Birds, Wolves

So, now it is time for an update on Birds & Wolves!

To be brought up to speed, B&W (Bee an’ Dubz? No thanks you) is the book I am working on right now, which is looking to be something of a 400-page epic.

The way I came to that estimate is: seeing as the first chapter came out to be around 40 pages, and there are 10 chapters in this book, that should be around 400. It’s a total estimate, though. I don’t know if every chapter will be the same amount of pages. And as I work on it more, you know, maybe there’ll be only nine chapters? No, I don’t know, that’s giving too much (nothing) away.

So, the biggest problem that I face in my day-to-day-i-am-working-on-this-book is “how do I explain it?” Like, what’s a good snappy one or two sentence description that encapsulates everything it will be while also sounding really interesting? From a purely dollaz point of view, I need a good sentence so if someone google searched “Birds & Wolves” on google and found Chapter One on Lulu, they’d read it and say “sounds interesting,” ka-ching! But of course, there is more to it than that. I need that sentence so I can guide myself along, too! Working on a book of this magnitude is a long and arduous process, one I know next-to-nothing about. But I enjoy doing it.

Anyways, it’s about death, seeing your mortality for the first time. Obviously more happens than that. The lead character, Arden, is emotionally bruised on a day-to-day basis by his gf. He has dreams of a forest, with a Cat that goads him into sticking it out. He remembers an old friend from high school, one who was very important to him.

I mean, technically, it’s the first sentence that encapsulates. I don’t know. Here’s the thing: at one point in my tenure at SAIC, someone said comics with people are boring and that’s why people draw animals (actually, i think i totally made up that they said it was boring, it’s just the gist i got from it). Well, there are few animals in my comic! Does that make it boring? No! It doesn’t. But I worry about writing a melodramatic comic book.

I guess it’s a familial thing. My dad writes screenplays that are dramas about people. People don’t buy screenplays about people. I’m just worried that people don’t buy comics about people, either (this is not true— Jimmy Corrigan is a person, but I can’t draw as flashy as Chris Ware can [bad example?]).

Well, no matter. All that whining masks an important milestone: I penciled page 60 today!!! That’s huge! It’s of course the longest thing I’ve done. But still, a good number. I’m excited about that.

Now, some samples of pages I’ve been working on. I’m afraid they’re all lousy Photobooth pictures, but that’s the best I can do right now.

The page I’m working on this moment (note the whited-out wine stain):

Some other select Chapter 2 (Birds) Pages:

Stay tuned for other things. Hopefully soon I’ll go downtown and scan some things, and I can show you all some high-quality ANYTHING.

Love,
Ian

P.S. what if i changed my name to Neon? jk.