Done and dusted

Three dummy copies of Septic Isle will be winging their way to Diamond's Warrington headquarters later today. Getting everything right with the book took rather longer than I had anticipated and I was still tweaking tiny bits of the script and lettering as late as Friday.

As things stand, though, I'm very pleased with how it's all turned out. It's the strongest script I've written to date and Mick Trimble's art is spot on. In fact, I hadn't really appreciated just how good Mick's work on the book was until I came to letter it. He really has done a first class job - perfectly capturing SI's somewhat bleak, nihilistic tone. There's a nasty fight scene at the end that he just absolutely nails - it's bloody and brutal and exactly what a fight to the death would look like.

The plan now is to do a limited edition print run of 100 to sell at Bristol and a second print run for comic stores if the book is picked up by Diamond.

With SI out the way for the time being, I can crack on with those movie outlines I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and the script for Kurse, a project that has been having to sit on the back burner for the last month or so...

No fun

I've reached the part of the lettering on Septic Isle that's the least fun. It's the bit where you have to print out every page, check it for errors (spelling, continuity, scan marks etc) and then print it out again for the "master copy". The thing is, there's always something you can tighten up or improve on just about every page, so this part of the process tends to be long and laborious. It's necessary, though, as it means the final "product" will look that much better.

Proofing is a nuisance but it isn't the thing I'm struggling most with at the moment. No, that particular honour goes to writing the "blurb" for the book's back cover. I want it to sound exciting and powerful but, somehow, everything I've thus far come up with sounds a bit, well, shit. Let's call it a work in progress and get back to the proofreading, shall we?

A good start

This is the week I have to have Septic Isle ready to send to both the printer and Diamond. Under normal circumstances, of course, the book would go to Diamond first and then the printer much later, after order numbers had come in. Thing is, I'm really keen to sell SI at Bristol so I'm going to do a 100-copy signed and numbered limited edition thing to flog at the Expo.

Anyway, I'm off to a flier as far as getting everything finished is concerned. A first draft of the lettering is done and I'm now going back through re-reading and correcting, then turning all the pages into PDFs. These will be printed off either tomorrow or Wednesday, and then the whole thing proofread one last time. From there, discs will go to the printer so they can, er, print the book, while dummy copies make their way to Diamond, artist Mick Trimble and a few friends/journalists/comics pros who have asked for one.

By Friday, Septic Isle should be out of my hair - for a month or so anyway...

Frantic

I'M busier than at any point in the last couple of years and yet, frustratingly, I'm not going to get very much done this week. This is because, between long shifts at the day job, I'm going to be in Warwick visiting my old mate Rob and his partner, Tracey. Rob has become a dad for the first time at the grand old age of 42, so I'm going up to lend a little moral support and see three-week-old Lily for the first time. I'm looking forward to it but deadlines are certain to be nagging away at the back of my mind at least some of the time I'm there.

Luckily, I have next week off work in which I intend to finish getting Septic Isle ready for both Diamond and the printer. I have 16 or 17 pages still to letter, plus the back cover, and then the back matter (Mick's sketches and the book's original opening) to sort out, too. I then have to proofread the whole thing, turn the CorelDraw docs into PDFs and print out the whole 52-page book to make several dummies.

I also have those three movie pitches to write up in more detail. The one for Septic Isle should be simple enough (after all, I'm taking it from a finished script) but the other two might be a bit trickier. Looks like I probably won't be leaving the house much after Sunday then...

Opportunities

* LETTERING progress on Septic Isle is slow but steady. I've got the week after next off work and plan to have it all finished and ready for Diamond to see by the end of that break. To be honest, I find lettering slow and laborious, even though it gives me the opportunity to tinker with the script a bit.

* I WAS in London yesterday, having been invited to pitch some ideas to a newly-formed Los Angeles-based film production company. This is the first time I've pitched anything to anyone but the meeting went pretty well and they definitely liked a few of my ideas. I've agreed to work up more detailed outlines of three of my pitches (including Septic Isle and Kurse) and we'll see what happens from there.

* IT looks like Moonface Press will be publishing its first comic series written by someone else (i.e. not me). It's a six-issue superhero-based mini-series. As well as publishing the book, I'm going to be lettering it and doing a bit of script editing, too. More news when everything's 100 per cent confirmed...

Vote for James

IT'S Eagle Awards time again and you can now nominate your favourites for the eventual short list here: http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/nominate.asp

A vote for mine and Keith Burns' Blood Psi one-shot in the Best Black & White Comicbook: British section would be most appreciated. If you haven't seen Blood Psi, you'll find a 10-page preview here: www.bloodspi.com

More important than that, though, is a vote for James Redington in the Roll Of Honour category (it's right at the bottom of the online voting form). As I'm sure you'll all remember, James died last July at the horribly young age of 28.

He was a champion of the small press in this country as well as being a very talented writer and publisher in his own right. Adding his name to a Roll Of Honour that includes comicbook legends such as Alan Moore, Stan Lee and Will Eisner would be a truly wonderful way to honour his memory.

A man of letters

* MICK Trimble's art for Septic Isle is finished and I'm just waiting to receive scans of all 42 pages so I can get on and letter it. The finished book will be 52 pages in all but some of that will be backmatter featuring Mick's character sketches plus the story's original opening four pages that ended up on the cutting room floor. It'll be a nice little package when it's all printed and very similar in format to Warren Ellis's Crecy graphic novella.

* WRITING-wise, the first 17 pages of Kurse are pretty much how I want them but, as ever, it's clear the project is going to run to more pages than originally envisaged. I think we're talking around 42-44 pages, which is what Septic Isle and Brothers came in at too. It's a story length I seem to be increasingly drawn to because it means you can pack a lot in - characterisation, action, plot - without sacrificing the "done-in-one" philosophy underpinning it.

* THE rather brilliant Bob Byrne has a new graphic novel out, called Mister Amperduke. You can read all about it and buy a copy from here: http://clamnuts.com/rants/new-mr-amperduke/amperduke-launch/

* AND while I'm recommending things - check out Tommy Lee Edwards' gorgeous Doctor Who inspired cover for this year's Tripwire annual. It's right here: http://joelm1-joelmead.blogspot.com/