Warming up to illustrate book one. Like I mentioned yesterday, I'll be editing book three and cranking out the drawings for book one over the next few months. Yesterday I drew my favorite supporting cast members, the Grubians. Those of you who have read the webcomic will be familiar with these rapscallions. And if you liked them there, wait till you get a load of them in the novels.Fair to say, these guys are my Shakespearean clowns, although they play a pivotal role in the first three books. My inspiration for them goes well past Shakespeare. My magician friends will notice a similarity to another tall and short magic duo. Except my big guy is the non-talker. Yep, Penn & Teller. Two of my biggest influences in magic since the third grade. They were the starting point for these two.Halfway through writing book one, I realized another influence for this pair were Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. If those names aren't familiar, google them and then get the book that pops up in the results. I also recommend getting the comic adaptation and the BBC tele-play and of course the BBC radio drama version. Trust me on this.Lastly, the names. Was it too obvious? My devious Grubians are named after Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman, the two writers I can't live without. Well, also Susan Hill, but I have another character based on her we'll get to later.That's it for today. Back to editing book three and sketching up the art for book one. I'll be sure to post my progress on both.
A Brief Update from the Conjurian.
Indeed, this project has taken a lot more work than anticipated and I anticipated a lot. However, my editor and publisher want to get it right. Doing things outside the box means a lot of growing pains and learning as you go. Been a ton of that.So, as it goes right now, I'm streaming words for book two, as you can see in the photo. Yes, that's a tiger with a rabbit in its mouth and it's not what you think. Unless you think it's something more than a tiger with a rabbit in its mouth. Then you're on the right track. I have a solid, working outline of book two. Nine chapters in, I'm discovering lots of cool bits that don't show up when you outline stories. The focus on book two is getting the words down, fast and furious. Type it into the box with all the circuits and such, cut of the jagged edges and send it off to my ridiculously patient editor. By that time she should be sending me the manuscript for book one. That needs final line edits, final art direction and final, final art.While things have been delayed quite a bit, the good news is we're figuring out this odd way of slipping from prose to art and art to prose and a few variations in between. The other good news is that there won't be a delay between books. That, right now, is key. And the first webcomic companion will finish its run soon. There'll be another companion right after that one, which should be much less experimentally. More on that later after I finish torturing my Lamy on this draft.
