Upcoming and not upcoming (Patreon)

GOOD NEWS ITEM

I'm just putting the finishing touches to a special story that will run on badmachinery.com in February and March. I think it will go down well but I'm never too sure. I could be a smoking ruin after it concludes. But $3/mo and up (Beanie tier) Patreon subscribers will get the whole thing on day one and I am excited to upload this thing for you.

LESS GOOD, SOME MIGHT SAY

In less positive news, having worked on writing a Lottie story called "The Great British Bump-Off" on and off for months, and finally knocked it into 64 pages of shape, I had to kick it into the long grass. I might go back to it but I think it was so serpentine in its construction that it was more of a technical challenge, if you will, than an enjoyable story to read. I had begun to genuinely panic about it - and that ain't right. 

HE TURNS TAIL AND FLEES

I've been working full tilt writing and drawing pages for a couple of years and it may be time to enter one of my periodic low-power modes, doing some fun comic strips. I'm knackered. 

I looked earlier this week at reactivating bobbins.horse, but while I enjoyed my trawl through the comics I made in 2019 and early 2020, I don't think I can do any more of them. So I'll have to find something else to serve as a vehicle for my dippy sitcom jokes and low octane plot devices. Don't worry, I have a few ideas. 

A MEAGER FORMAT

I still like doing wide strips (like this) while I find doing 4-koma strips (like this) is "a bastard of a job". But I'm not sure that those wide strips work particularly well on modern screens and I am willing to engage with a tall comic format if you, the reader, struggle with the classic wide newspaper strip on your chosen devices. It is not 2005 any more. 

There is also the compromise candidate, the square comic, popular with Instagram comickers, me in 2003/4, and Microsoft. Oh, why lie to you, whichever I choose, I'll make it as difficult for myself as possible. 

FIG 1: Here's what I chose to present in the format that was best exemplified by Peanuts. This was half the strip, The other half featured even more esoteric viewing angles. I did not receive a medal that day.

FIG 2: Microsoft based its current logo on the layout of the original Scary Go Round comic. They will learn, as I did, that visual monotony is a hard taskmaster and the odds of putting two book pages in the wrong order only get shorter, the more four-square comics you make.