Behind the scenes of Solver 2025 (Patreon)

My sketchbook is not exactly bursting of late, I've been doing life drawing classes nearly every week for more than a year and that has been my "practice" if you like. But occasionally scribbling still takes place, and there are a few fun drawings here for Wobbly Head part 3. If you were not aware, I added this chapter late in the process to give readers a better insight into Lottie's antagonist. So there was a lot of character design work to do. While Beate had existed as a character for several years, she ended up changing a lot. At one time she was a folk singer! So she was designed anew for the ski adventure.

The critical thing was that she had a natural mullet; not a fashion mullet, but the sort of hair that just wants to be that way and almost can't not.

Then I realised how many other characters I had created that I had to design for this story. I was very unhappy. But I got it done somehow.

Because there is a small subset of the readership who struggle with object permanence and/or remembering what happened three pages before, it was important that there were some visual signifiers that this was happening in a flashback. Lottie's centre parting had to carry all the weight. It was funny how much it changed the logic of her face.

This is from October last year, before I had had the ski trip story idea or indeed any other ideas for what would come after Wobbly Head. I am pleased to say that as of today I have an Excel spreadsheet that says exactly what will run on badmachinery.com every week of the year, and when I have to write it, and when I have to draw it, and when I take weeks off. This has never, in my nearly 22 years as a professional cartoonist, happened before. I mean, I don't know what Solver #17 or #18 are about (the current chapter is #14) but I can tell you when they start.