A wise man once said, say yes to everything. So that’s what I’m doing at the moment. Here’s the results.

Right now I have a number of little projects on the go. They are, in no particular order: the Doctorate- Studio and Research, Teaching, the Daily Diary Comics, Wise Up Man (Interactive Storybook), Ashcan, and all the other stuff that fills the hours and days of a normal life. Let’s start with the studies first.

Since July I have been chipping away at my end game- an autobiographic graphic novel. Using ‘stream of consciousness’ writing I have vomited out roughly 20,000 words, which although useful in getting my head around certain aspects of the story, still leaves me a little clueless as to what this story is actually about, at the heart of it. I caught up with scriptwriter and academic Hugh Burton for an hour and he suggested I meditate on these deeper issues- what do I want the reader to feel after reading this? How do I feel about putting it together? He suggested writing down words that identify the feelings and themes of the story and then selecting a scene based on one that resonates most strongly. I’ll go back to him for the next step on how to build a story from there.

So what’s the story about, in single words?

Love, heartbreak, loss, frustration, sadness, longing… drugs, sex, hedonism… work, study, training, detoxing, resolutions, justifications… bitterness, loathing, cycles, depression, clarity. It’s a lot of things, and I’m still not sure where it’s going or how I’m going to get it there. It’ll take a while yet.

Teaching kicks back in this week- I’m taking over a class in Concept Design. Colour is a focus for the next few weeks. Looking forward to sharing with the class and learning from them as well. Its a talented bunch of whipper snappers, I should benefit from them quite a bit. Or at the very least I’ll be able to stay abreast of popular culture and the latest trends in animation, as well as all things hip and cool. And I do I realise that just by saying the word ‘hip’ I am disqualified from earning any cool dude points now and forever from this day forward.

The Daily Diary Comics go strong, even though I had some troubles keeping a regular upload happening while overseas I am now caught up and on schedule. I will compile the entire year’s worth once November rolls around, which will be a herculean (and hopefully not pointless) exercise. Surely a few people want to read this… There is also potential for my seminal kickstarter project to fund a first printing.

Wise Up Man is an illustrated storybook app I have been working on intermittently since the start of the year. It’s looking pretty good, but there’s a ways to go on it yet.

Ashcan is an independent imprint that has been in operation since 2010 and has published eleven issues, collecting short stories in sequential art format by amateur artists and writers. I was recently approached to take over the running of this label, and am now gearing up to put together a cracking edition, in a brand new direction. Stay tuned.

So that’s the whole motley bunch of things on my plate. I can’t complain, my life is full of comic projects and drawing. Living the dream!