams out.

As for drawing, well there's no such thing as a lie-in at the moment. I'm normally sat at the PC by 6.30am, Intuos pad on my lap, pen in hand, trying to get a couple of hours in before the kids rise from their slumber. Then at night I try and stay off the vino tinto until I've put in another hour or two after dinner. By then though I'm already shot to bits, so the early morning sessions are what yield my best work of the day.

It's slow going, but at least I'm still making progress, and, most importantly, the quality of the last section of the book isn't suffering from all the interruptions. Whatever happens I'll look back on the 'Chickenheads' book and I'll be genuinely satisfied with all the hard work I've put into every page :) Things should speed up again over the next few weeks. Only five more pages and a cover to go, by the way!

Going to see Transformers today...yay!