2-in-1

Warning: Don't let invading aliens stick this in your head

I've just finished a five page script: Spike.

I'm chuffed with it. Not because it's particularly original or especially good. No, the thing that pleases me about it is that I have learned a lesson: you need two ideas to make a decent short story.

What do I mean? Well, I've come to the view that one idea is not enough. I'm re-doing a lot of half written scripts to combine their ideas into one story, and I think this approach has mileage. In fact, I think it recognises that some of the old ideas were not strong enough on their own - which is why they were never finished. Now, though, they can be boiled down to their constituent parts and remade into something new and monstrous. And better, too.

Have a story about  mind control? And another about the internet? Why not combine the two? It's still cliched, but it's got more going on in it.

The result is something that I know is better than its two predecessors. Of course, I still need to convince an artist and editor that's the case.

The Subtle Art

The ketchup factory nights out were legendary.

I'm trying to be more subtle in what I write. Blood and violence is all well and good, but the idea is to have a story too. It takes time and somehow feels less fun. That makes me a terrible person, I know.

Meantime, I've had a couple of scripts accepted by Dogbreath. Riley's Collar is ...um... not subtle. Skin Deep is a bit more thinky. But still has mutants and people getting shot. One step at a time, eh?

Edit: I should add that the above picture is by Dan Cornwell, for Cloudbusting, a three page strip we did and then abandonded. I'm recycling the idea in something else.

Everything I know I learned from Alec Trench

You said it, Alec!

Tharg rejects a script shocker!

It took 18 months (May 2010 to December 2011) for the Green Jobby to say "no." I wonder if that's a record? Regrettably, there was no feedback - just an "unsuitable for 2000ad at this time." Still, he's a busy alien so you can't expect too much.

Now my proposed FutureShock, Schrodinger's Hat, will become a prose story. The title is too cringe-worthy to be allowed to die.

Hopefully the next rejection won't take as long.

Crazy Christmas Cannibal Capers

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?

Well, I wrote this: Goodwill.

I'm dead chuffed with this as it has no words. You've no idea how hard that made writing the script. Of course, it helps that it looks bloody fantastic.

The jolly spiffy art is by Jon Taylor (who I'm guessing is here, but he hasn't told me so I may need to correct that!). This started out as something I put forward for the annual 2000ad messageboard Advent Calendar. Um, but then I realised - after seeing other posts - that it was meant to be about 2000ad. Which makes sense, I suppose.

You can also see this at Hadron Colliderscope and I normally wouldn't re-post it here, and certainly not so soon. But it's Christmas, innit?

All the best to you and yours.

...and Einstein said it was impossible

Einstein: hot on physics, cool on small press comics

My PC decided to keel over a few weeks ago, which is annoying. Still, I'm posting this having just got my new one up and running. Yay!

In the meantime, FTL has accepted the strip The Commute, by me and Leigh Kalibor. It should be published in early 2012. And there's a rumour that Dogbreath like something - if only I can master Viking accents...

What's his story?

The noble Roadie. Hear all, see all, say bugger all.

So I had an idea for a story three days ago: The Defect. It's about a sad and scary old man.

This is just to measure how long it take to get it all done. The timer starts... now.

Christmas is a-coming!

Beware of robbers over the Christmas period

 As the great philosopher Homer once said: "There's only one fat guy who gives presents and his name ain't Santa."

We can all learn something from The Simpsons.