A Project That Never Went Anywhere (Patreon)

Skulky Bones, Private Eyesocket was an all-ages comic series that I kicked around a lot back in the day before abandoning it. Made a bunch of notes, drew a bunch of drawings, but just didn't feel it was going anywhere past the basic concept. No plots sparked for it, which is a sign of a generic concept based on visuals more than ideas. 

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you're kicking pun names around for settings and characters, but still not figuring out what the characters would actually do in those settings, well, maybe move on until a storyline gels. A storyline never did appear with ol' Skulky, so, it's a resource instead of a project. I folded several of the characters and concepts into an all-ages mystery/horror kind of thing that has a lot more meat on its bones, something that's mutated over the years and for which I've put a lot of time into. But it's something I want to write and draw, and it's hard to take on new passengers when you're bailing out the boat. It kind of absorbed parts of Skulky Bones and another idea that I had, one which I doubt I'll ever work on for various reasons (one of which is that it just turned out kind of sad, like some of the Beasts of Burden stories, and I just don't want to deal with that as a long-term project that I'd draw). Who knows, though. There are two solo projects I'd really like to do that have nothing to do with Dork or Milk & Cheese the all-ages comic, and a memoir of sorts. Both have been in my head for a while now, but the years pile up with no pages to show for it.  

The memoir is the harder one to approach, because it's largely childhood and teenager stuff, and I don't want to end up with a full-on extended Dork #7. I don't mind discussing this stuff -- it's not all a bummer in the least -- but I don't want to draw it. At least not in the style I used on my older comics, or I'd never get more than seven pages done. Dork #7 was an exhausting experience, which seems nutty to say about sitting at a drawing table, but it was. Mentally and physically. 

I haven't spoken to too many people about either project, I think only Sarah knows about the all-ages thing. Tom Spurgeon is the person who convinced me that it was worth doing, years back at Heroes Con. If I ever do get it done he gets the dedication, for sure. I do hope I can work it out in some way, some form, somehow. I've got years left, just need to block out the time if I can't actually get it published. There's no way I'm embarking on a graphic novel-length comic with a typical shit comics publisher deal, and I have no inroads or working knowledge of the bookstore publishing houses. Maybe I'll try getting an agent, who knows. One idea is to chunk it up as individual pages/stories for here and whatnot. The approach would be lots of short comics that add up to an overall story, or point, if nothing else. There is a theme, even if would be a bunch of things like The Soda Thief, and How To Get Your Ass Kicked in 3-EZ Lessons. It would be more like the former than the latter, which had a gimmick to hang the autobio elements on. Straight autobio kind of annoys me, not as a reader, but as a creator. A lot of it has to do with memory, and truth, and how we present ourselves as characters. I would like to discuss the fact that memoirs and autobio are partly fiction, no matter how hard we try to be honest and factual. Who the fuck remembers actual whole conversations from thirty years ago? Every memoir should have a disclaimer: "Some of this is wrong, misremembered or artistic license (bullshit)".

Anyway, I never do anything I plan. Partly because I never made plans, I just had work and came up with stuff and got bored or moved on or it got canceled. But I always had work. I have to learn to plan. My plan right now is to pet the cat.

Speaking of cats, another character from Skulky Bones was a cat detective who drives a skull car. Get it? Clever, no? No, not really. But it's cute. Why is the cat driving a skull car? He's not a Halloween cat, the reversal on Skulky isn't mirrored correctly, visually or thematically. I just realized that now, by the way.

Ha ha, so what, right? Right.