Blogging my Graphic Novel

Okay, here I go. After years of failing to put together a web site, I'm finally taking a big leap and starting a blog.

Why? Because I'm in the midst of working on my magnus opus and thought it worth sharing. At this point in my life I've finally come to the realization that I'm in a permanent state of arrested adolescence. The things that excite me these days are (in no particular order):

1. Shinny

2. Playing with toy soldiers

3. Drawing comics

Coincidentally, the exact same things that intrigued me at, say, age 12. But as it's summer, and I refuse to play hockey when it's 30 degrees outside and my passion for toy soldiers is too weird even for these pages, I'll restrict myself to chronicling my daily adventures with Otto and Crackers.

So that's what I'll be blogging about. Otto, an elephant who thinks a trench coat and fedora are sufficient disguise to hide his elephantininess from the denizens of New York City (and he's right!), and Crackers, his Jiminy Cricket parrot pal who tries to keep him out of trouble. Oh, and their epic search for Otto's childhood pal, a chimp named Georgie, snatched from the jungles of Africa by the sinister Man with the Wooden Nose.

But mostly I will be sharing my adventures exploring their adventures over the next few months. It's a journey that is already well on its way. There will be lots of works in progress postings and updates on where my thinking is about this process of creating a "graphic novel", as well as tips around the writing and illustrating.

My goal will be to post at least weekly on how the work is going, including new bits that I can share as well as other stray bits of information on related book work that you may find interesting.

So I hope this amuses. I will try now and post a favourite page recently finished and in colour from the story (once I learn how to do this sort of thing!)

To be continued …

Below: P. 20 of Big City Otto. Otto and Crackers wheel it into the city on a stolen baggage cart.