Comics Script - The World As We Know It

I've just realised that's been way over a week since I last posted here.

What the heck happens to time? I mean, where does it go? Does somebody keep it inside their pockets or something? Is there a place filled with so much time no one can actually get there?!

(these could actually be some ideas for a short story...)

In any case, on saturday the 25th I kept my plan and continued writing LAND OF FOG. This has actually been my major project in the intervening days.

On the sunday I kept revising and added some new scenes. Don't really recall which (perhaps I should start making a note of that as well) but I do know that I focussed a lot on the characters of Anubia, Rikar, Terry and Tchan. Some weird stories came through and I think Old Ed's role in the whole shennanigan is now stronger than ever. I've been planting seeds so to speak...

I also started writing a synopsis for another comics series idea that i had and that I think will be quite easy to get some funding to do. But i'll keep it a mystery. For now...

Also wrote a bit more on AYOOLA. Still need quite a bit more of text but at least what's coming through is already somewhat solid. This story will have momentum either I like it or not!

The 27th was about getting a bit more structure into LAND OF FOG (still don't know how I'm going to work this one out, but I may just keep it in chronological order - i think it will work this way and I'm a bit afraid that if I jumble the structure further it will become more difficult to get into without really adding any more to the story... don't know... I'll have to see it as soon as it is all revised). Also did some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.

on tuesday i merely revised a bit more of LAND OF FOG. Revising is really the toughest thing for me to do. But also, towards its end, the most rewarding. Feeling that something is completed or steadily approaching its completion is really good!

On wednesday I had a couple of ideas for scripts. One is called THE DOWSER and is the story of a guy searching for the ideal place to live. It's a short story that i initially wanted to do almost completely silent. Now I think I'll have to think hard in order to keep it as silent as possible...

DEAD ZONE is actually not an idea of mine but of one of my flatmates. Still, he wants me to write it... i don't know if i have time to delve into someone else's dystopia but I suggested a few ideas in order to make it more cohesive. It kind of made sense us to be talking about it after a long chat about Brian Wood's DMZ.

The other idea was THE PIANO TEACHER which is basically a love story between two people 25 years of difference. This has been a theme that I've wanted to touch upon for many years, especially since I read Sam Keith's ZERO GIRL. Which turns out to be quite autobiographical, only in reverse. ZERO GIRL tells the story of a high school girl that falls in love with her teacher. He in turn falls for her but nothing happens apart from the weirdness and solitude she experiences in her head. But it has a happy ending. In any case, the most moving part of the whole book was actually Sam's account of how he met his wife when he was 15 and she 30. How they waited until he was 18 and started living together. Up until then, more than 10 years after. The whole book is a tribute to her, her patience, guidance and love and a genuine testimony that love knows no barriers. It's a somewhat controversial theme, i know but I, for one, am happy that someone has decided to talk about the good things about it, not just the bad ones...

Thursday i was home and so LAND OF FOG became the centre of the day. I also wrote some more on a huge story arc for the INCREDIBLE HULK that I've had in my head for years. To me this is the definitive take on the HULK. I still am to read a HULK story that completely satisfies me and this is definitely the thing that comes the closest to it. There will be plenty of destruction but the majority will be internal...

From friday the 31st to the 2nd of november i was away on a roleplaying game in essex. Due to the intensity of said CTHULHU horror fantasy mystery i did not write anything (apart from the synopsis for a short crime noir story) until sunday evening. I was still more or less in character, tired and spaced out and couldn't write as much as I wanted. Still, since NANOWRIMO is on, i started with MORTIMER LANSKY and started writing the intro and some guidelines to the book and the reader.

But because i was feeling some longing for LAND OF FOG there i went to check up on things and add a few tidbits more...

Monday I had more excuses but wrote some more on MORTIMER LANSKY and revised a bit more on LAND OF FOG.

Also on sunday and monday i revised a few graphic novels. Namely Paul Karasik's and David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of Paul Auster's CITY OF GLASS and Frank Miller's and Geof Darrow's iconic HARD BOILED. These are soon to be posted on the livejournal webpage.

I'm considering if i should start posting them here but i'm not so keen on repeating stuff... we'll see...

Today I'm eager to get home and type some of the crazy ideas i've been having so far for MORTIMER LANSKY and get some more revising done on LAND OF FOG. It would be nice if i could finish the first draft of the prior and complete the latter before this month ends. Especially because I'm going to portugal on the 27th. And to Luxembourg on the 20th...

We all want to keep ahead of the curve anyway...

Peace

Uncanny Affairs

Back at work. But glad that yesterday I managed to stick with the writing.
Sometimes being at home by yourself with seemingly all the time in the world in your hands (something that never seems to last...) just makes you dodge the writing a bit and muck about, doing nothing in particular.
In any case, yesterday felt like one of those days where the writing momentum increased. And I say this because it wasn't easy to keep myself focussed. I'd spend half an hour writing some panels for THE SHIFT and then play the bass for another half hour. Then write for almost an hour and then have a break for some food, or more bass. Then back to the writing...
But I managed to resist the temptations of watching a couple of dvd's! And I know that after a couple more of these one day writing sessions I'll be geared enough to be able to focus more and extract more from each incursion. Kind of like aiming at quantity so that you can actually reach the quality. At least that's how I feel with writing. The more I do it, the easier and better it seems to get.

Still, I think I probably wrote for about 8 hours and that accounted for the complete review of THE SHIFT (which is roughly 90 comics pages long) and 80 new panels to the story - I had a lot of text that still hadn't been given visuals.

Spent a lot of time trying to figure out the anacronisms in the story but ended up deciding that I was simply worrying too much with my natural tendencies to make everything tidy and neat.
(which is actually a bit like how I dreamed my brain would one day be - a dream that I've been failing miserably... but also happily)
The first part of the story occurs during the american bombings of Iraq during the Gulf War and then moves on to the American invasion of Iraq, post 9/11.
(we move from end 1990, beginning 1991 to 2003/2004)

Today I'm typing everything I did yesterday back into the script. I usually do the corrections on a print out and then, after all the fiddling around, going backwards and forwards, I type it back on electronic format, print the whole mess once again and start over. Eventually something readable will come out.
(if I pray long enough...)

That's my mission for today. Write it all up and print in the end. I also realised that I'm not that happy about the structure either. Seems too slow and it doesn't flow well. But I think that as soon as I have a newer draft with all these added bit and that extra scene that I've been meaning to add for ages now - and that I keep forgetting to - things will come more into place. Especially because I'll have to fit it somewhere. And because I'll have images to go with all the text - which makes it a lot easier to organise...

I also want to write something about comics and brains... but I can't remember the title I had for it... and titles are very important...
was it SEQUENTIAL BRAINS???

peace.