How much longer

Or the birth of a project.

I love comics. I make no bones about it. The combination of words and pictures makes it a wonderful but difficult nedium to tell a story in. While a single picture can tell a story comics were built for it.

They hold this strange middle ground between film and book without really owing anything to either. Like any medium it has borrowed or stolen techniques from both but then reworked them in a way that is unique.

One thing that comics has in common with both film and book writing is how long it takes to bring an idea to fruition.

It is entirely possible to bring any of them into physical being in a couple of years. But that is often really just another version of the over night success idea. (Where someone has worked and practiced for 20 years to become an overnight success)

Some 15 years ago I had an idea for a western story called 2000 miles. It was, essentially, a romance and a manhunt that ranged from the gold mines of the Northern states all the way down to the Texas and New Mexico border. I had a Hollywood style elevator pitch for it but what it lacked was something that made it work for me. The basic tale was very straightforward and fine but it lacked anything of me in it. I tried getting it down on paper but it inevitably got stuck a handful of pages in. So I set it aside.

A few years later I read the story of the seven Swan prince's and got inspired. I came up with a dozen ways to approach the storythat almost worked but didn't quite. I picked it up four or five times over the last 10 years. Different approaches that were almost right but not quite. Each time I would file it away for the next couple of months or couple of years. But each time I'd put it away again knowing there was a story in there.

I went back to the western exploring some of the images that were part of the initial idea but could only frame them in terms of unfinished projects.

I'm still not sure where it is going but it won't let go of me.

The Swan princesses change over various visits until all that remained was the idea of someone being turned into a water bird to break up a relationship.

In the middle at some point it had gained a woman narrator telling the tale to her lover/friend. The two became more central to the story, the Swan became a snow goose for its symbolic nature and it became about separation and relationships and the things we do for the ones we love. The main thing holding it up at the moment is deciding who gets transformed.

So going by those two examples 15 to 20 years is the answer to how long.

The main thingis to hold on to your ideas. I have a notebook for them, my book for inspiration. It contains quotes, sayings, scribbled images, word pictures and more. One of the most recent entries is an idea for a series of pictures. I haven't quite decided on how to do them but they're at the forefront at the moment. I may do them as a small series of black and white prints or possibly paintings. They may work in acrylic if my skill level is up to it. So far though, 3 months in the making and I still haven't put pencil to paper.

No idea is wasted but it may be a long time in coming to fruition so hold your ideas loosely and see where they take you.

Now go make something

Pete