The story so far

Those of you who are familiar with the story I am illustrating (well the one I am currently focusing on so I can finish it and deliver the next one), will realise that I am not so far from the end now. I think a further 10 pages, or thereabouts, will see the job done.

The tail is a modern day parable, but I have given equal waiting to the wondrous aspects of the story, and I think it casts it in a new light. I've also tried to focus on the story, on how the narrative shape works, rather than make it an exercise, as is often the case when two people, usually strangers, tackle a story, on how well the writer can write, and how well the illustrator can paint. The only tension in the story is often the struggle between the two monstrous egos writing and illustrating the thing. I think this is the advantage of having a cartoonist tackle these 'graphic novels', there is an understanding, in our profession, because we usually have experience of working on comic books and comic strips, of how the words and pictures should work together. I think this approach also adds to the text, rather than distracts from it as it often does when an 'illustrator' without that experience, is showing how much promise 'their' work has, rather than bothering to understand the nuances of the text and the space between what's said and what should be shown.

In these excerpts (haven't lettered them yet), the protagonist has left the Palace and entered the cavernous Black Mountain, and is about to go through his sternest test.