Category: status

So, as I was on my way to bed last night, I suddenly realised how to fix that eight-pager I was working on, what to cut and how to rearrange and land it. So I went back into the office and sat there until it was done and sent it off. To which my editor replied, “I saw your closedown note, I wasn’t expecting this until tomorrow.” Ha ha.

Today I have a one-page thing to figure out, and then I need to clear Inbox 17, and then I am boiling my body in the bathroom because I probably smell like a dead bear, and then I am very likely going the fuck to bed. Good morning, reader.

Good morning. I am technically “awake” but the rest of my body hasn’t got that memo yet.

Today I have an eight-page script to write (already laid out most of it) and a one-page script to write (no idea yet) and the fifth GENEVA module to wrestle with, as I was unable to quite land it over the weekend because hey my brain is fried here on the eighty-fourth week of lockdown.

(But I did finish BATMAN’S GRAVE 10 on Friday night.)

You ever have those days where you wake up and you just know that something is wrong and off? I’m presuming my hypertension is kicking off and my fluctuating blood pressure is creating a sense of impending doom, but it feels like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and everything’s going to catch fire today. Unmanageable stress! It’s fun!

Inbox 15. 21C out here on the Thames Delta. I need a lot of thinking time. And more coffee. Hi.

inbox 14

batmans

no escape

all is batmans now

It is cold and it is pissing down. I had to keep working after Closedown in the end last night, as I was reminded that I’d forgotten to fix up and send the fourth GENEVA module. So today I am a chilly zombie facing down another full day of working inside the BATMAN’S GRAVE conclusion document, and I still have a lot to do there. It’s currently 1000 words of telegrammatic indications of beats and scenes and things I need to think about. Today it will grow by around 2000 words as I slot things together and expand lines into scenes to see how they run. Which is a lot of words for one day, but nobody will actually see this but me, because it will all be copied out of the document and rewritten and expanded again into full script. So it can be as ugly as it has to be — it’s not like it has to be 2000 words of polished prose ready for other humans to look at.

Inbox 11, coffee 4, listening to WINTERLIGHT by Gaetir The Mountainkeeper. And we’re off.

I’m up. Another full day inside the BATMAN’S GRAVE document. I always knew how it ended, but I need to take the time to make sure all the pieces are assembled and have second and third thoughts about the elements and what else is needed. So this is a full week’s work, before the actual scripting starts.

And it’s cold. Heaters are on in the house. And I just added a phone conference to the day. And I just found a PDF of GRAVE 8 in my overnight email, which is rather lovely. Inbox 20. Here we go. Good morning.

IFTTT doesn’t connect to WordPress today, so this post won’t Buffer out to Instagram. I’ve spent 15 minutes trying to get it to reconnect, and it just doesn’t want to, and that’s really all the time I have or it deserves. Given the issues I’ve had getting IFTTT recipes to work with my WordPress hosting, I wonder if IFTTT aren’t just depreciating the WordPress service.

Inbox 21, and it’s 13 C out here on the Thames Delta. Back into BATMAN’S GRAVE and whatever else happens today. Settling into the new routine of just writing comics for DC, as my fantastic HEAVEN’S FOREST crew have everything in hand and don’t really need me for much. This is one of my favourite phases of the animation process — where I just get sent wonderful new art to look at every few days.

But! More coffee! There are batmans to make

All money from this release will be donated to bail and mutual aid funds, and racial justice organisers. And it’s wonderful.

It is June. Behold our lovely summer out here on the Thames Delta.

We have a new set of bathroom scales. They claim I am the same weight I was at the beginning of lockdown. Therefore they are broken. Because, seriously, I am Quarantine Manatee now..

Inbox 11. I can barely see, and today I commence a full week of working out the whole of the last three issues of THE BATMAN’S GRAVE in fine detail, as an entire unit, to make sure I land that thing as effectively as possible. Given that my brain is dead now. Probably best not to expect fast responses this week.

Wiping some more things off the board to move into 2021, because 2020’s been a destructive bastard. Good morning, reader. Time we were off.

Well, I was intending to sleep all day, but some things landed in the overnight email that require immediate attention, so I guess I’m going to sit here typing until I pass out on the keyboard. Some of what I type may even make sense. More coffee. Listening to IMAGINARY FILM MUSIC (VOLUME 2) by Richard Skelton. Summoning what are left of my powers. Inbox 15, 12C right now, dropping to 5C tonight, just to remind me that I live in England. Here we go.

Yes, this is “ironic.” I am taking painkillers and not even looking at the damn news yet.

The temperature has dropped hard here, but so has the pollen count. Frankly, I tend to prefer autumn weather anyway, so I’ll take it.

Inbox 15, and I really need to reply to all of those today, but it’s noon and I can’t see straight yet. And I need to straight into the GENEVA overview document and land that by end of play. Already sent out notes on an editorial response, so I guess I’m in the saddle already. I am alive, and will begin responding to messages shortly.