On Finishing

Finishing a big project can be the hardest thing in the world. We all like to /talk/ about doing great things, but it’s a whole different challenge to actually follow through on it. I started the sequel to Weird Fishes shortly after the book was published in 2009. I was full of energy and propulsion from the signings and exciting press over my book. I had just moved up to San Francisco and covered my walls with new drawings and ideas for the characters. An epic story rolled out before me. I called it “Dee’s Siren Song” because I knew both I, and Dee, were searching for something, and I knew I had to create this story, following a journey through college and deciphering the meanings of dreams and fantastic imagery running through my head.

If you’ve been following me online for awhile, you’ve seen the Siren Song pages. They’ve  become the first 20 pages of Fox Head Stew. Upon their completion, they’d been displayed in two gallery shows, printed in a black and white ‘zine and posted on the internet. But I felt suppressed by them, by the pressure to create more, and so I put them aside, and instead created a lot of stand-alone illustrations of unrelated characteres that allowed me to experiment with technique and symbols and feel free. By this time I’d fallen pretty deep into the music scene in SF, and really wanted to bring more of that into my work. Suddenly all the pieces fell together, and I began resculpting my comics to follow some of my new interests, and that’s how the band Block Cocks were born on the comic page and the story became less about college and more about self-exploration and expression.

The rest of the story unfolded for me, and I managed to get everything pencilled on bristol board by mid-2011 and then only had the task of inking and painting all of it. I’ve never had the task of having to work on that many pages all at once (about 80 of them) but anyone who’s been around me in the past year knows, I am a complete workaholic. If I’m not out drinking after work, and that does happen a few times a week, I come home and paint/ink comic pages. The supplies are always out on my desk, my teacup of water ready, my watercolor sets open, and I’ll paint while waiting for dinner, I’ll ink while watching movies, etc etc. But sadly, even a strict work ethic doesn’t help when you get home from your work work at 8pm and only have a few hours in you before your eyes and mind completely go on strike.

Therefore: patience.

I have finally developed my patience muscles, and plotted away at a huge project. It has been a long time coming, and there’s still editing, some final painting, and 2 very sneaky pages that need to be inked. But guess what: the first draft PDF of Fox Head Stew went out to my editor this week.

All at once, great things are coming through the door, and I have a project I can promote.

I sit in shock, that it is finally going to have eyes on it. It has been, what, two and a half years that I’ve been working on this. It has been my second job. It is infinitely important and yet it doesn’t make sense at all. I have wanted to put it aside so many times, and yet I’ve kept going. Something has gotten done, and now there’s no going back.

I am greatly anticipating going on vacation, sitting on a mountain, and not thinking about comics.

Talk to you on Monday.

-J