This is a little story set around the abandoned Spillers Mill next to the station. It’s (very very) loosely based around real events, and it’s important now since all the outbuildings in the last fourth panel there have just been demolished ready for Regeneration.
So I’m pretty sure that’s the longest continuous strip I’ve done in the last ten years. Boy howdy have I learned plenty – I can see my style changing as it goes and I draw the people repeatedly and learn new poses and angles. You can see that I’m not practised in drawing the same person more than once yet – good job I didn’t just launch into that graphic novel I was planning. And yeah – turns out writing and drawing is damn difficult. I can’t write dialogue, and I’ll be scratching my sketchbook a lot more before I can do timing which I always thought was easy. And there’s little things which I’d never really anticipate – in like panel eight I choose an angle for the sun and keep it roughly consistent throughout (for the little it’s worth) and this meant that suddenly most of the faces are in shadow for the whole thing. This was interesting to draw with and worked to my advantage later with some cheap melodramatic effects.
At some point I’ll touch it up – smooth it, shade it, align it better (it’s actually got an ok format on paper) edit the script and redraw some pictures that annoy me. Then I will print it off on nice paper for my wall.
Anyway, I don’t think it’s over yet. On Monday, I think we’ll meet their boss.
Also, guys, come down to Vine Cottage on Belvoir Terrace, Trumpington St (opposite the entrance to the Botanic Gardens) and say hi to everyone at our lovely new squat!
unnecessary, insufficient 